Oak Tree Class
Oak Tree Class
A warm welcome to parents and children from Oak Tree Class.
Thank you for visiting our class page. Here you will find lots of information about the fun and exciting things we are learning about. And as we are always very busy, please do visit our page often to see all of our wonderful and exciting adventures.
**Oak Tree Class 2023-2024**
Class Assembly- Our class assembly focused on the Catholic Social Teaching of Solidarity. This means not just doing things for others but acting with them to build a fairer world together. It means standing or walking along side others. Being willing to support them when they are sad and support them like a family member or good neighbour.
DT- We have explored making our own recycled paper using scrap paper from the school. We wrote our instructions and carefully followed them.
World Book Day- We had an fantastic World Book Day, with very creative and imaginative costumes. We celebrated by reading and sharing our favourite books and parading for our parents.
Mother's Day Celebration of the Word- We welcomed our mothers to celebrate Mother's Day! We prayed, sang and recited a poem for our mothers. We then shared what made our mummies special and presented them with flowers, a card and a felt pouch we lovingly made for them.
DT- We have been busy designing and making felt pouches, which will be presented to to our parents on Mother's Day. In preparation for this, Oak Tree Class have been busy learning how to sew, pattern cutting and assembling their final designs.
Science (Materials)- In Science we have been investigating, observing and testing various materials. From which material is best for shelter or tea bag, to which ball is the bounciest.
Art- We completed our clay castles, linking our History and Art learning together. We incorporated features of Norman castles into our designs and added final details.
Gardening- We have made bird feeders to help feed our birds through Winter. We want to make sure our birds are happy and well fed! We hung these in our school garden afterwards.
PE- This term we will be doing gymnastics in PE, to work on our balance and coordination.
Art- This term we are looking into the work of Turner Prize winning sculptor, Rachel Whiteread. We have researched and learned about some of her most famous sculptures and will use some of her techniques to create our own clay tiles. We will be linking our Art work with our prior learning in History and we will be creating castle-themed tiles. So far, we have practised manipulating clay with our hands (rolling, flattening, pinching) and with tools (cutting, shaping, scoring). .
Adventure Learning- Sound Collector. Together with Mr Dames, we explored sounds in our garden. It was very cold and Mr Dames had lit a fire for us, so we would be extra cosy outside. First, we explored what sounds we could hear in the garden, linking it back to the poem 'The Sound Collector', which we have been learning about in class. Mr Dames then encouraged us to look for things around the garden that could be used to create different sounds. We found sticks, stones and pebbles. We sang songs and used our new-found instruments to create music.
English- We performed the poem 'The Sound Collector' by Roger McGough using fluency and expression. We came up with actions and sounds to match the words.
Science- In Science we are exploring 'Materials. We carried out a fair test to identify which fabric would block out the most light.
DT- We have worked hard all term to design and make our very own Christmas cards. Our cards are inspired by Van Gogh's 'Starry Night'. We made them especially for our families. Every detail of the card was carefully created and assembled. We hope you love them! Oak Tree Class wish you a Merry Christmas!
A Very Special Visit- Santa came to visit us and gave each class a gift! What a special morning.
Movie Day- We took a vote to decide on what movie to watch. We relaxed watching our chosen movies or drew posters of our favourite movies. We later enjoyed popcorn and hot chocolate with our movie . Delicious!
Christmas Jumper Day- Getting into the Christmas spirit!
Christmas Decorations- We have been busy crafting our Christmas decorations ready to be sold at the Christmas Fair. We practised mixing, rolling and shaping our salt dough. Once baked, we carefully painted and decorated our pieces, then added some special final touches.
Some of our children took part in a very special sporting event. Here, they received their much anticipated trophies. Well Done!!
National Tree Week
Adventure Learning- Maths. We introduced our new Maths learning outside and practised our number bonds with Mr Dames. We used different objects to represent tens and ones.
Science- We went on a mini beast hunt around our School Garden and explored the different places where mini beasts might live. We identified different insects and habitats. We recorded our findings on a tally chart.
Maths- We follow the Build It, Draw It, Write It, Say It model when exploring number. We always practise building and drawing our numbers before performing calculations. Here, we are representing and partitioning numbers using concrete objects.
Science- Setting up an investigation to find out what are compostable and non- compostable materials. First we sorted items into different categories. We have buried different items and will dig them out later in the year to identify any changes.
World Mental Health Day- We discussed how to talk about things that worry us. We took regular breaks throughout the day to take part in mindful activities such as meditation, yoga and colouring.
Gardening- During our Gardening lesson we used our observation skills to identify and explore when fruit and vegetables are ready to be harvested. The marrows were ready to be harvested!
Music- Exploring different instruments.
Adventure Learning- We explored the topic 'Continents and Oceans' outdoors. Mr Dames laid out the different continents and oceans around our School Garden and we set out on a global 'expedition' to explore them. We had lots of fun navigating the globe.
Adventure Learning- We take our learning outside in our new 'Adventure Learning' lesson, with Mr Dames. Here we explored place value within 20.
Mounted Police- We had some very special visitors. We learned all about the work the Mounted Police do to keep us safe. We asked lots of questions. Afterwards, we were able to get really close and stroke the horses.
