Welcome to Hedgehog Class

Hedgehog Class is our Year Two class, where Mrs Vipond is our teacher. Our class page will be updated regularly to share our learning with you; I hope you enjoy it.

Our class topic web and maths medium term plan are located on the class learning page; please use the Hedgehog Learning page link below. Also on the learning page are reading and spelling lists and a yearly overview.

Term 6

Welcome back to your last term in Year 2 I'm not sure if we can beat the superheroes topic but we'll have a good go with 'map makers' - where there's a map there's hopefully treasure!  We'll put our navigational skills into practise and see if we can find it.  We'll also be building on our Blue Peter climate heroes work by learning some of the trees and associated leaves of the UK and helping to fill our school science garden with interesting facts.  On a more global scale, we will be looking at the organisation Greenpeace, and some of the work they do to protect and safeguard our environment.  After we have read our book we will be writing our own letters to Greenpeace with any questions we have for them.

PE will start back on Monday 14th June; remember to come into school in your kit.  Home learning will continue to be uploaded each week and is always due the following Friday. 

Topic-related books

The following books are some additional books if you wish to do any further topic-related reading:

The Secret of Black Rock by Joe Todd-Stanton (class reading book)

Dear Greenpeace by Simon James

The Blue Giant by Katie Cottle

National Trust: How to Help a Hedgehog and Protect a Polar Bear by Jess French (KS2 book but fantastic illustrations and facts)

Term 5

I hope everyone is well rested, as we'll be using our Superhero powers throughout the day!  We'll be using fictitious heroes to help inspire our own Superhero creation, who will ultimately need to solve a mission - no mission is too tricky for our heroes!  In our history and science lessons we will continue the theme but instead learn about some real life heroes, including some intrepid explorers and inventors of devices and practices that we take for granted today.

PE will start back on Monday 19th April; remember to come into school in your kit.  Home learning will continue to be uploaded each week, starting on Friday 23rd April, and will be due the following Friday.  Please could homelearning books remain in book bags so children can easily access them to practise any personalised spellings or reading words.

Another week and some more real-life superheroes.  This week it was the turn of the medical profession; Florence Nightingale, Joseph Lister and Alexander Fleming.  Thankfully hospitals are much cleaner places now compared to 100 years ago and we can treat bacterial infections with antibiotics thanks to Fleming's lucky discovery.

We did a mini experiment with water and glitter to show what happens when you use soap (washing up liquid) and then we demonstrated how far germs can spread when you shake hands with an infected (glow in the dark gel) person - we could still see the 'germs' after 5 handshakes!  Keep washing your hands!

We are learning that it is very important to give clear instructions - otherwise things can get messy!

Another famous inventor and this week it has been the turn of Alexander Graham Bell.  Where would we be without a telephone?!  Hedgehog Class have had a go at making their own telephones to demonstrate how sound vibrations travel along or through materials.  We could whisper into a cup and hear what was being said over 1m away - a fantastic invention!

Superheroes are go!

We're building up to writing our own superhero narrative, so our first week has been all about choosing our superhero name and designing our cape and mask.  Our 'Words of the Day' have helped provide us with some characteristics or powers that our heroes possess.  It was of course essential to wear our masks!

This week we put Newton's theory to the test by making some paper spinners - phew, they fell down to the ground!  We extended our lesson by increasing the amount of paper clips; can you predict what happened to the amount of time the spinners took to fall?

We also acted out Edward Jenner's discovery using some milk maids, a helpful volunteer and a young doctor! How incredible that it took a further 200 years before the world was declared smallpox-free.  We discussed the speed at which scientists have made a vaccine against Covid-19 and how fortunate we are for Jenner's discovery.

Topic-related books

The following books are some additional books if you wish to do any further topic-related reading:

Pizazz by Sophy Henn (class reading book)

Eliot, Midnight Superhero by Anne Cottringer

Max the brave by Ed Vere

Little People, Big Dreams series (e.g. Amelia Earhart by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara)

Term 4

I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy Easter and a restful 2 weeks.  The children have settled back into school and we have been perfecting some of our creative skills, including repeating African patterns and water colour painting - I hope you like your Easter cards!

There is no homework for the holidays but instead it would be a fantastic help if children could practise any or all of these: practise holding their pencil correctly ready for writing, practise tying shoe laces and practise telling the time to o'clock, quarter and half past and to the hour. Thank you :)

Children are changing their books in school on a Monday and a Thursday, so this should give them plenty of opportunity to read the same book to you at home.  During our guided reading sessions we have been working really hard on our awareness of punctuation and what it means to the reader.  Do we have to take a short breath, should we use an excited voice or perhaps we need to change our voice if there is some speech.

During our English lessons children have already learned to tell our story and this week we started to write some of it.  I wonder if they could re-tell it to you using our story map?

Term 4

Welcome back; I hope everyone has had a restful week.  This term we are going to be exploring the continent of Africa and looking at the country of Kenya in more detail.  We might not have managed our class trip to Marwell but we'll have fun on our virtual safari tours!

P.E. will continue to be on Monday, starting again on the 22nd February 

Topic-related books

The following books are some additional books if you wish to do any further topic-related reading:

Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke

The No.1 Car Spotter (series) by Atinuke

Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae

The Lion Who Wanted to Love by Giles Andreae

One Day on Our Blue Planet: In the Savannah by Ella Bailey

Term 3 

What a strange term but we have certainly managed to pack a lot in!  We have ended our Great Fire of London topic with a rendition of the song we have learned (on our Google Classroom page) and some fantastic diary entries from September 1666; well done everyone :)

This week has also seen Safer Internet Day and the start of the Chinese New Year.  During our internet safety day we looked at different sources of information and how we could tell if they were true.  Thanks to Detective Digiduck, and our own knowledge, we were able to confirm that dragons don't actually exist and that a Komodo dragon is in fact a reptile.  We know all about reptiles from our science learning this term, so that was very helpful and showed us how we should always check the facts that we read on-line.

Topic-related books

The following books are some additional books if you wish to do any further topic-related reading:

Toby and The Great Fire of London by Margaret Nash

The Baker’s Boy and the Great Fire of London by Tom Bradman

The Great Fire Dogs by Megan Rix

Term 2

In term 2  we will be building on some of the learning we covered in Year1, as we 'Explore London'!  With a geography focus, we will look at the famous landmarks of London, learn how to navigate and work together to plan our own virtual tour.  I hope we don't get lost!

This term our our topic has been 'exploring London' and we linked up with a Year 2 class in London.  We learned that NW in a London post code means North West London and we were able to locate their school in relation to the famous landmarks.

We also received letters from the class and wrote a letter back; making sure we answered some of their questions and gave some facts about our local area.  It was really lovely to receive the letters so I do hope they like our ones.

We have also seen there are lots of places called London around the world - my favourite has to be the London on Kiribati or Christmas Island!

Topic-related books

The following books are a lovely mixture of fiction, fact and poetry and fun!  Please have a read if you wish to do any further topic-related reading.

A Day in London by Roderick Hunt

All Aboard the London Bus by Patricia Toht

The Queen's Hat by Steve Antony

Paddington (at St Paul's, at The Tower and many more) by Michael Bond