Friday 7th February 2025

What a fantastic, fizzboggling time we had on our trip to Great Missenden! We were able to interract with the many activities in the Roald Dahl Gallery. The children played with words to come up with new imaginative phrases like 'rose petal hair' and 'a giant wearing a tiny hat'. They dressed as  Roald Dahl characters. They made photo animations. They spotted pictures and words from his many books displayed around the Gallery. We enjoyed learning more about his boyhood, like when he dropped a dead mouse into a sweetie jar to frighten the shopkeeper that he didn't like! In the afternoon we walked up to the church of St Peter and St Paul. We located Roald Dahl's grave in the cemetry. We found the names of his children engraved on a bench and a quote from The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me. Walking along the High Street, we saw many buildings that Roald Dahl  included in his stories: Matilda's library, Sophie's 'norphanage' in The BFG and Danny, Champion of The World's pumping station. Did you know that the purple Wonka gates at the entrance to the Gallery were a gift from Warner Brothers Film Studios?!

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Friday 31st January 2025

Inspired by the work of Sir Quentin Blake, Deer Class enjoyed reproducing some of his illustrations. We used water colour paints and practised adding varying amounts of water to change the shades of colour.

English

The Enormous Crocodile is on the loose! We wanted to warn the general public of the danger. The children made 'WANTED' posters, describing the crocodile's appearance and character.

Oracy

Would you like to live forever?

This was the philosophical question put to the children this week.

Here are some of their insightful responses.....

"I would like to live forever, but not get old. I would stay 13 years old."

"Yes, I would like to live forever and see the changes that happen in the future."

"No, I don't want to live forever. Other people would die. You would be the only one of your friends or family left."

"I would be lonely if I lived forever."

"We will all live forever in Heaven."

"I would stay alive forever if my family could live forever too."

Friday 24th January 2025

In our maths lessons this week we have been deriving multiplication number sentences from arrays. The children learned that arrays are made of rows and columns of objects. They were able to record the number of rows and columns as a multiplication which generated the total number of objects in the array. They also learned the term COMMUTATIVE which tells us that multiplication of two numbers can be done in any order.

Continuing with the theme of multiplying, we used ladybirds to illustrate how numbers can be doubled. The children challenged themselves with some larger doubles too!

Friday 17th January 2025

In our gymnastics lesson this week we practised balancing on different parts of our bodies. A good balance involves stretching your muscles and holding your body still. We moved on to working with a partner. We tried out different ways of combining our balances and then rehearsed moving between different balances.

Maths

The children have been using different objects to make equal groups. This led on to recording repeated addition sentences and then multiplication sentences.

2+2+2+2=8      and     4x2=8

Art

The focus for our art work this half term is the illustrator Sir Quentin Blake. Sir Quentin Blake illustrated all of Roald Dahl's books and has a very distinctive style of drawing. Deer Class found out a little about his life, including the awards he has won and some of the children's books he has written and illustrated. In preparation for emulating Quentin Blake's style of drawing, we first tried using a variety of drawing media to make lines of different kinds.

Friday 10th January 2025

We are celebrating the New Year with exciting new learning. Our English text is The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl. We began by finding out about the life of the author. He spent many years writing in the shed of his back garden in Great Missenden. The children were delighted to know he lived so close to our school. They are looking forward to visiting the cemetary where Roald Dahl is buried as well as the Roald Dahl Museum next month. After reading the story, Deer Class made a big collection of adjectives to describe the main character. Our thesauruses helped us to find synonyms for these words. Armed with our bundle of adjectives, we wrote a character description of The Enormous Crocodile.

Art

Each half term we perfect our sketching skills by taking on a drawing challenge. This time it was shoes! The children are proud of their artwork.

Friday 20th December 2024

The last week of term has been a fun-packed whirlwind! We sewed our Christmas tree baubles and evaluated them against our design criteria. We enjoyed a festive lunch with the whole school family sitting down together. We baked star shaped Christmas cookies. We made stripey Christmas tree cards (and used the left-over strips of paper to decorate the classroom with paper chains!) We also had the pleasure of going to Jordans Village Hall to sing to local residents as they held their annual Christmas meal (which smelled delicious!) Happy holidays everyone!

Friday 13th December 2024

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Jordans School performed a dynamic and charming version of the Nativity story this week. Year 2 were so excited to be cast as the main characters. The costumes were superb, the singing voices angelic and the acting amazing!

