Year 6 Summer 1 Blog

12th May 2023Adam Omer

We would like to say thank you to all the children for their hard work and effort during the SATs week. Punctuality and attendance this week has been outstanding and I’m sure the children will have done their best to make themselves and the school proud.

Since our return to school after the Easter holidays, we have obviously  been quite heavily SATs focused. The children have been working hard in our maths, reading and grammar revision lessons in readiness for this week’s tests.

In maths the children have looked at a wide range of topics including geometry, calculations, statistics, measures, shape/angle and position and direction. We have continued to practise the main four operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The children have been building their confidence in these areas.

In reading we have been practising SAT type comprehension questions and also started a new class reader called Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo which has been a real favourite of previous year 6 classes and has also grabbed the attention of our current year 6ites. It tells the story of a young boy stranded on a desert island and how he learns how to survive with the help of a stranger.

We have been looking at Grammar content in part of our English lessons in readiness for the Grammar SAT and revising areas of punctuation and spelling too. Tenses and the passive and active have been areas we have concentrated on (go on, look up what is meant by the passive and active).

In English we have been looking at the language of persuasion and how it is used to advertise a product. The children are currently in the process of creating a written advert for a gadget to be used by a spy.

In other areas of the curriculum

In science we have been learning about the science behind Evolution. We have studied famous people linked to the topic (Mary Anning and Charles Darwin), understood that the term evolution means changes which happen over time and that animals and plants adapt to suit the environment they live in.

Before half term,, we will be setting the children off on a homework topic based on evolution. The children will be researching some animals and creating a presentation about how they are adapted to their habitats. Look out for the details on this project homework coming home!

In RE the children have been looking at Justice and Poverty and what is meant by the terms fair and unfair. They have looked at some charities working to eradicate poverty in the world and discussed issues facing street children in different parts of the world.

In French, we have started to look at the vocabulary of Family and will be learning how to talk about our family members.

 

What is coming up

We will continue to work on our adverts in English lessons and continue reading Kensuke’s Kingdom in reading. Our next English writing topic will be explanation and we will be looking at strange contraptions and explaining how they work.

In maths, we are going to be working through some projects dealing with real life issues ( the one entitled Bakery interests me especially if it has anything to do with cakes! ).

In science we will be doing some practical work on electricity ( no rewiring of buildings or setting up of appliances will be happening ( :  )

In French we will carry on looking at The Family and in computers we will study Spreadsheets and Coding.

Year 6 will also be preparing for their end of year presentation to parents and school which this year is entitled I’m an 11 year old Get Me Out of Here!  There will be music, singing and acting from your children and maybe … the teachers.

 

Spring Term

27th January 2023Adam Omer

Year 6 have been busy since the start of term, working hard to improve our maths and English skills whilst also finding out about what goes on inside our bodies-particularly our circulatory system.

In preparation for SATs in May we have had intervention lessons on reading comprehension and maths every week on Tuesday and Wednesday PM

In English we have been writing our own adventure tale based on a kidnap and learning how to weave a “Flashback” into our stories. Alongside this, we have been reading the book “Stormbreaker” by Anthony Horowitz which tells the story of a teenage spy and working on  improving our comprehension skills by analysing and discussing characters and actions.

Our maths topic this term has been fractions and decimals (a perennial favourite with pupils and parents alike). We have been learning how to: change improper fractions into mixed numbers and vice versa; add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions by whole numbers and other fractions and find equivalent fractions and simplify them. If that wasn’t enough, we have been learning about decimals and place value.

In science this half-term, we have completed our topic on Animals including humans, where we focused on the workings of the circulatory system-heart, lungs and blood. I can assure you that no children were harmed in the teaching of this topic!

In other areas of the curriculum, we have been revising greetings in French and in music we have been listening, appraising and singing the Carole King song, “You’ve got a friend”. In PHSE we have been looking at out strengths and weaknesses and setting goals for the future, both in school and outside.

 

In the remaining 2 weeks of this half-term in English, we will be: editing our Kidnapped story and producing a final piece; continuing to read Stormbreaker and interrogating the text and learning Yr 5/6 spellings weekly.

In maths we will be carrying on with work on decimals.

In science we have started a new topic on Light in which we will investigate How light travels  and light sources.

Next week (30th January) we will be carrying out mock SATs in Grammar and Spelling,  Reading and 3 Maths papers.

 

Spring 2

In English we will be working on creating a discussion text based on Stormbreaker  entitled  “Should children become spies”.

In maths we will be going on to look at Shape and the properties of different 2D and  3D shapes.

In science we will be continuing our work on Light where we will: carry out investigations on shadows and their sizes; look at the parts of the eye and optical illusions.

In other areas, we are carrying on with the Carole King song in music, looking at La Date – months, days and weeks in French and Dreams and Goals in PHSE.

A quick reminder that parents’ evening will be on the 28th and 29th March.

The year 6 team wish you all a fabulous February and and a marvelous March.

The Year 6 team

 

 

Year 6 Blog

9th December 2022Adam Omer

What we have been up to

We have had a busy time in year 6, what with Christmas craft morning and our trips to the mosque. Thank you to the parents that came to our Christmas craft activities session-we hope you enjoyed being back in primary school for the morning. You and your children’s handiwork will be on sale (for a small donation) at the Christmas bizarre on Friday 9th December.

The children and adults enjoyed their visit to the mosque this week. It was lovely to be able to take the children out of school for an educational visit for the first time in two and a half years. The children learnt a lot, were very respectful and behaved extremely well. Our thanks go to Mr Ali and Mr Addison for getting us there safely every day and to the imam and Sameen for guiding us so expertly around the mosque.

In English we have been writing our own suspense story based on The Spiderwick Chronicles and in the two and a half weeks before Christmas we have completed some work about the 1914 Christmas Day ceasefire between the allies and the Germans in the 1st World War. The children have written a letter as a British “Tommy” back to their family recounting the day’s events and we will finish the unit by writing a 3 verse poem based on a poem by Carol Ann Duffy (previous poet laureate).

In our reading lessons we have finished the book Skellig by David Almond and have started looking at a book called Mama Miti which is set in Kenya and is about how the people of the country helped themselves to become self-sufficient.

In maths the children have been studying reflection and translation using co-ordinates and learning about ratio and proportion and have performed well with quite a tricky area of maths.

In topic the children completed their Greek tapestry on the myth of The 12 tasks of Heracles (Greek spelling-Hercules is Roman-you learn something new every day) and evaluated their finished piece.

In science, year 6 have been studying the heart and circulatory system. They have learnt about the 4 chambers of the heart and how the heart and lungs are linked to keep our body moving.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the children have been looking at maths and reading SAT type papers. During these sessions, the children are able to talk together about answers they give to set questions and learn how to answer questions using the teacher and each other. This is a vital part of SATs preparation and will hopefully give your children the tools to do as well as they can in May.

 

Early Spring Term

In English we will be writing an adventure story based on the spy genre. Alongside this unit we will be reading Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz which is all about a teenage secret agent. Within this unit we will be teaching the children how to use flashback to help tell a story.

We will complete our reading work on the book Mama Miti.

In maths we will be starting a long unit on fractions, which constitutes a fairly high percentage of questions in the SAT papers so is a very important part of the maths curriculum.

In science we will continue our topic on Animals including humans by looking at the lungs, the blood and staying healthy.

In French we will be looking at the vocabulary of telling the time (which will link nicely to maths)

We hope you all have a very merry Christmas and look forward to seeing the children back at school on Wednesday 4th January 2023.

 

Year 6 Autumn 1 blog

14th October 2022Adam Omer

Welcome to the year 6 blog. Let’s find out what we have been up to and what we will be doing at the beginning of next half-term.

ENGLISH

In our reading lessons, we have been reading “Skellig” by David Almond. The children have been learning how characters are developed and how to identify certain themes in the book.

In writing, we wrote our own poem based on a poem entitled ” Into the Lair of Baron Jugula” and after two weeks work on that, we have just completed a unit on explanation texts where we seem to have been visited by an ogre and found out a lot about a rather mischievous creature called a boggart.

MATHS

In maths lessons, we have focused in on calculations and place value, as without a good knowledge of these areas, children will struggle with much of the SATs paper later in the year. We have also looked at algebra, which the children have coped well with.

TOPIC

Our topic this term is “Ancient Greece” and the children have learnt about where modern Greece is in Europe and which countries border it. We have also learnt about the opposing ancient city states of Athens and Sparta and the clear differences between them. We have studied the “hoplite” soldier and drawn our own pictures of them and are now moving on to find out about Heracles and his 12 tasks, from which we will then create our own mythical beast for him to battle and then write a further task for the ancient superhero.

RE

In this subject we have been finding out about what it means to be a Muslim, and this will culminate in a visit to the largest mosque in western Europe at the beginning of December-more information about this trip to follow at the beginning of next half term.

PHSE

In the first two weeks of term, we looked at what it means to be resilient and completed a number of tasks which helped us settle into year 6 and be a good classmate.

ART

We created our own symmetrical self-portrait using proportion, line and tone and have completed art tasks linked to our topic work.

ICT

We have completed mathletics tasks and used the internet to research what life was like for families in ancient Greek times.

BLACK HISTORY

We will be looking at the life of Michael Jordan and learning about his trip to the top of his sport and what made him such a success.

So, what is coming up next half term in Year 6 I hear you cry?

ENGLISH

After half term we will be writing a suspense story. In our reading lessons we will be looking at a book called Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli which is about environmental issues in Kenya.

MATHS

We will be beginning the half term with work on measure and then position and direction.

TOPIC

We will continue our topic on Ancient Greece where we will be creating a tapestry based on the story of Heracles and his 12 tasks.

In other subjects we will look at the song Happy by Pharell Williams in Music and do some work on staying safe online in ICT.

We will be beginning our afternoon interventions in maths and reading to help with preparation for the SATs in May.

Make sure your child is keeping up with the homework set and the weekly spellings and remind them that they can always ask for help from teachers (and parents) if they need it. Also, if he/she is not confident with x tables, please get him/her to practise them.

We look forward to seeing you on the 18th and 19th October for parents’ evening.

The Year 6 team