Year 6

Spring term curriculum news J6

Dear Parents and Students,

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful festive break and are looking forward to the term ahead. J6 have a packed timetable with many subjects/topics to look forward to. Literacy: We are going to be starting the term with a text called ‘The Midnight Fox’ by Betsy Byars. ‘This classic children’s novel, written in 1970 by the American writer Betsy Byars, reads aloud very well. It tells the compelling story of Tom, a boy who is sent, very reluctantly, to stay with his aunt and uncle on their farm. Readers experience his sense of wonder at the beauty of nature as he observes the beautiful sight of a black fox and her cub. The harsh reality of life in the country is revealed as Tom’s concern for the fox and her cub come into conflict with his aunt and uncle’s attempts to protect their farm stock’.The children in J6 will be using drama, role-play, characterisation and text marking/word collection to understand the characters in the text. If the children would like to purchase this superb novel to use in class old/new copies can be bought cheaply at www.amazon.co.uk .

After half-term we will be using a book called Sensational! By Roger McGough. This poetry text will give the children the opportunity to perform poems and write in the style of this poet.

Numeracy: The pupils in the Gala group will be solving multi-step problems, including some with negative numbers and decimals numbers, explaining and evaluating their choices and approximating first will also be important skills to develop. A mental arithmetic test will be given every Friday to support mental strategies and build confidence for the Summer SATs tests.

Topic work: The children in J6 will be continuing their studies on separating materials and carrying out experiments linked to floating and sinking. The topic work after half-term will be focused around Rivers and the areas above will be consolidated in this unit.

The following page gives an overview of the other subject areas covered this term. Homework including spellings will be given out on a Monday and hand in on a Friday. Please continue to support your child’s learning at home and please do not hesitate to come and see the work carried out in J6.

Best wishes

Mr Pearse