Year 4 Primary Curriculum Theme.
Can you stop the 'bugs' from stopping you producing food?
Video to introduce theme.
Basic Information.
This theme looks at how various food items and other farm products are grown and produced. This is done over several lessons with pupils producing information which they research on to cards. This can be done individually or collaboratively in groups. The products covered are:
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Wheat
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Potatoes
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Dairy Cows
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Sheep
Pupils are also asked to consider how farmers production is affected by disease, pests, weeds and the weather - collectively refereed to as bugs. This information is also added to cards.
Once all the cards have been produced then various options are available to reinforce the learning by playing a game using the cards produced. A set of cards is also available to download.
The theme then introduces and looks at habitats. This is done for suitable school habitats and also by looking at who lives where in the countryside.
The theme then looks at food chains for particular habitats. Once the learners have the basic understanding of this they can then look at the effect of the farmer controlling bugs has on relevant food chains. This links to risk taking and how farmers seek to control risk by controlling bugs. It also allows learners to consider the choices farmers and society as a whole must make in producing food and looking after the countryside - 'food or flowers!'
The Big Picture.
The 'Farmers v Bugs Theme' in the 'Big Picture'.
The themes at KS1 and in Year 3 looked at plants and animals in general including those used to produce food. This theme now looks at farm production in more detail and adds in the threats to production farmers face from pest, disease, weed and the weather. The aim is to make learners aware of how this could impact on farm output and food available for us. Habitats are looked at and then the effect of food production and the control of pest, diseases, etc considered and the possible impact on food chains and the environment. The aim of this is to make learners aware of the choices we must make in terms of providing enough food and protecting the environment.
Primary Curriculum Links.
For links to Essentials for Learning and Areas for Learning see National Curriculum links below - NC Ref.
The Entry Point.
Begins theme by showing learners video of various things which are produced on farms and also what may affect this production.
Knowledge Harvest.
Class considers what they already know about things produced down on the farm - also allows Assessment for Learning as you consider learners prior knowledge.
Explaining The Theme - Outline of Theme.
War down on the Farm
Lesson 1: Entry Point - video to introduce theme, followed by knowledge harvest, in form of Mind Maps possibly, as Assessment for Learning of pupils prior knowledge. Keep the knowledge harvest for use at end of unit so learners can then assess for themselves just what they have learnt during this theme.
What do you notice growing and living in fields in the local countryside?
Lesson 1-4: Why do farmers grow these plants (Crops) and keep these animals (Livestock)?
Series of lessons on each of products studied with videos for each stage of each production process:
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Wheat
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Potatoes
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Sheep
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Dairy Cows
Learners produce own materials to explain each production process - or set of cards available for download. See individual lesson plans for full details.
What can effect farmers crops and animals?
Lesson 5-6 Video which looks at the pests, disease, weeds and weather which can effect farmers crops and animals. Also covers why and how farmer must deal with these. Need to register for free trial to use this and further lessons.
Assessment - Checking Progress:
Opportunity at this stage to have pupils check on their progress by using cards / materials produced to this point to get them to explain to each other what they have learnt so far.
Where do things live in the countryside?
Lesson 7-8 Looks at habitats, starting with where farm animals live, then what wildlife can be found on farms and in local countryside, school grounds and other suitable habitats. Videos are available to illustrate various less accessible habitats.
Who eats what in our habitats?
Lesson 9-10 Looks at food chains of various habitats, including typical habitats found on farms, and incorporating some of the pests from earlier exercise.
What effect does controlling pests have on our food chains?
Lesson 11-12 Looks at the effect the farmers has on food chains when he controls pests. Then looks at this in form of a farmer taking and trying to control risks.
How has farming changed in past years?
Lesson 13-14 Optional extension could include looking at how and why farming has changed since WW II with aim of explaining idea of producing as much food as possible to today's idea of caring more for the environment by changing farming methods.
What do I know about how food is produced?
