Swarcliffe Primary School

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Spring 2: Why do people invade different countries?

Welcome back to Swarcliffe Primary for Spring 2. Our topic this half term promises to be an exciting one as we look at why people invade different countries with a particular focus on the Vikings. We will begin our learning by visiting the Jorvik Viking Centre in York. There we will look at artifacts from the Viking era and find out more about their impact on Britain.

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English 

In English this half term we will be reading the book Invasion. A story all about a young boy's experiences as the page of William the Conqueror during the Norman invasion. From this book we will create our own diary entry from the main character’s point of view and also create a setting description of the Norman village. Through both pieces of writing we will look at expanded noun phrases (using the FANTASTICS), adverbials and the correct use of tense. Our other piece of writing this half term will be about our trip to Jorvik. We will write a recount of our day at the centre explaining all the fascinating things that we did.

Spellings Focus we are continuing to use Spelling Shed to deliver spellings.

Our spelling focuses for this half term include;

• suffixes such as ous, eous, ious and how we add suffixes to words ending in y.
• Strategies for spelling common 3/4 words
• Remember Spelling Shed can be accessed at home. 

Science:

Science this half term will be working as scientist as we learn about forces. We will begin by looking at what forces are and where we can see them in the world around us. We will then turn to look in detail at magnets. First, we will identify which materials are attracted to magnets and which are not. Then it will be time to identify the affect it has by placing the poles against each other and what attraction and repel mean and look like. In our experiments we will test how far magnetic force can be effective from and think about practical uses for magnets.

Maths

Our maths this half term will start with fractions. We will look at how fractions with the same numerator or denominator can be compared and ordered before turning our attention to how we can make a whole. Finally, we will study mixed numbers and attempt to partition these in to wholes and fractions. After fractions, are complete its time for measuring capacity and mass. When doing this we will use practical elements such baking to help us test our understanding. For the final week, we will recap fractions again and begin to discover how they can be added and subtracted from one another.

History:

Our History will all focus around the Viking invasion into Britain. We will start by creating our own Viking timeline of their arrival and influence in Britain. Our learning will then move on to look at the different Saxon kings during the period when Vikings were present in Britain and some key concepts such as Danegeld and Danelaw. After this, it will be time to look at Viking life and the law and justice that they practiced. Finally, we will look at the final Anglo-Saxon king before the Norman invasion.

DT: 

Vikings will be our theme in DT. We will over the six weeks create our own Viking coin purses. Our learning starts with identifying the properties of different materials and discussing which ones we think would be practical and which we feel would not. After this we will research different bags and then complete our own design for our product. Over week 6 we will create our final product.

Spanish 

In Spanish we will revise the days of the week and months and our numbers.