Years 5 & 6 Meet the team 2014

Years 5 & 6Meet the team 2014 Understanding how your child learns

Overview of meeting: • Meet the team • A typical day • Topic overview • Spellings • Reading • Writing • Times tables • Maths • SATs • Homework

A typical day 8:45 – 9:10 Maths Challenge 9:10 – 10:15 Maths 10:15 – 10:30 Break 10:30 – 11:30 English 11:30 – 12:00 Guided Reading 12:00 – 12:30 Spellings/ RE / Science / French 12:30 – 1:30 Lunch 1:30 – 2:00 Literacy Challenge 2:00 – 3:10 Topic (e.g. History, Geography, Art, Music, ICT, RE) or Science

Year 5 Annual overview of topics:

Year 6 Annual overview of topics:

Spellings • Children will have spellings to learn weekly. They need to learn the spelling rule so that they can apply it to words that they have not learnt. • These will be tested in written form in the Spelling book, so parents can pick up where they have gone wrong. • The importance must be placed upon understanding the rule and word pattern, not a numerical score at the end of the test. • In Years 5 & 6 the children will have ‘tricky’ words to learn; these are taken from the government’s compulsory word lists and are grouped where possible.

Tricky words!

Spellings

Spellings Ideas for helping your child learn their spellings: -Write out – look, say, cover, write check -Writing out in sand, flour etc. Using magnetic letters, letter blocks. -Verbalise and repeat. Look for words within words e.g. bus – in business, Mnemonics e.gbecause: big elephants can’t always use small entrances Diarrhoea: dining in arough restaurant: hurry, otherwise expect accidents! • Here or hear: We hearwith our ear • Affect – is the action • Effect – is the result

Reading Reading is an invaluable activity which stimulates imagination– whether it’s being read to, reading alone or reading to parents and anyone else at home. Reading for pleasure – could be reading the newspaper, Internet, magazine or chapter book. Reading records must be used for highlighting books read that do not come from school. Finding something that interests – it doesn’t matter if they read just the same author as this initiates their enthusiasm for it. Bug Club – your child can access a range of different texts which are matched to their reading ability. The children can answer questions on the books; the class teacher has access to how the children respond. Please, please see the class teacher if your child can’t remember their logon. School Library – it has a great range of fiction and non-fiction books. In school the children do Guided Reading 4-5 times a week and have regular opportunities throughout the day to read.

Helping your child to read The best way to develop reading skills is to share books with your child, regularly listen to them read, sometimes reading to or with them, but also discussing books read in increasing depth. To become good readers children need to develop skills in seven areas: 1) Decoding 2) Recalling information from the text - Describe what happened at / when 3) Inference e.g What does the main character feel at this point in the story? How do you know? 4) Structure and organisatione.g. Why is the page laid out in this way? 5) Language e.g. Which words has the author used to make the writing sound informal (chatty) / formal? 6) Purpose e.g. What is the author’s opinion about …? 7) Making links e.g What other stories have similar openings? Please refer to the website for a list of possible questions for each area

Writing Focus on teaching writing skills within an exciting topic: Year 5 topics include: Mission Impossible, Ultimate Explorers, Holes, Horrible Histories, Shark Shack, Superheroes, Narnia, Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom. Year 6 topics include: WWII, Urban Myths, Survival Skills, Volcanoes, Spies, Dangle, Aliens and other Worlds. Children are encouraged to explore their imaginations and be creative, whilst developing key writing skills including: • Writing different sentences • Different openers and connectives • Using a variety of punctuation • The development of a broad vocabulary • The ability to confidently and quickly record their ideas

Writing Assessment We regularly assess the children’s writing. This enables us to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses. Children are encouraged to become responsible learners as they are given individual targets to achieve. We assess children based on: • Sentence structure – are they using different connectives? Are they writing complex sentences? Simple sentences? • Punctuation – are they using full stops and capital letters correctly? Are they using commas, brackets, semi-colons in the right place? • Text structure - have they written an opening? Are they using paragraphs? • Composition – is their writing imaginative? Are they using exciting words? • Spellings • Handwriting

L.G To improve writing The cave was very dark and I felt scared. The dragon was big and scary and hiding inside. Written by a year 6 child: In the distance I heard a thunderous roar. Cautiously, I voyaged forward, my sword clutched in my sweaty hand. Suddenly the gargantuan dragon appeared. Its ruby-red eyes stared at me, recording every move. The silence was deafening. Stepping back I hoped he had not seen me. He had. The dragon dropped. Rearing up on his hind legs, it poised ready to attack. Without warning, its ravenous claws propelled towards me slicing through the darkness. Its nostrils flared releasing an explosion of putrid smoke. It opened its crimson jaws...

Grammar • A wide knowledge of grammar and vocabulary is essential for equipping pupils with a strong command of the written and spoken word. • Year 6 will sit a test to assess their grammar, vocabulary, punctuation and spellings. • Literacy Challenge is used to revise and develop skills which they use in English and across the curriculum.

Grammar Test

Handwriting Expectations in school: • Weekly handwriting lessons - Children in Years 5 - 6 - to write legibly, fluently, with increasing speed and personal style. Pupils to adapt their handwriting (e.g quick notes or final handwriting version). They are also taught to use an unjoined style (e.g labelling a diagram) and to use capital letters (e.g for filling in a form).

Homework Expectations for Years 5 & 6 • Spellings • Reading • Times tables • Half termly project How to support your child with this: • Read information with your child and then encourage them to present it in their own words. • Try to encourage them to try something different each time e.g. research, make a game, create a leaflet, make a model. • Please approach the class teacher if your child is finding difficulty with the task set. • Have a look at the child-friendly website (Woodlands Junior School homework help) for research. Remember to look at Bugclub for different books and www.activelearnprimary.co.uk for Maths or English games/activities set by the class teacher.

Times Tables & Mental Maths It is expected that by the end of Year 4 children know their times tables up to 12 x 12. Children need to be able to recall them quickly and not in order. Tables play a fundamental role in lots different mathematical areas. Strategies - By rote. Repetition is key for improving speed of recall. • Grids • Quick fire questions • Games e.g. bingo, shoot the sheriff • Look for patterns e.g doubling 4x, reverse and inverse e.g. 6 x 5 = 30 so 30 divide by 6 is 5, 5 x 6 is 30, place value e.g. if you know 6 x 8 = 48, then 60 x 8 = 480 and 0.6 x 8 = 4.8

Maths • The four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. • In Years 5 and 6 we use the formal column method of addition and subtraction as this is the most efficient. Addition 237.8 + 98.32 = H T U . 1/101/100 2 3 7 . 8 + 9 8 . 3 2 3 3 6 . 1 2

Subtraction We use the formal column method: 45 – 15.78 H T U . 1/101/100 4 5 . 0 0 1 5 . 7 8

Division We use the bus stop method for dividing by 1-digit: 6782 – 3 =

Division We use ‘chunking’ when dividing by 2- and 3-digits: 562 – 16 =

SATs Week beginning 11th May 2015 Reading test English – Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling test Mental Maths Maths

Residentials in Years 5 and 6 Year 5 – Visit to St Ives ( Wed 3rd June – Fri 5th June) Class 15 – Visit to Gravenchon – 7th or 8th June – Friday 12th June Class 15 – Visit to Gravenchon 14th or 15th June – 19th June

Curriculum All information upon the subjects your child will be following throughout the year can be found in the curriculum leaflet, which is on the website. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Years 5 & 6 Meet the team 2014