Lesson 15 - Use initial Mind Maps for learners to review what they have learnt. The produce a poster to explain this, various options for focus of this review. Particular food products; How farming effects environment; Why farmers control pests.
Areas of Learning:
The key areas for the curriculum progression of the different areas of learning are shown below so you can fit this theme to the rest of your curriculum. This may change depending on how closely you follow our ideas when you teach this theme.
Source: National Curriculum
Understanding the arts.
Breadth of Learning
In studying art, children should:
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Be involved in design, craft work and fine art on a variety of scales, working in two and three dimensions and using ICT to explore line, shape, form, colour, texture and pattern.
Art Curriculum Progression - Early Primary
E1. To explore a wide range of media and materials, tools and techniques to create artworks, improvise and depict imagined worlds, and model the real world through the arts.
E6. To experiment with designs, shapes, colours and sounds, explore and record ideas using ICT where appropriate
Art Curriculum Progression - Middle Primary
M4. To explore alternative approaches to develop and refine performances and communications, working in a variety of digital forms when appropriate.
Digital forms: Including computer graphics, presentations, animations, sound sequences, videos etc
M6. To explore and refine a range of techniques, materials, processes and media, including digital media, to draw, sculpt, model, design, paint and print.
M7. To design and create images and artifacts, expressing ideas for clearly defined purposes.
M12. To listen carefully, recognise and use repeated patterns and increase aural memory.
Understanding English, communication and languages.
Breadth of learning.
a. In speaking and listening children should:
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Develop and apply speaking and listening skills to suit a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
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Tell and listen to stories and explore ideas and opinions in both formal and informal contexts.
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Use digital and visual media to support communication both face-to-face and remotely.
b. In reading children should:
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Develop and apply their reading skills in order to become critical readers.
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Engage with an extensive range of texts, including literature from different times and cultures, information and reference texts, literary non-fiction, media texts and online social and collaborative communications.
c. In writing children should:
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Explore writing using different media including web pages and multimodal formats in English and in other languages.
English Curriculum Progression - Middle Primary.
M1. To organise and shape what they say, selecting relevant ideas and using appropriate vocabulary to interest their listeners.
M2. To organise and adjust what they say according to listeners' needs, including the use of spoken standard English when appropriate.
M3. To identify the main points of what has been said and ask questions to clarify meaning.
M6. To explain their opinions and ideas, modifying them in the light of what they have heard.
M7. To use dialogue and discussion to build up and refine ideas collaboratively in groups.
M9. To focus on the meaning of the text as a whole, identifying features of text and understanding their use.
M11. To make connections between different parts of a text and with other texts they have read.
M12. To skim, scan and use key word searches and other features of texts to locate and select information.
Key word searches: This includes the use of key words in search engines to locate and select information on the internet.
M13. To verify the accuracy and reliability of information, distinguishing between fact and opinion.
M15. To recognise how authors of moving-image and multimodal texts use different combinations of words, images and sounds to create effects and make meaning.
M16. To identify different structural and organisational features and different presentational devices, layouts and combinations of formats and how they affect meaning.
Presentational devices: These textual devices should cover those used in literary and non-literary written texts, film and multimodal formats.
M17. To respond critically to arguments and recognise how they are constructed.
M20. To select form, content and vocabulary to suit particular purposes.
M21. To create effects by combining written text with illustration, moving image and sound.
M24. To use features of layout, presentation and organisation in print and on screen.
M25. How paragraphs, bullets, hyperlinks, screen layout and headings are used to organise and link ideas, and to use these in their own work.
M26. To recognise and use different types of sentences, exploring how ideas are linked within and between sentences.
M27. The function of punctuation within sentences and using it to clarify structure and represent emphasis.
M29. To form and join letters fluently and correctly and type accurately.
M33. To recognise and respond to familiar words, word categories and short sentences that they hear.
M36. To recognise and understand familiar words, phrases and simple sentences.
M37. To read and interpret a range of simple texts.
M38. To select and use familiar words and phrases to convey meaning in written text.
Historical, geographical and social understanding.
