History - The Anglo Saxons, the Scots & the Vikings

The children learn that after the Romans left, a mix of tribes from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands began to migrate to England. The three biggest tribes were the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. This group of people are known today as the Anglo Saxons. 

During this period, England was not a united country but was separated into kingdoms, each ruled by different kings.  The children will learn about the lives of people who lived in this period - how they lived, their homes, their jobs, what they ate and what they did for fun. They will discuss how we know about the lives of people who lived so long ago, and learn about primary and secondary sources such as artefacts found at Sutton Hoo, places such as West Stow and the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. They will also look at religious beliefs of both the Anglo Saxons and the Vikings, and how both were gradually converted from their Pagan beliefs to Christianity. They will learn about the monk and scholar, Bede the Venerable, who wrote a book about the English people and the church.

In this unit, the children will also learn about the Picts and the Scots. They will discuss how historians find out about these people in the past, and how they engage in historical debate, such as what the symbols on Pictish Stones can tell us.

During this unit, the children will learn about the Vikings and the significance of Viking Long ships that enabled them to travel, trade, raid and invade! They will look at the relationship between the Anglo Saxons and the Vikings; the battles and the compromises that took place during this period. They will learn about the lives of significant people during this period such as Alfred the Great, Kind Cnut and Edward the Confessor. This unit ends with the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Art and Design - Art of Ancient Egypt

The children will start this unit with knowledge from their study of ancient Egyptian history (Autumn B). They learn that they art of ancient Egypt includes sculpture, paintings on papyrus and walls as well as buildings. Much of the art that we have from ancient Egypt is from tombs and the children learn that the artwork that remains shows us not only about what the ancient civilisation believed about the afterlife but also about how they lived, how they were ruled and the power of the pharaohs.

The children study in detail the Great Sphinx of Giza, the bust of Nefertiti and the representation of Egyptian gods and goddesses. They create their own sphinx from clay, use mixed media to make Egyptian collars and draw Egyptian gods and goddesses in profile on their own homemade papyrus.

Geography - Rivers

In this unit children will develop their understanding of how people interact with the world around them. They will explore how people use rivers, for example for irrigation for farmland, for transport and as a water supply. They will consider the impact of less than normal rainfall on rivers, specifically the Mississippi River, and then in turn the impact that a drought can have on the people who rely on the river. 

In this unit children will use atlases to locate continents and countries. They will identify rivers and locate the countries the rivers run through.

Children will learn that humans can use and change rivers in several ways including through the construction of dams. They will learn that dams are a way for humans to control the flow of water in a river, for water supply and for producing hydroelectric power.

Science - Light

In this unit children will learn that light is an energy that enables us to see, and interact with, the world around us. They will learn there are many different sources of light and the light of the sun is vital for life on earth. Children will work scientifically to find out if materials are transparent or opaque using torches. They will learn that light travels in straight lines and sometimes bounces off from an object or material and that scientists call this reflection.

Children will have the opportunity to investigate mirrors and how light reflects from plane, concave and convex mirrors.

Working scientifically, children will plan and undertake an investigation to answer the question, ‘Do shadows stay the same throughout the day?’

Children will understand that the sun’s position in our sky determines the shape and size of our shadows. Children will see a time-lapse video of a sundial and will learn that this way of measuring time was used thousands of years ago.