Term 5- Why should we remember the Maya?
Welcome to the Summer Term in Year 6 – I hope you all had a fantastic Easter break. Thank you for your continued support last term. The Summer terms are incredibly important to Year 6 as they mark the children’s imminent move to secondary schools. We will be supporting the children with lots of transition work to prepare them for these upcoming changes. PE days continue to be on Wednesday and Thursday of each week. Forest School will also be on a Friday afternoon. Please this term's newsletter below for more information of important dates and further details of what will be taught over the next few weeks.
In this term's enquiry, the children will be learning about the Maya and justifying why we should remember them. They will be learning about what it was like for citizens during the Maya era and how they lived in their civilization, drawing comparisons to other civilizations that the children have previously learnt about, along with explorations of key May sites. There will be opportunities to investigate how the Maya overcame difficulties in trading an farming. There will also be a focus on the Maya number system and calendar along with other inventions. Finally, the children will hypothesise what actually happened to the Maya and where are they are now.
To access some interactive games that will help your children consolidate some key knowledge about the Maya, follow the link: https://artsandculture.google.com/project/ancient-mesoamerica
A great maths game that will help to consolidate the Maya number system follow the link: https://maya.nmai.si.edu/maya-sun/maya-math-game
Please see this term's enquiry mat for more details of this term's enquiry.
Transition to secondary school
During the Summer terms, we will be in contact with the children’s secondary schools in order to ensure a smooth transition for the children in September. This involves sharing the children’s academic successes, as well as how the secondary schools can support your child further when they start in September. We will be spending lots of time as a class discussing children’s questions and queries, as well as trying to address any worries they may have. The secondary schools will let you know via a letter or email when their transition days are this year.
SATs
The SATs tests will take place on the week beginning Monday 12th May. The children are continuing to work hard in all areas of learning. Thank you for your continued support at home with reading, homework and extra times table learning.
Whole School VE Day Celebrations
The children had a wonderful time celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day They spent time creating beautiful bunting ready for their street party style lunch and learnt all about the significance of the day. Year 6 also led the assembly for the day and joined in with a performance of a song learnt to commemorate the day.
Term 5 Parent Event
The Deer created a quiz for their families based on their learning about the Ancient Maya from throughout Term 5.
A great time was had by all!
Easter Extravaganza!
The Deer Class worked extremely hard to create a game to sell at our annual Easter Extravaganza. They had different roles with in the business and took the roles very seriously. They conducted market research, analysed finances, created great advertising and a great game to sell- a scavenger hunt!
PSHE
The children worked in small groups to research, create and deliver a presentation about topical issues that affect young people such as screen time, vaping, sleep, and gaming.
Art
This term, the children are exploring using different paint brushes to create artwork based on the work of Henri Rousseau. In the photos below, the children are exploring 4 different kinds of paintbrushes whilst also creating colour palette ready to use when experimenting with creating their own piece of art later on in the term.
Forest School
The children enjoyed a well-deserved whole day of Forest School after they had completed their week of SATs. They used all of the skills they have learnt so far to create shelters and set up businesses and games amongst lots of other things. We enjoyed having s'mores cooked on the fire too. We finished the session with putting out the fire with small cups of fire, sharing with the rest of the group things that we are grateful for. A wonderful way to end the week!