Why be ordinary when we can be extraordinary?  

A big warm welcome to our wonderful and exciting class page from all of 2B. Our class motto is 'Learn to love, Love to learn'. We are always trying our best to be kind, friendly, loving, respectful and work together as a team to become the best person that we can.

We thrive from a stimulating, vibrant, interactive learning environment where we learn through practical and engaging experiences. Our class atmosphere is calm, happy and we all have lots of fun. Whenever we are faced with a challenge, we just remember what Miss Brodgen and Miss Bretherton say "Nothing is impossible, why the word itself says I'm Possible".

Here are photographs for you to view. What do you think of our wonderful learning environment? We are very proud of it. Millie Brogan says "It's amazing because we have lots of wonderful areas in which we can learn and play".

 Lucie said "I like our Come and See area because it is colourful and  pretty. Our board is all about God and how much he loves us".

"I like our reading area beacuse it is quiet and I can read different books" said Alex.

Bethanie said "I like our reading area because there are lots of books to choose from. It is colourful and has comfortable chairs and cushions".

Holly said " I like our communication tent because it is quiet and peaceful".

"I like our tent because

it is cosy and warm" said Gary.

Tia said "I like our communication tent because we can chat inside it".

                  Millie said "I like our role play area because it is creative. It's a lovely area to play with my friends".

Can you guess what character Millie is?

Martin said "I like our role play area because I can dress up as different characters".

Can you be a character detective?

My chararcter has enormous ears and magic in his feet.

Who am I?

Can we build it?! Yes we can!

"I like our construction area because I can be creative" said Dylan.

Archie said "I enjoy building".

     John said "It is cool and I can build anything I want to".

      "We have lots of space to build" said Conner.

     Joe said "I like building with my friends in the construction area".

      "We like to build The Great Fire of London" said Lucie.

      Millie said "I enjoyed building Pudding Lane Bakery and the  

      houses around it".

      "I enjoy building with my friends" said Bethanie.

We are the building crew!

 Jambo bab.la

(this means hello everybody in Swahili)

This week we have stepped into Africa with style! We couldn't wait to arrive at our destination .. Tanzania. We discovered that Africa is a large contintent with different countries within it. Our teachers had planned lots of exciting activities for us. We are very lucky! 

Are you ready to listen to Mambo music performed by all of year 2? Now your probably thinking that we used posh musical instruments to perform ..... well you would be wrong! 

We thought we would dress for the occasion ... check out our fabulous tie-dye tops ... designed and created by SFOA creative children! Also known as us! We love them and were amazed at how we could transform a plain ordinary white t-shirt into an amazing unique creation! 

We love being creative in Year 2! 

We even designed and created our own African jewellery using recycled cardboard, paint and pasta shells!                                                           Simple but yet so effective!

Meet Brian Costello (oragniser of Bash your Trash) We thought it was such a clever idea to use recycled items to make music!

Brian taught us the different names for the instruments and explained that Mambo means talking to the Gods. We found this very interesting! 

Next, Brian had us up moving and grooving to Mambo music.

We are fabulous dancers!

Check out our amazing moves!

Lyme Park     

We embarked on an adventure to Lyme Park, we were extremely excited. Lyme Park is a National Trust property and is in Stockport. Because we were learning all about shelters, we couldn't wait to make a den together out of sticks and leaves.

Meet Tom. We followed Tom into the woods as the mud squelched underneath our shoes.  He showed us how to pick up different sized branches and explained how we would need to work as a team to complete our challenge.

Be prepared to be amazed!

Hi ho hi ho it's off to work we go collecting all the twigs and all the leaves!

We loved running in the mud and making our den.

Carefully, we positioned the brances onto our frame. Through the tall branches in the woods, the sun came out.

Together

Everyone

Achieves

More

We were all ready for our scrumptious packed lunches. We couldn't wait to become explorers again and discover our next exciting activity. We met Tom by the gorgeous lake as the sun began to peep through the clouds and wind rustled through the trees. 

      We had so much fun finding leaves and then using a hammer to press on the paper. When we opened the paper we discovered a lovely leaf print as the juice from the leaves became the print.

Also we collected different sized sticks and Tom set us different challenges. He asked us to make a castle. We began to think back to our learning in Year 1 when we focused on Castles. Tom was super impressed as we labelled the castle. We are super clever and remembered information about the drawbridge, moat, turrets and what they were used for. 

  What do you think of our fantastic creation?

We had so much fun learning outdoors! 

Miss Brogden thinks we are artists in the making!

Slimy and slippery,

Snails are so much fun.   

Slowly they move, 

They can't even run! 

Leaving their trail,

Behind as they go.

You can see where they've been,

And how very slow.

