Welcome to the Wales Year 2 Class Page. Here, you can find out about everything that we've been doing this year.
Wednesday 30th March
Diversity Enrichment week
We’re only half-way through our Diversity enrichment and what an exciting week we have had already! Over the week, we are learning about different cultures. Languages and all the aspects that make us unique.
On Monday, we had a really grown up PSHE lesson where we watched the video ‘Amazing Things Happen’ and discussed what makes us all so different. We found out that some people are born with autism and this is where the wires in their brains send different signals. This can make life a little more challenging and their view of the world can be different. We had a great discussion where we came up with ways we could help someone who has autism and how we could be patient, aware and kind to others. Miss Woolard is so proud of the maturity we showed during this lesson.
We also can’t wait to show you our class diversity tree- celebrating what makes us unique! As our song of the week goes ‘You are YOU, I am ME, rich in diversity!’. We’ve got so much to look forward to but we are particularly excited about learning some Irish dancing on Thursday and using our food technology skills to cook a healthy recipe from the country Wales.
Friday 25th March
When people talk about ‘Love of learning’ we certainly know what they mean. This week, the children in Wales class have been coming into school daily full of new facts and models to show of the Titanic. In History, we have been learning about the tragic event of the sinking of the Titanic on the 14th April 1912 (over a hundred years ago as the children will remind you).
The children were in awe of the beauty of the Titanic and what was deemed as an ‘’unsinkable ship’. In class we learnt about the saddening events and what caused the Titanic to sink. The children were outraged to hear of the three divisions onboard the ship (1st class, 2nd class and third class) and how unfair the living quarters were for the third class.
To look deeper into this historic event, Wales class read one of Miss Woolard’s childhood stories ‘Polar the Titanic Bear’ and wrote a diary entry of that tragic event from Polar’s perspective.
Friday 11th March
The children of Wales class have been lucky enough to have not one, but two workshops this week. As part of our PE curriculum, the children in Wales class are currently taking part in 6 weeks of Karate lessons delivered by Kensho Karate from Team Valley. At Emmaville, we know how important it is to provide our pupils with a wide variety of sports from a young age and we were delighted to take up this opportunity. The children have loved learning Karate with Sensei James (Coach James). They not only have learnt a range of block moves to defend different parts of their body but they have discovered the true origin of karate. Why not ask them to tell you how Karate came to being a sport in Japan?
Taking on the role of different superheroes, the children have learn a Hulk body smash, Captain America block and Ant man arm block. The children thought it was hilarious building up to these skills as they had to touch the cones with their ‘red head’, ‘yellow belly’ and ‘blue bottom’. Obviously, there were many giggles for the last one. We can’t wait to learn some karate kicks with Sensei James next week and the next numbers in Japanese.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Dr Seuss
In Wales class we know this quote is so true! We look forward to our daily class reader times and this term have been reading a classic, A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond. In school, we have had a whole school door decorating competition and of course chose to do our door as Paddington with a slight twist. In Geography recently, we learnt all about Paris in France (Miss Crydiac’s home country) and so decided that our Paddington must be flying about the Parisian landmarks and city scape.
Wales worked so well as a team to paint, collage and decorate the pieces for our door. Miss Woolard was blown away by their artistic talents.
On World Book Day we had some unusual characters enter our classroom and by 9am, Wales class was full with Mr Bump, Matilda, Spiderman, The Tin Man and many more book characters. Well done to the whole of Wales for their amazing costumes, you all looked fantastic!
At Emmaville, we know that children learn by breaking the learning down into small steps and revealing the learning to help the children to retain the learning in their long-term memory. This week in Maths, we had great fun during one of our statistics lessons on block diagrams. The children in Wales were each given a post-it note and had the opportunity to vote for their favourite sports, colours and place their counter down for their hair colour. The children were excited to see the numbers going up and soon noticed which sports, pets and colours were the most popular within our class. Afterwards, we worked with our learning partners to create block diagrams for the data given to us.
The children of Wales class thoroughly enjoyed this lesson and are looking forward to embedding this new knowledge using the Doodle Maths app.
Friday 11th February
What a busy week we have had in Wales class this week. This Friday we came to school in our own clothes to 'express ourselves'. We had lots of sporting uniforms, colourful outfits and even a Spiderman, or two!
This week it has been National Children's Mental Health Week and so at Emmaville we celebrated this day on Friday with lots of activities, discussion and crafts to get us talking about our mental health.
We began the day discussing our worries and what makes us anxious then worked as a class to think of ways we could offload these worries to help us to relax and feel happy. We imagined our brains as hot air balloons being weighed down with our worries and then released these through music, mindful colouring, lots of TALKING and breathing exercises. We even decorated a hot air balloon windchime each to hand in our rooms to remind of the discussions we had and solutions to calm our minds.
