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Year 2

Welcome to Year 2!

Our Class Teacher is Miss Kavanagh.

Our Teaching Assistant is Mrs Reeve.

Year 2 Non-negotiables for Writing, Reading and Maths

Year 2 Welcome Meeting

D&T: Under the Sea bunting. We made our own under the sea bunting. We had to follow the design criteria and we learned how to use a running stitch to join our pieces of material together. We also used a hot glue gun to attach other material to our bunting. We showed fantastic CHAMP skills!

Our visit to Hertfordshire Zoo

We had a fantastic day at Hertfordshire Zoo. We saw lots of different animals and had a special talk about penguins. In the afternoon, we enjoyed a walk around the dinosaur trail!

World Book Day 2024

A Date with a Duck- we were really excited to hold our ducklings that we hatched!

P.S.H.C.E- We were set a challenge in groups to make imaginary birds for ‘A Garden of Dreams and Goals’. We needed to work cooperatively to create our dream birds.

In English, we have written non- chronological report about sharks. We used books and the internet to research about shark’s senses. We then used our research to write our own reports.

Scooter Workshop- we had a fantastic time during our scooter workshop. We learned how to ride the scooters safely, use the brakes, steer around cones and we even got to try different tricks!

GOAL day- for our GOAL day we were inspired by National Storytelling Week. We used the story of “The 3 Little Pigs”. We created the characters using natural resources, then we made the houses. Finally we re-told the story in our outdoor theatre.

Maths- in Maths this week we have been using our knowledge of place value to add and subtract 2 two-digit numbers.

Under the Ocean Shape poems- we have been reading “Commotion in the Ocean” by Giles Andreae. We wrote our own shape poems about an under the sea creature.

Art- Telling a Story. In this unit of work, we designed and made our own concertina books based on the story: Goldilocks and the 3 bears. We had to use all of our mark making skills to create texture and include a moveable character.

How Percy Saved Christmas: A Festive Tale

Dressing the Tree- we made Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer decorations. We had to paint antlers and the head, then we attached the antlers, eyes and of course his red nose! We’re really proud of our decorations.

In PE, we have been playing Target Games. We have used our skills at throwing and catching to play a range of different target games. We have really enjoyed challenging ourselves with hitting different targets using a range of equipment.

Our GOAL Day

Our GOAL Day- we had a fantastic day (even though it rained all day!) we collected different coloured leaves to make our own fire picture. We went for a walk around our woods as well as creating artwork inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. We finished the day, drying out with a hot chocolate!

Our Harvest song with Year 1- Dingle Dangle Scarecrow

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Whole school Harvest Festival song- Cauliflowers Fluffy

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In Science, we have been learning about what animals need to survive. We created a factfile about budgies.

In Maths, we have been learning about 2D shapes. We created pictures using different 2D shapes and made them into “ Shape World”

In English, we have been reading "The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas. We wrote our own stories about a Colour Monster. The pupils were Perseverant and Motivated when writing their own stories and are really proud of their books.

Roald Dahl Day- we had a lovely afternoon with Year 1 celebrating Roald Dahl day. We completed lots of different activities linked to the story “The BFG”.

Our Learning Journey 2022/2023

To celebrate the end of Year 2, we went outside with Year 1 and had some very yummy rocket lollies! Year 2, thank you for an amazing year, you are going to be fabulous Year 3 pupils!

Today, we learnt about Bastille Day for our French WOW Day. We completed a range of activities including: learning a French song, counting to 20 in French, the money used in France, basic greetings, and we even finished the afternoon off by creating Henri Matisse inspired artwork.

In science, we have been conducting an experiment. We learnt about what plants need to grow and have set up an experiment testing this out. We have 5 plant pots; one with all of the things needed to grow; one without water; one without soil; one without light; and one without the right temperature.

This week in Geography we have continued learning about human and physical geographical features. In today's lesson we looked specifically at the features in South America!

Sports Day! We are very proud of all of the effort Year 2 put into their races today, well done!

During our Art Wow afternoon, Year 2 leant about Martin Ridley and created their own watercolour masterpieces based on his work and the owls from this morning.

This week in Art, we started our new topic of Printing. We created a copy of Andy Warhol's work 'Flowers'.

We had a fantastic time at our class party this afternoon celebrating the end of our quizzes! We danced, sang, and ate lots of yummy sweet treats! Have a lovely half term, we can't wait to see you soon!

Today, Year 2 have been editing and publishing their newspaper reports based on the book 'The Enormous Turnip'. They have been very perseverant.

Two's Tasty Treats!

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Year 2's Enterprise stall is called "Two's Tasty Treats"! Please come and visit us on Friday 19th May 2023!

We had a fantastic time with Year 1 at the Radlett Centre watching the Smeds and the Smoos!

We were very lucky and held the ducklings this afternoon. The class (and the ducklings!) were very excited.

In DT this half term, we will be creating our own animal faces using fabric and connecting it with the running stitch. This week, we experimented by creating different types of fur through twisting, bending and stretching.

To start our new topic of 'Living Things - Animals' in Science we played a game where we had to organise different things into the categories 'non-living' and 'living' by running to each side of the playground.

We LOVED making our chocolate nests. Here is a picture of us enjoying them and watching a film as a treat!

We had lots of fun making our salads! Here is how they turned out:

Our topic this half term in Computing was 'digital data'. The pupils successfully logged onto the computers, searched for the website, and created their own pictograms with their own data. I am very proud of what they have achieved so far in Computing!

For Science Week 2023, we created a paper bird. We were not allowed to use any adhesives and could only use 4 bits of paper. We had to work with a partner to create our birds. Here is a picture of all of our class birds together:

This week in PSHCE we have furthered our understanding of different emotions. We looked at a range of different scenarios and acted these out. Then, the rest of the class had to guess how our characters were feeling based off of their facial expressions and body language.

The Smeds and The Smoos GOAL Day! We had lots of fun today completing a range of fun activities including decorating biscuits, making aliens, making robots, painting, using glitter salt dough and alien imaginative play.

World Book Day! We had an amazing day today completing a range of activities such as designing and making a planet and making a salt-dough alien. Here is a picture of us in our costumes during our version of a 'Bedtime Story'.

In one of our Maths lessons this week, we completed a carousel of activities based on using timers. We timed ourselves writing our names, jumping on the spot, rolling a number 6 on a dice and colouring in a clock. We also completed some tally questions to test our new knowledge.

In our PSHCE lesson today we focused on teamwork and achieving one common goal. We worked in groups to create a bird to live in our 'Dream Relaxation Garden'. We were helpful when working with our friends and perseverant when we faced challenges.

During our GOAL Day we had lots of fun building bug homes, making our names out of sticks and leaves, playing on the trim trail and drinking hot chocolate. We are very tired from all of our outdoor activities but we can't wait for the next GOAL Day!

In Maths today, we were learning about halving numbers. We used blocks to split numbers 10 - 40 into two equal groups. Then, as a class we sorted out the numbers into if they could be shared equally in half or not.

In PSHCE, we have been looking at achieving goals when working as part of a team. To test our teamwork skills we created a marshmallow tower in a group of 4.

This week in Science, we went on a hunt around the school to investigate the local habitats. We tried finding some living creatures and spoke about their homes.

In Art this week, we have started our unit on weaving. We learnt the process of weaving and had a go of our own. Here are some pictures of the process:

Today in Science, we have been learning about John McAdam and macadamisation. We learnt interesting facts about his life and then used hot seating to think more deeply about the work he did. We had lots of fun using drama today.

Singing Little Donkey!

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Dressing the Tree!

We were very lucky and took part in a Skipping Workshop this morning. We persevered and learnt forwards skipping, backwards skipping, and cross over skipping. We also had a turn at running into a large skipping rope and doing tricks. We had lots of fun!

In Art, we created collages based on The Great Fire of London. We are very proud of what we have achieved today.

We lad lots of fun this morning in our Circus Skills workshop with Lucas Jet. We learnt lots of new tricks and were very perseverant. We are very proud of ourselves.

