1. Colvestone Primary School
Soaring Skies Federation
Spring term
Animal Kingdom
Year 4
Urban habitats

2. Colvestone Primary School
Soaring Skies Federation
Habitats
Early Years : Under the Sea
Year 1: The Polar Regions
Year 2: Jungle
Year 3: Plains and grasslands
Year 4 : Urban Environments
Year 5: Rainforest
Year 6: British Countryside

3. Colvestone Primary School
Week 1
w/c
Key question:
Where in the world is our habitat?
Special events this week:
Writing baseline assessment
Class newsletters to go to SLT for checking
Change Star Writer and Star Mathematician
Change door display
Writing
Baseline assessment – writing to recount
Introduce all of the different habitats that our classes will be learning about this term through pictures, videos and texts
Create a mind map of things your class know already about each habitat
Ask children to write a text which recounts what they know already about each habitat, for example: In Spring term, we are learning about habitats. Year 1 are learning about the polar regions. The things I know about this habitat are..
Allow this writing to be independent so it can be used as a baseline assessment for the term.
Geography
Use atlases and globes to locate the areas of the world where each of our curriculum focus habitats can be found. Find the names of countries that contain each habitat.
Science
Explore how we differentiate between living and non-living things. What do living things all do? (7 life processes)
PSHCE
Explore how we reflect our core school values – ‘ charity’
Music
Listen to with detail and appreciate music which links to your habitat. Represent your understanding of the music in a drawing. PE
Build up flexibility and control in dance. Create a habitat themed class dance for a performance at the end of term.
Art and Design
Use drawing and sketching to create an impression of your habitat – develop techniques of colour, line, shape and form
RE – to be read alongside the Hackney Agreed Syllabus
How do different Christians show their beliefs?

4. Colvestone Primary School
Week 2
w/c
Key question:
What animals can we find in our habitat?
Special events this week:
Communal displays up by
Writing
Writing to inform – non-chronological report about urban habitats (2 weeks)
Read a variety of information texts and reports about different habitats
Think about their audience and purpose
Explore their layout features – title, subheadings, sections of writing, pictures
Plan SPaG lessons linked to language features – writing in the present tense, joining sentences with conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘because’, expanded noun phrases, using adjectives for precision
Geography
Choose a selection of urban habitats that you learn about over Spring term from around the world. Use atlases and globes to find the countries which contain these habitats. Learn the capital cities of these countries and look at their flags.
Science
Name and identify different animals that live in urban habitats. Group them by their classification – mammals, reptiles, birds etc.
PSHCE
Explore how we reflect our core school values – ‘ openness’
Music
Compose a soundscape for your habitat using tuned and untuned percussion and voices for a performance at the end of term PE
Build up flexibility and control in dance. Create a habitat themed class dance for a performance at the end of term
Art and Design
Use painting to create an impression of your habitat – develop techniques of colour, line, shape and form
RE – to be read alongside the Hackney Agreed Syllabus
How do different Christians show their beliefs?

5. Colvestone Primary School
Week 3
w/c
Key question:
What plants can we find in our habitat?
Special events this week:
School support plans in by
Change Star Writer and Star Mathematician
Writing
Writing to inform – non-chronological report about urban habitats
As a class, plan the content and layout of your report. Think about what each section of writing will be about.
Think of some ideas for the heading and subheadings
Provide the class with a teacher model report to redraft and improve
Children to independently write their own reports about urban habitats
Provide writing frames and sentence starters for children who need support
Geography
Choose a city in the UK that is not London to study. Find out facts about this city – population, size, history etc. What wildlife can be found in this city? Is it a different type of habitat to London?
Science
Identify and name a variety of plants that can be found in urban habitats. How can we group these by classification? Trees, flowers etc.
PSHCE
Explore how we reflect our core school values – ‘ life-long learning’
Art and Design
Use collage with varied materials to create an impression of your habitat
Music
Compose a soundscape for your habitat using tuned and untuned percussion and voices for a performance at the end of term PE
Build up flexibility and control in dance. Create a habitat themed class dance for a performance at the end of term
RE – to be read alongside the Hackney Agreed Syllabus
How do different Christians show their beliefs?

