Reading books
Today, your child will be bringing home a new reading record, their homework books and a letter about accessing e-books which will be assigned to your child every Friday, alongside spellings. Let’s get this year off to a great start by reading daily and sharing the book. Please fill in the records and bring them back into school every Thursday.
Our first week together!
Wow, what a week we’ve had in Year 2! It has been great to see the children looking happy and healthy as they return back to school. They have settled into our new classroom really quickly and it has been wonderful to hear about all the exciting things you have been up to over the summer holiday.
This week, in our living and learning session, Year 2 really impressed me with how well they understand our school rules. We discussed the three rules and how we can follow them, both in and out of the classroom. The children have certainly have put this into practice, with many compliments – how calm we are when getting on with our work and how sensibly we walk into collective worship. Keep this up, Year 2!
In maths, we have been recapping our knowledge of place value – see photos below from when we were ordering from greatest to smallest using our knowledge of tens and ones in a number. The children were tasked with ordering 3 numbers, but challenged themselves and wanted to order more! It was lovely to see how proud they were with their successes. We have also read and talked about our class novel, Vlad and the Great Fire of London, ahead of our topic learning starting next week. The first lesson will be focused on timelines. This weekend, why not discuss some events which would feature on a timeline of your life?
I have really enjoyed getting to know Year 2 this week and I am looking forward to lots of learning together. Please feel free to come and say hello or ask me any questions you have!
This week’s bible story
Jesus is friends with Zacchaeus: Luke 19: 1-10
Have you ever heard the story of Burglar Bill – Bill goes out every night. Getting into houses through open windows and taking things. Until one night, Bill found a baby, and that changed his whole life …
There is a Bible story about a man who stole from other people. He took extra money when he gave them their tax bills and became very rich on all the money that he stole. Zacchaeus was a little man and that small people can’t see in crowds. Read the story of Zacchaeus to find out what happened to him.
Reflection:
Jesus loved everyone when he lived on the earth. It didn’t matter how bad people were, Jesus was always there for those who needed him. This is true for us too – no one is so bad that God doesn’t love them. And the more time we spend with God – praying, thinking about him, finding out about him, the more we want to be like Jesus; kind, helpful and good. Just like Zacchaeus, Burglar Bill changed his ways and tried to be more like Jesus by loving those around him. Even though Burglar Bill and Zacchaeus made the wrong choice, God forgave them and continued loving them.
Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you that Jesus loved Zacchaeus even when he wasn’t making the right choices. Help us to love all of those around us and be honest about our actions.
Amen
Tropical World
We have had a fantastic day at Tropical World. We saw lot of different animals – butterflies, a crocodile, fish, tarantulas, frogs, bearded dragons, iguanas, meerkats, birds, snakes and lots more.
We enjoyed a nice ice-cream in the sunshine and a picnic before we began our afternoon workshop.
In the workshop we learnt how to measure the height of a tree by laying metre sticks on the ground and how to calculate the age of a tree. We thought of different animals that live in trees too. Spiders, owls, ants, bees, beetles and bats were just some of the animals we thought of.
We also learnt how different animals adapt to their habitat. Meerkats have long tails to help them balance and check for prey. They have black rings around their eyes for protection from the sun and 2 eye lids – the second pair of eye lids are see through to stop sand getting in their eyes when they are digging. We also learnt that chameleons have a curly tail to wrap around things like trees and they change colour depending on their mood.
Well done Y12, you were amazing!
This week’s bible story
Joseph’s brothers lie about his death. Genesis 37:17-33
In the bible, there is a story about Joseph and his technicoloured dream coat. Joseph had 12 older brothers who didn’t like him very much. His father, however, loved him very much and would often say how we was his favourite. Joseph had lots of dreams and he liked to tell his brothers all about his dreams.
Joseph’s brothers were fed up with listening to his dreams. Why was he always the star in them? Why did he always think that he was so much more important than they were? Jacob, Joseph’s dad, heard their grumbles and decided to keep Joseph at home on the farm with him, while Joseph’s brothers were sent off into the fields to look after the sheep.
Then, Jacob did something that made Joseph’s brothers even more cross! He gave Joseph a special coat made of brightly coloured cloth. Joseph’s brothers were jealous and angry. They didn’t think it was fair that Joseph should be treated differently from them; they were upset that Joseph was their dad’s favourite.
Do you think Joseph’s brothers were right to be jealous?’
Joseph’s brothers were so cross that they began to plan to get rid of Joseph.