History

We were treated to an awesome workshop on Wednesday. Our visitor, Christopher, took us on a journey back to 1666. The children were able to build a model of London, add pretend flames to the buildings and role play trying to put out the Great Fire. They used firehooks, a fire cart and leather buckets filled from the River Thames, just like the terrified Londoners of the time did. Through role play, the key people were recreated- Samuel Pepys, King Charles II and the baker, Thomas Farriner. Back in class, the children handled artefacts from the 17th century and found answers to a quiz by reading information boards. It really brought our learning to life!

Design Technology

Deer Class began turning their designs into reality on Thursday. Everyone has chosen a shape and a colour for their bauble. They made designs on the front and began stitching the two halves together. We will be completing them next week in time for hanging on the Christmas tree!

Friday 6th December 2024

We enjoyed using the iPads in our maths lesson this week. The children had to select the correct coins to make a given price.

They were using mixed coins and making values up to £1. What a fun way to shop!

D.T.

We are preparing for making Christmas tree baubles! Our baubles will be made of felt and sewn together. To do this, we will need to be practised in running stitch and overstitch. We learned how to thread a needle, tie a knot and create both kinds of stitches. As a challenge, some of us sewed on buttons too!

Drama

Rehearsals for our Nativity play are in full swing. Deer Class dressed in their costumes this week. We can't wait to perform the show next week!

Friday 29th November 2024

 The children are mastering steady breathing and balance in their yoga lessons. This week they created individual sequences by moving smoothly between different poses.

Design Technology

Honing our cutting skills was our focus in D.T. Before we move on to designing and making sewn Christmas tree baubles, we need to be able to use scissors safely and accurately. Deer Class practised cutting straight, curved and zig-zag lines. They learned how to guide the paper as they cut in one direction away from their body. We then applied our skills by cutting out shapes and assembling a Christmassy picture!

Science

What effect does heat have on materials? Year 2 made predictions and and then observed how certain substances change state when heated. They watched ice melt, bread toast, popcorn pop and chocolate buttons change to a liquid on their tongues!

Friday 22nd November 2024

We began our Christmas design technology project this week. The children will be designing and making a Christmas tree bauble. The first part of the project was to evaluate existing products. We looked at baubles of different shapes, colours and materials. Having discussed the similarities and differences, everyone chose their favourite. We then drew them, described them and gave reasons for our choice.

Handwriting

On Thursdays we practise our joined-up handwriting. This week our focus was the letters that join from the top. The children wrote letter strings and words containing o, r, v and w.

Yoga

Here are Deer Class learning new yoga poses. We called them the mountain, the tripod, the squat, the aeroplane, the cat and the dog. Most of these poses involve being on all fours. We also practised moving between poses and holding the shapes.

Friday 15th November 2024

In our history lessons we have been learning about the Great Fire of London. The children collaborated with a partner this week to illustrate a timeline of the events from 2nd-6th September 1666.

Drama

Deer Class loved using their drama skills to act out some of the scenes from the Great Fire of London. We travelled back in our imaginary time machine to 1666. Once there, we made poses to represent the important figures of the time- Samuel Pepys writing his diary, King Charles II ordering houses to be pulled down, Thomas Fariner making bread in his bakery and Lord Mayor Bloodworthy sleeping through the chaos! We used scarves as flames and swept them around as we embodied the fire.

English

We are growing our creative brains by using powerful vocabulary. We found pretend fires on our tables sprinkled with wonderful words like

inferno, crackle, blazing, hiss, flames, scorching, smouldering, orange, fiery, smoke, ash. 

We imagined ourselves in London on 2nd September 1666. What would we see? Hear? Smell? Taste? Feel? Our 'wow words' helped us to describe the scene.

Friday 8th November 2024

We have been bending, stretching and balancing as we learn some yoga poses. The children practised making controlled shapes and moving between different positions. We noticed that we felt calmer as we controlled our breathing.

Art

It was time for our half termly sketching progression this week. Our task was to draw a snowman and include body parts and some shading. The children practised first on their whiteboards, drawing each part step by step. They then used pencils to create their own snowman.

PSHE

Keeping Safe is our topic this half term. Today we discussed what we would do in different situations to keep ourselves safe.

'An older child asks you if you would like to play their video game rated age 12.'

The children talked in pairs then shared their thoughts with the rest of the class. We found that we agreed on many of the scenarios.

For this one, Deer Class decided that they would say no to the older child and seek confirmation from a trusted adult.

