High Creative Energy for Super Learning Challenge

The Year 2 group embraced the challenge of exploring the history, motivation and actions of a wide range of people including different artists, activists, inventors and explorers.

They created artwork inspired by Minnie Evans, Picasso and Matisse, wrote diary entries as Florence Nightingale and Samuel Pepys, learnt about the actions of Nelson Mandela, designed their own inventions like the Wright Brothers and Caroline Haslett.

Investigating one of mankind’s most significant achievements, they also pretended to be reporters and journalists interviewing the first humans to walk on the moon.

A theme day was the culmination, with children dressed as some of the significant people they learnt about or who fascinated them, including Valentina Tereshkova, Buzz Aldrin, Malala Yousafzai, Alexander Fleming, Frida Kahlo, Charlotte Bronte, Steve Irwin, Anne Frank, Pythagoras and Muhammad Ali.

They had the best time digging for fossils like the palaeontologist Mary Anning, learning about space from astrophysicists and astronomers like Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock and making what they would take to space if they went.

The listened to and rocked out to music from Queen, David Bowie, Taylor Swift and Sinatra, created their own band names, album covers and wrote songs. Finally they created some of the futuristic investigations they designed during the topic.

Teachers Kiki Amin and Rebecca Morris said: “The children have loved this unit, especially exploring timelines to find where they fit in (which is critical learning for their understanding of time and history), delving into the Little People, Big Dreams books, and creating their dioramas of significant people in action We have certainly loved planning this topic and seeing our pupils become so engaged with it.”

Ramsgate Arts Primary School is part of the Viking Academy Trust with Upton Junior School and Chilton Primary School.

*For more information, contact Head of School Nick Budge on 01843 582847