Topic Overview
Coast to Coast
Key Question?
Which coastal places would be best for Timmy (the turtle) and his family?
This term, our whole school will embark on an exciting geography adventure entitled “Our Wonderful World.” Building on the foundations laid in our first topic, “NE3 and Our City,” children will take the skills and knowledge they developed when exploring local geography and apply them to places further afield. From the rugged beauty of the UK and its coastal regions in Key Stage 1 to the diverse landscapes, extreme weather patterns and tourism trends of continents across the globe in Key Stage 2, pupils will broaden their horizons and deepen their understanding of the world around them.
Through our key concepts—location and place, change, and cause and effect—children will investigate how environments differ, why they change, and how human and physical processes shape the planet. This topic will spark curiosity, encourage critical thinking, and inspire a sense of global responsibility as pupils discover the wonders of our world and their place within it.
Geography
This will be the focus for humanities this half term. To further develop understanding of location and place, the children will use their atlas skills and place knowledge to identify different parts of the UK coastline, finding out the place names and studying both physical and human features. The children will look at how different coastlines differ and will explore ports, harbours, cliffs and beaches. We will learn the skill of looking for clues in photographs to make deductions about what different places may be used for. The children will also look at how the seaside has changed over time and why. Key Vocabulary:
- coast
- harbour
- port
- bay
- beach
English
The children will continue daily phonics lessons that will help them to learn the sounds required as more independent writers. As the children progress to the next stage of their spelling lessons, there will be no formal spelling test . Instead, assessment will be built into our weekly lessons. The children will learn common homophones including to, too and two, there, their and they’re and blue and blew. At the start of the half-term, we will read our key text ‘Flotsam’ by David Wiesner and use this as inspiration for some creative writing. Through this, we will learn about different sentence types and how to use them effectively.
Later in the half-term, we will be writing acrostic poetry. The children will be encouraged to read their own writing to check it makes sense. There will also be an opportunity for them to read their own work aloud.
We will continue to hear the children read weekly, in Guided Reading or 1:1 reading sessions. Please continue to read daily at home. Key Vocabulary:
- Full Stop
- Capital Letter
- Question Mark
- Exclamation Mark
Maths
The children will solve problems involving money, building upon the coins and notes they learned to recognise in Year 1. We will work out how to pay for items, find the difference between prices and find change when paying for an item. This will involve building on the addition and subtraction skills developed in the autumn term.
The children will also go onto practising multiplication and division skills by using arrays, making equal groups, grouping and sharing. This will involve using the correct symbols for the operation and showing that multiplication is commutative whereas division is not. We will also look at the 2-, 5- and 10-times tables. As part of our Shape, Space and Measure unit we will be measuring length in centimetres and metres as well as ordering, comparing and problem solving with length and height
Don’t forget to check out Times Tables Rockstars to practise your maths at home! Key Vocabulary:
- Pounds and pence
- Tens and Ones
- More than / Less than/ Equal to
- Metre (m) and centimetre (cm)
Science
This half term we will be studying living things and their habitats. We will explore and compare things that are living, dead and those that have never been alive. We will identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats and microhabitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants. Finally, we will learn about simple food chains. Key Vocabulary
- Habitat
- Microhabitat
- Food chain
- Living things
Computing
We will revisit our green screen skills to create a green screen video. In the lead up to this we will use our Word Processing skills to type a script for our video.
Art and Design Technology
Each half term the children will have a week dedicated to art and/or DT.
Art: In Art, Year 2 will build on their painting skills learnt in Year 1. We will explore warm and cool colours, develop brush skills and add black and white to darken and lighten the shades used in painting. We will use the works of Natalie Pascoe and J. W Turner as inspiration for the final seascape.
Music
The focus this term will be West African call and response songs. The children will learn a traditional song from Ghana and develop their sense of rhythm playing clapping games and using percussion instruments including drums and claves.
On Tuesdays we have a visiting music specialist who will teach the children glockenspiel.
PE
This half-term we will continue work on gymnastics; developing balance and control, creating a sequence and performing it to the class. The children will also use the apparatus to extend the skills they have developed. In addition to this, the children will be learning to express themselves to music in our dance unit.
Religious Education
This half term we will be learning about the practices of Judaism. We will learn about the Torah and Shabbat and different Jewish beliefs. We will compare the practices, worship and holy book with Christianity. Through our ongoing whole school assembly programme, we will learn about respect and our school values: Curious, Caring, Creative and Courageous.
PSHE
Our big question this half term is: what is a community and who are the people who help us? We discuss the roles and responsibilities of everyone in a community, how to be a good citizen and show respect for our local area and the residents of our community. The children will reflect on their own position in their family and school community and how they can make a positive difference to those around them. We will also take part in activities linked to Children's Mental Health Week and Safer Internet Day.
Religious Education
This half term we will be learning about the practices of Judaism. We will learn about the Torah and Shabbat and different Jewish beliefs. We will compare the practices, worship and holy book with Christianity. Through our ongoing whole school assembly programme, we will learn about respect and our school values: Curious, Caring, Creative and Courageous.
Spanish
This half term, the children will learn some key feelings/emotions in Spanish based on the story of Lola and Leo as they encounter different scenarios on their day out in the park. The children will recognise, recall, and remember a series of feelings and start to recognise the changes involved with gender agreement in Spanish.
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.