Breadth of Learning.
a. When exploring local, national and global contexts children should:
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Learn about the ways people, communities, places and environments have changed over time, and how they are interconnected.
b. Through the study of people and communities, children should:
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Find out about issues and take action to improve things in their communities and make a positive contribution to society.
c. In the study of place and space children should:
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Learn about and develop informed views and opinions on local, national and global issues such as sustainability, climate change, economic inequality, and their impact on people, places and environments in the past and the present.
d. The study of the past should include aspects of local, British and world history. Children should:
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Study the past in outline and in depth, covering different societies and periods of history from ancient times to modern day.
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Place events, people and changes within a broad chronological framework.
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Use a range of sources of information and visit historic buildings, museums, galleries and sites.
Historical, geographical and social understanding Curriculum Progression - Middle Primary
M1. How identities, communities, places, cultures and traditions have changed and are changing over time.
M2. To identify patterns in communities, places and past events by searching for and locating information using keywords, and carrying out searches, fieldwork and surveys.
Searches: Including using data-handling software to collate and analyse data.
M3. To understand how people can take actions and have a say in what happens locally and nationally.
Have a say: This includes learning simple features of democracy, and how decisions can be made through elections and voting, campaigning, debate and raising awareness of issues including the use of ICT to extend the reach of such activities.
M4. To consider issues affecting communities, and reflect on the impact of people’s actions on others and the environment.
People’s actions on others and the environment: This includes learning about rights and needs humans have and how rules and laws can protect rights and the environment.
M10. to explore the different ways we can find out about the past and how to understand the evidence.
Evidence: This includes primary and secondary sources, artifacts, documents, photographs, film, accounts, including online sources - not all sources of evidence are as reliable as others and the past has been represented and interpreted in different ways.
M12. About the movement and settlement of people in different periods of British history, and the impact these have had.
Movement and settlement of people: For example, the impact of the invasion and settlement by the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans or more recent immigration.
Understanding physical development, health and well being.
Breadth of Learning.
a. When learning about exercise and health children should:
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Learn how nutrition, exercise and hygiene contribute to their well being.
b. When learning about the physical and emotional changes that take place as they grow, children should:
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Collaborate and compete individually, in pairs, groups and teams.
c. In developing their awareness of the adult world and raising their aspirations, children should:
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Come to recognise that there is a range of work that people do and a variety of ways in which people contribute to society.
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Develop and use enterprise skills.
Understanding physical development, health and well being Curriculum Progression - Middle Primary
M1. To work independently and in groups, taking on different roles and collaborating towards common goals.
M2. To listen to, reflect on and respect other people’s views and feelings.
M6. To use ICT safely, including keeping their electronic data secure.
Keeping their electronic data secure: This includes not disclosing personal information while online and not disclosing passwords
M7. To recognise and manage risk in their everyday activities.
M20. Why people work and the different jobs people do.
Work and the different jobs: This should further develop children’s view of the world of work and career pathways
M22. How they can contribute to a range of activities that help them to become more enterprising.
Enterprising: This includes developing the thinking skills, attitudes and dispositions needed to be enterprising, such as adaptability, perseverance and creative problem solving.
Scientific and technological understanding.
Breadth of Learning.
a. When investigating science and design and technology children should:
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Share their expertise in subjects that interest them and respond to relevant and current issues, locally and in the national media.
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Apply their knowledge and understanding in real-life contexts, relating it to the world around them and visiting places to learn about science and design and technology.
b. Children should use investigations and designing and making activities to:
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Explore a range of familiar and less familiar contexts, environments and products.
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Work collaboratively towards a common goal by sharing ideas, making compromises, negotiating and providing feedback.
c. When applying their knowledge and understanding of science and design and technology children should:
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Think creatively and inventively about how things work, identify patterns and establish links between causes and effects.
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Carry out their own investigations, deciding what kind of evidence to collect and what equipment and materials to use.
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Suggest the results they expect and explain their observations and the significance and limitations of the conclusions they draw.
Scientific and technological understanding Curriculum Progression - Middle Primary.
