What else could Jack have found at the top of the beanstalk?

Add your ideas here

Building the tallest beanstalk

We read the story ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’ by Raymond Briggs. Then we worked in teams to build the tallest possible newspaper beanstalk.  
This task helped us work towards lots of the IPC Personal Goals. 
Enquiry
Goal -I can make links between what I know and my new learning.
In a maths lesson on 3D shapes we built shapes and this helped us to understand that triangles are strong shapes. So, some of us used a triangle shape for the base of our beanstalk.
Adaptability
Goal -Be able to cope with unfamiliar situations
Even though most of us had never done a task quite like this before we did not panic and we worked calmly with our friends. 
Resilience
Goal -Be able to stick with a task until it is completed 
We kept going even though our beanstalks fell over and the paper got crumpled.
Communication
Goal -Be able to make their meaning plain using appropriate verbal and non-verbal forms 
We gave each other instructions and sometimes used actions to explain our ideas. 
Thoughtfulness
Goal -Be able to use a range of thinking skills in solving problems
Some groups used good thinking skills and doubled up the newspaper sheet to make the tubes stronger.

Working with DST to paint eggs

Some visitors to our blog might not know that we share our school building with DST (a German-speaking Primary school). Every day we see them in the playground but we don't often get chance to work with them. So we were really pleased to get together with them on Monday morning to paint Easter eggs together. There were lots of different languages being spoken, German, English, French and even Spanish!

The eggs looked gorgeous when we had finished. Thanks to all the parents how helped blow the eggs at home and to the wonderful group of IST and DST mums who helped in school on Monday!

Which glue sticks the best?

We have been learning about buildings. The bricks are 'glued' together with cement. In school we use different types of glue. We did an investigation to find out whether all glues have the same ability to stick. 
First, we stuck 4 buttons onto card. We used PVA, glue gun, UHU stick and a 'homemade' glue, which was a paste of flour mixed with water. When the four glues were dry we held our card upside down to see if any buttons would fall off.  
At first they didn't but the next day some of the buttons did fall off. We all got different results but with one thing in common - none of the buttons stuck with glue from the glue gun fell off!
Also, one glue really surprised us. Do you know which one?

Our writing about giants

We have been writing about giants. Click on the links below to hear Irene and Pablo read out their writing.

listen to ‘Irene - instructions ’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Pablo - giant description’ on Audioboo

Structures topic

In History we have been finding out about how houses looked in the past. In pairs we worked together to sort pictures of houses into chronological order, from very old to modern. These pictures show us working.

Catching a stone giant

On Monday a stone giant was spotted near our school and Miss Ash heard about it on the French radio. Yesterday, Mrs Greenland was walking her dogs and she believes that she caught a glimpse of the giant but she was too frightened to approach and touch it! We asked her some questions to find out more information about this mystery.

THEN, when Mrs Greenland went to the art room she found this giant letter. 

The mummy giant was asking for our help. We brainstormed ways to catch a stone giant. Gustavo said that we need to find out from an expert more information about stone giants and their habits.
In pairs, we wrote questions for an expert: 

Are you an expert on stone giants? Can you answer our questions? Please help.

Our questions:

How harmful are stone giants?

Have you seen a stone giant? Can you give detail on what they look like?

Do stone giant children speak English?

What animals are stone giants scared of?

What animals do they like?

Where is Stone Giant Land?

What do stone giants eat?

Do stone giants weigh 40kg or more? Please tell us how much the adults and the children weigh.

What do they drink?

What if stone giants are bad?

Should we kill the stone giant?

Has a stone giant been spotted in France before?

Our families find out about blogging

Today Miss Ash talked to our families about how we use blogging in Y2 and the way it benefits our learning. We are really proud of our blog. It's great that they read our blog posts and leave comments for us.

A blogging workshop for parents

Tomorrow our parents are coming to school to hear about blogging. Miss Ash asked us what we would like to say about blogging and these are our ideas.

Monday's writing

During our Monday morning guided reading lesson the pupils who are not working on reading with Miss Ash or Mrs Greenland work instead on independent writing.  Sometimes we write a letter to Monty, or other times a recount of our weekend. This week we were given the title 'In the garden' and had 30 minutes writing time. Click below to listen to Maria and Niamh read out their writing. 

Building bridges

As part of our topic on structures we had the challenge of building a bridge. We worked in 2s. We were only allowed one piece of A4 paper and a 12cm length of tape. It was really hard! 
First we looked at some different types of bridges in photos. We saw examples of beam, arch, suspension (or cable) and cantilever bridges. We discussed the shapes in these different bridges and the materials used. Then we got to work cutting and sticking to make our own bridges. We were aiming to make a bridge that could hold 30g. Gustavo and Niamh's bridge held over 100g!
Here is a short video of us working.

29th February

On the 29th February we found out about what a leap year is and we explored the number 29.