Welcome to Sarah's 2nd Class!
Have a look at what we have been getting up to.
These documents may be useful in helping you to support your child's learning across the curriculum.
-Gives an overview of what your child learns in 1st and 2nd class, and how to support them in each subject area
-Focuses on how to help your child to improve their reading comprehension.
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-Ideas from the NCCA on how to help your child with 2nd class maths.
-Focuses on improving other areas of reading: Reading fluency, extending vocabulary and Phonological awareness.
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November
Science Week
It is science week! We did an experiment with Skittles. We put warm water on the Skittles and watched as the colours dissolved and diffused. We observed it happening using a camera called a visualiser. It happened very quickly! It was fun watching the colours spread and mix.
-written by Sarah’s 2nd class scientists
-written by Sarah’s 2nd class scientists
Maths
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This week we learnt all about data.
We made sure to focus on new vocabulary like survey, most popular, least popular, vote, information and graph. To start off the topic each student voted on our favourite school subject. We cast our votes using smiley faces. As you can see from the graph, the most popular was art and the least popular was English. |
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October
Self-Expression Day
We celebrated self-expression day on Friday 23rd October! See our fantastic costumes below. It was definitely an interesting day of lessons!
Our Visit to the Playground
2nd class enjoyed a trip to the playground at the rear of the school. We had great fun running, swinging, climbing, spinning and zip-lining!
It was a great way to celebrate the end of the first half-term being back in school.
It was fantastic to see 2nd class representing our school so well on our trip to the playground.
It was a great way to celebrate the end of the first half-term being back in school.
It was fantastic to see 2nd class representing our school so well on our trip to the playground.
Art
We have been experimenting with paint this month. 2nd class have been working on their colour mixing to make light and dark shades of the same colour. Their final task was to create the night sky illuminated by the moon. They were challenged to only use blue, white and black to create many different shades of the night sky. Concentration levels were very high to get the shades just right! Below you will see the fantastic effort they all put in to their artwork.
Gaeilge - Sa Bhaile
2nd class have been putting their best efforts into speaking as much Gaeilge as they can throughout the school day. We have also begun reading short stories in Irish too.
This month's theme was Sa Bhaile - In the Home. We learnt how to say the rooms in our homes, the names of furniture and the activitives we might get up to at home. Over the month we have built up a bank of vocabulary and phrases. Then, we brought all our learning together and wrote about our own homes. Finally, we put all our stories together and created a book called Sa Bhaile. This book is now in the Gaeilge section of our class library where any student can read it.
2nd Class is the first official class level where students are expected to write in Gaeilge so I am sure you will be blown away by what they have achieved in 2 months! Check out some examples of their fantastic work below.
Maith sibh rang a dó!
This month's theme was Sa Bhaile - In the Home. We learnt how to say the rooms in our homes, the names of furniture and the activitives we might get up to at home. Over the month we have built up a bank of vocabulary and phrases. Then, we brought all our learning together and wrote about our own homes. Finally, we put all our stories together and created a book called Sa Bhaile. This book is now in the Gaeilge section of our class library where any student can read it.
2nd Class is the first official class level where students are expected to write in Gaeilge so I am sure you will be blown away by what they have achieved in 2 months! Check out some examples of their fantastic work below.
Maith sibh rang a dó!
Pattern
This week in maths we focused on pattern. We made patterns with numbers, shapes and coins.
During our Learn Together classes we discussed the tradition of Halloween. We learnt that it was originally the pagan festival of Samhain which is where the name for November in Irish comes from. We also discovered that turnips were used before pumpkins and when Irish people went to live in America turnips weren't that popular so they used pumpkins instead!
We combined these two lessons together with art and we created pattern pumpkins.
We wrote Oíche Shamhna above our pumpkins which means Halloween.
During our Learn Together classes we discussed the tradition of Halloween. We learnt that it was originally the pagan festival of Samhain which is where the name for November in Irish comes from. We also discovered that turnips were used before pumpkins and when Irish people went to live in America turnips weren't that popular so they used pumpkins instead!
We combined these two lessons together with art and we created pattern pumpkins.
We wrote Oíche Shamhna above our pumpkins which means Halloween.
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You can see some patterns in more detail here:
Maths Week
2nd class took part in Maths week in October. We played addition snap to practice our adding with two and three numbers. We also learnt about Conor Crocodile and that he loves to eat the bigger numbers, so we use signs like < > and = between two numbers to show this. For example: 8 > 5 (eight is greater than five). We used lollipop sticks and counters to play games to practice this too!
We also got to use Beebots! Beebots are little robots, in the shape of a bee, that we can make move in different directions depending on which buttons we press. We had great fun practicing giving directions using the Beebots. We took turns, listened to our partners and solved problems.
We also got to use Beebots! Beebots are little robots, in the shape of a bee, that we can make move in different directions depending on which buttons we press. We had great fun practicing giving directions using the Beebots. We took turns, listened to our partners and solved problems.
Space Week
We celebrated Space Week in 2nd class. We read the fantastic book 'Man on the Moon' by Simon Bartram. Our favourite part was finding all the aliens that were hiding throughout the book! Following on from that, we then wrote our own stories about a little creature. We described our creature and explained what they get up to during the day.
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Autumn
The colours of Autumn are clear to see this month. Leaves are changing colours, from green to red, orange and yellow and they are falling off the trees. It is getting cold so we are wearing warmer clothes. The weather is changing too. We went on an Autumn nature hunt in the school garden. We wrote great pieces about Autumn in our copies and created beautiful art pieces too.
September
'Here is the House' by Kenn Nesbitt
We read the poem 'This is the House' by Kenn Nesbitt. We picked out the verbs, interesting vocabulary and looked at the punctuation. After that, we used art to respond to the poem. We got creative drawing our own upside down houses.
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Here is the house
Here is the house on the street in the town where the downstairs is up and the upstairs is down. The people who live here all stand on their heads. They sleep on the ceilings and can’t reach their beds. The basement’s the attic. The roof is the floor. They climb up a ladder to crawl through the door. Their pets run in circles because they’re all dizzy. This house is confusing and everyone’s busy. The downstairs is upstairs. The upstairs is down since twenty tornadoes blew into the town. — Kenn Nesbitt |
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Our New Climbing Frame
2nd class were very excited to hear about the new climbing frame in the school yard. We can even see it from our classroom window! We take turns with other classes and get to use the climbing frame at least once a week! Our favourite parts are the monkey bars, the slides and the swings!
Welcome Back to School
Hello 2nd class!
I can't wait to meet each and every one of you on September 1st.
Our classroom is set up and ready to have many happy faces return.
I am looking forward to the great year we are going to have together,
Sarah
I can't wait to meet each and every one of you on September 1st.
Our classroom is set up and ready to have many happy faces return.
I am looking forward to the great year we are going to have together,
Sarah
