Early Years / KS1 Topic Plan: Summer Term – Bears and The Woods
-Area of Learning / Objectives / Activities / Resources
Cross- Curricular
Knowledge and Understanding
Lang/Lit/Com / Learn about the senses animals have to enable them to be aware of the world around them.
View and listen carefully to a variety of visual and audio visual stimuli. / Watch video clips of bears in the wild
Language, Literacy and Communication / Listen to a variety of stories
Repeat rhymes and poems sometimes from memory / Read stories about bears
Listen to and learn :-
Bear hugs poem
Bear, bear, bear / See book list
Cross – Curricular
Mathematical Dev.
Language, Literacy and Communication
Creative Dev (Music) / Use numbers naturally in their play including number rhymes.
Repeat rhymes and poems
Join in familiar songs / Read the story One Little Teddy bear by Mark Burgess
Read /learn the rhymes – 5 Little bears (adding on) and 5 Little Bears (taking away)
Encourage the children to act out the poems.
Sing similar rhymes – 5 Currant buns; 5 Little Speckled Frogs; 5 Little Ducks / Story book
Cross – Curricular
Lang/Lit/Com
Mathematical Dev.
Physical Dev.
Creative Dev. (Music)
Creative (Movement)
Cross – Curricular
Creative Development (Music)
Lang/Lit/Com / Listen to a variety of stories
Sequence familiar events.
Use everyday words to describe position.
Begin to understand the vocabulary of time.
Become knowledgeable about spatial awareness and relationships e.g. behind; underneath; below; over; under; on top of etc
Explore a range of sound sources and experiment with different ways of making and organising sounds.
Create their own musical ideas.
Develop their response to different stimuli such as music, pictures, words
Sing a range of songs with others.
Listen to a variety of stories / Read the story “We’re all going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. Let the children join in with the repetition.
Photocopy/scan pictures from the story and let the children sequence them or use the story sequencing cards in the Early Learning HQ stories section:
Use Compare bears to develop positional language – put the bear on top, behind, under etc.
Set out a circuit of apparatus during a P.E. lesson to reinforce positional language, (use as much of the positional language from the story as possible) ensuring that the children have to - go over, under through etc the apparatus.
Explore the sound that different percussion instruments make. Talk about the sounds in the story – swishy- swashy, squelch-squerch, stumble-trip, etc. let the children choose the appropriate instrument for the sound.
Act out the story using the percussion sounds. You may find the following Bear hunt role-play masks useful accessories:
Listen to a recording of The teddy bears Picnic and join in with the chorus.
Read the story The Teddy bears Picnic by Jimmy Kennedy
Talk about nice, safe , places to have a picnic. Let the children choose a place in the locality to have a teddy bears picnic.
Prepare food for the Teddy Bears picnic and bring a teddy in to school on that day.
Play Hide and Seek
Read a teddy bear story and sing the Teddy Bears picnic song during the picnic / Story book
Pictures taken from the story and laminated.
Compare Bears and objects to help with positional language.
A variety of P.E. apparatus set out as a circuit.
A selection of percussion instruments
Story book
Story book
Food for a picnic
Teddy bears
Cross- Curricular Language, Literacy and Communication.
Mathematical Dev. / Listen to different versions of the same story – Goldilocks and the Three bears
Sort and match according to size. / Let the children talk about the differences in the stories. Which version do they prefer and why? Photocopy pictures from the story and laminate them for a sequencing activity.
Introduce mathematical vocabulary such as big/bigger/ small/smaller, middle sized
3 different size Teddy bears, 3 different sizes spoons, bowls, cereal boxes etc to match the right size bear to the objects. Compare bears can be used for a sorting activity. / Different versions of Goldilocks and the Three bears
3 different size Teddy bears and objects from the story
Compare Bears
Cross – Curricular Knowledge and Understanding of the world
Personal and Social Dev / How to make chocolate porridge
Listen to and carry out instructions. / Make chocolate porridge
Personal and Social Development / Form relationships and begin to play co operatively / Play the circle games
-“Isn’t it funny how a bear likes Honey?”
-“Teddy sing a Song”
Welsh Vocabulary- Read the Story Elin Benfelen a’r tri arth – Goldilocks and the three bears
Elin Benfelen (Ellen Ben velen)- Goldilocks
Arth (arrth) – bear
Uwd (ewe-d) – porridge
Siocled (shock – led) – chocolate
Picnic Food
Brechdanau (bre (ch as in loch)- dan-eye) – sandwiches
Creision(cry-shon) – crisps
Afal (aval) – oren (ore – en)- orange
Sudd (seethe) – juice
Sudd oren / afal – orange/apple juice
Bisgeden (biss ged en) biscuit
Teisen (tie- ssen) - cake
Useful books –
As mentioned above and When the Teddy Bears Came by Martin Waddell; Can’t you sleep little bear? By Martin Waddell.