Dolphin Class

Welcome to Dolphin Class. Dolphin Class is taught by Mrs Anne Pettifer.

Welcome to a new school year in Dolphin Class!

We are looking forward to lots of fun and learning in the year ahead. We have started with the announcement of our exciting topic for this term, Turrets and Tiaras and we are all really looking forward to our trip to Warwick Castle next week. Click here for an overview of what we will be learning about.

Your child will have brought home their orange homework book - inside the front cover is his or her log in for the spag.com website, where any online grammar homework will be set.

To access the homework, go to www.spag.com and get your child to log in. Once in, there should be a single task (this week it is about the 4 sentence types) for you to complete together. Please do let me know if you have any difficulty accessing the internet as we can make some alternative arrangements.

Please also help your child to learn both their Spelling Bee and Rainbow Words. To help you, here are a few activities that will enable you to work in a fun way with your child as they learn the words.

The children have all come back to the new school year with a real 'can do' learning attitude. Let's work together to keep this going all year.

What a fantastic day we had at Warwick Castle!

On Friday 23rd of September 2016 we all set off to Warwick for a day of excitement and learning at the magnificent castle.

Our first foray into medieval times involved an encounter with the excitable yet knowledgeable Bowman.

Next things got 'Orrible. We gathered lots of gruesome facts about different times in history. Did you know that boys used to lie about their age in the Frightful First World War so they would be sent to fight overseas? And, Guy Fawkes didn't come up with the Gunpowder Plot. We won't even talk about the disgusting Measly Middle Ages!!

Stepping softly, we dared to enter the hallowed Great Hall. The children were amazed by the shiny armour, even on the horses, and loads of historical weapons. They also learned about how Warwick Castle used to look and found the biggest porridge pot they had ever seen!

After a suitable feast, our intrepid band of adventurers dared to climb the 500 or so steps to the very top of the castle until they could see some of the amazing views across Warwick. It was breath taking (well there were A LOT of steps!). And as everybody knows, what goes up must come back down so then we wound our way back to the ground.

Last on the long list of fab things we did was a visit to the Kingmaker exhibition, deep in the bowels of the castle. The children loved seeing the rooms set out exactly as they would have been hundreds of years ago.

Finally, the weary wanderers boarded their noble steed and galloped along the highways and byways in order to return home, happy and extremely tired.

WELL DONE YEAR 2! You were a pleasure to take on the trip and your wonderful behaviour was noticed by several members of the public. We are very proud of you.

30th September 2016

Dolphin Class has had another amazing week! We have packed so much learning in, the children are exhausted!

Thank you to everyone who supported the MacMillan Coffee Morning - the school raised nearly £290 - a fantastic amount.

The next homework task has been set on www.spag.com so have a go. It is looking again at 4 sentences types, which we have done lots of work on this week. There is also a spelling task in every homework book - see how many words you can find.

As part of our Creative Curriculum this week, the children have been learning about how the artist Piet Mondrian constructed his art work. They have begun a piece copying Mondrian's style. I think they have begun some amazing art work!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you all bright and fresh on Monday morning for Harvest Festival

14th October 2016

Another fantastic week in Year 2! As well as lots of Forest School-ing, Creative Curriculum-ing, literacy and very hard maths, we also took the children to 'The Castle Mound' which is believed to be the former site of Long Buckby Castle.

They walked all around the ridge, where the wall of the main castle might have been and tried to imagine what the old wooden building might have looked like.

They then took on various roles of people who might have lived and worked in Long Buckby Castle. We had a Lord and his Lady, their servants, some knights, farmers and tradespeople such as bakers and seamstresses.

But, what it this? Treachery behind the castle! A ruthless band of terrifying invaders were plotting the downfall of Lord Buckby and they crept up and stormed the castle from behind.

When peace was finally declared in the Battle of Long Buckby, the children then put their imaginations and art skills to the test and sketched a view of what they think the real castle might have looked like.

The morning finished back in the present as Year 2 gave a little back to the community of Long Buckby by removing some of the litter that had accumulated in the environment.

 Well done Year 2, a fantastic morning was had by all.

Castle Day

On our first day back, after our short break, all the children had the most amazing day. No school uniforms in sight anywhere! However, medieval children laid siege to the building. It was 1140 - no not lunch time but the YEAR! Lady Ruth engaged the children in various endeavours to prepare for the outcome of the battle between her husband and Sir Jeffrey, a dastardly knight who was trying to prevent the true Queen, Matilda from ascending the throne. 

Loading image...

Loading image...(0/8)

18th November

Whew! Another couple of weeks have absolutely flown past! Year 2 have been so busy and worked so hard, they have definitely deserved their charity pyjama day today.

FOREST SCHOOL

Last week was the last Forest School session for the Dolphin Class, Stingrays finished just before half term. All the children (and the adults!) had a LOT of fun and learned a huge amount about our local environment, different British plants and trees and about British artist Andy Goldsworthy. They might also have sneaked a few crumpets and mugs of hot chocolate in along the way as well!

Here's a PowerPoint showing the children of both classes enjoying their outdoor learning experience.

ASSEMBLE FOR OUR ASSEMBLY!

Next, the Year 2 classes were hard at work putting together their assembly presentation. Everyone who wanted to had a part to play. They made Mrs Pettifer and Mrs Burbury extremely proud as they explained all about the work they have been doing over the last few weeks. 

Finally, after a week of excellent effort from all the children (and staff), we finished with Children in Need Day. Year 2 really rose to the occasion and have raised a fantastic amount of money to help children all over our country. Well done everyone!

Rest well, Year 2 - next week we start to rehearse for the Christmas Play. There will be lines to learn, songs to sing and possibly even tantrums to be had (and that's just Mrs Burbury!).

Have a great weekend!!!

9th December 2016

The end of another busy week! Last week we had the excitement of decoration day, as a result of which the school looks absolutely fabulous and the children all got so involved in each of the activities and really took pride on the work they did for the school.

This week we have been hard at it with final rehearsals for our play 'Ralph the Reindeer'. It has been very difficult with so many children off sick but we have had some amazing stand in performances. The children did so well that those who didn't know couldn't tell who any of the stand ins were! Very well done Year 2! Year 3, Clarecroft and the pre-school were all very impressed by the dress rehearsal.

The children have still been working hard with their learning and their writing this week has include some very fine letters to Santa. I think Santa would have a lovely time reading all the good things the children have done for other people this year.

Don't forget to join us (if you can) at the church on Monday for the Christmas Service. This will be followed in the afternoon and evening by our first official performances of the play.

Rest well this weekend, Year 2 and keep washing those hands to keep that sickness bug away from our school!!

20th December 2016 - THE LAST DAY OF TERM!!!!

Goodness gracious me, what a busy and hectic few weeks we have had! After lots and lots of very hard work, the children have put on a magnificent Christmas production of Ralph the Reindeer. Hopefully you all got to come and see what wonderful actors, actresses, singers and dancers the children are. I was very proud of all of them - you are all little starts!

The children also managed to fit in some learning! They have been practising a huge range of practical skills as they have made Christmas treats for their families. The results are a secret util Christmas Day!! They have also been practising their computer skills as they worked on the laptops which we now have in our classroom permanently.

On Friday, we had a brilliant trip out when we went to see Jack and the Beanstalk in pantomime at the Derngate Theatre. We were all having a wonderful time when suddenly, Simple Simon chose two talented dancers to be in his boyband with him - JAMES and NOAH!!! The boys really showed Simon what fantastic moves they have and Noah even treated us to a spot of break dance twirling on the stage!!

The children were all fabulously well-behaved (of course!) and the theatre staff even commented on the good behaviour of our children - well done all of you!

This week we have really begun to enjoy getting ready for Christmas. The children had parties on Monday and every child in school had the chancce to meet Santa. Here's the magic moment for you to see....

Today, the Dolphin Class have been enjoying their class treat which they earned by getting all the crystals in the jar. The children chose to watch Arthur Christmas and have some lovely choosing time. They are all very tired but excited about Santa coming back on Christmas Eve!!

We all hope you have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

6th January 2017

 And so here we are in a whole New Year! We really hope you all had a great holiday and that 2017 brings you lots of luck and happiness.

The new year started with a bit of a chill. When we went down to assembly on the very first day, someone had been playing in the hall!!!

There was lots of discussion about who might have made this mess in the hall but then, you'll never guess what we found! The footprints led outside and all the way into the classrooms!!

The children followed the footprints and finally discovered the sneaky culprit!!

Penguins!!! Penguins had been wandering around the school - we think they are lost because there was a letter from a little boy asking if the children would help him to get the penguins back home.

The children talked a lot about what they already know about penguins and what they need to find out to make sure they are well looked after while they are in Long Buckby.

We are all looking forward to our Pole to Pole topic a lot. We think it will tell us masses about penguins and where they live and who might live nearby or even at the other end of the world!

For some more information about our topic, take a peek at our overview.

Your child should also have brought home the Spring Newsletter for you to see.

