Question words and marks

questions

Some Y2 phonics groups will be learning how to structure and punctuate a question sentence and we thought we would share an activity that all children would benefit from. We quite often notice children saying statements like “I can go to the toilet” when they mean to say “Can I go to the toilet?”

http://www.paul-hindemith-schule.de/family%20jobs/04_FAMILY_JOBS_GRAMMAR_QUESTIONS.htm

** Update **

Miss Marianne and 2 Yellow have given us a link to a great punctuation game that starts off easy and gets pretty difficult!

http://www.medwaydys.org/html_pages/games/punctionation_games.html

Class Dojo

class dojo

In Year 2 some classes are trialling a behaviour reward system called Class Dojo. If your class is one of the trial classes you will be given an student and parent login where you can monitor your overall behaviour and dojo points (like personal points).

Your profile will look something like this…

dojo report

This week in Maths we will complete our unit on work on 3D shapes. By the end of the week all children should be able to say what is the difference between 2D and 3D shapes and name common shapes (cube, cuboid, sphere, pyramid and cylinder). Most children will be able to make 3D shapes from nets and skeleton shapes with sticks and play dough. Some children will be able to make prisms and find 3D shapes in the world around us.

If you would like to print a net and make a 3D shape use the link below

http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Making-3D-Shapes.pdf

Do you know the properties of 3D shapes? Check them here

How to catch a fictional dragon!

In English this week we will be using our imagination to write instructions on how to catch a fictional creature…a Dragon! We will be thinking about important instruction features such as time connectives (First, next, after that) and making our instructions specific to the dragons we designed in class. We will be re-drafting our work to improve our instructions, implementing our next steps and will peer assess each other’s work. Throughout the week we will be focusing on our VCOP skills and will also be re-creating a lesson based on what we learned in our fantastic ‘Lend Me Your Literacy’ session.

3D shapes

3d-1

This week in Maths we will be learning to recognize 3D shapes and their properties. We will begin by recognizing and naming common 3D shapes. We will become shape detectives by matching the name of a shape to its properties. Later in the week we will look at more complex shapes, such as different types of pyramids and prisms. To help us understand what vertices and edges are we will make simple and complex skeleton shapes from straws and playdough. Finally we will look at making and unfolding 3D shapes made from nets. This is quite difficult so the game below may help.

http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/math/enrichment/gr4/EN0411b/EN0411b.htm

Greedy Goldliocks!

In English this week we will be looking at the Story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-goldilocks-popup.htm

We will be practicing our comprehension questions through finding answers in a text. We will be developing our writing by creating a ‘sorry’ letter from naughty Goldilocks to the 3 bears. We will be developing our vocabulary through looking at alternative ways of saying boring words such as big, small, went and said and will create our own thesaurus to use in class.

Here is a fabulous example of an apology letter by Fatima K in 2 Yellow!

20140211_113424

Amazing Acrostics!

As much as teachers love marking on the weekend, sometimes we can get tired. This amazing acrostic poem, however, woke Miss Wendy up with a “WOWZERS” when she read it in a child’s homework booklet. This wonderful and exciting poem is brought to life with imagery and even includes onomatopoeia (when a word sounds like the sound it is describing). When you read it you can see, hear, smell and taste the circus!!!

Poet: Basil, 2 Orange.

basil acrostic 2

If you would like to tell Basil what you like about his poem, please leave a comment below.

Little Red Riding Hood and Talk for Writing

Little_Red_Riding_Hood__by_x3_Paia

In English we have been learning about traditional tales. We have had great fun reading the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and have been busy answering comprehension questions, sequencing and acting out the story. Ask your child to demonstrate some of the fabulous actions based on ‘Pie Corbet’ that have helped us remember the key points of the story. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdvJZD-cplg
The children have also been working very hard to develop their spoken English through using use key phrases from the story. We have been developing our writing through character descriptions and have designed a WANTED poster for the villain (baddie) in our story, the Big, Bad Wolf! We have further developed our writing through writing a recount but we got to create our own villain (instead of the wolf) and have been thinking very carefully about the best way to use VCOP in our writing.