Who is excited to join a reading challenge this summer?  Year 2 certainly are!

The Reading Agency have set up an online reading challenge as they cannot work alongside libraries this year.  Click on the link above to sign up and join in the reading fun!  I have set myself a challenge of 6 books this summer.  It's a lot but I am going to do my best to read as much as possible because I love reading!  How many books will you read this summer?

During the challenge you can get rewards, play games and unlock badges as well as discover new books to read or add to your wishlist when the libraries are open again!!

The first challenge was to post a picture of yourself pulling a silly face while holding your favourite silly book.  Have a look at the Year 2 teachers pictures below!  We don't mind being silly!!

As an extra challenge can you write a book review when you have finished a book?  How many stars would you give it?  What was your favourite part?  Did it end how you thought it would?  Who was your favourite character and why?  Convince us to read it!!

We have been reading Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes this week at home.  The characters are truly gruesome and horrifying!!  It made me think about how I would describe them and decided to set you all a challenge!  Can you write a character description of the Wolf pictured above?  He is not a nice character and I would love to hear the adjectives you choose to use to describe him.  Think about what he looks like, what is he wearing?  What does he smell like? I think a few of you might describe him as 'pungent'. What does he sound like?  What might he say? Make sure you have some expanded noun phrases in there.

I started one.... The mean, despicable wolf smelled pungent, like rotten apples.  He had matted, dark fur as black as a stormy night sky.

How will you describe the wolf?

Maths - Money

Using the price list below can you answer the following questions:

How much would it cost to buy a teddy and a jack in a box?

How much would you need to buy two jigsaws and a ball?

How much would 4 boxes of crayons cost?

How many dolls could you buy for 20p?

How many racing cars could you buy for 50p?

How many toys you could buy for £1?  How many different combinations could you make?

If you have £1 and you buy a racing car, a box of crayons and two teddies.  How much change will you get?

As an extra challenge can you set up your own shop at home? Add prices to your toys or other items at home and then see what combination you can buy!

Can you share any of your art images with us on twitter? @MeynellSchool

We would love to see you using some of the skills we have learnt so far this year, you could try colour mixing, shading with different pencils and colours.  Try using different mediums, such as chalk, crayon, pencil, paint etc.  See what different effects you can create!

Hi Year 2

Do you want to get musical??

Check out the videos below for some great musical teachings!  You can learn a new song and also learn how to create your own body percussion pieces.  We would love you to share your finished songs or percussion soundtracks with us on twitter @MeynellSchool

Maths - Comparing mass

In Year 2 we learn about, and compare mass.

Mass is the amount of matter an object contains. The more matter something has, the more it will weigh. For example an elephant has more matter in it than a mouse so it's mass is heavier.

We would like you to conduct an investigation at home by choosing objects to compare.

The key vocabulary we will be using is below:

We would really like you to use the sentences below to help you make comparisons. Don’t worry if you don’t have any scales, you can estimate just by holding the objects in your hands.

The _____ is heavier than the ____, but lighter than the ____.

The _____ is lighter than the ____, but heavier than the ____.

If you do have scales, we would love to see photos of you reading them! Tweet your photo to @MeynellPrimary

We love this idea of home made scales! Good luck!

30 Day writing challenge

Hi Year 2!

I love this writing challenge, (have a look at the picture below) there are so many good ideas for imaginative, creative writing pieces.  Can you use your expanded noun phrases in the writing?  Maybe you could use an exclamation sentence?

How exciting that would be to read!

I have created an Acrostic Poem using my name as one of the challenges suggests - what can you create?

Meynell children everywhere

Resting and recharging safely at home

Safe in the knowledge we will see them soon

To you all I say hello

Hope you are well and happy

Often I think of you and wonder what you are doing

Reading, writing, exercising, playing

Please remember we miss you and cannot wait to see you soon.

Please share your writing with us on twitter @MeynellSchool we would love to see what you have been writing about!

VE DAY

This week we will be learning about VE (Victory in Europe) day on Friday May 8th 2020.  This day marks the end of WW2 when Germany were defeated by the allied forces.  Winston Churchill addressed the United Kingdom at 3pm on 8th May 1945 to announce that the war was officially over.

The PDF powerpoint below has information about VE day and why we celebrate it.

CODE BREAKERS

During the war the military had to send messages to each other in code so that the opposing forces could not intercept them and see what they were planning to do.  They used a system called Morse Code which was a series of long and short taps for each letter.  When they received these messages they would use the alphabet chart to decipher the message.

Can you use the alphabet code chart below to work out the secret messages?  

Can you write your own secret message using the code? Give it to your grown up and see if they can work it out! Tweet your answers to @Meynellschool and give us some challenges to work out!

Maths 

In Year 2 we learn about position and direction. We thought it would be fun for you to hide some treasure in your home or the garden and then give somebody directions to help them to find the treasure! Use the mat above to help you and let us know how you get on. Good luck!

A few people last week told me they were missing learning about Christoher Columbus. I thought that you could use your Columbus knowledge to write a message in a bottle.

Imagine you are Columbus and you want to send a message back to your family about your journey across the sea. What happened on your journey? What did you see or find?