20th January 2017

 And here we are, at the weekend again! This week seems to have zoomed past. The children have done so much this week, from learning about time in Maths to different ways to say'said' and how to use simile in Literacy then on to learn about the countries of the UK and their capital cities. And that was just a little bit of it!

The children have also been making puppets for their theatre so that they can retell the story of 'Lost and Found' (by Oliver Jeffers) in their own way. They also wrote new adventures for the boy and his penguin friend - some of the stories are so exciting! I've already read about Mount Everest, a jungle and Ancient Egypt!

However, when I asked the children what their favourite lesson was this week, they all said 'Science!'. The carried out lots of investigations with ice such as what happens if you put ice on sand, salt or water. Or, how does salt affect a big block of ice if you put it on top? Can ice be drilled and what happens if you put colour in the hole? What about if you pour water over the big ice?

Take a look at the pictures below - I think you'll agree that they had lots of fun whilst they learned all about the changing states of ice.

In the meantime, there is a new homework task in their books and the new Spag.com task has been set so give it a go!

10th February 2017

 Half term is here! We have had such a busy couple of weeks that the children are all looking forward to a week off. Hopefully, all the coughs, cold and sickness bugs will leave us whilst we are apart and everyone will be happy, healthy and having fun this week.

We have welcomed a lovely new friend to our class this week. We are very pleased to have you, Ellie-Mae, and hope your first week with us has been a happy one.

We have making beanie penguins using sewing techniques and then in Literacy, we have been learning about the features of a set of instructions. Then today the children all wrote their own set of instructions about how to make a beanie penguin. They have all taken their beanie away to its loving new home.

Penguin have featured in our Maths lessons too as we have been starting to look at pictograms and the children worked in groups to make a 'penguin picto'. The children have also been using measuring to make life sized pictures of a penguins for our Maths display.

I wonder if your child can tell you which is the tallest penguin in the world?

We will close this week with some pictures of our Real Gym lesson. The children have been exploring making shapes and balance over the past couple of weeks so we got the big equipment out and the children worked on their own and in pairs to show how they can balance and make beautiful shapes on the floor, low equipment and high equipment.

Have a fabulous half term!!

26th March 2017

 Oh my goodness! It doesn't seem like over a month has gone by! What a lot we have been doing!

The children have been very hard at work across the curriculum. In Literacy, we have been looking at and retelling a traditional tale. Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf became Little White Fluffy Seal and Tall Terrifying Polar Bear. Maths has seen us working on missing number problems, adding and subtracting with tricky columns and using rounding to estimate answers (which was very tricky!. Science has brought us our first outdoor learning one lovely sunny afternoon when we were talking all about and making Arctic food chains. In D&T, the children made their very own penguin snow globe - have a look at some of the wonderful finished articles...

And that's just a tiny bit of what we have been doing! Whew!!

I am also very happy to report that we have had Stanley in our room for 3 weeks in a row now which is fantastic as it means that we have really good attendance in class so very well done Dolphins! You must really enjoy coming to school! :-)

Coming up next week we have our Grandparents' Day so there's lots of baking (fantastic maths!) in store. We are really looking forward to showing the grandparents out fabulous school.

I'll leave the children to wave goodbye for now. Have a great weekend and whatever you are doing on Mothers' Day, I hope you have a lovely day.

End of term, end of term!!

We've had a fab week this week - lots and lots of learning in lots and lots of different ways.

As you may have seen elsewhere on the website, we had our Year 2 Grandparents' Day on Tuesday so we did lots of baking and making decorations for the hall. Baking is fantastic for literacy and maths skills in a really fun way as the children weigh things out, read numbers and read the recipes. We have had some lovely comments from some of the visitors - we were so happy!!

The children also asked to do some extra division in maths and some of them even got as far as calculating problems that have remainders!! Very well done to you!!

Then the serious business of Easter began to kick in. Whilst Mrs Patel was with the children on Thursday afternoon, they beavered (or should that be bunnied!) away, creating their own original Easter bonnets. There were some very innovative designs.

The children had time Friday morning to finish their wonderful millinery creations and in the afternoon we had an Easter Parade. All the Year 2 children showed off their work to the Year 1 classes. Take a look at all the lovely finished articles...

During the course of the week, the children also finally filled the crystal jar and earned themselves a whole class treat. We all went outside and the children had a bubble party! They learned VERY quickly not to blow bubbles into the wind and soon the field was filled with hundreds of lovely bubbles drifting on the breeze.

Well done Dolphins - you have worked hard to fill that jar - you totally deserved your treat.

Have a wonderful, chocolatey Easter and I'll see you all again in a couple of weeks - ready to do more fabulous learning!

