The Gates Primary SchoolYear 2- Owls: Blog items
Date: 2nd Oct 2020 @ 3:00pm
Well done to this young lady for a wonderful week in Owls Class! She is so hard working, is really driven and alwayys completes work to the highest standard. She is such a ray of sunshine in the class and is so kind and caring to children and staff alike - I don't know what I would do without her! Well done and keep being wonderful!
Date: 1st Oct 2020 @ 2:45pm
In maths this week we have been looking at the place value of numbers. We have been deciding which numbers are hundreds, tens and ones.
KS1 - Electing School Councillors
Date: 25th Sep 2020 @ 3:48pm
Well done to KS1 this afternoon who connected via teams and delivered speeches to each other about why they would like to develop and improve our school as a school councillor.
Well done to our newly elected councillors, Casey and Harrison!
Date: 25th Sep 2020 @ 11:30am
Well done for reading 5 times this week! Enjoy your new book.
Date: 25th Sep 2020 @ 11:28am
Well done to this young man who tries his hardest in all aspects of school. He can always be relied upon to work hard and he has lovely manners and a smile that lights up the room! Well done for a wonderful start to Year 2!
Date: 18th Sep 2020 @ 10:30am
Well done to this young man for being the first Star of the Week of this year! He's come into school with a wonderful attitude, has worked his hardest all week and has demonstrated lovely presentation. He is kind to his friends and always has a smile on his face! Keep it up!!
Date: 14th Sep 2020 @ 1:07pm
In English this morning we watched a clip from 'Up'. We then looked at the image of paradise and went outside to find materials to create a picture.
Here is the picture we were recreating:
Haven't we done an excellent job?!
Date: 14th Sep 2020 @ 10:38am
In maths this morning we made the most of a lovely sunny day! We went outside to practise our number bonds to 10 and 20.
We also learned a number bond song. Click here to be taken to the Youtube page so you can practise at home!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyK8iEO5-GI
Owls - I am an amazing person!
Date: 11th Sep 2020 @ 3:52pm
This week we have discussed how we are all special and unique. We looked at how our behaviours reflect this and it showed that we are all pretty much amazing people!
Date: 11th Sep 2020 @ 3:48pm
In Owls we decided to make people work hard to find out information about us! We wrote number sentences where the answer relates to some facts about us such as our house number, shoe size and birth month. The children showed some excellent addition and subtraction skills!
Don't the first pages of our Maths books look great!
Date: 11th Sep 2020 @ 3:45pm
This week we had a look at the values that we hold in school:
Growth
Achievement
Teamwork
Enjoyment
Success
We discussed what these words mean and then thought of how we demonstrate these values at school. We drew some pictures that show the values in action!
Date: 11th Sep 2020 @ 3:42pm
What a WONDERFUL first week we've had in Owls Class! We are really proud of how quickly the children have settled in and have adapted to our new normal. It's like they've been in Y2 forever! Here are some photos of the fun we've had this week:
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Date: 17th Jul 2020 @ 8:05am
Good morning Owls Class!
Well today is the last day of school! It's a very strange one as normally we'd all be together and having fun! It's been wonderful to get to know you over the past couple of weeks and now all my nerves about September have gone! I hope it's the same for you!
However, before you go I have one last activity. This challenge is called 'One Black Dot Can Be...'. Can you ask a grown up to draw a black dot (around the size of a £2 coin) somewhere on a piece of paper? Now your job is to turn that black dot into something new! Please see some examples below. I can't wait to see where your imagination takes you!
Have a wonderful break over summer and I'll see you all in September!
Miss Whalley
Date: 15th Jul 2020 @ 10:28pm
Good morning Owls Class!
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I hope you all had a fun Wednesday!
Benson had a lot of fun when we went back to the dog park and he spent the time running around with the other dogs. He rolled around in the mud and had to have a bath when we got home. Baths aren't his favourite thing so he wasn't very happy, as you can see in the picture!
