Term 6 - Under the Sea
Our topic in term six is 'Under the Sea'. In the this project, your child will learn about the seaside and the ocean, including the animals and wildlife that can be found there, and how to care for the environment.
We will be using our knowledge of sea life to draw our own magic buckets, each containing a vast, ocean-themed ecosystem inside. As we learn about pollution, and how littering can have a negative effect on ocean life, we will use our literacy skills to create posters to advocate for cleaner oceans, and discourage littering. As we continue to learn about how to care for our environment, we will add to our garden, and plant watercress. Later on, we will create a postcard for our new teachers! Throughout the term, we will use our creative minds and expressive skills to make our own jellyfish, and create our own shell clay prints. We will continue to use our knowledge of number throughout this topic, and use repeating patterns to design underpants for pirates! We will also enhance our digital skills, using apps such as ProCreate to make our own patterned fish, and making fact files about endangered species. We will use BeeBots to help us to collect rubbish and dispose of it in the correct places. Our construction skills will be improved greatly within this topic, as we make boats, sandcastles, mermaid coves, obstacle courses and pirate ships! We will also make a very memorable experience this year, as we go on our first ever school trip to Joss Bay! This will allow us to learn about the beach and ocean first-hand, and apply our extensive knowledge during hands-on investigations and explorations.
Within this topic, we are extending children's knowledge about animals, which they covered in term four. Their understanding regarding how to care for and nurture animals will be enhanced here, and they will learn about other ways we can keep animals safe, drawing upon the environmental explorations and investigations they have taken part in throughout the year. The children will continue to uphold and extent their knowledge of the values of autonomy, kindness and respect, as they become more aware of how different animals need support to thrive, and how they are able to support this. The children's curiosity will also be enhanced, as they extend the knowledge they learnt in term four in a pro-active and fun way. Children will be able to apply their knowledge of people who help us, which they learnt about in term three, as they learn about how to stay safe on beaches, and how lifeguards can be used as a form of emergency services in these locations, which will help them with the value of empowerment. Children's courage will be enhances well within this project, as they engage in risky learning and investigations on the beach, and as they uses their senses to explore different textures and places with which they are not familiar with. This will support their self-esteem amazingly!
Supporting your child at home
- Share and discuss and trips to the beach, or any underwater swimming that you or your child has participated in. We would love to see these photos on Tapestry!
- Involve your children in exploring and learning about sea animals, and their environment.
- Encourage your child to become involved in recycling plastics within the house, to help keep the environment clean! Discuss with them the importance of things such as recycling, reusing and composting, for the benefit of the environment.
Words to use and explore:
- seaside
- bucket
- spade
- sea
- sandcastle
- animals
- sand
- fish
- boat
- float
- sink
- pattern
- ocean
- mermaid
- tail
- cove
- shells
- rubbish
- beach
- recycle
- reuse
- clean up
- eco-friendly
- pirate
- ship
- plank
- map
- directions
- treasure
- Summer
- holiday
- postcard
- stamp
We will be reading the books-
- 'Billy's Bucket' by Kes Gray and Garry Parsons
- 'The Singing Mermaid' by Julia Donaldson
- 'Hooray for Fish' by Lucy Cousins
- 'Pirates Love Underpants' by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort