At Duchy of Lancaster we use knowledge organisers to set out the key learning for our learning in Geography, History, Science, Art and Music. Knowledge Organisers can be downloaded to use at home HERE.
Science
In Science, we are learning about Materials. In this unit children will revisit the concept of conductivity. They will look at the most suitable material for thermal conductivity and will analyse different materials and their properties. After revisiting this knowledge, children will move on to studying solubility; which materials are soluble and what it means to be soluble. This knowledge and understanding will form a foundation of understanding of chemistry that they will build on in KS3. Children will then take their science learning on further to look at separating mixtures through sieving, filtering and evaporating. They will work scientifically to separate a mixture using a range of tools and methods. They will learn about the scientist Jabir ibn Hayyan, who is thought to have invented a crucial tool for the distillation process; the alembic still. Reversible and irreversible changes will be studied as children deepen their understanding of dissolving, mixing and changing state.
Materials Knowledge Organiser
History
In History, we are learning about Baghdad. Studying Baghdad in 900 CE challenges any current conceptions that children may have of the region and develop an appreciation of its significance as a centre for learning in world history. The unit offers an opportunity for children to compare the construction of Baghdad with other European settlements they have studied, for example the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of London. The content of this unit links directly with the geography curriculum building on knowledge from ‘Rivers’ and ‘Settlements’, both of which are taught in Y3. In this unit, children look at the location of Baghdad as a crossing point for traders due to its proximity to the River Tigris. Children will use their prior knowledge of what factors lead to settlements developing locations to understand why Caliph Al-Mansur built Baghdad. Their understanding of rivers will help them to recognise the importance of the River Tigris. Children finish the unit with a powerful mental image of the waters of the River Tigris running black from the ink washed from books seized by the Mongols from the House of Wisdom. During this unit, children are building on well-established substantive concepts of power, religion, civilisation and conflict. Again, as has happened throughout their history curriculum, they see people rise and fall, power change hands and a violent end to a golden age in the history of a city. They also have a chance to build on their ideas of scholarship and wisdom through looking at the focus on academic study in Baghdad in c.900CE.
Baghdad Knowledge Organiser
Geography
In Geography, we are learning about Mountains. Building on children’s understanding of natural landforms, children will study mountains in depth in this unit. This unit will build on prior knowledge from studying Rivers in Year 3, the Seven Continents in Year 1 and ongoing locational knowledge from units such as Western Europe in 3. Children identified the Alps in Year 3 Mediterranean Europe and learned about the Ural Mountains in Year 4 Eastern Europe. This unit will provide some foundational knowledge for forthcoming units such as North and South America and Africa in Year 6. Throughout this unit children will have opportunities to use previously learned knowledge of the world, particularly locational knowledge. They will be looking at world maps and relief maps to identify mountain ranges and should be able to use these maps with increasing ease, recognising more places and features as they work through the curriculum. Children will encounter new and ambitious vocabulary, including names and features of mountains, and there will be many opportunities to rehearse and apply new vocabulary in their talk tasks and written work. The concepts and vocabulary in this unit will be built upon in forthcoming units. As children work through KS2 geography they will use and apply their geographical skills, such as map reading, interpreting scale, and reading from a key as they learn about places around the world. Over time children will get better at the skill of map reading as they learn more and remember more about the subject of geography and how it studies the world around us.
Mountains Knowledge Organiser
Art
In Art, we are learning about Islamic Art. Children come to this unit with historical knowledge of the ‘Golden Age of Islam’ studied in history in Autumn A. They are first introduced to art from the Islamic world by first studying the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. In it they identify examples of Islamic style, including calligraphy, geometric and vegetal patterns made from tilework and mosaics. The go on to consider these features in The Alhambra and the Taj Mahal, in particular noting the ornate plasterwork in the Nasrid Palaces at The Alhambra. Study of symmetrical designs, vegetal patterns and mosaics refers back to the influence of Byzantine art studied in year 4. The children use the Dome of the Rock, The Alhambra, the Taj Mahal and Hagia Sofia (previously studied in the year 4 unit on Byzantine art) to identify different common features of Islamic architecture, including domes, minarets, arches and muqarnas. During the course of the unit the children create two works of art in Islamic style. At first, they use rulers and compasses to create repeating geometric designs which they decorate with brightly coloured inks. They then take their design and transfer it onto a clay tile, developing their skills in three-dimensional modelling.
Islamic Art Knowledge Organiser
Music
In Music, we are learning about how music connects us to the past. In this unit, we ask ‘How Does Music Connect Us with Our Past?’ as an entry point for the broad Social Theme of ‘Music Is a Storyteller and Time Traveller’. Aside from considering how music relates to history, stories, our past (and our future!), this theme is relevant to learning topics such as cultural identity, changing ideas and inventions over time, creativity, film, TV, communication and other topics
Music Connections to Past Knowledge Organiser
Please see below for the knowledge Organisers for each term.
Sping 2023 Badgers
Art from Western Africa
East-Anglia, Yorkshire and the Midlands
Living-Things and their Habitats
The Industrial Revolution
