This term, Archibald First school is embarking on an exciting adventure in our final geography unit, 'Globe Trotters'. After exploring our local area in the autumn and travelling to countries across the continents in the spring, pupils are now zooming out even further to discover the amazing diversity of world geography. Each year group will follow its own pathway of learning, applying the map skills, fieldwork techniques, and geographical knowledge they have built throughout the year to investigate regions of the world they may never have the chance to visit in person. Through our core concepts of change, cause and effect, and location and place, children will explore how different environments are connected and how our world continues to evolve. This unit encourages curiosity, wonder, and a real sense of global adventure; celebrating the incredible planet we all share.
Topic Overview
Pole to Pole
Key Question?
If I travelled from Pole to Pole, how would the world change around me?
Geography
This half term we will start by looking at location and place, recapping what we know about the country we live in and what it is like. We will introduce the children to world maps and get them to locate the seven continents of the world and the five oceans. We will have the opportunity to label maps, and explore how different places can be hot or cold due to their distance from the equator using satellite images, photos and temperatures. We will learn to recognise compass directions, which will enable us to label the North and South Poles on a map, and identify them on a globe. We will use our knowledge of location and place to compare countries across the world. Finally, we will consider the cause and effect that our daily lives are having on our planet, and consider any changes over time.
Key Vocabulary:
- pole
- continent
- equator
- ocean
- global warming
English
We will explore a variety of familiar texts this half term. These will be a range of both fiction and non-fiction, to help us learn about the continents and the world around us. We will use stories with repetitive language to support the children in their story writing skills. We will write narratives, retell and create our own stories using the texts we share. We will continue to use and apply the different features and punctuation that we have learned so far. This half term we will also have a big focus on our handwriting. We will continue to learn different joins in our handwriting lessons and these will be applied in our everyday writing too.
Please continue to read daily. We encourage the reading of any books at home, as well as our Little Wandle books. When reading with your child, please try to discuss what has happened and how characters are feeling. It would be great if you could predict what may happen and encourage expression.
Thank you for your support!
Key Vocabulary:
- capital letter
- full stop
- question mark
- sentence
Phonics
Phonics continues to be taught daily in Year 1. At school we use the Little Wandle program and there is a great part of the website just for parents/carers: https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/ Take a look at the following resources:
Maths
In numeracy this half term we will use our skills of counting by 2, 5 and 10 to begin to look at the foundations for multiplication and division. We will look at making equal groups and represent these with pictures and arrays. Our knowledge of multiplication and division will help us to explore simple fractions. We will look at finding a half and a quarter of different shapes and amounts. We will also look at position and direction beginning with recapping left and right, turns and finally ordinal numbers.
Key Vocabulary:
- whole, half, quarter
- multiply and divide
- turn, left, right
- forwards and backwards
Science
In science, we will look at the four seasons this half term and the different weather that is associated with each one. We will think about how we adapt during each season and some of the things that occur as the weather changes including the clothing we wear, and how plants and animals are affected. We will look in simple terms at how the seasons occur and how day length varies over the course of the year to help build our understanding.
Key Vocabulary:
- seasons
- temperature
- weather
- forecast
- day length
Computing
In Computing we will get to grips with using the laptops. We will learn how to login, open and save documents and use word to type facts about our world. The children will explore changing font styles and colours and gain confidence int typing.
Art and Design Technology
Each half term the children will have a week dedicated to art and/or DT. During art week, we will collapse the curriculum and deliver a full arts week.
Art: We will start by exploring different types of lines and experimenting in our sketch books to create different purposes. We will be investigating the modern Inuit Art movement and how this links to our own thoughts and ideas. We will be experimenting with different media including graphite, charcoal, crayons.
Vocabulary:
- Diagonal
- Wavy
- Straight
- Spiral
- Dotted
- Inuit Art Movement
Music
This half term the children will learn about our half termly composer- Kate Bush. We will then start our new 'Super Heroes' topic. We will be recognising tempo, dynamic and pitch changes in music. We will then be looking at the story of music through movement and responding our own ideas. We will then talk about what we like and dislike in different pieces of music.
PE
This half term, the children will take part in Net and Wall games. They will master basic movements including throwing and catching and striking and hitting a ball over a net or on a wall. We will look at control of different balls and spatial awareness. Children will also play a range of target games. We will develop children's hand eye co-ordination and accuracy using a range of equipment.
PSHE and Religious Education
PSHE
Our big question this half term is:
- Which foods are healthy?
This term in PSHE the children will focus on what keeps people healthy and who helps us to stay healthy. We will look at which foods contain sugar and what happens if we eat too much sugar. We will also look at daily routines to keep us healthy. Our No Outsiders text this half term is Max the Champion which will provide opportunities to discuss how are bodies are all different.
Religious Education
This half term we will look at the Bible and why it is so important. The children will look at important people from this special book and think about what we learn from them and their stories and humankind’s relationship with God.
Our Values
Please Instagram us @archibald_1st if you see your child being #AFSCurious #AFSCaring #AFSCreative or #AFSCourageous
If you would like any further details about this half term's curriculum, please speak to your child's teacher.