Prep 6 Curriculum Brief

Spellings will be based upon the children’s own targets and focus will be on the Year 6 spelling rules. Spelling tests will be held on Wednesdays and new spellings (10 in total) will be given each week.

Grammar – this term we will focus on improving our descriptive language. We will achieve this by using detailed noun phrases, a wider variety of complex conjunctions to link clauses and adverbial and prepositional phrases to express time, place and cause. We will be continuing to practise using and punctuating direct speech; modal verbs to indicate likelihood, ability, permission or obligation; semi-colons and colons to add detail; brackets to add parenthesis and clear paragraphs to group related material.

Reading/ Comprehension – in our reading this term we will continue to read our own target books but also read a variety of genres and gain a deeper understanding of different writing styles and widen our vocabulary. We will continue to answer comprehension questions that get us to infer detail and support answers with evidence from the text and be able to identify key literary devices in our model texts.

Creative Writing – During the autumn term, we will write about a  real-life expedition and the person that undertook it, presenting the information in more ways than one. We will use the book ‘Great Adventures’ by Alistair Humphreys as our model. We will also write a narrative about an important event and use ‘Flood’ by Alvaro F Villa as our model text. After this, we will read ‘Is This a Poem?’ by Roger Stevens and use this model text to create our own poem.

During the autumn term, Prep 6 will continue to have weekly times tables tests and a mental maths session. They will also enjoy some investigation work covering a breadth of topics. The children will be challenged to be problem solvers throughout the topics covered, applying skills to a variety of situations.

Place Value: Read and write numbers to 10,000,000; powers of 10; number line to 10,000,000; compare and order any integers; round any integer; negative numbers.

Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division: Add and subtract integers; common factors and multiples; rules of divisibility; Primes to 100; square and cube numbers; multiply up to a 4-digit number by a 2-digit number; solve problems with multiplication; short and long division; Solve problems with division including multi-step problems; order of operations.

Fractions: Equivalent fractions and simplifying; compare and order fractions; add and subtract fractions; add and subtract mixed numbers; multi-step problems; multiply and divide fractions by integers; Multiply and divide fractions by fractions; fractions of amounts.

Converting units: metric measures; converting metric measures; calculating with metric measures; miles and kilometres; imperial measures.

This term Prep 6 will be learning about Light. They will gain an understanding of how we see, how light is reflected and the wonders of refraction. They will learn about the colour spectrum and gain a deeper understanding of how we can use shadows.

In the second half of the term Prep 6 will be learning about Electricity.

We will begin with an initial revision and consolidation of our knowledge of world geography and then move on to study South America in detail.  We will be locating the countries and capital cities within it, looking at the physical and human geography of this amazing continent. We will also study the different climates found there and explain how this is affected by latitude. The children will research a natural wonder of South America and the country in which it is located, sharing their findings with the rest of the class.

This term we will be starting the Stuart period of history. This will include the reigns of King James 1, King Charles 1, Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil Wars. We will study the Pilgrim Fathers, The Gunpowder Plot, The Great Plague and the Fire of London.

We will continue to learn French using the Skoldo Book 2. Our topics will include the body, school subjects and what we study on different days of the week, the vocabulary of time (hour, minute, year, week etc.) and learn how to tell the time in French.  We will also be looking at the vocabulary of the seasons and the weather and, as always, enhance our learning through singing.

We will continue to learn Latin using Minimus, a Latin course for children based on the lives of a real Roman family living at Vindolanda. We will increase our knowledge of verb endings, revise noun and adjective agreement and begin to look at Latin adverbs. This will be learnt in the context of school life for wealthy children. We will also be studying the myth of Echo and Narcissus.

During the first half of term, we will focus on God’s Creation and Harvest. We shall discover more about the Old Testament characters of Joseph, David, Solomon, Elisha and Elijah, which will lead into Advent and to the birth of Christ.

Native North American Indian culture and animal symbolism will be the focus of prep 6’s art project this term. The children will work with their Native American animal birth symbols, and they will learn how to deconstruct their image from a detailed observational study to something more simplistic and stylised. They will then learn how to scale up their drawings and experiment with a range of painting effects. Alongside this the children will discover other patterns and symbols rich within the Native American culture and come up with their own patterned designs which will form the backdrop to their final pieces. At the end of term, they will have a beautiful Native American style wall-hanging with their own personal symbol!

This term Prep 6 will be learning about the piece ‘Overture’ by Grażyna Bacewicz.

In the second half of the term Prep 6 will belearning songs for the nativity and continuing their learning of music theory.

Due to the exploratory and ‘spontaneous’ approach in this subject, we will often go off in different directions depending on the ideas and interest of the children. And so the formal lesson plans are often deviated from to preserve a flexibility and originality of approach.  New projects often ‘evolve’ from the children’s ideas in the sessions and it is an important part of the approach and style in this subject  to maintain this flexibility and spontaneity.  This generates a feeling with the children that they are going on a ‘journey’ in this subject each term. The formal lesson plans are only intended to be used as a basis and guide to the type of work and projects that are covered and are not intended to be rigidly adhered to.

Prep 6 will be working on a number of different topics. They begin from ‘design drawings’ on A4 paper. This consists of a detailed diagram of the design idea, showing materials used, measurements and different perspectives of the design where necessary. Eg they will be expected to show a plan and side view of their design where appropriate.

‘Top Scores’ project

This project involves the design and construction of a board game involving aiming and rolling a ball bearing into different scoring bays. The children will need to think of a theme for their games and also devise a scoring system for two players. They will also be looking at ‘aiming devices’ for swivelling and directing the ball bearing in the chosen direction. They also need to think about decoration and stability and have an opportunity to test their designs.

Weeks 5, 6 and 7- 6 lessons

Design Kits.   This project will involve the children thinking of a product to market which will be a simple and neat design kit for children aged 6 – 10. The materials used will need to be simple so that they can be sold in an A5 zippablewallets. Their ‘product’ should make use of easy to obtain materials and not be too complex. They should include some instructions with their designs which will be included with their product.  They may use a range of materials which will need to fit in the bag and be safe for children to use at home.

Weeks 8, 9 and 10

Skittle project –

This project involves the design and construction of a skittle game using either using wood or other chosen material. The base will need to be 20 cm x 20 cm. The children will need to think about a theme for their game and the style and design of the skittles. They will also need to devise a scoring method and decorate their designs.

In this project the children will be instructed in measuring and marking out, shaping and carving softwood, curve cutting, various techniques for joining blockwood and plywood.

The latter part of term will involve individual projects of the children’s own choice, provided that they can show necessary thought and planning has gone into their ideas.

The children will start to gain an understanding about what Citizenship means.  We explore this topic through many different themes:

Introduction to Parliament, Voting systems and General Elections, Forming a one policy Party and a vote, Black History Week, Remembrance Week and Stereotyping.

This term pupils will be using spreadsheets in various ways to record, input and calculate data. They will prepare a presentation using various applications to include text, images on a topic. They will be further enhancing their skills  to a concept of coding as a sequence of instructions to achieve a desired outcome.

This term the pupils will be developing and creating characters in a variety of scenarios. We will also focus on other acting and performance techniques such as freeze framing and improvisation. They will be developing their writing and performance of poems on a theme in preparation for their poetry assembly.

Games: Development of stamina through cross country. Progression of skills in isolation then moving from small sided matches to full teams in netball, hockey and tag rugby.

Relationships – This term we will start by looking at friendships and identifying what positive relationships are and how we can deal/ solve arguments that we have. We will also look at managing loneliness and discuss what makes us feel lonely and how we can manage these feelings.