Because we have really enjoyed learning about snails we decided to find some and make them our class pet. Lucie, Courtney and Miss Bretherton put on their rain coats and went on a snail hunt around the school grounds.

We completed some research and discovered that we would need a large container, soil, stones and leaves for them to munch on.

Did you know that a snail

eats food using a radula? We found out a radula is like a tongue.

It was fascinating watching the snail eat and we used all the posh vocabulary we have been learning.

We even thought of a simile ... a radula is as rough as a nail file. We are smartypants!

We loved looking at their tentacles. When the snail approached the tomato, the two small tentacles came out to sniff it. Did you know the two short tentacles help the snail to sniff and feel it's way around? The two long ones are to help the snail to see. 

We are going to conduct an investigation to see which vegetable the snails like to eat. We are also looking forward to holding our own snail race! Watch this space. 

Being curious about life is the secret of great creative people ...  

Who said preparing hard for SATS wouldn't be fun?

This week we are learning all about hedgehogs, which are a nocturnal animal. Miss Brogden and Miss Bretherton had prepared a hedgehog hunt outside for us to enjoy. We put on our explorer hats, got our magnifying glasses ready and were very excited and curious about what we were about to discover.

The prickly little hedgehog,

Goes slowly on his way.

He comes out in the evening,

And often sleeps by day.

He’s a gentle little fellow,

Who does no harm at all.

But if you try to hurt him,

He’ll curl up in a ball.

 We set off to explore with our clip boards to discover information about hedgehogs.      

    Did you know a baby hedgehog is called a hoglet?

We found out a fascinating fact ... a hedgehog has between 500 and 700 spikes on its back. 

Do you know what a hedgehog does when it is scared?

Millie explains "a hedgehog curls up in a ball when it is scared."

Alex concentrated

hard when reading 

the different clues.

We love learning outdoors and had lots of fun being an explorer. 

Bailey said "learning about nocturnal animals is so much fun!"

 We found out that when a hedgehog is looking for food it makes a snorting sound like a pig. Tia thought of a fantastic simile "hedgehogs snort as loud as a pig!"

They are active at night,

They sleep when we play.

They hunt in the dark,

They hide during the day.

What are they?

      Nocturnal animals!

Play is our brain's favorite way of learning

PE was so much fun this week. We were practicing the skill of throwing and catching a ball. We used different sized balls and were challenged to see how many times we could catch the ball before we dropped it.

We had to concentrate really hard and make a cup shape with our hand to catch the ball.

We desperately wanted to be the last ones standing!

However, we know it is the taking part which counts!

Well done Connor you concentrated really hard and listened really carefully to all of the instructions. 

Courtney and Leona worked really well together as a team. 

Together 

Everyone

Achieves

More

The Sun has got it's hat on ... hip hip horray!    

Glorious weather, excitement, curosity can only mean 1 thing ... Summer is on its way and yet another extraordinary school trip ... how lucky are we! Because we have been learning how write Non-chronolgical reports and trying really hard we decided to have a day of fun whilst learning lots of fasinating facts and meeting lots of interesting sea creatures. We were so excited and wondered what creatures we would meet ...

There is a curious commotion at the bottom of the ocean, we thought we ought to take a look ...

After a short coach journey we had arrived at our destination! Excitedly, we put on our goggles and got ready to dive underwater ...

Holly cried "I can't wait to go inside, this is a cool trip!"

What ocean animal has no brain, no heart, no bones, no eyes and no ears?

Lucie stated "this a cool fact!"

Dylan said "we could change the colour of the screen and the jelly fish lit up!" How cool is that! We are looking forward to making our own jelly fish. Watch this space!

We learnt this rhyme ...

The jelly fish just loves to jiggle

Which other fish think is quite dumb,

She knows that it's not quite that useful,

But jiggling's so much fun!

We learnt lot's of interesting facts and how important it is to look after our ocean.

Look how amazing these pictures are. Here is Bernie the turtle ...

The sea life centre completed a litter pick on Formby Beach collecting litter from the sea. Astonishingly, they discovered a bottle which dated back to 1964. We were all shocked and worked out it had been in our ocean for 51 years!

I swim with a grin to meet you,

See how my jaws open wide,

Why don't you come a bit closer?

Please take a good look inside ....

It was so much fun walking through the tunnel ... we saw sharks, turtles and lots of different fish swimming all around us! Thankfully, we were safe behind the glass.

We discovered a fascinating fact about sharks ...

Sadly, 71 million sharks are killed every year! This made us feel sad .. we asked the question why? A Sea Life Centre assistant explained people kill sharks for their fins, so they can make shark fin soup and use the fins to make some makeup products. We were disgusted! Our message to everyone is ... please do not eat shark fin soup and check out ingredients of makeup products before you purchase them.