6. Colvestone Primary School
Week 4
w/c
Key question:
How are living things adapted to life in our habitat?
Special events this week:
Writing
Writing to describe – newspaper report about the discovery of a new species in an urban habitat (2 weeks)
Ask children to invent a new species that has been discovered in an urban habitat. Write an informative description of the species.
Read some examples of newspaper reports and discuss audience and purpose
Explore their layout features (headline, lead paragraph, photo and caption, by-line, columned writing)
Explore their language features (alliteration and puns in the headline, direct and indirect speech in quotations, past tense)
Geography
Introduce the concept of climate. Look at world maps to find hot and cold areas of the world. Think about how climates change around the globe.
Science
Explore how animals in urban environments have adapted to living in a city. Have any animals changed their behaviours (eg. stopped hunting and started scavenging)?
PSHCE
Explore how we reflect our core school values – ‘ vote’ PE
Build up flexibility and control in dance. Create a habitat themed class dance for a performance at the end of term
Art and Design
Over the next two weeks, use sculpture using varied materials to create an impression of your habitat
Music
Compose a soundscape for your habitat using tuned and untuned percussion and voices for a performance at the end of term
RE – to be read alongside the Hackney Agreed Syllabus
How do different Christians show their beliefs?

7. Colvestone Primary School
Week 5
w/c
Key question:
What does our habitat look like in different seasons?
Special events this week:
Change Star Writer and Star Mathematician
Writing
Writing to describe – newspaper report about the discovery of a new species in an urban habitat
Plan the content and layout of a newspaper report announcing the discovery of the species created last week
Draft ideas for the headline and the lead paragraph
Draft each paragraph of the newspaper report (don’t use columns for the draft)
Re-draft and edit
Publish newspaper reports into columns and add in a photo and caption
Geography
Choose two of your urban habitats in contrasting climate areas. Compare the weather and climate patterns of your habitats in different seasons. How is wildlife affected by the season in these locations?
Science
Explore classification keys and make a classification diagrams for the living things found in one of your urban habitats.
PSHCE
Explore how we reflect our core school values – ‘ enrichment’
Music
Compose a soundscape for your habitat using tuned and untuned percussion and voices for a performance at the end of term PE
Build up flexibility and control in dance. Create a habitat themed class dance for a performance at the end of term
Art and Design
Use sculpture using varied materials to create an impression of your habitat
RE - to be read alongside the Hackney Agreed Syllabus
How do different Christians show their beliefs?

8. Colvestone Primary School
Week 6
w/c
Key question:
What happens in our habitat in the night time?
Special events this week:
Writing
Writing to recount – diary entry written in role as an animal (1 week)
Choose an animal which has moved its habitat from the wild into the city – for example, a peregrine falcon living in New York or a leopard in Mumbai (see Planet Earth II). Investigate the reasons that made this animal change its habitat. The children are going to write the diary of this animal describing their first day in the urban environment.
Give the children some examples of diary entries. Explore the language features – 1st person, past tense, thoughts and feelings
Plan some SPaG lessons around these language features
Use drama activities like hot seating to explore writing in role – the children are writing as the animal arriving in the city for the first time. Children write diary entries written in the 1st person
Re-draft and edit
Geography
Choose 1 urban habitat that you have been learning about. Investigate people settled in this location. Why did the city form where it is?
Science
Identify and name nocturnal animals that live in one of your focus urban habitats. Make a nocturnal animal classification key.
PSHCE
Explore how we reflect our core school values – ‘safety’ PE
Build up flexibility and control in dance. Create a habitat themed class dance for a performance at the end of term
Music
Compose a soundscape for your habitat using tuned and untuned percussion and voices for a performance at the end of term
Art and Design
Learn about art from urban areas. Research the lives and works of different artists.
RE - to be read alongside the Hackney Agreed Syllabus
Explore the significance of animals in Christianity

9. Colvestone Primary School
Week 7
w/c
Key question:
What are the changes that happen to living things in our habitat as they grow?
Special events this week:
Change Star Writer and Star Mathematician
Writing
Writing to explain – explanation of the life-cycle of a living thing from your habitat (2 weeks)
Read a variety of explanations and explore audience and purpose
Explore the layout features
Plan SPaG lessons around the language features of an explanation (temporal conjunctions, present tense, expanded noun phrases for precision)
Choose a living thing from an urban habitat with an interesting life cycle. Research each stage in the cycle.
Science
Explore the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal.
PSHCE
Explore how we reflect our core school values – ‘tolerance’
Geography
Explore the weather patterns in an urban habitat. How do these change depending on season?
Music
Compose a soundscape for your habitat using tuned and untuned percussion and voices for a performance at the end of term PE
Build up flexibility and control in dance. Create a habitat themed class dance for a performance at the end of term
Art and Design
Choose one artist from an urban area. Explore and research their work.
RE – to be read alongside the Hackney Agreed Syllabus
Explore the significance of animals in Islam.

10. Colvestone Primary School
Week 8
w/c
Key question:
How is our habitat different to a contrasting habitat in the UK?
Special events this week:
Writing
Writing to explain – explanation of the life-cycle of a living thing from your habitat
Plan the content of each paragraph of your explanation – include an introduction and conclusion
Draft the explanation
Re-draft and edit
Publish the explanations onto nice paper and use as a classroom display
Geography
Compare the physical and human geography of London to a different type of habitat around the world.
Science
Identify producers, prey and predators in an urban habitat. Make simple food chains.
PSHCE
Explore how we reflect our core school values – ‘origins’
Art and Design
Use the skills practised in Spring 1 to create artwork inspired by great artists linked to your habitat.
Music
Compose a soundscape for your habitat using tuned and untuned percussion and voices for a performance at the end of term PE
Build up flexibility and control in dance. Create a habitat themed class dance for a performance at the end of term
RE - to be read alongside the Hackney Agreed Syllabus
Why is the Qur'an special to Muslims?

11. Colvestone Primary School
Week 9
w/c
Key question:
What issues are affecting our habitat today?
Special events this week:
Change Star Writer and Star Mathematician
Writing
Writing to persuade – persuasive argument to try and prevent one of the issues affecting urban habitats that you will explore in Geography (2 weeks)
Read examples of persuasive arguments. Explore audience, purpose and form.
Plan SPaG lessons around the language features of persuasive writing – modal verbs, short sentences, subjunctive form, 2nd person pronouns, rhetorical questions.
Show a teacher model text that isn’t very persuasive. Re-draft it to make it better.
Geography
Explore conservation issues affecting your habitat. What can we do in school to help?
Science
Look at the skeletons of animals from the urban habitats. Label the main bones.
PSHCE
Explore how we reflect our core school values – ‘neighbourly’
Art and Design
Use the skills practised in Spring 1 to create artwork inspired by great artists linked to your habitat.
Music
Evaluate your performance and make any changes. PE
Evaluate your performances and make any changes.
RE – to be read alongside the Hackney Agreed Syllabus
Why is the Qur'an special to Muslims?

12. Colvestone Primary School
Week 10
w/c
Key question:
How can we sustain life in our habitat?
Special events this week:
Writing
Writing to persuade – persuasive argument to try and prevent one of the issues affecting the rainforest that you will explore in Geography
Plan the content and structure of your persuasive arguments
Draft the texts
Re-draft and edit
Read your persuasive arguments out loud to the class. Explore how to present and speak persuasively.
Geography
Explore changes that humans are making which are affecting your habitat.
Science
Look at an animal from an urban environment. Identify which muscles are used to help the animal move.
PSHCE
Explore how we reflect our core school values – ‘ equality’
Art and Design
Use the skills practised in Spring 1 to create artwork inspired by great artists linked to your habitat.
Music
Perform your soundscape with control and expression to an audience. PE
Perform your dance with control and expression to an audience.
RE – to be read alongside the Hackney Agreed Syllabus
Why is the Qur'an special to Muslims?