Key Stage One Project Overview
Our Intent - what we want our curriculum to achieve
At North Featherstone J & I School, we want every child to be motivated to be the very best learner they can be. This means inspiring them with new and varied experiences every half-term. We want children to have age-appropriate knowledge and the skills to access the curriculum. Early reading, writing and number are essential for children in the Lower and Upper Foundation stages. As children progresses from Year 1 to Year 6, it is essential that children are able to access the curriculum with age expected skills in reading, writing and mathematics. Our curriculum is based on our four-stage philosophy: Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express.
Projects
Over a term children will have a memorable experience, the opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills, a week to demonstrate how they can use and apply the knowledge and skills they have been taught and an opportunity to express what they have learned to a range of audiences. This process forms the four-stage philosophy of Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express.
The four stages:
- Engage - Implementing the curriculum
- Develop - Implementing the curriculum
- Innovate - Evaluating the impact of the curriculum
- Express- Evaluating the impact of the curriculum
Engage – In this part of the curriculum children will engage in purposeful and contextualised learning experiences; in and outside the classroom. This may include visits out of school and visitors into school including a fossil workshop and a dinosaur in school, a superhero workshop and a visit to the seaside to name just a few.
Develop – In the following weeks children develop knowledge, understanding and subject skills required to progress their learning through focussed learning tasks and experiences. Here the children will record their work in a variety of ways through art work, written work, dance, music or construction.
Innovate – Children are given the opportunity to innovate by applying their knowledge and skills and understanding through a challenging provocation using their own and negotiated ideas.
Express – Children express and evaluate their knowledge, understanding and skills, as outcomes of the learning in different memorable forms including using a variety of media and technology. Examples of activities the children may do here are: have a dinosaur party, play in an orchestra with musical instruments they have made, host a teddy bears picnic and invite grandparents, have a superhero mask parade, class assembly for parents, puppet show, write stories and publish them, or create a dance or presentation for an audience.
Cycle 1
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Autumn 1 and 2 |
Dinosaur Planet |
Watch out everyone – the dinosaurs are on the prowl. They’re rampaging across the dusty earth, swishing their enormous tails and baring their fearsome teeth. Let’s explore the Dinosaur Planet. Imagine you’re a palaeontologist (that’s a scientist who studies bones and fossils). Dig deep and discover dazzling dinosaur facts. Create a dinosaur museum and invite visitors to see your awesome dinosaur artefacts. You could even do a dinosaur dance or produce some prehistoric percussion. Which is your favourite dinosaur? The Tyrannosaurus, the Brachiosaurus or the Micropachycephalosaurus? Doyouthinkhesawus? Yes, he did. Run! This project has a history focus. |
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Spring 1 |
Beat Band Boogie |
Here comes the marching band. Left, right, left, right. Step in time to the beat: 1, 2, 3, 4; let's make sounds, high and low. That sound is loud. That one’s quiet. What can you hear? There are sounds all around. What’s making each one? Name all the instruments in the band and be part of a ‘body orchestra’. Pat your knees, clap your hands, tap your feet, let’s move to the beat. Now march up the hill with the Grand Old Duke of York, beating your drum or shaking your shaker. Then it’s time to perform. Your audience loves you, so let’s take a bow.
