The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny by Beatrix Potter

We received a letter from Josephine Rabbit, asking us to help her with a huge problem. Her son, Peter Rabbit, had been captured by mean Mr McGregor. We will be learning about the features of persuasive writing, such as using questions and emotive language. We will use these features in a letter to Mr McGregor, persuading him to let Peter go! We will support our letter with reasons and arguments, which we will draw from the book.

Click on the image to watch an animated version of the story on Youtube.

Y2 have been enjoying our new class novel, ‘Wild’ by Emily Hughes.

Click on the picture to watch the story on Youtube

To help us understand what it feels like to be in the wild, we took a trip to West Boldon Lodge to explore the woodland area. We talked about the different types of animal that live in the woods and then looked for them in the Fairy Village. Once we had found all 6 animals, we had to go into the main woddland to build shelters for our animals. As you can see from our photographs we came up with some brillant ideas! Our hardwork was rewarded with a toasted marshamllow around the campfire.

We have been investigating measuring in standard units this week. We used rulers and metre sticks to measure length, weighing scales to measure mass and jugs and beakers to measure capacity. We also ordered and compared measures using < > and = symbols. 

Class 5 have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Africa. Yesterday, we created some beautiful artwork for a display. We explored photographs of sunsets in Africa and discussed the amazing colours we could see. We used watercolours to create our own sunsets. We then used careful cutting skills to cut out silhouettes of African animals and trees and layered them over the skyline. We were so happy with our finished pictures and they will be proudly displayed on the wall.

Class 5 have been learning about the continent of Africa in our Geography lessons and we have mainly focused on the country Kenya. Today was the lesson we have most been looking forward to…learning about the animals of Kenya. We went on Safari and learnt about how the African Savannah (a huge grassland dotted with trees and water sources) is home to many of Africa’s animals. Today we used our developing reading skills to read clues about each animal. We used the clue to decide on the best place for that particular animal to live and placed it in a suitable location. We watched videos to help us visualise life on the Savannah, It has been a lot of fun learning about the animals of Kenya. Tomorrow we will be learning about the landscape of Kenya and using Geographical words such as valley, mountain and volcano.

Class 6 carried out an investigation today to see what happens to our heart when we exercise. We predicted that our heart beat would increase because the blood would get pumped around our bodies faster. Some of us decided to investigate which types of exercise increased our heart rate the most. We correctly predicted that the exercises that made us move the most and the fastest increased our heart rate. We kept our test fair by performing each exercise for one minute and measuring our heart rate for one minute each time.

Year 2 have been continuing their work on mouldable materials in their DT lessons. This week we have been focusing on clay! We learnt how to roll and shape the clay and explored making patterns and prints using knives, forks and cocktail sticks. We then used pinching techniques to make a thumb pot. We decided to turn them into Christmas candle holders. We painted them using acrylic paints and added some Christmas sparkle! We can’t wait to take them home!

Y2 visited Asda to look at the materials that were used to build the store both inside and out. We discussed why the materials had been used and why they were suitable for the job. After our science work we were rewarded with a trip to see the Coca Cola truck! It was exciting to see it in real life and we enjoyed having our picture taken.

Year 2 have been learning about 3D shapes this week. Today we used our knowledge of the properties of 3D shapes to construct our own using playdough and straws. We looked at 3D shapes and explored the faces, edges and vertices and replicated this in our own models. We had great fun and we showed excellent perseverance.