Prep 5 Curriculum Brief

Spellings will be based on the children’s own targets and mostly focus on Year 5/6 spelling rules.

Grammar – at the start of this term we will focus on improving our descriptive language by using detailed noun phrases, a wider variety of complex conjunctions to link clauses and adverbial and prepositional phrases to express time, place and cause. We will be continuing to practise using and punctuating direct speech, modal verbs to indicate likelihood, ability, permission or obligation and clear paragraphs to group related material. Towards the end of the term, we will focus on tense and begin to identify when texts are written in the continuous or perfect tense.

Reading/ Comprehension – we will continue to read our own target books but also read a variety of genres in lessons to gain a deeper understanding of different writing styles so that we can widen our vocabulary. We will answer comprehension questions that get us to support answers with evidence from the text and be able to identify key literary devices in our model texts. Towards the end of term, we will practise our skim reading skills so that we can quickly locate key information in texts without having to fully re-read texts.

Creative Writing – During the autumn term we will write our own narrative based on the book ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ by Michael Morpurgo. We will also write a Biography and use ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ as our model text. To finish the term, we will write a haiku  poem based on a special place and special events – using ‘Bethlehem’ by Carol Ann Duffy as our model text.

During the autumn term, Prep 5 will continue to have weekly times tables tests and a mental maths session. The children will be challenged to be problem solvers throughout the topics covered.

Place Value: Roman numerals to 1,000; numbers to 1,000,000; powers of 10; 10/100/1,000/10,000/100,000 more or less; partitioning numbers to 1,000,000; number lines to 1,000,000; comparing and ordering numbers to 100,000.

Addition and Subtraction: Mental strategies; adding and subtracting whole numbers with more than four digits; rounding to check answers; inverse operations (addition and subtraction); multi-step addition and subtraction problems; find missing digits.

Multiplication and Division: multiples; common multiples; factors; common factors; prime numbers; square numbers; cube numbers; multiply and divide by 10, 100 and 1,000; multiples of 10, 100 and 1,000.

Fractions: Finding fractions equivalent to unit fractions and non-unit fractions; recognise equivalent fractions; convert improper fractions to mixed numbers and vise versa; compare and order fractions less than 1; compare and order fractions greater than 1; add and subtract fractions with the same denominator; add fractions within 1.

This term Prep 5 will be learning about Living things and their habitats. They will gain an understanding of how plants and animals are made and how they change through their life cycles. They will learn about mammals and the process of metamorphosis.

In the second half of the term Prep 5 will be learning about Animals including humans.

We will initially revise our knowledge of world geography (oceans, continents, capital cities, important lines of latitude and longitude) and then move on to study the geography of the British Isles. We will be studying the countries within the UK and the counties within them, discussing those which are particularly important to the children and their families. We will go on to look at the county of Devon, its human and physical features, and begin to study Ordnance Survey maps of our local area.

We will study the Tudor period and in particular the monarch King Henry VIII, his wives and the reformation. The children will find out about Tudor social history and will think about what it was like to be a child in Tudor times, houses, towns, food and entertainment. We will look at the similarities and differences between our lives today to those of our Tudor ancestors.

We will begin this term with our new Skoldo Book 2 by Lucy Montgomery. We will initially revise some previously learnt vocabulary from Book 1 and then our topics will include: different rooms of the home and their furniture, using ‘my’ and ‘your’ correctly, prepositions and basic commands.  We will also consider the use of ‘est-ce que’ to ask a variety of questions.  We will also enhance our language learning through singing.

We will be learning Latin using Minimus, a Latin course for children, based on the lives of a real Roman family living at Vindolanda. We will begin by looking at how many English words are derived from Latin, greetings, introductions, the verb ‘to be’ and basic noun and adjective agreements. We will also study the myth of Perseus and Medusa.

We will begin the term by looking at the wonder of Creation; this leads us into following God’s plan for our lives and how we have rules to help us.  We will discover more about the different harvests of the world and consider those with less than ourselves.  The second half-term centres on ‘Advent’, exploring the meaning of the word and all that Christ’s birth means to christians.

‘Hybrid Creatures’ will be the theme inspiring prep 5 art lesson’s this term, and we will be taking our inspiration from Ancient Greek mythology and the many interesting creatures that roamed this world. The children will be developing their drawing and observational skills but there will also be a very mixed media approach to their artwork, whereby they will be experimenting with collage and lots of different materials. Essentially, I want their imaginations to run wild and this to culminate in some fantastical 3D hybrid creatures made from recycled objects and papier mâché!

This term Prep 5 will be learning about the piece ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ by Edvard Grieg.

In the second half of the term Prep 5 will be learning songs for the nativity and continuing their learning of music theory.

Due to the exploratory and ‘spontaneous’ approach in this subject, we will often go off in different directions depending on the ideas and interest of the children. And so the formal lesson plans are often deviated from to preserve a flexibility and originality of approach.  New projects often ‘evolve’ from the children’s ideas in the sessions and it is an important part of the approach and style in this subject  to maintain this flexibility and spontaneity.  This generates a feeling with the children that they are going on a ‘journey’ in this subject each term. The formal lesson plans are only intended to be used as a basis and guide to the type of work and projects that are covered and are not intended to be rigidly adhered to.

Week 1, 2 and 3

‘Peg in hole’ puzzle design

This project involves the design and construction of a board game involving wooden pegs (dowelling) in a plywood base drilled with 4mm holes.. The children will need to think of a theme for their games and also devise a scoring system for two players. They also need to think about decoration and stability and have an opportunity to test their designs.

Weeks 5, 6 and 7- 6 lessons

Design Kits.   This project will involve the children thinking of a product to market which will be a simple and neat design kit for children aged 6 – 10. The materials used will need to be simple so that they can be sold in an A5 zippablewallets. Their ‘product’ should make use of easy to obtain materials and not be too complex. They should include some instructions with their designs which will be included with their product.  They may use a range of materials which will need to fit in the bag and be safe for children to use at home.

Weeks 8, 9 and 10

Radiant Acrylic Project –

Using a new and interesting material – radiant acrylic, the children will be invited to experiment with some optical designs.They will be working with plywood bases and be required to plan their design so they create interesting optical effects with sections of the acrylic which will be cut into various shapes ans sizes. This could be incorporated into a game, puzzle or optical effect.

The latter part of term will involve individual projects of the children’s own choice, provided that they can show necessary thought and planning has gone into their ideas.

This term pupils will be implementing their skills producing documents and presentations in relation to topics in conjunction with other curriculum subjects.  They will be introduced to a concept of coding as a sequence of instructions to achieve a desired outcome.

Games: Development of stamina through cross country. Progression of skills in isolation then moving from small sided matches to full teams in netball, hockey and tag rugby.

This term the pupils will be developing and creating characters in a variety of scenarios. We will also focus on other acting and performance techniques such as freeze framing and improvisation. They will be developing their writing and performance of poems on a theme in preparation for their poetry assembly.

Relationships – This term we will start by looking at friendships and identifying what positive relationships are and how we can deal/ solve arguments that we have. We will also look at managing loneliness and discuss what makes us feel lonely and how we can manage these feelings.