This project has a music focus. |
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Spring 2 |
Street Detectives |
This way or that way? Where should we go? Up to the local shops or down to the playing fields? Let’s learn about our local community, looking at houses old and new and finding out how our streets have changed since our mums and dads were young. Perhaps your granny or grandpa went to your school or maybe they worked in the baker’s shop? Make maps and plans of the streets around us, planning our routes. What can you see? What can we find? Whereabouts do you live? Do you know your address? Find out how to write instructions, directions, adverts and learn rhymes all about our community from different times. When the Lord Mayor writes and asks us to help make our street a better place, it’s time to get your thinking caps on and paintbrushes at the ready. Ready to roll, Street Detectives? Get your clipboards and cameras – it’s time to start investigating. This project has a history focus |
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Summer 1 |
Enchanted Woodland |
If you go down to the woods today you’re in for a BIG surprise. Foxes and badgers, voles and mice, beady eyed owls in the swaying tree tops. Beneath the leaves are tiny footprints – animal or imp? You decide. Deciduous or evergreen? Can you match a leaf to its tree? Can you match a petal to its flower? Let’s build a den, stick by stick and branch by branch. Or we could make a teeny tiny home for a woodland fairy. Then let’s party down in the woods with Mr Fox and all his woodland friends. We’d better not get lost. Let’s leave a trail of conkers as we go. At last, it’s time to rest by the woodland fire, listening to stories and toasting our sweet, gooey marshmallows. Yum, yum. This project has a science focus. |
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Summer 2 |
Beachcombers |
Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside. Do you? That’s good, because you’re about to become an expert beachcomber. Head to your nearest beach to look for interesting and unusual objects, using your senses to spot, sniff and seek them out. Have you seen the rock pools yet? We can take a peek into the cool water to learn about the weird and wonderful animals and plants in their microhabitats. Maybe we can kick back in a deckchair and do a little reading. What’s your favourite book about the seashore? Let's invent an amazing rock pool resident. What features will it need to survive happily in its watery habitat? Make a 3-D model of your plant or creature. Got your shorts and sunglasses on? Bucket and spade at the ready? Let’s get beachcombing. This project has a science focus. |
Cycle 2
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Autumn 1 and 2 |
Memory Box |
Can you remember being small? Being a baby and learning to crawl? Do you recall a favourite toy, maybe a teddy bear or a favourite book? Look back at family photos of special occasions, perhaps holiday snapshots or a birthday or two. Remember a wedding or a christening and find a funny photo of your parents when they were young. Learn how to write a diary of days gone by and find out about the days before you were born: it’s called history and it’s all about the past. Then make a special box, a memory box, to keep special things safe. In years to come, you can revisit them and remember how you looked when you were young. Memories are special. Let’s make some more. This project has a history focus. |
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Spring 1 |
Superheroes
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Intergalactic greetings, young heroes. It’s time to rescue the planet from evil villains. Who’s your favourite superhero? Spiderman? Wonder Woman? Maybe your heroes are ordinary people who’ve achieved great things. Or is it those people who save lives in our emergency services that you admire most? Superheroes have super senses. Use yours to identify mystery items by their smell, taste, sound and touch. What do true superheroes eat to keep their senses and special powers sharp? Can we stop the dastardly plans of Professor Slime? He’s dropping his villainous instructions around town. We must stop people following them, but can we make it in time? Is that phone box free? Please excuse me – I have to save the world. This project has a Physical Education focus. |
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Spring 2 |
Paws, Claws and Whiskers |
Soft fur, sharp claws and twitching whiskers. What’s your favourite animal? One that meows? One that barks? Or maybe one that scurries or slithers? From pets at home to animals in the zoo, let’s find out what animals like to eat and where they like to sleep. Do you know how to look after a rabbit? A cat? Or even a snake? Find out how the elephant got his trunk and how the rhinoceros got his leathery skin. Perhaps you know how the dog got his waggy tail? Can you make a food chain to show who eats who? Who is a herbivore and who is a carnivore? When a gaggle of mysterious pets arrive at the local pet shop, it’s up to you to take care of them. Feed them, clean them and discover their daily needs. After all that work, curl up and take a cat nap. This project has an Art and Design focus. |
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Summer 1 |
Wriggle and Crawl |
Grab your coat and pooter – we’re going out and about on a minibeast hunt. Sweep your nets in ponds and lift up logs to see who’s home. Then set up a minibeast laboratory and observe their every move. Add notes and labels and ask research questions, just like a real entomologist. Learn about bees and worms and butterflies too. Can you make a food chain to show who eats who? Carry out investigations to find out more, like how far a snail travels in a day and how a spider catches its prey. Then animate to show how your favourite bug transforms from one form to another, perhaps a caterpillar to a butterfly or a maggot to a fly. On your belly, legs at the ready, it’s time to wriggle and crawl. This project has a science focus. |
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Summer 2 |
Land Ahoy! |
Yo ho, yo ho, it’s a sailor’s life for me. Get your sea legs on, it’s time to sail the salty seas. Navigate, investigate and explore the world, just like Captain Cook. Make a boat, sink a ship, fly a pirate flag. Speak like a pirate, write like a poet, then weigh and measure a pirate’s booty. How do rescues happen at sea? Find out about brave volunteers and young Miss Darling, rowing her boat across stormy seas. Sing a sea shanty whilst cleaning the poop deck, then search the school grounds for Captain Longbeard’s hidden treasure. There’s land ahead. Let’s get this ship to port. This project has a geography focus. |
