Welcome to Owls

We hope you had a lovely Summer break. Here you will find all the documents you need for the Owls class page this year as well as lots of updates about our learning each week. Please enjoy reading about what we are doing in class and remember to email us if you have any questions.

Email address:

owls@watlington.oxon.sch.uk

PE days will be on a Monday and Thursday.

Term 2

This term we will be finishing our Great Fire of London Topic and also doing a short unit on significant individuals of the past including Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth I. We will compare both reigns and look at aspects of life in these different periods.

Week 4

Maths

We have been learning all about 2D shapes this week. We have been looking at the properties including how many sides and vertices they have. We are getting very good and naming all the different shapes. 

RE

We looked at Advent this week and what that means. We learnt that some Christians light a candle every Sunday starting on the 1st December. We also talked about how many of us have advent calendars and enjoy the countdown to Christmas day.

Topic

We have been learning about Queen Victoria this week and found out some interesting facts about her. She was very small but a very powerful and famous Queen. She had many children and was later referred to as the Grandmother of Europe. When her husband died she decided to wear black all the time as she was so upset and sad.

We also made our Christmas decorations for the tree in the Church. The theme was fairy tales so we did Cinderella and made some shoes and crowns.

Week 3

PE

This term on a Thursday we have been enjoying cricket lessons. We have been improving our throwing and catching skills which are very important when playing cricket. 

Topic

This week we have been learning all about Queen Elizabeth I. We have researched and found out some interesting facts about her. Ask us what we have learnt about her and see if we can remember!

Reading 

This term in our reading lessons we are looking at some Roald Dahl books. We are really enjoying George's Marvellous Medicine. We have been describing Grandma and predicting what George might do next.

Week 2

It's been another busy week in Owls.

We enjoyed wearing home clothes for Children in Need on Wednesday and the bake sale was a huge success!

English 

We have started learning our new story map 'George and the Dragon' and are really enjoying recalling the story and thinking of our own actions. Ask us to retell the story for you - we are really good!

Maths

We have been subtracting 2 digit numbers  this week. We have been carefully recording our tens and ones so that we are able to take away accurately.

Topic

This week we learnt what a monarch was and identified some special objects that a King or Queen might have. We then talked about the qualities that a good King or Queen would have and what would be good or bad rules for the country.

Computing

We had a special lesson about programming where we learnt about a fancy word: algorithms which means 'computer instructions'. We had a go at writing our own algorithms to direct a robot around a grid, picking up healthy food and avoiding unhealthy foods.

Science

We have been fascinated learning about 2 famous scientists in the last two weeks: John Dunlop and Charles Macintosh. These two scientists were both interested in how they could use rubber to make useful materials. Charles Macintosh invented the waterproof coat and John Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre. 

Week 1

English 

This week we found some very strange clues in our classroom. There was a witches hat, a picture of forest school and a letter addressed to the Owls. When we read the letter we found out that Miss Newing had been captured by a witch and taken to forest school. We rushed over to Forest school and found Miss Newing. Then we had to write a story explaining how we were going to help Miss Newing escape! We had some great ideas.

Maths

We have been learning how to add 2 digit numbers. We have been using base 10 and learning how to draw our tens and ones clearly so that we can then add them up to find the answer.

Computing

This term we are looking at digital photography. We used the IPADs to practise taking photographs. We had to think about what makes a good photograph. Was it blurry? Did it have all of the image in the picture?

Term 1

Week 7

We are scientists!

We have been having a great time in our science lessons this term, where we have been learning all about everyday materials and their properties.

Some of the things we have been getting to grips with include identifying and comparing the suitability of everyday materials and finding out about how the shapes of solid objects change by being squashed, bent, twisted or stretched. Next term, we are going to learn about some famous scientists and how recycling helps our environment.

Look at the photos below, where we were testing the absorbency of different materials, in order to find out the best material to use for animal bedding in a vets' hospital.

