Miss McLeod's Daily Blog

Wednesday 24th June 2020

Hello Year 2! As I will be in school with Year 1 for the next two days, and after that will see some of you returning to school, this will be my last Home Learning blog! I have worked out that all the blogs you have read since the start of lockdown amount to more than 15,000 words..... so well done if you have kept up with them!  haha. 

Some of you have messaged with fab photos from the Outdoor Hairstyle Hunt activity - it looks like you have had so much fun! Take a look through our Photo Gallery to see, and perhaps give it a go if you haven't done so already. 

For those of you returning to school, I will be messaging you on Marvellous Me between 12-1pm today to confirm the days you will be in next week - either Monday and Tuesday, or Thursday and Friday. Children of keyworkers have been allocated to both. If you have any questions following this, then please email me. I will also post some photos of the new classroom layout at the end of this week, which you can share with your child so they know what to expect coming back. 

For those who will continue learning at home, I have put together some updated pages of both Home Learning Online Resources, as well as our Help and Support page. Please have a read through these, there are some brilliant resources available for you to use. Some people have asked to be kept in the loop about topics we are covering at school, if you would like this too then let me know, otherwise I will not burden people as many of you have your own plans for Home Learning to suit your child which is absolutely fine! 

Whether you are returning to school or not, please can I ask you to watch this short video with your child, called While We Can't Hug. It's a lovely story that may help them understand ways in which they can show love and friendship to others whilst we continue to social distance. There are also other resources, including online books, to use to help your child if they are anxious or worried about the pandemic. 

Finally, the Spellings recording is now up for you to use on a day that suits you this week - good luck and let me know how you get on!

I am really looking forward to seeing some of you back to school next week, and for those that are continuing Home Learning, I am still very much here if I can help in any way. 

Sending you all huge hugs!

Miss McLeod x x 

Tuesday 23rd June 2020

Good morning Year 2! It was great to have so many of you join for the Zoom call yesterday, well done to everyone who has joined in with our various activities on Zoom over these last few months! I was having so much fun I forgot to take a photo 

Thank you to everyone for completing the survey yesterday regarding Year 2 returning to school from next week. Groups and plans will become clearer over the next few days! 

So looking ahead to today, there are some English activities for you to complete to finish off from your Summer English booklet, take a look at our grid to decide which ones. But today, you could write a Thank You letter to your parents or carers, for looking after you during Home Learning! What will you thank them for? What have you most enjoyed doing?

You might also want to complete our Design and Technology activity today all about tesselation. In this BBC Bitesize lesson, we learn about repeat pattern making. Follow this and complete the worksheet at the end - a copy is available for you to download from our Weekly Learning page. I would love to see your final designs!

As it's a lovely day today, why not try our Creative activity of an 'Outdoors Hairstyle Hunt'! Using a piece of cardboard, draw and cut out a face with ears but no hair. Take it outside, and with an adult go on a 'Hairstyle Hunt'! See how many funny hairstyles you can give it, using what you can find - grass? Twigs? Leaves? What else can you come up with? Please take some photos and send them in! 

If you have any photos that you haven't sent yet from Home Learning or what you have been getting up to, please do send them in - our latest album is looking a bit quiet! It's lovely to look back through each week and see how brilliantly you have all been doing. 

Hope you all have a good day!

Miss McLeod x

Monday 22nd June 2020

Good morning everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your weekends! 

By now you will have been informed that all year groups will now be returning to school from next Monday, which of course means us!! I am so excited that we will be able to come back to school for a few weeks before the summer holidays. I will be giving everyone (who hasn't already been coming into school) a call over the next few days to chat and see how you are, and to answer any questions you might have and help explain how it will work. You have also been sent a survey to complete as soon as you can, I will also send the link to you on Marvellous Me.

So as we continue for what will be the last week of Home Learning, the new weekly grid of activities is now up for you to read through. Our spellings for this week are also up for you to see, with the resources you need to help you learn them! 

As it's a Monday, we will also hold our Monday Motivation Zoom call this afternoon at 2pm. The log in details will be sent via Marvellous Me this morning!

In the meantime, please do get in touch with me if you have any questions or queries about reopening. Although we will be coming back in two groups, I am so pleased that we will get the chance to come back to school for the remainder of our Year 2 year. I have missed you all so much!

Have a good day,

Miss McLeod x

Wednesday 17th June 2020

Hello everyone! Hope your week is going well. We have a new Book Club chapter ready for you to watch! Would you like a shout out next week?! Let me know! 

I have also uploaded the recording for this week's spellings for you to use, as always you can use this on a day that you are ready to try it later in the week, it doesn't need to be today! There are some homophones again so make sure you listen carefully to the sentence so that you use the correct way of spelling each word. Good luck and let me know how you get on! 

For English today, to practise creating different types of sentences, try this fun game called Small Town Superheroes! Click on the Sentences option, and then select either Easy or Hard depending on how confident you feel. Have fun! For Maths, this week’s challenge is to play this Memory Game of number bonds! Here is the link, you need a device for this activity. See how you get on! And to get creative, have a look at Van Gogh’s painting 'The Bedroom at Arles'. Using your choice of materials/tools, can you recreate it, with your own bedroom as your inspiration?

I am aware that some of the free log-ins online to resources are now coming to an end, so if you have any trouble with accessing documents online or with printing off sheets, please let me know so that I can make arrangements for you. 

Hope you have a great rest of the week! 

Miss McLeod x

Tuesday 16th June 2020

Hello Year 2! Hope you have had a good start to the week. It was great to see some of you on our Zoom call yesterday, lots of laughs as always  remember the latest Book Club video is now up for you to watch! 

What activities will you try today?! Perhaps you could complete the reading of 'Victorians at the Seaside', in your Summer English booklet on pages 9-11. Can you read the text and answer the questions?

We are also starting to use The Oak National Academy for our Maths, to further help our understanding of fractions. In this new series of very helpful lessons, we are learning to relate halves and quarters to division. You need a device to watch it on, a pencil and your exercise book. Give the quiz a try before you start! 

You might also want to try out our Science Experiment Corner this week and make a Tornado in a Bottle! Find two plastic bottles, a sports bottle lid, Sellotape, water and food colouring. Watch this video for how to complete the experiment!

Well done to those of you who started off your weather diaries for Geography yesterday, remember to keep updating it each day! 

Have a lovely day and get in touch if you need any help!

Miss McLeod x

Monday 15th June 2020

Good morning everyone! How was your weekend? I'm missing you all so much! 

I'm excited as today is our Monday Motivation Zoom Call, and bingo will be back by popular demand! It will be at 2pm and the log in details will be sent via Marvellous Me, I hope lots of you can join us 

This week's new Learning Grid is now up so please spend some time today reading through the different activities and lessons. If you have any trouble with any of them or want some help understanding then please always let me know. We also have this week's spellings up to practise, and we are focusing on homophones as well as some conjunctions. Please use the Powerpoint in the resources section to help you get started! I would also suggest using the handwriting sheet too. 

Why don't you get started on our Geography task today? Each day this week, write a short entry in your Exercise Book to report the weather. Are there changes throughout the day? What will you need when you go outside? At the end of the week, review your entries and add any other observations you can make. You could even film yourself providing a weather report! In English we are revising the four different types of sentences. Work through this great BBC Bitesize lesson to learn all about them! 

Thanks to those of you who sent messages, videos and photos last week! I didn't however receive as many as I have done in the past, so I would encourage you to please send a quick email/photo just to check in with me about how you are. I would really appreciate it!

See you all later for our class Zoom!

Miss McLeod x

Wednesday 10th June 2020

Good morning all! We are half way through the week, I hope you are all having a good time. We have our latest Book Club video up, we are at an exciting point of our story so please do have a watch! Any shout out requests for next week are welcome!  We will also have an activity related to the Book Club story on next week's grid, so please use the rest of the week to catch up with where we have got to. 

I have also uploaded this week's Spellings recording, it's there for you to use any day this week that works best for you - if you need longer to practise them before giving the test a go then that's fine! 

It has been lovely to see some of you trying out our Plants and Flowers Hunt I suggested yesterday. Take a look at our Photo Gallery to have a look at how Dylan got on, it looks like he had lots of fun! Give it a go if you haven't already!

For English today, in your Summer English booklet on pages 7 and 8, there is an activity called Holidays: Past and Present. Can you fill in the missing boxes in the table, changing the sentences to past or present tense?

For your Maths activity, we are learning how sharing equally relates to division. In this BBC Bitesize lesson, there are some great videos and activities that will help your understanding, as well as a game at the end! Let me know if you need any help. 

