Update  4th September 2020

It has been so lovely to have Year 2 together again after such a long break and the children are coping very well with our new 'normal'-thank you for all the preparation you have been doing with them.

Just to repeat that, really, all the children need with them is a coat, book bag and lunch box. If the book bag and lunch box need to be in a rucksack, that works well too. Please do not send  any extra things in with the children as we are keeping EVERYTHING in the classroom rather than use the lockers. We would be very grateful for all school reading books to returned ASAP so that we can set up Home Reading for the current, and future, Year 2.

Children  are very welcome to bring a healthy snack for playtime-an apple or banana is ideal-as this will be preparation for playtime in KS2. However, for their last 4 days in Year 2, there will be classroom fruit provided.

Year 2 children are asked to come in their school PE Kit next TUESDAY-8th September-for a sporty afternoon. They will be in their sports kit all day.

We both greatly miss the opportunity to chat at the end of the day but if you would like to speak to either of us, do contact the school office about the best way for us to get in touch with you.

Thank you again.

Mrs Robertson and Mrs Tate

Thank you very much for the lovely gifts that we received at the end of term! We were each delighted to receive chocolates, cards and flowers plus a group gift of Prosecco, chocolates, plants and gift vouchers-everything we love! Thank you also for the very lovely video that we received by email-what a treat! We feel very lucky to be working with such a kind and generous group of parents.

Like your children, you're the best! 

Mrs Robertson, Mrs Tate and Mrs Dilley

Summer holiday ideas to help you get ready for year 3

 Remember your 2x,5x and 10x tables and any others that you can learn.

 Practise telling the time-1/4 past, 1/2 past, 1/4 to the hour and start 5 minute intervals

Read anything and everything! Summer library challenge books, cookery books, non-fiction books about animals, atlases, a whole series of chapter books...........

Tie your own shoe laces and tie

Check out the Lockdown challenges from different members of staff in the Covid 19 news file on the school website.

Summer Term 2 Week  7  Home Learning

For the very last time this school year...... Hello everyone!

We were absolutely delighted to see nearly everybody back in school on Wednesday. Everybody seems to have grown and it was wonderful to hear about the things that you have been doing since we were last together. Thank you to everyone who brought in Happiness Boxes. This Wednesday we would love to hear your 2 minute talks and see your Coat of Arms. These are our Lockdown Challenges and are listed on the sheet below.

We very much hope that everybody will be in school this coming Wednesday so do please follow the instructions on the newsletter for contacting school and we'll look forward to seeing you on the 15th July.

Parents-thank you so much for ALL of your work with the children since March. We have loved your feedback, photos and your kind comments.

Finally,  we've noticed that White Rose Maths  have produced a range of free work booklets for parents and children to use over the summer or during next year. These booklets can be found on Amazon for the Kindle or downloaded (or just looked at!).  Look out for the Year 2 units. You can't fill in the answers on screen which you may find frustrating, but they look like a good way to check your child's understanding while looking at the screen. https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/primary-resources/parent-workbooks

Best wishes

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Summer Term 2 Week  6  Home Learning

Hello Year 2,

We are very excited at the prospect of meeting and greeting many of you next Wednesday! If you feel you'd like to come in and see everyone and remind yourself what school is like, this is an ideal opportunity before the school holidays. We really hope to see as many of you as possible. Parents, it is very important that you stick to the deadlines in the newsletter as we are not able to be flexible with times and groups at the moment.

Below is this week's Lockdown Challenge-a 'show and tell' talk. Please bring in one of the challenges (Happiness Box OR Show and Tell talk) to share with the class-we're sorry that we won't have time to hear both of them.

See you soon,

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson.

Summer Term 2 Week 5 Home Learning

Hello everyone,

Mrs Robertson and I have had fun making videos for you this week. No, neither of us has had a haircut since last time we saw you but, unlike most of you in year 2, we have not lost any teeth either! As we mentioned last week, our planning is changing for the last 3 weeks of term and Miss McLoughlin has sent an email to all parents to explain this in more detail. We have included a variety of activities for your Lockdown Challenges and have completed one of them ourselves-our Happiness Boxes-and you can see our videos about them below. We didn't co-ordinate our filming at all but there are some funny similarities, especially about favourite colours and what we like to eat!! If you would also like to continue with our usual curriculum, we have also included some RE and an English plan that could last for the next few weeks. Similarly, we have uploaded a Year 2 Maths book which you could look through on screen, and only print off what you would like to practise. Of course, there was SO much maths last week, you may like to carry on with Problem Solving and Reasoning!

