Welcome to Class 2W's page. 

Our teacher is Mrs Walker and our LSA's are Mrs Newbury and Mrs Elsmore.

If you have any questions or need to talk to one of us, please speak to us at the door in the morning or at the end of the day or drop us an email.

victoria.walker@racemeadow.org

West Midlands Safari Park

Today, 2W and 2CE visited West Midlands Safari Park . We travelled by coach and when we arrived, drove through the safari looking at lots of animals roaming around. We saw giraffes, rhinos, lions, zebras, elephants and many more. They came very close to the bus and even stopped us moving as they were in the way! After lunch, we walked through the park to the African village. On the way, we saw hippos and penguins and when we arrived, we saw meerkats and lemurs. We had a talk from a ranger who let us hold an ostrich feather and even a piece of elephant poo! We were so well behaved and had a fantastic day. 

During Art this half term, we improved our sketching and drawing knowledge. We looked at the work of artists who painted animals in the Savannah and compared them to a painting by Henri Rousseau - Surprised, which depicts a tiger creeping through the jungle. We used our drawing knowledge to create a tiger image, added leaves and plants then mixed primary water colours to add detail to our work. 

On Friday 5th May, we celebrated the coronation of our new King, Charles 111. We all came to school dressed in red, white and blue clothing, we each made a crown and created our own coronation art work, as a souvenir of the celebration. At lunch time, we all ate together and the hall was decorated with bunting and red, white and blue table cloths. We had a fantastic day, fit for a king!

Our Summer 1 mini-mission is Savannah Secrets. We will be using the tale ‘One Day on Our Planet…In the Savannah’. We will write information about animals and create and perform poems. In Science, we will learn that animals have offspring which grow into adults and about the basic needs of animals for survival.

In Geography, we will identify the similarities and differences between Atherstone and Africa. In Art, we will be working on our drawing and sketching skills and mixing colours to create camouflage.

To finish off our Unsinkable mini-mission, we each made an apple pie - a dessert which might have been served aboard the Titanic. 

This afternoon, we invited all our mummies in to take part in a Mother’s Day activity. We all made a colourful heart wreath, for them to hang in the house. It was lovely to see them all chatting and helping us all to create our masterpieces. Have a look at the photos of us taking part.

Our Spring 1 mini-mission is 'Unsinkable'.

During this topic, we will first be historians and learn about a significant historical event - the sinking of the Titanic. We will learn that the past is constructed from a range of sources and is represented in different ways.

Next, we will become scientists, and learn about humans' basic needs for survival, describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different foods and hygiene.

Finally, we will become designers, when we will design and make a meal that would have been served aboard the Titanic.

Thursday 1st March was World Book Day. We were invited to come to school dressed as our favourite book character or wearing our pyjamas, with our favourite story book and a teddy bear. We paraded around the hall to show each other our costumes then some of us did a book review and discussed our favourite book. 

Happy New Year! 

During our Art lessons, we studied the work of the sculptor, Henry Moore. We studied and sketched Peruvian mountains before using clay to create our own mountain sculptures.

In Science, we learnt about Charles Mackintosh and how he invented the first waterproof coat by sandwiching rubber between two layers of fabric. We tested different materials to see if they were waterproof, putting them beneath fabric then dropping water on top to see if it soaked through to a paper towel underneath. 

In Geography we have been naming and locating the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom. We looked globes and atlases to help us. 

Next, we revised the 7 continents and 5 oceans. We sang the continents song to help us remember, then located and labelled them all on a world map. 

Our new mini mission is  Time Travellers. During this mission we will be historians and learn all about Neil Armstrong landing on the moon and Christopher Columbus and his expeditions. Then we will be Scientists and investigate materials and their properties. At the end, we will be designers and design and make our own rocket which can be launched! 

The National Space Centre

To finish our Time Travellers mission, we went on a visit to the National Space Centre in Leicester. We had a fantastic day, learning all about space, astronauts, spacecraft, the moon and much more. We dressed as aliens, sat in a control module, crawled through a black hole and flew through space. We even saw an actual piece of rock from the moon! 

Design and Technology 

Our mission in DT, was to investigate, test and design our own spacecraft which could be launched. We looked at videos and images of spacecraft first, then investigated different launching methods before creating our own design. It had to be based on Apollo 11 and it had to be possible to launch.

We followed our designs to build our own spacecraft then tested them using our chosen launch method.

Making our Spacecraft 

Most of us chose the pump method to launch our spacecraft, which was very successful. We even lost two rockets because they landed on the roof!

Science

In Science, we have been testing the suitability of materials. We examined a variety of materials and discussed their properties before predicting which was most suitable for making a boat. We then made the boats in different materials and tested them on water to see which floated for the longest without filling with water or sinking. The materials we chose from were: card, foil, plastic, paper and paper towel.

We chose foil, plastic and card to make our boats from. We floated them on water for 30 seconds to see which material was the most suitable. The plastic and foil boats floated but the card boat became soggy and let the water in so it sank! We realised that plastic and foil are waterproof which is why they were the most suitable for the task. 

On immersion day, we went outside and dug up an amazing time capsule. Inside, we found lots of clues about Neil Armstrong. 

In History, we sequenced significant events from the past chronologically on a human time line.

Our first mini mission is The Rainbow Fish. We will start this mission as geographers. We will use maps and atlases to locate countries, oceans and hot and cold places. Then we will become scientists and explore living things and their habitats. Finally, we will become artists and create an underwater collage using a range of materials including paint.

In Science, we have learned about animals and their habitats...

We have asked and answered questions...

Which micro-habitat do woodlice like best?

we have created food chains...

and....

Our teachers told us that we were going to create a collage as our final work of art, so they reminded us of the collage techniques we learnt in Year 1 then modelled some new techniques for us to try. We enjoyed practising the new techniques ready for the finished piece.

Once we had mixed different tints of blue to create our background, we used different collage techniques to add one of the creatures from the story of The Rainbow Fish. We used coiling, crimping, overlapping, tearing and scrunching. We then added some seaweed to our collage to create more detail.