Focus Narrative:

Historical Stories

Key Text/Stimulus:

The Thieves of Ostia  

Writing Outcomes:

Overview

In this unit, children explore historical fiction through The Thieves of Ostia, discovering how authors bring the Roman world to life through setting, characters and suspense. They will investigate the features of historical setting stories, learning how to weave accurate details about Roman life into their writing while creating believable characters and exciting plots. Throughout the unit, children will build the skills needed to write their own adventure set in Roman Britain or Ancient Rome.

Writing Tasks (Independent & Edited)

Describe a busy Roman street or marketplace from the point of view of a character. Include details about the sights, sounds and activity to help the reader imagine they are there. (Focus: Creating an effective historical setting using expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials and precise vocabulary.)

Write a conversation between two characters in Roman times where they discover an important problem or mystery that begins an adventure. Use their dialogue and actions to reveal their personalities and introduce the main problem that will drive the story. (Focus: Using accurately punctuated direct speech to reveal character and move the plot forwards.)

Use The Thieves of Ostia as your starting point to write an innovated historical setting story. Change key elements such as the mystery, characters or events while keeping the story set in Roman times, using accurate historical details to create an exciting new adventure. (Focus: Writing a complete historical setting story that innovates from a known text, using description, dialogue, suspense and authentic historical detail.)

Writing FocusDevelop the skills needed to write effective historical setting stories by creating vivid settings, believable characters and engaging plots. Use expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials, precise vocabulary and varied sentence structures to make writing interesting. Write dialogue with accurate speech punctuation to reveal character and move the action forwards. Organise ideas into clear paragraphs, build suspense through description and carefully chosen vocabulary, and edit writing to improve clarity, accuracy and impact. Ensure punctuation, spelling and grammar are applied accurately throughout.

Hot-seating characters

Verbal instructions

Focus Grammar

• A or an
• Extending sentences with a range of conjunctions
• Expressing time, place and causing using conjunctions, adverbs, prepositions
• Inverted commas and punctuating direct speech
• Using the present perfect form instead of the simple past
• Intro to paragraphs used to group material

Focus Non-Narrative:Recounts (diary)

Key Text/Stimulus:

The Romans (Boudicca)

Writing Outcome:

Overview

Exploring a time anomaly, children explore the life of Boudicca and the Roman invasion of Britain. They will learn about the events leading up to Boudicca's final battle and consider how she may have felt as she prepared to defend her people. Through historical sources and discussion, children will develop empathy and use evidence to imagine the thoughts and emotions of a significant figure from the past.

Cross-curriculum support genres:

Informal Letter Writing

Non-chronological reports

Writing Task (Independent & Edited)

Imagine you are Boudicca on the night before your final battle against the Romans. Write a diary entry describing your thoughts, feelings and hopes. Reflect on what has happened so far, your determination to protect your people, and your worries about what tomorrow may bring.

Writing Focus

Write in the first person using the features of a diary, including thoughts and feelings. Organise ideas into clear paragraphs and use fronted adverbials (e.g. As the sun set, Later that evening, Before dawn) to sequence events. Include expanded noun phrases (e.g. the fearless Iceni warriors, the mighty Roman army) and powerful verbs to convey emotion and action. Use conjunctions (e.g. because, although, while) to explain thoughts and feelings, and punctuate accurately using capital letters, full stops, commas after fronted adverbials, apostrophes and speech punctuation where appropriate.

Pathway: Exploring Still Life🔗

Explore artists working with the genre of still life, contemporary and more traditional. Create your own still life inspired art work.

Disciplines:

Painting, Drawing, Collage, Sketchbooks, Relief

Medium:

Acrylic or poster paint, pen, pencil, ink, clay (depending upon project chosen)

Artists:

Paul Cezanne, Peter Claesz, Melchior d’ Hondecoeter, Jan Davidsz, Jacob Vosmaer, Hilary Pecis,  Nicole Dyer, Baas Meeuws, Hirasho Sato

How do artists use line, colour, and texture to create meaning in still life artwork?Artists choose lines, colours, and textures carefully to show how objects feel and to create mood or meaning in their work. For example, rough textures or bold colours might create energy, while soft lines and gentle tones might create calm.

How do artists plan and develop their ideas when creating a still life?Artists plan by looking closely at objects, thinking about how to arrange them, and experimenting with materials. They explore how to use line, colour, texture, and form to make their artwork more interesting and meaningful.

Composition – The way objects are arranged in a piece of art.

Texture – How something feels or looks like it feels (e.g. rough, smooth, bumpy).

Observational Drawing – Drawing something by looking closely at real-life objects.