Friday 25th October 2024

Deer Class tried their hand at origami this week. We looked at instructions for making a whale from a sheet of A4 paper. The children first read the instructions and identified all the imperative verbs. We then followed the step-by-step commands to make our pod of whales!

English

After half a term in Year 2, we celebrated the development of our writing skills. The children retold the story of The Snail and the Whale in their own words. Our targets were to use punctuation and powerful words. The children all agreed that it was the best writing they had EVER done!

Science

Personal hygiene is so important for our health. So how do we make sure we are really clean? In their science lesson, Deer Class covered their hands with glitter to represent the germs that we usually can't see. They then tried to remove all the glitter. Rubbing hands together, wiping on towels, water from the tap- none of these methods removed all the 'germs'. Washing their hands thoroughly with soap and water was the only way to make their hands clean again.

Friday 18th October 2024

Our clay snails have had a makeover! We mixed poster paint with PVA glue to make  shiny colours that wouldn't sink into the clay.

Deer Class decided that rainbow colours would be more fun than brown!

Science

Having designed healthy sandwiches last week, the children were ready to make them on Wednesday. They used the skills of spreading, slicing, chopping, mixing, assembling and........oh, eating!

Maths

Adding a 1-digit number to a 2-digit number was our learning objective this week. We began by using Base 10 equipment to physically display the number sentences. The children found that they had to swap ten ones for a stick of ten to make the new number.

Friday 11th October 2024

'Would you rather have an extra finger or an extra toe?'

This was our philosophical question on Thursday.

The children had some thoughtful responses:

"If I had an extra finger, I could pick up bigger objects."

"I could count to 6 on my hand instead of only 5!"

"I would be able to wear more rings on my fingers!"

"An extra toe would give me a bigger foot for kicking a football."

"I could run faster and score more goals!"

Some positive thinking from Deer Class!

Art

sculpture      roll     stretch     ball     attach    smooth   mould   manipulate

These words were our learning vocabulary for art this week.

We experimented, got messy, failed, tried again and ended up with an  escargatoire of snails!

Friday 4th October 2024

Making music is so much fun! Deer Class have been learning the names of percussion instruments and how they are played. Here we are shaking maracas, scraping guiros, banging tambourines and tapping triangles.

Art

We were cutting, sticking, folding, tying, knotting and stapling on Wednesday afternoon. Using all of these skills, the children created charming and unique scarecrows from wooden spoons!

Handwriting

Deer Class practised their joined up writing on Thursday. This week we focussed on the letters that have descenders. These letters have ‘tails’ that go beneath the writing line then loop up to join onto other letters. We listened to gentle classical music to aid our concentration.

Friday 27th September 2024

We are continuing our study of The Snail by Henri Matisse. Deer Class used printing skills this week to create their artwork. 

The Bluebell Woods resembled an enchanted forest this week! We found twinkly fairy lights, a picnic blanket, bowls of blackberry dye and natural materials gathered for making 'sun catchers'. We had a magical time exploring the area. It was so much fun using mini hammers to knock nails into old logs!

Friday 20th September 2024

Forest School returns! Deer Class were super excited to get back to the Bluebell Woods this week. The children carried out lots of activities including painting with blackberry juice, making autumn wreaths with natural materials and creating bird feeders. We also went on a tree hunt to identify our trees by the shape of their leaves. The children loved being 'nature reporters' as they presented facts about their chosen tree to the rest of the class.

Henri Matisse invented collage as an art form in the early 20th century. He arranged paper cut outs to make bold colourful designs. One of his famous collages is called The Snail. The children developed their cutting skills and made their own snail collages in our art lesson.

Friday 13th September 2024

It's been a week full of creativity, brain work and physical exercise. In Maths, we were representing numbers to 100 in different ways. We wrote words, used Base 10 equipment, bead strings, tally marks and counters to show a variety of numbers.

In P.E. we practised our football skills. Here we are dribbling footballs between markers:

Guiseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian artist who created portraits using fruits, vegetables, flowers and fish. Deer Class studied his work and emulated his style with their own collage portraits.

Friday 6th September 2024

The new Deer Class were straight back into their learning with enthusiasm this week! We grew our brains together in Maths by revising numbers to 50: how to write the numerals, the number words and draw pictures. We also practised how to compare numbers using the 'greater than' and 'less than' symbols. The children love that these symbols look like crocodiles!

The children told me all about their summer holidays and then wrote sentences about what they did.

We have started learning how to do joined up handwriting! This is so exciting. By the end of the year we hope that all our writing will be joined.