Cranes are opportunistic birds that change their diet according to the season. Cranes class demonstrate this when they adapt their learning skills to different topics. Cranes are kind and helpful to others and bring teamwork into all aspects of our school day. However, they can be solitary at times, using independence and resilience when faced with certain challenges. 

WELCOME TO Y2 Cranes Class

The class teacher for this year is Mrs Sarah Jarrett and the LSAs who work in this class are; Mrs Astin and Mrs Varney

The theme for the Summer term is 'To Infinity... and Beyond - Space!'. We asked the children what their interests were and what they would like to learn about and space was a very popular suggestion! We have already 'kicked off' our theme with a Space Day full of different space related activities. We will continue to inspire the children and explore the subject of space in many different ways within school as well as having the opportunity to take part in a variety of trips! 

For more information on our curriculum please look at our Summer Term Curriculum Plan below.

The theme for the Spring Term is a whole school theme called 'We are Seven Billion Stars'. We use this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmcRa70LHe8 as our hook and initial talking point to discuss what the term 'community' meant to the children. Recently, we had a visit from Occombe Farm which give the children a first hand experience of how to care for chickens. We will be fund raising throughout this term to enable us to purchase and raise our own flock of chickens!

 For more information on our Curriculum, click on the Spring Term. 

The theme for Autumn term was 'Explore'. Initially we are explored 'Under the Sea' and the next area of children's interest was the Rainforests. Some of the exciting learning opportunities that have happened have included; a trip to Brixham Fish Market and a tour of the Golden Hind, as well as a beach trip where we explored rock pools and created team sand art! In the first half term the focus was History, beginning with Sir Francis Drake and history of pirates. For more information on our curriculum, click on the Autumn Term 1 Curriculum Plan.

During the second half of the term, the children have been explored the Rainforests. During this half term the children went to the zoo and explored Rainforest animals. They became 'Deadly 60 experts' for an animal of their choice and created non-fiction animal leaflets. They looked at the different layers of the Rainforest and it's inhabitants. As well as this they looked into Fair Trade and made some homemade fair trade products that they shared with their parents.  

PE Days: Wednesday & Thursday.

Home Learning: Handed out on a Friday and in on a Wednesday. This will give you the opportunity to explore your child's learning if you wish.

Team Leader: Mrs Sarah Jarrett

If there are any issues or concerns, please feel free to come in and see the teacher (Mrs Sarah Jarrett) or contact the Team Lead. 

sjarrett@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk.

UPCOMING EVENTS

2nd July - Transition Day - meet your new teachers.

4th July Summer Fayre.

OUR SPACE SHOWCASE

We celebrated our learning with a 'Space Showcase'. Parents and grandparents came into our class first to look at all our learning. They were amazed at our writing and challenges in Maths, we also showed them the Art work in our sketch books too. 

Then we went into the hall and sang our space song 'Star Trekking' and shared our Talk for Writing and our Space performance poems.

HORRID HENRY LIVE STREAM

We enjoyed watching the live stream with Francesca Simon. She talked about how she got inspiration for her stories and answered questions. She told us that she has written 24 books and 96 stories. We are looking forward to reading to 

www.childrensauthorlive.com

DT SPACE DAY

We had a great day during our DT Day..... Initially we looked at pictures of rockets and labelled the parts. Then we used these pictures to help us design out rockets. We labelled our designs with materials that we wanted to use. Then we investigated the best way to join materials together. After that we made our rockets from junk materials.  

Live Web Chat with Christopher Lintott......

We were lucky enough to have a live web chat with an astrophysicist Christopher Lintott. Christopher used to be a pupil at White Rock and he told us that when he was at our school he loved Science and was always asking lots of questions about why things happened.

He talked to us about Space and the planets and answered lots of our questions

Science - Gravity investigation

In Science we planned and carried out a Science experiment to investigate the impact of gravity on various objects. We made predictions about what we thought would happen and why, using scientific vocabulary. We worked as a team in groups of four and carried out the investigation on the playground.

We found out that the speed of the object falling to the ground isn't just to do with the weight of the object but the air resistance as well.

Space Explorer Dome came to visit us...

