Welcome to Beech Class' webpage.

This has been a lovely year for the current Beech class.

We have explored the different occupations the children may want to be when they grow up. We learnt about the Artic through our Winter Wonderland topic before moving onto learning lots about dinosaurs. We then learnt all about birds, sandwiches and lighthouses during our 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch' topic. 

We wish the current Year 2 Beech class the best of luck as they move into Year 3, whilst we are also looking forward to welcoming our new Beech class in September.

We hope you all have a lovely and safe summer holiday!

Mrs Revell and Mrs Biggs.

IMovie update

Right at the start of the summer term we started working on our IMovie project. We were asked to retell the story of The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch using the IMovie app on the IPads. We finished them this week.

Over the term we learnt the following skills:

-Creating a storyboard.

-Making the right amount of props.

-Taking photographs using an IPad.

-Ordering the photographs.

-Adding captions to the photographs.

-Adding commentary to the story.

-Adding sound effects.

We also learnt how to work together as a small team. We learnt to listen to other children's ideas and ensure everyone could contribute their ideas. We understood that not all of one person's ideas should be used and other children's ideas maybe different to our own.

This week we showed them to the rest of the school. We impressed everyone so much we came back with lots of merits and house points.

Watch this space for a sneak peak of a few of the IMovie's themselves!

Week beginning 13th July

Remember that Mrs Grinling sent us a letter asking us to test which material would keep Mr Grinling's sandwiches dry? Well, we carried out our experiments this week. We had lots of fun with pouring the water over the different materials which had bread wrapped up in them.
 

Beech Class Planter update

Week beginning 6th July 2015

Our planter is now complete and coming along nicely!  We have had to make sure that we keep it watered because of the hot weather, although some days more recently, this hasn't been necessary quite so much!   We will keep you updated as it blooms!

Design and Technology

We have been investigating this week how we can strengthen paper!  We tested how strong a normal A4 piece of paper was by holding it tight and putting weights on it.  We found out that it was strong enough to hold 2.5 kg before it tore.  (Mrs. Biggs made sure her toes were out of the way when performing this!)

The children had the task of making the paper stronger.  They went off into their groups with a choice of equipment and had to return for the test after 20 minutes.  It was a very tense time, with a lot of discussion (and sellotape!)

There were a variety of techniques used including adding many layers of paper, strips of sellotape, laying paper in alternate directions and using a collage effect.

Each group carried out the test with the new improved paper with surprising success!  We are going to use the results of our investigation to make our own lighthouses next week.

Week beginning 29th June 2015

In Maths this week we have been learning to make a total amount of money using coins. We have also been learning to sequence analogue time. 

Literacy

We also learnt to identify adjectives, nouns, verbs and adverbs to use within our nonsense poem. We identified them through a variety of ways: IPads, outdoor learning environment and from our own Literacy books!

Science

In Science we received a letter from Mrs Grinling herself! She has a problem. Even though they have managed to get rid of the pesky seagulls it doesn't stop Mr Grinling's sandwiches from getting wet in stormy weather. She has asked us to investigate which material is the best material to wrap his sandwiches in. So, we have designed a fair test to investigate which material is waterproof. Watch this space to see how we carry out the investigations!

Week beginning 22nd June

We have been learning to plan and carry out a fair test in our Science lessons. We needed to test which material would allow a toy car to travel the furthest distance. We also learnt why certain materials allowed the toy car to travel further than others. We used our maths skills of measuring to help us with this and learnt to work together as a team.

"It wouldn't be fair if we didn't start the car from the same place."

"It has gone further than the ruler. We need a metre stick!"

"That was fun!"

Cooks on the Move

This week, week beginning 15th June, we have had Cooks on the Move in and we have cooked pizza.  We have had great fun making and kneading the dough and putting toppings on.  They really were delicious!! We even made one for Miss Froggatt and she said it was delicious.

Beech Class Planter

This week (8th June), Miss Froggatt introduced us to our new whole school project! Our task is to produce a class planter based on a theme that is relevant to us.   In Beech Class we have worked very hard this week and we rewarded ourselves by designing our planter.  Our plan is to relate it to the story of 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch' and even grow some vegetables for his lunch!  Here are some of our favourite designs.

Watch this space for updates on our progress!

The Raptor Foundation Trip (3rd June)

We had a fantastic day at The Raptor Foundation. We learnt about the different raptors they had on display. A raptor is a bird that grabs and retrieves it's prey. There were Owls, Eagles, Buzzards and European Golden Eagles.

We now know that female birds are usually larger than male birds, and nocturnal owls (birds that fly at night) have either brown or black eyes.

Week beginning 18th May

This week we have been naming and sorting 3D shapes. We have used the outdoor learning environment to spot common 3D shapes. Can you name any of the shapes found in the pictures below?

RNLI (Week beginning 11th May)

We had a very special visitor come to see us on Thursday afternoon. It was Mr Oxford, who is a member of the RNLI Education team. He is a retired RNLI serviceman and he told us all about how important the RNLI boats are in saving the lives of people at sea. We discussed how brave Grace Darling was, saving the people from the Forfarshire ship in stormy weathers in just a rowing boat!

We learnt about the dangers around different types of waters, what RNLI and lifesavers wear, and how to tie different types of knots.

We also know what each of the coloured flags mean when we see them on beaches.

If you would like to find out more about the RNLI then visit them at www.rnli.org

Design and Technology (week beginning 11th May)

During D&T we designed and made our own sandwiches for Mr Grinling in The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch.

Science Weeks (w/b 27th April 2015 and w/b 4th May 2015)

We have had lots of fun during Science week this week! We have learnt how to make electrical circuits, learning what each of the different electrical symbols mean. We also learnt about the dangers of electricity and discussed how to keep safe. We finished the week with a special Science assembly from Mr T.

Maths (week beginning 27th April)

In Maths this week we have been learning to find fractions of number. Can you find the answers to these fraction problems?

1/2 (half) of 12 = 

1/4 (quarter) of 16 =

1/2 (half) of 32 =

1/4 (quarter) of 24 =

History (week beginning 20th April)

We have been learning about Grace Darling this term. We have learnt that she lived in a lighthouse like Mr and Mrs Grinling. Grace Darling became famous because, together with her father, she rescued survivors of the Forfarshire Ship which hits rocks in the stormy weather. This week, we retold the events of that stormy night by working with others as a team.

IMovie App (week beginning 13th April)

This week we completed storyboards retelling the story of The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch. We learnt how to listen to other people's ideas whilst also contributing our own ideas. We then decided on ideas together as a team in order to complete our storyboards. These storyboards will be used to make the backgrounds and props in order to film our very own movie using the IMovie app on the IPads. We are very excited! Keep watching this space on how our movies evolve!

Outdoor learning

We have been using the outdoor learning environment this week to write sentences about a lighthouse, ready for our non-chronological report. 

We have also been learning to measure length using the outdoor learning environment.

Our theme for the summer term is The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch.