Welcome to Class 6
Welcome back Class 6! We hope you are prepared for your final term in primary school!
Year 6 updates:
- Tuesday – 2 hours of PE with a specialist coach.
- Wednesday – Homework and spellings to be returned by following Monday.
- Friday – Outdoor learning.
Literacy
We have been working hard on our writing skills, linking all of our work to the grammar and language features that we need to show as good Year 6 writers. We have also been revising our knowledge of grammar and scrubbing up on those tricky spelling!
Everyone in Class 6 shares a love of stories and novels and we really hope that they go on to be ‘active readers’ when they continue on to secondary school. So far, we have read an amazing range of texts, including ‘Why The Whales Came’, ‘Love and Roast Chicken’ and ‘Skellig’.
This term we will be continuing to develop our love of reading with ‘Wonder’ by RJ Palacio. The novel follows August (Auggie) Pullman, who was born with a severe facial difference, as he attends school for the first time. Wonder begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include the perspectives of his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These voices converge to portray a community as it struggles with differences, and challenges readers, both young and old, to wonder about the true nature of empathy, compassion, acceptance, friendship, and—ultimately—kindness. We will be considering these different voices to write diary entries from different perspective about the events of the book.
We will then read the memoir ‘Malala. My Story of Standing Up For Girls’ Rights’ by Malala Yousafzai. This is an extraordinary true story of a young girl’s courage in the face of violence and extremism, and an incredible testament to what can be achieved when we stand up for what we believe in. Inspired by Malala’s passion and courage, we will write a biography, detailing her experiences.
Maths
In Year 6, we have been working incredibly hard all year to cover all of the maths topics we need to know before we leave primary school. Recently, we have been learning about the topics of: Shape, Statistics and Fractions, Decimals and Percentages. In Summer term, we will be going back over each topic and furthering our skills to mastery level, ensuring that we are all secondary school ready!
Science
This half term, we will be exploring the exciting topic of ‘Electricity’ through a range of investigations. We will look at the impact of voltage on the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer, create circuits and learn how to draw circuit diagrams.
History
Our key question this half term is ‘Who was making history in far away places and how does this compare to Britain?’ In order to answer this question we will begin by placing the relevant time periods on a timeline, considering when they happened in relation to other time periods we have studied. We are keen to become inquisitive historians, making relevant historical enquiries and considering a range of primary and secondary sources to find out about the ancient civilisation of Baghdad. We will identify similarities and differences between life in Baghdad and London, research the House of Wisdom and, linking back to our previous topic of ‘Medicine Through Time’, we will look at the influences of Al-Zahrawi. Finally, we will explore how successful Baghdad was in trading with other countries.
Geography
In Geography we will endeavour to answer our key question: What is it like to live in Algeria? We will begin by locating Algeria, neighbouring countries and surrounding seas on a map. We will consider the geographical regions of the country, identifying the steppe landscape, Atlas Mountains, Hoggar Mountains and Sahara Desert and comparing the coastal region with inland. Studying climatic maps/graphs will allow us to draw comparisons with England, as well as consider how it impacts agriculture and activities. Linking back to earlier years looking at the River Tees and the River Nile, we will learn about the Chelif River and its important role in irrigation. Finally we will virtually visit the City of Constantine, also known as the City of Bridges, considering why this location was chosen geographically for a city in Algeria.
Art
In our art lessons, we will be creating own paintings linked to our study of the Tour de France in French; taking inspiration from local artist Lucy Pittaway. We will carefully consider how to mix colours, shades and tones to create atmosphere and light effects. We will also be drawing links with our geography topic of ‘Algeria’, creating our own landscaped paper collages taking inspiration from Charles Greely.
RE
We will begin the term by exploring how being a Hindu affects moral views. We will learn what a moral issue is and learn about key Hindu concepts, such as ‘Dharma’ and stories such as ‘Rama and Sita’. In the second half of the term, we will research a local Muslim community, considering what it is like to be Muslim in the UK. We will speak to a local Imam to discuss how worship is carried out in mosques local to us.