I will be back in school in Year 1 from tomorrow, and back with a blog on Monday. Please do email me with an update during the rest of this week when you can, just to check in with how you all are. I would really appreciate it 

Have a great rest of the week, I am missing you loads!

Miss McLeod x

Tuesday 9th June 2020

Hello everyone! It was very fun to see some of you during our Zoom call yesterday! I hope you enjoyed it, I especially loved the book. Have a look at our Gallery for some of the photos!

The sun looks like it's shining today! You might also want to go on your Plant and Flower Hunt today! In your new Learning Packs there is a sheet called Plants and Flowers Hunt. Take this with you on your daily walk, or into your garden, and see how many you can find! Do send some photos of how you get on!

Today it would be great if you want to have a try at our activity on using suffixes in English. To start with, work through the BBC Bitesize lesson called What are Suffixes? which will help to revise how we use them. Afterwards, on Page 6 of your Summer English booklet (in your new Learning Pack), can you draw lines to match the root words with the suffixes that can be added to make new words? Let me know if you need any help!

For some creative time, have a look at Van Gogh’s painting The Mulberry Tree. Using your choice of materials/tools, can you recreate it? Look back at your previous Van Gogh recreations and challenge yourself to use something different to create this one! 

I hope you all have a lovely day, and remember I am here if you want any help!

Miss McLeod x

Monday 8th June 2020

Hello everyone! How was your weekend? I am missing you all very much!

Thank you so much to those of you who have sent messages and photos during the week whilst I was in school, I will spend time replying today. It has also been useful to get feedback about the activities set for Home Learning, so please do also let me know what is working well, or not so well, for your child so that we can make sure we set the best kinds of activities whilst we continue learning at home. 

As it's Monday, we have our next Monday Motivation Zoom Call today! I am looking forward to it, and hope as many of you can join as possible! We will be trying a new activity today which will be fun. Log in details will be sent via Marvellous Me, but as always if you need them emailed just let me know. 

I have uploaded our new Weekly Home Learning grid which you can spend time today looking through. This week's Spellings are also up for you to begin learning! You could start off the week with our English activity to write each spelling in a sentence, and you can use the Spellings Poster to help you.

For our PE activity this week, I have challenged everyone to do a '5 Minute Move' workout by Joe Wicks once a day! Here is a link to one of them, but you can choose from many others! We did these at school so I know you will enjoy them. Perhaps someone at home can join in too! 

It was great to hear that you enjoyed the Karate Cats Maths game on BBC Bitesize, so that is an activity for this week too. Although we are focused on multiplication and division, feel free to choose any topic that you can practise! https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zjkphbk/articles/zf4sscw 

See you all this afternoon for our Zoom!

Miss McLeod x

Wednesday 3rd June 2020

Hello! We are halfway through the week, how are you all getting on?! Keep your pizza making photos coming! 

Today, would you like to try our Maths lesson? I know that some of you have been finding multiplication tricky during Home Learning, so I would suggest using this BBC Bitesize lesson to revise how we use arrays, which is one of the really useful methods for working out multiplication problems. Some of the content you will recognise and some will be new to you - a nice mix! If you need any help just let me know.

You might also want to delve into our new topic for Geography, focused on seasons! Watch this BBC Teach video all about the four seasons. Then write a short answer in your Exercise Book to the question in the video: Which season is your favourite and why?

Looking ahead to the rest of this week, please use our Weekly Activities Grid to select activities which you are most interested in. As you know, I will now be in school Thursdays and Fridays, so this will be my last blog for this week. However, I have uploaded the Spellings Practise this morning so that you can do this tomorrow as we normally would on a Thursday, or you can of course choose to do this when you would like to. I would love to know how you get on! 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: choose an act of kindness to do today for a sibling or parent!

Missing you all lots!

Miss McLeod x

Tuesday 2nd June 2020

Good morning everyone! Thank you for joining in on our Monday Motivation Zoom Call yesterday, it was so fun playing bingo and there were some really funny moments to go along with it! 

It's set to be another hot day today, so I hope you can all get outside to enjoy the sunshine. Looking through our Weekly Home Learning grid, perhaps you would like to get back into our series of English lessons from The Oak National Academy, on the story of The Firework Maker’s Daughter. In the first lesson, we will continue to retrieve information from Chapter Two, reading pages 20-24. You need your Exercise Book or paper, a pencil and a device to watch it on. Let me know how you get on!

For Maths today you can make a start on our new Fractions booklet from the Home Learning Packs delivered last week. Can you complete the activities on Pages 1 and 2?

And a final idea is to give our Science Experiment Corner for this week a try! It's called ‘Magic Milk' and involves milk, washing up liquid and food colouring! Click here for instructions (scroll down the page) and there is also a video to help you. Have fun, and send me a photo or video if you can of the results!

A new funny chapter of our Book Club is coming your way very soon, look out for a Marvellous Me 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you give your room a spring (or summer) clean today?!

Take care,

Miss McLeod x

Monday 1^st June 2020

Good morning everyone! Oh it was just brilliant to see you all on Friday during my doorstep deliveries! Thank you to those of you who have sent photos of you making your yummy pizzas, I hope you have enjoyed it. Take a look at our Gallery for some of the pictures from Friday and what you have been sending over the weekend!

So we start off another week of Home Learning, and now you have your new Home Learning packs so I hope this will help you having some new booklets and activities to be getting on with. Here is the new Home Learning grid for this week, take some time today to have a look through.

We will also be doing our next Monday Motivation Zoom Call today at 2pm! Details have been sent out via Marvellous Me, we will doing bingo again as many of you said you enjoyed it last week. I am looking forward to it!

As you know, I will now be teaching Year 1 in school on Thursdays and Fridays, so our Book Club and Spellings timings during the week will change slightly. I will also not be able to reply to emails straightaway on these days, so if you have anything urgent please contact the Office and they will put you in touch with someone who can help you. But I am, of course, still very much here to help with our Year 2 Home Learning, so please get in touch if there is anything I can do!

How have you been getting on with our Spellings? Take a look here if you want to spend some time practising today.

Miss McLeod’s Daily Challenge: make a start on one of your new books from Friday’s delivery!

Missing you all lots!

Miss McLeod x

Friday 22nd May 2020

Good morning everyone and happy Friday! I hope you have been having a positive week and enjoying the weather. It was great to speak to some of you yesterday, I will be continuing the phone calls today. So if you haven't yet heard from me, I'll be calling from a withheld number in case you wonder who it might be! 

As it is technically half term next week, we will not be setting Home Learning. However we will be doing deliveries of a new pack of Learning and Activities towards the end of next week, so I will get in touch to let you know when to expect me! 

Can you complete this week's *Weekly Challenge* for Maths?! It’s time for the Weekly Quiz! Can you complete these three challenges? 

Also, something really fun to try would be our Creative activity called DIY Marble Run! Have you got some toilet rolls to spare?! Why not create your very own marble run! Take a look here for some inspiration and instructions. Send a video/photo to Miss McLeod of your masterpiece! 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you help prepare or cook a meal today? 

Missing you all lots, I will either speak to you later today if I haven't done so already, and I'll look forward to seeing as many of you as possible for our Zoom Call on Monday at 2pm! Have a good weekend. 

Miss Mc x

Thursday 21st May 2020

Hello my wonderful Year 2's! How are you today? I was lucky to spend some of yesterday outside, wasn't it hot! I hope you enjoyed it too.

I will be making some more phone calls to you today and possibly tomorrow as well depending on timings, just to check in and see how you are again! I will be ringing from an unknown number, so please know it may well be me and not a stranger  it would be great to chat, if there is a particular time that works better for you just let me know via email and I'll make sure I accommodate it the best I can. 

So it's Thursday which means our Spellings Practise recording is now up for you to use! Do let me know how you get on, and I'd welcome any thoughts on how the resources are helping or what else might help you at home with spellings. 

You have been doing really well on our halving work so far during Home Learning, and we have a new challenge for you to try! Firstly, watch this very funny BBC Bitesize video on halves and quarters.
Then, it’s time to make your own video!! Choose a food or other item at home that you are allowed to cut/split, such as a piece of bread, pizza, or a jug of water. Then ask a grown up to supervise and film you, and demonstrate how you can split your item into halves and then quarters. Send them to Miss McLeod at year2homelearning@hollybush.herts.sch.uk! 

How are you getting on with our Kindness Week activities?! Here's the grid full of ideas in case you missed it! What will you choose to do?! 

