Mantis and Scorpion Classes

English

In English in the first part of this term, the pupils will be building on their previous knowledge of instructional texts to create detailed explanation texts in the context of spy devices. The pupils will explore an example and then design and write about their own device using formal language, a range of conjunctions and other adverbials for cohesion. In the second half of the term, we will be writing a short story in which a young spy character uses his or her spy device. We will be learning more about how to use dialogue to move the story forward and to develop characters.

Maths

This half term we will be looking at ratio and decimals. We are also shifting our focus at the end of the week towards more reasoning questions and multi-step questions in view of the SATs papers, having spent and progressed so well with the arithmetic paper.

Science

In Science, the pupils will be building on their knowledge of Electricity and learning to build simple and parallel circuits that they can control with switches. They will also consider when and why each type of circuit is used. Further to this, they will also learn to use the symbols for each component of electrical circuits when drawing electrical circuits. The pupils will also plan and carry out investigations to explore what variables might affect circuits.

History

This term, we will begin our topic about the suffragettes. We will be working towards considering the question, ‘Why were all women over 21 finally granted the vote in 1928?' We will be examining how and why women's political parties emerged in the UK. We will also be identifying key figures that formed the movement to women finally getting the right to form part of the electorate in 1928.

Geography

Our topic this half term is ‘North America’.  We will be learning about the individual countries that make up the continent, their different geographical features and biomes as well some of the major rivers and cities.  The children will be comparing a region of North America with the UK.       

Physical Education

This half term we will be learning to play badminton indoors and netball outdoors.

Religious Education

This half term in RE we will be exploring the importance of prayer, with particular focus on the Islam faith. The children will be learning about the prayer ritual performed by Muslims and when and where they pray. They will be thinking about the prayer and questioning whether this in fact leads to being a better person.

This half term the children will explore the topic of sports. They will learn the nouns for different sports and look at the verb ‘jugar’ (to play) and the sports connected to this verb. Then, the children will create opinions about sports and look at a variety of adjectives to include reasons for liking or disliking a sport. The children will investigate a sporting event from Spain., and at the end of the topic, they will write a description of a sport and how it is played.

Music

This half term the children are introduced to the blues. Blues is a musical genre that originated in the Southern states of the United States of America in the African-American community around the 1860s. It was originally typically slow, sad music where in a song a singer would sing about difficult things in their life. The children learn to identify the most common type of blues which is built with chords made on the I, IV and V notes of the scale, over 12 bars of 4/4 time (12 bar blues). The children then learn to play a 12 bar blues bassline on tuned percussion and create their own walking bassline. Finally, they will listen to Herbie Hancock’s two versions of Watermelon Man which is built around a blues structure but exemplifies the genres of jazz and funk which are closely related to the blues and use a ‘groove’ (a repetitive rhythmic idea) and improvisation. They try adding improvisation to their own 12 bar blues songs.