In Maths yesterday, we were pretending to be robots. We had to tell a partner how to move around the room using language related to position, direction, and movement. The pupils all made excellent robots.

Year 2 had an amazing GOAL day today and worked extremely hard when completing the activities. We built our own mini-campfires, a natural firework display using sticks, twigs, leaves, and mud, and did some outdoor painting and chalk work. We were also very lucky and Mr Barron came and built us a fire so we could toast marshmallows and make smores. To end the afternoon we sat in the forest area and drank some hot chocolate with marshmallows.

In Computing, we played photography bingo. The children worked in partners to take pictures of a range of different scenes and objects, including a building, a person, a close-up of an object, an action shot, a selfie, and something in the distance. We had lots of fun taking photos and discussing what makes a good picture.

Harvest Festival- Dingle Dangle Scarecrow

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Today in Science, we started our new topic 'Everyday Materials'. We discussed the uses of different materials and went on a hunt to see what materials we could find around the school.

In PSHCE this week, we spoke about using a Growth Mindset approach to help us persevere through challenges. We created a class flag with lots of different phrases to remind us to stay positive.

On Monday, we went to Hudnall Park and had a fantastic time. We did a range of activities and the pupils enjoyed investigating the different areas. We started off the day by playing hide and seek after making a trail for another group to find and then we went on a scavenger hunt to find some shapes around the site. We hope you enjoy looking at the pictures. .

Today in English, we took part in some drama and role-playing activities to help us understand our new focus text 'The Pirates Next Door'. We had lots of fun pretending to be pirates and acting out different scenes from the story.

In Maths this week, we have been learning our number bonds to 10, 20 and 100. We discussed how we can use our addition facts to help us with our subtraction. Today, we used multilink to help us visualise the sums we were completing. Here are some pictures of us working with our learning partners.

This week in PSHCE, we were learning about being helpful, resilient and caring towards ourselves and our peers. We spoke about how we could work together to be a team and support one another. We also had to order a range of pictures from most to least important. Here are some pictures of us completing our activities.

Our Learning Journey 2021/2022

We have been learning how to create music on the computer using the programme Chrome Music Lab. We carefully considered the pitch and rhythm whilst making music to represent different animals.

We had an amazing time at Paradise Wildlife Park! We found out so many facts about the animals. It was a fantastic trip!

We have thoroughly enjoyed Sports Week this week! We displayed lots of the CHAMP skills whilst taking part in different activities like goalball, javelin, hurdles and archery. Thank you for coming to support us during Sports Day on Tuesday! We are really proud of ourselves!

Today was our Science-themed GOAL day. We learnt all about the importance of water, and about the work that WaterAid does to help provide people with clean water. We took part in some WaterAid challenges, including the pipeline challenge in which we had to move as much water as possible down the line using a variety of different equipment. We also tried carrying water for long distances around the track in different ways. We had a great day!

We have been reading the book 'The Flower' by John Light. In the story, Brigg discovers flowers and hopes that eventually the whole city will be covered in flowers. We created packets of seeds including instructions about how to plant seeds to help Brigg teach others.

This week, we have been celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee!

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During this term's GOAL day, we found out more about physical and human features as part of our Geography learning. We searched for different examples with our partner. Later, we went on a Maths weight and measures scavenger hunt around the woods, trying to complete as many tasks as possible. For example, we needed to find a natural object that was roughly 10cm long, the longest leaf and the smallest stone. We had a great day!

In DT, we have been learning how to join materials together using the running stitch as we made our animal fabric faces. Before making them, we designed our product and afterwards, we evaluated them. We were very perseverant and proud of our work!

In English, we have been learning about instructions. In today's lesson, we followed and then evaluated different sets of instructions. We then decided which the clearest instructions were and discussed why we thought that.

In PSHCE, we have been learning about relationships. We drew pictures of our family and talked about why they're important to us.

We absolutely loved meeting the ducklings! It was fascinating watching them hatch and grow. We also learnt lots of interesting facts about ducks, including their life cycle, what they eat and where they live.

In our new computing unit, we are learning about data and information. In today's lesson, we learnt how to enter data to create a pictogram using the computer.