Another wonderful memory to add to our vast collection! We were so hot we fancied a dip in the cool water!

We were astonished at these amazing models made out of lego!

To infinity and beyond ... maybe we can build a model like this one day... after all anything is possible!

    Harry Potter you must go to Hogwarts!

How cool are these two models. We tried to guess how long it would have taken to build these creations.

    Our lunch somehow always tastes extra yummy whilst on a school trip!

We became VIP's and went behind the scenes at the Sea Life Centre ...

how important did we feel!

Meet Alex. She told us lots of important information about her job. She makes sure the water is just right for the animals and prepares all the food that each creature requires. We thought she did a great job especially within a very fishy environment. If you get a chance to go ... make sure you hold your nose at first!

Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?

Recognise this song?

What a fascinating fact! We think crabs are amazing!

The crab likes walking sideways

and we think the reason why

is to make himself look sneaky, and pretend he is a spy!

We were very brave!

We also met a starfish ... it felt soft.

We had a fantastic day out at the Sea Life Centre ... 10/10 for having fun, learning new facts and coming up close to sea creatures.

Our next question to Miss Brogden was ... "where are we going for our next trip?" we love learning outside of school and think we are very lucky as since we started Year 1 with Miss Brogden we have visited so many wonderful places.

Creepy Crawly Show GET ME OUT OF HERE!

We started our new term with a WOW factor by inviting the Creepy Crawly Show into our class. Last year in Year 1 we were captivated by a vast amount of creatures so we were eager to see what tricks and creatures we would meet this time. Because we are learning about Nocturnal animals we began to guess which ones we would see. We hoped we would meet a snake and a scorpian. 

Say hello to ... Stephen also known as The Bug Man! 

  Stephen quizzed us on what we knew about Nocturnal animals ... becuase we are now experts we confidently told him all the facts we knew!

We are a bunch of smartypants!

Out popped a cockroach ... What do you think would happen if you stood on a cockroach and its head fell off? Your probably thinking it would die ... However, amazingly it would survive becuase it also has a brain in its bum! We found this fact hilarious!

Look how brave Archie was! He said " it feels really hard and its tickling me!"

Look how courageous Dylan was when he held a corn snake! Dylan said "I didn't know a corn snake was a nocturnal animal!"

Creativity, fun and big smiles ... It's the Easter bonnet parade 

Gosh how time flies when your having fun! We can still remember last years parade when we were in Year 1. We couldn't wait to show off our fantastic creations to the whole school and our families. Being creative is so much fun! 

Chick chick chick chick chicken lay a little egg for me .... sorry these little chickens prefer to play football. Well done Martin for having such a unique idea.

Cast your eyes upon this amazing idea ... Archie has created a spider eggs world! Many people stopped to admire it. 

Paper mache = lot's fun! This creative trio definitely enjoyed using their creativity to produce wonderful bonnets. 

We even had our own cowboy bonnet ... yee har, a basket full of tempting treats and a Ninja Turtles creation. 

We love striking poses for the camera. 

Ready, Steady .... Go!

That's right ... we had our very own egg and spoon race! With real chocolate eggs of course. Reception popped their heads over for a sneaky peep. The perfect end to an exciting morning. Because we have become independent, Miss Brogden asked different children to be in charge of hosting the race. Well done Year 2 - you are fantastic organizers! 

Lucie took the lead with Tia and Millie closely behind .... excellent balancing girls! We wonder who won ...

The prize egg goes to ... Lucie! Hip Hip Horray! 

A big smile from Bailey who stated "this was a fantastic surprise!"

Easter is a time to be joyful, hopeful and 

peaceful ... 

Today we had a surprise ... we arrived in class after dinner to discover all an empty Easter egg packet! We wondered where all the eggs were hiding and we decided in pairs to look outside. However, questions had been left for us to solve before we could search for the scrumptious eggs. Because we have been really listening in class we were confident that we would be able to answer all of the questions. 

Millie asked "where do snails live?" Tia replied "snails live in plant pots, in the sea and on land." 

Quickly, Tia ran to find her chocolate eggs! Yummy Yummy! 

Tia exclaimed "I felt really excited to discover what the Easter bunny had left me!"

Lucie stated "we do really exciting things in 2B!" 

Did you know a badger has 5 toes? Wow!

We have been learning all about nocturnal animals and discovered that they sleep in the day and come out at night. Last week we discovered lots of information about snails and this week we have researched badgers. We worked in mixed ability pairs and produced amazing posters. What do you think?

  We are very proud of our hard work and how

independent we have become. After half

term we have chosen to learn about

scorpians and bats. We had a class

vote to choose the animals/creatures

                                       which we were most interested in.

Jambo kila mtu

Can you discover what these words mean? Can you discover which language these words are from?

