Year 3 – Autumn Term
Chocolate
Special event: A visit to Mullion Chocolate Factory. A “Chocology” workshop at the Eden Project
A mouthwatering topic!
Through this exciting project the children will be delving into the fantasy world of Charlie and the Chocolate factory and then visit the reality of our local Chocolate Factory at Mullion. As a fun twist the children will look at rocks and make chocolate to replicate rock types.In addition the children will look at the production of chocolate from the cocoa bean and study its discovery by the Aztecs. A workshop at Eden will enhance the learning about the history of chocolate and also how the cacao plant is grown and harvested.This will extend to the Fair Trade issues around chocolate exports today. As an exciting extra the children will taste a variety of chocolate bars, design their own packaging and make some chocolatey products! Delicious!
Enjoy and Achieve – every child’s dream to visit a chocolate factory and be given the opportunity to delve into the world of Roald Dahl then let their imaginations run wild with their own chocolatey ideas!.
Be Healthy –the children will look dental health related to sweets and sugary products
Make a Positive Contribution –the children will gain an understanding of Fair Trade and its importance. This knowledge will enable them to make a positive contribution by speaking out about the issue and considering purchasing Fair Trade goods themselves. .
Economic Well being – the children will look into issues surrounding fair trade and realize that people should not be prevented by economic disadvantage from achieving their full potential. They will gain an understanding of how markets work and they will consider the global economic impact of the cocoa bean.They will make chocolates and think of how they should be packaged and advertised for market.
Stay Safe –Children will learn about health, safety and hygiene issues when cooking and preparing their chocolate bars.
- Assistance with trips
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This topic will allow children to explore changing materials in relation to chocolate and sweet production. In an exciting twist the children will go on a rock walk – looking at rocks and soils in the local area. They will discuss how fossils are formed and then back in class will use chocolate to make simulations of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. This will also show reversible changes due to heat. When visiting Eden the children will look at the structure and function of plant organs on the cacao plant and they will learn about the life cycle of this plant. They will compare its dispersal to other local plants around the grounds this autumn. They will also study teeth and dental hygiene. They will discover the problems that sugary foods can pose if teeth are not looked after correctly.
Programme of Study
Working scientifically
During years 3 and 4, pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills through the teaching of the programme of study content:
- Asking relevant questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them.
- Setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests.
- Making systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units, using a range of equipment, including thermometers and data loggers.
- Gathering, recording, classifying and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions.
- Recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables.
- Reporting on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions.
- Using results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions for new values, suggest improvements and raise further questions.
- Identifying differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes.
- Using straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions or to support their findings.
They should learn how to use new equipment, such as data loggers, appropriately. They should collect data from their own observations and measurements, using notes, simple tables and standard units, and help to make decisions about how to record and analyse this data. With help, pupils should look for changes, patterns, similarities and differences in their data in order to draw simple conclusions and answer questions. With support, they should identify new questions arising from the data, making predictions for new values within or beyond the data they have collected and finding ways of improving what they have already done. They should also recognise when and how secondary sources might help them to answer questions that cannot be answered through practical investigations. Pupils should use relevant scientific language to discuss their ideas and communicate their findings in ways that are appropriate for different audiences.
These opportunities for working scientifically should be provided across years 3 and 4 so that the expectations in the programme of study can be met by the end of year 4. Pupils are not expected to cover each aspect for every area of study.)
Rocks
- compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties
- describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock
- recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.
- identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers
- explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant
- investigate the way in which water is transported within plants
- explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal.
-Pupils should be introduced to the relationship between structure and function: the idea that every part has a job to do. They should explore questions that focus on the role of the roots and stem in nutrition and support, leaves for nutrition and flowers for reproduction.
Note: Pupils can be introduced to the idea that plants can make their own food, but at this stage they do not need to understand how this happens.
Pupils might work scientifically by: comparing the effect of different factors on plant growth, for example, the amount of light, the amount of fertiliser; discovering how seeds are formed by observing the different stages of plant life cycles over a period of time; looking for patterns in the structure of fruits that relate to how the seeds are dispersed. They might observe how water is transported in plants, for example, by putting cut, white carnations into coloured water and observing how water travels up the stem to the flowers.)
What could this look like?
- A walk around the school and village identifying different rock types.
- Looking at local sedimentary rocks to see if they can find fossils
- Looking at sands and soils and exploring how they were once rocks.
- Making chocolate rocks.
- Looking at structure, function and life cycles of plants in relation to the cacao plant.
- Autumn walk looking at seed dispersal and comparing to plants in the village and school grounds.
