Dear grown-ups,

This week, we celebrated Anti-Bullying Week at school. This year, the theme was ‘Choose Respect’. On Tuesday, we had Odd Socks Day. This gave the children the chance to show their individuality and celebrate differences.

Our focus for RHE this week was all about Anti bullying.

In class, we watched Newsround across the week. Newsround highlighted the importance of Anti Bullying Week. We watched the BBC live Lesson for Anti-Bullying Week 2024 where Shanequa Paris, Rhys Stephenson and Dr Radha Modgil. The children helped Hacker to put on the ultimate sports day and learnt how to play fair, work together, and show respect.

We went through a very informative PowerPoint all about Anti Bullying. We discussed different scenarios and came up some great solutions to problems. We created posters to highlight different ways we can show respect. As always we emphasised the importance of always talking to our trusted adults whenever we are feeling unsure about a situation.

In English we started our new book ‘Look Up’ by Nathan Bryan. We sequenced the story, answered comprehension questions on the story and came up with lots of adverbs to describe the characters and their actions throughout the story.

In History, we started our unit on The Great Fire of London

In RE, we contributes to learn about the Ten Commandments.

Remember to practise your child’s Nativity lines, songs and dance with them. Hopefully, you should all be able to access them in the class WhatsApp groups soon. The lyrics and script are also on the sidebar just in case you need them!

The children all had their individual and sibling photos today and they all looked lovely.

It was lovely to see so many of you at our ‘Open Classrooms’ and Parents Evenings.
Thank you to the people who took the time to give the Year 2 team positive comments and feedback we really appreciate it!

The homework and comprehension can be found in the sidebar.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Kelly and Miss Whiting

Dear grown-ups,

What a first week back, I think we could all do with another few days off!

Today, we had lots of fun celebrating Hispanic Day. The children all looked amazing in their traditional dresses and Costa Rican colours. We started the day with a very lively assembly where we got to watch some amazing flamenco dancing, listen to some beautiful singing and learn some fact about different Hispanic countries.

In class, we had lots of fun learning all about Costa Rica and placing it on a map using Google Earth (our favourite thing to do in Year 2). We created some beautiful art work using oil pastels inspired by all the amazing nature and wildlife that Costa Rica has to offer.  We enjoyed a lovely Spanish story ‘Salrage’ read to us by Carrie. Thank you for popping in to read to us Carrie and reading to the whole of Year 2.

We participated in an amazing flamenco inspired workshop, and we finished off the day with a mariachi band in the main hall. What a day!

In English this week, we were busy finishing off our unit on poetry. We recapped on our learning before half term, planned and wrote our own autumn poems. We added autumnal illustrations to match our words. Finally, we finished off the week by preforming our poems to our peers with actions included. Our budding poets put on a great show for everyone.

We had no library session this week as Library was in use for Hispanic Day workshops.

In Science, we continued on with our unit Animals including Humans. We were busy learning about what animals and humans need to survive.

In RE, we were very busy learning all about The Ten Commandments and reflecting on which ones we think are the most important.

In Maths this week, we have been busy recapping on our learning from last half term of adding one and two digit numbers crossing 10. We have moved on to subtracting but not crossing 10

Our Year 2s loved their road safety workshop on Wednesday learning all about the green cross code! They loved singing the ‘stop, look and listen’ song. They even met some furry, fun friends on the way.

Please practise the Nativity lines that we sent home with your children.

The homework can be found in the sidebar. Don’t forget it’s due in by Wednesday!

Have a great weekend,

Miss Whiting

Hello grown-ups,

We made it to half-term!

This week we have been busy celebrating Black Voices Week.

We kick-started Black Voices Week with a ‘Hidden Figures’ assembly by Bigfoot Education. The children went on a journey throughout history learning of significant black figures, whose actions have made a positive impact on the world we live in today. We learnt about: Emperor Septimius Severus, John Blanke, Mary Prince, Lilian Bader and Paul Stephenson.

In Year 2, on the topic of ‘Reclaiming Narratives’ we explored Amanda Gorman. Amanda is a poet who read one of her own poems at Joe Biden’s inauguration as president of the United States in 2021. Amanda’s poem, “The Hill We Climb,” is about hope, unity, and justice. Based on Amanda’s poem, we shared our hopes for the future with each other. We worked with our partners to complete a comprehension all about Amanda. We also enjoyed listening to Amanda recite her poem at the inauguration.

On Wednesday, both Year 2 classes were lucky to have Seun (Gabrielle’s mum) come to visit and tell us all about the life of Ruby Bridges. The children really enjoyed listening to Ruby’s life and the brave choices she made and the positive changes that came as a result.

We also enjoyed to the amazing story ‘Sulwe’ read by the book’s fantastic author Lupita Nyong’o.