Finally, although it is half term next week, I think many of you would like to do another Zoom call on Monday. Could you let me know if you would like to join it?! Then we know numbers and can go ahead with it! 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: spend as much time as you can outside today!  (don't forget your suncream!)

Take care and have a good day!

Miss McLeod x

Wednesday 20th May 2020

Hello everyone! I hope your weeks are going well, and you are being able to enjoy some of this sunshine! Speaking of which, I have uploaded our next video for Book Club which I did outside for a change of scenery, I hope you enjoy it! Any more shout outs this week for anyone?! 

After you have watched Book Club, perhaps you could have a go at completing our English activity to write me a short letter, to share a Book Review of The Nothing to See Here Hotel, so far? Who are your favourite characters? What has been the funniest part? Who have you been watching it with?

We also have a fun Maths activity to do! As we continue to revise our Place Value knowledge, here is a new game called Shark Numbers! Click on ‘Numbers up to 99’ and you’re ready to go! Don’t let the shark eat your boat…

Finally, today might be a great day to try our joint Geography and History activity. We love the continent Antarctica, so we are going to learn about the famous explorer, Robert Falcon Scott, who wanted to be the first person to get to the South Pole. Watch this great video all about his exploration. Afterwards, try this activity on Twinkl (free log in required) to write your ideas about what Robert Falcon Scott needed with him!

I know that as the lockdown continues it gets harder to find motivation to do work. So just do your best, complete what you can, and take frequent breaks to help with concentration. I am always happy to send badges on Marvellous Me if you let me know your child has tried hard and completed an activity!

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you help with the washing up after a meal today?!

Missing you all lots! Take care!

Miss Mc x

Tuesday 19th May 2020

Good morning! It was so lovely to see lots of you on our Zoom call yesterday. You were all fantastic, taking part in all the different tasks in the Scavenger Hunt, and waiting patiently as you listened to your friends explain what they had found - I was really proud of you all! And it's fair to say we had lots of laughs with so many of you being very funny. I was dreaming of Gabriella's three chocolate bars yesterday, chuckling to myself at Sophie's excitement over her doughnut, and thinking of all the fab books you showed us, we must read them soon! Thank you to everyone for joining in, and if you missed it then join us next Monday! Take a look at our Gallery for a photo!

This week is Mental Health Week, and Miss Borgeat has put together an amazing set of activities for us all to try at home for our 'Hollybush Kindness Week' - there are 44 different things you might like to do! I suggest choosing one activity from each section. Take a look here, I would love to hear about what you get up to for it. Please do send any photos or messages about it!

We have two English lessons this week from the Oak National Academy, continuing the story of The Firework Maker's Daughter. The first focuses on writing a character description! If you missed any from last week then not to worry, I suggest completing those instead as the lessons are run in a series 

You might also choose to work on our Maths activity today. To help secure our understanding of multiplication, repeated addition and the use of arrays, follow this lesson from BBC Bitesize which includes some activities to practise. There are two short useful videos to watch from White Rose Maths, as well as a worksheet to finish off! 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: Have a go at a Cosmic Yoga session! Here’s the link for the Star Wars one we like doing at school. But feel free to choose another you would enjoy!

Missing you all lots, if you need any help just send me an email! Wishing you all a positive day today.

Miss Mc x

Monday 18th May 2020

Hello everyone, it's Monday which means we have a new grid of Weekly Activities for you to look through! It also means we have our second Monday Motivation Zoom Call this afternoon!! It will be at 2pm and the log in details will be sent via Marvellous Me this morning. Have a read through our guidelines and how to use it on this page if you didn't join us last week! It would be great to have as many of you join in as possible, the children who joined in definitely looked like they had a lot of fun! 

Take some time today to read through the new Weekly Activities. If you have activities from previous weeks you would either prefer to do, or want to catch up with (for example our English lessons are in a series), that's absolutely fine!

I am in school today, so please bear with me with responses to emails and uploading photos, but I'll be back in time for our Zoom! 

Perhaps take some time this morning to read through the Spellings for this week, we will have our Practise on Thursday as usual. This week's are tricky so I would suggest using the Powerpoint presentation as this is a helpful guide for the children to learn them! 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: catch up on our Book Club videos!

Hope you all have a great day, can't wait to see you later on at 2pm!

Miss McLeod x

Friday 15th May 2020

Good morning my lovely Year 2's! It's Friday and you have completed another week of Home Learning, well done!! So some things to remind you about to start off with...

Firstly, today is the last chance to send in any pictures or videos for our Million Dreams video. I know some of you weren't as keen to do a video of you singing, so here is a chance to still be a part of it but without doing something you aren't so keen on! You can create a picture, it could be rainbow or another positive drawing, with or without a message written too, and you can simply take a photo of you holding it and submit the photo to videos@hollybush.herts.sch.uk! I would just love to have as many of our class in it as we can! You can also submit a video of you lip syncing to our verse (scroll down to previous blogs for details) if you would prefer!

Secondly, our next Monday Motivation Zoom Call will be taking place this coming Monday at 2pm! As before, the meeting log in and password will be sent via Marvellous Me first thing on Monday morning. If you would prefer this was sent to you via email, just ask via the year2homelearning@hollybush.herts.sch.uk address! For how to use Zoom and our guidelines, take a look here. I can't wait!

Ok, so back to the last day of this week! There will be the latest Book Club video up today which includes some shout outs so keep an eye out! I've also put up the new Spellings list and resources on our Spellings page, ready to start learning for next week. 

Perhaps today you would like to try our Weekly Maths Challenge, where you can become Quizmasters! It’s time for you to organise a Maths quiz for your family. Write down ten Maths questions beforehand (that you know the answers to!), and you’re all set! Make sure everyone has a pencil and paper. Who wins?! Let me know how you get on!

You might also like to try our Creative activity. Using materials of your choice, can you design, make and decorate your own picture frame? You might choose to upcycle an old one you have at home, or you could choose twigs and nature items you find outside!

I hope you all have a restful weekend. I know lots of you are finding it hard to stay motivated, so just a last word to say please don't worry or put pressure on yourselves, just do the best you can, at the activities you are most interested in, and take frequent breaks in between. It is most important to look after yourselves and each other during this time. Some of you have asked for help with rewards for completing Activities, so if you would like me to send any badges via Marvellous Me for any achievements - big or small - I am more than happy to, just email me! 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: ask your parents or carers to send a message to one of your friends from school for you, to let them know you are thinking of them! 

Take care and sending big virtual hugs,

Miss McLeod x

Thursday 14th May 2020

Hello hello! It's Thursday and you have nearly made it through another week of Home Learning. Well done, I am really proud of you! Did you catch our new Book Club reading of The Nothing to See Here Hotel?! I haven't heard very much from you about the book recently, any comments are welcome - are you keeping up with it? Are you enjoying the story? We can mix it up with some other books if we would like to! And any shout out requests are also welcome, perhaps you want to nominate someone who listens to them with you at home! 

It's that time of the week again with our Spellings Practise! The recording is up for you to use today (or at a later date) to see how you get on. Good luck and let me know! 

How about you give our halves and quarters Maths activity a go today? To help with our learning of fractions over the next few weeks, have a go at this worksheet to help you understand and practise finding halves and quarters. If you finish, can you come up with your own questions to find one half or one quarter of different even numbers?! Perhaps you can test someone else at home! 

You might also like to try the second of our online lessons from the Oak National Academy today, all about our new book The Firework Maker's Daughter. In this next lesson, we are learning how to identify and use expanded noun phrases. You need a device to view the video, paper or your Exercise Book and a pencil!

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you help either with the washing up, or to unload the dishwasher today?

Take care and missing you all loads! 

Miss Mc x

Wednesday 13th May 2020

Hello everyone! How are you doing today? I went into school yesterday which was nice, I played some badminton with Ava and she is very good at it! Some of you might have people in your house now going back to work today. It continues to be a worrying and anxious time, so please remember that if there is anything I can help with just let me know, and you can also look at our own Help and Support page for links to helpful resources to support you during this time. 

So onto today! How have you been getting on with this week's Spellings? It would be great to spend some time today practising them. The powerpoint and poster are also there to help you with learning them, as well as a new sheet where you can practise 'Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check' if that is going to help too! You can still do this in your books without the sheet if you don't have a printer. 