Way back in January, 16 children entered the 'Young Writers'  Animal Acrostic competition as part of their Home Learning. All of those children- Zafirah, Ethan, Lacey, Jessica, Anastasia, Alex, Merryn, Mabel, Sam, Maisey, Verity, Matthias, Nathaniel, Martha, Evie and Willow- will receive a book mark and a certificate. Over 15,000 entries were received and we're delighted to say that 11 children's poems have been published. Those children are Zafirah, Ethan, Lacey, Jessica, Anastasia, Nathaniel, Martha, Merryn, Mabel, Verity and Willow and they will all receive a copy of the book with their poem in. We hope to present certificates and books when we get together before the end of term or  you will be able to collect them from the school office if you would prefer. Thank you to everyone who entered the competition and congratulations to those who have been published.

We are so looking forward to seeing many of you back in school before the end of term and we're looking forward to seeing the  photos that you can all send in as a reminder of what you've been doing during this unprecedented time.

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Summer Term 2 Week 4 Home Learning

Hello there,

We hope you've enjoyed The whale and the Snail this week. I used it to plan my work with the  Reception and year 1 children that I'm working with on Thursday and Fridays. We made silvery slime trails with glue and glitter, Matisse's snail  and I found a great whale to make by paper folding-I'm only sorry that I found it after I'd uploaded your work. The children took home a whale, a snail and a trail which made us laugh!

I have uploaded LOADS of maths this week so please a) don't print it all off or b) think you'll get it done in a week! I thought you might like to see some of the Reasoning and Problem Solving work that we'd have been doing this term and I've also uploaded a sample  Arithmetic SATS paper and a Reasoning paper. We would have spent quite a bit of time talking about reading the question carefully, thinking about what sort of sums we need to do to find the answer, ways to show working out and checking that the answer is correct. So don't jump straight in without thinking first!

If you belong to Corsham Library, you might like to join their online Reading Challenge, the Silly Squad! It's just started and the challenge lasts until September. http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/libraries-childrens-area-summer-reading-challenge . As always, this is an excellent opportunity to widen your reading experience and discover some new authors.

I have been able to speak to some parents this week but, as I'm teaching all day Thursday and Friday and Mrs Robertson isn't back at work yet, I haven't been able to contact all of you-sorry about that. If you would like to speak to me, do please email school and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Don't forget to send any photos of your Home Learning or anything else that you have been doing-we really appreciate everything you send.

We may be changing our planning as we get nearer to the end of term and hopefully will know more after our staff meeting on Wednesday.

Have a good week!

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Summer Term 2 Week 3 Home Learning

Hello everybody,

We hope that you're having a good week, despite the cooler weather, and have enjoyed writing about Tiddler. I have been teaching in school this week and we have written fact files about whales and sharks. We found out that a whale's heart is about the size of a small car and that sharks particularly like to swim in warm waters. Of course, a big group of  fish (sharks are fish, but whales are mammals) is called a 'school' which is a funny coincidence for us at school, reading 'Tiddler'! It would be lovely to see your fact files or watery paintings if you are able to send us a photo.

My school sunflower is now 97 metres tall-very nearly a metre-and seems to thrive in both sunshine and rain. How are your sunflowers doing? I have now got flowers on my courgettes and beans and even on a couple of potato plants and  it's exciting to see everything growing well. The plants need to have flowers and the flowers  need to be pollinated by bees and other flying insects before the vegetables-with next year's seeds inside-start to grow.Have you been able to grow anything from seed this year? You may remember that we planted some summer bulbs in the school garden with Krysia. They are growing well but as yet haven't got any flowers on to help us remember exactly what we planted! I wonder if you've visited the St Patrick's tree in Corsham Court that we planted with Lord Methuen-perhaps you could take a photo the next time you pass by and we could put it in our Tate Gallery. If you'd rather be drawing and painting plants, why not watch this video that Sam's mum made as part of the Blue Sky Festival at the Pound Arts Centre: https://poundarts.org.uk/take-part/painting-plants-with-rachel-heard/  Don't forget to send us a photo of your finished picture.