One day, when Jacob sent Joseph to take food to his brothers in the fields, the brothers grabbed Joseph and threw him down an old well! While they were considering what to do next, they heard the sound of people travelling along the dusty road. As they looked in the direction of the noise, they saw some travellers who were on their way to Egypt, with their camels loaded with spices that they hoped to sell there. What luck! This was a perfect way of getting rid of Joseph forever
. The brothers quickly pulled Joseph out of the well and handed him over to the travellers. Then, they watched as Joseph disappeared along the dusty road. Poor Joseph! His life had become a nightmare; perhaps he would wake up soon, and discover that it had all been a bad dream.
The brothers had got rid of Joseph, but what could they tell their dad? To try to cover up what they had done, they put some animal blood on Joseph’s special coat and took the coat home to show their dad.
‘Look what we found!’ they said to Jacob.
Jacob saw the coat and thought Joseph must have been killed by a wild animal. He cried and cried. The brothers tried to comfort him, but it was no use.
Reflection:
Do you think the brothers felt sorry and sad when they saw how much they had hurt their dad?
Do you think they were wrong to do what they did?
Should they have tried harder to like their brother, Joseph?
Should they have been honest with their dad about how they were feeling?
There are times when we don’t find it easy to like everyone. However, we feel, though, it is wrong to deliberately hurt people. It is always better to talk about things and try to sort out any problems between people.
Prayer:
Dear God,
Please help us to care for other people.
Please help us when we feel cross or jealous.
Please help us to talk about our problems with someone we trust.
Amen.
Sports Day
Well done to all the children for showing resilience and determination in their races! Thank you to everybody who came and supported the children at our Sports Day.
This week’s bible story
Read the story of the two brothers.
Have a think about these questions as you read:
Why did the brothers decide to have a bet?
– Why was the farm labourer unhappy and how had the lady become wealthy?
– What did the priest think about the world?
– Who won the bet?
– When the poor brother was sheltering in the forest, what did he overhear?
– How did the poor brother help the farmer, the villagers and the queen?
– How was the poor brother rewarded?
– What happened when the dishonest brother met the elves?
What lesson do you think the writer of the story is trying to teach us?
Reflection:
Read the following poem and have a think about how this relates to our Christian value of honesty.
Sometimes, we think that it is easier to tell a little lie.
We find it hard to tell the truth, however, we may try.
We’re just afraid to take the blame,
We feel remorse, we’re full of shame.
We should not cheat when things go wrong,
Just face the facts, own up, be strong.
Prayer
Dear God,
Please help us to be honest and true
In all the things we say and do.
Amen.
Reading
We have been reading and enjoying the story The Book with no Pictures by B J Novak .
After listening to the story being read aloud by the teacher the children took turns to read the story aloud to each other or to themselves. We talked about what we liked/disliked about the book. We all found it very funny and liked all the made up words and silly sentences.
We have also been looking at contractions and how sometimes when we speak or write we join two words together to create one word. We played a pairs came and Y2 had a go at an activity in their book.
This week’s bible story
Daniel and the Lions Den: Daniel 6 (Omit verse 24 for younger or sensitive children)
Read the story of Daniel (omit verse 24 for younger or sensitive children)
Daniel was captured, along with many more of God’s people, and taken to live in a foreign country. In this country, they had different traditions and customs and it was not acceptable to worship God. But Daniel chose to continue serving God. Even though it meant that he was risking death, Daniel knelt down and honoured God by praying three times a day.
When the king discovered that Daniel was breaking the law by praying to God, he had Daniel thrown into a den of hungry lions. God stood by Daniel and rewarded his unwavering commitment to righteousness by protecting him from being eaten by the lions.
Reflection:
We’re going to have a little think about this story now and what we could learn from it about telling the truth.
Have a think about these questions:
Why did the other servants not like Daniel?
Why didn’t Daniel bow down and worship the king instead of worshipping God?
What do you think you would have done if you had been Daniel?
Can you think of a time when you have stood up for the truth in a difficult situation?
Is it ever OK to tell a lie?
Daniel believed in something so strongly that he was willing to risk everything – even his life – to stand up for that truth. In the story, God honoured him for his truthfulness and saved him from the lions. This sets us a good example to try to stand up for the truth on all occasions and (if appropriate) to know that God will be with us in that decision to tell the truth. It might be easier to tell a little lie on occasions, but one lie often leads to another and this can often mean that lots of people get hurt in the process. It would be good to aim to be like Daniel and to tell the truth on all occasions!
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you for the example of Daniel.
Please help us to be brave enough to tell the truth on all occasions and help us to know that you will be with us when we find that hard to do.
Amen.
Science – Animals, including humans
Today, the children have enjoyed looking at some tadpoles and frogs that were brought in by a child who has a pond in their garden. We talked about the life cycle of a frog and how there were 6 different stages.
In our Science topic this half term, we have been looking at different animals and classifying them. The children knew that a frog is an amphibian. Can they tell you any other facts about amphibians?
After we looked at what different animals ate and decided if they were herbivores, carnivores or omnivores.
