CRJSYear6

Today we sat the English Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar Test (Paper 1) and the spelling (Paper 2) in preparation for the SATs in May. It is a chance to see what is going well and the areas for development. It also gives us all a chance to get a feel of the test papers again. It has been a while since January and our Mocks.

To make the papers more manageable, we have split the English and maths papers over two weeks.All papers will be finished by break time. As usual, we will have our in class warm up before we begin. 

On Thursday morning, we will sit the reading comprehension.

Next Wednesday and Thursday we will sit the maths papers in the correct order. 

Wednesday: Arithmetic (Paper 1) 30 minutes and Problem Solving and Reasoning (Paper 2) 40 minutes

Thursday: Problem Solving and Reasoning (Paper 3) 40 minutes

Once all the papers are marked, we will share the results against the targets just like we did in the previous papers. By doing the papers before Easter, we will have plenty of time to reflect in class and within smaller groups.

It's been wonderful to see the children working together and helping each other with revision. If you would like to bring a revision book to school, you are welcome to do so.

Good luck Year 6. You are nearly there and its wonderful to see your progress since September.

This weeks reading comprehension is good preparation for our final Mock Sats. With only a few weeks to go, we have explored nearly every previous SATs paper with the children.

Use this paper to develop your stamina. It is a one hour test in total including the reading time. 

2009 comprehension: No Place Like Home and Earth Ship.

After a number of weeks of learning our routine and working within our groups, we are close to being ready for our final performance. 

We would like to invite parents and guardians to our Year 6 Dance. It is at 10am on Tuesday 2nd April. 

Please arrive from 9:50am. 

For the children: Children will need a plain, bright coloured t-shirt (this could be their green, school PE shirt) and black shorts or a skort. Dance shoes or plimsolls may be worn on stage.

This week we have been completing our light and shadow experiment.Take a look.

With Mock SATs this coming week, some children have been asking what they can do to help with their revision.

Top tips:

- using place value accurately to add and subtract decimals. e.g 5 - 3.18 =    

- formal methods for long division and long multiplication. (Examples have previously been provided in the Year 6 packs. Appendix 1 of the National Curriculum shows the formal written methods for all four operations.)

These skills will not only help in the arithmetic paper, but will be essential for the problem solving paper 2 and 3.

Spelling Shed is an excellent resource to enhance spellings. This is not just for any tests, yet for everyday written learning through all subjects. Top tip: homophones and silent letters.

Last week we spoke with the children about the Mock SATs. It is an opportunity to learn about the arrangements and to see what they are like. The children were positive and understood how it will help them to understand what is going well and what will help them to make their next steps. 

Our top tips are: 

Rest well, eat a good breakfast and arrive on time.

Each morning, before the children sit in their seat for the tests, we will have a warm up. All tests aim to be finished by break time.

Monday ESPAG: Paper one explores spelling, punctuation and grammar skills. 45 minutes 

                            Paper two is a spelling test of 20 words. This is approximately 15 minutes. (Spelling Shed can help with revision)

Tuesday Reading: A one hour test that has three texts.

Wednesday Maths: Paper 1 arithmetic. 30 minutes  This tests the basic skills of all four operations, squared numbers, cubed numbers, fractions and percentages.

                                Paper 2: Problem solving and reasoning. 40 minutes  This applied the KS2 skills to worded questions.

Thursday Maths: Paper 3: Problem solving and reasoning. 40 minutes.

If your child is ill during the week, please inform the office as soon as possible. 

These are the spelling words for the week: 

referring, preferred, transferring, reference, referee, preference, transference, difference, inference, conferring

The words in bold are the top five to learn.

The comprehension was provided last week. It is due in on Thursday this week.

Spelling Shed is ready for learning again. Over the Christmas break the Year 5/6 spelling words were posted as a challenge and today I assigned it again for you all to use.

The words this week are reliably, dependably, comfortably, possibly, horribly, terribly, visibly, incredibly, sensibly, legibly

The comprehension is a two week homework and due next Thursday (17th January). Some children may decide to split is over two weeks. We do recommend building test stamina by reducing the time taken to do the comprehension homework. It is important that 3 mark answers are supported fully with two examples from the text which are explained.

- Read ‘The Hottest Day’ on pages 3-7 of the booklet Rain or Shine. Answer the questions on the worksheet for section 1.

- Read the poem, ‘Rain’ on page 8 and ‘Rain in Summer’ on page 9 of the booklet Rain or Shine. Answer the questions on the worksheet for section 2 (questions 17 -23).

Welcome back.

An exciting term is ahead of us. Already we have had our Bollywood dance workshop. It was amazing to see the children learn a new routine and work as a team. They achieved so much yesterday and have the opportunity to develop their skills this term. We have our PE indoor dance session on a Monday afternoon. We recommend dance shoes or plimsolls for the lessons in the Spring term. They will wear them on stage for both their dance performance and their final Year 6 leaver performance in July.

In English we are concentrating on descriptive writing. We're beginning with our favourite meal and already the children can't stop talking about that perfect, scrumptious meal they would eat again and again.

In maths we've revisited fractions for comparison, addition and multiplication. That was Monday. We have now progressed to division E.g. 2/3 divided by 2

In science our unit is light. This includes how we see light and how it travels.

The children thoroughly enjoyed their maths on Friday. We used the website called Nrich and the game Countdown.

By selecting number cards (just like the game on TV) a three digit number was generated. From this the children applied their four operations to solve the problems. Since we have been using Bidmas this week, it was interesting to explore the solutions on the game.