Base 2 update

What a busy two weeks to start the Spring term in Base 2. We have had an excellent start to the term with everyone working hard after the restful Christmas break. It has been lovely to welcome Mrs Wimpenny back into Base 2, we will miss Mrs Taylor and Miss Rowlands working with us but we will still see them around school. Base 2 were very lucky to be given the opportunity to go to the cinema on the second day back after the holidays to see Ferdinand, the film was great, the children's behaviour was excellent which meant we all had a very enjoyable day!

In Literacy we have learnt and written about Roald Dahl who is the author of this term's text. We have also been reviewing different books, learning how to summarise a story and explain what we like about the books. Following this we will be looking at Samuel Pepys and the Great Fire of London and creating different pieces of writing from it.

In Maths we have worked on properties of 2d and 3d shapes, including lines of symmetry in 2d shapes. We have very much enjoyed playing 'quiz, quiz, trade' within which we have to describe the shape using its properties and our partner has to work out which shape it is. After this we moved onto fractions, starting with finding fractions of shapes. We had great fun with some skittle and fractions to help us understand the concept of finding fractions of amounts by sharing. Within this we did some problem solving which involved us estimating who would have more and then finding out the answer. We will continue to work with fractions through a range of activities which allow us to compare fractions and solve problems.

Because our topic is the Great Fire of London which took place during the Stuart period, we have had a look at Stuart housing focusing on the features and how they were made. We then applied this to drawing some houses and placing them on a background with a fire effect. They look fantastic and will be very effective on our display.

In Music, we have learnt the names of the different notes and the value of each note, which we then applied to clapping rhythms. Then we put our voices into action to sing London's Burning, but we didn't just sing, we added instruments to each line of the song and had a go at singing it in a round. We will be moving onto playing the song on a xylophone and having a go at writing some music.

On Monday afternoons we have started Cricket coaching which is very active and developing not only our cricket skills but many other sports skills. Last week we were given a 30 minute Taekwondo taster session, which was excellent and taught the children that this sport is based on self discipline and confidence.

We have a lot to look forward to this year and plenty of exciting learning to do, so it is very important that our attendance is the best it can be! Please keep practising your spellings, including the tricky words in the back of your books, keep reading and learning your times tables.