End of year slide show
Leavers party
Leavers mass
SATS PRESENTATION 2023
Sports day
We had an amazing time on our Sports Day. We showed great sportsmanship and skills.
One world week
In Oak Tree class we have been learning about Jamaica. Jamaica is an Island in the Caribbean. Its capital is Kingston. Jamaica has a population of approximately 2.7 million people. Jamaica is famous for ‘jerk’ seasoning, curried goat and lots and lots of tropical fruits. It has a tropical climate and is warm all year round! Jamaica has lots of sandy beaches which many travel to visit. Jamaica is also famous for the type of music called Reggae. We also learnt that the three colours of the flag have different meanings. The black represents strength and resilience, yellow symbolises wealth and sunshine and green represents the vegetation on the island. Some famous Jamaicans include Bob Marley, who was a musician and Usain Bolt the Olympic gold medallist. To learn about Jamaica in Oak Tree, we created their flag, did word searches, practised the national anthem, and even got to cook bread. This was the best bit because the classroom smelt delicious all day! It was a special type of bread called hard dough bread. Don’t worry it wasn’t hard! We loved learning about Jamaica!
History Workshop
We've had a busy week, it started with a history workshop. We participated in a dramatic reenactment of the Great Fire of London. We learnt a lot about what happened and why it began.
Trip to the Zoo
We started our new term with a trip to the zoo. We had a fantastic time seeing all the animals. We loved seeing the sloth, gorillas and butterflies.
DEAR:
Drop Everything And Read!
This week we started with our DEAR time. This has made us super excited about reading! It is amazing to see. DEAR can happen at any time... This week it happened during Maths and our English lessons.
As soon as our alarm goes off, we all read for 10 minutes without worrying about anything else.
Father's Day Worship:
Thank you to everyone who visited Oak tree today for us to show you how important each and every one of you are! This is the poem and the song we learnt to show each of you how important you are.
Bee Hunt:
In Gardening we've been learning about the bees! We got to go on a hunt for them. But while we were outside... we got soaked by the thunderstorm! We then became bees ourselves. We got to see what it is like to be pollinators! We used cheeseballs as the pollen, and we had to BUZZZ from flower to flower.
Zoo Trip:
We started our new term with a trip to the zoo. We had a fantastic time seeing all the animals. Some of our favourites were the sloth, gorillas and the butterflies.
Bollywood Workshop
We had a fantastic workshop. We learnt a whole dance routine to a popular Bollywood song!
May Procession
In the month of May we pray to Mary. We did a Procession and prayed to Mary as a year group.
Ducks
Over the past few weeks, we have greatly enjoyed having the ducks with us. We watched them hatch from their eggs and become ducklings. It was amazing to see them grow. In just one week they went from being in an egg to swimming. We also enjoyed watching Miss Ginesta have to chase a duckling who escaped from the pool.
We were very sad to see them go but we know they'll have a great life back on the farm enjoying a much bigger pond.
Coronation Celebration
To celebrate our new King, we dressed up as kings and queens or wore the flag's colours. It was beautiful to see so many different children dressed up. We had an assembly to celebrate the Coronation as a school. We sang our favourite Coronation song and the Anthem! Sadly, we didn’t get to enjoy our tea party outside because the weather had other plans. But we managed to have a great time inside!
Visit from the Circus
The circus came to visit us in school! We got to learn lots of different circus acts. We spun plates, juggled, tossed flower sticks and balanced a feather while we moved around. It was amazing to see everyone join in and join the circus for a day.
Art
In art, we are getting inspired by Henri Rousseau. We used our beautiful plants from the classroom to create still-life sketches to help us plan the background of our next masterpiece.
Ramadan
We have been learning about Islam and what is important to all Muslim people. We had someone come in and talk to us about prayer and they even showed us how to use a prayer mat! We got to ask lots of questions and it was an incredible opportunity which helped us create amazing books about Islam.
Gardening in the summer
We have been working hard in our school garden. We’ve been preparing the garden for the past few weeks by weeding and turning the soil. Now that it’s ready for planting, we planted peas, beans, courgettes and lots of different herbs as a class.
After all of our hard work, we enjoyed the beautiful garden and sunshine!
About a week later we came down with clipboards and measure the plants and used magnifying glasses to see how our plants were doing.
Easter
We have had a great last day of term celebrating Easter. We all looked fantastic in our handmade bonnets! We also had a visit from a special visitor who brought us a treat.
Thank you to all the parents and carers who supported us this term.
Mother's Day Worship
We had a wonderful Mother's Day Worship assembly. We worked really hard to prepare some songs, prayers and a poem. It was amazing seeing so many mothers and loved ones in the classroom. We gave them our gifts, the daffodils we planted in gardening, our handmade cards and paper bookmarks! We all absolutely loved it!
Science week
We had an incredible workshop where we got to create our own city in the hall. We used different building blocks to build towers, bridges, cars, and we even got to make an octopus! We also learnt about Maggie Aderin-Pocock, she was a scientist from London who loves learning about the stars and space.
We also got to become scientists and show our experiments to the class. We had volcano eruptions, colour mixing and lava lamps!
Paper Making
We have been cooking up a surprise for Mother's Day, shhhh! We made our own recycled paper. We collected unwanted and used paper around the school and ripped it into small pieces. Then we had to leave it soaking in warm water for days... it was a little gross. Once it was all nice and mushy we put all the paper in a blender! We used this paper pulp to make our own paper bookmarks! The best bit was getting to decorate them when they were done!
Shapes, Line of Symmetry and Fractions
We have been very busy in Maths this term. We have learnt all about 2D and 3D shapes. We became mathematicians by practising all our new shape vocabulary (edges, vertices, faces and sides). We then looked at symmetry. Our favourite activity was trying to see if we had symmetrical faces!
Now we are learning about factions!
World Book Day
We celebrated World Book Day by dressing up as our favourite storybook characters. We had a parade and got to show off our amazing costumes to parents and other classes!
Wind in the Willows
A theatre company came to visit us! They performed Wind in the Willows. We helped in the performance by learning the songs and 8 children in the year group were lucky enough to join the actors on stage!
Ash Wednesday
As we come into the Lenten season, we gathered in the chapel to get our blessing and cross for Ash Wednesday. Then we also spent some time coming up with promises for Lent.
Solidarity - Catholic Social Teaching
For our class Assembly, we focused on the Catholic Social Teaching of Solidarity. In Oak Tree Class we have been learning about how we can show Jesus’ teachings in our everyday lives. Shristi the Sun Bear has been helping us. We challenge you to try and reach out to someone different, ask them if they would like to play with you or if they want to sit with you. Aim to use all of the school’s learning behaviours, for example, being a team player, being responsible and being confident. And help our school work together to make it a place for everyone. Also at home see if there’s anything you can do to help others around you.
Number Day:
Number day gives the children the opportunity to apply their maths skills to everyday scenarios, whilst raising money for such a fantastic cause, the NSPCC. As a class we had to solve different problems to come up with a seven-digit code, so we could escape the forest. We also sang our favourite number raps and practised our times tables!
Birdwatch week:
We started off bird watch week by going on a garden walk to count the birds that visit our garden. We also got to see the bird food we made in action, attracting lots of local birds to our garden. We were then visited by Falconry UK, who showed us some of their amazing birds and told us a bit about them. We loved seeing all the different owls and learning about their eye colours.
Gardening:
In gardening, to begin our bird week, we made bird food for our bird feeders. We used lard and different bird seeds to create bird food.
Then we planted some new vegetables in our garden! We started off with lettuce.
Science:
We have started a new science study unit looking at materials. We made tents to test different materials to see which is best suited to the job. We also tested the different materials to see which would let in the least light.
Computing:
In computing this term we are looking at algorithms. We have been fixing bugs in software and creating our own sets of instructions to reach an outcome.
We used BeeBots to create an algorithm to get the BeeBots to knock over the tower.
Art:
In art this term we are looking at Alexander Calder and Antony Gormely. We created our own trees out of tin foil to create our very own tin forest!
Nativity Trip:
We got to go to Lambeth Palace to take a journey to Bethlehem.
We met:
- Zechariah who got a visit form Angel Gabriel
- The Shepherd looking for his friends who left for Bethlehem
- Mary while she was getting ready for her new baby
- The Wise Man with all of his gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh
- The Traveller and the donkeys
Everyone got to keep a souvenir from each of our nativity characters. Everyone loved getting to see what we have been learning about in RE in real life. Getting to ask each of the characters questions about how they felt and what they might be worried about.
In science we are starting our new topic, materials. We were classifying different materials to design a tent.
Advent
To start the Advent month we had an assembly. In the assembly we lit the first advent candle, which represents Hope.
Queen Victoria Workshop
We travelled back to the Victorian times. We got to role play as servants in Queen Victoria's household. We played games to practice our skills and learned how to properly greet a King, Queen or princess and prince. We even got to explore with some of the new inventions from the Victorian times.
We became art critiques!
Anti-Bullying Assembly and Workshop:
We talked about the importance of being kind to one another and making sure we help each other. We learnt about four different superpowers talking, kindness, bravery and calm thinking.
In our workshop we roleplayed two different scenarios, Sally being made fun of for her voice and what she wears and Tommy for being too tall and looking different. Everyone helped out the different scenarios and then found ways to resolve them and help Sally and Tommy.
Saints Assembly:
Gardening:
We talked about what kind of vegetables and plants can grow in the winter. We used different popsicle sticks that were marked to help us measure how deep each seed needed to go. We used them to plant garlic and onions.
Then we helped weed the garden. Removing all the unhealthy plants from the garden so we could begin to plant new ones that can grow in the winter.
Halloween
Everyone dressed up in amazing costumes for Halloween. We went down to the Hall for a Halloween parade and got to show off all our costumes. The school counsellors, eco warriors and minivinnies voted for the best costumes in every class. Oak Tree Class' winner was Lucas.
"I liked seeing everyone's costumes!" - Maya
"Halloween was fun and later I am going trick or treating" - Gabriel
During our lesson we spotted a RAINBOW!
Gardening:
We explored using magnifying glasses today! The whole class loved becoming scientists with their clipboards and magnifying glasses. We were spotting healthy and unhealthy leaves/plants and discussing what makes them that way.
"I can see mildew on the leaves, so it is unhealthy" - Louie
"The leaves are unhealthy because it is not green" -Sophia
RE:
We have learnt about the Creation Story and today we acted it out!
