We are delighted to offer these topic/planning supports to everyone, free of charge. They have been written with a creative and connected curriculum in mind, to try to redress the balance for those who feel as though the current curriculum for young children is very dry, un-inspiring and disconnected.
We have concentrated on how you might enhance provision during a topic to make young children feel as though they are immersed in their learning, and we have given special consideration to making oracy, reading and writing exciting, relevant, powerful and irresistible. You can use our planning as a whole, or to dip in to for ideas or just to inspire your own creativity and thinking about an angle you want to take with your own class.
Your own background knowledge is crucial in being able to deliver a topic well, so we have tried to take the sting out of this by providing some useful information as well as finding good teaching films, images and other resources.
Finally, knowing how important new vocabulary is to learning and how many of us are working so hard to close the gap for the children we teach whose span of vocabulary is painfully thin, we have provided topic word lists, some with definitions, to make this much easier for you to think through and plan from.
If you would like to give us feedback or offer your own ideas for these topics, please get in touch via office@leadingchildren.com. As a community of lead learners ourselves, it would be fantastic to be able to support one another in this journey!
These are the topics we have covered so far, or are coming very soon. They can all be found in the Resources page of our website:
Year 1
- ‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside’ (Sea creatures, Pirates, History of Seaside Resorts). This topic is a double and can be used for a half or full term depending on how much of the material you choose to use.
- Down on the Farm
- All Creatures Great and Small (Wild Animals, Pole to Pole and In the Desert)
Reception
- Me, My School and I
- All Creatures Great and Small (British Wildlife and Insects)
- Growing
- Red Riding Hood
Please see the background materials underpinning all topics here. The topic elements, below, appear in all of our themes:
Topic Elements
- Spider graph – a splurge of ideas, not all are explored in more detail
- Background Knowledge
- Potential Coverage of the Framework/National Curriculum if children study the elements we have proposed
- Classroom plan for enhancements, inside and outside
- New Vocab with some definitions
- Talk/reading/writing ideas
Kits n’ Bundles
We are currently putting together Kits n’ Bundles, or topic boxes, which will hopefully be for sale on the website in the new academic year. You can pre-order now. Ask us for a price for the topic you want to cover!
Examples:
Pirates Kit n’ Bundle:
- Books – 3 fiction and 3 non-fiction books
- Pirate Set including 3 male pirates, 1 female pirate, canon and treasure chest
- 4X Mutant Pirates
- Tiny shells and pieces driftwood
- Natural foliage
- Really Useful Box with strong lid and handles
Growing Kit n’ Bundle:
- Books – 3 fiction and 3 non-fiction books
- Blister Packs showing life cycles: plant, frog, butterfly, worm
- Simple gardening pack with seeds
- Really Useful Box with strong lid and handles