Animals, including humans
- Identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions. (y4)
- Observe that some materials change shape when they are heated or cooled and measure or research the temperature at which this happens in decrees Celsius. (y4)
- Asking questions, making predictions and setting up fair tests related to tooth decay. Recording results with tables and diagrams. Drawing simple conclusions from these observations.
- Making observations related to reversible and irreversible changes in foods produced by heat. Measuring chocolate temperature using dataloggers.
- Pupils should explore a variety of everyday materials and develop simple descriptions of the states of matter (solids hold their shape; liquids form a pool not a pile; gases escape from an unsealed container). Pupils should observe water as a solid, a liquid and a gas and should note the changes to water when it is heated or cooled.
Note: Teachers should avoid using materials where heating is associated with chemical change, for example, through baking or burning.
Pupils might work scientifically by: grouping and classifying a variety of different materials; exploring the effect of temperature on substances such as chocolate, butter, cream (for example, to make food such as chocolate crispy cakes and ice-cream for a party). They could research the temperature at which materials change state, for example, when iron melts or when oxygen condenses into a liquid.)
Progression in skills:
- Children are able to work within a group, supported by an adult and posters.
- After class brainstorms, children raise their own questions.
- Predictions are made with encouragement; predictions include a reason.
- Children understand the need for a range e.g. 3 different juices to rot teeth etc.
- Children use simple equipment with some support e.g. thermometer.
- Simple writing frame supports simple conclusions. Patterns and trends are written about (“What did it mean?” is more important than “What I did?”).
- Children know terms hazard and risk. They begin to use terms while assessing dangers in practical work.
Attainment targets: By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.
- I know the key vocabulary related to rocks.
- I know how fossils form.
- I can describe how soils came from rocks.
- I can name the parts of a plant.
- I can talk about the life cycle of the cacao plant.
- I can compare how different seeds are dispersed.
- I know key vocabulary related to teeth.
- I know key vocabulary related to changing materials.
- I can use a datalogger to measure temperature.
- I can ask a question and (with help) set up a fair test to answer my question.
- I can make accurate observations and measurements.
- I can record my observations with diagrams.
- I can record my observations with tables.
- I can draw simple conclusions from my data.
- I can identify differences and similarities related to changing materials.
- I can suggest ways to improve my experiments.
History
Through studying the history of the cocoa bean the children will discover information about the Ancient tribes of Mexico and Central America; looking in detail at the Aztecs and their influence on our lives today. They will uncover what scientists have discovered about their beliefs about the properties of chocolate. They will look at their lives, gods and goddesses, rituals and routines – new discoveries around every corner. Through their Eden trip they will learn about the key historical figures who discovered chocolate and brought it to Europe.
Programme of Study
During their historical studies children need:
- An overview of where and when the first civilizations appeared and an in depth study of the lives and achievements of the Aztecs and their impact on our lives today.
- To know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilizations.
- To know how the lives of Ancient Civilizations have shaped this nation.
- To know where Ancient Civilizations fit into chronology of time.
- To have a historically-grounded understanding of the term “civilization”.
- To understand historical concepts like similarity, difference and significance.
- To frame historically valid questions.
- To create their own accounts of the history studied.
- To understand how evidence is used to make historical claims.
- To discern how and why contrasting interpretations of the past have been constructed.
- To gain a historical perspective by making connections between the ancient Aztecs and chocolate into current political and economic issues of Fair Trade.
- Children generating questions and conducting research using different sources of information.
- Explaining how the Aztecs have impacted on our lives today.
- Producing a non-chronological report about life in Aztec times.
- To use a range of sources to find out about a period.
- To observe small details – artifacts, pictures.
- To begin to use the library, e-learning for research as well as use topic books provided in class.
- To compare the lives of ancient civilizations with our lives today.
- To place the time studied on a time line.
Attainment targets: By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.
- I can use my observations and research to answer questions about the past.
- I can put the Aztecs on a time line and use appropriate dates and terms.
- I can use different sources of information for my research.
- I can link the discoveries of the past to my knowledge of the present day.
- I can summarise aspects of the Aztecs in my own words and pictures.
Geography
The children will locate and discover climatic information about areas of Central and South America where the cocoa bean is grown. They will compare this information with our own climate. They will look in detail at Fair Trade and the economic impact this has. They will also look at all of the people involved in chocolate production with a focus on the transport costs (food miles) from bean to bar.
Programme of Study
Location Knowledge:
- locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
- understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region of the United Kingdom and a region within North or South America
- Describe and understand key aspects of physical geography including climate zones.
- Describe and understand key aspects of human geography including economic activity including trade links.
- use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied
- use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world