School's Out For Summer!

This last term has been a very busy one in Lower Primary 2. We came back from our Easter holidays well-rested and ready for more learning. To start our new IPC unit, ‘Green Fingers,’ we made our own grass pets, finding out how to plant our grass seeds and making sure to water them and nurture them. The children were very excited to take a trip to both a local park and forest to explore the variety of plants and flowers growing there and carefully collected some samples to allow them to begin classifying their findings. We investigated a sample of herbs, using our senses to think about how they looked, smelled, felt to the touch, the sounds they made as we ran our hands through them and even how they tasted. With the outcome of these investigations, we then made our very own class herbarium! To finish off this interesting unit, we took a trip to the Botanical Gardens, using our new-found knowledge of photosynthesis to help us consider how the plants were getting the fuel they needed to grow so beautifully.

Our second IPC unit for this term, ‘The Earth: Our Home’ also helped to fuel our understanding of plants, as well as teaching us about their importance in our world in supporting animals and humans. Through group work, we found out about the different classifications of animals and then made our very own posters to share with our friends to help them further their knowledge too. We investigated the coldest and hottest places on earth and looked at the various biomes. With this knowledge, we worked together to recreate our favourite biome, thinking carefully about the plants and animals that would be found there. Both Year 1s and 2s were extremely creative and knew exactly which art resources they wanted to use. At the end of all of this learning, a trip to Antwerp Zoo as our Exit Point was definitely very well-earned!

As well as our IPC work this time, we somehow managed to squeeze in an International Festival as well! The children were very enthusiastic to learn about Scottish ceilidh dancing and how important both music and tartan is to Scottish people. They experimented with different patterns and textures to enable them to make their own tartan designs and thoroughly enjoyed learning some steps to traditional dances. They were extremely proud to perform ‘The Flying Scotsman’ in front of the audience at the whole school International Festival, complete with music recorded by a Scottish band.

All of the Year 1s and 2s have continued to work hard on their spelling and grammar this term, advancing their spelling skills, working hard on their weekly tests and furthering their knowledge of punctuation. We even put all of these skills together to allow us to write our very own stories, based on the book, ‘The Great Kapok Tree,’ and the theme of deforestation. Lower Primary 2 made fantastic use of their very own writing targets to support them with this and they’re becoming more and more confident with self-assessing their work too.

In Maths, Year 1s started learning about times tables and furthered their knowledge of fractions, even beginning to look at sharing odd numbers. They particularly enjoyed weighing and measuring activities, using classroom objects to help make predictions and then testing their hypotheses. Meanwhile, Year 2s furthered their knowledge of times tables and looked at how to link this with division, practising to recall their facts as quickly as possible to help them work with larger numbers. Weighing and measuring was also a highlight for them though this time because of their tummies as they got to use their skills to make some tasty flapjacks.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve celebrated Arjun turning 9, Igor turning 7, Bruno turning 8 and a new friend, Sarvadnya, joining our class. There was just enough time to squeeze in a Pizza Party, the Wacky Olympics and a water fun day as well!

Lower Primary have worked so hard over these past few months and have definitely earned their summer holiday. Well done and have a fantastic summer everyone!