In Maths this week, it was all about adding two digit numbers and two digit numbers. We will continue to work on this after half term.

In English we were very busy writing ‘Book Reviews’ based on some of our favourite books. The children’s amazing book reviews are on display in the book corner for everyone to enjoy.

We had an extra Geography lesson this week based on ‘Our World’. We were very busy exploring the different flags from around the world and thinking about countries and places we have links to or have visited.

In Computing, we continued working on algorithms. We worked with our partners to deliver clear instructions for the ‘bots’ to follow.

In Science, we explored how our bodies change from babies to adults. Our activity was lots of fun. We had to measure our partners using metre sticks. Following that, we worked in our groups to order ourselves from tallest to shortest.

In Art, we finished our unit with a very messy lesson all about printmaking. The children’s hard work is all on display in the classroom for everyone to enjoy.

Great news, there is no homework over half-term!

Have a lovely half term!

Miss Whiting

Hello grown-ups,

What a week!

In Maths this week, it was all about adding two digit numbers and one digit numbers. We worked hard at using our dienes to help us. It was tricky so we will continue to work on it next week.

In English, we were busy this week completing end of unit tests . We completed spelling, grammar and punctuation and non-fiction comprehension tests. We also continued to work on our poetry unit. We worked with our partners and created our own poems with rhyming pairs. We also worked hard at coming up with ideas on how to ‘uplevel’ our autumnal poems.

In RHE, we finished our unit on ‘Me and My Relationships’ where we discussed the difference between teasing and bullying. We ended the unit thinking all the different ways that we are good friends.

In RE, we finished off our unit on Hinduism by recapping on our learning and writing our own code on how to be a good Hindu. We also completed an end of unit test.

In Computing, we were busy learning all about algorithms. We worked collaboratively on an unplugged activity to sequence the steps of a muffin recipe.

In Geography, we had fun with our last lesson in the unit where we busy planning trips for tourist visiting London. We then ‘interviewed’ the tourist to see how they enjoyed their trip to London. We finished off the lesson with an end of unit quiz.

Don’t forget this week’s homework!

We were also very lucky this week and had double gymnastics.

Today, we participated in ‘Show Racism The Red Card’. Mr Schumm led a Collective Worship all about celebrating differences. We watched a very informative video by The Show Racism the Red Card charity about racism and the importance of reporting any racist behaviour.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Whiting

Hello grown-ups,

Yesterday, St Stephen’s celebrated World Mental Health Day by supporting the ‘Hello Yellow’ initiative by YoungMinds. The children came to school in their favourite yellow clothing and in return, they made a small donation towards the charity, YoungMinds. We began by gathering together for a special Collective Worship to discuss what it means by mental health: there are days when all of us struggle with how we are feeling, things can get tough and it can be difficult knowing how to cope but talking to those trusted adults around us can really help.

We also were treated to a song by our school choir, providing a ray of sunshine to begin our day!

Our RHE lesson was focused on discussing the importance of positive mental health as well as physical health. We also focused on developing strategies to support our mental health. We created badges to show the positive things we are good at as well as doodled all of our favourite things.

In English, we have been busy with our new unit on poetry. We have been busy exploring the poem ‘I’m a Tree’ by Tony Bradman.. We preformed the poem with our partners, answered some comprehension questions and wrote some amazing descriptive sentences about the poem.

Yesterday, we also enjoyed a Live English lesson hosted by The British Library. We had a special livestream lesson hosted by the British Library where we joined JT Williams (Lizzie and Belle Mysteries) and Maisie Chan (Keep Dancing Lizzie Chu) to celebrate representation & to inspire us to become the stars of our own stories. We tried to create concertina books and write stories about ourselves. There were also some special additional steps, looking at stories from the past and thinking about heritage and identity.

In Computing, we created a blog with inspiration from our recent English unit ‘The Lion in the Meadow’. We were very creative and we even ‘published’ our work.

We are now in our new Maths groups! We have streamed into our Maths groups to give the children the right support for them. The groups are not fixed and the children can move between the groups if needed. This week, we have been busy finishing off our unit on place value and completing an end of unit quiz.

In RE, we were busy leaving about the Hindu’s place of worship, a mandir.

In Geography, we were busy exploring London throughout the seasons. We had fun thinking about all the different activities tourists could do when they visit our capital city.

In Science, we explored the different ways in which animals reproduce.

In Art, we had lots of fun creating stained glass (plastic wallets) maps.

Don’t forget to do this week’s homework.

Have a great weekend,

Miss Whiting

Dear grown-ups, 

In RHE, it was all about our feelings this week. We worked collaboratively to come up with synonyms for a variety of different emotions. We had lots of fun with our peers acting out the different emotions. We also referred to the ‘zone of regulations’ posters we have on display in our classroom to help us to regulations our emotions throughout the school day. 

