Otter class & Koala class
Curriculum Letter
Summer 1st half 2018
Topic title:
Are the things we WANT the same as the things we NEED?
This half term we are delving into a big question as a lead for our learning journey. It will filter through most of our subjects and be touched on from a variety of directions.
Science
The focus of the children’s learning will be on plants. They will be identifying the functions of different parts of a flowering plant; exploring what plants need to live or grow; investigating the way in which water is transported through plants and looking into pollination, seed formation and dispersal. There will lots of opportunity to work scientifically and develop investigation skills.
English
Our study text will be James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl. The children will be exploring Roald Dahl’s style of writing; his typical characters; fantasy writing; play-scripts and persuasive writing. Not to mention, looking into how poor James is treated by his awful aunts, linked with the topic question.
Maths
The children will continue to develop their understanding fractions and decimals, including money. They will be improving their fluency and reasoning skills across all four operations, with questions in context applied to the real world.
They will be working on telling time and duration of time intervals, and linking this to recording and interpreting data. They will also be linking their times tables with area of shape.
Computing
This half term the children will be deepening their understanding of using computer programs to give commands and create patterns and shapes. They will be using Logo software and will be using vocabulary such as: de-bug, procedure, instructions, sequence, command, shape, fill, pen, turtle, and patterns.
Religious Education
The children will be exploring the idea of ‘welcome rituals’ through Baptism. They will be looking at where rituals come into their own and others’ every-day lives, as well as within religious contexts. They will be discussing the difference between ‘ritual’ and ‘routine’, and linking this with how communities use them to show belonging.
PE
Outdoor: Striking and fielding games- rounders
Other: This half term, year 4’s have the opportunity to develop their swimming skills, and the year 3’s will be working with coaches from the Winchester tennis and squash club.
PSHE & Citizenship
Keeping safe outside of school.
This will have a big link with the topic question, as we will be identifying hazards from substances at home and elsewhere. They will be discussing: the range of legal drugs encountered in every-day life (including over the counter drugs, prescriptions, medicine, tea/coffee, alcohol, tobacco); have some understanding of the effects of these drugs and associated risks/costs of misuse; where to go for help and what to do if feeling pressure/ at risk.
Art
The children will be exploring a range of artists who create sculpture in a variety of places, and with a variety of mediums, such as Nicky Saint Phalle, Anthony Gormley, Claus Oldenburg, Rodin and Yayoi Kusama. They will be identifying an area of the school grounds that might benefit from an interesting sculpture, then they will design and make their own clay masterpieces to photograph and evaluate.
How you can help at home
Please continue to encourage spelling practise regularly from the patterns sent home, including on Spellodrome.
Take time to enjoy books, by listening to them read to you and sharing stories together to build up the children’s repertoire. Now would be a good opportunity to read any Roald Dahl books the children have not come across yet.
Please continue to facilitate the children completing one ‘pink book’ homework per week, and the correct SPAG pages.
Mathletics is available to all children to explore areas they feel they could work on. The log-in is the same as Spellodrome.
Above all, take time to have a conversation with your child and discuss what they are learning about at school.
Useful information and dates
Year 4’s please remember correct kit every Thursday for Swimming.
Year 3’s need trainers and correct kit for tennis. They will be walking down to the tennis club in Bereweeke.
Please make sure children have named PE kits in all week.
Please ensure children have a suitable reusable plastic drinking bottle, named, that they can keep in school. They will now be taking these into the lunch hall with them in order to reduce our plastic cup usage.
Otter class & Koala class Curriculum letter
Spring term 2018
The Path of Man
Learning journey:
History:The children will learn about life in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, a period covering a million years of history. As well as understanding the chronology of this fascinating time, children will learn about the food, homes, technology and art and how each of these areas developed and changed over time and how amazing developments occurred from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.
English:
English will continue to have many links with the focus topic. The children will write a story based on their learning of their history topic. They will gradually build their narrative up making sure that they describe characters and settings, writing dialogue and considering how to solve a ‘problem’. They will also have opportunities to write a variety of non-fiction texts eg: instructions.
In guided reading children will be focusing on Clive Kings’ Stig of the Dump.
Maths
The children will be developing their understanding of mental methods for multiplication and division building up to using these skills with written methods. They will be improving their fluency and reasoning skills across all four operations.
There will be many opportunities to keep building on new skills through the year and apply previously learnt ones, through questions in context. These will include problems related to money, measure and fractions. The children will continue to develop their fluency and speed with times tables and number bonds.
Science
The focus of the children’s learning will be on sound. They will be discovering through active investigation: vibrations and how sound travels, pitch and volume of instruments and consider how to reduce sounds.
Computing
This half term we will be experimenting with creating digital photography with the programme 2Photo. The children will learn to take photos, upload them and manipulate them to create new pictures. In addition to this the children will explore PowerPoint and how to use this as a way of presenting information in a ‘multimedia’ format.
Religious Education
This term our RE will look at the theme of remembering and resurrection. The theme of remembering will be explored through the Hindu festival Holi, where the children will look at ways in which Hindus remember how they value the celebrations and devotions paid to Vishnu and use this to think about how they remember events or people in their own lives.
The theme of resurrection will be investigated through the Christian symbol of the empty cross. The children will learn to explain the meaning of resurrection, how it is a symbol to Christians, evaluate its significance and explain their own understanding of it by applying to how it affects some peoples way of life.
PE
Outdoor PE will be Tri golf where the children will be learning golfing concepts and skills through fun games and other areas; for example, maths, from scoring, literacy and citizenship
The children will also be playing netball, where they will continue to work on their skills for throwing, catching, marking and scoring.