 It has  been good to hear about other things that YOU are interested in. This week, we've seen Verity's Solar System and Archie's list of things that spies need! We know that it is hard to keep going as we enter the 10th week of Home Learning but we have been really impressed with your ideas and  compositions so far so do keep going-what a great year 2 you are!

Don't forget that as shops start to re-open, you might like to pop into the Corsham Bookshop to see Janet and Helen who visited us just before school closed. They have a lovely selection of fiction and non-fiction children's books. I popped in to order a book this week which is one that they recommended on World Book Day, back in March.

Below is a folder  with This week's Home Learning. Start by looking at the overview of the week and decide what you would like to do and when you're going to do it. You will find English and Maths activities for each day and we are really hoping that you're reading to an adult and to yourself everyday too. On our weekly overview, you will find some RE, science, history, PE, ICT, PHSE, DT (you might like to make a Fathers' Day card so we've included some clever ideas) and art too! Please don't feel that you need to print all the sheets in the zip folders or powerpoints-have a look on screen and only print what you need. If printing is a problem, there are copies of our Home Learning pack in the school entrance for you to come and collect between 9am and 3pm. 

We hope you enjoy these activities, and look forward to hearing how you have got on with them and any other creative things you have been doing! If you can, please send any of your fantastic art work to the following email address, clearly marked for  year 2: admin@st-patricks.wilts.sch.uk  and we'll be able to create our own Tate (and Robertson) Gallery!

Enjoy your week of Home Learning.

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Summer Term 2 Week 2 Home Learning

Hello year 2 children and parents,

Brrrr-it seems to be much chillier this week! We hope you're back into the swing of Home Learning and are enjoying re-reading all the Julia Donaldson books. She wrote a very lovely poem, which I love, about why reading is so exciting:

I opened a book and in I strode.
Now nobody can find me.
I’ve left my chair, my house, my road,
My town and my world behind me.

I’m wearing the cloak, I’ve slipped on the ring,
I’ve swallowed the magic potion.
I’ve fought with a dragon, dined with a king
And dived in a bottomless ocean.

I opened a book and made some friends.
I shared their tears and laughter
And followed their road with its bumps and bends
To the happily ever after.

I finished my book and out I came.
The cloak can no longer hide me.
My chair and my house are just the same,
But I have a book inside me.

                   Julia Donaldson

I am reading some lovely books that friends have recommended and love the idea that I have the book 'inside me' when I've finished it!

This week begins WWF 'Ocean Day' so hopefully you will enjoy reading Tiddler and finding out about the ocean habitat. Look on the WWF's website for more information and fantastic videos. We've also been sent some information from The Pound Arts Centre about their Blue Skies  festival, including a very lovely idea of the 'Fold your Town' activity which you can read about here: https://poundarts.org.uk/whats-on/fold-your-town-with-anna-bruder-a-line-art/

It looks great fun too.

Below is a folder  with this week's Home Learning. Start by looking at the overview of the week and decide what you would like to do and when you're going to do it. This week's Maths learning is based on the White Rose Maths lessons on Fractions and I have added some subtraction and addition practice sheets. We are really hoping that you're reading to an adult and to yourself everyday too. On our weekly overview, you will find some RE, science, geography, PE, ICT, PHSE and art too! Please don't feel that you need to print all the sheets in the zip folders or powerpoints-have a look on screen and only print what you need. If printing is a problem, there are copies of our Home Learning pack in the school entrance for you to come and collect between 9am and 3pm. 

We hope you enjoy these activities, and look forward to hearing how you have got on with them and any other creative things you have been doing! If you can, please send any of your fantastic art work to the following email address, clearly marked for  year 2: admin@st-patricks.wilts.sch.uk  and we'll be able to create our own Tate (and Robertson) Gallery!

Enjoy your week of Home Learning.

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Summer Term 2 Week 1 Home Learning

Hello everyone,

We hope you had a very good half-term holiday and enjoyed the break from Home Learning. Here we are already in the last term of Year 2! We're starting off with work based on Julia Donaldson's books and we'll also be looking at some of the Team GB Home Learning work, written by the team who were preparing for a summer of Olympic Sports which will now take place next year.

It's Anastasia's birthday this week and so we'll be sending her  our class card which was made by Mabel. Happy Birthday Anastasia!