" God created humans, so I am being a human" -Angel
"On day seven, God rested" -Yasmien
Well-being Day:
"I loved the day because we got to cook and do lots of fun things" -Miguel
On Well-being Day, we cooked granola bars using oats, jam, honey and bananas. Everyone really enjoyed eating them afterwards. We created bookmarks and drew sunflowers using crayons and colour pencils to practice using mixed media for art. We even took a trip to the library and got to explore all the different books we have!
"I love reading in the library!" -Aline
We learnt how to create a voting poll as a class and then took turns answering the questions we created. We were all very interested in how everyone gets to school!
Geography:
We created posters using factfiles about each of the continents. As groups, we sorted each continent's human features and physical featers. Then used what we learned to create posters as a class.
Meet our school councillors:
Blake and Miguel.
They were chosen by the class by doing a silent vote. We all covered our eyes and voted for our different applicants. We talked about how it is important to have our opinion heard and have our say. We also talked about being supportive with each other as sadly not everyone can have their option chosen.
PSHE:
We had a wrokshop from SCARF (Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience, Friendship) to talk about our feelings.
"I really liked seeing the body parts being put into the body and talking about our feelings" -Hannah
"I liked watching the birthday party" - Maya
Maths:
We have started a new topic, addition and subtraction. We have used numicons to explore number bonds and familiarise ourselves with addition and subtraction.
Gardening:
We have been exploring and clasifying living, never been alive and dead objects around the school. Then we investigated compostable and non-compostable items. We divided them up and put them in two different holes in our garden. In 6 weeks we are going to dig them up and see if we can spot any changes to the items.
CLASS TIMETABLE
Our WOW wall this month!
These are some of the children’s amazing work this month. They created prayers for the Queen, acrostic poems and prayers for our International Peace Day, and acrostic poems in English about sunflowers. They have all been working really hard and making sure to edit their writing to help make it more interesting to the readers.
Recycling Workshop:
The children had a wonderful workshop about recycling and they created their own little notebooks out of recycled paper and cardboard.
“I liked using different maps to make the covers; I think it was from the Unites States!” –Baz
Computing:
In Computing since the beginning of September we have been focusing on Online Safely. Everyone in class worked together to create different posters to illustrate the importance of staying safe when using the internet.
Goldilocks Internet Safety Story
Useful Links for Online Safety:
Religious Education:
In RE we have been focusing on the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis. We have been looking at the creation story and the 7 different days of creation.
We have created prayers for Queen Elizabeth II and her family and helped the children understand the changes that will come.
We also celebrated International Peace Day and created our own prayers illustrating what peace means to each of us.
Art:
In art we have been learning all about Vinvent Van Gogh. We have began researching his artwork and about his life. We have focused on The Starry Night and the Sunflower painting.
Topic:
Our topic this term is continents and oceans. We have been putting the map together and labeling it.
Maths:
This term we have been focusing on place value and starting to write our numbers into number sentences. We have been using our partitioning skills to separate numbers into tens and one. Then writing them out as an equation.
Science:
In Science this term we are learning about living things and their habitats. The children have been exploring the different micro-habitats and habitats they can find in school.
Our Reading Corner:
The author we are focusing on is Anthony Browne. We have been reading some of his books every week and the children are exploring some of his stories on their own.
Oak Tree Class Rules:
On the first day, on of school we all created class rules and each child signed their name to say they would try their best to follow them.
End of Oak Tree Class 2021-2022
Summer Term
Dear Children , We would like to thank you for the amazing memories that we have created together during your time at the Convent of Jesus and Mary Infant School and Nursery. We would like to wish you the best of luck in Year 3! Shine in all you do and always be yourself!
Dear Parents and Carers, Thank you so much for your continued support. Also, for your kindness and generosity we have received throughout the year.
The Year 2 Team
|
Leavers Mass
Year 2
2021/2022
Year 2 End of Year Presentation
Leavers Party
MATHS Direction and Maps
Gardening- Harvesting garden crops for salad
D&T and Science Balanced Diet- Healthy wraps
Making cupcakes for CAKE SALE
ART Making nature mobiles
THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON- STORY TELLING WORKSHOP
Today, we were taken back to 1666 when we met Mrs Wellbake, cook to Mr Samuel Pepys.
We heard her first hand account of the Great Fire of London and she tried very hard to ensure that this tragedy would never happen again.
With the help of the audience, using artefacts, props and costume, she and the children re-enacted the drama of the fire and helped to plan a fire-free future for the city of London.
While engaging with this fascinating historical episode, the children had lots of fun and were fired with enthusiasm to learn even more about this significant event in our history.
Story telling workshop LONDON'S BURNING
The Great Fire Of London ( Home Learning Projects)
GREEN UP YOUR ACT
To enhance learning in Science and PSHE, the children took part in a workshop focusing on green issues and recycling at home, school and in a global context. They learned how to turn discarded materials into useful products to reduce waste and help protect the environment.
ONE WORLD WEEK and ART WEEK
This week, we have been celebrating creativity and diversity through art, poetry, dance and music. We have been expressing ourselves through different forms of art and enjoyed dances from around the world with Lil J from Pineapple Dance Studio. |
ART WEEK
Celebrating the Queen's Jubilee
Oak Tree Class was like Buckingham Palace when we all dressed up as royalty to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee! We had a garden party were we enjoyed some delicious snacks! It was a lovely way to end the half term.
Rock 'n' Roll!
As part of our Platinum Jubilee Celebrations, Lil J from the Pineapple dance Studios taught us a dance from the 50s. We learned how to do the hand jive with a little bit of the twist as well!
Our First School Trip
On Wednesday we travelled by coach to London Zoo! We saw so many amazing animals and really enjoyed seeing the rainforest animals because we had learned about them during our geography lessons. We took part in a work shop and investigated animals that are scaly, furry and feathered. We put our skills to the test to figure out which animals had which skin covering!! We also were entertained by the penguins. They are such great swimmers and divers. The penguin keeper told us lots of information about penguins and also how important it is to save our oceans and stop plastic pollution! It was an unforgettable day!
DUCKS HAVE HATCHED!
Gardening
What's the time Mr Wolf?
Celebrating Good News
Spring Term
EASTER BONNET PARADE
Celebrating Science Week: Children became scientists this week. They presented their experiments to the class, with lost of excitement and enthusiasm from everyone participating.
Science Week Projects Show and Tell: The children presented their 'GROWTH' projects to the class. It was wonderful to see how they interpreted the word 'GROWTH' to help them create such brilliant projects.
Taekwondo Assembly: Children form the Taekwondo class presented their skills to Year 2. We were all surprised with the fantastic skills they have learnt in their after school club.
Mothers Day: Children celebrated this special time by making personalised fabric pouches which they hand stitched and wrote beautiful poems for their mums.
Mothers Day: Children finally took home their daffodils which they planted in Autumn ready for Mothers Day.
Gardening: This week in gardening we explored where food comes from, in particular food inside familiar packaging. We explored what vegetable or fruit was inside of products and planted the relevant plant/seeds to match the packaging.
Gardening: Planning our vegetable garden to grow vegetables for our summer soup.
In science, children have been exploring materials and testing which ones can be manipulated, such as by stretching, pulling, and bending amongst others.
English: children published their incredible retell of Into the Forest by the author Anthony Browne. Children retold the story and some children added in new fairy tale characters to create their own version.
Maths: In maths children have been exploring fractions. They have been looking into halves, quarters, and equivalents.
ICT: Children created music inspired by the little boy in the story Into the Forest. They created music using laptops to show the boys emotions as they changed from the beginning to the end. Another great computer lesson as the children really got involved and shared their music with the class.
RE: Children visited our school chapel to learn about the stations of the cross.
Preparing for morning prayers and reminding ourselves of our Lenten Promises.
WORLD BOOK DAY
We had so much fun celebrating the World Book Day!
Children made book marks, wrote book reviews, visited the library and enjoyed reading books.
Our author was Road Dahl. In class, we have been reading the Witches and we took part in an amazing workshop acting out the story of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'.
But we have been also looking at different fairy tales and discussing the language, settings and characters.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Drama Workshop
From LENT to EASTER
Ash Wednesday
Stations of the Cross Class Assembly
'The Sword in the Stone' Theatre Performance
We all enjoyed this magical performance of The Sword in the Stone and learned such an important lesson that we can all succeed if we are honest, brave and kind! |
Making paper
As part of our cross curricular learning about materials, we have been learning how paper in made (Science and DT). We made our own recycled paper for Mother's Day cards and wrote instructions how to make it. We had a lot of fun learning!
Maths - learning about Shapes
Celebrating the 80s
Mental Health Week: Express Yourself
NUMBER DAY
Birdwatch Week: Bird Projects
Birdwatch Week: Falconry UK
English Comparing Garden Birds and Birds of Prey
English Drama 'The Sound Collector"
The Tin Forest
'Tin Forest' Letters
Maths Multiplication and Division
Art Leaf and animal printing inspired by Henry Rousseau
RE Poems about God's presence
Mental Health Week
Safety Internet Day
Gardening How to plan and care for unhealthy plants
Making bird feeders
Rainforest Home Learning Projects
Autumn Term I
ENGLISH DISPLAYS
English
ACROSTC POEMS about SUNFLOWERS
The sunflowers in the school garden inspired our acrostic poems and helped us with measurement in Maths. We also used our observation skills to create paintings in the style of Van Gogh.
The story of ‘The Gigantic Turnip’
We retold the story of ‘The Gigantic Turnip’ through drama. We acted out the beginning, middle and end of the story and can you guess our favourite part?
‘they pulled and heaved and tugged and yanked until the turnip went POP!’
The story inspired us to write our own version. Luckily, there many vegetables in the school garden ready for Harvest…
POSTCARDS from the ZooLab Workshop
We had a very special workshop to help us learn more about different animals, their habitats, diet and how they have adapted to their environments. We enjoyed our ZOOLAB experience and wrote some postcards telling our family and friends all about it.
LEAFLETS about the Giant African Land Snails
By taking care of our school pets- The Giant African Land Snails, we learn more about them. We wrote an information text to teach others about these fascinating creatures.
Maths
Autumn Maths Display
Writing numbers and counting
Number bonds
Partitioning into tens and ones
Science/Gardening
In the Autumn term, our science topic is
‘Living Things and Their Habitats’.
