Growth mindset! I can, I can, I can!

By Mrs L Odell19th May 2015

This week we started our new project: Brains! We asked some BIG questions and hope to find out the answers this week! Mrs Odell was blown away when one of us asked ‘How do neurons work?’ and ‘How does our brain remember things?’! This week we want to find out as much as possible!

This afternoon we were learning about a growth mindset to find out how our brains help us when we find something tricky. First, we talked about how we feel when we find something hard and we had a very interesting discussion about this. Some of us used words such as ‘worried’ and ‘anxious’ whilst others said ‘excited’ and ‘challenged’!

After that, we talked in our trios about real life situations we remembered where we had had to have a growth mindset. Lots of us said maths and literacy!

To find out more about growth mindset and how our own brains think, we all had a go at a mindset questionnaire! Luckily, we all had really high scores! We are looking forward to our next challenge so we can use our growth mindset!!

Brain Week in Year 2!

By S Marriott19th May 2015

Brain Week started yesterday in Year 2 with a food feeling session! The children had to close their eyes, feel the food and guess what it was.

Then, the children had to describe it and predict if it would help your brain or if it wouldn’t help your brain.

The children learnt that blueberries, avocado and broccoli were good for your brain.

The foods that weren’t so good were chocolate, popcorn and cake!

Today, we are going to continue our learning about the brain and learn about a fixed mindset and a growth mindset and how we can use this in our day to day learning at home and at school.

Noctural animal habitats

17th April 2015Mrs L Odell

This afternoon we spent some time looking at each others nocturnal animal habitiat projects. The children explained how they made them and how they used their knowledge of nocturnal animals to help design the habitat. The children (and parents! ) did an amazing job and have gained a wealth of knowledge!

Here are some photos of these amazing habitiats.

 

Eclipse experience enjoyed by Year 2

25th March 2015Mrs L Odell

What a busy half term we have had! The highlight for many was the eclipse. This generated some amazing stories by the children were they used the moon covering the sun and being ‘plunged into darkness’ as the problem. The children thought of creative resolutions and really put their writing skills to great use.

To experience the eclipse we used two pieces of paper (one with a tiny hole in) to see what was happening above (without actually looking!) What a fantastic experience this was for the children!

On Friday I also had the pleasure of awarding two star pupils with their calm pins. Well done! We are very proud of you! I wonder who will be next?!

 

Fossils!

10th February 2015Mrs L Odell

On Friday we were in the middle of a history lesson about fossil finder Mary Anning when Mr Osborne came in and surprised us with a real collection of fossils! We had a great time holding the fossils and looking closely at the amazing patterns. Mr Osborne  told us that they are millions of years old and were found in the very same place that Mary Anning found her fossils!

Thank you Mr Osborne for re-igniting our dinosaur project! Here are some photos of us holding the fossils.

Dino art!

27th January 2015Mrs L Odell

In Year 2 we are thoroughly enjoying our dinosaur project. During Enrichment we have been fortunate enough to have Mr Smith the artist teaching us! Here is a photo of our amazing dinosaur sculptures that we created using wood and other recyled materials.

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In literacy we have now finished writing dinosaur adventure stories and have now started learning how to write a dinosaur information report! We have lots of knowledge about the Stegosaurus. Ask me about its appearance and special features!

Gold pin achieved!

22nd January 2015Mrs L Odell

Congratulations to Shahyan who was presented with his gold pin for opening, growing and believing! Shahyan only officially joined the school in September but is already a true Brooklands boy who already has a great understanding of the Brooklands values and shows this in daily life at school. We are all very proud!

 

 

Dinosaur Ignite!

16th January 2015Mrs L Odell

Year 2 had a fantastic day igniting their learning at the Natural History Museum.

In the morning the children explored the museum and were so excited to see so many dinsoaur skeletons and fossils.

After lunch we went to the dinosaur exhibition. We had booklets to complete as we walked around so we did some sketching, labelling and even wrote a diary entry! We were most excited to see the moving T-Rex which roared loudly as we walked by! Most of us were very brave! Some of us wondered if we could have one in the playground?!

Thank you to our amazing parent helpers!