Year 2 – Spring Term
Stone Age Man
Special event:Trewardreva Fugu, Foraging walks, Constantine Museum
The children of Lerryn Class specifically chose this exciting topic of discovery. They will be looking at evidence from the Stone Age and seeing where the Stone Age fits into history. They will look at the animals that have become extinct and find examples of endangered species today. There will be a chance to explore the hunter gatherer lifestyle and do some foraging of their own in our local neighbourhood. Role play will be in a classroom cave! They will study how this lifestyle progressed into the agriculture that we know today and also discover that tribes in equatorial and polar regions still have a very hunter / gatherer style of living. They will look at the basic human needs for survival and identify plants and animals in their local habitats; looking at how simple food chains develop. ICT research will be directed at Stonehenge with discussions and practical activities into how the stones got there,and how were they lifted? The children will do their own cave paintings on rocks and use charcoals and pastels to replicate Stone Age discoveries.
Being Healthy: This topic has a real focus on the outdoors. The children will discover the health benefits of being outdoors and also through foraging get to know which foods can be used for healthy eating and which plants are associated with healing.
Stay Safe: The children will look at wild plants and use keys to discover ones which are safe and ones which are poisonous or dangerous.
Enjoy and Achieve: Classroom caves and foraging excursions – the children are going to love the hands on approach to this topic.
Making a Positive Contribution:The local environment is key to this topic. The children will learn how to look after it; how to preserve species within it and how to protect it for future generations. They will also look at endangered species today and see how charities work to protect them.
Social and Economic Well-Being: Through this topic children will consider how people with the simplest lifestyles live happy and contented lives. They will also see how present day hunter gatherers achieve economic well-being through trade.
- Assistance with trips
- Outdoor clothes provided
Science
The children will look at various Stone Age tools, equipment, clothes and shelters and study the importance of material choices for different purposes. They will carry out a variety of investigations looking at materials and their properties. In addition they will be out and about looking at living things in their habitats. They will look at simple food chains and see how habitats provide for the basic needs of the organisms there. Through the endangered and extinct aspect of this topic the children will also compare and contrast things that arte living, dead and things that have never been alive.
Programme of Study
Working scientifically
During years 1 and 2, pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills through the teaching of the programme of study content:
- asking simple questions and recognising that they can be answered in different ways
- observing closely, using simple equipment
- performing simple tests
- identifying and classifying
- using their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions
- gathering and recording data to help in answering questions.
These opportunities for working scientifically should be provided across years 1 and 2 so that the expectations in the programme of study can be met by the end of year 2. Pupils are not expected to cover each aspect for every area of study.)
Living things and their habitats
- explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive
- identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other
- identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including micro-habitats
Animals, including humans
- notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults
- find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air) and factors that affected extinction
- describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food, and hygiene.
- identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses
- find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.
- Making predictions about which foods change when heated or cooled. Demonstrations to prove / disprove predictions
- Cooking gingerbread men
- Making collages of balanced plates
- When cooking look at why certain tools are made from certain materials properties and uses. See how tools and materials and ingredients can be manipulated.
- Construct simple food chains with themselves as the final consumer.
- Sorting foods into groups.
- Finding healthy balances for lunch boxes from different countries.
Pupils might work scientifically by: sorting and classifying things according to whether they are living, dead or were never alive, and recording their findings using charts. They should describe how they decided where to place things, exploring questions for example: ‘Is a flame alive? Is a deciduous tree dead in winter?’ and talk about ways of answering their questions. They could construct a simple food chain that includes humans (e.g. grass, cow, human). They could describe the conditions in different habitats and micro-habitats (under log, on stony path, under bushes) and find out how the conditions affect the number and type(s) of plants and animals that live there.
-Pupils should be introduced to the basic needs of animals for survival, as well as the importance of exercise and nutrition for humans. They should also be introduced to the processes of reproduction and growth in animals. The focus at this stage should be on questions that help pupils to recognise growth; they should not be expected to understand how reproduction occurs.
The following examples might be used: egg, chick, chicken; egg, caterpillar, pupa, butterfly; spawn, tadpole, frog; lamb, sheep. Growing into adults can include reference to baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult.
Pupils might work scientifically by: observing, through video or first-hand observation and measurement, how different animals, including humans, grow; asking questions about what things animals need for survival and what humans need to stay healthy; and suggesting ways to find answers to their questions.
-Pupils should identify and discuss the uses of different everyday materials so that they become familiar with how some materials are used for more than one thing (metal can be used for coins, cans, cars and table legs; wood can be used for matches, floors, and telegraph poles) or different materials are used for the same thing (spoons can be made from plastic, wood, metal, but not normally from glass). They should think about the properties of materials that make them suitable or unsuitable for particular purposes and they should be encouraged to think about unusual and creative uses for everyday materials. Pupils might find out about people who have developed useful new materials, for example John Dunlop, Charles Macintosh or John McAdam.
Pupils might work scientifically by: comparing the uses of everyday materials in and around the school with materials found in other places (at home, the journey to school, on visits, and in stories, rhymes and songs); observing closely, identifying and classifying the uses of different materials, and recording their observations.)
Progression in skills:
- Groups working on own investigation supported by planning format and class teacher.
- Questions and suggestions made by children. Children respond to teacher questions.
- Children are beginning to make a prediction. (More guesses than predictions).
- Teacher and children brainstorm variables then children choose e.g. types of material, amount of water, type of liquid, amount of material.
- Range developed by the children ie three materials chosen.
- Interval discussed where relevant ie 0ml, 50ml, 100ml
- Independent usage of simple equipment provided by teacher ie metre sticks, scales, tape measure.
- Some use of standard units to measure length and mass. More than one reading beginning to be made. Observations used to make comparisons.
- Children make comparisons e.g. “This cloth was more absorbent than that one”. Simple reasons given.
- Writing used to describe what happened. Scientific knowledge and understanding is developed through conclusion..
- Tables with space for repeat reading are introduced. Bar charts are drawn by children. Adult helps with scale if appropriate. Patterns and trends are discussed as a class.
- Children use simple vocabulary to explain results. Adult modelling and displays still very important. Concept maps and keyword lists develop vocabulary.
- Knows about safe and careful working. Follows instructions. Emphasis on teacher to control hazards and risks.
Attainment targets: By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.
- I know key vocabulary related to materials
- I can make a prediction
- I can conduct a simple experiment
- I can make simple measurements
- I can record my results
- I know the key vocabulary related to habitats
History
Children will gather evidence for the museum, the internet and various books to piece together the lives of the Stone Age Men. They will see where the Stone Age fits chronologically and will look at the lifestyle of the people; comparing it to themselves and similar remote tribes today. They will also look at the ancient monument of Stonehenge and use this to delve into the amazing knowledge of the Stone Age Men relating to transporting, lifting and orientating the stones.
Programme of Study
During their historical studies children need:
- Significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.
- Time lines
- Ordering artefacts
- Research into Stonehenge
- Explanations of the stones
- Daily lives of Stone Age Men told from the classroom cave!
- Find out about people and events in other times
- Use drama to develop empathy and understanding – hot seating
- Use a single source to answer who, what, when, where, why, how questions
- Communicate information by annotating pictures and photographs
- To sequence photos of artefacts.
- To compare and contrast pictures and photos of events, objects and people of the past and present.
- Use an internet source to ask and answer questions.
- To recognize their lives are different from people of the past.
- They begin to discuss the effectiveness of sources of information.
- They use terms related to the passing of time with consistency.
- They recognise that what is left of a civilization needs questioning to fill the gaps.
Attainment targets: By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.
- I can describe the daily life of a Stone Age Man
- I can compare life in the past with life today
- I can make comparisons with other remote settlements of today.
Geography
Local fieldwork will feature heavily as the children explore Trewardreva Fugi. They will focus on settlement and see how settlement of the past compare to settlements today. In this they will include local geography seeing how our local area developed into a farming and village community. When looking at the Stone Age settlements they will also consider hunter gatherer tribe today in the most remote polar and equatorial regions. They will study the climatic features of these regions and discuss how these affect the life of the settlement. In addition they will note any environmental features that could contribute to the extinction of a species.
Programme of Study
Locational knowledge
- name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans
- understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a small area in a contrasting non-European country
- identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles
- key physical features, including: beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather
- key human features, including: city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, port, harbour and shop
- use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries, as well as the countries, continents and oceans studied at this key stage
- use simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and locational and directional language [for example, near and far; left and right], to describe the location of features and routes on a map
- use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key
- use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment.
- Children mapping local area
- Children looking at development of Constantine
- Comparing equatorial and polar climates
- Looking at environmental features that have contributed to extinction
- To ask simple geographical questions about different localities.
- To make observations of simple features of places and compare them.
- To use geographical language to describe features of places and maps (river/
- sea/desert/forest…)
- To offer descriptive observations about simple recognizable features of places.
- They make simple comparisons between places – at home and abroad and their own locality.
- They recognize simple patterns in environmental features.
- They observe physical and human features.
- They are beginning to observe physical and human processes.