English

Over the term, Elm will explore ‘Stig of the Dump’ by Clive King. We will be paying particular attention to the author’s intent behind his vocabulary and grammar choices and how the author shows dialogue between the characters. The children began by writing a biography of Clive King, using a range of compound and complex sentences and recapping how the conjunction used can change the meaning of the sentence. We then focused on some narrative writing with a particular focus on the punctuation used in speech and dialogue and the use of prepositional phrases to describe the setting. We will be continuing with this in Autumn term 2. The children will then apply their skills by writing a letter from Barney to Stig, before ending the term by writing an explanation text linked to their science topic, ‘The Human Body’.

At the end of the term, Elm will be introduced to ‘The Jabberwocky’ by Lewis Carroll, where they will review similes and metaphors and learn about the layout of poetry, including narrative poetry, rhyming couplets and free verse. The children will then learn the poem and perform it to their peers. 

Throughout their English learning, the children will take part in a range of drama activities to support their understanding and have opportunities to create a map of the texts to support them with planning their writing.

Maths

The children will develop their mathematical understanding through a range of topics, building confidence in problem-solving and reasoning.

We will now use our place value knowledge in our learning about addition and subtraction, where we will learn to add and subtract 3- and 4-digit numbers using the most efficient methods and crossing place value boundaries. We will also look at number complements to 100 and 1000 and how we can use the inverse operation to check our work for accuracy.

We will then learn about arrays to support multiplication and sharing and grouping techniques to support our division knowledge. We will look at each of our times-tables in turn during this unit and investigate patterns in the number sequences. We will also consider how we can use our times-tables to help us to solve-real life problems, such as the number of wheels on our families’ bikes or cars. 

We will end our Maths learning for the autumn term by considering ‘what is area?’ and comparing the area of shapes by counting squares.

Science

In Science, Elm will be learning about the classification of plants and animals and how things are classified in relation to their characteristics.

We will learn about the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates by looking at the skeletons of different animals. We will also learn to classify fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals using pre-prepared classification keys and then creating our own. 

We will also learn about the different classes of invertebrates: molluscs, arachnids and insects and discuss their similarities and differences. 

At the end of this unit, we will learn about the job of a botanist and how they compare both flowering and non-flowering plants. We will look at the differences in how they reproduce, and we will draw diagrams to show both types of plants.   

History

This term, we will be learning about Ancient Greece in our history lessons. The children will learn that Ancient Greece was made of independent city-states and that Athens is considered the birthplace of democracy. We will consider the lifestyles and beliefs of Ancient Greek people, particularly the spartan warriors, as well as some of the important rulers from the time, such as Alexander the Great.

The children will learn about the Persian Wars, a series of conflicts where the massive Persian empire tried to conquer each of the Greek city states. We will consider the motivations behind the battles and why the Persian wars are considered a turning-point in history. 

We will end our learning by considering the Ancient Greek legacy and how they have influenced the way we live and learn today. 

Art

As artists, we will be learning that space in art means the distance within, between and around things. We will learn that if an object is 3D it has 3 dimensions – height, width and depth, but if an object is 2D it only has height and width. We will discover that in 2D art, artists can create the illusion that an object has 3 dimensions. We will recap that artists can use differences in tone to create the illusion that something is 3D despite working in 2 dimensions. We will look at how painters use foreground, middle ground and background to create an illusion of depth, which means that objects in the foreground will appear bigger than in the background. This is called foreshortening. We will also consider how artists also use colour and detail to show depth of space in a painting, for example, colours in the foreground will be darker and get lighter towards the background and objects will have more detail in the foreground. 

We will look at the work of Millet, who shows depth of space in his painting “The Gleaners”. This painting is famous for featuring the lower peasant class in a sympathetic way. We will compare this to the work of Dutch painter Bruegel the Elder, who painted many pictures depicting peasant life and is known for his subtle and sympathetic treatment of his subjects. 

RE

Our RE learning this term is titled ‘What is my duty and how do I know?’ In this unit, we will explore Sikh worldviews in more depth. Building on knowledge from KS1, we will explore the concepts of duty and gurmukh. Using questions and methods drawn from theology, the human / social sciences and philosophy, pupils will use their learning about duty in Sikh worldviews to critically analyse their own perspectives on duty. We will consider the texts and people that influence us and help us to make good choices. We will also look at the rituals and practices of the Sikh religion and how these are influenced by their beliefs.