Explorer Dome came to visit and we all got to crawl through the tunnel into the dome. Inside the dome we learnt lots of exciting new facts about space and the planets, experienced star gazing and listened to some really exciting stories.

These are some of the facts we learnt and the questions we asked:

How long would it take to get to Jupiter? - 5 years

How many craters are there on the moon? - Millions and some have names

A spaceship left form Pluto over 9 years ago and is expected to arrive in June this year.

The sun is a million times bigger than the Earth.

The moon is about a quarter of the size of earth

Jupiter has 67 moons

There is some gravity on the moon but its a lot less than on Earth.

Cinema Trip to watch 'Home'

As part of our new Theme 'To Infinity and Beyond' we went to the local Cinema -Vue and watched the film 'Home'. When we returned to school we wrote a film review and talked about what it would be like if aliens came to Earth.  We thought about how the film demonstrated some of our school values; Innovation, Belonging, Teamwork and Leadership... Look at our writing to see what we thought

Phonics - we went on a word hunt.....

During Phonics learning we have been learning about suffixes. We went on a word hunt around the room and sorted the words into columns depending on the suffix the word had.

Maths - Directions.

In Maths we have been focusing on directional language. We worked in pairs and one person was the commander - giving directions and the other person was the robot - being directed. We had great fun drawing our own paths.

The language we used included; forwards, backwards, left and right, clockwise, anti-wise, quarter-turn, half-turn, full-turn, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, North, East, South and West.

To Infinity and Beyond...........

We had a fantastic first day back to the Summer term, full of exciting learning activities. We all had an opportunity to sketch ourselves on the moon, dance like astronauts, compose a space soundscape using a variety of instruments, learn the names and order of the planets and witness a rocket launch experiment.

We even got ot meet some real-life astronauts and a NASA commander..... 

SCIENCE - Hunting for Habitats

We have been learning about habitats and living and non-living objects. We talked about the 7 life processes (MRS NERG). We searched the school environment for different habitats and used the iPads to take photos.

We then wrote about the characteristics of each habitat and what sort of animals or insects that live there.

WORLD BOOK DAY

We dressed up as Traditional Tale characters and brought in our favourite book to share with others. We wrote book reviews and explained why we chose that particular book as their 'favourite'.

World Book Day Class Book Share

On World Book Day 5Merlins came to our class and some of us went to their classroom. We got a share our favourite book with the Year 5 children and they shared theirs with us. Here are some of our thoughts about the experience:

Ellie Jaye Yr5 - "It's really interesting to read a book you wouldn't normally enjoy"

Mason Yr 2 - " Good, because it's fun hearing their different voices when they read"

Jess Yr 2 - "It's nice having them read to you"

Sophie Yr 5 - "I like that we were all having fun and laughing together"

Harry Yr 2 - "It's nice being read ti. It's fun and relaxing"

Amelia Yr 5 - "It was nice because 'Six Little Chicks' is a good book and I enjoyed reading it"

Day 11 in the White Rock chicken incubator! We candled our eggs in a dark room using a bright torch. Have a look at the pictures below to see what is happening...

FARMER DAY

The children in Year 1 and 2 had a day of 'immersion' in our topic. They spent the day dressed up as farm characters. We had one of our Grandmas who is a farmer come to visit us and talk to us about different types of chickens and how to care for our eggs.

The activities the children experienced were:

Collage 

Making chocolate crispy nests

Six Little Chicks Quiz

Labeling and setting up the incubator

Walking around the school grounds looking for the best place for our Chicken Coop.

CHICKEN CAKE SALE

The children in KS1 decided to do a 'chicken cake sale' to raise money for our own Chicken Coop. For home learning they designed and made their cakes and then sold them to the rest of the school.

We will let you know how much we raised £403.84. 

Occombe Farm came to Visit.

Occombe Farm came to visit us in the second week of the Spring Term. They brought some chickens in for us to meet. We learnt all about different kinds of eggs and the types of chickens there are. We watched a video of how the egg is fertilised and then how the chick grows inside the egg.

We also meet the chickens and asked lots of questions about what we need to do in order to look after the chickens - we asked some interesting questions.

The facts some us said we learnt were:

I didn't know eggs came in different colours.