M1. To explore and investigate in order to collect data, analyse it and identify patterns.
M2. To use their knowledge and research to inform designs for functional products and plans for investigations.
M3. To capture, record and analyse data using a range of equipment, including sensors.
Equipment: This includes using equipment to observe and measure, predicting different things that might happen, using secondary sources where appropriate, drawing their own tables for straightforward data and completing prepared bar charts.
M4. To evaluate their skills, findings and outcomes using given criteria and offer explanations for their findings.
M11. To identify, group and select materials using properties and behaviours that can be tested, and identify and group living things using observable features and other characteristics.
Characteristics: Including habitat (for example water, land and air) and diet (for example other animals, plants or a combination).
M13. To apply scientific knowledge and understanding to grow healthy plants and explain how humans and other animals stay fit and healthy.
Scientific knowledge and understanding: This includes the structure and function of the parts of a plant and the relationship between them.
M14. To investigate the physical characteristics of the local environment and the living things in it, comparing them with those from another locality.
Physical characteristics: Including the appearance, texture and permeability of rocks and soils.
Living things: This includes food chains.
Essentials for learning and life:
Literacy
FOCUS: Children use and apply their literacy skills confidently and competently in their learning and in everyday contexts. They convey ideas and opinions clearly and respond creatively and critically to a wide range of information and ideas.
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Listen attentively, talk clearly and confidently about their thoughts, opinions and ideas, listening carefully to others so that they can refine their thinking and express themselves effectively.
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Read accurately and fluently to comprehend and critically respond to texts of all kinds, on paper and on screen, in order to access ideas and information.
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Write, present and broadcast a range of ideas, in a wide variety of forms and with awareness of different audiences and purposes; communicate these ideas with accuracy on paper, on screen and through multimodal texts.
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Analyse, evaluate and criticise a range of uses of language in order to draw out meaning, purpose and effect.
ICT Capability
FOCUS: Children use and apply their ICT knowledge, skills and understanding confidently and competently in their learning and in everyday contexts. They become independent and discerning users of technology, recognising opportunities and risks and using strategies to stay safe.
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Find and select information from digital and online sources, making judgments about accuracy and reliability.
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Refine and improve their work, making full use of the nature and pliability of digital information to explore options and improve outcomes.
Learning & Thinking Skills.
FOCUS: Children have the skills to learn effectively. They can plan, research and critically evaluate, using reasoned arguments to support conclusions. They think creatively, making original connections and generating ideas. They consider alternative solutions to problems.
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Investigate, asking relevant questions, identifying problems, analysing and judging the value of information and ideas, questioning assumptions. They plan systematically using time and resources effectively, anticipating, taking and managing risks.
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Create and develop, using their imagination to explore possibilities and generate ideas. They try out innovative alternatives, looking for patterns, recognising differences and making generalisations, predicting outcomes and making reasoned decisions.
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Communicate, interacting with different audiences in a variety of ways using a range of media
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Evaluate, developing criteria for judging work and suggesting refinements and improvements.
Personal and Emotional Skills.
FOCUS: Children take responsibility for their own learning and show initiative, perseverance and a commitment to self-improvement. They recognise that achievement builds self-confidence and resilience, enabling them to deal positively with praise and constructive criticism.
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Identify their strengths and areas for development, reflecting on the significance of their learning.
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Reflect on past achievements and experiences to manage future learning and behaviour.
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Set goals for their personal development and learning, and work towards them.
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Work independently, knowing when to seek help, dealing with pressures and deadlines.
Social Skills.
FOCUS: Children develop the skills to work well with other people. They are responsible and adaptable and anticipate others’ views and feelings. They appreciate the value of rules for working together, and play an active part in group and classroom activities.
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Listen and respond appropriately to a wide range of people, showing empathy and understanding, and having the confidence to raise their concerns.
Work collaboratively towards common goals.
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Take turns and share as appropriate, stating their own views and needs.
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Give constructive support and feedback to benefit others as well as themselves.