The Rainforest Topic Bundle

This Topic Bundle includes 4 ready-to-teach schemes of work across different curriculum areas, giving you a seamless cross-curricular approach to your teaching.

Each of the 23 lessons within this pack has been written by experienced teachers and contains:

1. An easy-to-follow lesson plan (including plenary and assessment questions)
2. An engaging slideshow for the teaching input
3. A main activity with three-way differentiation for adaptive teaching
4. An alternative activity
5. An overview (medium-term plan) so you can see the scheme contents at a glance
6. An assessment grid to track learning

• Geography: The Rainforest Biome
• Science: Rainforest Habitats
• English: Lost in the Rainforest: Non-chronological Reports
• Topic Enrichment Pack: The Rainforest

KS2 Geography Objectives

• 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
• identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night)
• describe and understand key aspects of physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle
• describe and understand key aspects of human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water
• use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied

KS2 Science Objectives

Year 3/4 Working Scientifically

• asking relevant questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them
• 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

Year 3 Plants

• identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers

Year 4 Living things and their habitats

• recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
• explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment

Year 4 Animals, including Humans

• construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey

English Objectives

Reading - Comprehension

• identifying how language, structure, and presentation contribute to meaning

Writing - Composition

• discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar
• discussing and recording ideas
• organising paragraphs around a theme
• in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices [for example, headings and sub-headings]
• assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvements
• proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentences

Writing Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

• extending the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions, including when, if, because, although
• using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause

Art Objectives

• to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing with a range of materials
• to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including painting with a range of materials
• to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including sculpture with a range of materials
• about great artists in history

Computing Objectives

• use search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content
• select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information

DT Objectives

• use research and develop design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose, aimed at particular individuals or groups
• generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches, cross-sectional and exploded diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces and computer-aided design
• select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks [for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing], accurately
• select from and use a wider range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their functional properties and aesthetic qualities
• evaluate their ideas and products against their own design criteria and consider the views of others to improve their work
• understand and use mechanical systems in their products [for example, gears, pulleys, cams, levers and linkages]