I didn't know it only took 21 days for a chick to hatch.

When chickens hatch they are wet and yucky, not yellow and fluffy!

Non-Fiction Texts

We have been learning about different features of Non-Fiction texts. To help us remember all the features we have thought of actions to help us remember then. After looking at the text we are going to write our own Non-Fiction book about Chickens. We are researching the information in teams using a variety of information sources e.g. iPads, text, books etc.

RAINFOREST CELEBRATION

Parents and adults were invited into our classroom for a celebration of our Rainforest learning. The children shared their learning with their parents and adults, presented some facts about the Rainforest and FairTrade and then sang the song 'Down in the Jungle'.

Our Trip to the Zoo

Year 2 went on a trip to Paignton zoo. We had a really informative talk about the Rainforest, where we learnt lots more facts. Then we had a Rainforest quiz to complete in out groups and we all choose an animal to focus on and describe, ready for writing animal poems back at school.

Some quotes from the children:

Justin - My best bit was when we went to see the crocodiles, they were really exciting and we described them well on our sheet too

Kyle G - I liked seeing the Poison Dart Frog there was a blue and an orange one

Toby - I liked the Gorillas because they jumped up at us and banged on the window!

Tia - I loved the tigers because it was like they were in bunk beds, one was asleep on the roof and one was asleep underneath

Animal Leaflets

After writing our Leaflets Crane class then shared them with Year 1 and taught them some new facts about the Rainforests and their focus animal.

They children said:

Abigail - Year one liked my leaflet and they said they were going to decorate theirs with flowers like mine!

Olly - They said I have neat handwriting and neat colouring

Toby - I had to explain to a Year 1 what a reptile was because they didn't know!

Hetti - One of the Year 1 children asked me what a Poison Dart Frog was and I said a frog that is very poisonous with black spots on it.

PaddleBoat Theatre came to visit

PaddleBoat Theatre Company came to perform ‘A Little Man’s Holiday’ to the children. They enjoyed the experience immensely. The children were a fantastic audience and really engaged during the workshop after. All the children found the performance enriching and entertaining.

Some of the children's quotes:

' I liked it when he lifted the small treasure chest and couldn't lift the big one'

'It was funny when the little man was asleep after he had been swimming and his mum tried to wake him up and he spat water at her'

'I liked it when little man was swimming and he swam around all of us in the audience'

Questions some of our children asked the actors after their workshop:

Hayden; Was the story real?

Kyle G: Where do you come from?

Murray: Where was the story set?

Our Science investigation.........

Which is the best material for Fisherman Tom's new coat?

We looked at the story 'The Mousehole Cat'. The children thought about what it would have been like for Fisherman Tom out on his Fishing boat in the ferocious storm. In pairs the children tried to think of as many describing words as they could to describe what Tom was seeing, hearing and feeling while he was trying to catch the fish to feed the villagers. Later in the week to our surprise we got a letter from Fisherman Tom asking us to investigate which material would be the best for a new coat for him. It had to be warm and waterproof.

In groups the children carried out an investigation and wrote letters back to Fisherman Tom to explain their findings. The majority of the children decided Wool and Nylon would be the best for his new coat. 

Another text we focused on was 'Dougal's Deep Sea Diary'. We thought of questions we wanted to ask Dougal. To our surprise he made a visit to our school and we hot-seated him. He parked his submarine in Paignton's harbour whilst he was visiting White Rock. We also learnt to describe a setting in the book 'Atlantis' which is a city under the sea. 

Some of the questions we asked him were:

'How long can you stay under the water for?'

'Did you see any sharks?'

'Who was the ghost pirate?'

'Why did you choose the old rickety boat to dive from?'

KS1 children went on a trip to Brixham in the second week of term. They had a fantastic time and learnt lots! We went to Brixham Fish Market and had a tour from the harbour master. He showed us a variety of fish the fishermen would find in Brixham, the fishing boats, how they weigh and sort the fish and the harbour master's office.

We had lunch on Breakwater beach and then went and explored the Golden Hind. We are now 'Sir Francis Drake' experts. 

One child said "This is the best trip I have ever been on"

Another child said "Wow, I didn't know that female lobsters had that many eggs under their body"