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?
- Community – Do we all belong to a community?
- Influence – When is it okay to influence others?
Visits / Experiences
- Rainbow Regulation Week – wc 13.01.2025
- Outnumbered Maths Week – wc 03.02.2025
- Visit to Newcastle City Library – 27.01.25
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 will be reinforcing skills we have previously learned and thinking about purposefully choosing language and vocabulary. This will include using our senses to add to our descriptive writing and imperative verbs when writing instructions. Taking inspiration from Samuel Pepys we will be creating our own diary entries, imagining we are residents of London in September 1666 and are living through the Great Fire. We will becoming very persuasive as we take the role of King Charles after the Great Fire when describing what changes must be made to re-build London.
Reading: As well as our reading books which we bring home, we focus on reading comprehension in the class using the book Gorilla by Anthony Browne.
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
In maths, we will be developing our understanding of money. We will be learning to count coins and notes, calculate totals in pounds and pence, and compare amounts. We will also practice making the same amount in different ways, finding change, and solving real-world money problems, including two-step challenges. These skills will help us build confidence in handling money in everyday situations.
We will then move on to learning about multiplication and division. We will start by recognising and making equal groups, adding these groups, and using arrays to represent multiplication. The children will then be introduced to the multiplication symbol and learn to write multiplication sentences. As we progress, we will explore grouping and sharing, practice the 2, 5, and 10 times-tables, and use these to divide. We will also look at doubling and halving, and identify odd and even numbers. These lessons will help build a strong foundation for understanding multiplication and division.
Science
In science, we will be finishing our investigations into materials before moving on to exploring plants. We will learn about the different parts of a plant and what plants need to grow. The children will explore how light and darkness affect plant growth, building their understanding through hands-on investigations.
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 the children will be continuing to celebrate how we are all different and unique and that is one of our greatest strengths. We will look at how friendship is one of the greatest things to help to inspire and motivate us to our dreams and overcome any obstacles.
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.
Computing
We will continue our computer science work looking at creating code using micro bits to create a name badge, a beating heart and an emotion badge.
PE
We will have PE on a Wednesday and Thursday.
On a Wednesday we will focus on 'send and receive' skills. Children will learn to track the path of a ball over a net and move towards it. They will begin to hit and return a ball with some consistency and play modified net/wall games using the skills of throwing, catching and sending.
In yoga the children will work with Geordie Kids Yoga learning some of the classic yoga moves by telling stories. This will help the children to feel calm and peaceful.
If you would like any further details about this half term's curriculum in Year 2, please speak to your child's teacher.
Credits:
Created with images by lovelyday12 - "soybean growth in farm with green leaf background. agriculture plant seeding growing step concept" • bellakadife - "music notes, shallow dof, color effect added" • JackF - "Group of teenagers are practicing Hatha yoga for amateurs. Boy children perform pose dog muzzle up - cobra, Urdhva Mukha Shvanasana- Bhujangasana"