You could also give our English lesson a try using another new video from the Oak National Academy, continuing the new story The Firework Maker’s Daughter! In this lesson, we identify the key features of a character description. We will read one character description about Lila and one about Lalchand. You will need a device to watch the video from, paper or exercise book and a pencil. Please note we follow a different Weekly Spellings to what is in this lesson, you can have a go at them or move on! Let me know how you get on! 

Finally, you will have received a message from Mrs Noon about our Millions Dreams video. For those of you who weren't so keen on doing a video, you can now submit either a photo of yourselves holding a message or picture on an A4 piece of paper, or you can send in a clip of you dancing, singing or lip-syncing our Year 2 section of the song! I know there were a few of you who didn't want to do the singing and signing video, so I really encourage you to choose one of these options instead! They need to be sent by this coming Friday (15th) and send them to videos@hollybush.herts.sch.uk. Thanks!

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you help with some hoovering today?

Missing you lots!

Miss Mc x

Tuesday 12th May 2020

Good morning everyone! Well, we had so much fun chatting and laughing with you all on our Zoom call yesterday! It was very funny, with some of you sitting with socks, teddies and all sorts on your heads  thank you for joining in! If you missed it yesterday then do not worry, we will be doing our next call at the same time next week, on Monday 18th at 2pm! Any ideas or suggestions for our calls are welcome!

So, onto today! It would be great to start off with some Maths this morning. We have been working on multiplying and dividing numbers, now it’s time to apply your knowledge to reasoning questions. From this sheet, pick a question one at a time. Try to explain your reasoning for each of these verbally to a grown up, then write it down in your Exercise Book. Parents and carers can peek at the answers as well to help!

You could also try our exciting Science activities today, where we are starting our topic on Plants! Read through the information on this page and watch the short video, note down any interesting facts you learn in your Exercise Book. Afterwards, write a list of any plants you can spot either in your home or outside, either in your garden or during your daily exercise! To complement our learning, in our Science Experiment Corner this week we are focusing on leaves. Collect some leaves whilst outdoors, and you’ll need a clear cup, water, a bit of food colouring and your exercise book (or print off the observation sheet) to note your observations each day, perhaps over the rest of this week. Full details are here! Have fun! 

We have had some fab photos in already this week, so please do send in photos of what you are getting up to and your learning so we can add to our Home Gallery. 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you help with the washing up today?!

Missing you all lots, and any questions, worries or suggestions I am here! 

Miss McLeod x

Monday 11th May 2020

Good morning everyone, it's Monday and we have a new week ahead of Home Learning to get started on! 

The new Weekly Activities Grid is now up, so take some time today to read through and look at the links and resources. 

After last night's broadcast from the Prime Minister, I know a lot of you will be feeling anxious and worried today. More guidance is expected from the Department for Education later today. As schools we don't yet know any more than has been said publicly, but please know that the leadership team are working really hard to plan for what the latest announcements will mean for us all. 

As something to look forward to, we have our very first class 'Monday Motivation' Zoom call this afternoon! It is at 2pm today, and you can read through our page with all the details about how to use it here. You will very shortly, or have already, received the Marvellous Me with the log in details to use. Please log in prior to 2pm, and you will be placed in a virtual waiting room, and that will mean we can make the most of our time by starting promptly! I am really excited to see you all, and for you to all see each other! We will be playing a 'Home Scavenger Hunt' too. Please remember all children need to have a parent or carer in the room with them during the call!

See you all later on, and email me on year2homelearning@hollybush.herts.sch.uk if you have any questions!

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you give your bedroom a spring clean ready for the new week ahead?

Miss Mc x

Friday 8th May 2020

Good morning everyone, it's Friday and it's a Bank Holiday! It's also a special day as it is the 75th anniversary of VE Day. VE Day - or 'Victory in Europe Day' - marks the day towards the end of World War Two (WW2) when fighting against Nazi Germany in Europe came to an end. If you would like to learn more about it today, have a look at Newsround's article which includes a video of Colonel Tom Moore sharing his memories of VE Day back in 1945. 

Perhaps you would like to make your own VE Day bunting today! Grab some pencils or felt tips, some scissors, some paper and some string/ribbon, and you can make triangles decorated with the Union Jack! Here's some more instructions and ideas here. Alternatively you could create your own poster to celebrate VE Day for your front windows. Take a look at some inspiration here. Do send me a photo of your creations, I would love to see them! My Grandma was just a little bit older than you all are when VE Day was marked back in 1945, and it's an important day for her, so I know she would love to see your creations. You might also have relatives, friends or neighbours who remember it well too, so Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge today is to take the opportunity  to have a chat with them (on the phone or at a safe distance) and ask them all about it! 

As you know, Monday (11th) will be our very first 'Monday Motivation' Zoom call as a class at 2pm! I am really excited. All the details for how to join the meeting will be sent out on Monday morning, but for how to use Zoom and what our guidelines are for using it, please have a look at our new page for all the information. I hope as many of you can make it as possible!! 

Wishing you all a safe and happy Bank Holiday weekend, and wishing Amber a very Happy Birthday! 

Miss McLeod x

Thursday 7th May 2020

Hello everyone! Hope you have all been having a good week so far. The deadline for our Millions Dreams video is tomorrow so please make sure you give it a go and submit your video for our Year 2 verse! All the details are below if you scroll down to yesterday's blog. Have fun!

So as it is Thursday we have our virtual Spelling Practise up today for you to try! Just do your best and don't worry if you don't get them all right, just write the correct way down in your books to remember in the future. Parents, I am happy to send any Marvellous Me badges for the children so do let me know how they get on! 

Today would be a good day to give our exciting Science lesson a go which is all about Light and Dark. Continuing from last week’s lesson, can you watch this short video from BBC Bitesize, and then have a look at home for some ‘opaque’ objects and some ‘transparent’ objects? Write a list in your exercise book and send a photo of your findings!

You might also like to have some fun doing our Creative Activity today. Find a box that is no longer being used at home, the bigger the better but even a cereal box will work! Use your imagination to create something of your choice. It can be cut, stuck or decorated however you would like! Send a photo! Here are some ideas for inspiration…

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you help with the washing up after one of your meals today?!

Hope you all have a safe and happy day today! 

Miss McLeod x

Wednesday 6th May 2020

Good morning all! It looks like the sun is coming out for us today! It was lovely to hear from some of you yesterday and get some photos, take a look at our Gallery for some from this week so far. Gabriella has successfully made 'Oobleck' - a slime that turns into both a solid and a liquid - which is in our Science Experiment Corner this week, her video is just fantastic! Do watch it and see if you can make your own too! 

I know some of you are finding things really hard at the moment when we have been on lockdown for this many weeks now, so I just want to say how proud I am of you, and your families, of how well you are coping and still finding the motivation to complete Activities each day. Do always take frequent breaks and choose Activities that you are most interested in. I am always here to help even when we are not in school. 

You have just a few days left to send in your videos for our whole school 'A Million Dreams' video! Thanks to those of you who have, it's been lovely to get a sneak peek from some of you! If you haven't already please do give it a try today - it can even be just a line or two from our verse if that's easier. Here are the details in case you missed it:

We are going to create a whole school video using Makaton signing! The video to practise from and use is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYx-bs8yTwE

Our Year 2 verse starts at 1min40 in the video, the lyrics are as follows:

Year 2: There's a house we can build
Every room inside is filled
With things from far away
The special things I compile
Each one there to make you smile
On a rainy day

When you have finished your video, please email it to: videos@hollybush.herts.sch.uk and send them by this Friday, 8th May. 

Perhaps you'd like to continue our learning on 3D shapes today. Can you play this game where you need to sort different 3D shapes?! See how many you get right! http://resources.hwb.wales.gov.uk/VTC/sorting_3d_shapes/eng/Introduction/SortShapesPop.htm

You might also want to go onto the second English lesson on the new book 'The Firework Maker's Daughter', some of you finished the first lesson yesterday which is fantastic, I know you worked really hard on it. Here is the second lesson exploring the new book where we continue Chapter One of the story and make inferences!

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you write a little note of kindness to someone in your family today? Perhaps you could hide it under their pillow! 

Have a good day everyone!

Miss McLeod x

Tuesday 5th May 2020

Good morning everyone, how are you getting on?!

Today I am school so know that I will be seeing a couple of you as well as ringing some of you this morning to catch up. I think the government is starting to make plans for lifting some restrictions on lockdown in the next few days, so we might hear about what is happening with schools and when things might change. 

The latest Book Club video is up, it's a great end to Chapter Six of The Nothing to See Here Hotel! If you aren't up to speed with where we are at with the book then don't worry, all the videos can be found on the page so you can just start where you want to. There are all the other stories we have read too if your child prefers a shorter story! 

