Buttercup Class 2023-2024

Hello and welcome to our class page! We are very lucky in Buttercup Class, we don't only have 1 teacher, we have 2! Mrs Spence is our class teacher who teaches on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Mrs Williams teaches on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! Our LSP is Miss Wright and she is in class every day. 

On this page you will find our class news, along with some very important information. You will also see lots of interesting pictures showing you what we have been getting up to in school. We are all very excited to learn lots of new things this year!

We will be holding a 'Meet the Teacher' event on Wednesday 25th October at 9:00am for those who wish to join us. Here, you will find out what happens in Year 2. If you are unable to make this meeting, please speak to a member of staff and we will be happy to help.

Important Information

*If there are any queries, please email Mrs Spence and Mrs Williams on the class email which is: buttercups@reddalhill.sandwell.sch.uk

Thank you for your continued support. 

Diary Dates:

Wednesday 26th June 2024 - TRIP (TBC)

School Uniform:

Please make sure that your child’s name is written inside ALL school clothes (cardigans, jumpers, trousers, t shirts, coats and PE kits). This makes it easier to give out misplaced clothes back to their rightful owners. Remember if your child takes their jumper/cardigan off in class, then it is their responsibility to keep it safe!

Homework:

Children will be given 1 piece of homework every week, along with spellings to learn. Homework will be given out on a Friday and must be returned the following Wednesday, so we can monitor your child's learning. If you need any help completing your child's homework then there is a homework club you can attend on a Monday after school with Mrs Whitehurst. 

Handwriting:

Reddal Hill follow 'Kinetic Letters' handwriting scheme. Your child will have daily handwriting lessons. If you need any support with this, please speak to your child's class teacher. 

Changing Books:

Reading books are changed weekly, but this is not on a set day so it is very important that your child brings their book bag to school every day. Please write a comment in your child’s reading diary when you hear them read.

Reading at home is extremely beneficial for your child. We are holding a reading challenge this year! Every time you read, write it in your reading record. For every comment, you will earn a point. When you reach 45points, you will be awarded the Bronze Level; when you reach 90points, you will be awarded Silver Level and for 135 for you be awarded Gold Level! 

Good Luck Buttercup Class! 

 PE Day:

P.E days are on Monday and Thursday. Please ensure that appropriate footwear is worn and PE clothing is appropriate for the weather as our lessons will be outdoors on the playground. Please make sure that your child's name is written inside all PE clothes.

Additional Information:

All children in Year 2 have usernames and passwords for Mathletics, TimesTable Rockstars,  Purple Mash and Bug Club. These can be found in their reading records.

Please encourage your child to use Mathletics in order to enhance their Mathematical progress. Purple Mash is a fantastic resource as it covers all areas taught across the curriculum and helps children consolidate their learning. By the end of Year 2 children should be confident at reciting their 2,3,5 and 10 times tables, hit the button is a fantastic resource that allows children to consolidate their times tables knowledge in a fun way!

School and Eco Councillors:

A huge congratulations to Max and Eretria who are our School Councillors, and Leo who is our Eco Councillor. 

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Eid al-Fitr

On Monday 8th April, we learnt all about the celebration of Eid-al Fitr and how different families celebrate this occasion.  It was so lovely to hear about all the exciting things some of our children and their families had planned! We made some wonderful Eid cards and chose whether to take our cards home to our families or give them to a friend as a gift! We are looking forward to continuing this celebration on Friday 19th April, as we wear our party clothes to school and share our Eid celebration stories with our friends and teachers!

NSPCC 'Pants' workshop

On Tuesday 9th April, we had a visit from a nurse who had some very important things to discuss with us.  We learnt the difference between 'good' and 'bad' touch and thought of some examples of these.  We then talked about how the area that is covered by our underwear is private.  We listened to a song called 'pantosaurus', which taught us some important rules, before designing our own pair of pants!

Silver Behaviour Champion Trip - Thursday 21st March 2024

On Thursday 21st March, the Silver Behaviour Champions spent the morning at the park! It was quite muddy, but this didn't stop the pupils having fun! We all had a lovely time!

Comic Relief 2024

On Friday 15th March, staff and pupils wore something red to school to celebrate comic relief. Pupils learnt about the charity and how laughter can support our overall health and wellbeing.  We had lots of fun finding different ways to make our friends and teachers laugh.  We had some super jokes told by members of Buttercup Class!

World Book Day - Friday 8th March

On Friday 8th March, we celebrated World Book Day! Everyone came to school dressed as a character from a book; everyone looked fantastic! During the afternoon, we talked about tour favourite books and completed some activities about them. Well done, Buttercup class!

British Science Week - Monday 4th March - Friday 8th March

Across school, we have been celebrating British Science Week. We were very lucky to have science every day during this week so that we could carry out an investigation. As we have been looking at animal and habitats this term, our big question was 'How has the Arctic habitat changed over time?' We used our prior knowledge to help us with our investigation, starting off with creating an ideal habitat for a polar bear. We carried out our experiment, recording the results as we went along. 

On Wednesday, we had a very special treat. We had some real scientists come into school and perform some really cool experiments. As you can see from the photos, they made lots of mess. It was really fun!

Mad Hair Day - 23rd February 

On Friday 23rd February, school celebrated Mad Hair Day. This event was organised by our School Council with the idea of raising money in order to spend on playground equipment. Children were invited to come to school in crazy hair styles. We had a brilliant time. There were so many people who had spent such a long time creating their masterpieces! 

Each teacher awarded the best hair design with a prize. The winner for Buttercups was Aisha!

Chinese New Year - February 2024

During our RE session this week, we have been learning all about Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the dragon. We looked at some traditions that are celebrated on Chinese New Year and also looked at the story of how the animals were chosen for each year. We enjoyed making some spiral dragons to celebrate. 

Kung Hei Fat Choi everyone!

Maths Inspire Workshop - Tuesday 6th February

On Tuesday 6th February, parents and carers were invited in to see how Maths is taught at Reddal Hill. We had lots of visitors come and see our Maths lesson and it was great for us to complete our activities with them. Our parents and carers were very proud of all of the things that we have been working on and they were very impressed with the methods and strategies that we were using to complete our worded addition problems. Thank you so much to those who were able to attend this session. We look forward to inviting you to our next one in the summer term. 

Children's Mental Health Week - 5th February - 11th February 2024

This week, we have spent a lot of time talking about our mental health. We learnt that this is just as important as our health and keeping our bodies healthy. Every day this week, we have completed an activity in class, focusing on ourselves and our feelings. We have discussed ways in which we can keep our minds happy and healthy and have made a list of these. We are going to try our best to complete some of these! 

Safer internet Day - February 2024

Year 2 celebrated Safer Internet Day on 5th February during our weekly computing session. For this, we looked at staying safe online, especially when playing games. We looked at situations that were safe and some that we thought may not be and what we would do if we were in this situation. This led us to talking about our trusted adults. We also learnt that there are scams online however, we also learnt how we could report or block these. 

Storytelling Week - 27th January - 4th February

To celebrate National Storytelling Week, Year 2 invite parents and carers in for a special storytelling session. During this, we listened to Mrs Leach read some of our class book 'The Magic Finger'. We then had a look at Serial Mash, a fantastic new resource that we have purchased to use both in school and at home. We ended the session by reading a book on here with our parents and carers. 

Some of us also enjoyed making bookmarks, reading book reviews and even had a go at designing new book covers. 

Christmas 2023

Buttercups have had the most amazing week to celebrate Christmas! We have completed so many different Christmas activities and had the most fantastic time!

Here is what we got up to:

*We took part in Christmas Jumper Day and raised a fantastic amount of money for charity.

*We had breakfast with Santa.

*We made amazing Christmas cards, calendars and place mats. 

*We had the most joyful afternoon singing Christmas songs in our Carol Concert.

*We had a brilliant Christmas party with games and food.

A fantastic week Year 2 and an amazing end to our first term!

Have the best Christmas holidays! See you in January! 

Computing - November 2023

This term in our Computing lessons, we have moved on to looking at ways of communicating with others, using email. We have used Purple Mash in order to safely send and receive emails about Barnaby Bear. We came across lots of new vocabulary such as inbox, reply and attachment. 

I wonder where Barnaby Bear will be travelling to next and what messages he will send to us?!