We enjoyed exploring our school garden and observing animals and plants that live in different habitats. We learned about and compared different habitats. We used our observation skills, grouping and classifying to collect and sort living things, things that had once lived and things that had never lived.
All of them make a habitat!
AUTUMN SCIENCE DISPLAY
Exploring micro-habitats in the school garden
Collecting seeds
Compostable and Non-Compostable Materials
We set up an investigation to see which materials are compostable and non compostable. We collected materials from the school grounds and then sorted them into the two groups. Next we buried them in the garden and we will patiently wait to see what happens...
AUTUMN Detectives
We became Autumn detectives and made exciting projects to celebrate this beautiful season.
HARVEST
SUNFLOWERS
Geography
During the first half-term, we have been learning about the continents and oceans of the world. Children learned their names and where they are located in a world map. We also investigated some facts about important landscapes and animals that live in each continent snd ocean.
Physical and Human Features
Sharing information about continents
Religious Education
Beginning with God
We have been learning about the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. We made links between our own experience and metaphors for God in the Bible. By looking at our school garden and the world around us, we learned how to be grateful for God’s wonderful creation and God’s presence in our lives.
We explained the Trinity using the sign of the Cross.
ROSARY
PSHE
During PSHE this half-term, we have been learning about a variety of ideas that explore our feelings and opinions on a range of topics. Some examples include how to reduce the spread of germs, the importance of rules in the classroom, incorporating Learning Behaviours and special visits. We have had an eventful first half term, please take a look at what we have done to get a real taste of our learning.
Carrot cake!! We worked as part of a team to pick and prepare fresh carrots from our school garden to make delicious carrot cake for each other>
KEEP GERMS AWAY! We learnt to understand why germs are harmful and the how to stop the spread by keeping clean and healthy>
WORLD EARTH DAY: We celebrated World Earth Day by making a poster to explain why we have to take care of our world. We learnt how to be more respectful to our environment by taking care of it.
SPECIAL VISIT: We were very excited to learn that we had a surprise visit from two police dogs. They were very friendly and we learned they have a very important job of keeping people safe in our community.
ASSEMBLY: BRITISH VALUES. During our assembly, we learnt about British Values. We shared ideas and leant that everyone living in Britain has to follow important rules called laws to help respect each other to live in harmony.
ASSEMBLY: PEACE As part this assembly, we learned how to be more forgiving, kind, caring, and accepting of other and ourselves. We thought about and discussed how we can be more peaceful.
WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY: We spent some time in our busy school life to think about Mental Health. We shared and heard ideas from each other on how to stay positive when something challenging happens in our life.
ASSEMBLY: RULES During this assembly, we had a lively discussion about why we have rules. We thought about our school Golden Rules and rules in different places. We learnt we have rules to keep us safe and to help us show respect to each other.
HALLOWEEN PARADE: We ended our first half term by dressing up for Halloween. We had so much fun wearing our costumes and showing them off to our family during a parade in our school garden.
SAFE OR UNSAFE: We worked in pairs to discuss what we consider to be safe and unsafe. We had a mixture of pictures with sentences that showed if something is safe or unsafe. We worked with our partner to put them in the correct category.
Art
COMPUTING
PRESENTING DATA using TALLY CHART
MINIBEASTS IDENTIFICATION AND DATA BRANCHING
Autumn Term 2
English
Letter to Father Christmas
We were very excited to write our letters to Father Christmas. We had lots of questions to ask him in our letter - How old are you? How many elves do you have? How do you travel around the world in just one night?
We also spent some time reflecting on the year, telling Father Christmas our achievements and things we would like to improve... things that we promise to work on in the new year!
We wish all our friends, family and school teachers a very happy Christmas and the happiest New Year!
Poetry Assembly
We had our first Poetry Assembly where each class recited a poem. Our class performed the poem inspired by the Polar Express. We used lots of action and emotion when we presented it to the school.
The Polar Express - Letter
We had the best time this week! We read the story of The Polar Express and we also watched the film. It was such a magical day - we wore our cozy pyjamas whilst drinking hot cocoa and watching the christmas movie!
After, we wrote letters to our parents retelling our magical experience on the Polar Express.
Inspired by the story of 'ONE PLASTIC BAG', we made posters to encourage our school community to recycle and reuse plastic.
"GREEDY LITTLE ELF" PANTO
Maths
Money
The end of this half term, we have been looking at money. We reviewed the names of the coins and notes that we learned in Year 1, and we learned how to add and subtract pounds and pennies. We also learned a key concept: change - when we pay more than what we need, we get the difference in return and we call that change!
In order to understand the importance of money, we played a bartering game pretending we were living in London hundreds of years ago when people had to trade objects. This game helped us understand how lucky we are to use money now for transactions.
Addition and subtraction
Science/Gardening
Use of Everyday Materials
We have started a new Topic in Science... USE OF EVERYDAY MATERIALS!
We are looking at the different types of materials around us and describing their properties.
Is it waterproof? Let's check with water!
Is it flexible? Let's strectch it out!
Is it bendy? Let's prove it!
In our Gardening lessons, we looked at building a winter shelter and we had to decide which materials were suitable considering the weather conditions!
How do animals in a habitat depend on each other?
We enjoyed learning and investigating how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals and how this can be affected by the seasons. We created our own simple food chains and identified the producer and then the consumer. We had so much fun playing the food chain game!
