October

We have settled in well to our new year group and enjoyed a fantastic trip to Northumberland College Zoo where we saw some African animals and touched some insects and reptiles.

In English, we have been working hard writing a postcard and a setting description based on the book Meerkat Mail. 

In maths, we have looked at fact families and used our knowledge of number bonds to 10 to help us learn number bonds to 100.

We are loving our geography work this term as we are using atlases and maps to look at the world. We have found the Equator on a map and explored what this means for the countries close to it and their climate. We have compared human and physical features in Kenya to the United Kingdom. 

In art, we have created some pieces in the style of African Artist, Stephen Njenga, using bright, bold colours.

We have also created our own maps to use as a stimulus in our art lessons this term. We took a section of our maps and created the image with wool fibres, then using water and soap flakes, we turned it into felt!

Cricket is going well with Durham Cricket Club. We have learnt how to send and receive the ball and developed our strike and fielding skills.

September

Welcome to a brand new year in Year 2 at Jarrow Cross. We are very pleased to welcome you all to this year group. We have had an excellent start to the new year and are looking forward to lots of lovely activities this month, as well as our trip to the zoo next month.

Our topic this term is called Would you prefer to live in the UK or Kenya? We have begun our English lessons with a story called Handa's Surprise and have been using adjectives to describe the delicious fruits in this story.

In maths, we always start the year off by looking at place value. We will use a variety of different equipment to help partition and compare numbers to 100. 

In science, we are investigating living things and their habitats and geography will cover the continents, the North and South Poles and hot and cold climates.

In PE, we are very lucky this half-term to take part in training ran by Laura from Durham Cricket Club.

We have introduced Peer Massage to the children. We do this after lunch time as an aid to help with transition from the play ground to the classroom before we start work in the afternoon. The children are really enjoying this and look forward to the chill time. We ask permission before placing our hands on each other's shoulders and carry out some massage techniques on the head, shoulders and back. Some of the children have already said they have been giving massages at home; we hope you have enjoyed it!