The children have well and truly engaged with our project for this term: Globe Trotting Around North America. There has been so much learning in the last two weeks, let alone what is left to come for the rest of this term! Hopefully, you have received our ‘knowledge organiser’ and ‘topic web’ so that you are aware of what we are teaching this term. Our knowledge organiser is packed with facts, useful information, vocabulary and ideas for additional learning so please take a look this weekend if you haven’t already.
Our project started with our ‘Hook’ early last week where the children were put into teams and given a list of 20 places in North America. They then had to go on a search around school to find a picture clue which they read and tried to match to one of the places on their list.
Here are some of the clues which they were given…
Since the hook, the children have been busy learning about so many aspects of North America within Geography, English, Reading, DT, PE and Maths lessons making it a great project for cross-curricular learning and enhancing knowledge.
In Geography, the children have been locating the seven continents and have found out the names of the countries in the continent of North America. Additionally, the children have learned what ‘states’ and ‘territories’ are and located the states in the USA. As you may have read, Year 5 are having a ‘state off’ next month; the teachers and children are already busy revising them for this fun Geography competition!
The children have also discovered that North America is the only continent which contains all the biomes! The children have found out the characteristics of each biome and where each biome is located in North America.
In Maths, the children have just finished a two-week unit about line graphs and different types of tables. We used this opportunity to teach them more about North America such as the temperatures of different parts of this vast continent. They also looked at information such as country size, country population and the native languages of these countries.
Our new English unit, based on the book ‘The Midnight Fox’, has captured the children. This book was written around 50 years ago and is based in the USA so both the subject matter and language is certainly a talking point. In this book, the main character has been sent to his Aunt’s farm for a couple of months whilst his parent are away. Despite not wanting to go originally, spotting a rare black fox has left him mesmerized. Using this book as a stimulus has produced such high-quality writing which we are looking forward to sharing with you later this term.
It’s quite amazing how much learning has happened over the last couple of weeks! We look forward to giving you an update on our DT and Art projects in a few weeks’ time.
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