Thomas Willingale School and Nursery
Spring Term
Wc 31st March
Week 6!
Our final spring term week. A shorter week for the children as we had Parent Consultation day on Monday and parents had a super time seeing their progress and all the lovely work the children have been doing in class.
In maths we have explored weight with comparing mass, grams and kilograms. The children used balancing scales to explore and compare masses in the classroom.
In English, the children edited their instructions and on Friday showed them to the year 1 children.
In computing, we started our new unit of stop animation. The children learnt what animation is and created their own flip books.
We hope you have a great break!
Mrs Ayaz, Miss Higgs and Mrs Johnson
Wc 24th March 2025
A full busy week in year 2.
In English we have explore features of instructions, on Tuesday we planted some carrots following a set of instructions and on Thursday and Friday we wrote our own instructions for how to sow carrots. The children ensured they used a range of features including; a title, headings; bullet points, numbered steps, imperative verbs, adverbs, adverbs of time and a picture.
In Maths we continued our learning with measurement including cm,m, comparing height and length and even answering some word problems.
In History, we explored the history of farming. The children compared to farming in the past and how lucky we are now that the farmers have lots of technology to provide lots of yummy fruits and vegetables for us.
Also last week the children all took part in a poster competition and Miss Higgs will be entering some entries across the school. Well done to the winners of Juniper class and Willow class.
Have a great weekend.
Mrs Ayaz, Miss Higgs and Mrs Johnson
Wc 17th March 2025
Wow! The busiest week of the year so far!
We started the week with Shakespeare Day on Monday. The children had some excellent outfits/costumes, thank you for all the effort that went into it. We started the day with a great one-man show of Shakespeares famous play The Tempest, some of our lovely year 2s were invited to be a part of this performance.
On Tuesday we had a great time at Lambourne Farm for our school trip. The children had an opportunity to take part in a range of activities such as; exploring the process of making wool, grooming, feeding and walking the goats on site, they had a tour of all the animals that lived on the farm and enjoyed a scavenger hunt exploring the grounds of Lambourne End.
On Wednesday we had a visit from the silly scientist!
On Thursday, we had our STEM day. The children had opportunities to take part in a poster competition with the theme being change and adaptation, making music with bottles filled with different amounts of music, predicting, observing and evaluating the dissolving problem with a range of sugar. Finally to end our day the children were able to let their creativity fly. We had a piece of wire and walked about the school to find a unique shape, we then drew around the shape several times and used their creativity to turn the shape into a range of things! A great day!
On Friday, we started to get back into our regular routine after a busy week!
Have a RESTFUL weekend
Mrs Ayaz, Miss Higgs and Mrs Johnson
Week commencing 3/3/25
A super busy week this week! Forest school, school photos, world book day and so much learning!
In English we continued and finished writing our stories and the children used lots interesting and lively language to engage their readers. They included a range of sentence starters, adjectives, conjunctions and alliterations. They worked incredibly hard on these stories and are proud of themselves.
In Maths we continued our work on money, with a focus of making the same amount using different combinations of coins and notes. We then moved onto comparing amounts of money using the more than and less than symbol to assist them.
In PE this week we enjoyed the sunshine and practiced our throwing and catching skills. The children enjoyed changing between different activities with bean bags, hand balls and basketballs.
To end the week, the children came to school in their pjs to celebrate world book day. They had a wonderful time with a range of activities related to this. See photos below.
Have a lovely weekend
Mrs Ayaz, Miss Higgs and Mrs Johnson
Wc 10th March 2025
A busy week this week.
In English the children independently wrote their versions of the enormous turnip. The children tried very hard and included a variety of sentence starters and adjectives.
In Science, we were exploring the things around us and if they are alive, dead or have never been alive. We walked around outside to have a look at this and the children loved exploring the grounds.
In art this week we explored a famous artist named Paul Cezanne, he was an impressionist and focussed on fruit. The children practiced creating thick and thin lines and using different pressure to create this.
In Computing the children continued to practice their touch typing skills. If they want to continue it at home there is a fun and interesting game on BBC called Dance Mat Touch Typing.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Ayaz, Miss Higgs and Mrs Johnson
Week commencing 24th February
Welcome back year 2!
We have had a lovely first week back. In English we have been exploring traditional tales and how to make our writing more interesting and lively. We read 'The Enormous Turnip' as inspiration of our stories and used drama to plan our stories following the structure of this story. We started to write our own traditional tales towards the end of the week. We look forward to continuing these next week.
In maths, we have continued our money unit. The children have been calculating with money, including finding change. For this the children had to use their learning of exchanging and subtraction to find the change required. We also understood that we can make the same amount using a range of different coins as the value is the same.
In Science, we built our very own class bug hotels. Our unit is living things and their habitats and we are focussing on mini beasts and microhabitats. The children had a fantastic time exploring the grounds of our school to collect natural materials to make the perfect hotel for the mini beasts. Please see photos below.
Have a great weekend.
Mrs Ayaz, Miss Higgs & Mrs Johnson
Week commencing 10th February 2025
Another busy week in year 2.
In English, we finished our non-chronological reports about Australia and then we shared them with the year 1 children. It was fantastic, the children were so excited to share their writing and tell the younger children all about their learning.
In maths we started the week with a range of multiplication and division word problems. The children had to problem solve by understanding what the question was asking them to do and then had to choose a method to help them solve the calculation. The questions were either multiplying or deciding by 2s, 5s and 10s. Towards the end of the week we began exploring money and counted pence and pounds. The children learnt that the English currency is British pound (sterling). We look forward to continuing this in the next half term.
