Summer
Our Topic will be Go Wild and Mad Hatters.
In English we will be looking at the book 'Meerkat Mail' and writing information texts and formal letters. We will be writing a postcard from Sunny the Meerkat to his family back in the Kalahari Desert, telling them about his adventures at Oak Tree. We will try to include key features of a formal letter, including dear/to, from, capital letters for proper nouns and questions. We will then look at the book 'The Water Princess' and will write a diary entry from the main character Gigi's perspective, including first person, description of feelings and writing in chronological order.
In Summer 2 we will be learning about the features of information texts and will be developing our research skills to learn lots of new facts to include in our information texts about meerkats. Another genre that we will be studying is rhyming poetry and we will be listening to a range of rhyming poetry linked to our 'Go Wild!' theme. We will also be writing some rhyming poetry using the books 'Poo in the Zoo' and 'Never Tickle a Tiger' as inspiration.
In Maths, we will begin the term practically exploring counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. We will use our knowledge of recognising and adding equal groups to arrange objects in columns and rows as arrays. Building on our knowledge of multiplication, we will begin to explore division through grouping and sharing. We will learn how to recognise and find fractions of shapes and quantities, before moving onto describing position and directions. Later on in the term, we will revisit place value and begin to count, partition and compare numbers within 100. Then we will move onto our measurements unit and explore money and telling the time to the nearest hour and half hour.
In Geography we will be doing a comparison study with a small village in South Africa called Mapoch. We will look at the human and physical features in these places, and discuss the similarities and differences between Mapoch and Cheadle Hulme, including weather patterns and human features such as houses and churches. We will also be looking a city in South Africa, Johannesburg, to ensure that we are aware of the range of cultures and communities present in South Africa.
As Historians we will be learning the answer to the question 'Why are Stockport County known as the Hatters?' by exploring Stockport's hatting industry. We will learn about what factories were like in the 19th century and the role of children in the hat making process. We will learn about the range of hats available as well as the danger of using mercury!
As Scientists, we will start the term identifying and naming common animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds. We will compare and describe the structure of common animals, as well as looking at what different animals eat (carnivores, herbivores and omnivores). We will also be carrying out research on behalf of Sir David Attenborough to identify animals by investigating their scat sample!
As Computer specialists (in Computing) we are going to be detectives! We will explore datasets as printed cards and then transfer this knowledge to look at virtual cards in Popplet. We will then organise data into a tree using questions to create subgroups and will input data onto online forms. On a spreadsheet we will create filters to identify subsets of the data and use this spreadsheet to solve clues about a pirate!
In DT we will be exploring textiles and will be creating hat pins to represent Oak Tree Primary School.
In RE we will be learning how we celebrate special and sacred times. We will be focussing on festivals celebrated in different religions, including Christmas, Easter, Eid and Pentecost, as well as learning the significance of the symbol of light, which is a commonality between several religions. We will then study what it means to belong to a faith community, focussing on symbols of belonging and a range of important life events, such as baptisms, dedications and weddings.
In Art and Design we will be looking at the geometric patterns of Esther Mahlangu, who comes from the village of Mapoch that we will be studying in Geography. We will learn about this artist and take inspiration from her work to create geometric patterns of our own.
Here are some websites that you might find useful:
Top marks - counting maths games and number bonds to 10 games
Phonics Play - a mixture of phonics games that help practise blending, segmenting and sound/letter recognition