Here is Shriya’s letter to Wise Owl with the facts she has learnt after today’s Safer Internet lesson.

Here is Isla’s letter to Wise Owl with the facts she has learnt after today’s Safer Internet lesson.

Well done Isla!!

In the last couple of Computing lessons with Mr Baddhan, Toucans have been learning about sorting information into groups.

Earlier this week, Mr Baddhan showed the children how shapes can be sorted using a Carroll diagram by asking questions which we fit the criteria. For example sorting a shape dependent on whether it has straight lines, more than three sides etc.

Today the children used a program called J2E Branch to sort animals into groups based on the question.

Toucans sorted their items into groups by asking questions based on the group of pictures e.g “Does it have a tail?”, “Does it fly?”, “Does it eat fish?” etc.

Today, Toucans learnt how to search for information using two child friendly search engines called Swiggle and Safe Search Kids. They researched our topic to answer questions and find some facts to make a class mind map of information.

Can you use these search engines to find our extra facts about being healthy?

Toucans have been busy looking at instructions today and linked this back to their knowledge gained in English recently. Mrs Parry chose two volunteer “robots” and gave them instructions using words such as forwards, backwards, left, right, turn to move them around the classroom. It was a bit tricky! We talked about how introductions are used in computing. Declan explained these are called algorithms.

The children used pictorial direction cards to give, record and follow instructions, similar to when we write algorithms in Computing.

Why do we need instructions?

During Computing in the last couple of days, Year 2 Toucans further enhanced their knowledge on algorithms and debugging. The children used an app called Fix the Factory (a free download from the App store).

Mr Baddhan asked the children to work through the levels using their problem solving skills to move the robot from a start position to the end – the controls available include ‘move forward’, ‘turn right’, ‘turn left’, ‘pick up’ and ‘drop off’.

Alot of perseverance and debugging was required to fix their mistakes in the code.

Toucans have started their computing lessons today. The children talked about what the internet can be used for and why it is useful. Mrs Parry asked the class what they use the internet for.

Mrs Parry displayed the school website and showed the children how to read other classes’ blogs. Some children wanted to find out what their siblings were learning about. The children learnt that people can communicate via the blog and leave comments about the blogs that are posted. They realised that anyone can access the blogs, not just parents. Mrs Parry pointed out how she had asked questions on the class blog to encourage people to reply. Toucans found out they could read what other people post in the comments too.

Finally, Toucans considered online safety and thought about what information they should NOT include on a post, now knowing anyone can read what they have posted. You should not give out personal information such as:

Declan – Your address and door number.
Shriya – Telephone numbers and passwords
Elias – Full name and age

In Computing today we learnt about databases. We learnt they are used to store and sort lots of information. We worked hard to sort an alien database to answer some questions. Some of us even added our own aliens!