History - The Industrial Revolution

During this unit, the children will look at the similarities and differences between the impact that the Industrial Revolution had on the lives of the rich and the poor.

The children will learn that through harnessing fossil fuels to power engines, factories and machines, the Industrial Revolution fundamentally changed the way that human beings live.

The children will not only learn about the economic and technological benefits of the Industrial Revolution but will also explore the social context, with a focus on how life changed for those who began working in factories during this time.

The unit will also discuss the lives of significant people who had an influential national (and even global) impact, such as Richard Arkwright, James Watt and George Stephenson.

In addition to looking in detail at the iron and textile industries, the children will look at the importance of the steam engine and the steam train.

This unit concludes by focusing in on the treatment of working children at this time.

Art and Design - Printmaking

Children are introduced to printmaking by looking at Hogarth’s series of prints Industry and Idleness. They consider how printmaking allows the production of many copies of one image which can be cheaply produced. They go on to consider different printmaking processes looking at examples by famous artists: screen printing by Warhol, relief printing (in particular, wood cuts) by Hokusai and intaglio printing (dry-point
and etching) by Rembrandt.

The children design and create a stencil from which they then produce a screen print using two colours.

Geography

New Zealand and the South Pacific

Children will learn about the physical geography of New Zealand and plate tectonics theory.  In this unit children look at the issue of sea levels rising and consider the impact on low lying islands such as those in the South Pacific. Children will learn about the Māori; the race of people who have lived in New Zealand and the Cook Islands since before the arrival of Europeans, descended from Polynesian voyagers.

Science - Astronomy

In this unit, children will study astronomy. They will learn that the word astronomy comes from the Greek word astron meaning ‘star’. Therefore, astronomy is the science that studies the laws of the stars and everything in universe beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

In this unit, the children will learn about the evolution of the universe, gravity, the solar system, lunar phases and about galaxies.