Mr Birbeck - Year 6 – Spring Term 2020 The Term Ahead

The Mystery of…? Class Reading this term: Betsy Byars – The Midnight Fox and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Sherlock Holmes

ENGLISH In Year 6 in the spring term, the children will focus on recommending books that they have read to their peers, giving reasons for their choices, identifying and discussing themes and conventions in and across a wide range of writing as well as making comparisons within and across books. We will continue to work on strategies to ensure children understand what they have read. Finally we will be learning to discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader and to participate in discussions about books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, building on their own and others’ ideas and challenging views courteously For each unit, we use the same process in writing. Children will:

1) read and explore one or more texts; 2) analyse the structure and language features of that text type,

then practise using these features in their own writing; 3) produce their own version of that text type; 4) review the quality of their finished piece and make

improvements.

Adventure Stories Our first unit in English will have the film ‘The Road to El Dorado’ as its stimulus. The children will be writing their own adventure, focussing on the descriptive writing around characters and setting. Report Writing Our second unit this term will be a report of the sighting of ‘The Midnight Fox’, taken from the Betsy Byars novel. Biography The children will be writing about a famous Astronaut during this unit. They will have to do research and use their Science lessons to support with this unit of writing. Explanation Text After half term we will again use Science to support our writing. The children will be explaining a scientific process and presenting this to another year group. Stories of Mystery and Suspense We will be reading a book that asks the children to help solve mysteries alongside Sherlock Holmes. The children will use these stories to then create their own story – I cannot wait for this unit! Poetry Finally we will be creating poems to convey an image. The children will have free choice with this, allowing them to be creative and explorative with their writing. Spelling and Grammar Grammar will also be taught explicitly, enabling children to more consciously control the language they use in speaking and writing. Concepts such as colons, hyphens, figurative language, speech, conjunctions and openers as well as powerful language will be taught during English sessions.

MATHS This term, the children will extend their knowledge and mathematical skills in the following areas:

Decimals, Percentages and Algebra identify the value of each digit in numbers given to three

decimal places and multiply and divide numbers by 10, 100 and 1000 giving answers up to three decimal places

multiply one-digit numbers with up to two decimal places by whole numbers

use written division methods in cases where the answer has up to two decimal places

solve problems which require answers to be rounded to specified degrees of accuracy

recall and use equivalences between simple fractions, decimals and percentages, including in different contexts.

use simple formulae

generate and describe linear number sequences

express missing number problems algebraically

find pairs of numbers that satisfy an equation with two unknowns

enumerate possibilities of combinations of two variables.

Converting Units, Measure – Perimeter, Area and Volume and Ratio solve problems involving the calculation and conversion

of units of measure, using decimal notation up to three decimal places where appropriate

use, read, write and convert between standard units, converting measurements of length, mass, volume and time from a smaller unit of measure to a larger unit, and vice versa, using decimal notation to up to three decimal places

convert between miles and kilometres

recognise that shapes with the same areas can have different perimeters and vice versa

recognise when it is possible to use formulae for area and volume of shapes

calculate the area of parallelograms and triangles

calculate, estimate and compare volume of cubes and cuboids using standard units, including cubic centimetres (cm3) and cubic metres (m3), and extending to other units [for example, mm3 and km3].

solve problems involving the relative sizes of two quantities where missing values can be found by using integer multiplication and division facts

solve problems involving the calculation of percentages [for example, of measures, and such as 15% of 360] and the use of percentages for comparison

solve problems involving similar shapes where the scale factor is known or can be found

solve problems involving unequal sharing and grouping using knowledge of fractions and multiples

solve problems which require answers to be rounded to specified degrees of accuracy

recall and use equivalences between simple fractions, decimals and percentages, including in different contexts

The Daily Math Meeting will continue every afternoon. The recent assessments have been used to help plan these sessions so that focus areas can be addressed.

Mr Birbeck - Year 6 – Spring Term 2020 The Term Ahead

The Mystery of…?

SCIENCE We have two fantastic units this term – Space and Evolution and Inheritance. The children will learn practically and combine Science with; English, Art, Music, DT and Math.

Space Pupils will be taught to:

describe the movement of the Earth, and other planets, relative to the Sun in the solar system

describe the movement of the Moon relative to the Earth

describe the Sun, Earth and Moon as approximately spherical bodies

use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky.

This unit will link closely with DT. The children will be creating 3D models of the solar system and making their own space rockets.

Evolution and Inheritance Pupils will be taught to:

recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago

recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents

identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution

This unit will link with Art and the children will be creating Caricatures of themselves and other family members.

