Bear Class (Year 6) 2024 - 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the class page for Bear Class.

Here you will find all of the exciting and wonderful things that your child will be learning during their time in Year 6. If you have any questions, please use Class Dojo or speak to a member of our team at drop off/ pick up.

Thank you 

Spring 1 - 'Survival of the Fittest'  

In English this half term, we will be looking at the book On the Origin of Species by Sabina Radeva.

 This is the first ever picture-book retelling of Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species.

 'A long, long time ago, before humans even existed, the living world looked very different from how it looks today.'

For most of human history, people believed that everything in the world was created at once. But scientists started to challenge that idea and in 1859 Charles Darwin, a naturalist and biologist, wrote a famous book called On the Origin of Species that revolutionised the way that we have understood evolution ever since. Now molecular biologist and illustrator Sabina Radeva has recreated Darwin's most famous work as a beautifully illustrated book for children and adults alike. The stunning pictures bring the theory of evolution to life for young readers, and anyone who wants to learn about evolution. Pulling together Darwin's observations from his travels around the world and his ground-breaking explanation of how species form, develop, and change over hundreds of thousands of years, On The Origin of Species is as relevant and important now as it ever was

In Reading, the children will explore Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde

'High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.'

The Happy Prince and Other Tales is a collection of five stories: 'The Happy Prince', 'The Nightingale and the Rose', 'The Selfish Giant', 'The Devoted Friend', and 'The Remarkable Rocket'. The Happy Prince stars the statue of the Prince, who persuades a swallow to deliver his gold and jewels to the poor and needy in his city!

We will be using our different VIPERS skills: Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise to improve our understanding of what we read.'

'Reading for Pleasure' has great amounts of benefits for your child. In Year 6, we ensure your child has time to read for pleasure and each day, we set time aside to read our class book for pleasure. 

Benefits of 'reading for pleasure':

Inspires imagination and creativity.

Enrinches cultural awareness and understanding. 

Increases empathy and improves relationships with others.

Lifts well-being levels and improves mood.

Improves progress in vocabulary, spelllings and even maths.

Encourages children to take a screen break.

Read with your child every day even if it is just 2 minutes- this can make all the difference. 
Record in their reading diaries to ensure that your child is receiving their stamp for their book from the vending machine, or reading buddy. 

You could ask your child about what they think might happen next in the story, how do they think the character is feeling, who is the author and what do they do. 

This half term, the children will explore algebra, converting units, ratio and statistics! 

During our maths topics, there is a large focus within TimesTables. We will, therefore, be building on our times table knowledge as we will be using this to help us solve our maths problems. 

Children will have ongoing access to their TT Rockstars logins at home. I will set your child specific times tables for them to practice. Please ensure that your child is practising them at home as it is very beneficial for their learning.

If you have misplaced your child's login, please drop me a message on Dojo and I will resend for you.

In science this half term, our class will learn all about evolution and inheritance!

They will learn about natural selection and how this links to inheritance and how some characteristics are inherited from parents and some are not. Children will consolidate previous learning on fossilisation and understand how studying fossils has helped explain the theory of evolution.

In our upcoming history lessons, we will be exploring The Sikh Empire! 

The children will be exploring how the Sikh Empire was unified by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the values and belief system of the Sikhs.

In our music lessons, the children will explore their musical abilities.

This half term we will be looking at dynamics, pitch and texture, with a focus on Fingal’s Cave by Mendelssohn.

Your child will have 2 PE lessons each week. Their days this half term are Tuesday and Wednesday. Please ensure they come into school in their PE kit on these days. This half term we will be developing your child's netball skills as well as learning how to play handball!

 Mondays- Each Monday, your child will be given 10 spellings to learn over the course of the week. They will complete a spelling test each Friday, and, if they receive a mark of 10/10,  they will get a Dojo point. They will have opportunities to learn their spellings each morning in class, however, extra practice at home is essential.

Your child will also receive their Family Maths Toolkit Task on Mondays. Enjoy completing this as a family at home and return your book to school by Thursday for a shiny star sticker on your chart and lots of Dojos! There are prizes for completing 10, 20 and 30 tasks. 

Please note: I will often upload additional activities and links for your child to support their learning at home, however this is not specific homework, this is just a little extra for them. For example, I may upload interactive links to games that I know they will like. 

Other useful links:

Please see below links to useful websites for your child to use when they are at home. I will be adding to the list throughout the course of the year so please make sure you check for updated links.

Oxford Owl - Linked to our phonics Read, Write Inc programme https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/free-ebooks/   

Story Nory - A range of stories by classic authors as well as poems musicals and fairytales. https://www.storynory.com/archives/classic-authors 

Story Berries- Read along with audio clips. https://www.storyberries.com

Monkey Pen-  Free downloadable children’s books in PDF format. https://monkeypen.com/pages/free-childrens-books

Free Children’s Stories-  https://www.freechildrenstories.com

Keeping Safe Online-  www.esafety.gov.au/kids 

Topmarks- A great way for children to practise many of their maths skills https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16&AgeGroup=3

Newsround is a very good outlet for your child to watch each day to gain a wider understanding of what is happening not only in our country, but the rest of the world. We will be watching newsround every afternoon in class.