Year 4 – Kenwyn Class -Autumn Term
Awesome Oceans
Special event: A visit to Charlestown Museum and /or Helford beach and / or Blue Reef Aquarium
Ocean adventure is at the heart of this topic. The children will study the mysteries of the oceans, the creatures that inhabit them and in local waters the wrecks that are lost there. Our rugged coastline will be used to uncover stories of smuggling and piracy to fuel their imaginations with further ideas added from the ocean based stories of Michael Morpurgo. The children will look at winds and tides and how the oceans interlink. They will look at the environmental issues that affect the World’s Oceans and seas including global warning and pollution. This will link to ocean food webs and the impact environmental issues have on our wonderful ocean creatures.
Staying Safe: Sea safety will be a key ingredient of this topic as the children encounter stories of perilous oceans and shipwrecks and also reports of pollution and pollutants. They will learn what to do if they do go overboard at sea and also who too call if they witness an accident off our coast. They will learn about the roles of the RNLI Lifeguards and Coastguards and all who help to keep our seas and beaches safe.
Enjoy and Achieve: With trips and stories of smugglers and wrecks the children’s imaginations will be fuelled. The real life experience of Blue Reef Aquarium will give them something concrete to relate to and describe and enhance their understanding of the delicate balance of our oceans.
Make a Positive Contribution: By looking at the sustainability issues surrounding our oceans; pollution and melting of the polar ice caps, the children will gain an understanding of the problems and issues surrounding our oceans and also find out what they can do to make a difference. They will be looking at ways litter and pollution harm ocean wildlife, they will help in beach clean ups and explore the work of environmental pressure groups (Surfers Against Sewage, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth) to again heighten their own awareness of issues and consider how they can tackle them themselves.
Be Healthy: Drugs become an important topic for discussion in relation to modern day smuggling. The children discuss good and bad drugs and the need to be aware of the harmful effects of drug abuse.
Social and Economic Wellbeing: The children will plan their own mini fundraiser with proceeds going to the RNLI.
- Assistance with trips
Science
The science in this topic is classification. They will look at a variety of ocean creatures and used keys and branching databases to sort and classify them, Through their studies of environmental issues they will look at how oceans change and how that impacts on the plants and creatures living there. This will then link to an overview of food webs and food chains and the impact of an environmental issue on these fragile ecosystems. In addition the children will look at the crucial role of the water cycle for our planet. They will perform experiments looking at how water changes state; having fun with condensation, evaporation and ice balloons!
Programme of Study
Working scientifically
- asking relevant questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them
- setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests
- making systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units, using a range of equipment, including thermometers and data loggers
- gathering, recording, classifying and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions
- recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables
- reporting on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions
- using results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions for new values, suggest improvements and raise further questions
- identifying differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes
- using straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions or to support their findings.
They should learn how to use new equipment, such as data loggers, appropriately. They should collect data from their own observations and measurements, using notes, simple tables and standard units, and help to make decisions about how to record and analyse this data. With help, pupils should look for changes, patterns, similarities and differences in their data in order to draw simple conclusions and answer questions. With support, they should identify new questions arising from the data, making predictions for new values within or beyond the data they have collected and finding ways of improving what they have already done. They should also recognise when and how secondary sources might help them to answer questions that cannot be answered through practical investigations. Pupils should use relevant scientific language to discuss their ideas and communicate their findings in ways that are appropriate for different audiences.
These opportunities for working scientifically should be provided across years 3 and 4 so that the expectations in the programme of study can be met by the end of year 4. Pupils are not expected to cover each aspect for every area of study.)
Animals, including humans
- construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey(y4)
- recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
- explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment
- recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.
- compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases
- observe that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled, and measure or research the temperature at which this happens in degrees Celsius (°C)
- identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature.
- Children will discover the forces relating to how tides occur.
Note: Plants can be grouped into categories such as flowering plants (including grasses) and non-flowering plants, such as ferns and mosses.
Pupils should explore examples of human impact (both positive and negative) on environments, for example, the positive effects of nature reserves, ecologically planned parks, or garden ponds, and the negative effects of population and development, litter or deforestation.
Pupils might work scientifically by: using and making simple guides or keys to explore and identify local plants and animals; making a guide to local living things; raising and answering questions based on their observations of animals and what they have found out about other animals that they have researched.
- Pupils should explore a variety of everyday materials and develop simple descriptions of the states of matter (solids hold their shape; liquids form a pool not a pile; gases escape from an unsealed container). Pupils should observe water as a solid, a liquid and a gas and should note the changes to water when it is heated or cooled.
