Welcome to Hedgehog Class (Year 2)

 

 

             

Mrs Zalman (Class Teacher)               

Mrs England (Teaching Assistant) 

Miss Graham (Monday afternoons)

If you have any questions or need to contact us, please send any emails to: 

hedgehogclass@maybury.surrey.sch.uk

Important Class Information

• Our PE days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Children must wear PE kit on these days.
• Home learning will be pages in the CGP books and will be posted in the Jellyfish Home Learning section. Books go out on a Tuesday and should be brought back in on the following Monday.
• Reading must be completed at least 3 times a week with a comment in the reading planners. Dojo points will be awarded for reading and taken away for not reading enough.
• Spelling tests are on a Monday.

Our Learning

This is what our week looks like in Hedgehogs class:

Our class learning

April

This month, our Computing topic is all about robot algorithms so we are using the beebots. We have looked at how the order of instructions changes where our beebot ends up on the mat. We explored different instructions and how they impact the path a beebot takes. We also worked on making predictions about where the beebot would go, depending on what algorithm was given.

In Maths, we have been learning about fractions. We have learnt how to identify what fractions are shaded and how to find fractions of numbers. We like to use a bar model to help us with this and we are very good at these!

In Literacy, we have been writing postcards. We read Meerkat Mail and about Sunny visiting different places, writing postcards home each time. Then, we got a postcard from him about visiting our school! He sent us lots of pictures of all the cheeky things he did around school and wrote to us about them. He left clues for us to find and we wrote a postcard back to him asking him questions about his clues and his visit.

In Science, we are learning about different scientists. We looked at Jane Colden, a botanist. She drew pictures of different parts of plants so we did the same. We drew pictures of their flowers, stems and leaves.

March

This month, we have been learning about stable structures. We have investigated which materials make strong, stable bases, walls and rooves and found which ones are not good choices. We looked at what we need to think about when choosing a base to ensure that our structures have a good foundation. We investigated different shapes to use when constructing our walls and found that triangles were the strongest. Then, we planned what we wanted our structures to look like, what materials to use and how to attach everything together. We then built our structures and adapted our plans.

  

In Geography, we have been exploring our Wonderful World topic by looking at different types of maps. We labelled oceans and continents and used aerial maps to find our school. We then used ordinance survey maps to create a route to the library and a route to the park.

In Maths, we have been revising money. We used coins to help us find different ways to make amounts, add and subtract money and give change.

 

We were also lucky enough to have a street dance workshop where we learned a routine and we attended a choral festival at a local school where we performed different songs that we had learnt – including one where we used sign language for the actions.

February

This month, in Art, we finished off our Clarice Cliff topic by making our final piece clay pots, pressing patterns into them and painting them. We used lots of different resources to make the patterns; from shells to cubes, pencils to toy fish and even straws. We painted them to follow our patterns and added details in metallic paint. When they were dry, we glazed them with glue to make them shiny.

   

 

In History, we finished our topic of the Great Fire of London with our class assembly where children told the story of what happened during the fire. Some children read their amazing diaries, pretending to be Samuel Pepys. We had Mr Dilly in for a workshop about the fire as well and the children got to dress up as different people from the fire and act out different events.

In Computing, we are learning about how to take good photographs. We have been using ipads to take different photos, deciding whether they need to be landscape or portrait. We used a paper frame to check that we could fit in the whole subject of the photo.

January

This month, we have been learning about the Great Fire of London. We looked at different sources and compared pictures of London now to paintings of what London looked like then. We explored why the fire spread so quickly by investigating what the houses were made out of and talking about what the weather has been like. We learnt all about Samuel Pepys and his diary and wrote our own diaries pretending to be him. For our home learning, we made old style London houses and set them out in the playground as a pretend Pudding Lane. We chose which house was the bakery and started a fire in it! We could really see how the houses being close together helped the fire spread quickly and how the fire break was effective in stopping the fire in the end.

  

In Art, we have been learning about Clarice Cliff and her sculptures. We practised making pinch pots and slab pots and also incising and impressing patterns into clay.

      

In Maths, we have been learning about money. We identified the different coins and notes and practised counting our different amounts and choosing different coins to make the same amounts.

December

This month, we have been writing instructions. We started with how to make a jam sandwich. Mrs Zalman had all the ingredients and equipment ready and we gave her instructions on what to do. We learnt that using clear verbs in our sentences was very important! We forgot to tell her to open the jam so she couldn’t get any out! We forgot to tell her to use the knife to scoop the jam so her hands got very messy!

We used our important imperative verbs and some time connectives to write instructions to make other food too.

In Science, we looked at recycling and what happens to our recycled plastic. We sorted items into different types of recycling or reusing and what needed throwing away. We also learnt about the harmful effects global warming has on our planet.

In DT, we have been learning about wheels and axles. We researched, planned and built our own vehicles, focusing on moving wheels and axles. We also evaluated our projects, thinking about what we could improve and what things worked well.

                                    

November

This month, we have been learning a new topic in PE – hockey! It has been very fun using our hockey sticks to control the hockey ball. We have also been practising dribbling and passing to our partners.

In Computing, we have been making music. We have been using Chrome Music Lab to create patterns, play with tempo and experiment with pitch.

Our DT topic is also going really well. We have been exploring different vehicles, specifically looking at the wheels, axles and chassis. We then explored how different wheels and axles combinations would work and used this to help us design our own vehicles.

In Literacy, we have been writing stories based on ‘Giraffes can’t dance’. We planned stories using different African animals and different reasons why they could not dance. We also consolidated our learning on adjectives by planning to use these as well.

 

October

This month, we went to Brooklands Museum for our History topic. We had been learning all about the history of the race track, the building of aeroplanes in the aircraft factory and what the land is used for now. On our trip, we saw lots of aeroplanes. We got to go on the plane of a Sultan and saw his velvet chairs. We pretended to be workers in the factory and completed different activities, for example, sewing the material for the plane, bending the metal and designing the planes. We also saw some old race cars and motorbikes.

   

In P.E, we have been practising our team building. We worked on communicating carefully with our team members to complete tasks in a better way. We were also learning about dribbling and practised lots with netballs.

For International Week, we were busy learning all about Germany. We looked at lots of different interesting places to visit and wrote postcards pretending we were there. We also cooked delicious gingerbread men and decorated them with icing.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September

We have been really busy since coming back to school this month. The children have settled in very well and are adjusting quickly to the new expectations, working at tables and doing their home learning. Please remember to read to your child at least three times each week.

In Literacy, we have been reading Hairy Maclary and thinking about adjectives. We have rewritten the story, made changes to it and are working on writing our own story about animals causing chaos! The children have had some great ideas about what could happen in their own stories. We started by sorting animals into whether we would see them on a farm or at a zoo and then used them for our new stories.

In maths, we have been learning about place value and number bonds. We have worked a lot with different resources to show the tens and ones in a number. Please practise number bonds to 10 and 20 at home as they are such a key part of maths knowledge.

In Art, we have been studying Paul Klee. We discussed our opinions about his paintings and how he uses tessellation. We then practised mixing colours to find the right tint to match his painting.