Perhaps today you would like to try the first of our two English lessons from the Oak National Academy. The teacher is great and I have suggested the lessons I think are going to be enjoyable and useful for our class. It's focused on a new book called 'The Firework Maker’s Daughter' and the lessons are focused on make inferences from the text, as we do in Guided Reading! You need a device to watch the lesson, a pen and your exercise book. Feel free to try the spelings at the start but these aren't the same scheme as what we are using, so don't worry! 

With this English lesson as well as any other Activity, you can always take frequent or short breaks if this helps you to concentrate better. We know working at home is very different to school, so if it takes you longer to complete one then that's okay! It's more important you just try your best 

You could also have a go at our Geography activity! We have done lots of learning this year, and at home, on the continents, oceans and the United Kingdom. Have a go at this BBC Bitesize game called ‘Pirate Bunnies: World Adventures’ to see what you can remember! 

Would anyone like a shout out for tomorrow's Book Club?! Let me know!

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you ask for a grown up's purse and wallet and count the coins to find out how much they have got?! 

Have a great day,

Miss McLeod x 

Monday 4th May 2020

Good morning everyone, it's Monday and we are ready to get started on the new week of Home Learning! I am missing you all very much and hope you have had a restful and happy weekend. 

Take a look at this week's Home Learning Weekly Activities Grid. Take some time today to read through it with your child and see which one's they are excited about and keen to try. We are using a few resources again from both BBC Bitesize and the Oak National Academy resources, so it would be really helpful to hear how you get on with these and how useful the children find them over the week! 

Our new Spellings went up on Friday, so perhaps today is a good day to focus on practising them! Remember you can use the poster to help you write the word using a sentence, and the Powerpoint presentation will also have some useful tips to help you learn them, just like we normally do at school. 

Today might be a good day for you to complete our English activity to try a new recipe with someone at home. Can you write the ingredients you need and the instructions to follow in your exercise book? Remember to use your ‘bossy’ imperative verbs! It can be what is already planned for lunch or dinner if that is easiest! If you cook or bake, send a photo of the finished product! 

After last week's recap, we have one more activity focused on Symmetry in Maths. Download this Activity Sheet to draw a line of symmetry for different shapes. If you don't have a printer, have a go at drawing the shapes in your Exercise Book first! Good luck! 

Please do drop me an email with a message or photo, today or tomorrow about how your child is doing. I know it's been a long time since we were last at school together, so I'm always happy to help with messages, Marvellous Me badges or calls if you think it would help them, either in terms of motivation with their Home Learning or with their wellbeing. 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you take a picture of you and your family out on a walk or your daily exercise today?! 

Hope you all have a great start to the week, and any help needed I am here! 

Miss Mc x

Friday 1st May 2020

Good morning everyone, it's Friday and it is (possibly) looking a bit sunnier today! 

Well done on getting through another week of lockdown, I know you are likely to be finding it harder the longer it goes on. I am really missing you all and can't wait until we are able to go back to school altogether. If you ever need any advice or tips for Home Learning take a look at our Help and Support page with some useful links. 

Did you get a chance to start practising the signing and singing for A Million Dreams yesterday?! Have a scroll down to yesterday's blog post to have a look at more details about our very exciting whole school video! Make the most of this weekend to learn it if you can, I'd love to see as many of you in it as possible! 

Use today as a chance to have a look at our Weekly Activities grid and see if there is anything you would like to finish off for the week. Something I think you'll enjoy is our Creative activity. Find some tin foil, some bits and bobs from your recycling such as boxes or bottles, and create your very own robot! Take a look at this video from The Tate Art Galleries to get some ideas and instructions! 

The last 'episode' of our Book Club for this week is now up for you to watch, as well as our new Spellings to practise for next week. Do send through any photos from this week so I can upload them onto our lovely Gallery, it's fun to take a look at what everyone else has been getting up to! 

Well done on everything you have worked on and achieved this week! Have a lovely weekend when it arrives.

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: over the weekend, can you help to make everyone's beds in the mornings?!

Take care! xx

Thursday 30th April 2020

Good morning everyone! It's the last day of the month today, I can't quite work out if I feel like it's gone super quickly or super slowly...! What do you think?

As it's Thursday, this week's Spellings Practise recording is up for you to use! Good luck and try your best, let me know how you get on! 

We have something exciting that we are planning as a school. You all love the song 'A Million Dreams' from The Greatest Showman! Well, we are going to create a whole school video using Makaton signing! Each class has been given a section to sing and sign, so we would like you to get someone at home to video you doing either a chosen line from our section, or doing the whole section which can then be edited! 

So, the video to practise from and use is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYx-bs8yTwE

Our Year 2 verse starts at 1min40 in the video, the lyrics are as follows:

Year 2: There's a house we can build
Every room inside is filled
With things from far away
The special things I compile
Each one there to make you smile
On a rainy day

How brilliant would it be to have as many of you as possible in the video!! Please do take the time to have a go! 

When you have finished your video, please email it to: videos@hollybush.herts.sch.uk and send them by next Friday, 8th May. 

Any questions just let me know! Thank you 

Finally, there is the first National School Assembly taking place today at 10am, which you might really enjoy watching and taking part in. The link is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgdhOstV6iI 

Have a good day everyone!

Miss McLeod x

Wednesday 29th April 2020

Good morning all! How are you today? How did you get on with the Maths and English activities yesterday? 

I received a fabulous video from Sophie who has given our Science Experiment this week a try, and she has created her very own Erupting Volcano! Have a watch, it's great, and perhaps you can have a go as well! I've also put up some of your Home Learning photos you have kindly sent from this week so far. Take a look here! https://www.hollybush.herts.sch.uk/home-learning-photo-gallery/ 

I have also put up today's latest Book Club video for you to watch! How are you finding our new book? Would you like some other shorter stories thrown in during the week as well? Let me know what you think!

Today you might like to give our History Activity for the week a go. We have done a lot of learning about Malala Yousafzai over the last few weeks, who is an inspirational campaigner. Now, it is your turn. Choose somebody who inspires you, it might be someone in your family, a friend, or someone well known. Can you write a short piece about who they are, what they do, and why they inspire you? I'd love to see what you come up with.

Finally, we will have our Spellings Practise up tomorrow so use some time today to get some last minute learning/recap of them in! Here they are, along with the resources to help you - https://www.hollybush.herts.sch.uk/weekly-spelling-resources/ you can do it!

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: with your parents or carers, can you find a new local walk to do today that you haven't done before? Where will you explore? Don' forget your raincoats! 

Have a great day! 

Miss McLeod x

Tuesday 28th April 2020

Good morning everyone! I hope you are all well. It looks like the rain has arrived! I loved the sunshine but outside the plants and grass were looking like they needed some rain for a bit! Don't let it put you off getting outside for your daily exercise or walk if you can 

I was in school yesterday and we spent it mostly in the hall with the children doing different things like some painting, badminton and some games. I checked on our classroom which is clean and tidy ready for when we are able to go back! 

Today would be a great day to get started on our English activities. To start off with, listen and watch the online story of 'Brenda's Boring Egg'. After that, you can have a go at the activity called 'What Makes a Good Egg?' which I think you will enjoy! If you can't print off the sheet just use your exercise book and decorate it after you've finished your writing! There's also a Guided Reading Activity but you may want to give that a go another day! 

For Maths today, it would be great if you could revisit our work we had been doing before the lockdown, on Arrays. To help recap, take a look at this video from BBC Bitesize to remind yourselves how we can use arrays to help with our multiplication and division. Then, there are two options for the worksheets, a good idea would be to start on this one, and if you find that straightforward perhaps have a go at this worksheet too! For parents and carers, there is a very helpful page on Twinkl that explains more about arrays which you might take a look at. As ever, email me if you have any questions or need any help! 

I put our latest episode of Book Club up on our page yesterday, do have a watch if you haven't already! Are you enjoying our chapter book? Let me know what you think, and if you have any requests for shout outs too! 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you make a cup of tea for someone at home? 

Missing you all lots! Have a positive day today 

Miss Mc x

Monday 27th April 2020

It's Monday! Good morning! I hope you have all had a good weekend. I enjoyed doing a bit of gardening, and I also baked some lemon drizzle cakes - they didn't look the best but they tasted better! 

