Happy June, family and friends! It's hard to believe how quickly the school year has flown and that our little Primary Twos are going to be spreading their wings to become "big Primary Threes" in no time at all. Despite the lovely Spring break and bank holidays that have followed, life in 2 Alpha has been exciting as ever and the children have been busy little bees this term!

The children have been working very hard in literacy to apply all of the skills that they have developed this year. We have been skimming and scanning new texts for information to help us to write our own informational reports about woodland animals and plant life. The boys and girls have taken such pride in their work, thinking carefully about their vocabulary and presentation which has been such a joy to see! We have also been focussing on developing our independence with reading comprehension activities and in our writing, taking care with our sentence structure and adding interesting details to our work. The children have loved exploring poetry over the last few weeks and have created some beautiful poems of their own. From poems about wildlife, to our family, to football... The children have let their creative juices flow and I have been so impressed by how thoughtful, imaginative and detailed our work has become. Well done 2 Alpha, you are all stars.

In maths we have been tackling a variety of different concepts including exploring the features of 2D shapes and 3D objects, column addition, measuring capacity, coin recognition and calculating change. The girls and boys have particularly enjoyed our "Number of the Day" and mental maths challenges, working together in pairs and trios to partition numbers, identify odds and evens and to share their strategies of addition and subtraction with peers to problem solve with great success. Look out Rachel Riley, our Primary 2's are coming for you!

The fun out on the pitch continues as we have been developing our stamina, position and movement through hockey this term. Mr Milligan and I were absolutely amazed to see how quickly the children took to the hockey sticks and demonstrated excellent ball control, passing and scoring too. Of course, with Sports Day just around the corner we have thrown ourselves wholeheartedly into athletics and team games. Ready, Set, Go! 

In class, we have been exploring the theme of kindness and how we can bring joy and happiness into our own lives and to people around us. It has been so lovely to see the empathy that the children have shown for their loved ones and their sincere care for the world around them. It would be wonderful just to bottle it all up to share with the world.  

The children in 2 Alpha have always had such a love of all things science and nature and so our Percy the Park Keeper context for learning has been soaked up with much energy and enthusiasm. Between researching woodland animals, recreating the watercolour illustrations of Nick Butterworth and exploring the wonderful world of plants there has truly been something for everyone to enjoy. Most excitingly of all has been the introduction of our very own caterpillars in Primary 2! The children have loved making observations and predictions and exploring the many different varieties of butterflies that there are. We are so looking forward to sharing some of our work with you at the STEM Fair very soon and releasing our butterflies into the world. 

In many ways, our little butterflies growing in the class have felt quite symbolic. Over the last few weeks, it has been truly uplifting to reflect on how much the children have grown over the course of this year. Each day I find myself feeling so proud of the children's progress, be that building confidence in reading, learning that it's okay to make mistakes in maths, giving new techniques a try in art and design, showing thoughtfulness to a friend, picking up a tambourine and marching to the beat, to making mature and carefully considered reflections about their learning and the wider world. Now it is almost time to say goodbye but I just know that the boys and girls are going to spread their wings and fly high!

Well done Primary 2 Alpha!