Our whole-school homework this week is:
Reading: please make sure your child is reading on a daily basis.
Number Fact Fluency: Use Numbots or Times Table Rock Stars in regular short bursts.
Talk Time
Vocabulary is the focus of this week’s homework. This is because we’ve just begun a new Geography topic and with it comes new Geography vocabulary.
Here’s a list of key words that are being learnt and applied as part of our learning. Over the half-term, practise using these words with your child.
Years 1 and 2 Geography vocabulary:
- locality: an area or neighbourhood
- environment: the surroundings of a human, animal or plant
- recycling: turning waste into new materials
- pollution: something harmful or poisonous in an environment
- to survey: to find the opinions of a group of people by asking them questions
- physical geography: physical geography looks at the natural things in our environment
- human geography: human geography looks at changes in the environment by humans
- issue: an important topic or problem that needs discussion
- solution: a way of solving an issue or problem
Years 3 and 4 Geography vocabulary:
- tectonic plates: different pieces of the Earth’s crust which fit together like a jigsaw and move in different directions and at different speeds
- volcano: an opening in the Earth’s crust that allows magma, ash and gases to escape
- magma: molten rock (rock so hot that it has turned into liquid) which is underneath the Earth’s crust
- lava: when magma reaches the surface of the Earth it is called lava
- active volcano: these have a recent history of eruptions and are likely to erupt again
- dormant volcano: these have not erupted for a very long time but may erupt at a future time
- extinct volcano: these are not expected to erupt in the future
- land-use: the specific purpose that an area of land is used for
- geothermal: heat produced from within the Earth (geo means earth and thermal means heat)
Years 5 and 6 Geography vocabulary:
- climate zones: different parts of the world grouped by temperature and rainfall (eg the Met Office give six: arid, equatorial, Mediterranean, polar, snow and temperate)
- climate change: a change in climate (temperature and rainfall) over a period of time (also known as ‘climate crisis’ and ‘climate emergency’)
- global warming: an outcome of climate change: a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the Earth (also known as ‘global heating’)
- latitude: imaginary lines which show how north or south a place is (the equator is the best-known line of latitude)
- fossil fuel: a non-renewable energy source, formed from the remains of plants and animals that died millions of years ago (eg coal, oil, gas)
- renewable energy: a source of energy that is sustainable so it will never run out (eg wind energy, solar energy, tidal energy)
- emission: an emission is something that been released into the world (eg carbon dioxide is an emission created when fossil fuels are burned)
- erosion: a process where materials are worn away and transported by natural forces such as wind or water
- groyne: a low wall or barrier built out into the sea from a beach to slow erosion
Some of these words have been introduced already but there may be others that are going to be covered in the coming weeks.