GEOGRAPHY During the first week of this term the children will look at South America as a focus. We will discuss deforestation and the changes to the Amazon Rainforest. We will then be learning about the time zones of the world. The children will learn why we have different time zones and compare times across the world. Next the children will learn about biomes. Biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate. After half term we will then be finding and highlighting simple patterns of land use such as built and non – built up areas, woodland, tourism etc and using this to offer reasons why things are where they are and explain how and why places are different. We will then compare and contrast a city in the Uk to one in South America.

ART Again we will be trying to make Art as cross curricular as possible this term. During the first week the children will be learning about and recreating a piece of Art by Brazilian Artist Romero Britto. During the second half term we will be linking Art to Science,

focusing on the animal art produced by Franz Marc.

Mr Birbeck - Year 6 – Spring Term 2020 The Term Ahead

The Mystery of…?

RE Humanism

Our first religion of study this term will be Humanism. Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence over acceptance of dogma or superstition. The children will investigate and understand Humanist stances in relation to key ethical issues, understand what is important to them, explore key Humanist thinkers, discover key rites of passage for them and finally they will write a magazine article on Humanism.

Christianity – Salvation – linked to the last week of Jesus’ life. Next the children will learn about Salvation and its important meaning in the Christian religion. We will be discussing the Key Question: What difference does the resurrection make for Christians?

COMPUTING

Computing will be incorporated into activities across the curriculum, helping the children be able to express themselves and develop their ideas through information and communication technology. We are app planners Children will be designing, researching and pitching an idea for a new app. This app will link to our first science unit and have to be a help for users to improve or track their fitness and health. We are project managers Following on from the above the children will then have to project manage, resource and develop the app. They should discuss talent within their team and create a timeline for how long the app would take to create and a projection for profits. E-safety will be incorporated into this unit by building upon the children’s knowledge of how to keep safe online and discussing the importance of appropriate use of the internet.

PE

We are lucky in Year 6 this term as we have Mr Payne teaching both of our PE sessions. Outdoor PE –Tag Rugby Children will learn basic skills and exercises such as; teamwork, passing, hand-eye coordination and agility to develop and improve their knowledge of a team based sport. We will build towards match situations as the term progresses. Indoor PE – Fitness ‘Boot Camp’ This term the children will continue with their fitness learning, focussing on creating their own circuits. This will help them with their continued computing learning and their fitness app.

MUSIC

The music curriculum in Key Stage 2 aims to teach children to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of music composition, and reproduce sounds from aural memory. To support this, in Year 6 this term, children will learn to play and then compose their own piece of music. They will write the notes and perform the piece to the class, with a partner, individually or in a small group. The second half term the children will concentrate on composer Mason Bates – Anthology of Fantastic Zoology – using art, poetry and instruments to bring their own addition to this wonderful piece of music.

PSHE

Health and Well-being

This term the children will learn to reflect on and celebrate their achievements, identify their strengths and areas for improvement, and set high aspirations and goals for themselves and as a class.

They will also learn to recognise how their increasing independence brings increased responsibility to keep themselves and others safe

As well as this they will learn that bacteria and viruses can affect health and that following simple routines can reduce their spread

Mr Birbeck - Year 6 – Spring Term 2020 The Term Ahead

The Mystery of…?

Homework

Wednesday All Homework collected in on this day.

Thursday Time in class to go through home learning – marking and addressing and misconceptions as a whole class, group or on a 1:1 basis.

Friday Homework set This will include spellings, maths and English. A reminder that Maths may often be set on MyMaths or a Times Table Rock Stars however a brief outline of this will be placed in the homework book. English will be linked to current learning or a previously taught spelling, punctuation or grammar rule. This term we will be completing Reading Comprehensions weekly. These will need to be completed by Wednesday to allow time in class to discuss answers and support future comprehensions. This term the children will have work books – please see separate letter regarding this. Each week the home learning letter will refer to these when needed.

I would also like to encourage you to hear your child read as regularly as possible but twice a week is enough. This will allow you to ensure they are understanding the text they are reading and discuss any unknown themes or vocabulary with them. The children should also be quietly reading to themselves for between 10 and 20 minutes 3-5 times a week. Please ensure all reading is recorded in the home journals as certificates are awarded throughout the year for number of home reads. I would also like to highlight the importance of knowing all of the times table to 12x12 and reciting and testing these with your child, for just 5 minutes a day can have a massive impact! Year 6 have P.E. on Wednesdays (outdoor) and Fridays (indoor). Please ensure your child has their P.E. kit at school on these days.