Year 6 – Rowan Class
What We’ve Been Up To This Term
Can we share views courteously?
We shall be considering the concepts of debating and sharing opinions effectively through discussion. We will be applying our skills across the curriculum while offering our views courteously and respectfully.
Books your child could read at home:
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan
• The Journey by Francesca Sanna
• The Island by Armin Greder
• The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
What are we doing at the moment?
In Rowan Class, we have started the Autumn term by celebrating the natural world. In Science, we are learning about living things and their habitats: from micro-organisms to the blue whale. As part of an Art project, we drew spiders and flies in pen using a continuous line technique. We are exploring a world of extraordinary creatures by reading ‘Arthur Spiderwick’s Guide to the Fantastical World Around You’ during our English lessons. We are working hard as we meet new challenges and solve word problems in our Number topic in Maths.
Autumn Term 1 – Rowan Class
English
The children’s learning will be linked to the core text Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical world Around You by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. During shared class reading sessions, the children will analyse and explain the impact of authors’ techniques and use of language. The children will be given opportunities to create a range of text types for different audiences and purposes, including a warning poster, a free-verse poem, a recount, a live-action news report, a character description, an explanation text and non-chronological report in the style of Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide. The children will make precise vocabulary choices to persuade the reader, creating vivid imagery through expressive and figurative language and employing a wide range of clause structures, sometimes varying their position within the sentence.
Maths
Number and Place Value: The children will be developing their knowledge in relation to place value to ten million, including representing, rounding and comparing numbers. They will revisit formal written methods of addition, subtraction multiplication and division. All sessions will allocate some time to practising word problems.
RE
The children will be considering the key question ’Creation and Science: conflicting or complimentary?’ To do this, they will make connections between biblical texts and God as Creator. They will identify key ideas from texts and comment on how far these are helpful or inspiring. Children will weigh up how the creation narrative is in conflict or complementary with a scientific account.
Science
We will be focusing on the topic, Living things and their habitats. The children will be exploring the classification system. They will be introduced to the idea that broad groupings, such as micro-organisms, plants and animals can be subdivided. They will classify animals into commonly-found invertebrates (such as insects, spiders, snails, worms) and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals). They will discuss reasons why living things are placed in one group and not another. The children will find out about the significance of the work of scientists such as Carl Linnaeus, a pioneer of classification.
PE
The children will be focusing on developing their passing and shooting skills. This will include dribbling, attacking and defending. There will also be a focus on agility and co-ordination.
PSHE
The children will be considering the qualities of healthy relationships and what it means to be attracted to someone. They will identify and explore feelings and emotions and how to value differences.
Art
In a project linked to our Science topic, the children will create, design and draw “mini-beasts”, using a variety of materials and techniques, such as a continuous line, and graphite and oil pastel.
Autumn Term 2 – Rowan Class
English
The children’s learning will be linked to the core texts The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett, The Lion and the Unicorn by Shirley Hughes and Friend or Foe by Michael Morpurgo. The children will consider when and where a story is set and identify ways in which this affects characters’ behaviour. They will identify how writers manipulate language to persuade others. They will be given opportunities to showcase their writing skills independently, creating a range of text types for different audiences including a text arguing the case for or against evacuation, a diary entry and persuasive letters and speeches.
Maths
The children will practise identifying equivalent fractions and reducing fractions to their simplest form. They will convert improper fractions into mixed numbers and back again and will carry out the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) firstly with proper fractions before moving on to mixed numbers. The children will plot coordinates in all four quadrants. They will draw and translate simple shapes on the coordinate plane, and reflect them in the axes. Lessons will include some time dedicated to mathematical word problems.
RE
The children will consider the key question ‘Was Jesus the Messiah?’ The will consider the place of Incarnation and Messiah within the ‘big story’ of the Bible. They will have the opportunity to identify gospel and prophecy texts and explain connections between biblical texts using theological terms. The children will weigh up how far the idea that Jesus is the Messiah is important in the world today and what difference it might make to people’s lives. The children will be able to show how Christians put their beliefs about Jesus’ Incarnation into practice in different ways in celebrating Christmas.
Geography/ History
We shall be learning about World War II with a particular focus on life in Britain during the Blitz. The children will examine a timeline of key events to help them discover the causes and consequences of the war. They will find out which countries were involved in the first year of World War II, the Allies and the Axis, and their leaders. They will understand what is meant by ‘The Phoney War.’ They will learn about the Home Front, rationing, digging for victory, ‘make do and mend,’ the roles of men and women during the war. Using a variety of sources, they will consider the significance of the Blitz and the experiences of evacuees.
PE
The children will practise controlling the ball with body parts including catching and throwing. They will take part in close control, passing and receiving, striking and team attacking and defending games.
PSHE
he children will be focusing on friendships, which will be a theme across the school. The children will learn how to recognise safe relationships. They will compare the features of healthy and unhealthy friendships. They will discuss how to respond to peer pressure and how to stay safe online as well as ways to be a positive role model. They will consider how to discuss issues respectfully, how to listen to and respect other points of view, how to challenge opinions they disagree with constructively and how to manage conflicts.
Art
The children will become familiar with a selection of the works of Henry Moore. They will examine the ways in which his sculptures and drawings reflect his experience of living through World War II. They will explore means of expressing feelings in their own drawings and collages.
Music
The children will listen to and appraise two pieces of jazz by the composer Ian Gray: Bacharach Anorak and Meet the Blues. They will identify the pulse of each piece as well as the instruments involved.
French
The focus will be on talking about ourselves including greetings and introductions, age, birthday, appearance, family (e.g. whether you have a brother or a sister). We shall also explore the Francophone world.
Spring Term 1 – Rowan Class
English
The children’s learning will be linked to the core poem The Spider and the Fly. The children will learn that different text types need different sentence structures and techniques, different word and language choices and different levels of formality. They will know about the purpose of the writing and the effect on the reader. The overall aim will be to develop a tool kit for writing, taking into account: structure, organisation including presentational devices, techniques, language choices, technical/specific word choices and point of view. We will be writing poetry focused on living things.
Maths
The children will recap their understanding of numbers with up to 3 decimal places and this this to their understanding of fractions and percentages. They will look at the value of each place value column and describe its value in words and digits and the related fractions and percentages. Children will also be learning the new topic of Algebra by exploring simple one-step function machines. They will understand that for each number they put into a function machine, there is an output.
RE
The children will be considering the key question of how can following God bring freedom and justice? The children will learn to explain the connections between the story of Moses and the concepts of freedom and salvation, using theological terms. They will make connections between Bible texts studied and what Christians believe about being the People of God and how they should behave.
Science
We will be focusing on living things and their habitats. The children will focus on describing how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro-organisms, plants and animals. They will also learn to give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics.
Their learning will focus on use relevant scientific language and illustrations to discuss, communicate and justify their scientific ideas and they will learn to talk about how scientific ideas have developed over time. They will devise classification systems and keys to identify some animals and plants in the immediate environment.
Their learning will focus on use relevant scientific language and illustrations to discuss, communicate and justify their scientific ideas and they will learn to talk about how scientific ideas have developed over time. They will devise classification systems and keys to identify some animals and plants in the immediate environment.
PE
Gymnastics and movement. The children will be continuing to develop the skills they learnt last term in gymnastic and will apply their balancing and movement skills to equipment.
Art
The children will observe the anatomy of a spider and learn to draw anatomically correct images. They will then learn to draw in the style of the illustrator. They key skill will be developing pencil and shading skill.
DT
The children will use their art designs and make a 3D model of a spider. They will consider the materials to be used and evaluate the completed product.
Spring Term 1 – Rowan Class
English
The children will be reading texts from a wide range of fiction genres – from adventure to science fiction . Through close, shared reading and analysis of these books, the children will identify the purpose, features and themes that define the stories and will discuss the techniques that authors employ to engage, entertain and intrigue readers. They will create their own independent pieces of writing including a mixed genre story, an evaluative paragraph, character and setting descriptions, action sequences, selecting language and style to fit audience and purpose. The SPaG focus will be use of complex sentences.
Maths
We shall be reading, interpreting and drawing line graphs to analysis data and statistics. The children will illustrate and name parts of circles, using the words radius, diameter, centre and circumference confidently. They will then calculate fractions and percentages of amounts to interpret and draw simple pie charts. The children will apply their addition and division skills to calculate the mean average in a variety of contexts. We shall investigate the properties of shapes in detail, with a particular focus on angles. Word problems will be used to deepen understanding.
RE
The children will be considering the key questions: what are the beliefs in Buddhism? and what does it mean to be a good Buddhist? They will learn who the Buddha was, exploring the events of the Buddha’s life, his teachings and their significance for Buddhists. They will discuss the principles that define the Four Noble Truths and the guidelines that form the Noble Eightfold Path. They will examine the symbolism in the image of Buddha and will learn about Buddhist scriptures and places of worship. Finally, they will reflect on their own behaviour.
