Year 2 read and compare traditional tales

Once upon a time there were two enthusiastic year two classes who had just started their new topic of Traditional Tales. We have been busy this week reading and comparing traditional tales to investigate the common themes they each have. The children started by reading their favourite stories and used post it notes to record the similarities and differences between them. We then compared the settings of the stories and discovered many were set in the countryside or woods, such as the Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three bears and Little Red Riding Hood. We realised that fairy tales often have a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ character and that one of the characters has a problem. They have to overcome this before the outcome of a happy ending,’ living happily ever after!’ We have been practising using the correct terms for our grammar work, eg adjectives, verbs and adverbs to make the writing more exciting.

Following on from the work on the ‘Diary of the Wombat’ by Jackie French,this week the children completed their own diaries having chosen an Indian animal. They had to rewrite the story and extend the simple sentences by using conjunctions to make longer complex sentences. The children thought of imaginative ways to replace the repetitive ‘slept’ and ‘ate’ and made an impressive list of synonyms such as devoured, chomped, gobbled, dozed, snoozed and rested.

This week, during the house assemblies, the children watched and learned where the money raised from Sport Relief goes. They were astounded at the living conditions some children in the United Kingdom have to contend with and we hope this will spur them on to raise money.