Year 2 Topics
Autumn
History
Toys. We will be finding out about toys from the past and compare them with toys today. We will look at popular toys from years ago and popular toys today. We will make a timeline of toys through the ages. We will also look at how toys were made and the materials that were used then. We will find out about the toys our grandparents and parents enjoyed playing with.
Geography
Oceans and continents.
We will find out the names of the continents and oceans around the world. We will find out about life in Africa and will look at Kenya in more detail.
Art
African art -We will study an African artist called Ephrem Kouaku. We will look at his paintings and look at how he uses repeated patterns to create a picture. We will use charcoal and pastels this term.
Spring
Geography
We will be looking at our local area and we will identify and describe features of our school, local area and Yate. We will look at maps and how compass directions are used. We find out about symbols on maps and how a key is used. We will devise a simple map of Yate and use symbols on it. We will also look at and describe features such as city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office and shop. We will look at the differences between a town and a city.
History
We will find out information about the Great Fire of London. We will look at life in London when the fire started and find out where, when and why it started. We will compare houses then and houses now. We will read extracts from Samuel Pepys’s diary and try to imagine what happened and how it changed people’s lives.
Art
We will paint a cityscape of London. We will look at the work of the artist David Farren. He is an artist of street scenes and landscapes and has painted many scenes from London. We will mix paint to create all the secondary colours and create tints and tones using white and black paint.
Summer
History
We will find out information about Isambard Kingdom Brunel. We will learn about the bridges, railways, tunnels and ships that he designed. We will think about how these things changed travel at that time.
DT
Our topic this term is linked to Brunel. We will look at different types of bridges and design our own bridge. We will test different materials to find out which ones make the strongest bridge.
History
Queen Victoria and Victorian seaside holidays. What was it like to go on holiday then and how is it different to holidays today? We will be looking at some old seaside artefacts.
Geography
We will be looking at physical features such as beach, cliff, sea, coast and human features such as village and harbour. We will link this with our story The Mousehole cat as it is set in Cornwall.
Art/DT
We will design and make our own seaside puppets. We will use paper mache to make the puppet’s head and we will be sewing material to make an outfit for the puppet.