Year 2

Welcome to the Year 2 page....

This project was heavily linked to: design and technology (construction), art, history and geography and had many writing opportunities. The children started by learning about the features of three different types of castles. In literacy, we started with ‘fairy tales’ because Rapunzel has a castle in the story and it was an engaging place to start. We compared two different versions of the story and wrote our own recount of Rapunzel’s escape from the tower. Other writing links included: using time conjunctions in sentences to develop an awareness of the past, writing questions to a castle expert ready for our trip to Hertford Castle, writing instructions about how to build a model castle, writing a persuasive For Sale sign encouraging someone to buy their castle and an experiment to decide which material would make the best roof for  a castle. The knowledge needed to write the instructions was taught in literacy before the instructions were written in D&T and science. We went on 1  trip this term to Hertford Castle to look at the features of this castle, especially the wall that was built during King Henry VIII reign. In design and technology, the children built castles in groups of 4 and had to work together to make sure the castle looked authentic and included the features we had learnt about in history. The science taught covered materials and their properties and included an experiment to explore which everyday materials were waterproof and which were not. The exhibition was a fun way to end our Time Detectives project. The children decorated biscuits, made bunting, designed their own crown and even wrote a card to send to Queen Elizabeth II ready for her Platinum Jubilee. In the afternoon, we had a hall party which was decorated using the bunting and the children had chance to eat their beautifully decorated biscuits.

essential questions

Is this in chronological order?

How do we know that Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II are rich from pictures of them?

What would you like to know about Hertford Castle?

Which material should I use to make the roof of the castle waterproof?

How can we make this castle look authentic?

student reflections

“It was amazing and I was proud of my team because we worked hard on our castle.”             

“The Jubilee celebration was really fun because I learned lots with my friends.” 

“We watched cardboard go soggy after lots of water fell on it. It fell apart in Miss Deboick’s hands!”

 

teacher reflections

There are many links that can be made with this project that makes the learning engaging and relevant. The children enjoyed learning about and discussing the feature of a castle and they loved their trip to  Hertford to see a real castle. For a lot of children, this was their first time on a train and knowing that we were a part of that experience was an honour for all involved.

exhibition responses