Topic Summary
Can anything good come from disaster?
This half term the children will travel back in time to 1666 and the time of the Great Fire. This will be the main focus for all our discussions around change and how we know about the past. The children will explore different sources and discuss their validity. They will show creativity and determination in Design and Technology when planning and making fire engines, asking questions about how things work to help with the design and assembly process.
In the topic we will be teaching the children the following key concepts:
- Duty – Why is duty important to life?
- Change – How can change make things better?
- Resilience – How do we respond to challenges in life?
- Influence – When is it okay to influence others?
Visits / Experiences
- Visit from the Firebrigade
- Visit to Newcastle/Gateshead Quayside
Subject Information
English
This term we will be covering: descriptive writing, instructions , diary entries and writing speeches, using our key text – The Great Fire of London by Emma Adams.
We build on earlier work using adjectives and adverbs to produce improved and sustained writing. Our diary entries give us the opportunity to apply our knowledge of the Great Fire and to imagine how the fire impacted on lots of different people in lots of different ways. We look at different aspects of grammar (commas, apostrophes) and begin to organise our writing into paragraphs.
Phonics: By now, most children have learned most of the basic sets of sounds and we now start looking at alternative spellings and basic grammar. We still work in targeted groups, focussing on sentence level work to improve our written English.
Reading: As well as our reading books which we bring home, we focus on reading comprehension in the class, using the ‘Great Fire of London’ anniversary book.
Speaking and Listening: We use the stimulus of the Great Fire of London to work on our speaking and listening skills. We use lots of drama and role play to imagine life in London in 1666. We also work on a year 2 play on the Great Fire of London.
Key Texts and Stimulus
- Great Fire of London by Emma Adams
- Extracts from Samuel Pepys Diary
- Pudding Lane Video
Maths
We be covering multiplication and division. Looking at:
- recall and use multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 multiplication tables, including recognising odd and even numbers.
- calculate mathematical statements for multiplication and division within the multiplication tables and write them using the multiplication (×), division (÷) and equals (=) signs.
- show that multiplication of 2 numbers can be done in any order (commutative) and division of 1 number by another cannot.
- solve problems involving multiplication and division, using materials, arrays, repeated addition, mental methods, and multiplication and division facts, including problems in contexts.
We will also look at money:
- recognise and use symbols for pounds (£) and pence (p); combine amounts to make a particular value.
- find different combinations of coins that equal the same amounts of money.
- solve simple problems in a practical context involving addition and subtraction of money of the same unit, including giving change.
Science
Our science focus will be everyday materials, this will link to our Design Technology topic. We will identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses. We will also find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.
History
This half term we will begin by looking at the Great Fire of London, learning about how the fire started and how we know about the events today. We shall look at different sources of information including the diary of Samuel Pepys, our significant individual study. We shall then turn more local and compare the Great Fire of London to the Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead.
RE and PSHE
In RE we learn about Christianity and how Christians believe that Jesus is God’s son, a special gift to the world. We explore the build up to the Easter story – a key event in the Christian calendar at the heart of the Christian faith.
In PSHE, we will explore how we all belong to different groups and how communities bring groups of people together. We will look at the differences between needs and wants and how jobs help people earn money to buy things.
Design Technology
Our Design Technology project this half term will be to design and make fire engines. We will begin by looking at existing fire engine designs. We will then look at the wheels, axel, chassis and body of the fire engine in detail before designing and making our fire engines. We will then evaluate our engines against our designs.
We will use woodwork skills this term to investigate the key elements of vehicle design.
Computing
In computing this half term we develop our coding skills and use ‘Microbits’ – mini computers to explore algorithms and programming.
PE
In PE the children will be taking part two topics, introducing skills for games and Dance. The children will:
- Link running and jumping movements with control and balance.
- Show hopping and jumping movements with control and balance.
- Show control and balance when moving at different speeds.
- Demonstrate balance and coordination when changing direction.
- Perform actions with increased control with and without equipment.
- Run, stop and change direction with control.
If you would like any further details about this half term's curriculum in Year 2, please speak to your child's teacher.