So we are all set for a new week of Home Learning. Take some time today to look through the new Weekly Activities Grid, it is the same format and it also includes some video lessons which have been published by the Oak National Academy which launched last week. Let me know how you find them during the week. Our new Spellings for this week are also up on the Spellings page, perhaps you could make a great start by starting to practise them today! There is the Powerpoint presentation for them that we normally use at school to help you. 

There was lots of wonderful activity going on thanks to our new 'Science Experiment Corner' last week, so it is back! And perhaps messier than before! As always it hopefully requires items you are most likely to have at home or should be easier to get hold of. This week it is to create your very own Erupting Volcano! I'd love to hear how you get on. 

You might also want to start off this week with our Weekly Activity in Maths, which is a Challenge for your whole family. Can you challenge everyone at home to the Addition Challenge, to see who can write the number bonds to 20 the quickest?! 

I am in school this afternoon and will also be uploading the next episode of our Book Club later on! 

Missing you all lots, and I am here to help just as much with any worries as with any work, so never hesitate to email me at year2homelearning@hollybush.herts.sch.uk. 

Have a good day,

Miss McLeod x

Friday 24th April 2020

Happy Friday everyone! Well done on getting through another week of Home Learning, I am really proud of you all. 

I know that you will be missing all the Year 2 teaching team, and so Miss Richardson, Miss Crane and Mrs Eley have all written a message to you along with some photos (and one from me too) to tell you about what they have been getting up to! We hope you enjoy. Take a look on our new page here, and if you have any messages or questions you would like me to pass back to them, then I am more than happy to! 

You have all been doing really well completing our Learning Activities for this week. Today, you might like to try our Geography activity. Before Easter we started looking at the United Kingdom and the four nations. This week we are going to focus on England. Can you have a go at writing your own Factfile about England? Have you visited anywhere in England, and can you find it on a map? What can you find out about Saint George, the patron Saint of England? Do you know what England's capital city is? Some resources to help you are here - take a look at the map of England, and also watch the story of Saint George!

As it's Friday, the last of this week's Book Club is up, where we are carrying on with The Nothing to See Here Hotel. Enjoy! (p.s. as some are recorded earlier on, shout outs may appear in the following episode so don't be disheartened if you don't get one just yet!) 

Finally, you may have been watching The Big Night In on BBC One or iplayer last night. Do you remember I suggested practising the Strictly dance routine?! Well, take a look and see if you spot a very familiar face.... hint - it's near the end of the video..!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRZtJXsYVD0 

Miss McLeod's Weekend Challenge: can you help write the Shopping List for your family for the next shop?!

Have a safe and happy weekend everyone!

Miss McLeod x

Thursday 23rd April 2020

Hello Year 2 and your families! I hope you have been able to enjoy some of this lovely sunshine so far this week. It's meant to be another hot day today, so do try to get out for your daily exercise/walk when you can to make the most of it! 

Before Easter, you had been researching and finding out about Malala Yousafzai, the inspirational campaigner for equal rights to education. Perhaps you can have a go at this week's History activity, which is to write and/or deliver a short speech, to persuade your family at home why all children should have the right to go to school? Watch one of Malala’s own speeches here for inspiration! https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/23294535 

Don't worry that it needs to be long, think of two or three important reasons why everyone should be able to go to school. Let me know how you get on, and you could even send me a video of your speech! 

As it is Thursday, it's time for our weekly Spelling Practise! Find a recording on our Spelling Resources page, and see how you get on. I know lots of you told me you had been practising which is fantastic. Good luck and let me know how you get on! 

The final suggestion for what you might be able to try today, is our PSHE activity which uses one of the new BBC Bitesize resources. It's all about Managing our Emotions, and believing in yourself (think back to our favourite Mojo character!). You might have been experiencing all kinds of emotions whilst we have been at home, so it it a useful time to have a look at this. Share your ideas and thoughts with a parent or carer at home afterwards  https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zmmgrj6 

Well done on what you have achieved so far this week. Missing you lots and stay positive!

Miss McLeod x

Wednesday 22nd April 2020

Good morning everyone! I hope your week is going well so far. It has been lovely to receive lots of photos of you at home, please keep them coming! You can take a look at our albums here, so you can see what your friends have been doing as well! https://www.hollybush.herts.sch.uk/home-learning-photo-gallery/

Tomorrow I will be uploading the Spelling Practise for this week, so take some time today to learn and practise the spellings yourselves. They are from our Common Exception Words for Year 2, or our 'tricky' words, so there are some resources here to help you! https://www.hollybush.herts.sch.uk/weekly-spelling-resources/ 

As it is Wednesday, I have uploaded the next chapter of our new book, The Nothing to See Here Hotel, for our Book Club! If you haven't had a chance to watch the first video I suggest doing that first so you can keep up with the story as we go along. 

If you get the chance to go outside today on a walk, or perhaps in your garden, the sun is shining so what a good day to complete our Creative activity to collect items to create your own nature collage! What different coloured items can you find? How will you place them on your collage? Remember when we did something similar to create the faces of The Twits?! Maybe you want to choose a character or scene for your collage! I'd love to see how you get on, so please send a photo when you've finished. 

How are you getting on with your reading at the moment? I know it's hard because we aren't coming into school and changing our books. If you haven't already done so, ask your parents to register on Oxford Owl, as you can look through categories and age groups to find free ebooks to read! Here's the link, let me know if you need any help or advice! https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page 

Missing you all, I have been in touch with Miss Richardson and she sends big hugs to you all! We are planning something from us for the website, so watch this space... 

Take care and have a lovely day,

Miss McLeod x

Tuesday 21st April 2020

Hello everybody! I hope your first day back into Home Learning went well yesterday. I was able to get through to have a phone call with lots of you, and it was so lovely to have a chat with you and/or your parents! I am so proud at how well you are all managing during this time of uncertainty and how you are trying hard with Home Learning as well as helping around the house and looking after your families. It has certainly put a big smile on my face for the rest of the week after chatting to you! If I didn't get through to you yesterday, I will be emailing today to find out a convenient time to call again! 

So to look ahead to today's activities. This week we are looking at 3D shapes in Maths! Have a look at this video and work through the questions and quizzes on this page. 

Afterwards, it's time for a Shape Hunt! Can you hunt for cubes and cuboids in your kitchen? Take a look at this video for some examples. You could write a list and/or take some photos of what you find. Explain to someone at home why you know they are a cube or a cuboid, describing how many faces, edges and vertices (where the edges meet) the shape has.
 

Perhaps today you could also give our Creative activity a try, and learn a dance for the TV show called BBC Big Night In! It's called the #bigdancingchallenge, and the Strictly dancers have put some routines up for everyone to learn. Why don’t you give it a go?! You can even submit them to the programme (with your parent/carer’s permission)! Here's the tutorials!

Finally, you may have noticed on this week's Learning Activities grid that we have a new section called the Science Experiment Corner, where each week I will suggest a science experiment that you can conduct at home! I know it's a tricky time for shopping or ordering anything, so the choices are experiments that require the least amount of unusual items as possible! This week the experiment is called 'Water Fireworks.' Take a look and see if you can give it a try, I'd love to hear/see how you get on. 

Your photos have started to come through which is great, I will upload them today as well as the latest Book Club video (I was at school for longer than I anticipated yesterday so apologies for the delay!). 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you give your room a post-Easter tidy today? You might even get the hoover out or do some dusting! 

Missing you all!

Miss McLeod x

Monday 20^th April 2020

HELLO MY WONDERFUL YEAR 2’s!! I am missing you all so much and I hope you are all doing okay and managed to enjoy the Easter break. I would love to hear what you have been getting up to! I have spent as much time as I could outside in the garden, have also done some baking (I ate almost every single one of the cream cheese brownies I made... and there were a lot, oops!) and I have also been reading a new book I have wanted to start for ages! 

A brand new Home Learning grid is up on our page  for you to look through. Take some time to read through and see what there is. You may be aware that BBC Bitesize and other resources are launching new lessons online this week, so I have picked out some to include in our own grid that align with what we are learning about at the moment. To settle back into learning this morning, I would suggest opening up Times Tables Rock Stars to help get your brain into gear, to watch Newsround, and to take part in Joe Wicks’ daily PE lesson!

If you haven’t already done so, I would recommend using Read Write Inc’s daily phonics sessions that will be starting again today. Go for Set 3 Sounds, and your child will be familiar with the routine of the session from what we do in school. If your child reads Grey, Pink, Yellow, Blue or Orange books this will be especially helpful. The sessions can be found here - https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/help-during-school-closure/

Finally, if you and your family fancy a bit of fun and exercise all in one, one of our Creative activities this week is to take part in the #keepdancingchallenge on BBC One! On Thursday there is a special TV programme called Big Night In, and the dancers from Strictly are teaching everyone in the country some dance routines to do! With your parent/carers permission you could even submit them to the show. I’ll be giving it a go too, so see how you get on! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p089h234

Miss McLeod’s Daily Challenge: can you create a lovely picture to give to one of your neighbours? Perhaps someone you know is living on their own? I am sure it would cheer them up!