2B are very excited about meeting Dada Ron and Kaka Sue on Monday. Dada means brother and Kaka means sister. Ron and Sue have worked extremely hard to form their own charity to help and support children and families in Africa. We are very lucky to be welcoming them into our school to discover lots of information about Africa as a country and the amazing work they do there. If you would like to find out more about their charity please visit www.acecharity.uk.

Watch this space for how the school council proposes how our school can help and support this fantastic charity. They have brainstormed ideas which they will present to Ron and Sue on Monday. Well done to all of them for their wonderful contributions.

The whole school enjoyed the assembly and showed empathy towards the children who live in Africa. The school Council enjoyed putting their ideas forward to Ron and Sue. We are very excited about beginning our fund raising an writing blogs for Ron and Sue's website.  

Ron and Sue loved our vibrant classroom especially our African hut and our amazing art work. We decided to dress up in our own African clothes and had our picture taken with them. We are very proud of our classroom.

After Easter we are looking forward to making a project for the children at Arise school in Africa and hosting an exciting African day. Watch this space.

bye kwa sasa

It's the palm of my hand, the day before Monday and the start of Easter ...

Can you figure this riddle out?

We have been learning all about opportunities and thought of all the wonderful opportunities we have each day. Joe explained we have the opportunity to say sorry and forgive one another. Bethanie stated we can show love to each other and went on to explain how Jesus teaches us to do this. Lucie said we have the opportunity to try our best in everything we do. Miss Brogden was blown away by our mature ideas. We definitely have grown up so much since when we first started Miss Brogden's class in Year 1!

Because it was such a glorious day on Thursday, we decided to take our learning outdoors and re-enacted Palm Sunday together as a team.

Problem solving madness ignited fun, discussion, reasoning and lots of brain power!    

Entering the hall, we didn't know what to expect ... In front of us lay an enormous grid which was filled with squares. The only clue we had was what we could see ... there were numbers on the vertical line and letters on the horizontal line. Hmmmmm ideas generated the room, until Bailey kindly explained we would be learning about co-ordinates. Well done Bailey! Working in pairs, we tested out our ideas to find the successful route, trying our best to avoid standing on squares which buzzed. We were all very excited.

Miss Brogden and Mrs Wright even had a go, with our help of course. Guess what?

Because we all worked together as a team and used lots of brain power, we made it! Cheers could be heard by all. Maths really is fun when you are actively involved, allowed to make mistakes and most important of all test out your ideas together.

Miss Brogden and Mrs Wright were very proud of themselves, although we know they couldn't have done it without us! We enjoyed acting like teachers and directing them around the

co-ordinates grid.

Individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean ...

We had another opportunity to work together as a team, using an enormous multi-coloured parachute. We all had so much fun playing a game together called cat and mouse. This was a reward for working extra hard preparing for our SATS. There was laughter, cheer and enjoyment as the wind blew the parachute into the air.

Miss Bretheron surprised us and took on the role of the cat. We think we have the best teachers in 2B!

Then ... out popped Miss Bretherton!

We had a clear winner ... Mr Dunne!

Reading is dreaming with open eyes 

We are about to embark on an exhilarating journey of imagination, discovery and wonder ... Our theme for the week is books can take you anywhere! Does this mean that if I read a book about a desert island I will automatically appear there? This theme will be explored by the children throughout World Book Week. Watch this space for our fabulous learning through the wonderful world of books. 

In the circle, the circle of life...

Our Topic is Africa so we decided to find out more about The Lion King. This is one of Miss Brogden's favourite disney films. We listened to and sang along to to Circle of Life. We loved looking at all of the different animlas and discussing what they look like and how they move.

We all chose an African animal each and began to create a mask for our PE lesson.

We brought our masks to life by actually becoming the animals themselves ...

Miss Bretherton told us that there was a surprise waiting for us in the hall. We were so eager to start our PE lesson.

WOW... our hall had be transformed into an African Savannah. Gosh it was hot in there!

In mixed ability groups we each thought of a sequence and focused on how our animals move. We are going to blow your socks off...

We know actions are verbs and we use adverbs to add extra description to the verb. WOW! Gracefully we performed our sequences for each other, with dramatic effects! Finally, we peer assessed one another. What a fantastic time we had!

Remember I am always with you ...

Do you know which special person said these comforting words?

If you thought it was Jesus ... then  you are correct! First, we watched an animated clip about The Last Supper and discussed the important symbols and words which Jesus uses and says. We decided we wanted to act out this special event to gain a deeper understanding of what happened on this special night.

We discovered how special the bread and wine were at The Last Supper. Did you know the bread represents Jesus's body and the wine represents Jesus's blood? 

Can you guess what we did next in our learning?

A delicious smell of baking bread began to swarm the entire school ... mmmmmm ...

Thanksgiving

We are really enjoying our new Come and See topic. We discussed what we are thankful in school, our homes and our community. We brainstormed our ideas in a spider diagram .. we thought of so much which we are thankful for.

Tia said "I know what the word community means .. it means outside our school and our home." We are superstar learners in Year 2!

Because we are very creative and love expressing ourselves/our ideas through art, we decided as a class to use oil pastels to create beautiful pictures which depict what we are thankful for.

Creativity is a leap of faith ...

Artists in the making ..

Bethanie and Joe were hard at work. Bethanie said I enjoyed learning how to smudge with the chalk pastels.

Joe said " I love learning and we learn new things every day!"

Bailey and Holly worked together as a team discussing their ideas as they created their art work. Holly explained I drew animals because they are God's special creatures.

Internet Safety

We had great fun celebrating this important day. We really enjoyed learning Sid's important song. We loved the fact that Sid is a superhero with magical powers. We love drama in Year 2 and decided as a class to make our own masks and make our own unique plays. Acting out is so much fun! 

Miss Brogden put us into different groups and we began to practice our ideas. We really enjoy being imaginative and using our fantastic speaking and listening skills.

Miss Brogden & Miss Bretheron said we were amazing superstars!

Lights, camera, action!

Sit back and enjoy watching our wonderful production of ... Sid to the rescue!

We wanted to convey a really important message to everybody .. 

Can you be a detective and discover our important message to you?

mmmmmmm

Scrumptious shortbreads

We were delighted when Jane from the office appeared in our classroom with a big envelope. She said it had arrived by special delivery. We felt very important. We couldn't believe our eyes...It was addressed to our class. We were all so eager to discover what was inside.

Eagerly, we opened the envelope and began to read the letter. We discovered that the letter was from our friend 'Katie Morag'. Can you believe that this letter came all the way from The Island of Struay, which is just off the coast in Scotland. Lucie explained "This letter must have come on the ferry, across the water". The letter requested our help because Katie Morag couldn't remember the instructions for how to make her scrumptious shortbreads.

Because we are so helpful in 2b we gathered the equipment and ingredients and couldn't wait to start baking. Can you believe that you only need three ingredients?

Flour

Caster sugar

Butter

Carefully, Millie weighed the caster sugar whilst Tia monitored the scales. We only needed 55g.

 We enjoyed mixing all of the ingredients together to create a smooth paste.

We kneaded the dough with the palms of our hands to form a  ball. Dylan said "This looks like a sphere".

Roll, roll, roll the dough gently on the tray....

'Great stories happen to those who can tell them'

Did you know.....?

This week is National Story telling Week. For our homework we were set an interesting challenge. We were asked to choose our favourite book from home or the library. However the challenging part was to practise story telling and to use actions and props.

We watched Miss Brogden story tell The Paper Bag Princess and we thought it was amazing. We couldn't wait to get started.

On Monday we arrived at school with books, fantastic ideas and costumes. Independently, we put ourselves into groups and began delegating roles. As a team we decided which props were required and set off to make them. We also considered the different settings. It was so exciting.

ACTION TAKE 1!

Let the fun begin.....

Did you know that on Monday it was a special day which is celebrated around the world?

It was Robert Burns's special day.

We discovered that Robert Burns was a famous Scottish Poet, who lived a long time ago. We had a fun day learning all about him.

Alex said "it was fun because I love using different bright paints."

Millie said"I loved painting my own tartan pattern!"

We think Gymnastics is so much fun ...

What do you think of our fabulous balancing?

We were set a challenge to use different body parts to balance with. This was tricky but lots of fun at the same time!

Holly said "I was working hard to stretch as wide as I could!"

Joe said "I enjoyed thinking of my own way to balance."

Never, eat, shredded wheat!

Miss Brogden told us an easy way to remember compass directions. You will never believe what we did next ... 

First, we were blindfolded.

Next, we had to listen really carefully to our friends as they were saying the directions.

After that, we were guided by a friend to follow the directions.

You might be wondering why we were blindfolded, listening extra carefully and following directions ...

We discovered a message in a bottle from Katie Morag! She pleaded for our help because she was lost on the Isle of Stray! OH NO!  We were chuffed with ourselves as we achieved our tricky challenge!

We love learning through play and having fun.

Sticky fingers and alot of fun = cooking time!

We discovered a secret recipe in an envelope. It was from Katie Morag! WOW! She told us how much she loved making and eating flapjacks. We decided to make some and see what we thought.

We enjoyed working together as a team, measuring/weighing the different ingredients and getting messy! Tia explained " pouring in the syrup was the best bit as it was sticky!"

We had great fun flattening the oats before we placed the tray into the oven. We couldn't wait for it to cook so we could taste our delicious creation. We wondered wether we would love flapjacks just as much as Katie Morag does.    

              Are you ready to be inspired?

"You can go as far as your mind lets you ... what you believe, remember, you can achieve".

 On Tuesday we invited our parents and families into school by making them a special invitation. We wanted our families to see our beautiful learning environment and how wonderful and exciting our lessons are. Our families were delighted to be a part of our learning.

 We had lots of fun working with our friends, families and trying our best to problem solve all the different challenges. Our brothers and sisters even came and joined in. It was smiles all round when we were the ones showing our families how clever we are! We definitely are superstar learners in Year 2.

Millie said "On Inspire day I worked with Martin counting on from different numbers and I used my fingers to help Martin count on".

Connor said "It was a tricky game becuase we were doubling 2 digit numbers".

Dyland stated "we worked as a team to solve the answers".

Global Week - WOW Factor

'We are one but we are not the same'.

We are looking forward to  learning about a different country to where we live. Our question is: how is our country similar/different to America?

Our teacher has told us a new a new quote 'we are one but we are not the same'.

What does this mean?

When we find out you will be the first to know.

We all want to become global citizens and discover ways of making our world a better place. Watch this space.....

 diversity   

  love        peace

happiness

Did you know it is one world week?

Welcome to SFOA airlines. Please sit comfortably and relax because we are about to embark on an exhilerating adventure.

Are you ready....steady.....go!

Our homework challenge was to pack a suitcase with clothes suitable for a hot country. Our teachers kept our destination a secret.

Quickly, we changed into our summer clothes. We were so excited.

  Millie said "I got dressed in my holiday clothes to go on the    plane".

Tia said "I was excited and couldn't wait to go on the plane to another country.                       

                        Dylan said "I got dressed into my best clothes,

                                         ready to go on the flight".

We set off around the airport to discover our correct gate number.

We didn't want to get on the wrong plane.

Previously on Friday we had learnt about passports and why we need them. We carried our passport and boarding cards and made our way to the deparature lounge.

Joe said "We made passports to describe what we look like and where we came from. We needed them for check in".

Tia said "I was checking the 

 passports and stamping them to make sure it was the right person".

Next step: to board the SFOA plane

We were each given a co-ordinate e.g. B4 and as we entered the plane we carefully found our seat.

Stevie said "I found my seat using the letter and number 6B. I sat down and put on my seat belt".

Gary said "I found my seat and sat down and watched the safety video".

Before take off we listened very cafefully to a safety video and demonstration by one of our very own air hostess' Miss Still. We discovered where we would exit the plane in an emergency.

Have you ever travelled on an aeroplane before?

After 8 long hours, lots of food and snoozes, we had reached our destination.....North America. Carefully we unclicked our seatbelts and put on our explorer hats.

We wonder what we will discover in a different country?

Over and out.....

We have been busy bees.....

Tia said "We used our new atlases to label the map".

Archie said "I looked at the world to find out where North

                                                               America was".

We were excited to use our new atlases. First we located the United Kingdom which is where we live then we searced the contents page to locate North America. We discovered that Washington DC is the capital city of America.

'We will forever be known by the tracks we leave behind us'.

We really enjoyed learning that Native Americans write stories using special symbols. Miss Brodgen set us a fun challenge to create an imaginative story map using the special symbols.

What do you think the different symbols mean?

Connor said "I painted Native American symbols to make a story map. It was fun".

We also made Indian faces, headbands and dream catchers.

Holly said "I made an Indian face and platted

wool to make the hair".

Archie said "I made a head band. I like doing creative work".

We worked together as a team to make a tipi. We are very pleased woth our wonderful creation.

Tia said" I painted the tipi with lots of colours. I used American symbols. It was great fun".

Bethanie said "I like to read lots of books and relax in the tipi".

Houston we have a problem....

Aliens have landed at SFOA School!

"Not 'Aliens with Underpants' (One of our favourite class books)".

We discovered a letter addressed to 2B and were eager to read it. This is what it said.....

We were furious with Zing and Zong for closing our school so they could store their spaceship there. We love our school so we decided we are going to write a letter to persuade them to keep our school open.

Why our school is special.....

First of all we thought of all the reasons why our school should remain open. We talked about what makes our school special.

Here are our wonderful thoughts....

Tia said "our school is special because we are one big family".

Connor stated "we learn new and fun things all the time".

Millie said "we have special teachers who are very kind".

The next day we learnt how to use mature persuassive vocabulary to express our arguments for and against. We used our loud strong voices and were very encouraging. We are very proud of ourselves.

When Miss Brogden told us what our next step in our learning was, we all got very excited....

We are going to have a debate, with our very own judge..... Mr Joe Preston.

Bet you thought only Key Stage 2 children were clever enough to have debates.....? Well you thought wrong. We do too!

Keep a look out for our court hearing....

Aliens are you ready....?

 Joe said "I enjoyed pretending to be the judge and getting dressed up".

Cheshire Reindeer Lodge

We felt extremely lucky in Year 2 to go on an adventure at Christmas time.

We even took Jingles along with us for the ride.

We had great fun, doing gangham style with Elves, meeting Father Christmas and feeding all the reindeers. Trixie who was chief Elf, who was happy to meet Jingles again as she had missed him.

What a magical experience we all had!

The spectacular arrival of ... Jingles 

Day 1

Jingles is Father Christmas' special and magical helper. He arrived in our classroom on Tuesday 2nd December. We came back after lunch and discovered him hanging from the whiteboard. He had got caught in the wires. Oh no! We couldn't help him because if we touched him he would lose his magic. 

When we returned to class after PE, Jingles had jumped down from the wires and placed himself on top of our frosty tipi. He must have been hungry because he had a chocolate muffin next to him ... it looked scrumptious. We all were laughing and thought he must be freezing on top of the ice. 

The Cake Thief

Day 2    

The next day we discovered Jingles all snuggly and warm in a stocking! He had eaten half of the chocolate cake .... we were shocked! We found a message in the stocking ... thanking us for the delicious cake but he could only eat half of it because he has a tiny tummy.

We wonder what mischief Jingles will get up to next ...

After lunch Jingles had taken the fairy off our gorgeous Christmas tree and took her place! He wrote another note saying ha ha I love your jokes! He had taken a joke our of our Christmas Advent calender. We think Jingles is one cheeky guy!

                                       Silent Night ...

Day 3  

In the night, Jingles had crept over to our festive Santa' s grotto and climbed on top of Father Christmas' shoulder. He was keeping warm by the fire. He had a request .... to make him a nice warm bed. 

Jingles must have been sleepy because after lunch we discovered him cosy and warm in Father Christmas' hat under our Christmas tree. We were very quiet .. we didn't want to wake him up. 

3, 2, 1 .. BLAST OFF!!

Day 4             

We were eager to get into school first this morning to find our what tricks Jingles had been up to in the night. We found him on top of the fire place in a rocket!! He wasn't alone .. he had made a new friend ... Miss Barbie! We wondered where they had blasted off to ... They looked like they had had great fun! Kindly, Tia brought in a fluffy teddy for Jingles to cuddle up to in the night. 

Archie and Bethanie worked as a team in their own time to create a comfy and warm bed for Jingles to sleep in. 

"It's so exciting each day finding out what Jingles has been up to" said Archie. 

"We can't wait to get into school to read Jingles' notes" exclaimed Tia. 

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Problem Solving Challenges ...

We were set different challenges to use coins/notes to make different amounts of money. We really enjoyed learning through this fun and practical activity. We counted in 2's and 20's ... we are clever clogs!

We hope you enjoy watching us count.

It's the most magical time of the year....

We have made our own stencils and used paint to create our unique wrapping paper.

Dylan said "I love being creative and doing art work".

Did you know....?

In China they call their Christmas tree, the tree of light.

Did you know....?

In Poland they have a special name for the star that sits on the top of the tree. It's called 'Gwiazdka' which means little star.

We have also been trying really hard at practicing our special Christmas play.

Calling all Superheros.....

Is it a bird, is is a plane...... no, its Iron Steel.

First, we used our ICT skills to create our very own superhero. We really enjoyed being imaginative and creative! Then, we thought of magical superhero powers too.

What a suprise....

The next day an amazing superhero by the name of Ice Crusader landed in our class. Wow! We found out that he could turn villians into ice, fly as fast as a plane and can speak in different languages. We were set a challenge....to use detail to interest the reader.

We used adjectives, verbs/adverbs and even wrote in paragraphs!

We are amazing writers in Year 2.

The Enormous Crocodile group were challenged to use similies....

Tia said "A similie is when you compare two things together".

Lucie said "It's when you use the words as and like".

Bailey gave me an example of a similie. He said "The water was as hot as a buring fire".

Holly said "The boy was running as fast as a cheetah".

What do you think of our fabulous similies?

Peer assessment

We have an 'I can' positive attitude in 2B!

In Year 1 Miss Brogden taught us how to self assess and then as we grew she taught us how to peer assess. We really enjoy reading each others work and look closely at our success criteria's to provide meaningful feedback to our friends.

We use two stars and a wish. we look for two positives and one for how it could be improved next time.

Tia said 'I feel proud when my friends read my work'.

Joe said 'I like it when I know what I am looking for'.

Lucie said 'I get ideas on how to improve my work'.