During the morning, we spent some time in the dance studio doing a guided meditation and we felt so calm afterwards; some of Wales class even fell asleep!
Merci beaucoup Mademoiselle Crydiac! A huge thank you to Miss Crydiac who taught Wales class all about Paris in Geography this week and completely immersed the children in the French culture. As Miss Crydiac was born and brought up in France, there was no one better to teach the children about the city of romance -Paris.
Wales class learnt all about the five main landmarks including La Tour Eiffel, Le Sacre Coeur, Le Cathedrale de Notre Dame (Our Lady), Le Louvre et Le Palais de Versailles. The children in Wales learnt a wealth of facts and some even Miss Woolard didn't know before.
After discovering about the history of Paris and the river Seine that divides the city into two halves (the left bank and the right bank), the children discovered the taste of Paris as Miss Crydiac made authentic crepes for every child which the children thought were delicious. Wales enjoyed tasting some French brie and trying a typical French drink 'diabolo' which is often served at children's parties in France.
Finally, we finished our immersive lesson with a whole class Cancan dance! Certainly a geography lesson the children will never forget!
It's all been getting a little bit messy in Wales class this week. After learning about Hawaii in our Geography lesson, we explored an artist named Colleen Wilcox who lives on the Hawaiian islands. We learnt about her style of art, how she is inspired by nature and the oceans surrounding Hawaii. We explored her choices of colours for the oceans and sea creatures and experimented with the water colours to create different shades of colours. Working with a partner, or on our own, we used a range of materials to create a '3D like' collaged background then sketch, painted and cut out a sea creature to sit within our picture. I'm sure you will agree that they look amazing and are all so unique. Of course, we were getting into the Hawaiian culture with Hula Music and shaking our hips to the beat.
We finished the week with an exciting trip to our local library. The children were treat to a very energetic story 'Bathroom Boogie' told by the librarian Kyle and joined in with the dance moves. Afterwards, we played a game of corners which went down a treat. Most excitedly, we were given a book of our own to take home and share as a class- the book was a selection of stories by A.A. Milne and we can't wait to read them during our daily class reader sessions
World Religions Day has been celebrated every year since 1950. Its aim is to promote understanding and peace between all religions. On Monday, Wales class celebrated the day along with the whole of Emmaville by studying the religion of Buddhism. We learnt about the origins of the religion and explored the '4 Noble Truths' and the '8 Fold Path'. The children in Wales class learnt that Buddhists live their life with the aim to escape from the wheel of suffering and reach 'Nirvana'- a state of enlightenment.
Wales had a great afternoon experiencing ways in which Buddhists live their life to help them to reach enlightenment. The children thoroughly enjoyed a guided meditation which Buddhists would incorporate into their daily lives as a time to calm and focus the mind. Some of the children even said that they almost fell asleep as they were so relaxed. Afterwards, we had a creative afternoon exploring a range of mandalas and even designed and created our own. The children in Wales can't wait to learn about the other religions when they go into Key Stage 2.
Friday 14th January
The children in Wales class have been getting competitive and speedy in their Math's lessons this half-term. This half-term we are learning and multiplication and division and becoming really confident with our 2x and 5x tables. What fun we have had learning them this week! We have chanted our tables to songs by Numberblocks, played flashcard games with our learning partners, played many different games using dice and counters and even learnt to skip whilst embedding our 5x tables.
At Emmaville, we use Doodle Math's and Doodle Tables to embed our learning at home, highlight any concepts we find tricky and improve our mental math's as well as our reasoning skills. The children in Wales class have been determined to master their 2x and 5x tables and we have set a class challenge for us all to master them. By using our growth mindset and Doodle Tables 'little and often' we know that we can do it! Miss Woolard, Mrs Wallace and Miss Crydiac are so proud of our class!
In Wales class we love to listen to our class story with our teachers, it is one of our favourite times of the day. Last month we finished one of our favourite stories so far, Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl. We thought Mr Fox was so clever and laughed out loud at Bunce, Boggis and Bean. As we have worked so hard this half-term we had a full marble jar and decided to have a 'Cinema Room' experience watching the movie Fantastic Mr Fox. We even came to school in our pyjamas, brought our favourite soft toy and had some treats from the concession stand.
On Friday, we had an exciting delivery from Miss Armstrong who had brought us a 'Book Detectives' box! We cannot wait to read the books inside and discover more fun to be had with reading!
Friday 12th November
What have we been up to this week?
On Monday during our Science lesson, we became Sensible Scientists, and we were exploring different materials to find out if they were waterproof or not. We were using some excellent scientific vocabulary in our lesson. We even made paper waterproof before testing out different materials to check if they were absorbent or waterproof and we designed a new coat for Miss Woolard’s walk this weekend! Miss Common and Miss Woolard were all very impressed with how we all worked, and we got some marbles in the jar!
