Remembrance Day

We had a fantastic time during this topic and now fully understand the the importance of remembrance day and how it came about. Now that we have learnt about the meaning behind this special day, every year on remembrance day we will be able to empathise more with all the brave soldiers who fight for their countries and appreciate the poppy emblem more!

Learning how to sew using a running stitch

We developed our understanding of joining materials by learning how to sew using a running stitch. We practised how to safely use a needle to do a running stitch before sewing our very own poppies. We had a fantastic time. Take a look at our poppies below.

The life of the inspirational Moina Belle Michael

We had learnt the reason poppies are used to remember those who have given their lives in battle is because they are the flowers which grew on the battlefields after World War One ended. This is described in the famous World War One poem ‘In Flanders Fields’-our topic title. But how did the flowers from Flanders field end up being an emblem of remembrance? We found out how by learning all about the life of the inspirational Moina Belle Michael who is also known as the poppy lady. We thought about how she has contributed to life today and why she should be remembered and celebrated.

Clay Poppies

After learning about the different coloured poppies we created our own clay poppies in a range of colours. We learnt how to join clay pieces together using the score, slip and smooth method. Take a look at some of our brilliant clay work below.

Poppy Workshop

We had a poppy workshop led by some visitors from the Peace museum. They helped us develop our understanding of remembrance day and taught us about the different coloured poppies and what they represented. We had a great time collaging our very own poppies.

Raising money for the Royal British Legion

Lots of us had bought a poppy and were intrigued to find out that all the money raised from selling the poppies would go to a special charity called the Royal British Legion. This charity helps soldiers who fight or have fought in the war and their families. We decided to play a part by having our very own fund raising week. We had am amazing time baking and decorating poppy shaped biscuits and buns, making delicious chocolate apples, selling red juice and much more! We raised a grand total of £274.20. This was sent to the Royal British Legion charity along with some letters that we wrote explaining what we did. We were extremely proud of all we achieved.

Poppy Art Day

We had a great time using a range of resources such as medals, newspaper articles, photos and post cards to develop our inference skills and think about what we are learning about this term. We were extremely excited to discover our topic title ‘In Flanders fields’. We learnt about why remembrance day is commemorated every year and how. On the 11th November during our 2 minutes silence, we were able to empathise with all the families of soldiers who had unfortunately lost their lives during the World wars and every other war since. We learnt a special song to thank all the soldiers for keeping our country safe and peaceful. On this day, we had a wonderful remembrance themed  art day where we developed our painting and drawing skills. We learnt about the very first Muslim soldier Khudadad Khan, who was awarded  a medal for his bravery and efforts in the war. We tried our best to create a portrait of him. Take a look at some of our wonderful work below.

Cross Curricular Space art

Year 2 produced some out of this world work during our fantastic ‘To infinity and beyond’ topic, which was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the very first moon landing. During this topic we learnt about our place within the universe and what is beyond the earth in which we live, in outer space. We learnt a mnemonic to help us learn the names of the planets and some fun facts about the moon.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos – Can you use this mnemonic to help you say the names of the planets in order?

We had a fantastic time learning about the race to space and about the very first moon landing. Did you know Neil Armstrong won the space race for the USA in 1969?

After learning about what was in outer space and how people get there we produced some wonderful space printings. We learnt how to do a repeat print using a polystyrene tile. We then developed a Design Technology skill by creating a moving rocket attached to a slider. This allowed our rocket to travel to the moon from earth….. 3…2…1.. Blast off!!

Take a look at some of our out of this world work below!

Moon Buggies

Finally we learnt about how space travel had changed since the moon landing. Soon after the first moon landing, in 1971, the very first Moon Buggy was used to explore the moon during the Apollo 12 landing. After learning about the purpose and features of a real moon buggy we designed our very own before making it using a variety of resource. We thought about all the features we needed to include to allow the astronauts to do their job properly such as a satellite and a camera. We explored ways in which we could make our moon buggy move and created axles. We even had a go at using a saw to safely measure and cut them to the correct length. Some of us thought of additional features we could add such as opening and closing doors. We were extremely proud of our finished products.

We had a great time learning about the race to space. We learnt about the life and achievements of Neil Armstrong in lots of different ways. We used the Internet, books, a newspaper article from 1969 and we even asked questions to somebody who was alive ta the time of the moon landing! We used all the information we had gathered to do some writing – some of us wrote a biography about Neil Armstrong, a recount of the moon landing or a fact file about the first man on the moon. We tried very hard to use all the skills we had learnt in our English lessons within our writing.

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