Minterne Junior School

Unit Title: I will survive!

Key Question: What would I need in order to survive in the Arctic?

Year Group:

3

Term:

5

Subject Focus: English—The Ice Palace.

Summary: The Ice Palace takes the children on a chilling quest with Ivan to find his brother, and the other children who have been taken from their beds by Starjik. During this topic, pupils have the opportunity to explore a longer text and the complex language that comes with it. Using drama and dance, they create the thoughts and feelings of the main character and develop a better understanding of life in a wintery climate. Many writing genres are covered, such as poetry, descriptive writing, instruc-tions to create a game, letter writing and an information leaflet. With a Ted Harrison painting as inspiration, the children are also taught how to create an arctic scene using collage.

Hook into learning:

As the children are settling for their first lesson, imag-es of forests, villages, icicles and snowy landscapes will be shown on the screen, accompanied by soft, calm-ing music.

Opportunities for Home Learning

Use the internet to find out about Arctic animals, sur-vival and life in the Arctic.

Visit the library to find books about the Arctic.

Transferrable skills that will be developed in this unit:

The ability to research successfully.

Asking appropriate questions to an expert/visitor.

Developing note-taking skills.

New Key Vocabulary:

Survival, Arctic, image, freeze frame, conscience al-ley, instructions, imperative verb, time conjunction, present tense, inference, landscape, mind map, simile, metaphor, alliteration, collage

Outcome:

To create a survival guide leaflet using factual infor-mation gained from research and notes from the visitor.

An Arctic landscape collage.

Links to PSCHE / SMSC:

Keeping safe.

Thinking about others feelings and emotions.

Displaying own emotions.

How does this unit reflect learning for a lifetime?

Pupils will be able to write a range of text types for purpose.

Children will be able to build their confidence through dance, dra-ma and questioning of a visitor.

Pupils will develop geographical knowledge of a different part of the world.

Pupils will develop their planning, development and evaluation skills.

Sharing Success:

Newsday Tuesday—parents to see the progression of the topic on the Working Wall and in the children’s books.

A display of finished leaflets and collage art.

Minterne Junior School

Milestones Covered in this Topic Lead Subject:

English

• Compose and rehearse sentences orally. Talk about initial ideas to plan and draft before writing

• Consolidate knowledge of the four word classes; noun, adjective, verb, adverb.

• Evaluate own and others’ writing; reread and check own writing, make changes.

• Writing is legible.

• Letters are gaining in consistency of size and formation. Capital letters are the correct size relative to the lower case.

• Writing is usually spaced sufficiently so that ascenders and descenders do not meet.

• Appropriate letters are joined.

• Listen to, discuss and express views about a wide range of fiction

• Draw inference and justify with evidence

• Predict what might happen from detail stated and implied

• Listen to and talk about some non-fiction texts that are structured in different ways; identify their particular characteristics; recognise typical presentational features.

• Identify how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning

• Talk about initial ideas to plan and draft before writing

• Write to suit purpose, and show some of the features of the genre being taught

• Listen to and talk about some non-fiction or reference or text books, that are structured in different ways; identify their typical characteristics; recognise typical presentational features

• Explain the meaning of words in context

• Explain and discuss their understanding of the text

• Retrieve and record information from non-fiction texts

• Identify how language, structure & presentation contributes to meaning; eg. that the text box pro-vides a list of quick facts

• During discussion about texts, ask questions to improve their understanding; listen to others

• Use headings and subheadings to aid presentation

• Usually use the present tense appropriately

• Attempt to describe characters, settings and plot in a simple way, with some interesting details.

• Discuss words and phrases that capture the reader’s imagination and interest

Other subjects:

Art

Collage—

• Experiment with a range of collage techniques to create images and represent textures such as

Tearing, Overlapping and Layering