Year 6 - Woodpecker Class
Welcome to Woodpecker class
Class teacher: Mrs Pursey.
Teaching assistants: Mrs Chongbang, Mr Hopgood and Mr Dole
Term 3
Happy New Year!
What an exciting start to the New Year, moving into a brand-new school and the first to learn in our classroom. We will start the term off by exploring the new building and showing the rest of the school how to respond to our new environment.
Our new school gives us the perfect excuse to write – to write about our feelings and goals; navigating a new building; interviewing others for their views; writing a report about the school. We will be able to focus on the skills of writing in an accurate tense; in first, second and third person;
We will continue to work in groups to further develop our skills using the four operations and demonstrate our understanding of reasoning problems. We will revise our times tables and arithmetic strategies before we move onto fractions, decimals and percentages.
In Reading, we will finish reading The Girl Who Speaks Bear to build our fluency and discussions around a text, before reading our next text -Illegal. We will also be completing comprehension tasks around different texts to support us with the skills of inference, retrieval, scanning texts and vocabulary development.
We move onto the animals, including humans, specifically looking at circulation and health. We will cover factors affecting health; the heart and circulatory system; blood; heart rate; investigating exercise and heart rate and heart rate and fitness.
CHANGE OF DAY
P.E this term changes to a Tuesday afternoon, where we will be learning the skills to play badminton. Children can wear their P.E kits to school, with appropriate footwear. Earrings must be removed for P.E and long hair tied back.
No Forest School
This term is Magpie class turn for Forest School. Woodpecker's will resume Forest School in term 4.
Term 2
Welcome back to Term 2; an exciting term in the lead up to the Christmas holidays and our final term in the mobile classrooms!
In English, we will be writing to inform by writing instructions for survival in the wilderness, which is inspired by our continued reading of The Girl Who Speaks Bear. The children will be using prepositions, relative clauses, imperative verbs and modal verbs. Later in the term, we will be writing to entertain, where we have the opportunity to write dialogue for The Snowman. This will involve developing the skills of inverted commas and reported clauses.
In Maths, we continue to work in our groups to further our skills and understanding within the four operations. We will move on to Fractions, where we will look at: equivalents, comparisons, adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing and fractions of an amount.
In Reading, we will continue reading The Girl Who Speaks Bear to build our fluency and discussions around a text. We will also be completing comprehensions tasks around different texts to support us with the skills of inference, retrieval, scanning texts and vocabulary development.
In Science, we continue to look at energy, specifically looking at circuits, batteries and switches. We will be developing knowledge of circuits, the effects of changing voltage and how switches contribute to different devices. We have the opportunity to look at the schematics of the electrics for our new school building and understanding circuit drawings.
P.E this term continues to be on a Wednesday afternoon, where we will be learning with TeamTheme. Children can wear their P.E kits to school, with appropriate footwear. Earrings must be removed for P.E and long hair tied back.
This term there is a change to Forest School. Some children will be going for the first three weeks of the term on Monday afternoon and the rest of the class will be going the following three weeks of term on the Monday afternoon. This will prove better for the children as there will be less up there at a time, and I will be able to complete targeted work back in class with smaller groups of children.
Any queries or questions please message me using Class Dojo.
Term 1
A brand new school year awaits - and I couldn’t be more excited to share it with you! This year is going to be amazing. You’re the oldest in the school now, and with that comes exciting opportunities to grow, shine, and inspire others. We’ll be diving into fascinating topics, tackling challenges together, and celebrating every step of progress you make.
I promise you this: our classroom will be a place of fun, friendship, and growth. We’ll laugh a lot, learn even more, and support each other every single day. Mistakes will be welcome - they’re just stepping stones to success - and your ideas will always be heard and valued.
So bring your curiosity, your courage, and your kindness. Let’s make this year unforgettable!
You’ve got this!
In English we will be writing to inform. Initially we will write about ourselves, a topic we know most about, to be able to apply the skills learnt to a less familiar focus of Woodpeckers. We will be applying noun phrases, adverbs and adverbial phrases to build our sentences. We will review the punctuation previously learnt and focus on presentation expectations. Later in the term, once we have a greater understanding of energy, we will write to persuade.
Reading is really important so we will spend time building up our reading fluency using the book- The girl who speaks bear.
'Found abandoned in a bear cave as a baby, Yanka has always wondered where she is from. She tries to ignore the strange whispers and looks from the villagers, wishing she was as strong inside as she is on the outside. When Yanka has to flee her house, looking for answers about who she really is, a journey far beyond anything she ever imagined begins - from icy rivers to smouldering mountains, meeting an ever-growing herd of extraordinary friends along the way.'
Our Science learning this term also focusses on energy, specifically looking at light and reflection. We will look at how light travels and how shadows are formed, whilst working scientifically and drawing diagrams to demonstrate our understanding.
We start the year off with a Geography enquiry: Where does our energy come from? Building on the children’s growing understanding of sustainability, we’ll investigate the different types of energy sources - from solar and wind to fossil fuels - and examine why they matter. Pupils will weigh up the benefits and drawbacks of each source and consider their impact on our planet.
P.E this term will be on a Wednesday afternoon, where we will be learning TagRugby with TeamTheme. Children can wear their P.E kits to school, with appropriate footwear. Earrings must be removed for P.E and long hair tied back.
Reminders will be sent about Forest School and P.E on Class Dojo, as well as information shared about the learning. Any queries or questions please message me using Class Dojo.
The Term 2 vocabulary sheets below will help you to know more about what your child will be learning this term.
Teachers can be contacted via Class Dojo if you have any questions or queries regarding the home learning.
Please click here to access extra phonics, reading and spelling resources.
Please click here to access links to other useful home learning resources published online.
If you are unsure of any log in details please contact the teacher through Class Dojo or email office@pilgrims-way.kent.sch.uk