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It was lovely to see your maths work on the 'Figure Me Out' task! Ethan, Chloe, Harris, Jacob and Isabelle did a super job!
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We've had some more baking as well as Casey's book review:
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Today's task is all about what you want to be when you grow up. You can present this in many different ways - you can dress up and take part in role play, you can make a poster about what the job is, you can research someone who does that job already. It's completely up to you how you show what job you want when you get older. I'm looking forward to finding out what you will all be when you're an adult 
Have a super Thursday everyone!
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Miss Whalley
Date: 14th Jul 2020 @ 5:00pm
Good morning Owls Class!
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I hope you had a lovely Tuesday!
After work, Benson and I went to a dog park for the first time so he could play with other dogs. He absolutely loved it as you can see from the pictures:
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I really enjoyed seeing your book reviews - there's a real range of books that you enjoy which is lovely to see. Check out each other's blogs to see their reviews and you might find a new book that you haven't read!
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We also had another blog update about baking and her favourite part - licking the spoon (which is my favourite part too!!).
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Today's home learning task is called 'Figure Me Out'. Here you have to write number sentences so that they answer the question.
For example - my age is 36, so in the 'My age' box, I put 30+6 because the answer is my age.
Here is my 'Figure Me Out' example:
I'm looking forward to finding out even more about you based around Maths!
Have a wonderful Wednesday Owl Class!
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Miss Whalley
Date: 14th Jul 2020 @ 9:48am
I have counted up the overall scores for this years Home Olympics. The results were very close, so many of you took part and there were some amazing scores from pupils and parents across the school. The overall winners have been decided on the class which had the highest participation from its pupils.
This years winners are....
Well done to Mr Simpson and his new Eagles class!
Some indiviudal winners include -
Well done to everyone who took part - you all posted excellent scores and it is important to take into consideration to range of ages across school. Use it as motivation to train and try even harder for next time. If you are somebody who feels disappointed when you do not win, remember that it is OK to feel this way. What is important is how you react to this. You should always show dignity in defeat, congratulate the winner or winners and use your disappointment to motivate you next time. Every single professional athlete will have experienced defeat at some point in their life, especially in their younger years, and if you ask many of them they will tell you how much losing can help motivate them to succeed in the future.
Long Jump -
Oscar Mc (Eagles) - 1.65m
Washing Basket Challenge -
Casey D (Owls) - 17
Star Jump Challenge
Neve F (Kingfishers) - 104
Burpees
Chloe P (Kingfishers)
Parent Champions!
A special well done to Mr Winstanley and Mrs Prescott for your excellent scores! You are this years Parent Champions!
Thankyou to everyone who took part. I am looking forward to next years already.
Mr Horsley
Date: 13th Jul 2020 @ 7:05pm
Good morning Owl Class!
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I hope you all had a lovely Monday! Benson and I went for a couple of walks where he stopped and chatted to lots of people and other dogs. It takes us a long time to get round the park as he just loves going up to people. Earlier in the morning I thought he was being very quiet, so I went to investigate in the living room...he'd stolen one of my sandals! He definitely got a verbal warning for that
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Though I certainly can't stay mad at that face for long
It was great to see some of you baking yesterday! We've got some super bakers in Owls Class!
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Harris made a Victoria sponge - did you know that this is named after Queen Victoria as it was her favourite type of cake? I think we'll definitely have to make this when we study the Victorians after Christmas!
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I'm very impressed with your baking skills and I think you all deserve the Star Baker award!
We also had someone else make the most of the lovely weather at the weekend and head to the beach with her big sister:
One of the things you will get to know about me in September is that I LOVE to read. My favourite thing to do is sit with a new book and a cup of tea. Last year I read all of the Harry Potter books and I loved every single word that was written. Today's home learning is linked to reading - I would like you to do a book review of your favourite book. You can present it however you like, but there's an example below to help you.
I'm looking forward to getting to know your favourite books and authors
Have a wonderful day Owl Class!
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Miss Whalley
Date: 12th Jul 2020 @ 10:15pm
Good morning Owls Class!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Wasn't it lovely to have the sun back?!
Benson and I had a very busy weekend: On Saturday we went to puppy training and then went to visit my niece and nephew as well as their puppy Daphne. On Sunday, we met some friends for a walk in Heaton Park and then spent the afternoon gardening (Benson was very good at digging up weeds!).
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He also loves to play tug of war with my dress - isn't he a monkey?!
I was really impressed with your fact files about owls - I didn't know some of the facts before I read your work! I love finding out new facts, so your work definitely put a big smile on my face!
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It's been nice to be able to go to the parks now hasn't it? Someone certainly enjoyed themselves this weekend!
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During lockdown I've taken advantage of being able to bake more - I've made lots of different types of cakes and cupcakes. Here are photos of banana bread and brownies that I have made:
For today's home learning, I would like you to make something in your kitchen! It can be as simple or as complicated as you would like. You could make fairy cakes, cookies, a fruit salad, fruit skewers, rice crispie cakes, a smoothie, an ice lolly, decorate biscuits - anything you like! Make sure you work with an adult and take care if you're using sharp kitchen utensils - you'll need all of your fingers in Year 2!
Have a very happy Monday Owl Class and I'm looking forward to seeing your culinary creations!
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Miss Whalley
Date: 10th Jul 2020 @ 8:40am
Today will be our last day of the Virtual Health and Fitness Week - in my opinion it's the best one yet. I would like to start by thanking all of you who participated and challenged yourself this week. I have honestly been blown away by how many people participated this week and I hope that you have all had fun. Hopefully, some of you may have taken something from this week that has inspired you to try and make every week a Health and Fitness week in the future!
Activities for today
1) Let's get warmed up with a 5 minute workout from Joe.
If you are feeling an extra challenge - you could try one of his full workouts on the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5DlVnxLjk
2) Activity Bingo - today is your last day to finish the activity bingo - can you get gold?
3) Balloon Tennis -
Challenge someone in your house to a game of balloon tennis! I used two chairs and tied a piece of string to make a net. If not, a piece of string, ribbon, scrunched up t-shirt etc. would do the job! Try not to let the balloon land on your side of the 'net'!
Extra challenge - tie an old rag or dishcloth into a knot and use that as a slightly heavier 'ball'. You could use an even heavier pair of socks for an even harder challenge!
Water Bucket Shuttle Run
I saw this idea on Twitter and thought this would be great fun. Get two buckets, one empty and one full. Place them at opposite ends of the your garden. See how much water can you transport to the other in 5 minutes. Measure the water you have transported at the end and let me know how you got on - I am going to give this a go tomorrow! (A bit of Maths involved in there for you too Mr Simpson!)
@PEStJamesNN5 PE challenge with wather and sponge made Wiktor very tired and excited;););) Enjoyed so much !!! pic.twitter.com/l6Sg1Tiiqo
— joanna (@joasia8522) April 27, 2020
Home Olympics - Final Event
In my opinion - the hardest yet! They may look simple but this is a very tiring activity which will test your core stregth and stamina. This is a core activity that many professional athletes do daily to help keep them super fit and healthy.
The task is to see how many you can do in one minute.
Have a rest in between and try this 3-5 times to see how high you can get your score!
There will be a survey sent out on School Spider later today to submit your final scores for the week. Then we can see which class has won this years Home Olympics!
Have a great day everyone. I hope you enjoy the activities planned. Send in your pictures and videos for me to check out and repost.
Mr Horsley
Here's a video I found which might brighten up your morning...
HEALTH AND FITNESS WEEK - DAY 5
Date: 9th Jul 2020 @ 6:51pm
Today will be our last day of the Virtual Health and Fitness Week - in my opinion it's the best one yet. I would like to start by thanking all of you who participated and challenged yourself this week. I have honestly been blown away by how many people participated this week and I hope that you have all had fun. Hopefully, some of you may have taken something from this week that has inspired you to try and make every week a Health and Fitness week in the future!