Here's our new reading display outside our classroom. It's all about our favourite books. We recreated their front covers and wrote a blurb to summarise the book. We are really proud of our work!

Today we walked into town to visit a local fruit and vegetable shop. We bought different fruits and vegetables to bring back to school to then create our own salads. Whilst making our salads, we learnt about food hygiene, as well as how to prepare food safely using a knife. We thoroughly enjoyed our DT-themed day!

Our GOAL Day focussed around the book 'Stanley's Stick' by John Hegley. We each found a stick in the woods and used our imaginations to make something new! Some of our sticks became trumpets, unicorns and even kites! Later in the day, we created different 2D shapes out of sticks, built huge dens out of sticks and also went on an identification hunt to find out which trees the sticks originally came from. We had a fantastic day!

Traction Man is here! In English, we have been learning to retell a story in a fun, engaging way. We hope you enjoy it!

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World Book Day - The children looked absolutely amazing this year! Thank you so much for all your effort with the costumes. The special day was full of book and reading related activities, such as Buddy Reading with Year 4, DEAR (Drop Everything And Read), creating stick puppets to retell the story of 'Sharing a shell' and much more!

Pancake Fractions! We learnt about fractions of shapes whilst adding toppings to our pancakes. We also found out that 2/4 is the same as 1/2.

This week, we have been writing non-chronological reports about sharks. We included a main heading, subheadings, real facts and a diagram. After finishing them, we shared them with Reception Class. They enjoyed learning lots of facts from us!

In Art, we have been learning how to weave paper. We made under the sea themed placemats and can’t wait to start using them!

In our PSHCE topic ‘Dreams and Goals’, we have been learning how to cooperate with a partner whilst working together to create a dream bird. Inside our dream birds, we wrote our dreams for the future.

Today in Science, we went to the woods to explore microhabitats. After finding different microhabitats, we investigated which minibeasts lived there and recorded how many of each.

As part of our Geography unit 'Comparing Locations', we have been comparing the United Kingdom to Kenya. We compared features such as climate, population and capital cities.

In Maths, we have been practising the number bonds to 20. To help us recall them, we played a game using cards. We wrote the pairs to 20, one number on each side, and then had to work out which number was hidden.

Inspired by the book 'Commotion in the Ocean', we wrote descriptive sentences about different animals that live under the sea. We tried to use adjectives, expanded noun phrases and similes. After, we wrote descriptive shape poems.

This week we started our new computing unit called 'Digital Photography'. In our first lesson, we learnt how to take photos using a digital device. One of the skills we learnt was how to move the device until you see everything clearly.

Merry Christmas from Year 2! Have a wonderful break 😃

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In Maths, we have been learning how to add and subtract two 2-digit numbers. We have been using Base 10 to help us.

Year 2 have been outdoors planting daffodil bulbs. We can't wait to see them grow in the spring!

This term, we have really enjoyed learning lots of history including The Gunpowder Plot and The Great Fire of London. In English, we learnt about writing questions and statements as we made question and answer books about The Great Fire of London.

Here are our descriptive fire poems which were inspired by our trip to the woods earlier in the week. We used different adjectives and some of us tried to include similes.

To help us describe fire using our senses, Mr Barron helped us create a small fire in the woods. Whilst we were there, we loved having hot chocolate and marshmallows!

We thoroughly enjoyed learning how to skip during the whole school skipping workshop!

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This week we found out all about Diwali. As part of the celebrations, we learnt some Bhangra dancing. It was great fun!

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Congratulations to this half term's Wonka Bar winners! Remember to read five times a week to be entered into our exciting draw!

We created our own treasure maps and then wrote instructions describing how to find the hidden treasure.

In English, we wrote recounts about our trip to Hudnall Park. We tried to use time words to sequence our writing, as well as descriptive language.

We had a fantastic pirate day and the children looked superb! Parents, thank you for all your effort with the costumes!

As part of our DT pirate day, we helped solve Pirate Paddy's packed lunch problem. We designed and created lunch boxes that would protect the pirates' lunch from the cheeky parrots and mermaids! Our lunch boxes needed to be strong and secure, as well as being appealing to the pirates.

