Talbot Primary School

During the Autumn term, Year Two travelled back to the 17^th Century, when studying the Connected Curriculum topic ‘The Great Fire of London.’

This unit sequenced History, Computing and Design and Technology to build the children’s understanding of how fire engines have developed since 1666. The children quickly identified that there were many improvements from the 17^th Century fire engines, to the modern-day versions.

The Connected Curriculum topic was used as a driver for our English unit, where the children developed their knowledge of non-chronological reports. This type of report can be written in any order. Using their background knowledge from the Great Fire of London topic, and additional information from their English unit, Year Two wrote non-chronological reports about fire engines, explaining what you might see on both the inside and outside of the vehicle.

Year Two were very excited to use ‘2Design and Make’ on Purple Mash where they used Computer Aided Design (CAD) to design a fire engine. CAD helped Year Two to work in 3D, by making both an illustration and a net of their fire engine design, enabling them to add features including lights, sirens, ladders, first aid kits, boats and hoses.

Within their Design and Technology lessons, the children applied their knowledge of fire engines to create their very own moving vehicles! As part of the process, each child created two axels, carefully measuring doweling, which they then cut using a hacksaw. Once the axels were made, a cardboard chassis was added, then wheels and a body. The children learnt how to join the materials using split pins, glue, sellotape and treasury tags. Finally, they completed their fire engines by adding other parts such as moving hoses and ladders, lights, sirens, doors, windows, fire fighters and number plates. We thought the fire engines were amazing and the children certainly enjoyed the whole process. They couldn’t wait to take their moving vehicles home to share with their families.