With combined 40+ years of classroom teaching experience, the small team at Firefly Minds has developed an exciting and engaging curriculum coverage for the English National Curriculum and the Northern Ireland Curriculum. With an ethos firmly grounded in creativity, our aim is to ensure our 'themes' spark and ignite the learners in your classroom. Our work has transformed many schools, moving them from Failing to Good, and beyond. We are looking forward to igniting creativity in your classroom!
With combined 40+ years of classroom teaching experience, the small team at Firefly Minds has developed an exciting and engaging curriculum coverage for the English National Curriculum and the Northern Ireland Curriculum. With an ethos firmly grounded in creativity, our aim is to ensure our 'themes' spark and ignite the learners in your classroom. Our work has transformed many schools, moving them from Failing to Good, and beyond. We are looking forward to igniting creativity in your classroom!
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, Invention & Ingenuity!
This Overview covers the LKS2 Curriculum for England. The theme includes:
Thematic Unit in Word & PDF Format
Curriculum Coverage Overview Document in Word & PDF Format
Thematic Approach Guidance
A Guide to the Carousel Planning Activity.
Purchase the entire set here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/invention-and-ingenuity-thematic-unit-a-term-of-connected-learning-activities-lks2-12468833
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, Reach for the Stars!
This Overview covers the UKS2 Curriculum for England. The theme includes:
Thematic Unit in Word & PDF Format
Curriculum Coverage Overview Document in Word & PDF Format
Thematic Approach Guidance
A Guide to the Carousel Planning Activity.
Purchase the entire set here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/reach-for-the-stars-thematic-unit-a-term-of-connected-learning-activities-uks2-12468839
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, Home Sweet Home!
This Overview covers the LKS2 Curriculum for England. The theme includes:
Thematic Unit in Word & PDF Format
Curriculum Coverage Overview Document in Word & PDF Format
Thematic Approach Guidance
A Guide to the Carousel Planning Activity.
Purchase the entire set here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/home-sweet-home-a-thematic-unit-a-full-term-of-connected-learning-activities-lks2-12468831
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, IMPACT!
This Overview covers the LKS2 Curriculum for England. The theme includes:
Thematic Unit in Word & PDF Format
Curriculum Coverage Overview Document in Word & PDF Format
Thematic Approach Guidance
A Guide to the Carousel Planning Activity.
Purchase the entire set here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/impact-a-thematic-unit-a-full-term-of-connected-learning-activities-lks2-12468832
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, IMPACT!
This Overview covers the UKS2 Curriculum for England. However, due to the broad and balanced nature of the themes, it can be used in LKS2 (see other Overview) and across different curriculums!
Going a little poster crazy here! Use these 2 posters for your classroom and around your school.
The song and poem were written by us exclusively for our recovery curriculum, Back on Track.
We apologize in advance for the Soap Song ringing around your classroom in September. BUT it will be a fun reminder and initiative to get the children washing their hands for the full twenty seconds!
Our poem, Bundles of Bubbles, was written to accompany a mindfulness activity in our packs. It forms part of many activities designed to add a positive spin on the new meaning of bubbles which the children find themselves in at school!
We hope you enjoy!
Focus: Autumn, Citizenship, Employability, Making Relationships, Mutual Understanding, Nursery Rhymes, Personal Understanding, Seasonal Changes, Self-confidence and Self-awareness, Stories, Weather, Working Scientifically.
Familiar and new rhymes throw open a window on the world for the children in this varied theme. They learn about the life of characters in the rhymes travelling in time as they engage in developing stories and learning around the rhymes they know and love.
Ideally a theme for autumn, the children get their fingers sticky with berries and peep into hedgerows to find out who is preparing for winter. They look at how seasonal change impacts their own lives too. Suitable for Autumn term.
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-time-to-rhyme-curriculum-coverage-overview-eyfs-12468847
Focus: Citizenship, Employability, Geographical skills and fieldwork, Health and Self-care, Human and physical geography, Mutual Understanding, Personal Understanding, Position and direction, Self-confidence and Self-awareness, Shape.
