Hello and welcome to Year 6!

 Class Teacher: Mrs Try and Mrs Jones
Class Support:  Mrs Tapp 
 

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Welcome to Year 6!
​Welcome back into school and into 2021 - Again!
Our theme this term is 'Mexico and the Maya' and will cover mainly geograhy and history. We will investigate how Mexico is similar and different to the UK, and hopefully deepen our understanding of the rainforests as we go along. We will be doing some mapwork, including co-ordinates to increasing levels of accuracy. With the Ancient Maya, we will be finding our how they lived and then comparing it to civilisations that were around at the same time, mainly the Anglo-Saxons. There are links on the topic sheets that will help provide more information.

As part of the theme, and linked to our English, we will be reading 'Middleworld' by J&P Voelkel. It is about a boy from Boston who becomes embroiled in events in which the Ancient Maya come to the present! It's an exciting read and I really hope the children enjoy it as much as I did! There is also a related website with extra information: jaguarstones.co.uk/ which is certainly worth a look!

In English we will be doing an increasing amount of writing, covering various aspects of grammar and punctuation along the way. Please remember that reading is vital to this process so please make sure that your child is a reading a minimum of three times a week, either with you or with a discussion following independent reading.
In maths, we are finishing our work on fractions, and will be moving on to decimals and percentages after that. It is important that children see the link between the different aspects of their maths work, so looking for 'everyday' maths when watching the TV, reading newspapers or if you are able to get out and about is really beneficial.
Remember to use the half termly KIRF to practice key skills. This half term is all about 25 and 50!

 -  Useful revision links:
Although we know that you want to help your child do well in their upcoming SATs, please do not use past SATs papers at home - we use them in school to aid our assessment. There are many 'practice papers' available, so please use these instead. There are also lots of websites that can help with particular skills, these are usually far more engaging than a test paper, so are a much better alternative at home!
Math Antics - an American video that explains percentages really nicely. He does other areas of maths too!
www.mathplayground.com/ From the home page, select the area you'd like to practice and play the game!
​uk.ixl.com_/ Select the area you'd like to work on - limited access on a daily basis 
The Grammarsaurus Blog - this is a facebook page unfortunately, but has some very good information about grammar! He also has some great videos that explain different concepts, such as subordinating conjunctions. These can be found on You Tube​
SPAG practice site - this site requires registration, but just sign up for the free trial! Great practice for the SPAG paper.
TopMarks - a site with lots of maths games - just pick an area for practice and play!
BBC Bitesize - lots of help with many different areas

Here are some 'How to' videos to help others with addition. We hope to do some more this year too:

Mrs Jones                            Mrs Tapp

Y3/4 Spelling list

Y5/6 Spelling list

Corbett Maths Videos

This Half Term's KIRF