I have included a photograph of our class photo so far-I've had 19 pairs of photos so far - thank you very much for those. If you'd like to be in our class photographs, please will you send me 2 photos-1 in uniform and 1 slightly silly- and I can  rearrange the pictures-I'll definitely need to start a new page if all 28 photos could be sent and that would be really lovely for all of us to see all of us! You look fantastic! I can see lots of missing teeth and longer hair and wonderful smiles all round-thank you. If you would like a printed copy, I will arrange for some to be in the front entrance from next Wednesday, 3rd June.

This afternoon I visited Mrs Robertson in her garden. She's doing very well and is hoping that the plaster cast can be taken off next week and then she'll need to be doing lots of exercises to get strong again. I'm teaching in school next  Thursday and Friday with the children of key-workers. We may not be able to make so many phone calls but hope to speak to families that we didn't get through to last term. If you'd like to contact us about anything-celebrations or worries- please do email the school and we will be able to reply to you as soon as possible.

Below is a folder  with This week's Home Learning. Start by looking at the overview of the week and decide what you would like to do and when you're going to do it. You will find English and Maths activities for each day and we are really hoping that you're reading to an adult and to yourself everyday too. On our weekly overview, you will find some RE, science, history, PE, ICT, PHSE and art too! Please don't feel that you need to print all the sheets in the zip folders or powerpoints-have a look on screen and only print what you need. If printing is a problem, there are copies of our Home Learning pack in the school entrance for you to come and collect between 9am and 3pm. 

We hope you enjoy these activities, and look forward to hearing how you have got on with them and any other creative things you have been doing! If you can, please send any of your fantastic art work to the following email address, clearly marked for  year 2: admin@st-patricks.wilts.sch.uk  and we'll be able to create our own Tate (and Robertson) Gallery!

Enjoy your week of Home Learning.

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Wednesday 20th May.

It was lovely to speak to so many parents and children on the phone today. It is great to hear all the things that you've been doing, both on and off plan! If I wasn't able to speak to you today and you would like to let us know anything, do please send an email to school which will get forwarded to us very promptly. I'm hoping that I will now have more silly and sensible photos for our class photograph and will hope to upload that by Friday. It is an ongoing project, so if you haven't sent your photo yet, don't worry because I can add as many spaces as we need. 

Thank you to Mrs Perchard for recommending  the Schools' Programme for the Hay Literary Festival which is online this week. The session with Cressida Cowell (who wrote How to train your Dragon ) is fab and the Activity Pack looks great fun, even if you haven't been able to get the book. Merryn has recommended the Oxford Owl e-books that we've mentioned in our letters below. She has found a great selection of new books to read, including longer books with chapters. 

Thank you everybody-we're very proud of you!

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Summer term Home Learning Week 5

Hello everyone!

It has been very interesting to read your questionnaires so thank you very much to everyone who was able to respond. We can see how much you are missing everyone and playing with your friends. Mrs Robertson thanks you for all your 'get well soon' messages. I've really enjoyed collecting your photos too-I expect it seemed VERY strange to put your uniform on, even if it was only for 2 minutes. I'm waiting to hear from Mrs Courtney about what to do with the class photos now so watch this space! I will be in school next week to phone again before half-term and am looking forward to talking to you again.  This is the last Home Learning for this term. It will be Gabriel's birthday during half-term and we'll be sending him our class card which Layton-Jai made. Happy Birthday, Gabriel! Next term we will be concentrating on one of our favourite authors-Julia Donaldson-so perhaps you could find any copies of her books that  you may have and set up a Julia Donaldson library! She also wrote songs and poems so lots of reading to do.

This week's class maths is entirely new learning-don't panic! One of the things we needed to do this term was to look at ways of collecting and sorting data other than in graphs. So welcome to Venn  Diagrams and Carroll Diagrams! We don't mind if parents haven't heard of them either because hopefully you should be able to have lots of discussions about what to do and how they show information differently. Nobody has sent us any maths yet to show in our gallery so perhaps you could now send us any maths that you master this week. Well done to all those of you who are practising maths on Professor Assessor. If you haven't yet had a go, do consider keeping up with your Times Tables and Number Bonds-you'll still be using them in Year 3!

Please don't feel that you need to print all the sheets in the zip folders or powerpoints-have a look on screen and only print what you need. If printing is a problem, there are copies of our Home Learning pack in the school entrance for you to come and collect between 9am and 3pm. 

Below is a folder  with Week 5's Home Learning. Start by looking at the overview of the week and decide what you would like to do and when you're going to do it. You will find English and Maths activities for each day and we are really hoping that you're reading to an adult and to yourself everyday too. On our weekly overview, you will find some RE, geography, history, PHSE and art too!

