Livingstone Primary School
Welcome to Kingfisher's class: Year 6: 2024/2025
Mrs Cooper, Mrs Ferreira and Mr Jackson are so excited to welcome to the new Kingfishers into Year 6!
The Curriculum: Autumn 1
English
Kingfishers will begin the year reminding ourselves of basic literacy skills, identifying common errors and approaching these as a class.
The short film Alma will be used as a stimulus for discussion of character, plot and setting and this exploration will culminate in a third-person setting description.
Our class reader will be Wonder by RJ Palacio, which will be used as a backdrop for exploring the features of both a formal letter and a diary entry. This novel also lends itself to discussions about kindness, acceptance and understanding and these areas will remain central to the teaching.
SPAG is intergrated into English lessons, but we will also focus on one specific grammatical device per week, so that we are gradually building a bank of knowledge across this area.
Spellings are set and tested every week and pupils will be time to practise in class, whilst also being expected to work on them at home.
A handwriting group will be created in this term and Mrs Ferreira will run weekly sessions.
Maths
This half- term the following units will be covered: Place Value, as well as work uysing the four main operations: addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. We will also be completing arithmetic tasks every morning and short tests will be completed in class at the end of every week, in order to ensure that we are refining our mathematics skills throughout the week.
Science
On Thursdays, Kingfishers will be investigating the following topic with Mr Jackson:
Geography
In Year 6, we alternate teaching of History and Geography and this half-term we will be exploring: 'Why doe Population change?' in Geography. Examples of study include: identifying densely and sparsely populated areas; defining and discussing death/ birth rates; studies of migration and their impact, as well as the effect of climate change and its impact on population.
PE
with Sinclair Sports will take place on: Mondays and Fridays
Children in Kingfishers class need to come to school dressed in their P.E. kit on these days.
You will need: blue t-shirt, black shorts/leggings/jogging bottoms and sensible, outside trainers. Please ensure your child takes their earrings out on PE days.
Remember, the values you develop in sport will carry across into your academic work and all that you do in school and outside school.
Strive to be your very best!
We encourage Kingfishers class to think about this question on a daily basis:
How do you demonstrate these values whilst being physically active, when playing competitive sport, during PE lessons and, most importantly of all, in your everyday life?
Art, Design and Technology
Drawing: Making My Voice Heard: This unit focuses on developing pupils' skills in using different art styles, exploring effects with tools, understanding and applying chiaroscuro, and creating symbolic and expressive drawings. It encourages children to form their own opinions about art, understand the impact of techniques, and convey messages through their artwork.
Spanish
Takes place every once every week with Miss. Lara. Pupils will be activiely engaged in speaking, listening and writing activities which will develop their skills of communication in this beautiful language.
PSHE
In PSHE, we will continue to work from the One Decision schemes of work, which encourage children to look at the pros and cons of specific behaviours and make their own decisions about what is the right way to behave based upon this. We then discuss their choices focusing on the risks of specific actions. This half-term, the focus is on Staying Safe: Alcohol.
RE
How and why do some people inspire others? is the RE focus this H/T. Pupils will be introduced to significantly influential characters across the areas such as: politics, Science and Art in order to consider the common values that these individuals hold that render them 'an inspiration'. Pupils will conduct their own research, whilst also being encouraged to consider people in their every day lives who inspire and influence them.
MUSIC
The unit of study for Music this H/T revolves around the song Happy by Pharrell Williams. Pupils will listen to and appraise the song, complete warm-up activites and also improvise. They will learn to compose and perform, using musical languge such as: pitch, rhythym, tone etc... It's a highly enjoyable scheme in which pupils spend a lot of time up on their feet and having fun!
Homework will be set weekly on a Friday and will be due every Friday. This will consist of CGP Revision Guides, alongside spellings and Doodle Maths. It is expected that Year 6 pupils are reading at home on at least 3 separate occasions every week, although it does not have to be for long periods of time, it is vital that this is done regularly. Rewards are given in class for pupils showing evidence of this in their homework diaries.
Maths and English Practice
IXL have separate pages of skills linked to individual Year group. The Y6 page has links to practise both English and Maths skills. Pages are then split into skills of which has a practise question for the children to think about.
BBC Education have produced a whole host of materials for KS2. Follow the KS2 link and then select either Maths or English. Each area usually has an information section for reading, plus an activity and then quiz which is marked online. Some aspects require a subscription.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education
A site with both Maths and English based quizzes which are marked as you go along.
http://www.educationquizzes.com/ks2/maths/
A site with a range of information and questions – great for revision purposes!
http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/children_sats.htm
A revision site based upon the old Key Stage 2 Tests but still contains lots of useful information for both Maths and English.
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/
A site with links to old style Key Stage 2 Maths Papers, Maths Tutorials as well as Maths Games. Some of these games are linked to Memory and would therefore help pupils to retain key information.
http://www.online-maths-tutor.com/
A site with links to Maths and English revision materials, including worksheets to look at online or to print off and practise with.
http://sats.highamstjohns.com/
These are “old style” Key Stage 2 test papers but are still useful for practise, and in particular, creating discussion around questions and strategies to answer. View on screen or print off for free. Best used
http://www.emaths.co.uk/index.php/student-resources/past-papers/key-stage-2-ks2-sat-past-papers
Click on “For Kids” to access some fun games to practise speed of recall of times tables.
This site has loads of Maths games which help to practise a range of skills.
http://www.mathplayground.com/games.html
Loads of Maths games on a range of Mathematical concepts.
https://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm
A range of English games and activities.
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2literacy.html
Activities to reinforce and practise a range of spelling rules.
http://www.keystage2literacy.co.uk/spellings-menu.html
A range of activities and games to practise a range of spelling rules and patterns.
