Year 2 - Hedgehogs

Welcome to Hedgehogs class page!

My name is Miss Drake and I am the Hedgehogs Class Teacher. Miss Haythorn is the Teaching Assistant.  We work closely to provide a fun and safe learning environment! 

Happy New Year! 

This is half term our topic is ‘time travellers.’ In it we are being historians and learning all about the Titanic. The children have already made an excellent start and are showing lots of enthusiasm. Esme and Lydia have already done some extra work at home about it, well done girls. Thanks also to Alfred and Lilly T who have brought in some very useful books about the Titanic. If you have anything at home please send them in with your child. 

At the end of Christmas church we visited St Peter’s church to allow us to look at how the church celebrates Christmas. We compared this to how the children celebrate. Reverend Carl told the children about the importance of the Advent Reef, the crib and the three kings. The children were then given the opportunity to explore the church where they enjoyed looking at the stain glass windows and were able to identify some important Christian figures in the pictures such as Mary and Joseph. Finally they performed some of their songs and dances from our nativity. A big thank you to those grown ups who were able to join us. 

Hedgehogs have been doing a fantastic job this week. They worked so well as a team following the process that Jane Perkins uses when making her artwork. 

They have brought in materials, sorted them into the relevant colours and begun to make the different parts of the world using the sorted materials. It was lovely to hear them getting excited about the continent they were working on and I was impressed at how they looked in the Atlas to see what sort of colours they needed to include. Great work Hedgehogs.

To celebrate Children In Need in Hedgehogs we investigated the perimeter of Pudsey using different equipment. Thanks to all of you for your donations.

On Friday we also had our Marble treat and enjoyed a pyjama party where we enjoyed a couple of treats and had a good sing along to music from Greece. Next Marble treat the children have requested a fancy dress party which I am sure will be equally as fun.

To finish our topic on ‘Go Wild’ this week we our learning about Africa. The children have been researching African animals, finding out where Africa is and finding out about some famous landmarks in Africa. They have also looked at African patterns in clothing and animals and then had a go at making their own African patterns using different mediums.  

Myself and Hedgdhogs have enjoyed ourselves out in Forest School this afternoon. The sun was shining down on us and the temperature was warm for October. 

Lots of the children had a go at making Halloween inspired spider webs, some of the girls worked together to put up a shelter whilst others enjoyed practicing their balance and climbing skills.

This afternoon we have learnt a bit about Mandrils and compared them to the gorilla in our class story ‘The Gorilla who wants to grow up.’ We learnt that they both live in Africa in the rainforest and that a group of Mandrills and Gorillas are called a troop. We also learnt that each troop has a leader. We learnt that Mandrills are about 3 feet tall making it the largest monkey. It has very distinctive colours including a colourful bottom which helps to attract females. 

After learning about the Mandrill the children had a go at using pastels to copy Henri Rousseau’s painting of a Mandrill. 

As part of our topic ‘Go Wild’ the children have been learning about the French artist Henri Rousseau. They looked at some of his different paintings, in particular his famous tiger painting ‘Surprise.’ Using this our focus the children have then used oil pastels to create their own tiger picture. 

Today the children were extremely active. They have been trying their hardest to run as many laps of the circuit as they can do in 3 minutes. I wonder if they will be able to beat their personal best when we try again later in the year. 

RuggerEds Week 1

What a great first rugby session we had today. The children learnt how to hold the ball correctly, to use tiger hands when catching and how to make a try along with a few other skills. A huge thanks to Joe and Jacob for making the session so much fun, the children and I are looking forward to what we will learn next week. 

The Gruffalo 

This half term our talk for writing unit will be based on The Gruffalo. The children will be using ideas from the familiar text in order to write their own monster tale. Today your child will have come home with a copy of our talk for writing story map. Please ask your child to use it to help them retell you the story. 

First of all I would like to say welcome to Year 2. It sounds like the children had a lovely summer and were very busy. They have had a great start back to the year, you should all be very proud of how well they have settled in. 

This half term our topic is Go Wild! We started our topic off today with a super starter where the children explored lots of different activities all about plants and animals. We set up some experiments and posed some questions to explore in the topic. See our photos for more information. 

Year 2 had a great time taking part in the High Peak School and Sports Partnership 

Our Science results 

We discovered that we were right about plants needing light and water. We were surprised to find out that the plants didn’t change colour when we we put them in the water with dye. 

Hedgehogs are scientists!

Today we set up a science investigation to test if it’s true that plants need sunlight and water. To do this we put a plant in the cupboard with water and no light. We put a plant in the sunlight with no water and we have a plant in the sunlight with water. Afterwards the children predicted what will happen to them - let’s see whose predictions will turn out to be true. 

Today we visited the community allotment in Fairfield as part of our project with the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. It is a beautiful place to visit where the children were able to go pond dipping. They also learnt about the water cycle - they were fascinated to find out that we are drinking same water that was once drunk by dinosaurs. 

This afternoon in Hedgehogs we were being ‘photographers.’ We were thinking about how to improve our photographs. We talked about and practiced focusing the pictures to avoid blurriness. We also explored how zooming in or out allows us to capture exactly what we want to. 

On Friday, Hedgehogs had a great time working with Keisha from the Northern Ballet. The children worked brilliantly both individually and in groups. 

Congratulations to the first four children for reaching 5 miles in our golden mile. All the children have been doing lots of running so I am sure it won’t be long before there will be more children receiving certificates. Thanks to Chris, Alex and Max from Premier Education for presenting these certificates. 

What a fantastic time we had at the Making Space dance festival. The children practiced and performed at the Opera house where seats were sold out. They performed brilliantly and were very excited to be involved in the festival. A huge thank you to all the parents who were able to join us.