Activities for today
1) Let's get warmed up with a 5 minute workout from Joe.
If you are feeling an extra challenge - you could try one of his full workouts on the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5DlVnxLjk
2) Activity Bingo - today is your last day to finish the activity bingo - can you get gold?
3) Balloon Tennis -
Challenge someone in your house to a game of balloon tennis! I used two chairs and tied a piece of string to make a net. If not, a piece of string, ribbon, scrunched up t-shirt etc. would do the job! Try not to let the balloon land on your side of the 'net'!
Extra challenge - tie an old rag or dishcloth into a knot and use that as a slightly heavier 'ball'. You could use an even heavier pair of socks for an even harder challenge!
Water Bucket Shuttle Run
I saw this idea on Twitter and thought this would be great fun. Get two buckets, one empty and one full. Place them at opposite ends of the your garden. See how much water can you transport to the other in 5 minutes. Measure the water you have transported at the end and let me know how you got on - I am going to give this a go tomorrow! (A bit of Maths involved in there for you too Mr Simpson!)
@PEStJamesNN5 PE challenge with wather and sponge made Wiktor very tired and excited;););) Enjoyed so much !!! pic.twitter.com/l6Sg1Tiiqo
— joanna (@joasia8522) April 27, 2020
Home Olympics - Final Event
In my opinion - the hardest yet! They may look simple but this is a very tiring activity which will test your core stregth and stamina. This is a core activity that many professional athletes do daily to help keep them super fit and healthy.
The task is to see how many you can do in one minute.
Have a rest in between and try this 3-5 times to see how high you can get your score!
There will be a survey sent out on School Spider later today to submit your final scores for the week. Then we can see which class has won this years Home Olympics!
Have a great day everyone. I hope you enjoy the activities planned. Send in your pictures and videos for me to check out and repost.
Mr Horsley
Date: 9th Jul 2020 @ 5:08pm
Good morning Owls Class!
Can you believe we're at the end of the first week of transition to Owl Class? It's gone super quick hasn't it? My favourite thing this week was seeing you all on the Zoom transition meetings and seeing how clever you all were with the scavenger hunt! Next week, Mrs Handley and I will be ringing your parents to have a quick chat and introduce ourselves
Today I was working hard at my laptop when I felt like someone was watching me...I turned around and this is what I saw
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It's been lovely to see how hard you've been working this week on the transition activities and it's nice to get to know you a little bit better! Here are some acrostic poems that you wrote:
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We've also had some photos of you taking part in the Health and Fitness Week activities - I think you can jump longer than I can!!
Today's task is to write a factfile all about Owls! Try to find 8 facts about Owls and draw a picture. I'm looking forward to reading some of the information that you find out about them!
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Miss Whalley
HEALTH AND FITNESS WEEK - DAY 4
Date: 9th Jul 2020 @ 8:41am
Good morning everyone!
I absolutely loved seeing your Yoga pictures yesterday. There were some amazing efforts across school and at home in the Washing Basket Challenge - it is safe to say that I did not win with my wonderful score of 4. Congratulations to Miss Southern who won the teachers competition - she scored 27!
Today's activities
1) Activity Bingo
Remember to try and tick off as many activities as you can! I've seen some great photos of your activities at home so far.
2) Mindfulness Day
Being healthy is not just about looking after your body, it's about looking after your mind. Although exercise is one of the best things you can do to keep a healthy mind, it is also important to be mindful and take time to think about the world around you - something which can be very difficult with the pace of modern life and the lure of technology/screens.
Here are some activities which can help us to be mindful, maybe you could try one today.
