Year 6 – Rowan Class
What We’ve Been Up To This Term
What was life like during the Blitz?
By reading and analysing historical sources alongside our class texts, we shall contemplate what it was like to live through the Blitz in Britain.
Books your child could read at home:
- Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden
- Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carrol
- Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian
- My Secret War Diary by Marcia Williams
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.