21st April 2017

Welcome back! We hope you have had a great Easter break. The children have come back in ready to learn and have some fun in the process.

We started the new term with our Stunning Starter for our new topic - DEEP DOWN UNDER.

The children had a great morning on the first day, seeking pieces of what seemed to be a HUGE jigsaw. They went all over the field and even down into Forest School. Finally, once they had collected all the pieces, they worked as a team to put the picture together. It turned out to be a diver swimming beneath the ocean. I wonder where this fabulous topic will take us! We will let you know more...

As promised, please click on the link below to view the year 2 summer overview.

CLICK HERE for the overview

CLICK HERE to see our Summer newsletter

12th May 2017

Mayday Dance and Picnic

Last Friday, after weeks of practising and lots of counting to eight, the children performed a set of traditional English dances to perfection! They even managed to encourage parents to have a go. Take a look at the pictures to see how much fun we all had. 

9th June 2016

 Goodness me! I hope everyone rested well over half term because this week has been sooooo busy! We have been finding out all about turtles in the wild, writing letters and making books in Literacy, practicing adding and subtracting BIG numbers (like 4921 - 2157) in maths and in science we have moved on to look at electricity - where does it come from, what things around us use electricity from the mains or from batteries and how to make a circuit that works. The children were shockingly (get it?!) good at this science and are really looking forward to exploring electricity more next week.

In addition to our learning, we have had two exciting events to think about as well. On Wednesday, the Women's Tour bike race shot through Long Buckby on their latest stage. We were amazed at how closely together the ladies were and by how many extra bikes were needed - every car seemed to have at least 6 on the roof!! The children behaved impeccably as usual and proved yet again that they are an absolute credit to you, their parents, and to us, their school.

Then, on Friday, we had our sponsored walk to raise money to help endangered animals. The children were extremely keen to get going and some even tried to run the whole 30 laps!! We were exhausted just watching them go past! We think it was almost 3 miles they did in the end so very well done to all of the children. They didn't let a little thing like a sudden downpour stop them - they simply folded up their lap cards and tucked them under their coats to stay dry. We are looking forward to seeing how much money the school has raised so keep collecting that sponsor money and remember that it is not too late to get new sponsors!

Finally, you should now have received the letter by email about our Year 2 educational visit to Hunstanton. Please do read and respond as soon as you can so we can get cracking on making sure that every child is able to enjoy this fabulous experience.

Have a great weekend - don't forget to put the finishing touches to those maths games - they are due in by Wednesday please.

14th July 2017

Goodness me! What a busy, busy month we have had in Year 2!! In addition to all of our fabulous classroom learning, we have had a wonderful trip to the seaside and run a cafe for the local community! 

Last Friday, the children had a wonderful learning experience beside the sea as they journeyed to Hunstanton for the Fabulous Finish to our Deep Down Under topic. They learned about water safety (very important as we approach the summer holidays), how to make a working kite and how to fly it, what it feels like to be on a boat on the sea and how delicious fish and chips are when eaten in the sea air!

It was a long, long journey to Hunstanton but the children were so beautifully behaved, both there and back again, that we hardly knew we had them on the bus! We walked to a nice safe and quiet spot on the beach and almost immediately we took to the water - paddling, splashing and pretending to be mermaids! There were lots of crabs, cockles and winkles found, some alive, some not so alive.

After paddling and beach play, it was time for fish and chips then the most exciting part of the day - a trip on the Wash Monster, an amphibian vehicle that drove up onto the sand then turned around and sailed away into the sea. It was an amazing day and we returned to school with lots of very tired children. Take a look at some of the highlights...

After that it was all hands on deck to prepare for the Year 2 Community Cafe, where the children worked incredibly hard to raise money for the school and for their chosen charity - the Birmingham Children's Hospital. They had to design, make and run their own stall as well as making lots and lots of sweets and cakes for the visitors to taste. There were so many different things to do - we had a Treasure Hunt, Sponge Throw, Blind Football, a raffle, a chocolate tombola, books, fruit.....Oh my word! There was so much to do! The weather tried to dampen our spirits but the Year 2's showed the rain that they would keep calm and carry on - we are so very proud of them! They raised around £350 to be split between the 2 good causes and learned a huge amount about being independent, taking responsibility and helping others. Very, very well done Year 2!!

It is so hard to believe it will be our very last week together next week. It has been an absolute pleasure working with these talented, hard working and considerate children for the past year.

Hopefully we will see you all at the Leavers' Assembly on Wednesday afternoon. Have a great weekend!