Taking a walk through their locality and having a good look around them is the basis of children’s learning in this theme. Just who sells what and what can be found on the local high street, with a nosey around the shops makes for a great day out! Back in the classroom early mapping skills, positional and directional language are all developed through the creation of a physical representation of where the children have been exploring. They get to become town planners as they decide what would they like to see come to their town.
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/down-the-town-curriculum-coverage-overview-ks1-12468849
Focus: Citizenship, Design and Technology, Employability,Making Relationships, Managing Feelings and Behaviour, Materials, Mutual Understanding, Personal Understanding, Properties of Shapes, Statistics, Working Scientifically.
Getting the chance to rummage in the Toy Box, doesn’t quite seem like learning, yet children cover a wide range in this stimulating theme. They discover what makes their toys work and how they move as well as learning about the materials from which they are made. Then it’s off down memory lane, investigating toys from the past. This is a practical and action-packed theme with a strong focus on Science and movement and energy; concepts that can be difficult to integrate into the early year’s program. With activities focusing on designing, making, and doing, this theme opens a range of problem-solving and decision-making opportunities, so dive right in!
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/in-the-toy-box-curriculum-coverage-overview-ks1-12468848
Focus: Citizenship, Design and Technology, Employability, Making Relationships, Managing Feelings and Behaviour, Materials, Mutual Understanding, Personal Understanding, Properties of Shapes, Statistics, Working Scientifically
Getting the chance to rummage in the Toy Box, doesn’t quite seem like learning, yet children cover a wide range in this stimulating theme. They discover what makes their toys work and how they move as well as learning about the materials from which they are made. Then it’s off down memory lane, investigating toys from the past. This is a practical and action-packed theme with a strong focus on Science and movement and energy; concepts that can be difficult to integrate into the early year’s program. With activities focusing on designing, making, and doing, this theme opens a range of problem-solving and decision-making opportunities, so dive right in!
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/in-the-toy-box-curriculum-coverage-overview-eyfs-12468853
Focus: Animals, Design and Technology, Employability, Ethical Awareness, Living Things, Measurement, Mutual Understanding, Personal Health, Personal Understanding, Plants, Position and direction, Properties of Shapes, Working Scientifically
Plants grow! Animals grow! And we grow too! But what do we all need to ensure that we do? Children investigate what living things need, how they are different, what they have in common, and the stages of their growth and development in this three-part theme. They learn how to measure and record their own growth. They solve the mystery of what helps them grow to become big and strong. They get their hands mucky planting and growing seeds and bulbs. The challenge though is not to kill them!
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/let-s-get-growing-curriculum-coverage-overview-ks1-12468865
Focus: Citizenship, Living things and their habitats, Materials, Mutual Understanding, Personal Health, Personal Understanding, Seasonal Changes, Working Scientifically.
The chilly winter world and all things cold are explored in the opening activities of this theme. Children get outside to spot the signs of Winter. Then they get cosy again identifying all the ways we make it through our winter wonderland. Experimenting with ice brings out the scientist in them all. Then it’s off to the Poles to see how people and animals survive the harsh climate and environments found at the extremities of the Earth.
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/brr-it-s-freezing-curriculum-coverage-overview-ks1-12468864
Focus: Autumn, Citizenship, Employability, Making Relationships, Mutual Understanding, Nursery Rhymes, Personal Understanding, Seasonal Changes, Self-confidence and Self-awareness, Stories, Weather, Working Scientifically
Familiar and new rhymes throw open a window on the world for the children in this varied theme. They learn about the life of characters in the rhymes travelling in time as they engage in developing stories and learning around the rhymes they know and love.
Ideally a theme for autumn, the children get their fingers sticky with berries and peep into hedgerows to find out who is preparing for winter. They look at how seasonal change impacts their own lives too. Suitable for Autumn term.
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-time-to-rhyme-curriculum-coverage-overview-ks1-12468846
Design and Technology, Living things and their habitats, Materials, Mutual Understanding, Personal Health, Personal Understanding,Seasonal Changes, Working Scientifically.