Click here for more details on these activities.
https://biglifejournal.com/blogs/blog/5-fun-mindfulness-activities-children-breathing-exercises
Some other activities:
1) Yoga is also an excellent activity for both your mind and your bodies. If you enjoyed it yesterday, try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZpkRAcgws4
2)Meditation is a nice way to relax and relieve anxiety after a busy day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWOHcGF1Tmc
3) Colouring! Spend 15-20 minutes colouring simple patterns. This is a great way to focus your mind on a relaxing task.
4) Turn your phones off and go on a nice walk - what sounds can you hear?
Activity 2 - Horizontal Rock Climbing
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Find as many pairs of clean shoes or socks and scatter them across your carpet like grips on a rock climbing wall.
Can you try to get across the carpet by only placing your hands and feet on the shoes/socks?
You could challenge each in your house by making tricky routes for them to pass through.
For an extra challenge - try and keep your body as low to the floor as possible when moving. Can you try and make a course around your whole house? You could be creative with what you use for grips - phone cases, shin pads, books, coffee cup lids 
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Try and make it as long/tricky as possible and send me what you have done!
Home Olympics Challenge - Day 4 - Star Jump Challenge
This challenge is simple as it only includes one movement, however it will test your stamina and quick footwork.
How many can you complete in one minute? Keep a record of your scores to complete tomorrow.
I will try my attempt this morning and then post the teacher scores later on in the day - keep posted!
Good luck everyone and have a great day!
Mr Horsley
Have a great, active day everyone. Keep sending in your pictures and videos.
Mr Horsley
Date: 8th Jul 2020 @ 7:25pm
Good morning Owl Class! How are you all?
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I hope your Wednesday was fun! Benson and I went out for 2 walks again and we tried something new! I let him off his lead so he could run around and then he came straight back when I called him. It helped that I had treats in my hand, but I still think he was a very good boy!
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I enjoyed seeing your 5 facts! It looks like we've all got a lot in common which is wonderful and hopefully we can do some of your favourite activities in school in September!
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Well done to Casey, Harris, Isabelle and Chloe!
Today's task is to write an acrostic poem that describes you! An acrostic poem is where the first letter of each line spells out a word! I'd like to to write your first name and Owls Class.
Here's my example to help you:
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Have a great Thursday everyone!
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Miss Whalley
Date: 8th Jul 2020 @ 9:29am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucaUU7-9N9o
Whats the highest score you can get?
I'm going to keep on trying until I improve! Rolled up socks and a washing basket will be perfect for this challenge!
HEALTH AND FITNESS WEEK - DAY 3
Date: 8th Jul 2020 @ 8:42am
Good morning everyone!
What an amazing day again yesterday - I cannot believe how many photos and videos were submitted yesterday. I'm so impressed with the effort and resilience I have seen displayed at home - it looks like we have some excellent jumpers in school and some excellent dancers in school...although if you ask my Bubble they might not have appreciated my Bollywood dance moves so much yesterday.
Today's activities
1) Activity Bingo
Remember to try and tick off as many activities as you can!
2) Let's get dancing!
There are two Yoga sessions for you to try today - one aimed at KS1 and one aimed at KS2. Why don't you try and research about Yoga first before you try it. Where was it created? What is it used for? Why is it good for you?.Yoga always surprises me with how tiring it actually is! It is great for your body and mind.
KS1 - Yoga https://imoves.com/home-learning/1329
KS2 - Yoga https://imoves.com/home-learning/1339
Home Olympics - Event 3 - Washing Basket Throw Challenge
Today's event will test your throwing and your agility!
For this task:
1) Find a washing basket, box, bucket - any target you can find around the house
2) Find three rolled up pairs of socks.
3) Stand 9 steps back from the target.
4) Set a timer to one minute - when you start, throw the three bean bags and sprint to collect them. Then run back to your throwing point.
5) Repeat until the timer runs out - count how many pairs of socks you get in the target.
6) Keep a record of your best scores for Friday. Challenge other people in your house to see what they can get.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucaUU7-9N9o
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Have a great, active day everyone. Keep sending in your pictures and videos.
Mr Horsley
