YR5 Autumn 1 To the Stars

Unit:
To The Stars
Term:
Autumn 1
Year:
5
Unit Overview
During this Unit pupils will be exploring the scientific elements of our planet in the solar system and the effects of our Moon and the Sun upon our planet. Pupils will
imagine they are heading into space for several subjects and planning an expedition; so the classroom could set up as a mission control during the Unit. You could
also explore hiring a planetarium dome in which stars or the solar system are projected. A range of websites will also be accessed to support elements of the course.
NASA provides a range of on-line elements including video clips, audio clips and factual information. You may also have access to a model of the solar system or the
phases of the moon, both of which would be useful. The computing element involves the learners in programming a lunar landing.
You can use more or less role-play in this Unit depending on the interest and enjoyment of the pupils and the enthusiasm of teachers and teaching assistants. It
could work well setting up a mission control in the classroom for the class of space cadets planning their first mission around the solar system. The teacher can take
the role of Cadet Trainer. The class should be happy for the teacher to move from alien to trainer to fellow cadet, if it is made clear with hats or other symbols which
role they represent. Badges are great to signify roles and a set of Space Cadet badges to kick off the Unit would be fun.
On the first day of the Unit they receive a visit from aliens from another solar system (TA/teacher) who have gone off course and crash landed and need help to exit
Earth avoiding the Sun and the Moon after they have made extensive repairs and taken advice from the earth cadets. This provides a context for pupils learning
about the universe for the aliens. This could both be the start and also draw the Unit to a conclusion: at the start the pupils examine what they know already and
what they need to know to help the aliens. They take their own role-play space mission; stage a slow motion spacewalk repair of their space ship on the journey. For
the conclusion they then share their new knowledge with the alien cadets who have been repairing their own ship and are ready to leave our solar system.
©Cornwall Learning Publications 2013
Links
To The Stars
Pupils will be exploring beyond the Earth and
consider where and how it fits into the solar
system. They will also consider our Moon, the
Sun and will explore the phases of the Moon
and seasons.
Key questions that will be explored include:
 How does day turn into night and night into
day?
 Why does the Moon sometimes look
different?
 Why and how do shadows change?
 What planets are in our solar system?
 How are they different to our planet and each
other?
As part of this Unit, pupils will meet aliens, go on
an imaginary journey into space in English,
keeping a log of their journey and using audio
and video clips to support the development of
ideas and imaginations. They will look at
astronauts’ fitness programmes.
The classroom could be transformed into a
mission control during this Unit. Pupils can
imagine getting ready and setting off to space.
This can be recreated using a range of
multimedia experiences (video, dimmed lighting
sounds, smoky smells etc.).
You could also explore hiring a planetarium
dome in which stars or the solar system are
projected or holding a star gazing evening
outdoors. There is free software available from
astronomical websites which will display images
of the night sky.
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Outdoor Learning
 A visit to a space exploration centre, a planetarium or a visit to school by a portable planetarium
organisation or an astronomer
National and International links
 Links to international space station and NASA via their websites. These contain audio and video
links in addition to information and also have the function to allow you to listen live or post
questions to be answered
Links to the world of work
 Links to role of astronaut, explorer or scientific aspects of space exploration and discovery
 Links to keeping a journal for a journey, adventure or period of time
 Also links to journalism and media through English activities
Links to learning and life skills
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 Working with perseverance and concentration
 Taking turns when talking
 Decision-making and negotiating
To the stars
Resources
Music
Science
 Role-play props (badge, cap, scarf)
 Photos of Earth from space, globe or
Google Earth
 3 balls of different diameters and 3
sticks
 Shadow sticks
 Torch
 Pictures of constellations and/or
programme such as Stellarium
 Suggested space songs: Nigel Hess, ‘Space Songs’,
‘Phantasmagoria,’ ‘I’m the Urban Spaceman Baby’, ‘Build A Rocket
Boys’ Elbow, ‘Can you hear Me?’ Christine Judge, ‘Goonhilly Round’
C Judge/S Pilley, ‘Singing Science’ Junior Songscape, Earth Sea and
Sky
 A range of space music: ‘Space Oddity’, ‘Calling Occupants’, ‘To The
Moon & Back’, ‘Spaceman’, ‘Moon River’, ‘Walking on the Moon’,
‘Rocket Man’ ‘War Of The Worlds’, Soundtrack from ‘ET’, ‘Star Wars’,
‘Star trek’, BBC series ‘The Planets’ ‘2001, a ‘Space Odyssey’,
‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, Holst ‘The Planets Suite’
 Planet info cards, books etc. for simple facts about the planets as
inspiration.
English
 Extracts from the Apollo 11 flight
log (available online)
 Soundtrack or music ‘Aldebaran’
from Enya’s ‘The Celts’
 Explorer journals
 Archive news items of space
exploration/astronauts
 Alien costumes optional 
Languages
 Class list
 Days of the week published song (optional)
 Photocopiable word lists cut up and placed in envelopes/small
containers, 1 per small group/table
 Lundi matin song – Mama Lisa’s World website/ YouTube cartoon
 Planets image flash cards
 Planets words flash cards
 Rhythm sound file (optional)
 Multi-link cubes or coloured sorting objects
 Globe/inflatable globe/ball
 Mini whiteboards
 Resources:
 Jean Michel Jarre music
 Jumbled sentence word cards including full stops ‘Mercure est une
petite planète froide’.
 Recommended book list:
Va-t’en Grand Monstre Vert! by Ed Emberley
ISBN 978-2-877-67172-9
K Bidule 5 by Nick Butterworth
ISBN 978-2877673051
©Cornwall Learning Publications 2013
Art and Design
Computing
 Computer and ‘Scratch’ (a free
program which can be used to
link instructions together to
make characters act in certain
ways). An alternative to Scratch
is Kodu, which is also free and
can be used in similar ways.
 Large scale image of Van Gogh’s ‘Starry
Night’ painting. This is available to view
on numerous websites.
 Thick paper or thin card
 Thick paint (acrylic is best or thicken
ready mix paints with PVA) in blues
(brilliant, Prussian, cyan) white and
yellows (brilliant, ochre, lemon)
 Flat or filbert ended hog hair brushes
 Plastic palette knives (thin glue spreaders
can be used – cut the sides of some
 Range of dark coloured papers, some
textured (blues and blacks mainly, string,
card, glue, scissors, oil pastels
 Collograph materials – card to cut up,
string, PVA glue, thick base card to stick
onto
 Paper and wax crayons to make rubbings
Summaries
Art and Design
 Pupils explore the theme of stars through
Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ paintings
 They consider structure, colour texture,
and moods
 They develop painting, collage and
collograph skills
 They compare and contrast paintings by
Van Gogh
Music
English
 Pupils use drama to develop ideas of
space travel
 They read and write space journals
 They also use newspaper reports and
develop interview skills
 They explore recording and sharing
factual events linked with space
 Diary entry
 Explanation text
To The Stars
 Pupils create their own spacethemed music, using real and
electronic instruments and sounds
 They also listen, discuss, explore
and perform their music. They also
compare and contrast sounds and
instruments used in Holst’s ‘Planet
Suite’
Science
Languages
 Categorise known words and investigate the characteristics of
a new language
 Learn the days of the week and link words to names of stars
 Develop accuracy in pronunciation by answering and asking
‘quelle est la date aujourd’hui?’ and singing date and planet
songs
 Look and listen for visual and aural clues Language
Detectives
 Construct simple sentences using a planet theme
 Pupils learn about the typical conventions of word order in the
French language
 Pupils apply grammatical knowledge to make sentences identify word classes - nouns and adjectival agreements
 Choose words and phrases to write a simple compound
sentence to describe a planet
 Prepare a presentation of their description about the planets a book, a song, an assembly
©Cornwall Learning Publications 2013
Applied Maths
 Pupils read, write, order and compare numbers to
at least 1 000 000
 Pupils interpret negative numbers in context, count
forwards and backwards with positive and negative
whole numbers through zero
 Pupils round any number up to 1 000 000 to the
nearest 10, 100, 1000, 10 000 and 100 000
 Pupils solve addition and subtraction multi-step
problems in context
 Pupils solve problems involving converting
between units of time
 Pupils explore how the Earth rotates and
how this explains day and night
 They learn to describe the movement of
the Earth relative to the Sun and the
Moon relative to the Earth
 They also explore the use of models to
understand our place in the solar system
Computing
 Pupils develop programming
to move a character in space
and interact with other
characters in an increasingly
complex way