Croxton Kerrial Primary School Curriculum Leaflet

Topic: Magnificent Mountains

Coverage Date: Summer Term 2018

Class 2

OverviewBelow is an outline of what we aim to cover across this term. The majority of the children’s lessons will be linked with mountains and rivers, as chosen by the children.

Literacy: As writers, Mr. Beadle will be concentrating on a range of adventure stories using our topic work on mountains to help develop settings and character descriptions. We will also be producing an information text on the impact of tourism informed by the work and research completed with Mrs. Lambert. Through our topic work, we will be incorporating the technical language learnt in our writing. Mrs. Lambert will be teaching grammar and punctuation as standalone lessons, which will be then applied to the children’s writing in English and topic work. There will be a particular focus on pronouns, adverbs and the various clauses in the year 3 and 4 curriculum. Numeracy: As mathematicians, Mrs. Lambert is continuing with the decimal unit, comparing numbers with the same number of decimal places as well as rounding to the nearest whole number, and recognising and writing decimals. We will then move on to measurement, focus-ing heavily on time and money using reasoning and problem solving to deepen our under-standing. The final unit will be geometry, looking at and discussing the properties of shapes. As an end of term challenge, we will metaphorically climb Mount Everest whilst developing their data handling skills. Mr. Beadle will be further consolidating the children’s understanding of the four main operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), looking at the links between them, with a particular focus on reasoning. Science: As Scientists, we will be learning about how vibrations cause sounds and how sounds travel, as well as how sounds can change pitch and loudness. We will learn about how sounds are made, carrying out demonstrations of vibrations, and completing a sound survey of their school. Children will work in groups to create a human model of the way particles pass sound vibrations on, and write and star in their own documentary explaining how sound trav-els. We will also work in a hands-on way to explore pitch, and will use their understanding of how high and low sounds are made to create their own set of pan pipes. They will have the opportunity to make a string telephone, and will use this to investigate how sounds change over distance and through different materials. Finally, we will work scientifically and collabora-tively to investigate the best material for soundproofing, in the context of making a music stu-dio quieter. Art and Design: As artists, we are going to be looking at Vincent Van Gogh and studying his style of painting and brush techniques. We will be mimicking this in our own work on land-scapes. As designers, we will be researching global foods and making our own recipes linking with our topic work on mountains. Computing: As computer technologists, we will be designing a maths quiz for Year 2 on Scratch and developing skills on Excel. We will continue to use computers for research in our

topic throughout the term, using PowerPoint to formulate and feedback our findings. Topic: In topic, we will be finding out about the major mountains of the world and the UK. We are going to research the different ways in which mountains have been formed, and how dif-ferent features of mountain ranges have been shaped over time. There will be opportunity to consider what the weather is like in a mountainous environment and to evaluate the impact that tourism has on a mountainous region.

Music: As musicians, we will be investigating song lyrics. Mountains figure prominently in songs, so we will be looking at a range of songs from different decades and genres, identifying and highlighting themes. They are frequently portrayed as either an obstacle to achieving a dream or as something grand and majestic. The lyrics offer a wide variety of phrases and metaphors that can be drawn and used in our creative writing. Few songs we are going to look at are: River Deep, Mountain High, Climb Every Mountain, The Sound of Music and Ain’t no Mountain High Enough. Religious Education: As theologians, we will be looking at how Christians believe that God is Trinity: God as three in one. We will be linking the concept of Incarnation, God coming to earth in Jesus, and the concept of the Gospel – the good news of God’s rescue plan for humanity. We will also be concentrating on other religions, and how many other religions believe in one God: Jews, Muslims and Sikhs.

Physical Education: We will be looking at the roles and responsibilities of fielding and strik-ing within the game of cricket, and put that knowledge into practice in the first half of term. After half term, we will be focussing on athletics, and preparing for the end of term Sport’s Day!

Curriculum Drivers that enrich our curriculumOutdoor LearningAs outdoor learners, we will…

Our Community and Be-yondAs members of our local com-munity and beyond, we will…

Attitude to Learning: Teamwork, Independence, Problem SolvingIn developing our personal skills, we will…

· 2D and 3D shape walk.

· Directional work on the playground.

· Calculating the perime-ter and area of the play-ing field.

· Discuss the similarities and differences of school and mountain terrain.

· Mountain rescue team to talk to the children about their work (TBC - Visit the Moun-tain Rescue Website)

· Take responsibility for our own belongings.

· Listen to instructions carefully and complete some tasks on our own.

· Develop a “have a go” attitude and persevere with problem solving tasks.

· Work collaboratively to plan, rehearse, organise and conduct an end of term assembly.

Homework opportunities

· Survival bag for a trek up the Himalayan Mountain Range. You may only take 10 items for you to carry personally. What will you need? Explain your choices and why you feel they will help you to survive.

· Create a meal that would provide the essential energy required for a mountain hike. Or why not make a fruit and nut energy bar? Bring it in for us to taste (if nut free) or take a photo and ask your friends and family to comment on your creation.

· Choose two different mountain ranges to research and compare. Your findings can be pre-sented in any way you wish; use a model, a painting, an information booklet or even a PowerPoint presentation.

· Make your very own mountain in whichever form you wish; it may be a papier-mâché model, a mountain cake or biscuits or even something you have created using fabric.

· Write a diary entry as if you were a mountain explorer. What amazing things would you see and discover?

· If you travel to mountains, you need to know that you can trust your equipment. How good are your shoes? How reliable is your rucksack? Carry out some experiments to test these pieces of equipment. Record the results and the tests you do. Think scientifically! You could compare different rucksacks and boots.

· There are many dangers that you must be prepared for when climbing. Find out about one of the following medical problems climbers may encounter and how to avoid or cure them: Hypothermia; Altitude or Mountain Sickness; Dehydration and Frostbite.

· Why not organise a virtual mountain climb? Challenge pupils to climb one of the UK’s high-est peaks without leaving their own houses. Scafell Pike is the equivalent of 412 flights of stairs, Snowdon is 475 and Ben Nevis is 587 flights. (Mount Everest would be 3,871 flights – could you achieve that as a school?)

Reading (classic children’s fiction set in the mountains):

· ‘The Mountain of Adventure’ by Enid Blyton· ‘Heidi’ by Johanna Spyri · Chalet School series by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer.

Websites:

· National Geographic Kids - A great site for information about mountain animals and general habitat information

· http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids NeoK12 - Information and videos about mountains· http://www.neok12.com/Mountains.htm Easy Science for Kids - More fun facts about moun-

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