During our pirate day, we designed and prepared a healthy pirate snack! We learnt how to prepare the fruit, including how to cut it safely with a knife, before making fruit skewers. They were delicious!

In Science, Mrs Russ and her baby came to visit us. We found out about how humans grow and change as they get older. It was really interesting to find out how much we have changed since we were babies!

We had a fantastic time at Hudnall Park! During our trip we went for a walk and found out about lots of different animals that live there. Whilst we walked, we also collected different leaves and twigs. Later in the morning, we created trails for our classmates to follow and then enjoyed playing hide and seek! After creating our own compass, we learnt how to follow maps and went on a shape hunt around the park.

In Maths, we have been naming and describing 2D shapes.

How would you survive if you were stranded on a desert island? We talked about what humans need to survive and had lots of great ideas, including getting food by fishing in the sea or climbing trees to collect coconuts. We would build dens for shelter and create fires to keep warm.

Look at our amazing portraits! We are so proud of our art work!

In Computing, we have been very motivated and perseverant when learning how to use the keyboard and mouse. We have also become more confident when playing TT Rock Stars and love earning lots of coins!

We have thoroughly enjoyed reading and exploring ‘The Colour Monster’ by Anna Llenas. It has helped us discuss different emotions and discover new vocabulary. We wrote stories about some of the monster’s adventures as well as created our own colour monsters.

In Maths, we have been making 2-digit numbers using sticks as tens and stones as ones. Some of us wrote place value sentences to match the numbers.

This week, the children discussed what they would like to do when they grow up. They had many different aspirations including becoming artists, firefighters, police officers, zoo keepers and inventors. They worked incredibly hard whilst writing up their ideas!

Welcome back Year 2! It has been wonderful to welcome you back and to see your smiling faces! We have been so impressed with your effort and motivation during your first couple of days in Year 2. We are very excited for the year ahead! smiley

Our Learning Journey 2020/2021

Have a wonderful summer! We have really enjoyed teaching you this year.

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Recently, we have been reading 'The Flower' by John light. We created descriptive posters that the main character, Brigg, could display in the city to help find the missing flowers.

In Art, we made plant pots! We tried to make them eye-catching by including careful details.

Sports Week: Here are some of the sporting activities we have taken part in this week. We have had a great time!

Sports Day June 2021

Year 2 flat races - you were so motivated and perseverant. Well done!

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Year 2 relay race - you displayed great team work!

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'The Lonely Beast' has inspired lots of Art and DT learning recently. We created our own jellyfish to display our fantastic descriptive poetry. In addition, we have created new friends for the lonely beast using playdough.

In Maths, we have been learning how arrays can help us to solve multiplication sums.

This week, we started exploring the book ‘The Lonely Beast’ by Chris Judge. We learnt how to perform parts of the story using body language to show how the character was feeling. Furthermore, we practised reading with confidence and using expression.

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We made clocks to help us learn how to tell the time!

In DT, we have been making moving pictures. We used sliders and levers to make our animals move.

In Maths, we have been learning to tell the time. We have been so attentive and motivated!

This week, we had a very unusual visitor join us in Year 2! This is Ozzy and he is a bearded dragon. We found out lots of interesting facts about him, including how to look after him.

During PE, we have been learning how to aim for a target using a bow and arrow. It has been great fun!

In Maths, we have been learning about Fractions. In this activity, we used pictures to help us find a third of an amount.

Today we started our KS1 gardening project! You may remember that we were inspired to improve an area of our school grounds after reading the story ‘The Secret Sky Garden’. We bought some plants and compost with the money you kindly donated. We can’t wait to see them grow!

To celebrate Earth Day, every child at Gade Valley has planted some sunflower seeds. We will be looking after them carefully and observing how they change over time.

In Science, we have been learning about habitats and micro-habitats. We found out about the conditions that minibeasts like to live in and made some bug hotels for them.

We have been learning about instructions in English. We followed different sets of instructions and then evaluated them. It helped us to find out what a good set of instructions need, for example, clear wording and specific details.

Year 2, well done for working so hard over the past few weeks. You have been Gade Valley CHAMPs! Today we had lots of fun creating windmills and hunting for Easter Eggs!

The story of ‘The Secret Sky Garden’ has inspired us to improve an area of our school grounds. We wrote a persuasive letter to Mr Barron asking permission to plant seeds, hang bird feeders, pick up litter, etc in this area near our classroom. He was persuaded by our letters so we are starting our gardening project after Easter! Thank you for all your donations.

Celebrating some of our learning inspired by the story ‘The Secret Sky Garden’.

In the story 'The Secret Sky Garden', the main characters both love flying kites! We decided to design and create our own kites and had a great time testing them out!

Here is some of our writing from this week inspired by 'The Secret Sky Garden'. We have written from the perspective of one of the characters, described our special place and written a character description.

This week we have started exploring the book ‘The Secret Sky Garden’. We have realised that littering is a big problem and we want to try and help our planet. Please watch our persuasive video below!

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We made our own binoculars and went outside to look at the birds. After, we created pictograms to show which type of birds we saw.

Well done to those children who took part in the World Book Day challenges last week!

Merry Christmas from all of us in Year 2! The children have worked incredibly hard this term and we are so proud of them 😃 Have a good break! 

 

We had a fantastic time in the woods this afternoon! Mr Barron helped create a fire and then we sat around it drinking hot chocolate. It was a great way to end our topic ‘Fireworks and Flames’.

Here we are singing ‘It was a starry night’ for this year’s nativity. Remember to go to the virtual events section on the website to watch it in full. Enjoy!

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Congratulations to our Wonka Bar winners during the autumn term. Remember to keep reading so that you are entered into our exciting Golden Ticket draw!

During the Great Fire of London, there was an eyewitness called Samuel Pepys who wrote a diary all about the events. We were motivated and attentive whilst creating our own diaries from his perspective. To make our diaries look old, we tea-stained the front covers!

Here are some of our beautiful calendars! We drew pictures to represent each of the four seasons, including events that we celebrate and changes in the weather. We feel very proud of our work!

In Computing, we have become detectives who are trying to solve the mystery of the cake thief! We learned how to record an audio file to record our detective work.

We will need to be perseverant and motivated when trying to identify the culprit.

It was great fun recording the audio files!

In Science, we have been learning about the uses of different materials. We investigated making bridges out of paper then tested our designs by seeing how many cars they held. We evaluated our bridges and decided that bridges need to be made out of stronger, harder materials like wood, metal or brick.

We will remember them...As part of Remembrance Day, Year 1 and Year 2 painted poppies. Mrs Reeve then made a beautiful wreath using our poppies.

Have you seen our new Great Fire of London window display? We created the houses using different types of paper. At the time of the fire, the houses were really close together so the fire spread very quickly!

In Maths, we have been partitioning numbers using place value charts and Base 10. We were very motivated!

Remember, remember the fifth of November. Gunpowder, treason and plot...this week we have been learning all about the Gunpowder Plot. We also created some fireworks pictures using chalks and pastels. We're really proud of our work!

Pirate Day: We thoroughly enjoyed becoming pirates for the day! We created healthy fruit skewers and used repeated patterns when we added the fruit. We also created treasure maps and wrote instructions explaining how to find the hidden treasure.

Pirate Paddy's Packed Lunch Problem: In DT we created lunch boxes for the pirates to help them carry food safely and to protect it from the cheeky parrots and dangerous storms.

During a special PE morning, we learned lots of new skills including archery.

Year 2’s Class Assembly

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Using practical resources, we have been practising the number bonds to 10 and 20.

In Geography, we have been learning the names of the world's continents and oceans. We really enjoyed identifying them in an atlas.

Using different coloured tissue paper, we made our own Planet Earth. We also wrote notes for living on Planet Earth to remind people to look after the planet and everything living on it.

We have been reading the book 'Here We Are: Notes For Living on Planet Earth'. It inspired us to go outdoors and explore our environment.

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