Manor Green Primary and Nursery School
Key Stage 1
Yr 1
Spring 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
Theme subject focus:
Science / Design Technology
Everyday materials and using these
materials to build structures (houses /
bridges)
Visits / visitors / enhancements /
WOW factor!
The Fire of London (on our playground)
Which pig lives in a house like this?
Key Questions / Learning Challenges (Skills / Concepts)









Can I tell the difference between an object and the material it is made from?
Can I identify and name a variety of everyday materials, including wood, plastic, glass, metal, water
and rock?
Can I describe the simple properties of a variety of materials? (hard/soft, stretchy/stiff, shiny/dull etc)
Can I compare and group together a variety of everyday materials (on the basis of their simple
physical properties)?
Can I explain why a material might be useful for a specific job?
Can I use pictures and words to plan?
Can I design and make a structure (house / bridge) using different materials? (Collaborative work)
Can I build a bridge using only paper? Do I know how to make my model stronger? (eg different ways
of strengthening materials – rolling, folding paper). Pupils to investigate!
Can I design my own home for the future?
Cross-curricular elements overview;
Fairy stories / traditional tales – retelling/recognising, joining in with predictable phrases. Writing for a purpose – letter from Goldilocks
to say ‘sorry’ to the ‘Three Bears’. Labels for drawings eg materials to be used. Extended captions to describe different houses.
Role play / drama – acting out different traditional stories / character voices. Hot – seating different characters.
Maths
Measurement – measure and begin to record lengths and heights, mass / weight. Sequence events in chronological order using
appropriate language (eg before and after, next, first, today, yesterday etc) Shapes – windows, doors, bricks etc of houses.
Computing Capturing images with a camera, printing out a photograph from a camera with help (different types of houses?). Use a simple program
to create a picture of their house / flat etc.
Art + design Printing shapes – repeating patterns to create ‘texture’ on their houses / roofs (eg bricks, tiles?) Textures – rubbings / different surfaces.
Music
Compose own music to accompany particular fairy tales / traditional tales eg. repeated sequence of sounds for Goldilocks, different
sounds for each of the bears / Three Billy Goats Gruff etc Songs about fairy tales (Charanga)
Physical Ed Sports coach – games skills, gymnastics – different ways of balancing (floor work and apparatus)
Religious Ed How and why symbols express religious meanings. Christianity and Islam – inside a Christian church / mosque.
SMSC
Collaboration / cooperation – working with others to make a house / bridge. Looking at different ways people pray / observe their religion.
A different language to express a story.
Languages The Three Little Pigs (French) using pictures and French words.
English
Manor Green Primary and Nursery School
Key Stage 1
Yr 1
Spring 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
Which pig lives in a house like this?
Theme focus: Science / Design Technology
Key Focus / Content
SCIENCE
Everyday Materials – naming,
grouping a variety of materials,
properties of materials
Working scientifically
Programme of study
Pupils should be taught to:
 distinguish between an object and the material from which
it is made.
 to describe materials using their senses (using scientific
words) eg hard/soft stretchy/stiff rough/smooth
shiny/dull
bendy (flexible) /not bendy waterproof /not waterproof
absorbent/not absorbent opaque/transparent
 explain what materials objects are made from.
 name some different everyday materials eg wood,
plastic, glass, metal, water and rock?
 sort materials into groups using different criteria
 perform simple tests to explore questions:
 what is the best material for an umbrella, keeping
your hands warm, for a swimming costume, for a
bookshelf?
Resources
Reinforce own
addresses
Vocabulary cards for
sorting and on display
Vocabulary cards for
sorting and on display
Variety of materials to
sort, identify etc
Different fabrics
Card/paper
Elastic,
Bricks
Investigative opportunities
Challenge
Can pupils tell someone else
where they live? (from last
theme – link the Pigs’ homes)
Can they devise their own
questions to investigate?
Observing closely – talk about what they see, use simple
equipment to help them make observations
Performing tests – perform simple tests, tell other people
what they have done.
Identifying and classifying – identify and classify things
they observe, think of questions to ask, answer some
scientific questions, give simple reasons for their answers,
explain what they have found out.
Recording findings – show their work using pictures, labels
and captions, record their findings using standard units, put
information in a simple chart.
Magnifying glasses
See above
Can they describe what is
similar and different between
materials? Flexible/stiff etc
Can they use computing to
show their working?
Manor Green Primary and Nursery School
Key Stage 1
Yr 1
Spring 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
Which pig lives in a house like this?
Cross-curricular elements: English, mathematics, computing, art + design, music, P.E. R.E.
Key Focus
Content
Programme of study
DESIGN TECHNOLOGY
Pupils should be taught to:
Making houses for three little
pigs (All the houses should be

different and designed by the child)
Making and strengthening
bridges
Design your own home for the
future
MATHEMATICS
Geometry – properties of
shapes
Measuring windows and doors
for their houses
ENGLISH
Spoken language (focused)
Hot seating characters from
fairy tales
Role play – to help pupils to
identify with and explore
characters




design purposeful, functional and appealing products for
themselves and others.
select from and use a range of tools and equipment to
perform practical tasks (eg cutting, joining and finishing)
select from and use a range of materials .
explore and evaluate a range of existing products
build structures, exploring how they can be made
stronger, stiffer and more stable.
Pupils should be taught to:
 recognise and name common 2D and 3D shapes
including:
 rectangles (including squares), circles and
triangles (shapes of doors / windows / tiles
 cuboids (including cubes), pyramids and spheres
(bricks – cuboids, building – cube?)
 measure and begin to record lengths and heights
 sequence events in chronological order using appropriate
vocabulary eg before/after, next, first, today, yesterday,
tomorrow, morning, afternoon and evening.
Pupils should be taught to:
 retell familiar stories (such as fairy tales)
 devise questions for different characters
 act out different stories (role play / drama)
 conduct simple interviews (characters)
 speak audibly and fluently with increasing command of
Standard English
Resources
Images of houses and
bridges
Boxes
Card
Sellotape and glue
Paint
Felt tips
Scissors
Investigative
opportunities
Challenge
How many ways can pupils
find to make their bridges
stronger? eg extra card,
shape of bridge, bigger
base etc
A variety of 2D and 3D
shapes in different sizes
Objects that can be
identified as a particular
shape eg. ball – sphere,
box – cuboid or cube etc
How many different things
in the classroom that are
cuboids, cubes, spheres
etc?
Ideas from house images
of different shaped tiles
etc for roof triangle,
square
Can pupils identify time
words in their fairy stories?
Questions stems
(Bloom’s taxonomy)
Dressing up costumes
Can pupils sort out the
characters who are ‘good’
and those who aren’t?
Manor Green Primary and Nursery School
Key Stage 1
Yr 1
Spring 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
Which pig lives in a house like this?
Key Focus
Content
Writing
Extended captions to describe
the houses.
Diagrams, plans for houses and
bridges
Letter from Goldilocks to the
three bears apologising for
going into their house!
Programme of study
Pupils should be taught to:
write sentences by:
 saying out loud what they are going to write about
 composing a sentence orally before writing it
 sequencing sentences to form short narratives.
 re-reading what they have written to check that it makes
sense
spell:
 words containing the 40+ phonemes
 the days of the week
 common exception words
discuss what they have written with the teacher or other
pupils
Resources
Samples of text types to
be taught
Investigative
opportunities
Challenge
Can they use the steps to
success as a checklist for
their writing?
I can statements for
different text types –
steps to success
Images from different
fairy stories to prompt
discussion
Can they use more
adventurous words?
Different versions of fairy
stories for children to
handle
Can the children think of
words to describe different
characters?
eg. the wolf in Little Red
Riding Hood – nasty, clever,
mean, cruel, greedy
read aloud their writing clearly enough to be heard by
their peers and the teacher



Reading
Fiction texts – fairy tales
leave spaces between words
begin to punctuate using a capital letter and full stop,
question mark or exclamation mark
use capital letter for names of people, places, days of the
week
Pupils should:
 develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read,
vocabulary and understanding by:
 be encouraged to link what they read or hear read to their
own experiences
 recognise that stories read to them might have happened
a long time ago
participate in discussion about what is read to them,
taking turns and listening to what others
Manor Green Primary and Nursery School
Key Stage 1
Yr 1
Spring 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
Which pig lives in a house like this?
Key Focus
Content
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Programme of study
Resources
Investigative
opportunities
Challenge
Pupils should be taught:
The church building –
symbolism to Christians
COMPUTING
Taking pictures of changes in
weather / seasons (ongoing)
Control, directional language
and programming – algorithmss
using a Bee-bot programmable
toy
ART AND DESIGN
Printing – repeated patterns
(bricks, tiles and different
textures for different parts of
their house)
Mondrian (use of different
shapes
MUSIC
Own compositions to represent
different characters
Pupils should be taught to :
 capture images with a camera and ipad
 understand what algorithms are.
 create a simple series of instructions - left and right.
 record their routes.
 understand forwards, backwards, up and down
 put two instructions together to control a programmable
toy.
 begin to plan and a Bee-bot journey
 enter information into a template to make a graph?
 to talk about the results shown on a graph?
Children should be taught :
 how to print using different textures / objects
 to print onto paper and textile.
 to mix colours of their choice
 how to create a repeating pattern
 to describe what they see and like in the work of another
artist
 ask sensible questions about a piece of art
Children should:




make different sounds with instruments
change the sounds
be able to give reasons for choosing instruments
be taught to make sequences of sounds (to represent
features of different characters) eg Little Riding Hood –
very light fast music on glocks – happy character Wolf –
lower instruments slow and threatening!
Cameras
Ipads (Bee-bot) and
tablets
Computers
Bee-bots
Appropriate progams
Can pupils control the Beebot on ipad using more
complex instructions?
Paint
Different kinds of paper /
card
Images of Mondrian’s
work
Can pupils choose their
own shapes to print onto
their houses? (walls, roofs
etc)
Variety of instruments
Can pupils evaluate others’
playing in simple terms?
Images of characters
Can they explain why they
have chosen certain sounds
for their characters?
Manor Green Primary and Nursery School
Key Stage 1
Yr 1
Thematic Curriculum – Medium Term Planning
Theme Title:
Which pig lives in a house like this?
Spring 1