Our Topic this term is: Ancient Civilisations

 

This project teaches children about the history of two of the world’s first ancient civilisations: ancient Sumer and the ancient Egypt civilisation. Children will learn about the rise, life, achievements and eventual end of each civilisation.

These activities are for you to do at home with an adult. You can do all of them or choose the ones that you find most interesting.

1. Use your research skills to find out what an ancient civilisation is. Write a simple definition, then list the characteristics of a civilisation. List the names of some ancient civilisations found from your research.

2. Use information books and the internet to find out about archaeology, archaeologists, archaeological sites and artefacts. Create an information poster or non-chronological report to record your findings. Include images if you can. Once complete, share it with a family member. Afterwards, you might enjoy searching the online collections of The British Museum or The Met Museum to view other artefacts from ancient Sumer, ancient Egypt or the Indus Valley.

3. Three of the world’s first civilisations include ancient Sumer or ancient Egypt civilisation. Imagine that you are an archaeologist examining these artefacts. Complete a table to record your observations and ideas about each artefact. Include the name of the civilisation, artefact type, materials, possible uses and description.

4. Use your existing knowledge and research skills to write a few sentences about each of the following civilisations. • ancient Sumer (c4500–c1900 BC) • ancient Egypt (c3100–30 BC)

5. What did the ancient Sumerians invent, and how did these inventions make work easier and improve everyday life? Use information books and the internet to answer this question. Record information on a mind map. Expand on the information in your mind map by writing a summary to answer the enquiry question.

6. Use information books or the internet to find out about pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Choose two pharaohs that you find interesting, draw a picture of them, record the dates of their reign and write a fascinating fact about each one.

7. Read a book containing ancient Egyptian myths. Choose your favourite myth and retell the story to a family member. Afterwards, illustrate your favourite scene from the story. Write a description beneath your picture to explain what is happening.

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Maths

In Maths we will continue with Decimals using our times tables knowledge and applying it to Maths problems with more reasoning and problem solving type questions to suit the children’s deeper knowledge at this time of year. We will then move onto Time and Money. It is particularly important that children start the time unit with a basic ability to read the time from an analogue clock including five minute intervals. We will also continue to prepare intensely for the  Multiplication Check happening in June. We are also seeing that children are really putting in the work learning their times tables and we will now complete a daily challenge to help them prepare further.

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The overviews and lessons follow the White Rose Maths plans closely.

The link to their site with home learning and advice on can be found here:

https://whiterosemaths.com/advice-and-guidance

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Here is an overview of the year. 

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Reading & Writing

In English we will be reading Secrets of a Sun King by Emma Carroll. This is a fantastic story with great links to our topic and is a thoroughly enjoyable read. We will begin by writing newspaper reports about the events that happen in the book. We will then move onto description, increasing our vocabulary and writing a five part story of our own. In reading, we will be looking continuing to read by King of the Cloud Forests Michael Morpurgo. Our recent reading assessment has shown the children have made great strides using our new reading focus’ and we are proud of their effort.                                                                                           

RHSE

In RSHE, we will be learning about how we can manage risk in different places. This is a very important project which hopefully will engage the children and make them more aware of their environment.  

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Science

In Science, we will be studying Electrical Circuits and Conductors. In the Electrical Circuits and Conductors project, your child will learn about the importance of electricity to our daily lives and the two sources, mains electricity and cells or batteries. They will discuss the dangers of mains electricity and safety measures. They will learn about a range of electrical components, such as cells, batteries, wires, lamps, buzzers and motors, and use them to construct series circuits, exploring the effect of adding and removing different components. Your child will learn to recognise the difference between a complete and incomplete circuit and examine ways of fixing incomplete circuits. They will also learn about conductivity and investigate various materials to discover which are conductive or non-conductive. Your child will learn about electrical conductors and insulators. Your child will use the knowledge gained throughout the project to design, make and evaluate a game.

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Music

We will continue to use our music platform, Charanga, which the children seem to be thoroughly enjoying. This half term we will begin to learn the song Lean On Me and other gospel-based songs: Lean On Me by Bill Withers, He Still Loves Me by Walter Williams and Beyoncé, Shackles by Mary Mary, Amazing Grace by Elvis Presley, Ode To Joy Symphony No 9 by Beethoven and Lean On Me by The ACM Gospel Choir

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PE

In PE the first unit ‘duel, win, lose’ builds on the experiences children had during Key Stage One. We will revisit competition and supporting children when coping with success and failure is an important stage in learning as we progress through Primary school and towards competitive games. We will then move onto the ‘pass, position, patience’ unit which looks to develop children's’ understanding of attacking strategies to be implemented during modified games. The children will have the opportunity to develop their knowledge of effective spaces to be in, how to pass and keep the ball away from defending teams and how we sometimes need to take our time to build up play before scoring.

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Design and Technology

In Design and Technology, we will complete a project called Tomb Builders. This project teaches children about simple machines, including wheels, axles, inclined planes, pulleys and levers, exploring how they helped ancient builders to lift and move heavy loads.

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Homework

Homework will be set and completed on Seesaw or on paper, this will be a mixture of maths, science and topic work. Spellings will be also be on seesaw. Home readers should be returned on a Thursday so that new books can be handed out on a Friday.

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On a Friday afternoon, in class, we will be doing a Kahoot quiz based on the previous week's learning. The quiz will then be placed on Seesaw for the children to attempt at home. 

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                Start of Summer 1

                 Parents letter 

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