Year 2 and Queen Victoria's bathing machine

This week in Year 2 we have been studying what it would be like to visit the seaside in the past. We focused particularly on Queen Victoria's era, where we learnt that bathing machines were used to protect ladies modesty when getting changed and entering the sea because it was very rude for a lady to show anything apart from her hands, feet or face in front of men. As well as this, we found out that people didn't visit the seaside like we do today to enjoy the sun, play games and swim in the sea. They were advised by their doctor to bathe in the sea water for a certain amount of minutes per week and doing so could cure illnesses and diseases. How times have changed!

Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed reading Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine, which was based on Prince Albert building a bathing machine for his wife Queen Victoria because she wanted to go for a swim in the sea to cool down without prying eyes. We then wrote a set of instructions for Queen Victoria, explaining how she should use the bathing machine. We worked extremely hard to include; an interesting introduction to draw the reader in, a list of what the bathing machine would need to work properly, imperative verbs, adverbs of time and in chronological order. Our teachers were really impressed with how clear and easy our instructions were to follow.

In Forest School we were investigating how to construct a tower from natural materials. We used a large range of methods to try and make it the tallest, for example pushing the sticks into the ground, crisscrossing them on top of each other and filling the daps with grass and soil.

To support your child's learning you could ask them to explain how to brush their teeth, how to make make their bed or how to get dressed.