Worm Wonders and Flower Friends

Year 2s were given an amazing opportunity to head up Project Worm. A big bucket and a pile of worms arrived and the children were beyond excited to get the worms’ home ready. We began by ripping up newspaper, paper and cardboard to make a ‘bedding’ for the worms to snuggle into. Once the children had made a wonderful mess with the paper, they placed the bedding in water to soak, as the bedding needs to be damp for the worms. We also chopped up a banana tree trunk to set the base of the bedding as recommended by the experts. The children enjoyed getting a little messy and loved the feel of the wet paper. Once the paper had soaked, the teachers helped the children to squeeze out any excess water from the paper and place the fluffed up paper in the bucket. The worms were hungry, so they were given some chopped up banana peels, chopped up apple leftovers and ground egg-shell powder to make the environment less acidic. The children then got the job of placing the worms in their new home. Most of them were extremely brave and dug around and got a handful of worms. The worms are thriving and the children have been wonderful worm parents, making sure to leave banana peels and apple cores for the worms when they are next hungry. 

During the ‘Growing our Future’ fortnight, Year 2 worked together to make a flower wall. The children brought in used water bottles that they fantastically painted. These water bottles were then carefully cut, ready for their seeds. We went on an adventure around school to place soil in the water bottles, as well as some manure, and finally the children carefully placed their seeds inside and gave them some water. The teacher assembled these water bottles on a wall near Year 2 and the children have been looking after the plants, watering them and ensuring they have enough soil. Some have even seen some sprouts appear in their water bottles. The next time you walk past Year 2, make sure to look out for the flower wall. 

In English, we have started our learning about mythical creatures and non-fiction texts. Both classes voted democratically in order to come up with a mythical creature that they will be exploring, thinking creatively about the appearance, habitat, movement and special features. We have been blown away by the creativity of these children and how they have absorbed the learning about adjectives and similes. Ask your child about the mythical creature they are exploring in their class. 

We have begun to incorporate Outdoor Maths into our weekly timetable. This provides the children with an opportunity to get outside and use natural resources as manipulatives to form a deeper understanding of Maths concepts. We have been using our time outside over the last two weeks collecting sticks and pebbles to represent tens and ones. The children have been working on exchanging their pebbles (ones) into sticks (tens) if the number becomes greater than 9. This has been a challenge, but made much more exciting and doable by being outside and exploring through nature.

The children have settled fantastically into Year 2. We have no doubt that this year is going to be a fantastic one and they should be extremely proud of their resilience so far.