Prep | Year 6 News

English

In English we have been developing our skills in Imaginative Writing. We have used planning to guide elements of plot, character development, setting and literary devices. Through the use of sizzling starts we have hooked our readers with intriguing and high impact openings to our stories. We have been using a variety of sentence structures to build tension and orient the reader. We are enjoying our new literacy group novels as we analyse character and setting, compare and contrast elements of the text, and seek to understand key themes. Spelling groups continue to help us to understand patterns within words, and Greek and Latin roots.

We are now focusing on using Figurative Language in poetry to enhance our writing over the coming weeks.

Mathematics

The past few weeks have seen Year 6 investigating fractions, decimals and percentages. We have had rich discussions about how we can conceptually use fractions by looking at them through the lenses of form, function and connection. We completed a hands-on inquiry that involved us sorting and ordering fractions, decimals and percentages between 0 and 1. We pushed our thinking by adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing these fractions to create new numbers between 0 and 1. We have also looked at discounts of numbers (percentages).

We are looking forward to our new unit on Volume, Capacity and 3D Space. This will take us to the end of the term.

Unit of Inquiry

Natural Phenomena has been our focus this term during our inquiry into How the World Works. We wrestled with the idea that our current knowledge about Scientific theories may not be ultimately true. How do we know that these theories are true? Have we seen the evidence with our own eyes or are we simply trusting the experts? We learnt that myths and legends about natural disasters were at one point in time widely agreed upon. The Earth was flat in the opinions of most people not all that long ago! It has been advancements in technology that has allowed us to understand more about how our world works.

We are now choosing our own inquiry into natural phenomena or natural disaster to explore further. At the end of this unit, each boy will sit down with a teacher and discuss everything they know about their chosen topic. Boys will focus on the concepts of form, causation and perspectives.

Christian Studies

Science allows us to look into the incredible world we live in. There are many times science explains why things work, or what they do etc. We also know that sometimes, science can’t answer the questions such as ‘why am I here’ or ‘what is the meaning of life’? During this term, the boys are exploring the tough questions that come from asking; are the Bible and science complementary or contradictory. With an open-minded approach, from both perspectives, the boys will be delving into the lives of some famous scientists from history who also had a strong and active faith in God. They will be creating a presentation to share with their peers at the end of the term, reflecting where they stand on this journey and what actions they will take in response. They will be continuing to learn how to use two Apps called Flip and Clips to share their work.

In Chapel, we are thinking about “the fruit of the Spirit”. This encourages us all to think about how we share love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control with others. We have been learning a new crazy song reminding us that the fruit of the Spirit is not a coconut, or banana but the actions that come from us to serve others. It is also encouraging for them to see other staff members come to Chapel and share their wonderful joy about Jesus with the boys.