Medium Term Plan

Theme – The seven seas

12 weeks

Activities

PSED: The Rainbow Fish – talk about friendship and sharing. Children contribute to the Sharing Wall. Exploring and celebrating differences. / Physical: Use a variety of tools to make puppets, musical instruments and boats. Learn how to use saws, hammers and drills with skill and care when using wood to make models. Use bats, balls and hockey sticks in PE.
C&L: The Author’s Chair – a session every day. Children tell stories drawing on those they have heard. Discuss stories, characters, settings and events of the story. Explore story language, use in role-play.
Talk partners – children use each other to share ideas related to the work in literacy. Puppet theatre/role play – children use puppets they have made to act out stories.
Books – The Rainbow Fish series, The Fish Who Could Wish, Finding Nemo, Octagons, Tiddler, Commotion under the Ocean, Snail on a Whale, Ocean Poems. / Maths: Explore the properties of 2d and 3d shapes, learn names and identify in the environment. Find out about capacity, comparing which container holds more. Play maths games linked with topic,eg pirate dominoes, the rainbow fish game, using addition and subtraction in practical situations. Continue to follow the maths scheme of work for Foundation Stage.
Literacy: Use The Rainbow Fish to share ideas and write a class story set under the sea. Children look at fantasy story settings and write their own story. Find out about instructions, follow them, look at the characteristics of instructions, children write their own instructions. Look at poetry based around the sea and senses. Use non-fiction books to find out about sea life / Understanding the world: Explore different aspects of sea life eg living under the sea, living on the sea and living by the sea. Find out about sea life and the different ways to survive. Look at and compare different environments. Set up a rock pool. Octagons – use to imagine what it must be like to live in a submarine. Look at the different people who live on the sea – fishermen, oil riggers, pirates. Look at the seaside – what is life like, holidays? How have seaside holidays changed? Find out about islands – our island (large) and Isle of Struay (small). Compare. Use IT to explore areas of the topic. Explore floating and sinking. Which materials are the best at floating? Make boat to carry a load across the water tray.
Expressive arts: Look at a variety of seascapes and create their own – use Japanese art as well as European. Design and make pirate puppets to use in puppet theatre. Design and make masks and props for role-play area. Explore and make instruments using everyday objects. Use wood to make models based on the topic. Use water wash and collage to create a Rainbow fish. Use clay to create a 3d fish or underwater creature.

Medium Term Plan

Theme – The Seven Seas

12 weeks Learning objectives

Main focus: Life under the sea, living by the sea, living on the sea. Focus books – Finding Nemo, The Fish who Could Wish, The Rainbow Fish, The Whale’s Song, non-fiction texts / Assessment: Observations, short and long, discussions and questioning, parent contributions to Learning Journey. Children’s own recording. / Environment and resources: Listening and responsive adults, resources accessible and clearly labeled. Activities offered in the outdoor area to support all areas of learning.
PSED: Initiate conversations, attends to and takes account of what others say.
Explain own knowledge and understanding, and asks appropriate questions of others.
Take steps to resolve conflicts with other children, e.g. finding a compromise.
Aware of the boundaries set, and of behavioural expectations in the setting.
Begin to be able to negotiate and solve problems without aggression, e.g. when someone has taken their toy / Physical: Use simple tools to effect changes to materials. Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing control.
Show understanding of how to transport and store equipment safely. Practice some appropriate safety measures without direct supervision. / C&L: Extend vocabulary, especially by grouping and naming, exploring the meaning and sounds of new words. Use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences in play situations. Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events. Introduce a storyline or narrative into their play.
Maths: Count in ones, twos and tens. Estimate quantities, length and mass. Use objects, counting forwards or backwards to add and subtract two numbers. Recognise properties of shapes and to use shape in modelling and technology. Solve simple problems in practical situations. / Expressive arts: Explore the different sounds of instruments. Manipulate materials to achieve a planned effect. Construct with a purpose in mind, using a variety of resources. Use simple tools and techniques competently and appropriately. Select appropriate resources and adapts work where necessary. Select tools and techniques needed to shape, assemble and join materials they are using.
Choose particular colours to use for a purpose.
Introduce a storyline or narrative into their play.
Play alongside other children who are engaged in the same theme. Develop and act out a narrative / Literacy: Segment the sounds in simple words and blend them together and know which letters represent some of them. Begin to read words and simple sentences. Use vocabulary and forms of speech that are increasingly influenced by their experiences of books. Enjoy an increasing range of books. Know that information can be retrieved from books and computers.
Use some clearly identifiable letters to communicate meaning, representing some sounds correctly and in sequence. Attempt to write short sentences in meaningful contexts.
Understanding the world: Complete a simple program on a computer. Use ICT hardware to interact with age-appropriate computer software. Find out about the natural world. / Children’s ideas: The children want to find out about mermaids, sharks, whales, sea horses, crabs, fishermen and pirates. / CoEL: (Playing, exploring, active learning, creative and thinking critically) Have a go, be involved and
concentrate, have ideas, experiment and choose ways to do thing, finding new ways enjoying achievements.