Welcome to Class 2 Dragonflies 2024/25

Thank you to Mrs Ashmore, Mrs Diddams, Mrs Gibbs, Ms Hill and Mrs Styles for accompanying us on our trip to the Turner Contemporary, Margate beach and the Thanet and Dostrict Reform Synagogue.  We had a wonderful day, consolidating learning and enjoying the incredible weather!

Thank You!

A huge thank you for our incredible Christmas presents.  These were unexpected and your generosity was overwhelming.  Thank you so much, we were both very grateful!  We hope all our Dragonflies and their families had a wonderful Christmas break and a very happy new year.

From Mrs Waller and Ms Hill 

We had a fantastic trip to Oare Gunpowder Works with Anna Outdoors.  We learned all about how gunpowder was made; explored the site, including looking at the remains of buildings and waterways; made charcoal and charcoal 'pencils' from alder branches and toasted marshmallows.  It was a wonderful day that extended and consolidated our Term 2 learning about the Gunpowder Plot and the Great Fire of Learning.  Thank you so much to all our adult helpers, your support was very much appreciated.

Nativity Songs

If you would like to practice some of the songs for our class Nativity, copy and paste the links below into your browser.  These will last until our performances on 18th December.  Happy singing! 

The Stable Hoedown

https://app.sparkyard.com/shared/song/872/9d92e904-62c2-4bb9-bb2a-5d23589f9b65

Working in a Stable

https://app.sparkyard.com/shared/song/873/0ccc9e07-c3e3-42a5-a49e-182b219a7bb2

Clip-Clop Little Donkey

https://app.sparkyard.com/shared/song/874/697f11cc-dd9d-4cee-8ed5-65567da2a568

Mary's Lullaby

https://app.sparkyard.com/shared/song/875/9ccbb611-e423-4252-a297-6746832481be

Three Wise Men

https://app.sparkyard.com/shared/song/876/479fc726-13ef-454b-acf5-c16784427834

What a great way to end our first term in Year 2!  Thank you so much to everyone who sponsored children in Dragonflies Class.  The run was great fun and your sponsorship is very much appreciated.  We wish all the children and their families a relaxing half term break.  

Mrs Waller and Ms Hill

We've had a wonderful week learning about mechanisms in Design Technology.  We have learned how sliding, lever and pivot, and wheel mechanisms work.  We practiced making the mechanisms then designed our own moving minibeast pictures then had a fantastic afternoon making them.

We had a fantastic session acting different scenes from our current English story book, 'Oi! Get off our Train!'.  We developed speaking and listening skills, not only learning about how to project our voices, but also how to be an appreciative audience!

We had a really fun 'hot seat' activity during one of our English lessons this week.  Some members of our class took on the roles of different characters from 'Oi! Get off our Train!' and we composed thoughtful questions to ask them, such as "Were you scared when you had to leave your home?" and "How was your train journey?".  We then wrote our questions using question marks.

We had a really inspiring Art afternoon, mostly outdoors in the Forest School area.  We began by learning about the work of Japanese painter and woodblock printer Utagawa Hiroshiga, then we went outside where we made leaf and bark rubbings, and sketched leaves and trees.  We were fortunate that it was a beautiful sunny Autumn day.

This week we have been reading 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'.  We have been using the story as inspiration for a variety of writing and today we worked in groups to act out the various scenes in the book.  It was great fun!

Thank You from Mrs Hammond

Hello to the new Year 2's! I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all of my beautiful gifts I received. You were so generous and they were so appreciated! I hope you had an amazing Summer.

Thank you again,

Mrs Hammond

Term 1 Overview

History Day

We had a great 'History Day' where we focused on the history of our School. We got hold of some old school documents that listed the address and vocation of children/parents that came to Sheldwich. We then plotted these places on an old map of Sheldwich, while also comparing to where children travel from today to come to school. As well as this we worked with quills and visited the old Georgian School House in Sheldwich Villiage. 

Thanet School Trip

We have enjoyed a fantastic school visit to the Turner Contemporary and Margate combined with a visit to Ramsgate and District Reform Synagogue. It was an excellent day, full of activities and jam-packed with learning. We got to see the Turner's exhibition on form and line-focused creation. We also completed some geography focused field work on the beach and in the town, working out where the key features of Margate seaside were and looking at the wildlife we find on British shores. Our Synagogue visit was lead by Rabbi Cliff and was so insightful. We were able to see a 200 year old Torah scroll, of which Rabbi Cliff read from and explained how the synagogue cares for such a precious Holy Book. The children were also able to see some great examples of Jewish artefacts that they have been learning about in their RE sessions.

Science - Materials

The children conducted an investigation about light, to see which materials let through the most.

"The wood was definitely opaque" Alex

"The card was translucent" Annabel

"Plastic materials were completely transparent" William

Happy New Year and Thank You!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year.

Just a little note to say thank you for all of our wonderful Christmas gifts - You're a very kind and generous class! Both Ms Hill and I were thrilled!

Mr Daintree and Ms Hill

STEM Week

We had such fun during our STEM week, which was themed on 'Movie Magic'. We watched a clip from a different children's film each day and completed an investigation or activity based on it! We watched ratatouille and learnt about a balanced diet - making omelettes along the way. We also watched Luca and worked out how much water would be wasted if we left the tap running while we brushed our teeth. Our biggest challenge was making a solar system in a box after watching a Star Wars clip - the children tried their best to make the planets to scale!

Oare Gunpowder Works School Trip

We had a brilliant time on our school trip to Oare gunpowder works. We learnt all about how the site was used to make gunpowder in the past and about it's current role in Faversham as a protected nature site. We enjoyed the outdoor learning and forest school activities along the way too!

Essential Letters and Sounds

Please click on the link below to access videos which will help you to support your child/ren with their phonics.

These sounds are taught in Phase 5. Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children will be taught these sounds. 

https://vimeo.com/753933192/43104a30e0

‘High Frequency’ Words

All children in Classes R, 1 and 2 bring home a pack of ‘High Frequency’ words every week on a Friday. Some of these words are very difficult to sound out the normal way so they need to be memorised. It is very important for the children to learn these words as they will come up consistently in reading books. As the children move to Class 1 and 2, the words form the basis of the childrens’ writing.

We would like the children to spend just 5 minutes per day learning the words – you may like to devise a game with the words or write the words on paper to stick around the house!

Please keep the words in your child’s school bag so they can be used in school on a daily basis.

If you have any questions regarding ‘High Frequency’ words (HFW) please speak to your class teacher or Mrs Fairs, the Key Stage 1 Manager.

Find below, a large list of HFW to check off throughout the year.