Year 6 Kestrels Class
Following the Albourne Way
living life to the full
Welcome to Kestrels, Year 6.
The teacher in Kestrels is Mr. Hamilton. The class also has the support of Mrs. Henson in the mornings and for several afternoons: the afternoons enable Mrs. Henson to work with smaller groups of children. Year 6 have a newly built classroom separate from the school’s main building with its own lockers, toilet block and a smaller group-work room.
Ask Me About
'Ask Me Abouts' will be added here half-termly to keep you informed about what we have been doing and what we intend to do in Kestrels class.
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Maths
In maths, we will be recapping the children’s knowledge of capacity, length and mass. We will also explore time, shapes, angles and statistics. This will be carried out through a range of question types to help develop a deeper understanding of mathematical skills.
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Humanities
The second half of the spring term will continue with the children developing their knowledge of World War Two. Through history lessons, the children will find out: the key role of women in World War Two; what happened to evacuees (linked to our reading book, ‘Goodnight, Mr. Tom’ by Michelle Magorian) and they will discover the importance of the Kinder Transport, in saving the lives of many Jewish children.
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English
This will also link to our written work in English, where the children will explore and create formal and informal letters based on the book ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ by Shirley Hughes. They will also do a retell based on the fabulously illustrated and moving book, ‘Rose Blanche’ by Ian McEwan and Roberto Innocenti. There will also be the opportunity to create persuasive letters inspired by events in ‘Goodnight, Mr.Tom’. We will then finish by giving the children the opportunity to create some wonderful poetry.
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Reading
We expect all children to be reading daily at home and in school when the opportunity arises. Home reading should be recorded in their reading diary, which we check weekly- those who have been reading daily will have a raffle ticket entered into the half-termly reading challenge, with the opportunity to win a book.
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Spelling and Grammar
Both spelling and grammar will be covered throughout Year 6, through all our learning. The link below will take you to Topmarks games and activities to help your child with their learning.
Computing
In computing the children will be developing their coding skills from previous years, by exploring more complex variables, leading to the creation of an app. To do this we use the coding program from Espresso. On the other hand, Design technology will look at skills used in World War Two, by creating a hands-on toy which uses cams and followers, as may have been used during the war years.
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The Band Runner game (link below) is designed to help 8-10 year olds learn how to stay safe online. The Play Like Share animations and game are part of a package of resources created by the National Crime Agency's CEOP Command.
Art
Art and DT has been a great success, with some stunning batiks produced; their DT work (creating/making stall ideas for the Christmas fair) helped raise a wonderful amount of money for the PTA-well done everyone! Next term we focus again on art and the amazing WW2 underground sketches by the artist/sculptor Henry Moore. The children will get the opportunity to recreate his style of drawing and then compose scenes as if from the underground shelters, before sketching/drawing in the style of Henry Moore. Please encourage your children to explore the work of Henry Moore.
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RE
Religion, with the run-up to Easter, will be exploring the significance of the Resurrection to Christians.
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Pupils can get ahead with their learning by looking at the BBC Bitesize links below.
PSHE / PE
To keep fit and healthy, we will have two PE lessons per week- our indoor session will focus on developing gymnastic skills. Keeping healthy will also be key in our science work as we focus on Diet, Drugs and Lifestyle, and in our PSHE work, which will be based on a Healthy Me
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We also have French, DT and Music to look forward to!
We will be having a World War Two evacuee’s day, when the children will be encouraged to dress as evacuees and will do lessons and games as may have been carried out by children during the war. In the afternoon they will have a visitor who will talk about life during the war in British cities. The children will have the opportunity to take on some of the roles carried out by those who remained to fight the war in Britain.
Music will involve learning and playing the song, ‘You’ve Got a Friend’. French will be taught by the specialist from Hurst College, who visits once a week.
We will continue to set homework on Google Classroom based on reading, grammar, punctuation and spelling, and maths (related to our classwork). The children also have their SATs revision books to continue working through.
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Thanks, as ever, to all the parents and carers for their help and support. Please feel free to contact us.