Blast off with this creative and exciting theme. Right from the start, this theme promotes children’s thinking and questioning. They investigate the night sky and look at it in a way that they have never done before. They travel to the stars and think about what lies beyond their world. Using Van Gogh’s beautiful works, they are encouraged and stimulated to create their own pictures. A focus on A PSHEC/PDMU in this theme helps the children consider how they are “stars” and who else are the “stars” in their lives. With lots of suggested activities for Play-Based Learning, the only problem with this theme will be stopping it!
Download the relevant Curriculum Coverage Overview for free:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/twinkle-twinkle-curriculum-coverage-overview-ks1-12468852
Focus: Citizenship, Living things and their habitats, Materials, Mutual Understanding, Personal Health, Personal Understanding, Seasonal Changes, Working Scientifically.
The chilly winter world and all things cold are explored in the opening activities of this theme. Children get outside to spot the signs of Winter. Then they get cosy again identifying all the ways we make it through our winter wonderland. Experimenting with ice brings out the scientist in them all. Then it’s off to the Poles to see how people and animals survive the harsh climate and environments found at the extremities of the Earth.
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/brr-it-s-freezing-curriculum-coverage-overview-eyfs-12468858
The chilly winter world and all things cold are explored in the opening activities of this theme. Children get outside to spot the signs of Winter. Then they get cosy again identifying all the ways we make it through our winter wonderland. Experimenting with ice brings out the scientist in them all. Then it’s off to the Poles to see how people and animals survive the harsh climate and environments found at the extremities of the Earth.
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/brr-it-s-freezing-curriculum-coverage-overview-ks1-12468864
Focus: Citizenship, Employability, Geographical skills and fieldwork, Health and Self-care, Human and physical geography, Mutual Understanding, Personal Understanding, Position and direction, Self-confidence and Self-awareness, Shape
Taking a walk through their locality and having a good look around them is the basis of children’s learning in this theme. Just who sells what and what can be found on the local high street, with a nosey around the shops makes for a great day out! Back in the classroom early mapping skills, positional and directional language are all developed through the creation of a physical representation of where the children have been exploring. They get to become town planners as they decide what would they like to see come to their town.
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/down-the-town-curriculum-coverage-overview-eyfs-12468860
Focus: Animals, Animals including humans, Design and Technology, Employability, Ethical Awareness, Everyday Materials, Geographical skills and fieldwork, Human and physical geography, Living things and their habitats, Making Relationships, Managing Feelings and Behaviour, Mutual Understanding, Personal Health, Personal Understanding, Seasonal Changes, Self-confidence and Self-awareness, Working Scientifically
A fun-packed theme bursting with great learning opportunities for early years. Children are engaged and motivated to find out and think about water in a range of different scenarios. They explore and investigate all the ways we use water and consider what life must be like without this precious commodity. They learn how people got water in the past and how they used it. After splashing in puddles and making music with the rain it’s off to the seaside to spend some time at the shore. Then over and under the waves they go, messing about on boats with pirates, diving down deep to see the richness and variety of marine life.
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/splish-splash-splosh-curriculum-coverage-overview-eyfs-12468841
Focus: Animals, Citizenship, Design and Technology, Education for Sustainable Development, Employability, Geographical skills and fieldwork, Living things and their habitats, Measurement, Media Awareness, Personal Health, Personal/Mutual Understanding, Properties of Shapes, Statistics, Uses of Materials, Working Scientifically.
An extensive and varied theme. Children investigate the materials used in building and explore the process of building a house. Comparing and contrasting homes in the past they deepen their understanding of how and why materials are used as well as how things change. They travel the world looking around the types of houses other children live in and learning about how these homes are ideal in their location.
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/home-sweet-home-curriculum-coverage-overview-ks1-12468855
A theme with separate areas of focus, firstly children learn all about their bones and their skeletons. Discovering how to keep their bones strong and healthy and finding out what happens when bones are broken. Then children become archaeologists as they dig up the remains of exciting new Dinosaurs – their own creative creations. They learn about these wonderful creatures; what they ate; how they moved and what animals today are their closest relatives. The children will invent their own dinosaur, classifying it and naming it. They then explore possible explanations for the death of the dinosaurs!
Download our FREE Curriculum Overview document for this theme:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-them-bones-curriculum-coverage-overview-lks2-12478007