In English, we had a busy week recapping on how to use question marks and commas, using alliteration and writing noun phrases. As well as, planned and started to write our own stories based on our text ‘The Lion in the Meadow’.

We have been very busy in Maths this week. We counted in 3s while recapping counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. We were busy finding 10 more or 10 less than a number and ordering and positioning numbers on a number line. 

In Geography, we continued working on learning about, describing and locating geographical features in London.

In RE, we explored the word ‘pilgrimage’. We looked at the importance of the pilgrimage to The River Ganges for Hindus. We discussed pilgrimages in other religions. The children enjoyed looking at some pictures of the pilgrimages up Croagh Patrick in county Mayo. We taught about our own special pilgrimages we have been on. 

On Wednesday we enjoyed a lovely Harvest Festival church service. Thank you to everyone that was able to donate food and attend the church service. 

In Art today, we enjoyed printing using rollers.

Don’t forget to do your homework and grammar and punctuation this week. 

Have a lovely weekend, 

Miss Whiting 

Hello grown-ups,

In English, we started our unit on ‘The Lion in the Meadow’ by Margaret Mahy. We had lots of fun acting out the story, answering comprehension questions and describing the characters in the story using adjectives.

In Maths, we worked super hard this week! We were busy counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. We worked with our partners to complete some tasks, we answered lots of tricky problems and even completed a Maths quiz!

In Geography, we had lots of fun identifying lots of geographical features in London.

In RE, we looked at the meaning of Karma and how it makes people behave. We also enjoyed the story ‘My Hindi Faith’.

In Art, we continued to work hard on our unit ‘Map it Out’.

In Computing, we continued our unit on ‘say no graffiti’ by creating some online eye catching posters.

We attached the children’s reading cloud log in, inside the front cover of the children’s reading record. You will be able to access the children’s reading cloud from home as Ms Pereira spoke about in the Key Stage 1 Maths and Reading meeting last week.

Don’t forget to do your homework (on the side bar) and Mathletics.

Have a great weekend,

Miss Whiting

Today, we celebrated the Ethiopian and Eritrean new year. Our very own Ms Hana worked very hard in the kitchen over the last few days to make sure the children and adults of St. Stephen’s got to enjoy a delicious meal full of lots of flavour.

In English this week, we continued to work on our instructions unit. We had lots of fun looking at imperative ‘bossy’ verbs which the children were very good at using! We finished the week by working really hard at writing our own instructions making sure we used time connectives and lots of bossy verbs.

In Maths, it was another busy week of partitioning numbers into tens and ones and writing number sentences to match. Some of the children are still finding partitioning really hard so please try and practise at home. E.g 46= 4 tens and 6 ones 40+6 = 46. Don’t forget there is always the White Rose app and ‘Maths with Michael’ on White Rose that are free to access and linked below.

https://whiteroseeducation.com/parent-pupil-resources/maths/maths-with-michael

https://whiteroseeducation.com/1-minute-maths

In computing we tried our hand at creating some virtual street art.

In Science, we looked at different types of animals and their offspring.

In Geography, we had fun trying to give our partners directions to different famous landmarks in London. We tried really hard to use our key vocabulary of ‘north, south, east and west’.

In RHE, we imagined our dream classroom and shared all of the lovely things that we would have in it. Then, we thought about all of the things that we can do to make Madan a safe and happy classroom to learn in. We wrote down our pledges and turned them into a paperchain to hang in the classroom.

This week’s homework can be found on the sidebar. There is comprehension this week too, the first one of Year 2. For your child’s comprehension homework we have put a sticker on the inside of their homework book. The sticker highlights the minimum amount of boxes on the comprehension sheet they need to complete. However, if you would like to challenge your child to complete more homework on the comprehension sheet, please do! Remember homework books at to be in by Wednesday at the latest.

A music message….

Please find details below of two singing groups run by the Tri Borough music hub.

Our First Voices choir (years 1-2) is a group for children who love singing and enjoy taking part in performances. The students learn fun songs, rounds and musical games, as well as increasing their confidence when performing and developing fundamental musical skills.

Our Junior Voices choir (years 3-6) is a non-auditioned ensemble where students learn and perform music from a range of musical styles and through various teaching styles, including notation. The students develop key musicianship and performance skills, whilst engaging in regular performance opportunities throughout the year .For more details please follow the link below.

Registration – Tri-borough Music Hub (speedadmin.dk)

You can also contact Evie directly via email (evie.asio@rbkc.gov.uk) if you would like to discuss further.

Have a great weekend!

Miss Whiting

Hello grown-ups,

What a week!

In English, we were busy finishing off our unit on our class poet Mar Ann Hobeman. We took a closer look at the poem Brother and the vocabulary Hoberman used.

In Maths, we had a busy week working on our tens and ones. We partitioned numbers, created our own part whole models and wrote our own number sentences. We finished off the week by completing some assessments which will help us provide the correct support to the children moving forward.

In Geography, we took a closer look at some of the famous landmarks around our amazing capital city, London.

In Computing, we were a little rusty at logging in to our computers so we had to take some time to practice. We then started our unit ‘Say no to Graffiti’.

In RE, we started our new unit on Hinduism. We looked at the important role that our family and friends play in our lives.

In RHE, we started our new unit on ‘Me and my Relationships’.

In Art, we started our unit called ‘Map it Out’. We were busy investigating maps and used oil pastels to map out our journey to school.

Next week for our Art lesson we will need some resources from home. Please could the children bring in an old tea towel each and some bubble wrap if you have any.

Today, we went to the Library and got the opportunity to take our first books out in Year 2. Our library slot is every Friday, so your child will need to bring their library books in each Friday in order to change them and choose a new book.

This week’s homework can be found on the top of the class page.

A spelling sticker has been put into your child’s homework book. You will notice that your child has been put in a spelling group, either blue or green. Please note that these groups are not permanent, the groups are subject to change. If your child gets their spellings right three weeks in a row they will be able to move up spelling group. If they are in the blue group and they get their spellings right three weeks in a row they will get house points.

Just a reminder… completed homework books are to be in by Wednesday each week. Signed reading books are to be in by Friday. We only have one opportunity to change books throughout the week. New books go home on a Monday so you have the week to read them.

Homework books now have the children Mathletics and London Grid For Learning log in stuck inside the front cover along with the children’s spelling groups.

Have an amazing weekend!

Miss Whiting

A massive hello!

Welcome to Year 2 and welcome to Hoberman class. Miss Karen, Miss Michelle and I have all very much enjoyed the first week back at school and we hope the children have too. What a great start to the new school year with a wonderful class! We have had such a brilliant first week of Year 2! Your children are amazing and have made me smile and giggle the whole day long! They’re an absolutely delight and I know we are going to have the most amazing year!

What have we been up to?

This week we read a lovely book called ‘Ruby’s Worries’ and discussed what to do if we have a worry. We wrote a holiday recount using lots of exciting adjectives. It sounds like everyone has a fantastic summer! As a class, we came up with our classroom rules which will help us to have a safe and calm classroom. We also analysed the poem ‘Brother’ by Mary Ann Hoberman (our class poet).

We had our first Spanish lesson in Year 2. It was very exciting! We focused on animals and colours.

In Maths, we worked on our place value knowledge using tens and ones and how to spell numbers in words.

In Geography, we learnt about our capital city. We located it on a map of the world and then placed the UK within Europe. We found out that London is the capital of the UK as well as the capital of England but we discovered that Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have their own capital cities. We talked about some of the most famous landmarks in London including Big Ben and the London Eye. Finally, we played a board game where we took it in turns to answer questions about London. A correct answer meant that you could roll the dice and move forward.

In Art, we have been investigating maps as a stimulus for drawing. We organised images into groups explaining our choices and then we drew a map of our journey to school making it interesting by using lots of details.

This week’s homework

The children need to design a poster that they feel expresses them on the first page of their homework book.

Homework from Friday 13^th September

Homework will be set each week on a Friday and will need to be returned by the latest on Wednesday the following week. Your child will be given a green homework book to complete their spelling homework, sentences and Maths homework in. The homework sheet will be uploaded to the class blog on a Friday which will explain all.

They will have a set of spellings to learn. They will all learn the statutory spellings (5).

There will be a sticker at the front of their homework book that explains if they are in green group (5 additional spellings) or blue group (8 additional spellings). This will be something that is fluid throughout the year. They will need to learn these spellings for a relaxed spelling test each Friday as well as writing each of words 3 times in the front of their homework book to help them remember how to spell them.

Following this, they will need to write three sentences using words from their spelling list and a grammar focus in the front of their homework book.

There will be a small Maths task set at the bottom of the homework sheet, which is to be completed at the back of their homework book.

Each Friday we will set tasks on Mathletics, which is to be completed by the following Wednesday.

Fortnightly, the children will have a comprehension exercise that you will find in their homework book.

Reading books

Two reading books will be given out on a Monday and will need to be returned on a Friday. Please ensure that your reading record is signed so we can change the books.

On Monday 9^th September the children will received a reading book based on their reading levels that have been shared with us from the previous year. Over the next few weeks, we will reassess their reading levels so this may change.

P.E and Gymnastics days for Hoberman

Hoberman has P.E on a Monday and Gymnastics on a Tuesday.

We have uploaded some useful information to our class page for you to look at.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Whiting