Maths challenge

In our mental maths this morning, we were set the following challenge.

Here are some examples of the children's workings out.

These are the answers we came up with!

Did we miss any combinations?

Science investigation

First, the Yellow group investigated the objects Miss Rogan gave them. There were wires, lightbulbs and batteries.

Miss Rogan was mean and didn't tell the children what to do with the equipment, she just put them in pairs and said "investigate".

Leo and Curtis were thrilled when their lightbulb shone!

Charlie noticed that when the lights worked, the wires made a circle.

The children were given a challenge to put an extra battery in the circuit and predict what they thought would happen. They correctly predicted that the light would shine brighter because it would get more power from the extra battery.

We also discovered that when 2 bulbs have to share 1 battery the lights shine, but are not very bright at all!

Working together as a team meant that they could make this huge circuit!

The red group were up next...

Miss Rogan set them the challenge to make the light shine - there were some very puzzled faces at first but through perseverance and teamwork, Thomas and Jaiden finally cracked it!

The children discovered that although these circuits looked the same, one of the bulbs was lit and one wasn't. The only difference they could find was that the batteries had the opposite sides facing each other on one, but not the other. We swapped them around and hey presto, the light was shining.

Our science focus is electricity this term

The topic of electricity is always enjoyed by the children!

It is a very practical, hands-on topic in which the children learn about creating circuits.

This week the children were thinking about the different types of power, for example electricity and batteries.

The children went on a science hunt around school. They had to search for electrical items and objects operated by battery.

Can you work out in which way these items are powered?

Next week the children are set the challenge of creating a circuit without any introductions by an adult!

We will keep you posted about their progress!

Term 5 Project Based Learning

In term 5, we are having 2 3-week long projects, based on our topic of time travellers.

The first 3 weeks are based on The Great fire of London.

This week, the children were involved in some activities that increased their knowledge about the fire.

The first activity was a website game which introduced some of the characters that were around at the time of the fire.

It also includes challenges that have to be passed in order to move onto the next part of the story.

The link to that website is on the right hand side of our blog. Please have a play!

The second activity was to create a street scene showing the fire spreading.

The children used cereal boxes to create buildings and worked together as a team.

It's activity will carry on into next week as not all children had a chance to work on this.

The third activity was playing in our role play area.

It is set up so the children can pretend to be Samuel Pepys and write in a diary as the fire was happening.

The children are able to dress up in a costume to make themselves look like Samuel Pepys.

Morning Meeting in 2RW

Every morning our class takes part in 'morning meeting'.

This week, we have begun a new share topic, which is....

If you were the head teacher of our school, what would you change or what rules would you put in place?

Here are some of the responses....

Jack A decided that if he was the head teacher he would make Mondays and Thursdays 'silent days' where no one would talk. School would be very peaceful!

Jack F would make writing homework compulsory for everybody, everyday!

Harry would give more computers to every class and Thomas would only make us come to school one day a week! Imagine what a 6 day weekend would be like!

Sorry Mrs Naylor... I think you may have some competition!!

We have begun thinking about TEAM - together everyone achieves more.

The children had a discussion about what they could do together so that more was achieved.

Some ideas included...

Tidying away in pairs
Working together on a job in the classroom
Making a tall tower

We will be spending some more time on working together as a team in the next few weeks.

Homework Menu 18/4/13

• Research some facts about the Great fire of London. How many houses were burnt down? Who was involved in rebuilding the city?
• Create a street scene during the great fire.  
• Practise recalling facts from the 2, 5 and 10 - times tables. Try to do them out of order. For example, 2x5, 9x5, 1x5, 10x5.
• Write some questions you would like to find out about the Great fire of London.

Have fun!

Term 5 in Year 2!

In this term we will be going back in time to the olden days!

We will visit the time when it was the Great fire of London and learn all about why the fire spread and how changes were made to the fire service.

We will also learn about the Victorian times and will act out a typical wash day and school day.

Hopefully we will be able to organise a trip out and a role play day as soon as we all get back to school.

See you all on Monday!