On Wednesday, we had our Geography lesson, and we visited the city of Ypres in Belgium. Everyone was very interested in our learning, and we found out new facts about Ypres’ role in World War 1. The children watched the Lost Post at the Menin Gate, which happens every night to remember the fallen soldiers. We learned about the sacrifice that the armed forces made, and we explored why the poppy is so significant, before making our own. Everyone worked so hard and we all enjoyed listening to some World War 1 music while we made our poppies.
Friday 5th November
What an exciting Friday afternoon we have had exploring our outdoor areas in search for all the different materials. The children in Wales had a fantastic time on their 'materials hunt' looking for items made from wood, metal, fabric and plastic. You wouldn't believe how many we found! We noticed that there were very few things made from fabric outside- I wonder why?
Not only did we find all sorts of items made from the different materials, we even found a ladybird! The children had a laugh thinking about what material a ladybird is made from.
Wales class thoroughly impressed Miss Woolard and our student teacher Miss Common with their explanations as to why certain materials are chosen for certain products. They used lots of the scientific language they have learnt e.g transparent, opaque, absorbent, flexible etc.
What a fantastic Poetry Week we have had in Wales class! The children have been immersed in rhyme, repetition and all things poetry. Wales class have written their own acrostic autumn poems and have blown me away with their chose of language and brilliant ideas.
The children of Wales class have thoroughly enjoyed performing some poetry. We learnt one of Miss Armstrong's favorite poems about a bumblebee bee and delivered it with great enthusiasm and expression during a whole school assembly.
In Year 2 we have been learning about A.A Milne the famous poet and author of our beloved bear Winnie the Pooh. The children blew me away with the performance of 'When I was Six' using gestures, expression and thinking about their tone of voice throughout; well done Wales class!
This Wednesday the children of Northern Ireland and Wales class attended an Outdoor Sports Festival at Thorp Academy. To say they were excited is an understatement. The children couldn’t wait to go to Thorp Academy and they all had a fantastic time.
We would like to say a huge congratulations to them all for their impeccable behaviour walking to and from Thorp Academy; a resident even commented on how well behaved they all were. We are very proud of them all!
The children took part in a carousel of sporting activities which were ran by some of their Year 8 pupils. They worked in their teams to put running, jumping and spatial awareness skills to the test. A lot of fun was had by all and it was wonderful for them to experience a little bit of normality.
The Year Two team are incredibly proud of them all for their behaviour and enthusiasm throughout the afternoon.
A ‘jolly well-done’ as Miss Armstrong would say!
Friday 24th September
Another excellent week for 'Wonderful Wales' class! The children have been enjoying their music lessons and this week were exploring the pitch of different instruments. We had great fun dancing to some superhero music and identifying when the pitch changed from high to low and vice versa. We are surprised Miss Armstrong could concentrate in her office with the noise coming from our classroom on Tuesday. The children loved experimenting with the different instruments, to try and produce different pitched noises. Afterwards, the children worked in their teams to play a game of guess the instrument and talk about the pitch of the noise.
As you can see from the photographs, the children worked well with their peers and had lots of fun in the process.
This week we have been extremely busy and there has been a real 'buzz' in Wales class. The children have been finding out about the life and achievements of William George Armstrong (Lord Armstrong) who was born in Newcastle and brought a lot to our city. The children were very excited to learn about this designs of the famous Swing Bridge (after it had been previously destroyed by a flood and the great fire of Gateshead. They discovered that not only was he a very intelligent and innovative gentleman but him and his wife (Lady Armstrong) were very generous and even gifted Jesmond Dene to the city of Newcastle.
Wales class had great fun and their design skills were put to the test when they worked as a team to create their own bridges to hold a character, using only art straws and selotape. It was a fun afternoon and they worked well in their teams.
It felt amazing to welcome our new Year 2s into school on Monday morning. Every single one of them came in with a beaming smile and eager to see their new classrooms, meet their friends and were looking forward to another school year. The children in Wales settled in quickly and have been working incredibly hard on their listening skills. We have already earned a few marbles for our jar.
The children had a fantastic first week getting creative making tissue paper self portraits, aiming high and illustrating our dream goals and careers. Come see our very own book covers for Wales' 'Little People BIG Dreams after we were inspired by a book on David Attenborough.
We are so excited for the year ahead!
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Part 1: Privacy Policy
Last Edited: 22nd April 2021
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Part 2: Cookie Policy
Last Edited: 22nd April 2021
This Cookie Policy explains how eSchools use cookies and similar technologies in our Services. It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control their use.
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