Welcome to Year 6! 

Spring term will oversee lots of new and exciting topics to learn about. 

English

In guided reading we will be using a reader called 'The Wolf Wilder,' by Katherine Rundell. Feo and her mother, Marina, live alone in the snowbound woods of Russia. They are wolf wilders (people who teach tamed wolves to live in the wild). When an infamous Russian general arrests Marina, Feo sets off on a quest to save her. With the help of her trusted wolves and a runaway Russian soldier, Feo travels across the frozen landscape and is swept up in the beginnings of a revolution.

We will be answering questions using the VIPERS style of questioning, focusing mostly on inference, vocabulary and retrieval questions. 

We will continue learning spellings from the Year 5/6 national curriculum list and other words with associated spelling patterns. We will also be learning key terms and vocabulary as we come across them in our learning this half term.

Handwriting will take place 2x a week to ensure neatness and presentation.

For our writing units, we will be writing a biography of one of the many famous explorers, learning new elements of writing as well as securing previously taught gramatical elements. We will also be writing a newspaper report based on our Guided reading book. In the second half term, we will be producing non-chronological reports about the inhabitants of the polar regions. We will be ending our Frozen Kingdoms topic with a unit on poetry.

Maths

In Maths we will be focusing on the units of ratio, algebra, fractions, decimals and percentages, area, perimeter and volume and statistics. We will be recapping the 4 main operations with weekly arithmetic and timestables tests. 

Science

This project teaches children about electrical circuits, their components and how they function. They recognise how the voltage of cells affects the output of a circuit and record circuits using standard symbols. It also teaches children about programmable devices, sensors and monitoring. They combine their learning to design and make programmable home devices.

Humanities

Our Georaphy topic this term teaches children about the characteristics and features of polar regions, including the North and South Poles, and includes a detailed exploration of the environmental factors that shape and influence them.

Computing

Some of our computing sessions will be dedicated to e-safety as we use the internet to research for our humanities topics. In other sessions we will be learning about databases. We will be using formulas to produce calculated data and experimenting with changing data inputs to affect the output of the calculation.  

Art, DT and Music

In Art, we will be teacing children about the genre of environmental art. They study how artists create artwork that addresses social and political issues related to the natural and urban environment. Children work collaboratively to create artwork with an environmental message. We will also be looking at the Inuit way of life, including some of their cultural and artistic traditions.

file:///C:/Users/glinh/Downloads/2020-trail_dev_infs_significant_artwork.pdf 

In music, we will be focusing on Dynamics, pitch and texture, appraising the work of Mendelssohn and further developing the skills of improvisation and composition.

General Reminders

• PE will be on Wednesdays. Please ensure your child comes to school wearing their PE kit on those days. Please also ensure that any earrings are removed for PE.
• Homework will be set on a Friday, to be handed in on the following Wednesday. Topic projects will be given out at the beginning of term and completed by the penultimate week of the term. 
• Children are expected to read every night, please ensure this is recorded in their reading records. Reading records will be checked on a weekly basis and reads will be counted as part of our new reading challenge. The aim is to read daily for 15-20 minutes. 
• Spelling rules will be taught on a Monday and tested the following Monday. Please note, there will not be a list of spellings, but a rule to be learned. 
• Please can you pay your deposit for Longridge - by December 31st to secure your child's place.
• SAT booster classes will begin after we return, please look out for a letter which will go home with your child during the first week back.

We thank you for your continued support in this final year of your child's learning here at Pippins. If you have any queries or questions, please come and see me after school, or email me at: gly@pippins.slough.sch.uk 

Miss Ly