We hope you enjoy these activities, and look forward to hearing how you have got on with them and any other creative things you have been doing! If you can, please send any of your fantastic art work to the following email address, clearly marked for  year 2: admin@st-patricks.wilts.sch.uk  and we'll be able to create our own Tate (and Robertson) Gallery!

Enjoy your last week of Home learning for term 5.

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Thank you so much for the photographs that you have sent so far. We love the ones in your smart uniform and the fun ones are really making us smile. If you haven’t sent one in yet, we’d love to add your photo to the class picture and please send it to our school email as soon as possible.

Mrs T and Mrs R

Summer term Home Learning Week 4

Hello everyone!

I'm writing this on VE Day and hope that you're enjoying celebrating it, either with bunting or singing and having found out something about why we're marking this special day. I have rung my Auntie who was a little girl on VE Day 75 years ago and she still remembers the bonfire party that her family had and how her town celebrated with bunting everywhere and people out on the streets! Something else to celebrate-Anastasia came 2nd in the Easter Garden competition! You can see a photo of her garden in the week 2 gallery which I've now made into a slide show. Well done, Anastasia! It's Alex's birthday this week so we'll be sending her our class card which Sam made. Happy Birthday, Alex.

Last Friday was a bit of an eventful day because Mrs Robertson broke her leg! She was out walking with Mr Robertson and their dog when the accident happened so she now has a snazzy blue cast (photo below) and has to sit on the sofa where she took the photo. So no more walking or running for a little while and let's all hope that she gets better very quickly.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for sending us all your fantastic photos of poems, artwork and other activities. It has been so wonderful to see and read all the lovely things that you've been doing. We are thrilled that you have really got involved with our planning for you and we also love to see what else you've been doing. The Great Kapok Tree is one of our favourite books and there are lots of different ideas to support your learning online. I hope you liked the staff photos that were sent to you this week and we're looking forward to the ones that you're sending (by Monday, please) to us.

Below is a folder  with Week 4's Home Learning. Start by looking at the overview of the week and decide what you would like to do and when you're going to do it. You will find English and Maths activities for each day and we are really hoping that you're reading to an adult and to yourself everyday too. As I've explained in the overview, there has been a change in the White Rose maths worksheets which some of you are using but hopefully you will find the worksheets below.   Please don't feel that you need to print all the sheets in the zip folder-have a look on screen and only print what you need to. If printing is a problem, there are copies of our Home Learning pack in the school entrance for you to come and collect between 9am and 3pm. On our weekly overview, you will find some RE, geography, history, music, PHSE and art too! I think we've got a bit carried away this week!

We hope you enjoy these activities, and look forward to hearing how you have got on with them and any other creative things you have been doing! If you can, please send any of your fantastic art work to the following email address, clearly marked for  year 2: admin@st-patricks.wilts.sch.uk  and we'll be able to create our own Tate (and Robertson) Gallery!

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Summer term Home Learning Week 3

Hello everyone!

We hope you've had a good week, despite the rainy weather, and have been able to do your daily exercise as well as your daily lessons. It has been an absolute pleasure to speak to so many of you this week and we'd like to congratulate everybody-children AND parents- for setting up such good systems for Home Learning. No  two families are doing things exactly the same way but everybody was able to talk about things that are going well-hooray! If you would like more online learning and haven't already visited it, the Oak Academy website is now offering up to 3 hours of Home Learning for primary children every day and you can dip in and out as you choose. We noticed that this week, they have some creative work on textures, so if you're still planning to make a collage of different sounds from week 2, you may like to look there. Here's the link:https://www.thenational.academy/ 

We have really enjoyed seeing your own poems and handwriting and hearing how well you're doing with the daily White Rose Year 2 maths lessons, our maths worksheets AND Professor Assessor-you are practising skills that will help you everyday when you're back in school. We really hope you're practising telling the time too so that you are experts! PLEASE NOTE - we have reset the tables test pages practice questions on Professor Assessor so that you can keep practising! Do let us know if there is anything else that you'd like us to change for you.

