Upper Key Stage 2 Curriculum Meeting Blackbirds, Eagles and Owls Classes September 2017

English Within Literacy the children will continue to focus on creating and shaping texts to develop sentence construction, vocabulary choice, engagement with the reader and a style that suits the particular genre of writing. Pieces of writing will often begin with a ‘cold task’, followed by a ‘warm/hot task’. The unit of work will then culminate in the final task which will demonstrate all of the elements studied for a particular unit of work. Where possible writing tasks will be linked to our humanities topics.

Reading The children will continue their understanding of reading through dedicated comprehension sessions during the week. Please continue to both hear your child read and to read with your child. This will further develop the children’s ability to form an opinion about what they have read. The children need to be able to articulate their opinion about a text and select evidence from what they have read to support their answers. This skill is particularly important in the Year 6 Sats. As well as the basic information retrieval children are asked to comment on what they have read. These questions are often phrased as ‘Why do you think …?’ ‘What evidence tells you that …?’

Maths There will be a continued focus on children knowing their multiplication tables; this in turn supports other key mathematical skills such as division and fractions. Maths homework is set each Friday to be returned by Thursday of the following week. The work will reflect what has been covered that week in class. Maths homework will often use previous SAT based questions. There will be a weekly times tables test.

The Curriculum In History the children will be studying The Aztecs through Big questions followed by enquiry questions. In Science the children are studying 2 topics. The first being light and after half term this will be electricity.

Curriculum continued In D&T the children will be designing and making an Aztec inspired cushion. The artwork is based around selected artists. In R.E. the children will further their knowledge of Christianity and the concept in incarnation. This will be followed by a studying of an aspect of Islam. P.E., (including swimming) will be on Wednesday. Kit is also needed for a P.E. session on Thursday. Please make sure that kit is in school at the start of the week. Swimming Year 5 first half term, Year 6 second half term.

Class Dojo This is a way of sharing with you what the children are doing in school. Each parent will have their own log in details. You will be able to see photographs of the children at work with an opportunity to ‘like’ a photo but not to comment on them. Please continue to communicate with school via the school office.

Homework and Home Learning Reading – We will continue to set reading comprehension homework that is to be completed at home and will then be reviewed and discussed in school. The comprehension books are the responsibility of the children and need to be brought in to school each week. It is important that your child still reads to you. Please record along with comments in their Reading Diaries. Spelling homework will compliment the work of our Read, Write Inc spelling scheme. It is a list of words children are expected to spell as part of the National Curriculum. The words have been sent home and will be tested each Wednesday morning.

Grammar – specific grammar homework will be sent home each week to support the specific focus of the week’s learning. This allows a further opportunity to consolidate the understanding of concepts and terminology. As with the comprehension homework, the children will have their own grammar homework booklet. Rather than beginning at page 1, the children will be directed to the relevant page(s) so that the homework supports the learning in class. Maths – this is sent home each week (Friday) and supports the work that is covered in class. The homework is due in the following week. There will also be a weekly times tables test to support the work completed in class.