Our new topic in Year 2 is ‘Coastline.’ This project explores the physical and human features of coastal regions across the United Kingdom.
Before we began our first Geography lesson of 2023, we created a poster together – ‘what we already know about coastlines.’ The children shared lots of things they already knew such as: beaches can have sand or pebbles, you can buy ice creams at the beach, some people live near the beach and some don’t, cliff tops are often grassy, and that the waves can damage cliffs (more on erosion later this term!). We pinned our poster up in the classroom, and at the end of the project we will reflect on what we have learned over the term.
Our first job was to use atlases to find and name the seas and oceans across the world, then to identify which countries they were close to. We discussed that we knew the names of some of the oceans and seas already but that some were new to us, such as the Mediterranean Sea (a tricky one to read!) We then looked at a map of the United Kingdom to identify the seas and oceans surrounding the UK.
. 
Next, we labelled the seas and oceans surrounding the UK on a map.
We then watched an interesting video about human features and physical features. We discussed what these terms mean, and thought carefully about examples. The children shared which features they have seen themselves. In groups, we sorted photographs of human and physical features and gave reasons for our answers. Great teamwork, Year 2!
The following day, the children used compasses to follow directions outside on the playground – north, south, east and west. They really enjoyed this activity. Then we looked at maps with a key and symbol, discussing what each symbol means.
What a fantastic start to our new project, ‘Coastline.’ Thank you to those who have emailed in photographs of your coastal walks over the Christmas holidays. If you explore the coastline over the next term, do email us some photos of what you see or find, we’d love to share them with the class.
Well done, Year 2!