Year 6- the final chapter of the Castlefort journey...

English:

Current Learning:

During the first week of term, Year 6 really enjoyed settling in and getting used to life in the Year 6 classroom. They produced some amazing first pieces of work to be proud of and began to 'get to grips' with life at the top of the school!

Currently in Year 6,  we are exploring 'Street Child'; this is a text set in the Victorian era and it is written by Berlie Doherty. This text lends itself extremely well to our first topic in the Autumn Term, which is 'Revolution/Fire Damp and Davy Lamps' (Victorians). The children encounter a young boy called Jim Jarvis, whose life gets turned upside down when his mother suddenly dies and his family is separated during a very challenging period of time. Will Jim finally be free to make his own life or will he be trapped in a cycle of the horrendous conditions of pauper labour for all of his days?

Currently, Year 6 are investigating persuasive text- we are writing a letter to the government to persuade them to either improve the conditions of the workhouse or close these atrocious places for good. The children have really enjoyed exploring features of persuasive texts! We move onto narrative suspense and tension writing in the final weeks of the topic before half term.

A new and exciting prospect then awaits us: we have the chance to explore and study the iconic Shakespearean piece 'Romeo and Juliet'. This will be a real opportunity for the children and we cannot wait to explore Shakespeare's powerful storytelling in a range of exciting activities. We study this in the final two weeks before October half term.

Future Learning:

Across the year, we study the following variety of exciting texts:

• Street Child - Berlie Doherty  
• Romeo and Juliet- William Shakespeare
• Can We Save the Tiger?- Martin Jenkins
• Illegal- Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
• A Different Boy- Paul Jennings
• Holes- Louis Sachar
• Pig Heart Boy - Malorie Blackman   

History and Geography:

Our current History 'Big Picture Map' is below.

Autumn 1: Revolution/Firedamp and Davy Lamp

Science:

Learning At Home:

Children in Year 6 will be required to complete the following homework tasks each week: 

• Home reading - We would like the children to read at least 4 times each week at home and record entries into their individual reading records. Children will also be able to share their thoughts on texts they have read verbally on a Wednesday afternoon during 'Book Club', to spread our love of reading even further and you never know, someone might even read a recommended book!

• Spellings - The children will be set a new spelling list in our hour-long spelling lesson every Wednesday, ready for their test the following week. We would like the children to practise their spellings in their spelling books and to complete 10 weekly games on Spelling Shed.

• TT Rock Stars - The class will be set 15 Garage games on TT Rock Stars each week to be completed by the following Friday. 

• Closer to the summer term, I do send children home with a SPaG or Mathematics worksheet to complete. This is purely for revision- no new learning- and will aid them to revise in readniess for their end of year assessments (both formative and summative).

Useful Websites: