Autumn 1 – World War II

Welcome back and welcome to the final year of primary school! Here is an overview of all the learning that we will be doing this term. 

Unit of Learning : WWII

We will be studying WWII and our focus for this half term will be Britain. Over the half term, we will learn about the outbreak of war, evacuation, the Blitz, rationing, propaganda and the key roles that women played. For each aspect of our learning we will delve deep and create real experiences for the children to gain an insight into what life was like during this period in time. We are hoping to create some war time recipes based on locally available, seasonal produce. This learning will take place as part of our English lessons and is separate to our History topic, which you can find further down the page. Our class reading book will be My Secret War Diary, by Flossie Albright

Click here for further Fiction texts with a WWII Theme

Vocabulary: war, bomb, army, Neville Chamberlain, Adolf Hitler, Blitz, radio, Spitfire, barrage balloon, gas mask box, evacuee, Winston Churchill, Air raid shelter, ration book, Anderson shelter

Click here for BBC Bitesize WWII Video Clips

Click here for DK Find Out WWII

Click here for Primary Homework Help

English:  Writing

During our writing this term we will develop key skills linked to expanding sentences, varying our sentence starters and improving vocabulary choices. In addition to this, the children will learn how to use VCOP to highlight key aspects of their writing in order to edit and improve it (Vocabulary - orange, Connectives - green, Openings - yellow, Punctuation – pink.) These skills will be used to produce a character and setting description as well as exploring the key features of diary writing in order to write in role.

Alongside these lessons, pupils will take part in regular Grammar and Spelling lessons in order to build up their confidence and personal word banks. Our focus for the first half of the Autumn Term will be on word classes (noun, adjective, verb, adverb, synonym) simple punctuation, expanded word phrases and conjunctions.

To support this at home, try these following links:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/7-11-years/spelling-and-grammar

Click here for creative writing guides

Click here for BBC Bitesize Grammar

Vocabulary: Noun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, determiner, full stop, comma, colon, hyphen, apostrophe, sentence opener, sentence structure, embedded clause, conjunction, fronted adverbial, relative clause, conjunctions

Guided Reading/Reading for Inference

Within our guided reading and Reading for Inference sessions, we will begin to revisit and practise each Reading for Inference skill that we learnt last year across a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. This will begin with making connections with the text, asking questions of the text and making predictions. We will also explore a range of comprehension techniques such as retrieval, figurative language and author’s choices.

To support with their reading at home, pupils should access Bedrock and Read Theory.

https://app.bedrocklearning.org/

https://readtheory.org

Vocabulary: Visualise, Background knowledge, Breakdown, VIP words, GIST, Thinking like a detective, inference, retrieval, language, author

Click here for the top 100 books for Y6 children to read

Maths

This half-term, we will be learning about place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This will involve a mix of recapping and consolidating learning from last year as well as introducing new concepts. As part of this learning, we will also be developing our reasoning and problem-solving skills. We will be using White Rose Hub to explore a range of concrete, pictorial and abstract concepts within our learning.

In addition to this, the children will continue to take part in weekly Number and Lightning learning to develop our speed and accuracy in arithmetic.

In order to support with this at home, please use the following links:

Click here for TT Rockstars

Click here for Nrich reasoning and problem solving

Click here for Maths is Fun games and puzzles

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/mental-maths

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z826n39

Vocabulary: place value, million, hundred thousand, ten thousand, thousand, hundred, ten, one, add, subtract, difference, more than, less than, greater than, divide, share, multiply, array, product, factor

Science: Living things and their habitats

As part of our science topic, we will be exploring how living things are classified into groups based on similarities and differences, including microorganisms, plants and animals. We will also look at how we can independently plan and carry out an investigation that is linked to Living things and their habitats.

Vocabulary: microorganism, plant, animal, similarity, difference, classify, characteristic, habitat, subdivide, vertebrate, invertebrate 

Click here for BBC Bitesize Science

Other Curriculum Areas

Computing – Computing systems and networks: Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park is considered the home of modern computing. We will discover the history of Bletchley and learn about code breaking and password hacking. We will also have the opportunity to demonstrate some of our digital literacy skills by creating presentations about historical figures.

Vocabulary: acrostic code, brute force hacking, Caesar cipher, chip and pin system, cipher, date shift cipher, encrypt, invention, Nth letter cipher, password, pigpen cipher, secure, technological advancement, trial and error

Religion and Worldviews Y6: Why does religion look different around the world? Part 1

We will be learning about the religion of Judaism and how Jewish people live, including objects that you may find in their house and place of worship. We will explore different questions that children come up with during lessons. 

Vocabulary: Genesis, hijab, Israelites, kippah, kippot, liberal, melacha, melachot, mitzvah, mitzvoth, monotheism, mitzvah, niqab, omnibenevolent, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, Orthodox, Reform, Sephardi, Shabbat, tabernacle, Tenak, Torah

MFL - French – Monster Pets

We will learn:

• To investigate a text for clues to understand new words.
• To identify nouns by their gender, number and meaning
• To apply knowledge of French nouns and gender agreement to a short piece of writing.
• To develop understanding of adjectival rules in French.
• To apply knowledge of vocabulary and grammar to a piece of writing.

Vocabulary: Given the range of language being taught in this unit, it is impractical to list it all!

Music - Songs of WW2

We will be exploring songs of World War 2 to develop greater accuracy in pitch and control. We will be identifying pitches within an octave when singing and using knowledge of pitch to develop confidence when singing in parts.

Vocabulary: morale, Britain, troops, frontline, Vera Lynn, contrast, musical terms, tempo

PSHE - Families and relationships

Learning to resolve conflict, through negotiation and compromise. Exploring respect, understanding that everyone deserves to be respected. Learning about the process of grief and the associated emotions relating to grief.

Vocabulary: authority, grief, conflict, earn, expectation, grieving resolve, respect

Geography: Energy and Climate Change

We will learn about:

• How Britain produces its energy
• The impact of off-shore wind farms
• The impact of nuclear energy production
• The key causes and effects of climate change
• What we can do about climate change

Vocabulary: solar panels generate energy mix emissions net zero solar power renewable non-renewable tidal power wave power geothermal power biofuel potential knot prevailing grind national grid electricity pylons offshore onshore wind farm planning permission controversial visual pollution opinion priorities justify controversy reasoned reactor access uranium atomic by-product reactors radioactivity High Court methane Paris Agreement implement meltwater acidification tornadoes vulnerable wildfires intense conserve Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sustainable Development Goals afforestation saplings insulation heat pumps surplus

PE - Hockey and Gymnastics

In hockey, we will be playing competitive games, working on tactics and analysing our performances.

Vocabulary: Dribble, pass, shoot, defend, attack, mark, evade, space, angle, lift, 

In gymnastics, we will be exploring balance and control whilst evaluating performances. 

Vocabulary: Balance, point of contact, control, apparatus, transition

Art - Drawing 'Making my Voice Heard'

In this unit we will learn to use a systematic and independent approach to research, test and develop ideas and plans using sketchbooks. They will draw upon their experience of creative work and their research to develop their own starting points for creative outcomes.

This will all happen alongside learning to combine materials and techniques appropriate to fit with ideas in a sustained way over several sessions to complete a piece incorporating the formal elements of art.

Vocabulary: observe, hatching, cross-hatching, scale, proportion, shape, line, form, tone, technique