Working Warriors

10th March 2023

This week, Year 2 has been all about Kenyan History. We have slowly begun looking at the Mau Mau Movement and how this war impacted the lives of people all across the country and how it has impacted our lives today. The teachers were blown away by the information and links the children were able to draw from during our knowledge harvest; of war, freedom and Kenyan independence. The children then learnt about some of the significant freedom fighters that were instrumental in the war. With a brush in hand and a pot of water, the children painted watercolour portraits of their chosen freedom fighter. The detail that some children went into and the care they took while drawing and painting was wonderful.

They got their hands dirty on Friday as they began creating sculptures of their chosen freedom fighter, using their portrait as inspiration. Working in pairs, using a balloon as a base for their sculpture and with plenty of paper mache to go around, the children began molding and positioning strips of newspaper to best represent the freedom fighter.

IMG_3865.jpeg
IMG_3861.jpeg
IMG_3862.jpeg

Continuing their learning about the Mau Mau War, the children took the information they had gathered and created a descriptive ‘senses’ poem, using adjectives and similes to describe what they would have been able to smell, hear, touch, see and taste during the time of the war. This learning topic highlights the children’s ability to absorb a large amount of information and the wonderful skill of being able to imagine if they were alive during a past time.

Outside of their learning about Kenyan history, Year 2 have gone up the Magic Faraway Tree. They have been introduced to Moonface, pixies and elves and have even come across a few strange lands at the top of the tree. They are getting ready to begin recounting their own ‘imaginary’ experience of walking through the Enchanted Wood and climbing up the Faraway Tree and even spending time in a land of their choosing. I wonder what lands they will come across? There have been mutterings of Toy Land and Sweet Land!

IMG_3800.jpeg
IMG_3803.jpeg
IMG_3805.jpeg

The smell of jam was still in the air as the children wrote a cold task on ‘How To Make a Jam Sandwich’ and then those instructions were used when the teachers made a jam sandwich. This resulted in instructions like ‘cut the bread’ and ‘put jam on the bread’ and left the teacher with the question, “with what?” She tried cutting the bread with her hand and scooping the jam with her fingers, but that didn’t work. The children realised they need to be more specific with their instructions and then they had a chance to make their own jam sandwich.

IMG_3807.jpeg

Fractions, fractions, fractions has been the focus in Maths lately. Children have been keen to show their teachers how they can represent and name halves, quarters and thirds of shapes and objects. We have looked at unit fractions and have now moved on to non-unit fractions. Do you know what those are? Ask your child and they might be able to tell you.

IMG_3797.jpeg
IMG_3834.jpeg
IMG_3833.jpeg

FUN FACT FROM YEAR 2: Miss Harris joined in the swimming lesson on Wednesday and there was a swimming race between Miss Harris and her class. The results are in: Miss Harris is not the fastest swimmer in the class, there are some very speedy people it seems!

IMG_3825.jpeg
IMG_3827.jpeg
Association of International Schools in Africa
Council of International Schools
Pearson Edexcel Certification
Council of British International Schools
The Independent Association of Prep Schools
Kenyan International Schools Association
Independent Schools Inspectorate
Association of British Schools Overseas
Cambridge International Examinations
BTEC Level 3
GL Education Assessment Excellence