Science
The children will focus on the topic of evolution and inheritance. We shall explore how living things have changed over time and how fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago. We shall investigate how living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents. We shall identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution. We shall research the work of Charles Darwin and discussing why he is still a controversial figure.
PE
The children will be playing cricket. Their learning will include mastering over arm bowling towards a target as well as throwing towards a target, defending and striking at the wicket, fielding as a team and the rules of quick cricket.
Art
The children will explore portraits by various artists, creating images of themselves and members of their families in a range of media. As part of our topic, evolution and inheritance, we shall also focus on pictures of monkeys, chimps and apes.
PSHE
The children’s learning will be linked to a Safety Context topic. The children will consider the new skills they will need to learn to keep themselves safe on the roads – whilst cycling and as a pedestrian. They will develop understanding of how they can take more responsibility for keeping themselves safe in the sun. They will consider the dangers of electricity in the home and of railways and learn basic techniques for keeping safe. They will then reflect on how safety is maintained in the school environment and how they can take more responsibility, at home and at school, to reduce the risk of accidents.
Music
Our ‘Music and me’ topic will enable us to explore the concept of identity and what shapes us, focusing on the work of four British female contemporary artists: Shiva Feshareki, Eska Mtungwazi, Afrodeutsche and Anna Meredith, and creating our own music.
French
The children will continue to learn how to describe themselves: asking and answering questions about appearance, families and the route to school. They will also develop vocabulary linked to colours and parts of the body.
Spring Term 1 – Rowan Class
English
The children will be reading texts from a wide range of fiction genres with a focus on developing discussion skills. Through spoken language they will develop skills to summarise, identify key details, offer a sustained contribution and promote effective discussions. They will also learn how to build on their own and other’s ideas and challenge views courteously. While reading they will discuss understanding, make comparisons within and across texts and explain how an author manipulates emotions/bias using cohesive devices. Writing will develop the using of cohesive devices including modal verbs and relative clauses.
Maths
The children will be consolidating the learning they have focused on this year. This will be an opportunity to revisit many of the skills and curriculum content covered both in Year 6 and also the rest of Key Stage 2. The children will be given the opportunity to ensure any possible gaps in understanding are addressed before children move on to secondary school. The focus will be word problems and focused support in geometry, statistics, ratio, algebra, percentages, decimals, fractions, BIDMAS and place value.
RE
The children will be investigating the five pillars of Islam and the holy book for Muslims, the Qur’an. The children will explain the key beliefs held by Muslims. They will be able to explain the key features in a Muslim’s place of worship. They will be given opportunities to name and explain the key Muslim festivals. They will also learn about the importance of prayer mats and what makes them special. The children will learn about the life of Muhammad. They will be able to understand why Muslims fast.
Science
The children will focus on the topic of reproduction. The children shall explore how asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction occurs in flowering non flowering plants. We shall then investigate reproduction in animals and growth rates. They will learn their is a life process common to humans and animals and plants also have a life process that includes growth nutrition and reproduction. The children will use appropriate scientific language and terms to communicate ideas and explain the behaviour of living things. Science will be taught in conjunction with PSHE art and outdoor learning.
PE
The children will be focusing athletics in preparation for the school sports day. They will develop a range of skills and techniques for long and short distance races, team relays and baton handling. They will also develop long distance throwing and long jumps.
Art
The children will be using their science topic to develop drawing skills linked to botanical drawings. They will be using life drawing skills focusing on scientific representations and focusing on details. This Art topic will be supported by a specialist Art teacher.
PSHE
The children’s learning will be focused around lifestyles and life education. Letters will be sent home to parents before we start this topic. The children will explore the topic around sex and relationships. Sensitive discussions will be had around body knowledge, disease prevention, changes and awareness. The children will be able to identify male and female body parts and describe their functions. The children will understand that safe routines can stop the spread of viruses and bacteria. They will also learn how the media, families and friends can influence attitudes to their bodies. Leters will be sent home before this topic stats.
Music
The children will consolidates their learning this term. The learning will focus on revisiting songs and musical activities, a context for the History of Music and the beginnings of the Language of Music. The children will reflect, rewind and replay what they have experienced.
French
The children will continue to develop vocabulary linked and parts of the body. They will then learn where in the world French is spoken, share ideas about travel around the world and of course, the weather.
