Curriculum Coverage Year 2 – 2022-23

Each project covers all the work for half a term in history, geography, science, art and design, design technology and computing. It also has links to PE and PSHE.
Each year the teachers choose 6 projects including those listed here. They choose projects that will ensure full National Curriculum coverage and also suit the interests of the children within that year group.
Each project is based around acquisition of knowledge, development of skills and the addition of cultural capital to a child’s experience of school.

• The Year 2 curriculum is enhanced by the following events
• A Christmas show
• Participation in sporting events and festivals
• An enterprise project that runs throughout the year where children create goods to sell and plan events to raise money.
• Visits and visitors linked to our project work
• OPAL experiences (outdoor play and learning)
• Forest School experiences

Beachcombers 

Pack up some sandwiches, pick up a fishing net and keep your eyes peeled because we’re off to the coast to go beachcombing!

This half term, we’ll visit a local beach to experience the sights, sounds and smells of the seashore and explore rock pools to find living and non-living things. Bringing shells, pebbles and seaweed back to the classroom will help us to learn about a wide range of coastal plants and creatures. We’ll read a range of seaside stories and use the coast as a setting for our writing. Maps and film footage will help us to find out more about the coast and we’ll create a wide variety of artwork. We’ll use books and the internet to search for information about the seashore and use our knowledge to write our own non-fiction books.

At the end of the project, we’ll decide how we should look after the coastal environment and how the beach can be kept clean. We’ll use our ICT skills to create a final presentation including photographs, captions and sound files.

Help your child prepare for their project
Beaches are fascinating places. Why not visit a beach and go on a rock pooling expedition of your own? Alternatively, you could visit a local pet shop to see a wide variety of fish, crustaceans and aquatic plants. You could also create drawings, paintings or models of sea creatures using online images for inspiration.

Beat Band Boogie! 

Left, right, left, right, here comes the marching band!

This half term, we’ll be stepping in time to the beat and learning all about music. We’ll listen to a music ensemble, identify pulse, rhythm and pitch, and move in time to the music. Leading and following instructions will help us make percussion instruments and we’ll also design our own. We’ll learn nursery rhymes including The Grand Old Duke of York and read the story of The Little Tin Soldier. Our bodies will turn into instruments as we try to master the art of body percussion. We’ll learn lots of new songs and write lyrics and tunes of our own. We’ll listen carefully to different sounds outdoors, test our sense of hearing and find out how far different sounds can travel.

You will be invited to our special music and movement event at the end of our project. Practice will hopefully make perfect when we perform our songs and dances with confidence.

Help your child prepare for their project
Music is a universal language. Why not listen to a wide variety of music together? Make a list of the music you have enjoyed, and share it with others. You could also watch clips of brass bands online and listen to the sounds of different instruments. Alternatively, take a ‘sound walk’ around your local area. Listen for vehicles, voices and natural sounds to appreciate the background noises we often take for granted.

Land Ahoy! 

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Get ready to take to the high seas and set sail in search of treasure!

This half term, we’ll visit a boat yard, river or harbour to find out about boats and ships of all shapes and sizes. We’ll write about our visit, read information books, investigate amazing sea rescues and write postcards and poetry influenced by the sea. Our science skills will help us to understand how boats float and we’ll design and make model ships using a variety of materials. We’ll study paintings of boats and draw detailed pictures of our own. Our map reading skills will help us to identify different seas and oceans, and we’ll learn about famous sea explorers. Stories of pirates will inspire us to make pirate flags, treasure maps and fact files. We’ll even find out how to talk and sing like a pirate!

At the end of the project, we’ll share our learning with you. We’ll hold a special assembly, set up a maritime museum in our classroom and perform stirring sea shanties. Shiver me timbers; it’s going to be good!

Help your child prepare for their project
The sea is fascinating! Why not take a trip to the coast? Visit the harbour, lifeboat station and beach and take plenty of interesting photographs. You could also make boats from plastic cartons, cardboard boxes and polystyrene trays. Add sails and cargo then see which boats sail around the bath successfully! Alternatively, sing along to some lively sea shanties performed by The Fisherman’s Friends from Port Isaac in Cornwall. Visit their website to access free sample tracks.