In DT this week we made our Australian habitats linking to our topic this half term. The children were really excited to be creative and they were able to choose their habitat and animals in their habitat. Some children chose to make a rain forest, the Outback and some chose a lake habitat with a range of Australian animals. The children made their habitats and included a wheel, a winding mechanism and a lever. Please see some photos below.
On Friday, half of year 2 represented the school at a multi skills event. The children had a fantastic time and would like to do it again.
Have a lovely week off for half term!
Mrs Ayaz, Miss Higgs and Mrs Johnson.
Week commencing 3rd February
What a fantastic week we have had!
In English we have continued writing our non-chronological report all about Australia. So far, we have written about many of the famous physical and human landmarks and geographical features of Australia. We have focused on using capital letters for names of places, apostrophes for possession and interesting sentence starters.
In Maths we have continued our learning of times tables. We have now learnt our 10, 2's and 5 times table! As a challenge, we identified the relative division facts, for example: 10X2=20 so 20÷2=10. We practised using the sharing, grouping and arrays method to help us.
In Science we went on a habitat walk! We explored the woodland area on the field and discussed what features that habitat and what animals/mini-beasts would be suited to living there.
Friday was number day, and what a great day we had! We got to dress up wearing numbers, play lots of mathematical games such as cups, dominoes and snakes and ladders. We had so much fun.
Have a lovely weekend all.
Miss Higgs, Mrs Ayaz and Mrs Johsnon
W/C 27th January 2025
Another lovely week in year 2.
In maths we have been exploring the 2 timetables and related division facts. We also understood how they are related to doubling and halving. Now is the time to use TT Rockstars at home if you can and get practicing on those 2 timetables! Challenge eachother and have fun!
In English, we completed our stories about lost toys, both classes have done incredibly well and have used lots of language techniques to better their writing. Towards the end of the week we learnt about the features of a non-chronological text because in the upcoming weeks we will be writing a non-chronological report all about this topic of Australia and sharing them with the year 1s.
In Science we have been exploring habitats. We learned about which animals live in different habitats and why they are suitable to that habitat. We are super excited to do a micro-habitat walk in our next science lesson!
In geography we have identified physical features from ariel images of different parts of Australia including Kangaroo Island, Perth and the Outback. All of these areas have many differences. We also labelled a map of Australia and used an atlas.
Also we were lucky to have a lovely guest on Thursday to teach the children how to play cricket in a pit-stop workshop. Thank you again Mrs Watkins. Please see photos below! (Also see photos below for a Mabel surprise in Juniper class)
Have a super weekend
Mrs Ayaz, Miss Higgs and Mrs Johnson
A busy week in year 2
We started off the week with a very special visit from Rock Kidz. The children had a workshop where they did lots of dancing and we learnt a rock song all about being ourselves and how 'everyone else is taken'. They have lots of other fun and educations videos if you want to explore their songs. Also, one of our very own year 2's won the 'Battle Time' defeating some teachers too!
In English we have started writing our lovely stories about a lost toy. The children have enjoyed being super creative and will continue these stories next week.
In maths, we have continued our learning about multiplication. The children have done really well with this so far. We have also introduced the children to division and look forward to deepening this learning next week.
In art this week we designed an Aboriginal mask and then we made them using cotton buds and thick and thin paint bushes. We took inspiration from an artist Georges Seurat and he was well known for using the technique pointilism much like the Aboriginals.
We were also super lucky to have the children from year 3 to come to our classrooms and read some of their stories that they had written in English, the year 2 children were inspired!.
Have a great weekend
Mrs Ayaz, Miss Higgs and Mrs Johnson
Another lovely week in year 2.
In English we have read the story Dogger, by Shirley Hughes. This story was about a child that lost their toy. We have written descriptive sentences and planned our own story based on Dogger. The children are excited about writing these next week.
In maths we have moved onto multiplication. The children now understand the meaning of equal groups and the children are able to identify equal groups. The children then used cubes to make equal groups using mathematical language like groups of and lots of.
In topic the children are enthused by our Australia topic and we are doing lots of cross-curricular activities. We looked at some Ariel images in geography, identifying physical and human features. In science we were sorting and classifying Australian animals. In reading we read through another Aboriginal Dreamtime story, called Tiddalik the frog and the children were able to answer some retrieval questions about the text.
We looked forward to seeing your Rock hairstyles on Monday! Have a great weekend.
Mrs Ayaz, Miss Higgs and Mrs Johnson
Welcome back! Happy New Year to you all!
WC 6th January 2025
A nice full week back.
In English, we explored, planned and then wrote some shape poems. The children researched an Australian animal and then wrote a descriptive poem in shape of that animal. These animals were either an emu, wombat, kangaroo or a koala. We included some adjectives, alliterations and similies to make our writing more interesting.
In maths, we explored and sorted 3D shape based on their properties. We then moved on to symmetry and creating symmetrical patterns using 2D shapes. To end the week we started to recognise equal groups and use mathematical vocab including 'lots of' and 'groups of'.
We have started our new topic Australia! The children are so excited about this topic and have shown great enthusiasm. In reading we have read one of the Aboriginal Dreamtime Stories and the children were able to answer retrieval questions about the text.
Have a lovely weekend
Mrs Ayaz and Miss Higgs
