Year 6 Friday 25th February 2022

Date: 25th Feb 2022 @ 3:52pm

Welcome to our first Year 6 blog since the February half term. This week we have been busy improving our leaderships roles around school: our reading ambassadors have continued to support the Reception team with daily reads; the Sport Captains have planned the next term of sporting events and competitions; the Science ambassadors have continued their role with more play time experiments; the class have been going above and beyond with helping the infants during lunch times; and the Golden Team have completed their first whole school assembly, which was a super event welcoming all the school together for the first time in years! Well done Year 6 – keep it up.

Our learning in Year 6 this week:

• In Maths, we have learnt how to calculate area of simple 2D shapes, rectilinear shapes and solved problems with them. We have also improved our strategy of how to find percentages of numbers.
• In English, we have begun a new novel, ‘Skellig’, and learnt how to use dashes when writing informally as the main characters.
• In RE, we started our new topic, ‘Unity’, and discussed and created an information text for ways to be a good friend to others.
• In PE, we continued our learning of gymnastics by creating a group routine of jumping, rolling, travelling and balancing using all the equipment, including the climbing frame.
• In Music, we listened to two versions of the same song, ‘You’ve got a friend’ by Carole King and James Taylor, and discussed the similarities and differences between them. We learnt a new song, ‘Everybody loves Saturday night’. We have also started learning recorders again, since Year 5, by recapping B, A and G to the song ‘Sailor, sailor on the sea’.
• In French, we researched the Carnaval de Nice which takes place every year at this time. The theme this year is Animaux. We admired the massive floats and the amazing costumes. Quelle spectacle!
• In Science, we were invited to ask Dr Ahna Skop, a cell biologist and science artist in Wisconsin, some questions about her background and research – which we did by learning about her work in genetics. We then videoed the children asking questions and sent it to her. Hopefully she will answer our questions soon. This was a brilliant opportunity to find out about a new aspect of Science, but also stress the importance of diversity and inclusion in science which Dr Skop feels very strongly about. Also, for our topic on ‘Healthy Lifestyles’, we discussed ways to make a balanced diet and the dangers of eating too much or too little of certain food groups.
• In PSHE, we continued our topic of online safety by learning about the age ratings system for films and other media. We can now recognise the different symbols related to the age ratings for films and can explain what each mean.

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

• Reading – Continue to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.
  • The days when you can change your book:
    • Monday – Roller Coasters
    • Tuesday – Big Dippers
    • Wednesday – The Waltzers

• Spellings (challenge words)
  • Sumdog (Year 6 Sp 2 wk 2 -ture / -sure)

adventure, capture, creature, furniture, future, immature, mixture, measure, nature, signature, treasure, leisure, pressure, pleasure, enclosure

• Maths challenges:
  • Counting:
    • This week we have been counting in single digit steps to prepare us for future division learning. Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
    • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
    • Start with these numbers: 1, 2 and 3 and count up 10 times then back again in 3s:

35, 38, 41, 44, 47, 50, 53, 56, etc

and in 6s :

365, 371, 377, 383, 389, 395, 401, etc

• Number facts:
  • To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 6 + 8 = 14, 8 + 7 = 15.
  • The best way to do this is to simply have someone in your home quiz you with questions like (8 + 6, 6 + 5, 3 + 8, 5 + 9, etc)
  • Then get them to change the place value of these digits (0.8 + 0.6, 0.06 + 0.05, 0.3 + 0.8, etc)

• Sumdog (Multiplication 2 and 3 digit numbers by 3)
  • We have practiced a lot with these types of questions over the past month. Make sure you read the numbers in the question correctly and you should be able to work them out mentally.
• Sumdog (Area of 2D shapes)
  • For this challenge, make sure you read the measurements in the questions. For example, if the measurements are cm x cm then the answer would equal cm squared (with the 2 next to the cm). The same goes for mm x mm.

Maths and Spelling Training.

Do not forget to keep using this extra feature: the maths and spelling training sections will provide a tailored challenge for your child to practise skills, facts and words that they find difficult. Once your challenges have been completed, use this feature to challenge yourself in both spelling and maths.

Spend some time training so the program can learn the skills your child needs to work on and practise.