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!
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
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
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
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
This Firefly Minds Mindfulness resource comprises of more than 30 lesson plans broken into six weeks to embed mindful practices in your classroom:
Week 1: Attention
Week 2: Senses
Week 3: Emotions
Week 4: Thoughts
Week 5: Strength and Resilience
Week 6: Into practice
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: 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
We understand the difficulties in preparing for the return to school, and how overwhelming this can be. That is why we have developed our Back on Track Packs, to make life that little bit easier for you. Here you will have access to our KS 2 pack which is applicable to ages 6-8. Don’t forget to check out our FREE Early Years Pack, and our KS 1 Pack, applicable for learners aged 9+.
Back on Track includes:
Extensive resource pack designed specifically for the return to school in September.
Includes sixty+ pages of tailored activities focusing on mindfulness, well-being, and readiness to learn.
Monitoring and support resources.
Bespoke Tracking and Monitoring document to assess each pupil’s emotional well-being, readiness to learn, and the need for intervention.
Dedicated follow-up support.
We are also offering the Foundation Stage Pack entirely free!
The pack is designed to reintegrate the children back into the classroom following their time away. The program can be span 2-4 weeks depending on the needs of your children. Once complete, your children should have a greater awareness of the current climate, with a mindful, reflective, and positive perspective. The children will show readiness to learn and tackle our new learning environment with renewed vigor!
Best of luck to you all at this challenging time.
Firefly Minds Team
We understand the difficulties in preparing for the return to school, and how overwhelming this can be. That is why we have developed our Back on Track Packs, to make life that little bit easier for you. Here you will have access to our KS 1 pack which is applicable to ages 6-8. Don’t forget to check out our FREE Early Years Pack, and our KS 2 Pack, applicable for learners aged 9+.
Back on Track includes:
Extensive resource pack designed specifically for the return to school.
Includes sixty+ pages of tailored activities focusing on mindfulness, well-being, and readiness to learn.
Monitoring and support resources.
Bespoke Tracking and Monitoring document to assess each pupil’s emotional well-being, readiness to learn, and the need for intervention.
Dedicated follow-up support.
We are also offering the Foundation Stage Pack entirely free!
The pack is designed to reintegrate the children back into the classroom following their time away. The program can be span 2-4 weeks depending on the needs of your children. Once complete, your children should have a greater awareness of the current climate, with a mindful, reflective, and positive perspective. The children will show readiness to learn and tackle our new learning environment with renewed vigor!
Best of luck to you all at this challenging time.
Firefly Minds Team
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, Them Bones, Them Bones!
This Overview covers the LKS2 Curriculum for England. The theme includes:
Thematic Unit in Word & PDF Format
Curriculum Coverage Overview Document
Thematic Approach Guidance
A Guide to the Carousel Planning Activity.
Purchase the entire set here:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/them-bones-them-bones-thematic-unit-a-term-of-connected-learning-activities-12478009
These 4 posters are designed to be located around the school to remind children of the key measures in place. They have been adapted from the official World Health Organisation advice and include:
Social distancing advice
Handwashing advice
7 Steps to being safe and happy
Feeling unwell, Speak to teacher
We hope they are of benefit to you!
Firefly Minds Team
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, ‘Splish, Splash, Splosh!’
This Overview covers the EYFS Curriculum for England. However, due to the broad and balanced nature of the themes, it can be used in KS1 (see other Overview) and across different curriculums!
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, Down the Town!
This Overview covers the KS1 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/down-the-town-a-thematic-unit-a-full-term-of-connected-learning-activities-ks1-12468823
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, Home Sweet Home!
This Overview covers the KS1 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-ks1-12468824
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, Twinkle Twinkle!
This Overview covers the KS1 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/twinkle-twinkle-thematic-unit-a-full-term-of-activities-ks1-12468830
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, A Time to Rhyme!
This Overview covers the KS1 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/a-time-to-rhyme-a-thematic-unit-a-full-term-of-activities-ks1-12468821
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, Through the Eyes of a Child!
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/through-the-eyes-of-a-child-thematic-unit-connected-learning-activities-uks2-12468840
The attached Overview is for the Thematic Unit, ‘Prove It!’
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/prove-it-a-thematic-unit-a-full-term-of-connected-learning-activities-lks2-12468834