Welcome to Dormouse class! Our teacher is Mrs Jackson, who has been teaching for 17 years, and has worked at Bedwell for the last 9. Her favourite things are Lindt chocolate and reading her Kindle. She doesn’t like running very much, and is scared of spiders!

• Our curriculum map - find out about our current topics
• Our latest school newsletter
• Meet our school councilors, Richie and Amiya

Home learning ideas:

• Try to do as much maths as you can when you're out and about:
  • Keep on practicing counting whenever and wherever you can - how many cars are there in the street? How many trees in the field? How many trollies in the supermarket, players on the team or stairs on the way to bed? Our focus is on numbers from 10-20 this term, so things that come in groups of this size are ideal for counting practice.
  • Practice writing numbers in sand, salt or water, or try making numbers out of groups of pebbles.
  • Practice counting in 2s, 5s and 10s - counting in multiples as you go up or down stairs; counting in 2s as you pair up socks; totalling up everyone’s fingers and toes by counting in 5s...
• Constant practice of reading and phonics is just about the most valuable thing you can do at home. Try to read with your child as often as possible and talk to them about what they’ve read - we've put together some guidance and advice on using the books your child will bring home here.  
• We follow the Read Write Inc phonics programme, and they have provided lots of guidance on supporting your child at home, which you can read here.
• Try to learn where things are in the world on maps or globes. Can your child find and name all of the world’s continents and oceans? Can they find the UK and any other countries that are important to your family on a map? 
• Explore some of our local habitats and see what different living things you can find there - what differences can you see between the park, woodland, back gardens and farmers fields? What things do the animals that live in these places eat? How do they keep themselves safe? Which of them would be happy living in your garden?

Our latest news:

• Year 2 were lucky enough to visit St Hugh and St John’s Church to learn more about the Christmas story. We listened carefully to the team of volunteers who told us all about Jesus’ journey and how his birth is celebrated by Christians around the world at Christmas. 
 

 
• Our history topic has seen us learning about the Great Fire of London. As part of this unit, we compared firefighting in the past with firefighting in the present day, and were invited to Stevenage Firestation to meet a team of firefighters. The best part of the day was when we climbed up into the fire engine and got to use the hose!
 

 
• We had a fantastic visit to see Goldilocks in Milton Keynes on the 10th December. It was a great day out and we all loved getting to join in with the show by laughing, singing and booing. We were especially excited when two children from our school were invited on stage to sing the final song with the star, Brian Conley! 
 

 
• We have enjoyed practising and getting ready for our performance of Knock Knock. We loved learning the songs, actions and words, and loved performing the finished show. Thank you to everyone who came to watch us. 
 

We have been learning about... 

Maths - We have been developing our understanding of numbers to 10 and then to 20. We are now beginning to explore larger numbers and what they are made of, and have used lots of practical equipment to help us to understand what different numbers ‘look’ like and how they can be regrouped.

English - This term, we have been reading Meerkat Mail and exploring the layout and key features of postcards. We have learnt all about expanded noun phrases and used these to write our own postcards about our Christmas pantomime visit. After the Christmas break, we will be sending our postcards home, so please keep an eye out for them in the post! Check out two great examples:

Hello George, 

How are you? I went to a pantomime to see Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I loved the magician because he did cool tricks. I can tell you he did amazing, funny tricks. I liked the little baby bear. He was cute. How was your pantomime? 

Love Phoebe 

Hi George, How are you? I loved going to the pantomime. I loved baby bear because she was so cute. I liked Goldilocks because she was kind. How was your favourite circus? Did you like yours? I loved the magician because he done cool tricks. I liked Billy because he was very funny. I liked the bad guy because he was funny. Love from Miya xxx  

Hi George, 

How are you? I loved going to the pantomime. I loved baby bear because she was so cute. I liked Goldilocks because she was kind. How was your favourite circus? Did you like yours? I loved the magician because he done cool tricks. I liked Billy because he was very funny. I liked the bad guy because he was funny. 

Love from Miya xxx  

This term's topics

English - We will start by continuing to explore the book One Tiny Turtle, by Nicola Davies. This will support us in learning about report writing, packing our work with lots of interesting detail and information, We will also continue to develop our understanding of the difference between statements, questions and commands. After that, we will switch our attention back to story writing. We will explore the use of apostrophes and question marks to punctuate writing, and will also be developing our understanding of the progressive tense (using is and was to say what is or was happening). We will then use these skills to write our own stories using the same basic structure as the original.

Maths - We will begin by developing our knowledge of time, learning to tell the time to the nearest five minutes, and to use the language of o’clock, half-past, quarter-past and quarter-to. After this, we will be focussing on division and multiplication. linking this learning to the work we have already done on counting in multiples of 2, 5 and 10, as well as exploring the connection between the 10 times table and place value. We will also learn how to solve two-step problems using objects and drawings to explain our thinking. In division, we will be developing our understanding of sharing and grouping, again beginning with objects and drawings, and working towards pencil and paper methods.

Science - We will be continuing to explore living things and their habitats. We will identify differences between things that are living, dead or have never been alive, and learn about the key features that all living things share. We will explore the places where particular animals live, and think about the ways in which these are linked to their characteristics.

Humanities - We will be learning all about what life is like for a child who is growing up in the small Indian village of Chembakolli. We will look at the weather in the village, daily life, the local environment and the food that is grown and eaten there. This will lead us to consider how life in the village of Chembakolli is different to our way of living in Stevenage, and whether there are similarities too.

Take a look at our curriculum map for more information on our topics.