Maths - Money - November 2023

This week, during our Maths lessons, we have been looking at money. We started the week off looking at coins and recognising the value of these. As the week progressed, we started to look at making amounts. We had a go at using the coins to make the amount and we even had a go at finding more than one way of doing this. 

Children in Need

On Friday 17th November, we took part in fundraising for Children in Need with both staff and pupils wearing their pyjamas to school! The children looked fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed wearing their pyjamas all day!  The children learnt about the charity and some of the projects it supports and took part in a range of activities relating to this worthy cause.  Thank you to parents and carers for your continued support.

Road Safety Week

The week beginning 20th November was Road Safety Week.  Throughout the week, we discussed what road safety is and why it is so important.  We talked about the things we can can do to ensure that we are as safe as possible when we are near busy roads.  We finished the week with an interactive story about road safety, where the children decided the characters next actions.  We were very impressed with their sensible suggestions and knowledge of road safety!  We then completed a 'safe' and 'unsafe' activity in our table groups. 

Anti-Bullying Week

During the week commencing Monday 13th November, the children took part in a range of activities to support anti-bullying week. Throughout the week, we explored what bullying is and how we do not tolerate bullying within our school.  We talked about what we can do if we are being bullied and how we can show kindness to others in our daily lives!

UK Parliament Week

On Friday 10th November, to celebrate Parliament week, we explored UK Parliament and it's role in running our country.  We revisited British Values and what they mean for our country, school and personal lives. We then looked at the houses of Parliament in detail, using Google Earth, before creating our own Big Ben symmetrical drawings.  We were very excited to show the skills we had been learning in maths this week!

Diwali

On Wednesday 9th November, we learnt about Diwali - the festival of light! We enjoyed learning all about Diwali and watching video clips of families preparing for the celebration.  We then created some beautiful Rangoli patterns and Mehndi designs.

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Remembrance Day

During the week beginning Monday 6th November,  we learnt about Remembrance Day and why we take part in it each year. The children discussed the word 'peace', revisiting their learning from their recent R.E. lessons. We then wrote down what peace means to us, before creating our own poppies to take home.

Selly Manor - October 2023

On Wednesday 11th October, Year 2 visited Selly Manor Museum in Birmingham. The visit linked to the learning that we have been in class all about the Great Fire of London which happened in 1666. We had a fabulous day there and really got to show off all we had learnt. The staff were very impressed with how much we knew!! As well as acting out parts of the fire, we were able to dress up in costumes and we even got to have a look around the house! A great day was had by all. 

World Mental Health Day - 10th October 2023

At Reddal Hill, we know the importance of our mental health. For this event, we discussed what mental health is and talked about ways in which we could look after not only our mental health, but those around us too. We looked at people who could help us if we felt like we needed it. We created some posters that we could hang in our classroom as little reminders if we ever need them of things that we could do to help. One of the great resources that we have in school is Tootoot so we spent some time exploring this again for when we may need it.

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National Libraries Week and Poetry Day

On Monday 3rd October, to celebrate National libraries week and poetry day, Buttercup Class spent some time in our school library.  They enjoyed listening to and reading a range of poems and each chose an interesting book to take back to the classroom, to put in our classroom library box.  What a lovely afternoon they had!

Black History Month - October 2023

October is known as Black History Month. On Monday 2nd October, we spent some time learning about a range of inspirational black people and what impact their actions have had on the world. We focused on Mary Seacole and how she helped all of the soldiers during the Crimean War. 

We then had a look at the Notting Hill Carnival and created some masks similar to the ones worn there. Finally our class looked at the flags of Jamaica and Saint Lucia. 

Languages Day - 26th September 2023

On Tuesday 26th September, we celebrated Languages Day. Our focus language was French and we had so much fun learning the language. We learnt how to say hello in French and then had a go at learning all of the colours. We used these to create some beautiful pictures! Tres Bien, Buttercups!

Roald Dahl Day - 13th September 2023

For this day, we looked at one of the best known authors...Roald Dahl. Firstly, we read an extract of one of his books, George's Marvellous Medicine. We enjoyed this so much that this inspired us to make our very own medicines and potions, just like George! We used a range of ingredients such as honey, vinegar and paint! As we enjoyed the book so much, we continued reading this for our class story.