Topic 3: Iceland - Land Of Fire and Ice

Our topic this half-term is a geography-led study of Iceland and a small island called Heimaey.

The children will:

• Find out where Iceland is in relation to the rest of Europe
• Learn about the physical landscape and why particular geographical features occur there
• Learn how the physical environment affects the lives of the people who live there
• Compare the human and physical geography to our own local environment
• Consider the economic activity of the place and the importance of the local environment
• Use a range of resources to draw conclusions about life there and how this might have changed over the years

English:

• Using classic poetry from Walter de la Mare as an inspiration for narrative writing showing tension and suspense
• Radio 2 - 500 Words story writing competition
• Identifying and writing subordinate and relative clauses
• Creating an Icelandic version of 'If You're Not from the Prairie'
• Continued teaching and application of spelling rules and patterns

Maths:

• Expressing missing number problems algebraically
• Converting units of measurement using decimal notation
• Ratio and proportion
• Geometry – position and direction
• Naming parts of a circle
• Mental calculation strategies

Science - Classifying animals and living things

• identifying ways of grouping organisms according to their characteristics
• exploring ways of distinguishing between organisms that have similar characteristics
• classifying plants according to their characteristics
• finding out about Carl Linnaeus and his classification system
• exploring what micro-organisms are and how they can be grouped

• Creating algorithms and recording these in a decision tree
• Using software to sort objects by creating branching diagrams and decision trees

Art:
Looking at the work of Vincent Scarpace to inspire fish drawings using pen and ink / water colour, developing a range of designs to pattern-fill, then making print blocks to create monochrome print designs.

Music:
Composition and performance- creating our own compositions, using notation to record these and percussion and tuned instruments to perform

RE:  Exploring the concept of power

• What does power mean?
• How is God’s power significant for Christians and Muslims?
• What do I think about the concept of power?
• How does power affects my own and other people’s lives?