Dragonflies

Mrs Kett and Mrs Sheldrake

Autumn Term -

Frozen

During the Autumn Term, our learning journey was 'Frozen'. We were amazed to find a strange, well-travelled package stranded in our school grounds and we couldn't believe our eyes when we opened it to find a mysterious egg inside!

What will hatch from the egg? Where has it come from?

The children completed a Science investigate to find out what material we needed to wrap our egg in to keep it nice and warm! We found out tin foil was the best and so we wrapped the egg up tightly so it was super cosy! Keeping it warm must've worked...because... we've now discovered that inside our egg was a...tiny, fluffy penguin! The children absolutely loved hearing about the sound the egg made whilst it hatched! 

But now...we need to find out what we can feed our penguin chick to keep him healthy so that he can grow. We've contacted Dudley Zoo and are eagerly awaiting their reply. So exciting! 

 We found out that we needed to feed our chick 'Penguin Sick Soup'. The children LOVED following instructions to make the soup, it was so smelly! 

The children have amazed us with their writing skills. They have retold a narrative story called, 'Mummy, can I please have a penguin?' The children remembered all of the repetitive language.

Here is a snippet of the story...

Laura wanted a penguin more than anything in the world. She asked her mum every birthday and every Christmas but her mum always said the same answer NO! If you want a penguin you'll have to move to Antarctica and live with the penguins on an iceberg and eat fish for your supper! Laura's mum brought her a cute rabbit with big ears. Laura asked, can I keep it in my bedroom? No Laura, rabbits live outside where they can eat grass and run around. Laura liked the rabbit and she even called it Snowy even though it wasn't white. 

Can your child tell you the rest of the story?

The children absolutely loved "flying" to Antarctica.  The highlights were putting all of our layers on to keep warm and then watching an in flight movie with our friends. When we arrived there the children were amazed to see so much ice and snow! It was also freezing cold! Ask your child to tell you some of the animals that we saw during our short visit... 

Butterflies

Mrs Sheldon

As Scientists we've enjoyed learning all about food chains and finding out that every food chain always begins with a producer. We've then enjoyed finding out what animals different animals eat. We understand what the words herbivore, carnivore and omnivore mean. Along with prey and predator! The children are now experts at understanding an animals basic needs for survival and can explain how animals change as they grow from a baby to an adult. 

Ask your Scientist to explain to you how a polar bear has adapted to live in the harsh conditions of the Arctic. Why does it have a thick layer of fat? Why does it have white fur? Why does it have sharp teeth? Did you know that a polar bear has partially webbed feet so that it can swim quickly in water? How fascinating is that! 

You could also research how different animals have adapted to their environments. Why not look at a leopard seal,  a penguin or an arctic fox.

In Geography, the children have been playing a lot of games and learning songs to help them learn the 7 continents of the world and the 5 oceans. 

As Historians, the children have really enjoyed finding out all about Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his expedition to Antarctica. Did he go just once? No...he went twice. Captain Scott was desperate to be the first explorer to reach the South Pole. He was so determined! Did Captain Scott and his team reach the South Pole? Were they the first explorers to get there? So many questions... Your child will have all of the answers we're sure! 

We also enjoyed debating whether we thought the tragic events that unfolded during Captain Scott's final expedition were due to bad luck or bad planning? Children had really good arguments for both sides. 

Children really enjoyed looking at one of our treasured texts called Jack Frost written by Kazuno Kohara. We explored the exciting language in the book and enjoyed coming up with activities that we would like to do with Jack Frost in the snow. They used these ideas to then write some poetry using rhyming couplets. 

We've had such an exciting first term together in Year 2 and we hope your child has enjoyed our FROZEN Learning Journey. They've oozed enthusiasm during our lessons and we hope this excitement has been shown at home too! We now can't wait for you to see our Key-Stage 1 Christmas Performance - "The true meaning of Christmas". The children have worked so hard to learn their words and our songs. We know you'll love it! Thank you for your support throughout this term (once again your Family Learning Projects blew us away - you're all so creative and they helped to transform our corridor) and we hope all of our families have an amazing festive break together creating some special family memories.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.