Monthly Archives: June 2016

Programming a dancing cat

Class Work, Computing

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During Computing today, Year 2 learned how to program in Scratch (the full version) today.

It’s more advanced than the previous lesson in Scratch Junior. They were tasked to program the cat to move back and forward using the move 10 steps block and then use different costumes to make it appear as if the cat was dancing.

The children then added sound and a background to their work.

With the varied amount of programming language Year 2 have learned during the last few weeks, they are now ready for programming in Year 3.

Learning about dictionaries

Class Work, English

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Today we started to learn more about dictionaries. First we explored them and tried to find out how to use them for ourselves.

This is what we learnt:
• They are in alphabetical order.
• If the first letter is the same you look at the second letter.
• A dictionary tells you what a word means.
• You can use it to help you spell words
• Some words have suffixes.
• Some dictionaries tell you what sort of word it is, for example a noun or adjective.

We practised finding different words and learnt that it was sometimes faster to start in the middle or end of the dictionary if the word started with a letter in the middle or end of the alphabet. We then started to practise giving definitions of words and putting words into alphabetical order. Our end of term challenge is to produce a dictionary of rainforest words. Today Miss Williams gave us some words and we started to work together to put them into alphabetical order. Over the next few weeks we will learn about the words and put their definitions into our dictionaries. Keep looking to see our finished dictionaries!

Programming in Scratch Junior

Class Work, Computing

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This afternoon, Toucans were very lucky to visit Harborne Academy’s Samsung Digital Hub as part of their Computing lesson.

The children learned how to program using Scratch Junior, another form of programming language. They were tasked to create algorithms to program a vehicle to move from one side of the screen to another, using differrent speeds. Then they were tasked to program three different animals to race each other. And finally, they programmed three spooky animals only to move when they got tapped using a finger.

The children are gaining a very quick understanding of programming language and now showing some independent learning to produce their own algorithms – well done Toucans!

More debugging and sequence

Class Work, Computing

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Year 2 have continued to learn about debugging and putting instructions into the correct sequence for the program to work.

This afternoon, Toucans used Purple Mash’s 2Code program to go through various debugging and sequence activities.

On Monday, the the children will be doing further programming at their trip to Harborne Academy, learning about Scratch. Keep visiting our blog for regular updates.

Learning algorithms and debugging

Class Work, Computing

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During Computing today, Year 2 Toucans learned about creating algorithms (instructions) and then debug parts of a code which don’t work as intended. Mr Whitehouse from Harborne Academy visited our class to lead today’s lesson.

The children were tasked with two different activities.

First Activity
The first activity was to listen to the instructions Mr Whitehouse said and draw the person as described. The task was to test the children’s listening skills and how carefully they can put their instruction writing to task.

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Second Activity
The second activity was to use a website called Rapid Router and program a van to move to a finish line. They were using forward, turn left and turn right blocks.

Mr Baddhan and Mr Whitehouse were very impressed at how quickly the children understood the concept of algorithms, sequence and debugging.

Toucans visit Twycross Zoo!

Class Work, Science

Today, Year 2 visited Twycross Zoo. It was a truly fantastic day! First we went to visit the meerkats; they were much cuter than we had expected them to be. Next we went to the penguins. They were all very interesting to watch. At first they were on the rocks and then they went into the water and we watched them swim underwater through a special window. It was amazing! They were very fast and it looked like they were splashing their flippers at us.

Then we went to see the tapirs. We were very interested in them as we have been learning about them in our rainforest projects this term and they didn’t let us down. They were much bigger than we expected them to be! We thought they might be shy as when we arrived… they left!

After that, we went to look at the flamingos. We were surprised at how pink they were. When we read the information on the sign it told us they get their colour from the shrimp they eat. Next we visited a Borneo longhouse. There were lots of birds and plants that might live in the rainforest. We also saw a display of people who live in the rainforest. It was interesting to look at the clothes they wear, the clay pots they make and the baskets they weave. Then we went to see the spider-monkeys as we have learnt about them as well. There was a lady giving an information talk and feeding them and we learnt lots of interesting facts.

Then came our long-awaited lunchtime! (It was only 11:45 and most of Toucans had asked ‘Is it lunch time yet?’ at least 4 times!) We then had a play in the play area. After lunch we went to the Discovery Centre for a rainforest explorers workshop. Nicky asked us lots of questions about the rainforest and was very impressed with our knowledge. She then told us lots more facts and we even got to touch a cockroach and tortoise. Some of us were a bit nervous (as you can see from the photos!) but most of us had a try. We were surprised the cockroach felt smooth and soft like a nail.

Next we went to the butterfly forest. Lots of butterflies landed on us. They were so beautiful. Then we went to visit all the different monkeys they have including the Orang-Utans and Chimpanzees. The largest chimpanzee was very shy because he kept hiding from the camera! The baby was funny because he kept covering himself with hay.

Our favourite part pf the afternoon was visiting the elephants and giraffes. We were amazed at how big the elephants were and how tall the giraffes were. They were very impressive. As we walked through the elephant forest we saw Ganesh! We have been learning about him in our RE lessons so it was lovely to see a real statue and temple.

Overall we had a wonderful day, even the teachers had a great time! They were very impressed with our behaviour too. Thank you to Mrs Johnson, Mr Koeri and Mrs Fotaras for accompanying us on our day at the zoo.

Animation using Pivot Stick

Class Work, Computing

During Computing, Year 2 Toucans created some animations using Pivot Stick animator. Children learned that animation is a set of frames put together.

Toucans class really enjoyed today’s lesson with Mr Baddhan learning about animation and creating some fantastic stick animation.

Sean’s Animation
sean

Ishmael’s Animation
Ishmail

Kyle’s Animation
kyle

Sophie and Isabella’s Animation
Sophie Isabelle

Joshua F’s Animation
Josh F

Designing our spiders

Class Work, DT

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Today we started our final DT project. We have already designed our spiders so today we started to make them. First we had to draw very carefully around a template of a spider. Then we cut them out, also very carefully! We had to make sure they were exactly the same size as our next task is to begin sewing them together. Keep an eye on our blog to see how we get on.