National Curriculum:

the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain

a local history study (linked to Romans - Vindolanda)

Cross Curricular Writing Opportunity:

As Time Agents working for the Time Council, gather evidence about the Romans during your journey through time. Use your research and observations to write a clear, factual non-chronological report that explains what life was like in Roman Britain and how the Romans changed Britain, helping the Time Council preserve an accurate record of history.

Who was Boudicca and why did she take revenge on the Romans?Boudicca was ruler of the Iceni, a tribe of people in ancient Britain in what is now East Anglia.When Boudicca’s husband died, Rome decided that the Celtic settlement was now under Roman rule.As a warrior queen she led her people against the invasions of the Romans, but she was ultimately unable to defeat them.
Boudicca and her army headed for the Romans’ main center, Camulodunum (now Colchester). They drove out the few remaining Romans and burned Camulodunum to the ground. Boudicca marched to the largest city in the British Isles, Londinium (London). She burned that too and massacred the 25,000 inhabitants who had not fled.

What was daily life like in Roman Britain? Only some people could become soldiers (male citizens of Rome, no slaves, women, those of other ethnicities).Roman diets included grains, meat, fish, cheese, sauces and oils, and fruit/ vegetables.
Romans had medicine and knew about hygiene (herbs and spices, plumbing, bathing, heated bath houses)
Lots of Roman forts exist in the Northeast due to the proximity of Hadrian’s wall.
Hadrian’s wall was the boundary between the Roman empire and the far north of England/south of Scotland.
Corbridge was the most northerly Roman town in Britain  

How did the Romans build their Empire?
The city of Rome was built in 753 BCE.
Romans believed that Romulus and Remus were the founders of the city.
Over the next 800 years, the empire grew as the Roman army conquered other lands (including Britain in 43 CE).The Romans originally came from Italy (look at modern Italy and its geographical location/features).

How powerful was the Roman army?Emperor Augustus developed the Imperial Army, who were well-trained and professional soldiers (had no other jobs)There were different ranks of soldiers- centurions were advanced soldiers, and Legionaries were expert soldiers.
The army used strategies (wedge, tortoise) which made them powerful and equipment (clothes, horses, weapons, armour).
The Imperial army was widely feared by other people and had a reputation as an unstoppable force.
The Romans protected lands they had conquered, and they governed them.

Empire – A large group of countries or regions ruled by one leader or government, like the Roman Empire ruled from Rome.

Conquer – To take control of land or people through force, as the Roman army did across Europe, including Britain.

Legionary – A professional Roman soldier who served in the powerful and organised Roman army.

Rebellion – When people rise up against those in power; for example, Boudicca’s rebellion against Roman rule.

Settlement – A place where people live; Romans built towns, roads, and forts like Corbridge across Britain to control the land.

Feedback, sharing ideas, instruction

Pathway: Gymnastics

Focus: Movements, balances and sequence composition🔗 (Lessons 1-6)

This unit builds on the strong foundation pupils will already have creating gymnastic movements and balances. Pupils already know how to link movements with flow and can do so using a range of different movements and balances. This foundation is essential as pupils will be challenged to improve their creative skills as they design sequences on a variety of apparatus. Pupils will learn to include more advanced skills such as changes in level and direction, working in pairs and groups to evaluate and improve their performances.

Newcastle United Foundation:

Multi-Skills

Feedback, sharing ideas, verbal instructions, explanations

Disciplines:

Structures

Pathway: Helmets 🔗

Designing and making a helmet, using strengthening techniques to reinforce the shell structure.

Context Link:

Make links to the History study of the Romans by exploring the design and purpose of Roman soldier and centurion helmets. Use historical images and artefacts to investigate how the shape, structure and materials of these helmets provided protection, inspiring children as they design and construct their own helmets.

Form - The shape and look of something — what it looks like on the outside.

Function - What something is made to do — how it works or is used.

Structure - Something that has been built or put together, like a bridge, box, or tower.

Shell Structure - A hollow object with a strong outside layer, like a box or a carton.

Strengthen - To make something stronger so it doesn’t break or fall down easily.

Start with Playing

Pathway: Adding layers to major and minor songs🔗

In this unit, we explicitly name songs and listening examples that use the major or minor key. From their experience of hearing and singing previous major, minor and pentatonic music, pupils are able to identify the tonality. We build on prior skills of playing drone and ostinato alongside a song with more complex repeated patterns. Pupils will learn to move their ostinato from the major key to the minor key. The first five notes of the major and minor keys will be consolidated in later 'Compose and Create' units.

Language Angels Unit 🔗

La fonética (Phonics & Pronunciation)

In these 4 sequential lessons pupils will learn a selection of the key phonemes to facilitate accurate and authentic pronunciation as part of their language learning experience. Each of the 4 lessons is accompanied by a song that pupils will be encouraged to actively participate in, as well as a mouth mechanics guide video.