Make sure to use your imagination and tweet your letters to school so we can see. Have fun, I can't wait to see your letters

In Year 2 we learn how to measure and compare length and height in standard units (e.g. centimetres). Your challenge this week is to measure a selection of objects in your house, you could use a ruler or a tape measure. Can you put the objects in order of length? Could you record the measurements and Tweet us a photo. Don't forget to tag @MeynellSchool 

If you don't have a way of measuring in standard units, you could measure using non-standard units, such as bricks, blocks etc. 

Maybe you could order the people on your family by their height!

Have fun!

In Year 2 we learn Multiplication and Division using arrays and sharing.  Look at the pictures above, I had fun making arrays with toys I found around the house!

Can you make arrays to show a multiplication calculation using teddies/toys/food or anything else you find around the house?  My array shows '3 lots of 4' or 3 x 4 = 12

Have a look at the division picture it shows 9 toys shared out between 3 people, this is written 9 ÷ 3 = 3

Have a go yourself and challenge your grown up to see if they can work out the multiplication or division sentence!

There are lots of great songs on Youtube also which help you remember you times tables, especially Jack Hartman - he includes workouts with a lot of his songs so you keep active too!  Have a look for some of his maths songs.

While you are looking at times tables why not log onto https://ttrockstars.com/ too and practice.  Let's see who has the highest score by the time we come back to school!

We have looked at BBC Bitesize this morning and loved their Daily lessons! Click on the link and check it out!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/levels/z3g4d2p

Hi Year 2. I was wondering if anyone had watched any good movies, TV programs or read any interesting books over the last few weeks? If so we would love it if you could write a review to tell us about it.

What was it called?

What was it about?

Who were the characters? Did you have a favourite?

Which was your favourite part?

Was there a quote that really made you laugh or smile?

Can you fit in lots of amazing adjectives to describe your book or film too? And of course don't forget your capital letters and full stops.

As a challenge maybe you could even sneak in an exclamation sentence to show us how much you enjoyed it. (How amazing that would be! What fun you will have!)

Once you have finished you could tweet your reviews and inspire someone else to watch the movie or read the book you have reviewed.

Hope to hear from you soon I can't wait for some movie and book ideas!

How excited I am!

From Miss Norris

Y2 - you have just finished learning all about habitats. I am setting you a science challenge to look around your house and garden to find as many habitats as possible.

Think - 

What animal is living there?

Why are they suited to that specific habitat?

Don't forget to send us any photos of what you find on twitter!

Check out this link to BBC Bitesize with lots of different videos about habitats, have a watch to refresh your mind about some of the things we learnt this year!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zx882hv

Why don't you have a go at painting some images at home, you will have to ask permission if you want to paint on your windows!

You could paint a springtime image or something that will make you and others smile when they walk past your house!

Why not have a go at doing some colour mixing like we have done at school.  See what colours your can create mixing them together.

If you don't have any paint at home you can draw a picture using any crayons or pencils and stick it in your window - it will still brighten up the day for people when they see it!

Salt Dough recipe

• 1 cup of plain flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1/2 cup of water

Mix together to form a dough. Cut out your shape and place in the oven on the lowest temperature for around 3 hours. Wait to cool and paint!

Play-dough recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tbsp cooking oil Olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• food colouring (optional) - we used lemon juice instead so it smells lovely!

Instructions

• In a large bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients (flour, salt, cream of tartar) and mix well.

• Mix food colouring with your water first, if using it. Then add the vegetable oil and water with food colouring to a large pot. Mix together.

• Add the dry ingredients to your pot and mix well.

• Cook on a low heat until the dough starts to form and becomes dry.

• Once it starts to form a ball together and looks fully cooked, take off the heat. Let the dough cool first before touching.

• Once cool, knead the dough for 5 minutes to make the dough soft.

Let us know what you create with your play-dough!

Hi Year 2!  We hope you are having a lovely Easter break.

Watch the video below to check out our home learning challenge!! We can't wait to see pictures of your poses.  Please tweet us @MeynellSchool with the hashtag #meynellyogachallenge

Check out cosmic kids yoga on Youtube to help you with this challenge!

https://www.youtube.com/CosmicKidsYoga

In year 2 we learn to tell the time.  We focus on O'clock, Half past, Quarter to and Quarter past.  Can you practice reading your clock when you are at home and let us know what you are doing at different times of the day?

You could draw a clock and show different times on it!

As a challenge can you tell the time to closest 5 minutes?

Check out the challenge cards below.....

We hope you had fun baking Mrs Rowe-Mills biscuit recipe.  We would love to see your baking if you took any pictures before you ate them all!  Send us a tweet! @MeynellSchool

Cookie recipe

Ingredients

225g butter, softened (1 cup)

110g caster sugar (3/4 cup)

275g plain flour (1 and 1/2 cups)

1tsp cinnamon or other spices (optional)

75g chocolate chips (optional)

1.  Heat the oven to 190 degrees / 170 degrees fan oven.
2. Cream the butter in a bowl with a spoon.
3. Add the sugar and keep beating.
4. Add the flour and optional ingredients, if using them.
5. Bring the mixture together in your hands until it forms a dough.
6. Roll the dough into a small ball in your hands and place on the baking tray.
7. Flatten them with the palms of your hand.
8. Place in the oven for around 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
9. Leave to cool and then eat!!