Muck, Mess and Mixtures 

We’re warning you; this is going to get messy!

This half term, we’ll have a messy morning to investigate mixtures, from paint and toothpaste to jelly and shaving foam. We’ll enjoy the story of George’s Marvellous Medicine and write recipes, leaflets, lists and stories of our own. We’ll use our science skills to explore everyday materials, investigate soap products and understand why mixtures freeze and melt. We’ll learn how to measure using scales, measuring jugs and cylinders accurately. We’ll taste a wide variety of foods, learn about healthy eating and follow recipes to make some yummy treats including pizza and ice cream! Our artwork will also rely on our mixing skills. We’ll use marbling inks to make unusual patterns, create food landscapes inspired by Carl Warner, paint with ice cubes, model clay into exciting shapes and use a variety of materials to make mixed media collages.

At the end of our project, we’ll turn our classroom into a gallery and invite you to view our exhibition. We’ll arrange images from the project into a PowerPoint presentation and demonstrate our messy science investigations. We’ll also design and create our very own mud kitchen to play in. Yuck!

Help your child prepare for their project
Muck and mixtures can be messy and magical! Why not make a variety of fun recipes to reveal how mixtures can come together and change? Trifle, gooey cookies and bread would all be good to try. You could also invent a new soft drink. Mix, shake and stir a range of fruit juices, cordials and sparkling water together and taste each one. Pick the best and give it a groovy name. Alternatively, try making different bubble mixtures to see which make the biggest bubbles!

Street Detectives 

Grab a magnifying glass, put on your deerstalker and change your name to Sherlock because we’re going to become street detectives!

This half term, we’ll follow a route around our local streets and take pictures of the buildings, businesses and plants we can see. Talking to residents about the area will help us understand how the local community could be improved. We’ll learn nursery rhymes, write poetry and create persuasive adverts. Looking at photographs will help us to spot any similarities and differences between the houses and shops of today and the past. We’ll find out about the history of our school and talk to former pupils about their experiences. We’ll also study and draw maps, create a model of a local building, draw portraits of the people we have met and look at the work of urban artists.

At the end of our project, we’ll design posters to advertise a ‘Big spring clean’ around school before cleaning and tidying the school grounds.

Help your child prepare for their project
Become street detectives and explore your local community. Why not visit a local museum to see what the local area was like in days gone by? You could also look up at the roofs of local buildings to spot interesting carvings and chimney shapes. Alternatively, read the book A Street Through Time by Steve Noon together to see how one street has changed over thousands of years.

Towers, Tunnels and Turrets 

Climbing the battlements or tunnelling in the ground, there’s a whole world of adventure and fun to be found!

This term, we will visit a real castle to explore the towers, battlements and maybe a secret tunnel or two! We’ll learn all about the different parts of a castle and describe how they have changed over time. Using a wide range of materials, we’ll build models of castles and test the strength of our structures. We’ll learn the stories of Rapunzel, The Three Little Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff and create models inspired by them. Maps and photographs will help us learn about the tallest buildings and the longest tunnels in the world. We’ll find out about the amazing Victorian engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and improve our PE skills by playing attacking and defending games.

At the end of our project, we’ll have so much to share! We’ll display our amazing structures and share our knowledge in a special question and answer session.

Help your child prepare for their project
Towers, tunnels and turrets are everywhere! Why not visit a skyscraper, big wheel or tower? Look at the materials the structure is made of to decide why the materials were chosen. You could also use blocks or stones to create tall towers. How high can you go? Alternatively, play Jenga together and see if you can work out how to make the tower stay strong, even when you have removed some of the blocks!

Computing

Long Term Overview

Year 2 Computing Overview

Sex and Relationships Education

Medway Year 1 and 2

PSHE Long Term Planning

Writing Progression 

Year 2 Writing Overview and Progression

RE Curriculum

RE Curriculum Coverage Year 2