Monday 12th December
Today we had a Samba workshop with Brian. We all absolutely LOVED it! We found out that Samba is from Brazil; however, it originated in Africa and was called Semba. With the help of Brian, we learnt how to play Samba Batucada music. All of the children had different instruments to make rhythms with and to create the samba music. The percussion instruments included: agogo bells, reco-reco (scraper), cow bells, triangles, surdo (large drums), jam-blocks and ganzas (metal shakers). It really did feel like the Rio carnival in the dance studio. The children worked as a class, keeping a steady beat and playing instruments as a small group to create a Samba Batucada piece of music. We can’t wait to create more samba music during our enrichment week.
Friday 2nd December
This week the Year 2 children had their very first session of Forest School with Miss Kenyon. Over the next 6 weeks, the children in Wales and Northern Ireland class will be spending lots of time outdoors (regardless of the weather) as Miss Kenyon is now a qualified Forest School teacher and she cannot wait to get the children enthused and immerse in the outdoors and its wealth of opportunities. This week, the children returned to class (along with all the mud) full of excitement and eager for their next session. The children took part in a scavenger hunt using the natural materials, then followed their own interests within the outdoor forest. Finally, it was a perfect opportunity for a delicious hot chocolate and biscuits to warm themselves up after a wonderful time. Ask your child all about their choice of activity during Forest School this week.
Friday 18th November
Today we have had a school full of very excited children. The children began the day understanding what the aims and goals of the Children In Need charity are. The day was filled with many activities from some reflection time to a very energetic live workout with Joe Wickes. It was an exhausting one for sure! In the afternoon, the children had great fun taking part in a carousel of fun activities organised by the school council and Miss Kenyon. They played pin the spots on Pudsey, guess the name of the Teddy, a raffle and I think the most enjoyed activity was eating some cakes baked by all the pupils at Emmaville.
A huge thank you to all the children for their efforts and generosity with bringing in cakes to sell. It was a very tough competition to judge but our winner was Lana with her incredible Pudsey cake. Well done Lana! We can't wait to find out how much money we have raised for such a great cause.
Friday 11th November
This week in Geography we located the town of Ypres in Belgium. Next week, we are going to understand when Armistice Day took place and its significance. The children in Wales class worked as a class using Google maps and atlases to locate the continent and country that Ypres is in.
The children looked at Google maps together and identified the continent of Europe, the country of Belgium and its bordering countries before finding the city of Ypres. They then each located Ypres in their Atlas. As Ypres wasn’t labelled in the Atlas, the children showed an approximate location of where Ypres would be by comparing to Google maps.
We discussed the relevance of Ypres in relation to World War 1 and Remembrance Day. We watched a video of The Last Post under the arches in Ypres. To remember those that fought in the wars, the children each made their own poppies which are now proudly displayed on our classroom door for everyone to see.
Friday 4th November
This week in English, the children have been learning their model text for a wishing tale, 'The Magic Paintbrush'. The children have had great fun learning the text along with actions and have especially loved taking on the role of the greedy Emperor. To help the children to understanding the text and the characters more, they participated in a range of drama based activities from freeze frames, to hot seating both the poor boy and the angry Emperor. There was a lot of fun had in Wales classroom and the snarling and roaring from 'The Emperor' could probably be heard from down the corridor. Next week, the children are going to create a story map for their own wishing tales and begin to write their innovate versions. I'm very proud of how hard they all work in English and their focus in all lessons.
Friday 21st October
It's not every day that you get to go on a helicopter ride in school. This week the children went on a 'helicopter ride' over the sights of London, following the River Thames. We flew over Buckingham Palace, The Shard, Tower Bridge and many more famous landmarks. The children then learnt about using a key and symbols to locate places on a simple map. They designed their own symbols to represent the landmarks of London an created their own maps of London using a model map to locate the features. In the spring term, we will continue to develop our map work skills when learning about more cities worldwide. Maybe we will be lucky enough to go on another helicopter ride over a famous city.
Friday 14th October
Let the Battle of the Houses commence!
This week the children in Year 2 took part in their first 'Battle of the Houses' where they competed individually to earn points for their house. A lot of fun was had and this could be seen clearly by the smiles, screeches of excitement and fist pumps in the air. This half-term the children have completed a unit of athletics in PE, focusing on throwing for both accuracy and distance. The children took part in a rotation of activities including target throwing into hoops, throwing a beanbag for distance and even some mini hurdles. After a morning of fun, the results were in... congratulations to Team Tyne who came first overall, earning themselves 400 house points for their team.
We cannot wait for our next 'Battle of the Houses' at the end of Autumn term
Friday 30th September
It has certainly been a busy week at school this week. The children of Wales' class are very settled into Year 2 and have all worked incredibly hard. On Wednesday, we spent the afternoon at Thorp Academy taking part in an Inclusive Sports Festival. The children were impeccably behaved and thoroughly enjoyed all the activities on offer. Their enthusiasm for the games could be seen by the smiles on their faces, laughter and screams of excitement. I was very impressed by their ability to catch a ball, move at speed over the hurdles and work as a team in a range of sporting activities. They were a pleasure to take and all the young leaders commented on their ability and enjoyment. Look out for more pictures in the newsletter this week.
On Friday, we finished the week with a PSHE lesson creating our own class charter but also connecting with one another. The children showed great listening skills and were able to talk with a partner to identify three similarities. We were surprised by how many things we had in common with our peers.
Friday 9th September
Wales class have had a superb first week back. We have loved catching up with our friends and have enjoyed listening to each other share their 'All About Me' bags where we learnt lots of interesting facts about our peers. After such an excellent first week back, we have earned ourselves a new class name - 'Wonderful Wales' as they certainly are.
The children created their own self portraits to hang in our classroom, they took great care creating the tissue paper mosaic backgrounds. Afterwards, we took our time to draw ourselves looking at our individual features.
We are already settling into Year 2 and we cannot wait for an exciting year ahead.