Week 6 Friday 11th October

It was lovely to see so many people on Thursday for the open afternoon. The children absolutely loved showing you their books and giving you a tour of their new classroom.

English

We have started a new unit looking at information texts. We looked at a variety of non-fiction books and had to identify all the different features that they have. Then we talked about why they have these features and what they are used for.

Computing

This term we have been looking at IT all around us. We have discussed how and where we use IT at home, school and in the world around us. We have also discussed staying safe while we are using technology - we came up with our own set of rules. We have also been using the IPADs to help us with our number bonds to 10 and 20 by using the white rose maths and hit the button apps.

Topic

This week we identified all the factors that made the fire spread so quickly. We decided it was because the houses were all made from wood and they were built very close together. We also found out that it was a very hot and dry summer and there was a wind that made the flames spread from house to house. Finally we all agreed that a big reason was because they didn't have fire engines like we have today. 

RE

In RE we have been thinking about the question 'How important are the groups people belong to?' We talked about how we all feel that we belong in our families and in our school. We also talked about wider clubs and places that we felt that we belonged to. 

Week 5  Friday 4th October

It's been another busy (slightly rainy!) week of learning in Owls class! 

Maths

We have been practising and learning to remember our number bonds to 10 and 20.  We found that a tens frame helped us with our number bonds to 10 and the rekenreks helped us with our number bonds to 20. 

PE

The sun finally came out today so we were lucky enough to have our PE lesson on the paddock. We have been practising our ball skills. Throwing and catching and looking at the techniques of how to throw balls accurately.

English 

We have been writing our Hot Writes in class this week. We had to write a recount of the 'Great Fire of London' pretending to be Thomas Farriner (the baker). We were trying to include interesting adjectives and use different time conjunctions at the start of our sentences. 

Week 4  Friday 27th September

It's been another busy week in Owls class this week. We had a brilliant day on Wednesday for 'Languages Day'. The children thoroughly enjoyed learning some French and Italian vocabulary and taking part in a variety of activities including making flags, menus and silhouette pictures.

Maths

We have been comparing numbers using the greater than, less than and equal to symbols. We have also been ordering numbers. We decided that is was really helpful to look at the tens column first and then the ones unless they had the same tens.

Art

We continued our art topic this week and learnt all about the artist Picasso. He also enjoyed painting portraits but he didn't do traditional portraits. We looked at some of his paintings and then tried to recreate some of our own paying particular attention to lines and shape. We then decided on bright colours to finish our work off.

Library visit

We were all excited to go down to the KS1 library and choose a new book to take home and enjoy. 

Week 3   Friday 20th September

English

We have been really enjoying our story about Vlad and The Great Fire of London'.  We have been learning all about adjectives and verbs and how they can help to make our writing much more interesting. We then had a go at using them in our own writing. Ask us to see if we can remember what they are! 

Art

We have started a unit on drawing this term. We are working on improving our techniques in using line, shape and form. We used mirrors and photographs to draw self portraits of ourselves. The Owls were amazing and created brilliant self portraits.

Topic

This week we have been looking at what London was like in 1666 and comparing it with how it is now. We talked about how the houses are different and made with different materials. We also talked about how there were very different jobs in 1666. Finally we looked at transport and how it has changed over the years. 

Music

We have been listening to music from South Africa. We used the glockenspiels to try and accompany a song called 'Hands, Feet and Heart'. We were very good at following the beat and rhythm.

Week 2  Friday 13th September

It's been a busy week in the Owls class. Everyone has settled into Year 2 and we even squeezed in a visit to the new pond! We are very excited about our new topic 'The Great Fire of London' and have come up with some brilliant questions that we can try and answer over the next few weeks. 

English

We have started to learn our new story map 'Vlad and the Great Fire of London'. The Owls have been amazing and we have created our own actions to go along with the story.

Maths

Over the next few weeks we will be learning all about place value. This week we were partitioning 2 digit numbers into tens and ones and representing them in different ways using base 10, numicon, part/whole models and place value charts.