Indoor PE will begin with gymnastics and using the wall bars and a variety of other equipment to create a routine. There will also be sport dance unit, which will continue to develop the skills of improvising and combining movement fluently and effectively to music.
PSHE & Citizenship
Ups and downs in relationships:
Children will have opportunities to: know that there are many different patterns of friendship; understand the meaning of friendship and loyalty; be able to be honest; know where to get help in school and through helplines when facing problems.
In Someone Else’s shoes:
The children will have opportunities to recognise their own and someone else’s feelings; recognise the views of their peers, parents, teachers and people of different faiths and cultures; understand that there are many social groups in society in terms of culture, religion, age; respect other people’s feelings, decisions, rights and bodies.
Art:
The children will be basing their artwork around their topic and using this to create mono-prints.
How you can help at home
Please continue to practise spellings regularly from the patterns sent home, including on Spellodrome.
Take time to enjoy books, by listening to them read to you and sharing stories together to build up the children’s repertoire.
The children are making good progress with their times tables, so please help them by practising.
We find that ‘little but often’ is usually the best approach.
Above all, take time to have a conversation with your child and discuss what they are learning about at school.
Useful information and dates
Please make sure children have named PE kits in all week. Tracksuit bottoms are ideal for the colder months.
Please ensure children have water bottles in every day.
Remember the Mental Health week will start the week of the 8th January 2018.
Otter class & Koala class curriculum
letter Autumn 1st half term 2017
Winchester through the Ages
English:
English will have many links with the focus topic. We will start by linking their history findings about ‘Winchester through the Ages’ to information texts, where they will present their learning as a comparison of past and present. We will then move on to learn how to ‘write like a scientist’ where they will apply their science learning of how electrical circuits are made, including using an expert voice for explanation writing. We will end with narrative story writing, where the children will include their learning about electricity and torches, from their science and D&T learning, to create an exciting atmosphere for a character on an adventure with a torch.
The children will continue to develop their SPAG skills through the year.
Maths
The children will be developing their understanding of mental and written method for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They will be improving their fluency and reasoning skills across all four operations. They will also be deepening their understanding of fractions and problem solving strategies.
There will be many opportunities to keep building on new skills through the year and apply previously learnt ones, through questions in context. These will include problems related to money, measure and fractions. The children will continue to develop their fluency and speed with times tables and number bonds.
Learning Journey Knowledge and Skills
Science
The focus of the children’s learning will be on electricity. They will be identifying common appliances that run on electricity. They will be able to identify and name a circuit’s basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers. The children will then learn how to construct a simple series electrical circuit.
They will identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether the circuit will work or not, and recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit. The children will also begin to recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors.
The D&T will follow on from here; the children will be designing and making their own torch using their electricity knowledge.
History:
The children will be investigating Winchester through the ages as a comparison of a local area, then and now. The time periods we will be focussing on are the: Normans; Tudors; Victorians. There will be opportunities to develop skills as historians, using historical sources such as first hand artefacts, paintings of the time before cameras, and modern photos of the area. We will be discussing what makes a source reliable and what we can infer by analysing pictures. We will also be looking at changes over time, including: buildings; kings and queens; and religion.
Please feel free to contribute if you have any resources linked with these time eras!
Computing
The children will be recapping and developing ideas on how to stay safe on the internet in a modern age. They will then be moving on to learning about computer simulation games which mimic real life scenarios- not to be mistaken with many games which have imaginary settings and quests. Simulations allow for real life things to be tried which would otherwise be too difficult, dangerous or expensive to do. The children will solve problems in scenarios where decisions need to be made, using 2Simulate software and Badger Trials.
Religious Education
The children will be starting the term off by appreciating the specialness of certain people in their lives and in certain Faiths. They will be learning about the Hindu Krishna, and relating his specialness to Hindus to the specialness of Jesus to Christians.
PE
Outdoor PE will be based around hockey skills. The children will be developing their confidence moving with the ball and their passing and scoring skills, leading into small games.
Indoor PE will be an opportunity for the children to develop their response to music by exploring jumping in a variety of ways using the five gymnastic shapes, linking movements, and using apparatus effectively.
PSHE & Citizenship
The focus of learning will be on discussing what feelings are. The children will be encouraged to recognise that people have different feelings and how body language can change. Also they will be looking at how actions can affect themselves and others. They will be discussing how we can care about other people’s feelings and point of view, and respect the views of others in different situations.
Music
This unit “In the Hall of the Mountain King” explores duration and the use of gradual increases of dynamics and tempo and the effect it has on the character and mood of music. It contains activities for developing the children’s creativity through composing their own rhythms within a simple structure, performing them with gradual changes of dynamics and tempo and recording their ideas using traditional notation
How you can help at home
Please continue to practise spellings regularly, even if your child no longer brings home a weekly spelling homework sheet. Take time to enjoy books, by listening to them read to you and sharing stories together to build up the children’s repertoire. The children are making good progress with their times tables, so please help them by practising. We find that ‘little but often’ is usually the best approach. Above all, take time to have a conversation with your child and discuss what they are learning about at school. Help foster their enthusiasm for research by exploring the topics, especially the history: go in to Winchester and visit the City Museum (free!) and the Great Hall where the real Round Table is, and look at the many other examples of historical ‘evidence’ in the city (buildings, statues etc.)
Useful information and dates
Please make sure children have named PE kits in all week. Tracksuit bottoms are ideal for the colder months during the autumn term.
Please ensure children have water bottles in every day.
Remember Roald Dahl day is Wednesday the 13th September; the children can dress up as a book character.