P6b Curricular Update – Term 2

Well, I can’t quite believe that Christmas is almost here! What a quick term it has been and your children have done you proud. They have worked their socks off in all areas of the curriculum. Here’s what we have we been up to:

Reading

Building on from using the Big Cat reading scheme in Term 1, the children have continued their study of non-fiction texts. They have enjoyed learning about how dogs were used to help the military during the Second World War, the solar system and the ancient Egyptians. They used the texts for paired reading activities, guided reading sessions and to complete a variety of comprehension tasks. I can see a better, more consistent standard of work across all areas of Literacy but in particular in the children’s written responses to text. Next term, we will continue to work on comprehension skills but through the medium of a class novel and the focus will shift to understanding character, setting, plot and the author’s craft.

Writing

We did Persuasive writing this term and looked at a variety of topics including; homework, school uniform and created our spy gadgets which was a lot of fun! The children were given the opportunity to come up with arguments for and against each topic and to choose the side of the argument with which they agreed. We had some fantastic discussion and debate surrounding these issues and the children developed their skills in using the persuasive writing toolkit to produce well-structured, detailed pieces of writing. They also had the opportunity to create and design their own adverts for their spy gadgets, and present sales pitches in order to persuade us to buy these, which was a lot of fun.

Next term we will move onto Imaginative/Creative writing. I am so lucky to have a lot of imaginative children in my class, and I cannot wait to see what they produce! I know many of them are excited to do some story writing after two terms on non-fiction writing.

Maths

We were lucky to have Mrs Simmons continue to work with us this term, ad we continued with Number as our main focus. Mrs Simmons has written us a little message..

‘Wednesday mornings have been great this term, spending my time with Miss Duffin & P6B. Together we have explored various ways to multiply & divide. We started by using place value counters and arrays before moving on to several pictorial strategies. We looked at partitioning, doubling & halving, the grid method, rounding & compensating and VIPS. The children were always ready to learn and willing to try new strategies, which made my job much easier. Hopefully I get to spend some more time with them again in Term3. In the meantime, enjoy the well-earned rest and have a lovely Christmas when it comes.

Best Wishes,

Mrs Simmons 🎄😊’

We also continued with both individual mental maths and group mental maths tasks on a daily basis and all of the children have grown in confidence when talking through mental maths solutions and strategies.

Fractions, Decimals & Percentages and Time will be our big focus topics in Term 3.

IDL (Topic)

Our science topic this term was Sound and Light. We looked at the different parts of and the inner workings of the eye and the ear. We looked at problems that can occur when the eye and ear don’t work as they should and at the difficulties that may be faced by people who are blind and or deaf. We also looked at how modern technology has helped people with vision and hearing problems. This all tied in nicely with our work in Health and Wellbeing where we learned more about living with disabilities.

Our topic for next term is a cracker – The Swinging Sixties!

I have heard what a fun, interesting and engaging topic it is, and I cannot wait to get stared! The children will love it, and there might even be a little performance for you all to enjoy too!

Health and Well-being

Our topic in Health and Wellbeing was Celebrating Differences. Each week we looked at ways in which we are both similar and different and how this can be a cause for celebration but unfortunately also a source of conflict. The children looked at case studies of children living with disabilities and also researched Paralympians. They were sensitive and respectful throughout. Well done kids!

As you can see, we’ve covered a LOT! I can see a notable difference in the attitude of the children towards their work and both the quantity and the quality of the work they’re producing has improved greatly. We’re all exhausted but well done everyone, I knew you could do it!

As for you, as parents, thank you for continuing to support your children and for supporting me. It really is much appreciated.

Have a wonderful Christmas and all the very best for 2024.

Kind Regards,

Katie Duffin