We really enjoyed our speaking skills to showcase our fabulous writing for you!

Sit back and enjoy....

We are good learners....

We talked about what makes a good learner and how our teachers can help us to learn.

How do you learn?

Millie said "I can be a good learner by listening to my teachers and making the right choices".

Gary said "My teachers help me by being friendly and caring".

Fireman Tony and all his crew....they'll be there to rescue you!

In addition to our visit from the theatre company, Tony from Skelmersdlae Fire Station visited Year 2. He told us lot's of important information about how the stay safe if a fire started and the importance of having a firealarm which works.

Lucie said "Fireman Tony taught us how to get out of a house safely if there is a fire".

Next step... Visit Skelmersdale Fire Station on Fridays 15th Novemeber.

Archie said "When we went to the fire station I learnt that the body armour keeps them safe".

London's burning, London's burning.....

We travelled back in time to the year 1666 and immersed ourselves into a new and exciting topic ..... The Great Fire of London.

Our teachers had an amazing surprise  awaiting us..... We felt very lucky to have yet another wow experience. Ellie from Freshfields Theatre Company worked with us to re enact this historical event. We had great fun and learnt lot's of interesting facts.

Dylan said "It was exciting when Ellie came into school.

I learnt about The Great Fire of London".

Do you know where the fire began?

On what lane did the fire start?

Sizzle, pop, sizzle, pop......       ssssssss!

We used our voices to make the noises the fire would make.....SSSSSSSS!

Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire

At first we didn't quite believe that no fire engines existed in 1666.....

Our question was how did they put the fire out?

              A bucket of water?                                                                    Using a squirter

                                                                                                            to extinguish the fire?

                       NO                                                                                              NO

Pour on water, pour on water.....

Can you discover how the Great Fire was extinguished?

We wondered how the fire had spread so fast. We put on our thinking hats and discovered another amazing fact we learnt.... Houses were made out of wood!

Can you imagine that?

We couldn't help but ask the question 'How can a fire be great?'

We researched our question on the computer and discovered that the word 'great' was describing how vast the fire was.

'For it is giving that we recieve'

Can you research which special person said this quote?

We have thought how we can show our special mission statement to our friends and teachers in school, in our community and ways in which we can live our lives like Saint Francis.

Saint Francis' Feast Day

Old McDonald had a farm....

E-I - E-I - O

and on that farm he had a chick

E-I - E-I -O

with a cluck cluck here and a cluck cluck there, here a cluck,

there a cluck everywhere a cluck cluck.

Old McDonald had a farm

E-I - E-I - O.

Did you know World Animal Day shares the same special day as Saint Francis of Assisi Feast Day.

We have learnt that Saint Francis is the Patron Saint of animals, birds and the environment. We wanted to celebreate this joint special occasion in style...

We took our learning outside and welcomed Acorn farm into our school for the day. WOW!

A section of the playground was cornered off to cater for a wonderful range of animals.

Bethanie said "I have learnt that ducks feathers are waterproof".

"We held them carefully because they are God's creatures" said Millie.

'Creativity is contagious....Pass it on'.

This is a quote from Albert Einstein.

Later on that day, we created a unique and beautiful wall hanging. We used Aboriginal Art techniques to paint animals which we would discover under the sea. We really enjoyed being creative and working together as a team.

Which animals can you spot....?

Holly said "My Aboriginal Art was very colourful. I painted very carefully to make the symbols".

Our adventure to the Lake District.

First we stepped back in time as explorers and investigated Hill Top which was Beatrix Potter's first house. Hill Top is in a little village called New Sawrey. Beatrix Potter bought this house in July 1905.

     Millie said "Beatrix Potter's house is very old fashioned".

Outside we wandered through Mr McGregors garden. We were all very excited.

Can you guess what we discovered?

Stevie said "We found Jemima's egg in Mr McGregors garden".

"It was very tiny" said Tia.

With a quick stop for lunch we travelled to Bowness on Windermere to the Beatrix Potter Museum.

Bailey said "We went to the museum and we had a great day. It was full of Peter Rabbit statues and it was colourful".

Our teachers had a wonderful surprise awaiting us. We felt very lucky.

Can you guess who we met?

That's right! Peter Rabbit. Wow!

Bethanie stated she felt delighted to have met Peter Rabbit. She said "His ears were vast and he was very fluffy".

Tim the gardener and Mrs McGregor showed us different plants and vegetables. Our next challenge in 2B is to create our own garden.

Courtney said "I can't wait to plant vegetables in our school garden".

We all had a wonderful time and have produced some fantastic writing since we have been

back at school. We have used adjectives to describe Peter Rabbits appearance and verbs/adverbs to describe how he moves.

What do you think about our smarty pants work?