WEEKLY NEWS 

Week beginning 07.05.12

Homework diary reminder

 Please could we ask parents to support us in promoting your child's use of their homework diary as it is good practice ahead of the enhanced importance of the homework diary at secondary school.

Please could parents remember to sign your child's diary as they complete homework to show that you are satisfied they have completed it to the best of their ability.  If you do have any queries or concerns regarding homework do not hesitate to contact Mr Elston or Miss Scotting.

Every Year 6 child should be completing at least one after school reading session per day and recording this in their homework diary.

Dates for your diary:

SATS Week:  14th - 18th May 2012. Please do NOT book any time out for your child during this important week.  

Chatsworth Residential: 11th June - 15th June 2012.

Literacy: Reviews

In Literacy this week we will be continuing to look at journalistic reviews, including film reviews. We will be converting our notes from watching 'Holes' into a plan before writing our own reviews of the film. We will then undertake a timed piece of writing relating to reviews.

We will do a practice Reading and spelling SAT this week also.     

Throughout this week both classes are continuing to look closely at sentence building, editing and improvement. The children should be writing with a range of simple, compound and complex sentences in their work, by the end of Year 6, and making cohesive links between paragraphs.

Maths: SATS revision and exam technique

This week in Maths we will be focussing entirely on SATs practice questions and reviewing all of the exam techniques we have learnt over the course of the year. If your child has any concerns about areas of their Maths work they would like us to go through, they have only to say and we will do so.    

Please note: Maths homework from now on will be primarily SAT style questions related to the Maths focus for that week. This is to prepare the children fully for these style of questions in the end of Key Stage tests. Please check with your child's Maths teacher if they (your child) are having any diffculties with these type of homeworks. please do not allow homework to create stress at home, as this is never the intention.

Throughout the Summer term we will continue to complete daily times tables practise and testing before extending this to derivation of times tables. E.g: 2 x 2 = 4 so 20 x 2 = 40 and 20 x 20 = 400.  

Science: Reversible and Irreversible Changes

This unit brings together and consolidates work that children have done before on reversible changes eg melting, freezing, evaporating, dissolving, condensing, introduces burning as a change that cannot be reversed and, like other irreversible changes, produces new materials.

Please note - Science was altered to be an assessment based task last week and so the exciting investigation below will happen this week on Friday.

Focus question this week: How does burning work?

Our investigation this week will involve burning a variety of materials, in a controlled, safe environment, and observing the changes different materials go though when heated and burnt. We will also be observing a candle burning and utilising a wide range of scientific vocabulary to explain the changes that occur.   

Experimental and investigative work focuses on:

• making careful observations
• suggesting explanations for observations, using scientific knowledge and understanding.

Year 6 homework rota: