Year 6

Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome back to another exciting term! We hope you have all had a wonderful festive break and enjoyed lots of time with family and friends. Mrs Robinson, Mrs Wilcock & I would like to express our thanks for the generous gifts and cards you gave us for Christmas, they were much appreciated.

Here is just a taste of our learning in the coming half term!

Topic:

At the end of last term we squeezed in a mini festive RE topic on ‘Festivals of Light’ around the world and combined this with understanding light scientifically during our fantastic trip to the Colour Museum in Bradford.

This half term we will link and share learning with Y5 again and ask: Why should the rainforest be important to us all?

We will locate the rainforests of the world and explore why they are there.

We will explore the different layers of the rainforest and attempt to build our own ‘Shoe-box Rainforest’

We will look at animals in the rainforest and work out why some are endangered.

We will find out what ‘de-forestation’ is and how it is affecting the world’s rainforests; we will ask: what can we do to help?

URGENT SHOE BOX APPEAL:

In order to create our ‘Shoe-box Rainforests’ we need to appeal for shoe boxes from home please. If you have one (or more than one) kicking around after Christmas or January sales shopping please could you send it in ASAP (before 15.1.18) so we can get creating!

Science: Classification

This half term we will explore:

How living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics.
We will discover all about an important scientist.
We will discover what micro-organisms are and how they can be helpful and harmful; we will try to breed them, then observe and report what happens.

Wildlife Garden Project:

I have not forgotten about this! Having secured our Tesco & Local Schools Nature Grant, I am underway getting quotes for the work needed. In the springtime I am hoping Y6 will be able to have an integral part in this project as work gets underway to transform the garden.

Maths:

We have a lot to try to fit in to get through the whole of the Year 6 curriculum before May; therefore this term will continue to busy in maths! Here are just the headings of the areas of maths I ‘hope’ to cover:

Recap on Fractions

Measurement: Conversions, time & Roman Numerals

Geometry: Properties of Shapes

2D shape, 3D shape, area, perimeter and volume of shapes

Co-ordinates, translation and reflection

Ratio and proportion

If you require more a more detailed breakdown of these topics please ask- it is no problem to give you further details.

English

I intend to link their writing to a fascinating book called ‘The Watertower’ by Gary Woolman. We briefly started it last half term by imagining what the book was about based solely on what the front cover illustration told them.

It will inspire even the most reluctant writer to think and become creative as we study how writers use different structures to create coherence and impact and how they use different techniques to make a text come alive. We will use their ideas as a start point for our own creative writing asking: Can you describe how the character feels, what do his eyes tell us? What would be an alternative ending to this book?

Later this half term we will look at the persuasive writing genre having held a ‘silent’ debate on whether zoos should exist or not.

We will also continue to work hard through the grammar and punctuation curriculum.

PE will continue to be provided by Evolve’s Mr Sharky on a Monday morning and a Tuesday afternoon; the content of the lessons is planned on a weekly basis and the class have been doing a lot of team-building sport and games in the run up to Christmas. We will continue to explore this theme- as it is an area which needs work and the lessons will evolve (excuse the pun) as the term progresses.

PPA Cover (Thursday afternoons): This is my afternoon for planning, preparation and assessment and the class will continue to have French with Madame Vert and music and PSHE with Mrs Wilcock and Mrs Robinson.

In music they will be using the Charanga resource to develop an understanding of Jazz, based on Bacharach Anorak & Meet The Blues (sounds fascinating!)

In PSHE they will begin to look at:‘ getting on and falling out’; bullying, teasing, Racism/ prejudice and later on in the half term they will move onto resolve differences by looking at alternatives, seeing & respecting others’ points of view, making decisions and explaining choices.

In French they will be focusing on sports and hobbies, the children will learn to talk about their free time, using personal pronouns with the regular verb, ‘jouer’, but also the irregular verb, ‘faire’.

Classroom Visitors:

This term we will be lucky enough to have 2 regular visitors to our classroom: Judith Smith (a School Governor) and Annette Davis (a trainee teacher). They will come in each Tuesday (Annette) and Thursday (Judith) to help with one-to-one or small group tutorials on areas some children needed a little more guidance/ support with. We are very grateful to Annette and Judith for their support with our learning.

Diary Dates:

PCSO Izak Spencer to visit school again (by popular demand) to deliver his talk about keeping our children safe online – Wednesday 24th January 2018 7pm-9pm

All parents/guardians/grandparents etc. are welcome. Look out for further details on the school weekly newsletter.

Last day of this half term Friday 9^th February

HOME LEARNING:

I will set homework each week and it will reflect the learning completed during that school week.

Wednesday: I will continue to set a reading comprehension due for the following Wednesday. It is very useful for the children to do reading comprehension as homework as it is excellent practice for their reading SATS exam. It is always marked in a group, with discussion about answers which encourages progress in this important skill.
Friday: Spelling homework, 10 spellings to learn for a test the following Friday.
Friday: Maths Homework due in Monday.

If you have any queries or wish to discuss any issues regarding your child’s learning, please do not hesitate to contact me through the school office or at gcumberland@benrhydding.bradford.sch.uk

Yours Sincerely,

The Year 6 team:

Mrs G. Cumberland, Mrs G. Wilcock and Mrs D. Robinson