Note: Teachers should avoid using materials where heating is associated with chemical change, for example, through baking or burning.
Pupils might work scientifically by: grouping and classifying a variety of different materials; exploring the effect of temperature on substances such as chocolate, butter, cream (for example, to make food such as chocolate crispy cakes and ice-cream for a party). They could research the temperature at which materials change state, for example, when iron melts or when oxygen condenses into a liquid. They might observe and record evaporation over a period of time, for example, a puddle in the playground or washing on a line, and investigate the effect of temperature on washing drying or snowmen melting.)
What could this look like?
- Experiments measuring melting speed – coolest place etc
- Experiments involving condensation and evaporation
- Making ice balloons to show expansion when states change
- Classification of creatures– keys, sorting, databases
- Researching ocean food chains and webs and the impact of pollution or global warming
- Labelled water cycle diagrams
- Oil on feather experiments
- Separating techniques to make clean water from dirty for desert island survival
- Beach work measuring tidal range
- Teacher support occasionally.
- Questions raised by children as a result of initial illustrative work.
- Predictions beginning to include knowledge and understanding.
- Children develop variables with limited support ie amount of water, temperature of water.
- Concept of range internalised. Varies according to investigation.
- Using equipment confidently with limited support. Developing precision ie 10g, 1 degree Celsius.
- Three measurements taken routinely. Standard units used more carefully. Adults introduce scanning results for unusual readings.
- Children report back with limited support. Teacher questioning used to develop explanations. Use of “because” encouraged.
- Explanations encouraged in writing. Patterns and trends developed. Answer whether the evidence supports prediction, whether and how the test was fair. Explain new findings.
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 food webs
- I know how a change in the environment can affect a food web.
- I can explain how oil pollution affects sea creatures and problems with how it can be treated.
- I know vocabulary related to the water cycle.
- I can talk about how water changes state.
- I can explain in simple terms how tides occur.
History
Local history will be studied here as the children investigate smuggling and shipwrecks off the CornishCoast.They compare this with present day smuggling and people trafficking.
Programme of Study
During their historical studies:
- Pupils should continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.
- They should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.
- They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance.
- They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.
- They should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.
- a local history study
- a study over time tracing how several aspects of national history are reflected in the locality (this can go beyond 1066) (Smuggling)
- a study of an aspect of history or a site dating from a period beyond 1066 that is significant in the locality. (Smuggling)
- Children generating questions and conducting research using different sources of information.
- Children reading local books and information about smuggling around Falmouth
- Children writing from the viewpoint of different people involved in smuggling
- Reading reports of modern day smuggling and people trafficking.
- Consider ways of checking the accuracy of interpretations – fact or fiction or opinion.
- Be aware that different evidence will lead to different conclusions.
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 explain why different sources of information give different historical accounts.
- I can explain how experiences / views of different people give different historical accounts
- I can talk about the rise and demise of smuggling in Cornwall
- I can compare smuggling in the past with smuggling today.
Geography
The children will map the oceans of the world and look at the problems facing our oceans. They will start with how pollution is affecting our oceans and then begin to discover the implications for the planet if our polar oceans are significantly altered. A look at the Cornish Coastline; its features and closeness to France will also enhance the studies of local smuggling.
Programme of Study
Pupils should extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. They should develop their use of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.
Pupils should be taught to:
Locational knowledge
- name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time
- 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 and time zones (including day and night)
- use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied
- use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world
- Children drawing, labeling maps locating world’s oceans
- Children labeling maps of local coastline smuggling ports
- Children researching and writing reports on pollution of our oceans
- Compare land and maritime maps.
- Describe and explain patterns in the wider world.
- Explain the reasons for changes in the environment using a variety of sources of information.
- Begin to understand how and why people seek sustainable solutions to environmental problems.
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 locate local smuggling ports
- I can explain why they are good places for smuggling
- I can explain some of the issues about ocean pollution
Computing
The children will look at campaigns from environmental pressure groups then use desktop publishing make flyers and posters reporting on an aspect of the effects on the oceans of climate change or pollution.
**** Add link with current rolling programme (Computing / Espresso/ Coding – we are communicators) *****
Programme of Study
During their computing studies pupils:
- design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts
- use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output
- use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs
- understand computer networks including the internet; how they can provide multiple services, such as the world wide web; and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration
- use search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content
- select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information.
- Use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour; identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact.