Weekly reads in 2AP

As an adult who loves books, I'm thrilled that my year 2 class love books just as much. They will happily read independently, with a peer, on Active Learn during golden time or listen intently to our class book. The children love to share books they have read with the rest of the class and are brilliant at making links between different books we have read. They also absolutely love the interaction they can have with authors on twitter.

Like every class in the country our timetable is busy busy busy, but we make time daily to read. This could be as part of our English lesson, Phonics lesson, daily mindfulness time or our end of the day class read.

Here is a round up of our weekly reading in 2AP from 29th January - 2nd February.

Wigglesbottom Primary: Toilet Ghost by Pamela Butchart

Life at Wigglesbottom is often lived on the edge. A class talent show becomes a thing of great mystery, a broken tap in the boys' loos becomes the story of the Toilet Ghost and an ant farm brought in for show and tell results in an itchy carpet curse.

My class adore the Wigglesbottom Primary books and the illustrations by Becka Moor are brilliant. They are an absolute joy to share at the end of the day as a class read and when finished, the children love reading them independently. After a lovely reading lesson this afternoon, we may have gone onto Amazon and Shark in the Pool may be arriving tomorrow.. We shall see!

Izzy Gizmo by Pip Jons

Izzy Gizmo is a girl who loves to invent, but her inventions never seem to work the way she wants them to. And that makes her really cross! When she finds a crow with a broken wing, she just has to help. But will she be able to put her frustrations to one side and help her new friend to fly again?

I shared this book with my class back in September when we were discussing one of our learning power tools - perseverance. There is a strong message about resilience and trying again which is wonderful for young children and particularly important in our class.

For the past two weeks we've been lucky enough to read it again and link our writing to it. The children adore Izzy Gizmo and have loved the interaction they've had with the author, Pip Jones, on twitter. It resulted in fantastic writing results, from character descriptions to diary entries.

Everybody's Welcome by Patricia Hegarty

Wouldn't it be great if you could build a home that opened its doors to everyone - tall or short, fat or thin, rich or poor... Well, perhaps if everybody pitches in to help, one little mouse can achieve that dream. 

Everybody's Welcome is a lovely story about empathising with others and helping them in their hour of need. Mouse shows compassion and kindness towards many different animals and it led us into a class discussion beautifully. A beautiful story of tolerance and diversity, with equally beautiful illustrations (my class adored them!).

The Squirrels who Squabbled

Two greedy squirrels learn to share. Greedy squirrels Cyril and Bruce both have their sights on a very special prize: The very last nut of the season! As the nut bounces crazily through the forest, the squirrels race after it, between the trees, over boulders, down the river and - ARGH! Right to the edge of a waterfall. Working together might be the only way to save themselves now...

My class absolute love books by Rachel Bright and this one is no different. It highlights the pointlessness of squabbling and how wonderful friendship is. A perfect book to share as part of circle time or a PSHE lesson on friendship, which is just what we did :-).

Don't Leap, Larry!

Larry Lemming is unlike all others, he has a mind of his own. Whilst all the other lemmings are making burrows ready for winter, Larry goes sledging with puffins, eats pizza and wears hoola skirts.

This is a beautifully illustrated and amusing story to share with children, which will remind them that it is ok to think independently. My class really enjoyed the story and the illustrations. We had a wonderful discussion about being individuals after reading it, which led into a very calming mindfulness art activity. Super!

The Chocolate Monster

Breaking news: a chocolate monster is on the loose! Keep watch, and close all cupboard doors. No chocolate bar's secure. If left at large, The Chunk will turn at your house, for sure. And worse still this fiend will make sure you take the blame! 

This is the perfect book to share aloud with children. The rhyming text is fun and my class adored the illustrations. I even caught some children during golden time that week turning me into a chocolate monster and creating wanted signs.... 😂

Little Red Reading Hood

Little Red Reading Hood LOVES reading books and making up stories of her own. When she meets a cunning wolf while on her way to the library, he convinces her to stray from the path and read for a little while. But hasn’t she read this in a story before? Perhaps it’s time she came up with a new ending . . .

I absolutely loved this from the moment it arrived on my doorstep. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful and the rhymes are wonderful. An incredibly imaginative story which had my class inspired. A week on and I spotted some children looking through the book today and creating their own imaginative journeys. How lovely!