The Sound Collector

This term, the children have enjoyed learning the poem 'The Sound Collector'. They performed it with good expression and some great actions. They have also learned all about Onomatopoeia and created a poster showing all the different sounds they heard as they walked around the school on a sound hunt! The children will be writing their own verses of the poem and performing it with new actions. Well done Year 2!!

Game

Move the sound to the correct picture in this fun game.

International Week!

We are very excited to be starting international week at BIS Primary.  This week will involve learning and celebration about the cultures and languages at BIS HCMC. We have a few activities below related to international week. 

Our next English unit is based on the theme of legends and myths. Legends and myths are old traditional tales that often include heroic characters. 

The children have received a letter from Mulan, a great heroic warrior in China, who has written to persuade the children to join the army! By identifying persuasive writing techniques, including, using positive language, rhetorical questions and comparative and superlatives, the children have been learning how to write a persuasive letter. 

To add to this English unit's excitement, students will also be dressing up as a mythical character for the BIS Book Day 2023! 

We look forward to seeing some amazing costumes and excellent persuasive letters in the next few weeks!

We use comparative adjectives to show change or make comparisons. Try the activities below. Rearrange the words to create sentences with comparatives and try the superlatives quiz for more practice. 

Below is the example text we are using as part of the Talk for Writing process.  Children will learn this text nd its features before planning and writing their own.  After they have written their text they will have the chance to present their towns to friends and family who will be invited to come and see their town models.

Use these writing pages to practise writing over the holiday.  Maybe write a letter to Santa or write a Christmas story.  Show your teacher when we come back in January.

Traditional Tales with a Twist

This month, EAL children have been learning about traditional tales and traditional tales with a twist. These are well-known stories but they have a certain 'twist' related to the plot, characters or setting. 

We have been focusing on 'The Three Little Wolves and The Big Bad Pig', which is an excellent example of a Twisted Tale. After learning the Talk 4 Writing story map, the children will innovate parts of the story. They will be focusing on changing the characters, the materials of the houses and even considering changing how the story ends. 

We have also read many other traditional tales, focusing on the features of these stories. From Goldilocks to Little Red Riding Hood, it has been a wonderful opportunity to improve our reading and writing skills and general understanding of this fictional genre. 

See some examples of 'Twisted Tales' from EPIC, along with a few animated examples taken from Youtube. Perhaps you can watch these and identfy the characters and the 'twist' in the story!

Have a go at this gameshow quiz to see if you can remember where the apostrophes should go.

Play the vocabulary matching game below - can you match the words and the pictures?

The Way Back Home Story Map

During this unit, Year 2 will be focusing on poems. They will be learning about the features of poems, including the use of similes. Similes are used to compare two similar things. Importantly, students will be practising their performance skills since poems are often suited to reading aloud to an audience. 

What is your favourite poem? Watch the videos below of different poems, perhaps you can think about which one you like the most!

Try this similes activity below - can you select the correct word so that the simile makes sense?

Hey Year 2,

It’s us, the chairs. We NEED to talk! Can you guess why? We’re writing to tell you that we’ve had ENOUGH! 

First of all, we’re desperate for you to show us more respect. All day long, we work hard so you have a comfortable place to rest your bottom. Unfortunately, you insult us with how you treat us. You put your feet on us when you should be sitting up straight. You leave us untucked when you’ve finished using us. You drag us around when you should carry us. How do you think this makes us feel?

Secondly, several of you rock on us and you make us feel dizzy. Once, your teacher even stood on one of us so they could reach higher to put something on the wall. Have you heard of ladders?

When you were learning online at home, the classroom was so tranquil. There was nobody here to toss us around or leap over us without caring. However, now you’re back and we are fuming about it!

We’re tired of you treating us terribly so we’ve gone on strike. Let’s see how you like that! 

We hope that we can come back soon, when you have apologised. We just want to be treated kindly, if that isn’t too much to ask. 

From your classmates, 

The Chairs

Enjoy this story about a day when the crayons quit!

During this unit we have also been learning about conjunctions and how to use them to join 2 sentences together to make 1 longer sentence.  Here is a video to help you remember those coordinating conjunctions that will help  you write better sentences.

Traction Man - Talk for Writing Text

Irregular past tense verb flashcards

Use these flashcards to practise the past tense forms of these common irregular verbs.

Listen to the exciting Christmas song!

Instructions

In EAL we are currently focusing on instruction texts. We have had plenty of fun reading and following different sets of instructions. We enjoyed learning how to make a jam sandwich, paper aeroplanes and more.  We have also spent time identifying the features of instruction texts. Instruction texts usually have imperative verbs and time sequencing words. 

Unfortunately, dragon eggs were found in the EY&I campus. A baby dragon was loose in the school! The students did a super job of learning our model text, and we will be innovating this with their own ideas of how to catch a dragon! Below, you will find a version of our text map 'How to catch a baby dragon'. There is also an activity which involves ordering the time sequencing words. 

The children have been learning the features of a traditional tale.  These include good vs evil or having a good character and a bad character.    They often have repetitive language  that characters say many times through the story and they are usually written in the past tense and contain direct speech.   During this unit we will begin to explore the past tense and how the children can use it when speaking and writing.  

Below is a simplified version of the story in the form of a story map, and you can see the text and follow along.  We don't usually ask the students to read the text because we  follow the Talk for Writing scheme in which we want the students to learn the story orally.  The visual story map combined with learnt actions helps the children to do this.  

The 3 Little Wolves and The Big Bad Pig - Talk for Writing edited text

Once upon a time, there were three little wolves who lived with their mother in a beautiful forest.

One day she told them to build  a house. “But beware of the big bad pig” she warned them.

Soon the wolves met a kangaroo, who gave them bricks and the wolves built a strong house. The next day they had a barbeque.  Suddenly, the Big Bad Pig knocked on the door and grunted “little wolves, little wolves, let me come in!”

“Not by the hairs on our chinny-chin-chins!” cried the three little wolves.

“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down” shouted the pig.

So he huffed and he puffed but the brick house didn’t fall down. 

So he climbed up onto the roof and jumped down through the window, right onto the barbeque. The Big Bad Pig squealed and leapt out of the window and ran back into the forest. The wolves lived happily ever after.

The Papaya That Spoke

Welcome to Year 2! We are very excited to be learning virtually with you. You can use this page for reviewing the learning in EAL lessons, and for accessing additional activities and games.  

Our first unit in English is 'The Papaya That Spoke'. This fiction text is a Talk For Writing Story. This means we have been imitating, innovating and inventing new versions of the story! 

During the last few weeks, we have been learning and changing the story map. We also learnt new vocabulary related to different jobs, places and things. 

Below, you will find the beginning of the story as well as a couple of vocabulary activities related to this unit. Can you remember the story? Perhaps you can retell the story to someone in your family!

Persuasive Letter Writing

Why don't you try to write another letter to the children in your class while pretending you are a crayon, a water bottle, a pencil or a carpet.  

Think about the ways that the children treat you badly and make a list.

Try to use connectives such as;

• and

• but

• so

• because

Try to use conditional sentences.  For example, if you are a table you could say;

If you stop writing on me, I will look nice and clean.

When you have finished show your EAL teacher!

Traditional Tales with a Twist (Fiction)

During our latest unit, the children have been learning a 'twisted tale' which was originally based on the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. We have learnt the Talk4Wtriting version of The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig! The original story is below. Perhaps you can listen and follow the story. 

 We spent time developing our use of past tense and adverbs in our writing. Adverbs tell us how something happened. They are used to describe a verb. We also practised using super adjectives when describing characters. There are some activities below which you can join in with. We look forward to reading your own twisted fairy tales!

Here are some more traditional tales.  Why don't you have a go at re-writing them with a twist?  What could you change in your story?  

• characters

• settings

• objects

• adjectives

• animals

• ending

Write a fantastic twisted tale at home and show it to Mr Paul, Mr Luke or Mr Jon.

Since returning to school, we have continued to learn about non-fiction texts. These are texts which are based on factual information and can be about anything! We have looked at the different features of these texts. We also spent time learning about generalises and the present simple tense. Next, the children will be planning their own information text based on a made-up animal. We can't wait to see your final animal information texts! 

You can play the 'Switch Zoo' game below to create a new animal. Can you create some facts about it and use a generaliser in your sentence?

Rhyming poetry

To start 2021, we have been studying rhyming poems. The children have read many examples of poems with rhyme. Some use rhyming couplets, while others are more complicated. The students have used their knowledge of poetry and rhyme to write two poems: "I like..." and "Into the Jar I Put...:

I Don't Like...

Here is another poem, called 'I don't like...' It's  a bit more complicated than 'Into the Jar I Put...". Not every word rhymes.

The first two lines are short and the third line is long.

Can you add some more rhyming things that you don't like?

Merry Christmas Year 2

Keep on practising your English at home over the holiday.  Below you will find some Christmas vocabulary, games and activities to keep you busy over the holiday.

Instructions:

In the next unit we are focusing on instructions. These types of texts usually tell you how to make something or how to do something. 

We have been learning a 'Talk 4 Writing' style map of instructions and will be innovating these sets of instructions and creating our own versions in the next few weeks.

We started the unit by watching how to make a jam sandwich and then wrote a set of instructions. 

Use the pictures below. Can you retell the instructions to someone in your family?

Vocabulary Activity:

For those who have been learning 'How to Trap a Dragon', here is a vocabulary activity that you can play.