I am going into school today, and will be ringing as many of you as I can get through to, just to check in and see how you are. I'm really excited to have a chat! So please keep an eye/ear out for your phone ringing, it would be lovely to speak to you! Today's Book Club will be uploaded later on due to me being in school today. 

Sending you all big virtual hugs, and as ever if there is anything I can help with please let me know.

Miss McLeod x

Friday 3rd April 2020

Happy Friday Year 2! Well done on completing another week of home learning. You have done such fantastic hard work, it just makes me feel SO proud of you all!!

There is a new Book Club video now up, which includes some shout outs! I hope you enjoy this story, it's a great one for everyone in your family to enjoy. Perhaps today you can have a go at a Creative activity from our Weekly Activities grid - using items in your home, can you create your very own musical instrument? I'd love to see how you get on, so please send a photo, or perhaps a grown up at home can even take a video of you performing! 

As you may know, the next fortnight would normally be the Easter holidays, but it feels quite strange as we haven't been at school for the last two already. But this means that it is really important to take a well deserved break. I will put up a new link to some Easter activities, if you would like to do these (which will be available later on today), but most importantly I really would like you to continue to spend quality time with your families. Make sure you are getting outside for your daily exercise, perhaps look at doing a Scavenger Hunt or Nature Trail to make it even more fun. Continue to help your families at home, and carry on with more acts of kindness towards your family - look out for when someone needs some help, or if someone is feeling sad. Remember our Kindness Buckets, I know you can all fill the buckets of those you are at home with! 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge - can you help to tidy the house ready for the Easter break, perhaps help with the hoovering or tidying things away?!

Remember there are some useful pages for you to look at online with lots of advice if you are feeling worried or anxious about everything the world is coping with at the moment. There are links for parents and carers as well. 

Finally, I just want to say a big thank you to your parents and carers who have kept in touch with me and have sent messages and photos! When I am not able to see you all it really does mean a lot that you have been making the effort to update me on how you all are. Every child in Year 2 holds a special place in my heart and I care about and miss them all so much! 

Please do continue to send in messages or photos of anything you get up to, and I look forward to catching up with you all after the Easter break. We will be back to Home Learning from Monday 20th April.

Stay safe, sending big virtual hugs and positive thoughts!

Miss McLeod x

P.S. don't each too much chocolate! 

Thursday 2nd April 2020

Hello my wonderful Year 2's! How are you today? Thanks to everyone who sent messages and photos yesterday! I was really pleased that lots of you have been doing the Daily Challenge such as laying the table for a meal, tidying your rooms and other help around the house - you are superstars ! Perhaps your parents or carers might have some ideas for me to put up as Daily Challenges..?! (make the most of this )

A suggestion for today is to have a look at our Geography activity for this week. The activity is to find out the names of the four countries of the United Kingdom, and what their capital cities are. To start with, take a look at BBC Bitesize's information to learn about them. Then, perhaps you could print off a map of the United Kingdom and label it, there are activity sheets here (use your free Twinkl log in if you haven't done so already).

If you aren't able to print off a sheet don't worry, just focus on getting to know the names of countries of the UK! Have you visited any of the countries outside of England? Choose one of them to write a few sentences on!

As it is Thursday, I have also uploaded a new recording for this week's Spelling Practise for you to use. See how you get on and let me know! 

It's great to see lots of you playing Times Table Rock Stars this week! Keep up the fab work. 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge - can you help to put some clothes washing on? Or, if there is some washing all done, perhaps you could help by folding them and putting them into piles for the people in your house! 

Stay safe and I'm thinking of you all!

Miss McLeod x

Wednesday 1st April 2020

Hello Year 2! It's the first day of a new month! 

Today would be a great day to give one of our English writing activities a try, and write a prediction! On the Weekly Activities grid you will find a picture of the front cover of a book called 'Happy Birthday Winnie.' Just using the front cover, write a prediction about what you think the story might be about, who the characters might be and what might happen. The next activity will then see us all reading the story to find out if you were on the right track with your ideas! If you need help with the activity, take a look at this presentation on Twinkl which has more information about 'Predicting Pip' and our other Guided Reading friends. 

Speaking of reading, you may well have read the books you took home from school a few times by now. Do have a look at the website called 'Oxford Owl' as they have access to free e-books, and you can find your age category for appropriate books too, including books linked to Read Write Inc. Take a look and if you need any advice let me know. 

Have you tried a Year 2 Superstar Challenge yet?! Take a look and see which one you fancy having a go at! 

I am going into school today so will upload the new Book Club story later on in the day. It has been lovely to hear back from some of you who enjoyed the last and who have requested a 'shout out' - let me know if you'd like one too!

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: can you help to set the table for one of your family meals today?

Stay safe and take care!

Miss McLeod x

Tuesday 31st March 2020

Hello everyone! How is your second week at home going?! I am thinking of you all! Have you managed to curl up with a blanket and listen to yesterday's Book Club yet?! Although I am a bit limited with the stories I have with me at home, if you have any suggestions about stories you would like me to read I would love to hear them and will do my best to get hold of it if I don't have it already! Also let me know if anyone wants a special 'shout out' to listen out for on the next one 

What activities will you be interested in trying today? Perhaps have a go at the Maths learning activity to practise our addition and subtraction in tens, using the Chopper Squad game! Click on 'Ten More or Less' and 1-100 to start with, but try the others if you would like to, the more practise the better! 

You might also be keen to complete our Science activity all about Exploring Electricity, by making a list using words/drawings to find all the things in your home that use electricity. If you could keep only one item, what would it be and why? Perhaps you can ask your parent or carer to email me with your answer and we can chat about some of them on tomorrow's blog! 

Don't forget to have a practise of your Spellings. Please scroll down on the page to the resources, as I have uploaded a poster and a presentation that we would normally use at school to help you learn them! Take a look here. 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge is back, and I bet your parents/carers will be very pleased if you complete this one... Can you tidy your bedroom?! I'll do mine today too! 

Let me know if you need any help.

Big hugs,

Miss McLeod x

Monday 30^th March 2020

Good morning Year 2!  Did you all have quiet but fun weekends?! Let’s kick start this second week with a great work out with Joe Wicks – I know lots of you (parents included) have been doing them together which is fab! After that, I would suggest you spend some time this morning reading through the new Home Learning Weekly Activities grid. Some of the activities follow on from what we did last week. If you didn’t manage to do them last week that is okay, just spend some time on last week’s before moving on to the next activity.

Perhaps you would like to start with Times Table Rockstars! I will make sure I play some today as well, it’s a good idea to log in regularly so you can build up your time. Would you like to challenge a friend, or even me, to a game?!

One of the English activities is to help cook a meal this week, and write a recipe and some instructions to go with it. Tell your parents/carers about when we made pancakes on Pancake Day – do you remember when we nearly ended up covered in the mixture?! It’s really important to write clear instructions, and to use ‘bossy’ verbs, that we call imperative verbs, to help with this. Take a look at BBC Bitesize here to remind yourselves about command sentences. Would you like to start your own cookery book?! This could be your first recipe! I’d love to see your work so do ask your parent or carer to email me a photo!

I have also added Phonics to our Non-Negotiables page. If your child has Grey, Blue, Pink, Orange or Yellow reading books, it will be especially useful for them to do this a few times a week. Read Write Inc have organised daily Speed Sounds sessions, which are then available for 24 hours until the next day’s. I really recommend you using this free resource and it will really help your child’s continued progression with reading and writing. Start with the Set 3 sounds, and if your child also benefits from recapping Set 2 then try those too! Here is the link - https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/

Finally, today’s new Book Club is going up today, and I chose one of our favourites! Have a watch to find out what it is 

I am missing you all lots, and if I can help at all always ask!

Miss McLeod x

Friday 26^th March 2020

Well done to you all, and especially to the parents and carers, for getting through the first week of learning at home! I hope everyone can give their parents and carers a big hug and a ‘thank you’ for all their help they have given you this week.

And a thank you of course to my wonderful class! You have done so much fantastic work this week, not just in terms of the Learning Activities but in completing the Daily Challenges to help around the home, as well as joining in with Joe Wicks in the mornings, and creating some beautiful Art creations of your own. Well done!