At school we've been planting beans, bedding plants and making 'Grass Heads' (look them up on Youtube) which have been fun to do and fitted in well with the National Gardening Week that you might have read about in the Children's Newsletter. If you were in school on the last day you will have taken home some sunflower seeds-how are they doing? Mine have 4 pairs of leaves on them now and I'm thinking of planting them out.  We also celebrated Captain Tom's 100th birthday with a special rainbow 100 that you can see on the Welcome page of the school website. Thank you to everybody who has sent photos for our own class gallery-hope you've checked those out this week.

Below is a folder  with Week 3's Home Learning. Start by looking at the overview of the week and decide what you would like to do and when you're going to do it. You will find English and Maths activities for each day and we are really hoping that you're reading to an adult and to yourself everyday too. Don't forget the Oxford Owl website  has LOADS of school reading e-books, both fiction and non-fiction, stories and poetry. It is free but you will need to register. All our new school books are there and there are lots of other ideas too. On our weekly overview, you will find some RE, geography, PHSE and art too. Please don't feel that you need to print all the sheets in the zip folder-have a look on screen and only print what you need to. If printing is a problem, there are copies of our Home Learning pack in the school entrance for you to come and collect between 9am and 3pm..

We hope you enjoy these activities, and look forward to hearing how you have got on with them and any other creative things you have been doing! If you can, please send any of your fantastic art work to the following email address, clearly marked for  year 2: admin@st-patricks.wilts.sch.uk  and we'll be able to create our own Tate (and Robertson) Gallery!

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Summer term 1-week 2 Home Learning

Dear parents and children,

Another week has passed with beautiful weather-hopefully you've been able to get out every day-for a change, for exercise or even for some food shopping. Mrs Robertson walks her lovely dog and I was lucky enough to get a bike for my last birthday and have really enjoyed getting out on that. We are hoping to be able to ring you at home some time in the coming week and find out how you are getting on. You can also let us know if some things have been tricky for you and we will try very hard to sort them out. We're really looking forward to speaking to you. As you will see, we have already opened the Year 2 gallery and hope that you will all be able to send us a photo at some stage in the next few weeks. Thank you to everyone who sent a photo this week.

Below is a folder (plus a PowerPoint) with Week 2 Home learning. Start by looking at the overview of the week and decide what you would like to do and when you're going to do it. You will find English and Maths activities for each day and we are really hoping that you're reading to an adult and to yourself everyday too. Don't forget the Oxford Owl website  has LOADS of school reading e-books, both fiction and non-fiction, stories and poetry. It is free but you will need to register. All our new school books are there and there are lots of other ideas too. On our weekly overview, you will find some RE, geography, PHSE and art too. Please don't feel that you need to print all the sheets in the zip folder-the poems, for example, could all be read on screen. You could copy the sums into your workbook or just write the sum and show your working out for the word problems. I thought you might find the Times Tables sheets useful though!

We hope you enjoy these activities, and look forward to hearing how you have got on with them and any other creative things you have been doing! If you can, please send any of your fantastic art work to the following email address, clearly marked for  year 2: admin@st-patricks.wilts.sch.uk  and we'll be able to create our own Tate (and Robertson) Gallery!

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

Summer term 1-Week 1 Home Learning.

Dear parents and children,

We hope you have been enjoying this wonderful weather and have been taking the opportunity to get out when you can.  It has been lovely to take some time to really appreciate the world around us.

We have both been doing some running during the holidays and hope you've been keeping fit too. 

In my garden, I have been gardening with Mr and Mrs Blackbird who have been collecting some tasty treats for their nest which is full of chicks. There is a LOT of chirping when the parent returns to the nest! Down on the canal, the first ducklings have hatched and I passed a family group with mum, dad and 10 ducklings-it's a good job they don't have to all stay home together!

This week it's Evie's birthday and we'll be sending her our class card which Matthias made.

Below is a folder with next week's home learning. Checkout the weekly sheet for Summer 1 week 1 for an overview of the week. You will find English and Maths activities and worksheets  for each day and then weekly Science, Religion, Art and History activities. We hope you enjoy these activities, and look forward to hearing how you have got on with them and any other creative things you have been doing! If you can, please send any of your fantastic art work to the following email address, clearly marked for  year 2: admin@st-patricks.wilts.sch.uk  and we'll be able to create our own Tate (and Robertson) Gallery!

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson

 Year 2 updates!

Update Friday 3rd April

We'd like to wish all of you a Happy Easter and hope that the sun continues to shine. Both are reminders that after dark and sad times there will be bright and happy news.

Next week is Noah's birthday so we'll be sending our class card to him which Alex made. Then it will be Layla-May's birthday and Lacey made her class card.

We're already planning your learning for next term, starting with a poetry unit and then continuing with a fantastic book called The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. There will be maths for each day and we'll also link in some science, art, geography, history and music-just like normal really! Usually, in Term 5 we start to play the recorder-so here's a challenge! If you have access to a recorder, have a go at learning B, A & G.

Parents, please don't forget that ANY practice you can do on telling the time and learning Number Bonds and times tables will be so valuable as will all reading and talking/questioning, building up the children's language skills and developing their understanding of the world around them. Of course, you do this anyway, but we thank you so much for your time and input-Marvellous Merits all round!

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson 

Update Friday 27th March 

Today, we've added next week's spellings and hope you're getting on well with your Home Learning Pack. We've also added a copy of an Abacus  Year 2 Maths workbook which is a Maths scheme that we used to use. Next week is Matthias's birthday so we've sent him the  class birthday card which  Merryn made!

Update Friday 20th March 

Your child has brought home an exciting Home Learning Pack with activities for the next two weeks. If your child wasn't in school today, please come to the school office  on Monday to collect their Home Learning Pack. If you are a key Worker and your child is in school, please could they bring in their Learning Pack to work on during the day.

If you're keen to do more reading, we would really recommend the Oxford Owl website  which has a great selection of ebooks to read! Also, check out Miss Wilkinson's storytime on Youtube-it's lovely!

We will be adding weekly spellings and other work (at the top of the page) so keep an eye on this class page!

Update Friday 21st February

This term, Year 2 will be doing Forest School on Thursday mornings. Children will need to arrive at school in suitable clothing and bring their uniform to change into at break time. Forest School goes ahead in all weathers (with the exception of heavy winds and thunder storms) so please ensure that your child comes to school on that morning dressed accordingly. They will get wet and mucky - we encourage it! 
Warm clothing (lots of thin layers works best) 
Hat, scarf, gloves (we go out in all weathers)
A waterproof coat
Wellies are ideal – with thin and thick warm socks, if not, outdoor shoes or old trainers
Long trousers

It will be great fun and the children will learn a lot too!

(Please note that there will be NO Forest School on Thursday 5th March because it is World Book Day and we'll be dressing up as book characters. Parents-thank you so much for coping with all these requests for different clothes on different days-you are wonderful!)
 

Update Friday 14th February

What a great way to end Term 3 with a visit to Corsham Fire Station! Thank you to all the helpers who came along-it didn't rain and we all had a great time. Chris Hughes (Ethan's Dad) and Ollie Taylor (Mrs Taylor's son) were brilliant instructors, letting the children try on their equipment, look in ALL the cupboards on the fire engine, sit in the cab, use the hoses and setting up a fantastic photo opportunity at the end in front of a wall of water-see our group photo below. Ollie used to come to St Patrick's and in 12 years time, one of the current Year 2 might be showing St Patrick's children round too!

Update Tuesday 7th January 2020

Happy New Year to everybody and a big THANK YOU  for our wonderful Christmas presents. All the TAs and staff are very grateful and  we all really enjoyed your gifts.

This term, we're looking at the Great Fire of London which is a very exciting topic and we will be linking in our English, history, science, art, music and ICT lessons. We also hope to visit the Corsham Fire Station to find out how fires are put out now. Perhaps you could help the children find out some information about the Great Fire to add to their knowledge and understanding?

In Maths this term we will be looking again at money, especially giving change and we'll be finding out about the names and properties of 3D shapes. We will be practising and testing Number Bonds to 20 (and 100!) as well as the 2x, 5x and 10x tables. We really appreciate all the time that you give to help your children practise these important building blocks in mathematical understanding-it makes SUCH a difference. How are you getting on with telling the time?! We hope that year 2 children will be able to tell the time from 1/4 past to 1/4 to the hour and are beginning to get to grips with telling the time to the nearest 5 minutes-5 past, 10 past etc. Again, it is the practising that makes the difference so thank you again.

If the weather is fine, we will be improving football skills on THURSDAYS this term. Please could you make sure that the children have their PE kit in school every day and that there are extra layers-joggers, sweatshirt and  socks (for girls who wear tight). You will know that we have a lot of un-named PE kit in Lost Property as well as many jumpers and cardigans. Please do check that your child's school clothes are all clearly named.

