Some spelling activities that cover Y3 and Y4 National Curriculum objectives:
Doubling consonants;
y used in place of i (e.g. crystal);
Possessive apostrophes.
A unit of work covering everything you need to teach the forces objectives for Year 5, plus a range of ‘Working Scientifically’ objectives too.
All worksheets and recording frames are within the Power Point slides.
It also includes a lesson celebrating the work of Galileo.
Topics covered:
-Gravity
Galileo
Air Resistance
Water Resistance
Friction
Gears, pulleys and levers
Creating graphs
Analysing data.
A range of Y5/6 spelling activities based around:
-cial or -tial word endings;
-cious or -tious word endings;
–ant and –ance –ancy word endings;
–ent and –ence –ency word endings.
Children love this unit! Originally for Year 5 but could be used in Year 6 as revision or adapted for use from Year 3.
It is based on a hilarious mockumentary (in the style of David Attenborough), which follows the journey of a plastic bag to its final resting place in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The resource includes:
Power Point with planning and lesson teaching points, examples of success criteria and worksheets;
A character activity;
A pupil/teacher assessment sheet.
Success criteria covered:
*Relative clauses.
A 6 week unit of work on the medium of printing.
This unit would be suitable for years 3 - 6.
Pupils will study a variety of contemporary artists working in print.
Pupils will explore a range of printing techniques including printing with found objects, collagraph and foam board printing.
The final outcome of the unit is a foam board print, based around your History, Geography or English topic.
A unit of work to to produce a persuasive advert for a pair of shoes that pupils design.
Success criteria:
Expanded noun phrases;
Subordination using if, when, because, although.
Suitable for Years 3, 4 and 5.
Fully differentiated with visuals to support SEND.
Lesson slides;
WAGOLL (differentiated versions);
Planning sheet;
Self-Assessment sheet.
A two-week writing unit on the text Archie’s War, by Marcia Williams. It links perfectly with my History unit on World War I but it can also stand alone.
There is a heavy focus on sentence structure in this unit, with three levels of differentiation - this makes it suitable for Years 3 - 6.
**A fully planned and resourced 6 or 7 week unit on the Tudor Age of Exploration. Suitable for upper KS2 but easily adaptable for lower KS2. **
The unit follows a historical enquiry cycle, with key questions throughout.
Teaching strategies focus on visual tools and active learning, so that children have a constant frame of reference for this historical period.
There are links to current issues around colonialism with an exploration of whether Columbus was a hero or a villain.
Each lesson can be kept ‘short and sweet’ or you have the option to ‘explore deeper’ with discussion about all the key concepts.
Covers the National Curriculum objective: ’ A study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066’.
Also covers the following Geography from the KS2 curriculum: ‘Identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian’.
Ancient Greece History Unit
6 week unit for KS2
What is a civilization?
Compare Greeks with other civilizations
Geography of Greece
Greece then and now
Greek gods and goddesses
Athens vs Sparta
Democracy
End of unit assessment
KS1 and KS2 geographical question prompts.
Very useful for planning any unit.
Sparks guided discussion.
Encourages use of technical geographic language.
Talk for writing.
Economic activity.
Trade links.
Human and physical.
Settlement and Land-Use Unit for KS2 Geography.
Suitable for Y3, Y4, Y5 or Y6
Needs some adapting to focus on your local area but a good starting point.
Work on 6 Figure Grid References.
Collecting and interpreting geographical survey data.
Sustainable architecture.
Considering the viewpoint of different user groups.
Vocabulary associated with the topic.
After the Fall by Dan Santat is a beautifully illustrated story about what happened to Humpty Dumpty after his oh-so-famous fall. It is a tale of resilience and overcoming fear.
The book is aimed at younger readers, which makes it accessible to all abilities. There are three levels of challenge within the unit:
Consolidate: Focuses on coordinating conjunctions;
Core: Focuses on subordination;
Extend: Focuses on relative clauses.
The unit could be easily adapted for use from Year 2 to Year 6.
Writing unit for Y4, Y5, Y6 (UKS2)
Re-write the chapter in your own words
Poseidon Gets Salty (how Athens got its name)
Use informal language
Cohesive devices
Speech/dialogue to move the action along
Formal/informal language
Link to history (Ancient Greece)
Mythology
**A fully planned and researched 6 week unit on The Shang Dynasty of Ancient China. **
Suitable for Upper KS2 but easily adaptable for Lower KS2.
Covers the National Curriculum objective: ‘The achievements of the earliest civilizations – an overview of where and when the first civilizations appeared and a depth study of one of the following: Ancient Sumer; The Indus Valley; Ancient Egypt; The Shang Dynasty of Ancient China’.
An alternative to the traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood, this two-week (10 lesson) unit of work is based on the short animation ‘Red’. The themes in the animation are ‘never judge a book by its cover’ and ‘things aren’t always what they seem’.
The writing outcome (a recount) focuses on consistency in sentence structure and the use of coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. It was created to address some of the common errors in writing I often see at the start of Year 5, but this resource would be suitable for Year 3 - Year 6.
**A fully planned and resourced 6 week unit on World War 1. Suitable for upper KS2 but easily adaptable for lower KS2. **
The unit follows a historical enquiry cycle, with key questions throughout.
Teaching strategies focus on visual tools and active learning, so that children have a constant frame of reference for these events that are almost out of living memory.
Each lesson can be kept ‘short and sweet’ or you have the option to ‘explore deeper’ with discussion about all the key concepts.
Covers the National Curriculum objective: ’ A study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066’.
**Your one-stop, earthquakes and volcanoes shop!
A fully planned and resourced 7 week unit on ‘Earthquakes and Volcanoes’. Suitable for upper KS2 (Y5 and Y6) but easily adaptable for lower KS2. **
The unit follows a geographical enquiry cycle, with key questions throughout.
Teaching strategies focus on visual tools and active learning, so that children ‘do geography’ rather than learning facts. Extensive video links make the learning highly visual.
Up to date case studies include: Mount Etna 2020 eruptions, Volcan de Fuego 2018 eruption, Christchurch earthquake of 2011, Japanese Tsunami of 2011.
Each lesson can be kept ‘short and sweet’ or you have the option to ‘explore deeper’ with discussion about all the key concepts.
Covers the National Curriculum objective: ’ Describe and understand key aspects of: physical geography, including: volcanoes and earthquakes’.
A three or four week writing unit based around the books ‘Fantastically Great Women who Changed the World’ and ‘Fantastically Great Women who Saved the Planet’ by Kate Pankhurst.
The writing outcome is a Biography with a range of sentence structures and cohesive devices. The sentence structures are differentiated by ability group:
Consolidate: Coordinating conjunctions.
Core: Subordination.
Extend: Relative clauses.
This unit was originally taught to Year 5 but it could easily be used from Year 2 - 6, due to the accessible nature of the original books and the grammar covered. We also used supporting material from ‘What Would she do? Real-life Stories of 25 Rebel Women’ by Kay Woodward and other books of a similar theme.
This is a brilliant unit that has so many opportunities for discussion about racial and gender equality and women’s rights.