Spring two started with something strange happening inside our classroom!  Tables and chairs had been knocked over, the classroom was as cold as the Arctic, chunks of ice lay around the classroom with clues in and a mysterious box was delivered.  Eventually the children read all the clues,  conducted an investigation around the classroom and were able to solve the mystery-THERE WAS A PENGUIN IN OUR CLASS!

As always, we had a fabulous turn out for our book event where the children enjoyed completing various engaging tasks along with their family visitors.  It’s a really special experience for our children to have their family members visit their classroom to share their learning journeys with them.

Year 1 and 2 have also turned into authors by writing their own stories.  They were exposed to some wordless picture books by Aaron Becker (Journey, Quest and Return) and they were all very surprised about how easy it was for them to understand the story without having the words to read.  Their inspiration and imagination lead them to plan and write their own versions of the story.  They ensured that they used exciting sentences to engage the reader and remembered to include a beginning, middle and end to their story.  Their little fingers ached by the end, but each and every one of them felt proud of what they had achieved as writers.

In maths, Year 1 have been busy completing various addition and subtraction challenges. They worked really hard and persevered to solve some challenging missing number problems such as    19- __=11.  Year 2 started off by learning an important life skill of how to handle money.  They looked at how you could use different coins to make the same amount, make totals to buy items and work out what change you should receive after a purchase.  They also began their multiplication journey learning how to solve these problems using arrays.  Year 2 will continue to practice reciting their 2, 5 and 10 times tables so that they will know them all off  by heart before they leave Year 2.

Our Journey topic this half term focused on the history of Christopher Columbus, what he was famous for and ended with a comparison with a modern day sailor `Ellen Macarthur.`  This was a very interesting topic for the children and they had lots of questions to ask us.

Our DT project this term was to design and make a moving vehicle.  The children used old shoe boxe for the chassi, then added their axel and wheels  in order for it to move.  They used their imagination to create some fabulous inside and outside designs on their vehicle.  But their favourite part was definatly testing them!

Our international day this half term was looking at parts of the USA.  As always, our children embraced learning about another country, its culture and history. The children learnt about famous landmarks and enjoyed looked at `Alma Thomas` who was a famous American artist.