Summer 1 2022-23 topic

 Plant a Little Seed!

Our topic for this half term is ‘Plant a Little Seed!'. 

Week 1: Can I identify garden flowers? 

 We will be kick-starting our brand new topic by going on a walk to Peacock Plant Nurseries in Heanor! We will be observing the different flowers and identifying that these are garden flowers. We will identify the names of different garden flowers and sketch them in our sketch books. We will think about what these flowers will look like in the Winter compared to now, and why this might be. We will also buy our own seeds ready to plant at school next week!

Week 2: What do plants need to grow?

We will reflect back to last week and consider how the owner of the garden centre keeps so many plants alive. We will make a list as a class of all of the things we think a plant needs to grow. Then, we will perform an experiment! We will plant four seeds in four different conditions: light and water, light and no water, water and no light, and no water or light. We will write up our predictions for what we think will happen to each plant and why using terminology learned in our Science lesson this week.

Week 3: How do I plant a seed?

This week, we will revisit our plants in four different conditions from last week and explore what has happened so far. We will use the results of this to help us to each plant our own bean in the correct conditions! We will start a bean diary and will record what equipment we needed to plant our bean, and write sentences about what a plant needs to grow and why. 

Week 4: Which plants give us materials?

This week we will start by measuring the length of our bean plant stem and sketching our bean plant in our bean diaries. Then, we will move onto identifying different fruit and vegetable plants, sorting fruit and vegetable plants according to different criteria (seeds or no seeds, grow underground or on the ground) and identifying the structure of different fruit and vegetable plants (including the part that we eat). We will complete lots of different practical activities and will be exploring real fruit and vegetable plants complete with their roots, stems, and leaves. 

Week 5: Can I find different plants in the school grounds?

We will once again begin our lesson by measuring the length of our bean plant stem and sketching our bean plant in our bean diaries. We will think about what changes have happened and why. Then, we will go outside into our school grounds. We will be Geographers searching for garden flowers, wild flowers, fruit and vegetable plants, deciduous trees and evergreen trees and plotting the locations of these on a map of the school using symbols. We will create a key for our map as we go. 

Week 6: Can I remember and apply what I have learned?

This week we will be going on a school trip to the National Forest Adventure Farm in Staffordshire! We will complete a workshop all about plants where we will get the chance to reflect on everything we have learned and plant a seed to take home. We will also be going on a tractor ride, meeting lots of farm animals and having lots of fun in the play areas! 

Maths

This half term we will be looking at multiplication and division. We will be making arrays, doubling and sharing. We will also be exploring fractions, including finding one half and one quarter of amounts. Finally, we will learn about position and direction: we will be making quarter turns, half turns and whole turns!

Literacy

In Literacy we will be looking at many different genres of Writing: instructions on how to plant a seed, fiction books (Oliver’s Vegetables and Jim and the Beanstalk), non– fiction books and poetry. The children will be continuing with our Level 5 Phonics to support their reading and writing skills.

Science

PSHE

R.E.