Geography – comparing localities
We’ve been comparing two different localities in our topic lesson, today.
We’ve compared Lehututu, a village in Botswana which is in the Kalahari desert with Moortown.
We used a Venn diagram to classify the things which were the same and different in the two localities.
Diversity
Today, the focus for our themed week was diversity, looking at how people are different. We had two visitors to support this, focusing on visual and hearing impairment.
Firstly, we welcomed Natasha and Liz from RNIB. As our visitors are both registered blind, the children were able to find out first hand all about their life and then put themselves in their shoes.
After that, we worked with Linda Gledhill (Leeds deaf and hearing impairment team). We learnt some important messages about how to help someone if they are deaf.
- Don’t shout at them
- Stand close by
- Speak one at a time
- Don’t cover your mouth so they can see your lips
- Use sign language
We are special
Thank you for all the special objects and photos that have been sent in to show your children’s identity. As we have had so many, we’d like to keep them a little longer than this themed week so we can give the children chance to tell the rest of the class all about them.
If you do need your items back sooner, please let us know.
When talking about what makes me, me? this video generated lots of discussion and you may want to watch again with your child.
Identity
Yesterday we began our Who do you think you are? themed week by focusing on our identity, who we are, and how we are all special. We particularly enjoyed our mindfulness workshop to focus on how our emotions can relate to who we are.
Our super power of mindfulness can help us to make a better choice and control different situations.
There were lots of techniques that we can use in school and we have done already.
- Breathing hug
- Breathing tree
- Ok breathing
- Make your thumb come to life to show your emotion
- Calming bottle
- ‘I felt calm and I liked the relaxing music.’ Christina
- ‘I liked everything because I like mindfulness.’ Billy
- ‘I liked how we used the colours of glitter for the different emotions to make our calming bottle.’ Edris
- ‘I would use the bottle if I was sad or angry to make me ready to work.’ Vedant
- ‘If I shake the bottle, it will help me to be calm.’ Aadil
- ‘I liked the game where we did the secret tapping because it showed us that everyone is kind.’ Betty
- ‘I liked to show my emotions using the freeze frame.’ Tanvi
- ‘I liked to show my emotion by bringing my thumb to life as a way of telling others how I feel.’ Da’wud
It was great to see so many parents attending the workshop on Monday, too, so that some of the techniques can be used at home as well. Keep an eye out for a parent guide to support this with your child.
Money
This morning we’ve been combining coins to make amounts. We’ve spotted that there are different ways to make the same amount. 
Explorers – topic review
It’s the end of our Explorers topic this week and we’ve spent time reflecting on what we have learned.
This morning, we met with our Year 5 friends to discuss the topic. We looked at each other’s topic books and talked about the different learning we did during the topic. Next, we looked at some specific skills which we might have used during the topic (e.g. comparing and contrasting, working with others, problem solving) and found pieces of learning which evidenced these skills.
Mindfull or mindful?
Would you like to find out more about mindfulness and how it can be used to support your child at home?
As part of our whole school themed week next week, all children will be taking part in mindfulness workshops. There’ll also be a parent/carer session on Monday 20 November at 2:30-3:15pm.
Please contact the office if you would like to attend.
Who do you think you are?
In preparation for our themed week next week (20 November), it would be great if your child could bring in a photo of themselves as a baby and also something that is special to them. This could be a photo of special people, a special place or an object for the children to explain to the class so we can celebrate how we are all different but all equal.
We’ll use these in class on Monday 20 November if your child could bring them in on the day or Friday 17 November.
Hello from Addis Ababa
This week, Year 2 were very excited to speak with some children from Sandford International School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We’d already sent the children some questions to find out about where they live and how it might be different to Moortown.
It really brought it to life when we were actually able to ask the questions to the children themselves in our Skype call.
Ask your child what we found out and how Addis Ababa is different to, but also the same as, Moortown.
Through our comparison of this different location, we have been covering the following Year 2 geography age related expectations.
Making comparisons to a UK location, can your child describe and compare a non-European place using geographical words (eg an African or Asian village compared to a village in Yorkshire)?
Can your child describe a place referring to both physical (eg beach, coast, forest) and human (eg village, factory, port) features?
Can your child explain what facilities a town or village might need?
Can your child ask and answer questions about the geography of the school and its surrounding environment?
Guided reading
In Year 2, as well as group reading, we also teach reading as a whole class using a variety of texts to support this. Today, as part of Anti-bullying week, we used our whole school definition of bullying to discuss word meanings.
When reading with your child at home, ask if there are any words they do not understand. Use a dictionary, the context of the sentence or any illustrations to help to understand what the word means.
In pairs, we then read through some scenarios to decide if they were bullying or not.
