Focus Narrative:

Cultural Stories

Key Text/Stimulus:

Dias De los Muertos (Animation) 🔗

Writing Outcome:

Overview:

In the silent short animation Día de los Muertos, a child journeys between the world of the living and the world of the dead, guided by memory, family, and love. Without words, the story shows how remembrance connects generations and keeps loved ones close.

Writing task:

Write a narrative retelling of the animation from the viewpoint of the child, describing the journey into the world of the dead, who they meet there, and how the experience changes them before they return.

Writing focus:

Use cohesive devices (time adverbials, pronouns, and conjunctions) to link ideas and events clearly, while maintaining a first-person voice that shows how the character’s thoughts and feelings develop across the journey.

Focus Grammar

• Noun phrases expanded by the addition of modifying adjectives, nouns and prepositional phrases.

Hot-seating as characters, sharing ideas and feelings

Debate around pollution.

Focus Non-Narrative:Formal Letter Writing

Key Text/Stimulus:

Science: Eco systems

Writing Outcome:

Overview

Plastic pollution is harming rivers and oceans, damaging wildlife and affecting communities. Pupils will explore why this is a serious issue and how people in power can help make change.

Writing Task

Write a formal letter to the Prime Minister explaining why plastic pollution in rivers and oceans is a problem and asking for clear action to reduce it. Your letter should include reasons, examples, and suggestions for what the government could do.

Writing Focus

Use a formal tone and structure (addresses, greeting, paragraphs, sign-off), organise ideas logically using cohesive devices, and support points with clear reasons to persuade the reader.

Cross-curriculum support genres:

Informal Letter Writing

Non-chronological reports

What is the Christian concept of salvation?Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God, who came to Earth in order to save humans from their sins. His death and resurrection opened up the way back to God and restored humanity’s relationship with him.

Why is 'The Lord's Prayer' special to Christians?Jesus taught his disciples “the Lord’s Prayer” which is also known as the “Our Father”. It explicitly asks God to grant the speaker forgiveness as they forgive others who have hurt them.

Salvation – The Christian belief that Jesus’ death and resurrection saved people from sin and helped restore their relationship with God.

Forgiveness – Letting go of anger or hurt when someone has done something wrong; Christians believe God forgives those who are truly sorry.

Prayer – Talking to God; Christians use prayer to thank, ask, and speak to God, like in The Lord’s Prayer.

Pathway: Mechanical cars 🔗

Making and designing mechanical cars that use different methods of movement.

Core: Mechanical systems

How do mechanical cars move, and what affects how well they work?

Mechanical cars move because of wheels and axles that turn, and the way they are built—such as the chassis shape, how well the wheels turn, and the forces applied—affects how fast or smoothly they go; designers make and test different versions to improve their movement.

Chassis– The base frame of a car that holds all the parts together.

Axle – A rod that wheels turn on to allow movement.

Force – A push or pull that makes something move.

WOW! Wonder Launch

Big Question: How do living things depend on each other to survive?

Enquiry Focus: Observation over time – watching how predator and prey numbers change as the game progressesPattern seeking – noticing patterns in which colours are tagged most often and how numbers affect survival

Outline: Children take part in a Predators & Prey chase game. Each child wears a coloured band, with clear rules about which colours can tag others. When tagged, children sit out, showing how predator and prey numbers change. The game starts with fewer predators and more prey to reflect real ecosystems.

What to Wonder? Encourage children to look closely and wonder: Changes in predator and prey numbers over timeWhich colours survive longestHow having more or fewer predators affects the game outcome

What is a food chain, and what does it show?A food chain shows how energy is passed from one living thing to another, starting with a producer (like a plant) and moving through consumers, such as herbivores and carnivores, to predators at the top.

What is the difference between a producer, a predator, and prey in a food chain? A producer makes its own food (like plants), prey is an animal that gets eaten by another animal, and a predator is an animal that hunts and eats other animals.

Why are food chains important in understanding ecosystems?Food chains show the relationships between living things and how energy flows through an ecosystem, helping us understand the balance of nature and what happens if one part of the chain is disrupted.

Producer – A living thing, like a plant, that makes its own food using sunlight through a process called photosynthesis.

Consumer – An animal that eats plants or other animals to get energy.

Predator – An animal that hunts and eats other animals for food.

Prey – An animal that is hunted and eaten by another animal.

Ecosystem – A community of living things, like animals and plants, and their environment, all working together and depending on each other.

Online Safety

Lesson 4: What is a bot? 🔗

Discovering that technology can be designed to act like or impersonate living things and describing what the benefits and risks of this might be.

Skills Showcase

HTML 🔗

Recognising the role of HTML in a web page and altering the HTML to change the text and images.

Oak Academy

Playing together: effective rehearsing as part of an ensemble 🔗

Language Angels Unit 🔗

• Me Presento (Presenting Myself)