Cuffley School Curriculum Newsletter Summer Term 2014 Team 5 Class teachers: Miss Godley Miss Hennessy Teaching assistants: Mrs Johnson Mrs Watkins Louis ‘Shropshire was awesome! Everyone Melisa enjoyed all the activities, especially abseiling and indoor caving!’ ‘Shropshire was the best school trip ever!’ ‘Having the frogs was so much fun. It was fascinating watching them grow; I even got to keep them!’ ‘It was lovely having cute, fluffy pets for a few weeks. I miss them already, but not the smell!’ Fin Daisy Louis Melisa The chicks (and frogs!!) have gone so it is very quiet in team 5 but we think it is fair to say that they were a resounding success. The chicks linked very well to our science topic on lifecycles and, while being ‘cute’, helped the children use real life contexts for what they were learning in class. Later this term, we will be taking our optional SATs in Maths and English and following this, we will be returning to our normal curriculum timetable. We have some very exciting activities planned for the term, including a trip to Hatfield House, where we can immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of Tudor times. This will be followed by a visit to the Young Mariners Base where the children will have the opportunity to hone their rowing skills, soon to be taught in PE! Maths - we will be revisiting the four operations and developing our problem solving skills as well as looking at place value; fractions, decimals and percentages; shape and measure. We will also be looking at past paper questions to help the children learn how to approach test questions, as year 6 is fast approaching. Please continue to support your child in practising mental maths, for example: times tables, doubling and halving, number bonds, and mental addition and subtraction. Furthermore, to develop and apply their mathematical understanding, it would be beneficial if the children were regularly questioned on ‘real-life’ maths, such as: telling the time, money, timetables etc. Whilst we are covering this in class, questioning at home would maintain the consistency to support your child’s learning. If you would like to support your children with written calculations and you are unsure of any of the written methods we use in class, then please let us know and we will be happy to give you some examples. However would like to stress that pushing children onto written methods which they do not intrinsically understand is counterproductive and may hinder their progress; they should use methods that best suit them. English – Both classes have thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Highwayman’, a narrative poem, which has allowed them to continue to explore their use of ambitious vocabulary. At present, we are exploring language and literary features that are used when creating interviews, recounts and articles; this understanding will support the children in their challenge of producing the ‘Cuffley Splash Magazine’. Commencing after half term, the class will be exploring senses to develop some poetry; this builds nicely on to our descriptive, poetry writing based on ‘The Highwayman’. Our next unit will be Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ (our choice of an ‘older text’). Despite the language being very sophisticated, the plot fascinates the children and inspires powerful writing. To complete the year, we will embark on a year 5/6 transition unit entitled, ‘There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom’. It was greatly enjoyed last year! Any support you can offer your child with reading at home will be greatly appreciated. Our science topics for this term are linked with ‘Solids, Liquids and Gases.’ To introduce the unit, we have been fortunate in having the opportunity for outside experts to come in and expose the children to a variety of engaging investigations. The workshop focused on exploring materials and understanding some of the reactions that occur between various chemicals. In lessons, we will revise the properties of the three states of matter and introduce terms, such as; ‘evaporation’ and ‘condensation’. This unit concludes with an understanding of the water cycle. In ICT, this half term, the children will be completing their database work by analysing and responding to the data and answering questions that they have generated from this. Following this, they will be moving onto using a programming tool called ‘scratch’, which will develop their skills with building graphics. This is a really useful programme that can be implanted across the curriculum. History - As we have completed our geographical unit on the ‘Ecuadorian Rainforest’, which also supported the children in producing really wonderful, descriptive writing, we are now moving our focus on to History. In History, we will emphasise the significance of being ‘History Detectives’, to encourage the children to develop their analytical and investigative skills. With a focus on Tudor Britain, we will be exploring some exciting artefacts so that the children can grasp a deeper understanding of the differences between the wealthy and poorer groups in society. PE - In PE, we are lucky enough to be using ergometers in school to teach the children the techniques of rowing. We will also begin to focus on athletics in preparation for our own sports day and district sports. Art/D&T - In art, we are currently designing illustrations that will be used to print with polystyrene tiles. After this, the children will be designing and making ‘pot people’ out of clay. It continues the progression of skills with clay, but also offers a chance for the creativity and imagination to come into play. Music - The focus of our music composition will be linked to the rainforest and will require the children to include ostinato and chords. We will be working on music appreciation and will also be learning songs for performance, especially for the Year 5/6 production. PSHE - This term, our topic is ‘Relationships’, which will be followed by our final topic, ‘Changes’. This is an exciting time for the children and there will be a meeting providing an introduction into the Year 6 activities. This will be held on Tuesday 4th June at 2.45. We look forward to seeing many of you there. Once again, we are hugely appreciative of your continued support and we hope that this term is another success for the children’s progress.