Primary 6 – Term 1

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a lovely summer break. The boys and girls are settling really well into Primary 6 and have already embraced the responsibilities that come with Primary 6. The first term is always a busy term; however the class have already started working hard and are very eager to learn.

UNCRC

This is a new part to our updates and is the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child. We have looked at this convention as a class and chosen articles from it that we wanted to focus on as a class. We decided on the following: Article 19 – ‘We have the right to be safe’, Article 28 – ‘We have the right to learn’, Article 29 – ‘we have the right to work and play in a clean environment’ and Article 31 – ‘we have the right to play.’ The class understands that with these right =s come responsibilities. For example, if they have the article ‘we have the right to be safe’, the children know that they have a responsibility to try their very best to keep themselves safe also and avoid unsafe situations. We will be learning about this through our assemblies and community times.

IDL

Our interdisciplinary topic this term is Tornadoes, Hurricanes and Wildfires. We will start this later on in the term where the children will learn about the responses that are available by the emergency services, charities and international agencies during natural disasters. The class will also develop an awareness of the processes that actually causes natural disasters.

Literacy

The class have already started reading our class novel, ‘Wonder’ by R.J Palacio. They have been completing tasks relating to the text and I am already impressed with their comprehension skills. This class novel will allow learning to take place across the curriculum and there will be lots of opportunity for discussion. Within reading this term, we will be looking at the main purpose of a text as well as the different genres of books as well as encouraging the children to explain and justify their preferences of reading in terms of authors and genres. We have an extensive class library that the children can access for personal choice and enjoyment, as well as our school library which we will also be visiting. The children will continue with bug club and this will have a learning focus of metalinguistics and visualisation. The children will develop their understanding of what they are reading and I am hopeful of your support at homework time to complete their reading online. All children will be encouraged to read their texts with expression and fluency.

Our writing genres for the term ahead are descriptive writing and narrative writing. The class will be working on writing their piece, editing it and re-drafting it, focussing on layout in order to engage their reader. This is when the children will access ICT in order to type their re draft piece of writing. The class will be encouraged to improve their writing through feedback received. In terms of the tools for writing, the children will be looking at more sophisticated punctuation such as apostrophes, colons and semi-colons.

In terms of our listening and talking element of literacy, the children will be focussing on group work and taking on differing roles and responsibilities. In this situation, the children must use their listening toolkits and show respect to each member of the group when they have something to contribute.

The class will complete handwriting every week within class and we would ask that this is promoted at home in terms of homework also.

Numeracy

The entire class will continue to work on their times tables throughout the year.  We have already began working on our understanding of place value and what value each digit holds within the columns. Depending on what group the children are in for their numeracy, they will be working on place value using units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousand and millions.

Alongside Mrs Terras, the children will also be looking at rounding to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand. This will enable the children to develop their skill of estimating so they can then find approximate answers to calculations and problems.

Our whole school will concentrate on number talks throughout the year. These lessons encourage children to solve calculations using different strategies. This allows children to have ownership of their own learning by using the strategies that suit their learning style best.

In terms of beyond number, the class will be learning about money this term. Within this, we will look at retailers and how they use advertising to increase their best buys. APR and credit cards will also be covered alongside budgeting and how we can budget responsibly.

Health and Wellbeing

Our P.E. days are a Wednesday and a Friday. We are currently learning about badminton and are developing our ability to serve the shuttlecock properly and engage in a continuous game. After this topic, we will hopefully be moving onto to hockey and the skills involved with this.

Primary 6 already participate in mindfulness every day, this is something that the entire class benefit from and have been doing this since the beginning of Primary 4.

Our PATHS programme will help the children to develop positive relationships within the class and school.  Delving into the emotions that the children feel will help them to understand why they are feeling this way as well as giving them the tools to cope with these emotions. The children are also participating in the PATHS buddy scheme that helps support the infants in ‘how to play’ during lunchtimes.

Our core health and wellbeing teaching will focus on recognising healthy relationships and the roles of our parents and care givers. As we all know, every family is unique in how it is made up and we will explore what this means.

R.E.

Our class were given the responsibility of leading the first mass of the new school year and they were brilliant. Each and every one of them represented themselves and their school marvellously. We will learn about Jesus and the teachings of the bible as they year progresses looking at our own relationships with God as well as our relationships with our faith in general.

Expressive arts

This term, the class will be focussing on art through drawing. We will look at proportional faces using lines, tones and shades. We will also have a focus on painting creating effects and texture such as sand, salt and wax. The use of colour will be taught through still life painting and the colours used will help to express mood. Our music this term will be focussing on singing. This will be completed through our hymn practises and drama will be explored later in the year.

ICT

The children have an excellent knowledge of how to use the computers and glow. They will continue to develop their understanding of how to research certain topics and how to transfer the information from what they have learned to a document that can be saved and retrieved at a later date. The children will also continue to practise emailing myself and their classmates (whilst using their emails responsibly and appropriately).

French

This term will focus on learning the names of colours in French. We will also be learning about a French artist Claude Monet and his works.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support so far this term as well as last year, and look forward to everything that is to come. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Take care,

Mrs McCreadie