FOOD CHAINS
Autumn garden maintenance
Getting the garden ready for WINTER can be hard work.
We used rakes, brushes and wheelbarrows to pick up leaves. We used forks and trowels to scoop out the leaf mulch and put on our planting beds ready for planting our seeds in Spring.
SCIENCE INVESTIGATION -DO BULBS NEED SOIL TO GROW? What happens if...?
HOW TO PLANT A BULB?
History
In the second half-term, we are learning about the three most important Queens of England: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II. We are learning about their lives and key facts about their reigns.
Children have made some amazing projects and art works about each of the queens.
HOME LEARNING PROJECTS
Religious Education (RE)
FROM ADVENT TO CHRISTMAS
Christmas Carols Service
Travelling Crib
During the month of December, two children from each class took home the Travelling Crib for one night. At home, they set up the Nativity scene, completed activities in their activity book about the nativity then ended their day with a specail prayer with their family. It was a very special activity to share with our families at this time of the year.
Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity
As we were approaching Christmas, we explored the story of the Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity.
With the Annunciation story, we wrote a diary entry as if we were Mary explaining what happened on that day and describing our feelings and emotions.
When learning about the Visitation, we read the story according to Luke and we discussed what happened on that special day when Mary visited Elizabeth.
The Nativity story is part of the Bible we were familiar with. We read the Birth of Jesus according to Luke, but we also compared Luke's and Matthew's Gospel to see what elements were the same and what characters or scenarios varied.
Advent
We learnt about Advent as a time for preparation and excitement. We discussed what preparation entails - preparing our minds, hearts and bodies for the birth of Jesus.
We also looked at the Advent symbols and discussed their meaning at this important time of the year. We wrote individual Advent promises and prayers that we added to our class Advent wreath, choosing one a day to read and reflect upon.
On Thursday, we were so lucky to have a special mass in our school chapel with Monsignior Roger where he talked to us about Advent.
PSHE
Christmas!
Christmas Jumper Day, Christmas party and a very special visit from Santa. What a fabulous end to a very busy term. The children had a fantastic time celebrating the chritsmas season with their friends.
ODD SOCKS DAY
CLEVER NEVER GOES
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Design and Technology (D&T)
3D pop-up Chritsmas Cards inspired by the story from Matthews Gospel of the three wise men visiting baby Jesus in his manger.
Christmas Decorations
COMPUTING
This term in Computing, we will be learning how to give instructions and write algorithms for everyday objects.
Welcome to Oak Tree Class
2020-2021!
SUMMER TERM
Bee Day Assembly
In Oak Tree Class, our Summer Term assembly was all about BEES! We spent weeks learning more about these fascinating insects and preparing our assembly. We learnt a special dance to the song "Making the Garden Grow", which was included as part of our presentation. We even spent a morning tasting lots of different types of honey so we could understand better how important bees are to our food supply.
SCIENCE
Gardening
In our gardening lessons we have been learning all about how to plant seeds. We each planted our own seeds and have been watching them grow over the past few months. This is part of our science investigation technique: observation over time. We have also transferred our sunflowers from pots into flower beds and have been out in the garden watering and weeding, making sure our garden can grow beautifully!
30 Days Wild
During the month of June, Oak Tree Class participated in the 30 Days Wild competition. Each day we aimed to get out into nature and record a “wild” thing we did that day. We brought in pictures, drawings and written work about what we did to interact with the world around us.
Insect Week
Oak Tree participated in Insect Week by exploring in our garden, looking for a variety of insects. We created tally charts to collect data about the different types of insects we found. We then used this data in our Math Lessons to create problems and number sentences using the number of insects we found.
Animals Including Humans
In our new science topic, we have been exploring the life cycles of humans, how we grow and how to stay healthy by eating a balanced diet. We did an investigation to see if the bigger the body part you had, the older you are. We measured the size of heads and shoe sizes of children and our teachers.
MATHS
Time
We have been learning how to tell the time in Maths lessons. We have used our knowledge of halves and quarters to help us split up the clock. Using mini clocks, we have been able to tell the time in intervals of 5 minutes, 15 minutes and half an hour. It has been really enjoyable using our maths to learn a very important life skill which we use every day.
Fractions
In our Fractions lessons, we have been using skills we learnt in multiplication and division to help us identify fractions and figure out fractions of numbers. We have learnt how to recognise equivalent fractions and count in fractions on a number line.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Grotto Decoration
The beautiful Grotto in our school garden has been undergoing renovation and as part of the new decoration we each picked a stone from the Grotto to decorate. We designed our stones with symbols of Mary and they were blessed by Fr Mark before being returned to the Grotto.
Fr Mark Visit
When Fr Mark came to bless the stones, we were lucky enough to be able to participate in a question and answer session with him. Our topic in RE is Discipleship and we asked Fr Mark questions about how he is a disciple of God and how we too can show discipleship.
Learning about Islam
When learning about Islam and the importance of prayer for Muslims, we were very lucky that Miss Kermanipour from Ash Tree Class came to speak to us about Islam. She showed us a Prayer Mat that Muslims use to pray on and we were able to see a Qur’an. We also learnt about the Five Pillars of Islam and what they mean. It was very interesting learning about a different religion and we are very grateful to Miss Kermanipour.
One World Week
During One World Week we had a zoom session with a representative from CAFOD who told us all about CAFODs new campaign to encourage children to look after the world around them. We undertook the challenge to be “Zero Heroes” and be the “eyes of the world” by encouraging people to be sustainable and protect the world we live in.
Our class was also given a country to research and learn more about. Oak Tree Class’ country was… JAMAICA! We made lots of projects all about Jamaica and watched videos of famous Jamaican achievements, such as the 100m Olympic wins by Usain Bolt. We also participated in a dance session were we learnt a dance that represented Jamaica.
On the last day of the week we all dressed up representing either Jamaica or the country our family comes from.
Project Display
Learning our Jamaican Dance Routine
Dressing up as countries
ART
Grotto Stone Designs
The following designs are the images we chose to draw on our stones which are now in the Grotto in our school garden. We spent our Art lesson researching images and symbols of Mary and then choosing those that we thought would work well on the stone. We used acrylic paints to transfer our designs from our Art books, onto the stones.
Recycled Materials Artwork
We were tasked with the project of making some artwork and sculptures for the school garden. This artwork had to be completely made out of recycled materials! We decided our medium of choice would be plastic bottles and then started designing. We used the bottom of the bottles and painted them. We then cut around the edges to create a flower design. These plastic flowers will be placed on trees in the school garden.
Matisse Art Day
The PTA very kindly organised a special Art Day, where we had a zoom art session with ART-K. Some of us dressed up as our favourite artists and we learnt all about the artist Matisse and the technique he used to create his art. We then spent the rest of the day painting, cutting and sticking… creating our own Matisse inspired masterpieces.
Father’s Day
For Father’s Day we dressed up as male figures in our life who inspire us. We then made cards for our father figures and wrote a riddle inspired poem to this person.
Cricket Workshop
Coach very kindly organised for Year 2 to have a special workshop with a cricket coach. We had really been enjoying playing cricket in our PE lessons and getting extra training from the cricket coach helped our technique.
AUTUMN POEM
Beginning with the Church
HARVEST
OUR READING CORNER
SUNFLOWERS POEMS
THE ENORMOUS TURNIP
OUR WRITING
Using different strategies to add numbers
WORKNG WITH MONEY
Representing Numbers
Adding and Subtracting
Living things and their habitats
SCIENCE DISPLAY
Food Chains
TESTING MATERIALS
GARDENING
HOW DO YOU PLANT A BULB?
SUNFLOWERS
MAKING CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS
TIMELINE
WINDRUSH
THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON
CONTINENTS AND OCEANS
COMPUTING
CHRISTMAS IN OAK TREE CLASS
READING TIME IN OUR LIBRARY
ODD SOCKS DAY
HALLOWEEN
Welcome to Oak Tree Class 2019-2020!
SPRING TERM
Please check the Home Learning Y2 page
for weekly activities for the children to do while the school is closed.
Stay Safe!
Another busy and very exciting term of learning and fun!
During the Spring Term, we enjoyed many visitors and school events such as The Reluctant Dragon, Falconry UK and The Science Dome. Once again the children engaged in fantastic projects creating a range of amazing home leaning such as Birdwatch projects, the Rainforests and sharing experiments during the Science Week.
At school, we were very busy learning new skills across the curriculum and enjoyed trying out new things such as making a hand-made paper!
From natural to man-made- Materials Display
Birdwatch Week 2020
Birdwatch Week Home Projects
Ash Wednesday
Maths Multiplication
Maths Division
Maths Fractions
'Woolly Saucepan' poems
'The Reluctant Dragon' theatre prformance
World Book Day
Gymnastics
Dance
Basketball
PSHE Learning Behaviours
Gardening - Preparation and planning for vegetable beds
Plants
Seeds germination
Science Dome
Science Week - Sharing Experiments
Geography -Rainforest
Rainforest -Home Projects
Making handmade paper for Mother's Day Cards
BEST ATTENDANCE
AUTUMN TERM
We have been very busy this term exploring our new curriculum and finding more about the beautiful world around us. We are proud of our work so far and we continue to strive to do our best learning.
In RE, we are learning about God’s Creation. We have been exploring ‘The Story of Creation’ through drama, art and by looking very closely at God’s words in the Bible. We are grateful for the wonderful world God has created for us but we also understand that we are responsible for looking after God’s creations.
The Story of Creation
During English lessons, we have been learning how to write a postcard inspired by the book Journey by Aaron Becker. We also wrote acrostic poems about SUNFLOWERS inspired by the sunflowers from the school garden. We are now working on a new story of the enormous....vegetable from the school garden!
The Gigantic Turnip
Number Place Value
During Science lessons, we have been learning about habitats. We are very lucky to have such a beautiful garden where we can admire God’s creation but also to explore micro- habitats. We found lots of little creatures under the logs, in the flower beds, up in the trees and even in the pond! We know that we need to respect everyone’s homes so that all the living things can stay healthy and safe.
SCIENCE and GARDENING
This term in Art, we have been learning about Vincent Van Gogh. We learned lots of facts about his life and we admired his wonderful paintings. We looked at the sunflowers from the school garden to develop our skills of sketching and painting. It’s great to be an artist!