I am in school this morning and am hoping the weather stays nice to be outside. I hope you all get a chance to get outside today too. As we finish this week, perhaps you can have a go at our Creative activity to create a dance routine to our favourite song ‘Try Everything’ from the film Zootopia?!  I have also created a new page of ‘Superstar Challenges’ for you to try, perhaps one a day or some may take you more than that to complete! They should be lots of fun, so take a look! I have also uploaded this week’s Spellings to have a look at, and some resources to help learn them. You will also find the second part of our Book Club reading for this week of The Cat in the Hat! I hope you enjoy it! 

But most importantly, have a rest this weekend, spend some more quality time with your family. If you feel worried or anxious about everything going on at the moment because of the Coronavirus, have a look at our ‘Help and Support’ page which has some links for you, and for your parents, to have a read through. I will leave you with this quote, which I have found useful this week and I hope you all do too.

I’ll be checking back in on Monday with a new grid of Weekly Activities!

P.s. is anyone having Fri-yay’s Green pizza?!

Lots of virtual hugs, from

Miss McLeod 

Thursday 26th March 2020

Hello Year 2! Can you believe we have nearly done a whole week of learning at home? I miss you all so much, and it is so wonderful to be receiving your photos and messages about how you are and what you have been getting up to at home. For example, Gabriella has finished her own painting of Van Gogh's 'Fishing Boats' for the Creative activity, Tommy has been working on his 2 times table activities for Maths, Sophie has been exploring her home in search of different materials and their uses for Science, and Amber has been working on her continents poster for Geography! Well done to everyone who is getting on with their home learning. Take a look at our Photo Gallery to see what everyone is up to. But most importantly, it is great to see that you are spending quality time with your families and staying safe. It was lovely to hear from those of you who 'tuned in' to our first virtual Book Club reading of The Cat in the Hat, the next will be uploaded tomorrow! Do have a listen if you haven't had a chance yet. 

So, some of you said that it would be helpful to upload a Spellings Practise today, as Thursday is when we normally do it altogether at school. Therefore, you can find a recording to follow on our Weekly Spellings page ready to go. If you need more time in between each spelling, simply pause it and then press play when you are ready for the next - don't worry about rushing! I will then put up next week's spellings resources tomorrow. 

Perhaps today, with the help of someone at home, you could complete the History activity, focused on our theme of 'Can One Person Change the World?' We are focusing on Malala Yousafzai, who is a young, inspirational campaigner. She campaigns for equal rights to education. Perhaps you could remind yourselves about when we learnt about women having the right to vote, and how unfair we felt it was that women used to not be able to. Well, Malala feels the same about how in some countries, girls don't have the right to go to school. Can you find out three facts about Malala? For example, where did she grow up, what does she campaign about, and where she studies now? We can continue to learn about her as the weeks go on! Here is a Newsround page all about her to start you off! https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46865195 

I am hoping to spend some time outside today in the garden, as I think the sun is really trying to warm up now! Well done to those of you who helped with the washing up yesterday for Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge! Do keep in touch and send any messages or photos, I will add some photos of what I am up to as well :) 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: Can you help to put some washing on, or hang some clothes up to dry? 

Miss you all, stay safe!

Miss Mc x

Wednesday 25th March 2020

Good morning my lovely Year 2's! I hope you are all okay and are coping with staying at home for much longer than normal. I know it might be quite a worrying time for you and your families, remember I am always here if you want to ask any questions or for any advice. There are useful articles on Newsround to help you too. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/13865002 

I hope you all have a fun day, and that the activities are going well! I have added a new section of our Class Page today, called 'Year 2's Book Club', because... it is back!! Although we can't be together, I will upload a video of reading a story on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for you to enjoy! Do snuggle up with a blanket and your families, just like we would at school. I have chosen a class favourite to start us off, so head over to the page and see what story it is!! 

I have also added a section for our weekly spellings, and there are some resources that will help you. I plan to upload a recording for our Spelling Practise tomorrow, so you will be able to sit down and do our usual practise as if we were at school. Well done for your hard work practising them so far! 

I went into school yesterday afternoon and it was very strange to be there without you all. We are looking after a small number of children, whose parents have to go into work to help people who are poorly with the virus, and other really important workers such as those who work in our food shops to make sure we can keep going with our day to day lives. The weather has been getting warmer so we spent it mostly outside! I hope you are being able to get out once a day for a daily walk or other exercise. 

Miss McLeod's Daily Challenge: Can you help with the washing up after a meal today?!

Missing you all!

Miss Mc x

Tuesday 24^th March 2020

Good morning Year 2! Thank you to those of you who sent messages and photos yesterday, please do the same today! I know some of you had problems with some of the online sites going down, I think it was due to the amount of people using them yesterday.

Well done to those of you who tuned in to the 9am Joe Wicks Schools workout! If you didn’t get a chance to, definitely try it today, and if it’s later than the live time the videos are available afterwards too :)

There is also a reading by David Walliams at 11am called 'Elevenses' where he will be reading one of his World's Worst Children stories - here is the link if you want to join in! https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/ 

Perhaps today you could focus on the Geography Activity, to research your favourite continent! Show off your fab singing of the Continents Song to your families at home – perhaps teach your brother or sister the lyrics! With the help of someone at home, undertake some research about your continent. Have a look for the National Geographic videos on Youtube and take notes, or use BBC Bitesize to read some articles. Once you have collected some information, can you turn it into a fabulous poster?! Please email me with a photo of your work!

I had a quiet day yesterday doing some work, and also went for a short walk. Today I will be working at home this morning and then going into school this afternoon. I am thinking about what might be useful for you all to have from me, for example would a reading of a story from me help? I am also thinking about recording our usual Spelling Practise for Thursday so that we can all sit at home and do it together then mark it - would this be useful? Let me know what you think with your parents/carers contacting me via the email below! All ideas are welcome!

If it helped yesterday, please have a look below at the suggested routine for the day.

Miss McLeod’s Daily Challenge: can you make, or help to make, breakfast for someone at home this morning?!

Stay safe and I look forward to hearing about your days. Missing you all!

Miss McLeod x

year2homelearning@hollybush.herts.sch.uk 

Monday 23rd March 2020

Good morning Year 2!

I hope you have all had a restful weekend. You will be waking up today with a very different Monday ahead than normal. I will really miss not seeing your smiling faces at the door this morning! 

On our Class Page, with the help of your parents or carers, you will be able to find this week's Learning Activities grid. Please take some time to have a read through of this today. As you will see, our different subjects are listed along each row, with the week's activities written alongside. 

I advise that you aim to complete at least three activities a day alongside your daily reading and spelling practise. You also have your handwriting booklet, so it would be great to complete one letter per day! 

This is a new way of working for all of us, so if you have any questions about the work or what is available on our Class Page, your parents or carers can email me. All teachers are either in school or working from our homes at different points during the week, so we will always reply during school hours as soon as we can. 

Here is my suggestion for a routine to kick off the week with: 

8am: Be up and dressed, have some breakfast. Choose a non-negotiable activity (see the link on the Class Page) to complete as your Early Bird Work.

9am: Join in with Joe Wick's Live Schools work out - https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1 

9.30am: Choose either a Maths or English activity. 

10.30am: Have a break! Perhaps you could watch today's Newsround. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/news/watch_newsround 

10.45am: Choose a different subject activity such as Geography or History to complete. 

11.45am: Lunch hour - just like you normally would at school!

12.45pm: Can you complete a page in your Handwriting book?

1.15pm: Choose a Maths or English activity (the other to what you chose this morning!). 

2pm: Have a break and listen to Julia Donaldson's 'The Smartest Giant in Town' - just as if we were in our Reading Assembly! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfiPrA8E3qE 

2.30pm: Complete your daily reading with someone at home - would you like to choose your reading book from school or perhaps your Library book? 

2.45pm: Log in to Times Table Rock Stars https://play.ttrockstars.com/  using your own username and password (sent out in letters and on Marvellous Me). Make a start with your 2 times table!

3pm: Well done for getting through the first day of learning at home! Now I would suggest you go outside, with someone at home, either in your garden or go for a local walk (following government guidance and keep your distance from others). 

Miss McLeod's Daily Home Challenge! Each day I will suggest a different home activity to complete. Today, could you help your parents/carers with cooking dinner?! I'd love to know what you cook! 

I am always here to help! Stay safe, look after your families and have fun.

Miss McLeod xx