Year 6 Curriculum News - Autumn Term - Mrs Decker
This term Year 6 will be using ‘Water’ as a continuous theme across the majority of its curriculum.
Literacy – We will be covering a range of genres this term. The ‘fiction’ genres will include poetry where we will be looking at the use of personification and narrative writing, where the pupils will study a range of narrative texts including myths and legends from Australia (which will be linked to our water theme) and classical texts including Shakespeare. The ‘Non-Fiction’ genres will cover dictionary/reference skills and work on independent research, writing and presentation skills. Included in the above topics there will be a range of work focusing on grammar, punctuation and spelling. Pupils will be expected to read with me at least once a week in group reading activities and will also be given weekly spellings to learn.
How can you help? – Ensure that your child has learnt the weekly spellings and encourage literacy by reading a book together at home.
Maths – Number work will continue to build on the pupils’ knowledge of place value and the four number operations – multiplication, division, subtraction and addition. We will also be looking at fractions and how they relate to decimal numbers. Shape, data and measure work will include recognising angles, measuring (using both metric and imperial units), creating and interpreting graphs and using coordinates. Pupils will be taught to use different mathematical strategies through problem solving and mental maths activities.
How can you help? – Practise the times tables with your child.
Science – We will start this topic by revising the processes involved in the water cycle. We will then explore how materials dissolve and discover what the terms ‘insoluble’ and ‘soluble’ mean. We will use this scientific knowledge to learn more about water pollution and the problems this creates. After half term we will be discovering how materials can be changed and we will investigate the terms ‘reversible’ and irreversible’ and will look at how mixing materials can sometimes make new materials.
RE – This term we will be using our theme of water as the basis for our work, we will be looking at and comparing the way water is used as a symbol in different world religions. We will consider what the world would be like without water.
Art –Pupils will be studying how Welsh artists portray water and practising these techniques to improve their own artwork. They will use their own ideas and feelings about water to create their own images.
How can you help – Would any artists be willing to show and discuss their work with the children?
DT – Linking to our theme of water, children will learn about the design and construction of bridges. Towards the end of this topic they will decide if they can use a variety of foods to build their own bridge!
How can you help – Do you know of an engineer who could talk to the children about bridge design please?
PE – Games skills and techniques will continue to be taught by Coach Chris. In gymnastics lessons, the class will be developing sequences of their own and adapting these to use on apparatus. Children will continue to evaluate their own and other performances and ask relevant questions to improve their work. During the second half of this term, pupils will work in pairs to create and perform a dance that demonstrates mirroring.
How can you help? It is very important that every pupil takes part in as much PE as possible. It is therefore important the pupils have the correct PE kit with them. Due to our changeable weather pupils will need to ensure they have kit that can be used both indoor and outdoor every Tuesday and a Friday.
IT – This term children will develop their IT skills by learning to interrogate a database and carry out complex searches. They will then discover that inaccurate information exists and so learn to check and question data. We will also consider personal safety issues when using the internet. Within the topic children will continue to use computers to practise and use skills already taught.
COMENIUS - In addition to the above work pupils will also be involved with work relating to the schools Comenius project. This will see the pupils continuing project work on British woodlands and how they impact upon our environment. This work will then be shared with our partner schools across Europe.
History – We will learn about the history of bridge design through examining the work of the famous engineer Brunel.
Geography – As well as learning about the Water Cycle and the impact of pollution on rivers, we will learn more facts about the river Ganges.
General Information – During this term it is hoped the pupils will be attending the ‘We Are The Champions’ inter-schools sporting competition as well as completing trips relating to science. Further details of these trips will follow as soon as possible.
Homework will generally be set on a Friday and pupils will, in the majority of cases, have a week to complete this work. However, some homework set will be research and will used in class the following week therefore pupils will be expected to bring in their homework on the due date!