Update 18th October. As we come to the end of Music Week, the children would like you to know that they have had a fantastic time! Thank you to all our visitors who came to share their skills and time with us. We wrote our own version of ' The Hall of the Mountain King' and performed it, on violins, to the rest of the school-a copy of the score is included further down this page, together with an assortment of photos from this term.

Update 7th October- Just a reminder that year 2 children and staff would like to invite you to join us in the classroom on Thursday, 10th October  from 9-9.45am. We'll be serving coffee and brownies and the children will be able to show you round and share some activities with you. See you there!

Update 23rd September- Year 2 have made a great start and have hit the ground running! In very little time we have thought about, talked about and written an assembly about ourselves-our feelings, what makes us unique and special and about our mission in life. We look forward to celebrating this with you on Friday 27th September at 2.15pm.

(Don't forget our curriculum information afternoon on Thursday 26th September at 2.15 pm in the classroom where we'll be talking about the Year 2 curriculum, looking more closely at year 2 Maths as well as our classroom routines. We can also answer any questions that you may have so hope to see you there.)

Update 1-29th August. Welcome to  Year 2!

 We hope you've had a great summer and we're looking forward to hearing all your news. Hopefully you've had some exciting days out or trips away to share with us. If you have received or brought back any postcards, do bring them in on Wednesday, 4th September to share with the class.

Also, if you have a certificate from the library holiday scheme then do bring that in and tell us about the books that you've been reading. We'll be looking at 'Dogger' by Shirley Hughes at the start of term. It's about someone losing a favourite toy-we wonder if that's ever happened to you?

In Science this term we'll be looking at the seasons, obviously starting  with Autumn, so you might like to look out for signs that Autumn is on its way. We've been enjoying the delicious blackberries that seem to be in every hedge at the moment and have already found conkers lying on the ground-what have you spotted?

Finally, we hope you've had a great break and enjoyed the rest. Why not make sure that you can still remember your number bonds to 10 and can still do some adding and taking away sums! If you have the game of Snakes and Ladders, have a game with a friend and see if you can recognise all the numbers up to 100-just get someone to help you if you're stuck! Check that you can tell the time using 'o'clock' and 'half past'.

We hope you have lots of ladders and not too many snakes before we all meet up in September!

Mrs Tate and Mrs Robertson.

Parents,  we would be very grateful if you could  make sure that all of your child's clothes are named-you would be amazed to see the number of un-named jumpers and cardigans that we're unable to reunite with their owners. Thank you also to everyone who is helping their child to learn how to do up their top button, tie their tie and shoe laces-we're delighted when the children are able to get changed quickly and independently.  Thank you!

Gem Project:
We will  be giving out rubies and diamonds this term for supporting each other in our learning and friendships, and for solving our own problems. The children  are encouraged to show Emerald power if they're finding their learning tricky-it's fine to make mistakes and get answers wrong when you're learning something new-the secret is not to give up! 

GENERAL INFORMATION
Spellings are handed out in the Home Learning folder on a Friday and are tested on the following Thursday. The spellings are based on the work we are doing in class in Letters and Sounds and on High Frequency Words. If you lose your spellings, there are spare copies on our class notice board for you to take. It's very important that the children know how to spell these 100 HFW so if you spot them whilst reading with the children or if they're writing at home, please encourage the children to check their spelling so that they remember to spell them correctly.

Children, please bring in your reading book every day. If your book needs changing, put it in the book box. If not, please put it in your drawer. In Year 2, it is your job to change your book during our daily reading time. Remember to take your book home every day too! Try and read to an adult every day at home for 10 to 15 minutes. Parents, we would be very grateful if you could cross off the number of each book on the record sheet inside the back cover of the reading diary-that way we can more easily track which books have been read-thank you.

We are very grateful to helpers who come in on a regular basis to hear readers and we know that this has a huge impact on our young readers. (If you would like to volunteer to do this, please speak to Mrs Tate or Mrs Robertson.)

Home Learning folders are  given out on Fridays and we ask for them to be returned by the following Thursday. Spare Home Learning sheets are on our class notice board. Parents-if you're able to spend 20-30 minutes with the children on their Home Learning, that would be fantastic.

Please remember to have PE kits in school everyday. In the first term, PE will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays but we often need to change the day so please be ready every day. 

Children, try and remember to bring in a water bottle to put on your table. Please name the water bottle. Drinking water helps your brain to function better! Please do not bring in squash instead. Thank you.