Home Learning Letter
Summer Term 2 – Week 1
Dear Parents/Carers,
We hope that the half term break was restful and fun. As we move into the last half term of the school year, we appreciate that the children’s learning will continue to look different, especially since we’ll be beginning a phased return to school. For each week when your child is at home, we will post a learning letter containing the list of activities to complete. The tasks listed in this document will be the same tasks that the children in school will be accessing. However, the timetable for learning in school may be different to learning at home; please complete as many tasks as you wish and adjust your own timetable accordingly. We understand if you do not complete all the tasks.
Our topic this half term is ‘coasts’, and so we will be structuring our learning around this. We will provide the children with daily English lessons, as well as daily maths lessons. For the first 2 weeks, our English lessons will be based on the short story ‘The Giant’s Necklace’ by Michael Morpurgo. We will attach the appropriate pages to read each day in the tasks below. Our maths lessons will continue to follow White Rose as they have done before. As was the case at the end of last half term, we will direct you to the correct learning video and any materials you need each day.
For our wider curriculum, whilst at home, we ask that the children select the activities that they wish to complete from the grid at the bottom of this letter. We will not specify a day for these. Please note that the Geography activities form part of a series of lessons that build over the course of the half term.
MONDAY
English
Task 1 – Open ‘Day 1 Reading’ and look at the front cover for the Giant’s Necklace. What do you think the story will be about? What genre do you think this book is? What makes you think that? Read up to page 7 until ‘…and dream for hours on end.’
Task 2 – At the end of that section, Cherry describes her family’s days at the beach. Have a look at these paintings of coastlines. How would you describe these? What adjectives could you use? Similes? How would you feel when you were on these beaches? Make a list of as many descriptive words or phrases as you can to describe these beaches. We’ll add to this word bank in Task 3, before using it in tomorrow’s tasks.
Task 3 – Carry on reading the Giant’s Necklace until the end of page 11. Is the beach described in this section as idyllic as in the pictures we looked at in Task 2? Read back through the extract and select the most powerful phrases used to describe the waves. Keep a note of these for tomorrow’s tasks. If you’re up for the challenge, try and create your own words or phrases to describe the sea during this part.
Task 4 – SPAG – Who Wants to be a Millionaire? For a grammar revision task this morning – play this game of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. As soon as it loads, click on ‘start slideshow’ so that you don’t accidentally see the answers! Have a go at winning each amount of money. You should continue answering the questions even when answering one incorrectly to see what you could’ve won!
Maths – Summer Week 5 – Multiply and divide by 10, 100 and 1000
Learning Video | Worksheet | Answers
If you would like more maths to do, click below for two optional extension activities.
TUESDAY
English
Task 1 – SPAG – Write an adverb for every letter of the alphabet. (How, when or where something happens. E.g. abruptly, boastfully)
Task 2 – Using the language that you collected yesterday, today we are going to write a short poem showing the two different ‘sides’ of the ocean. We want to show the difference in how calm and peaceful the sea can be, before it turns into a dangerous and raging monster. Your poem may reflect this structure of this example, where we are writing as if we are the sea, or it can be a structure of your choice.
Task 3 – Yesterday, we read up to page 11. After the line ‘Those were her last thoughts before the sea took her away’, the author has used a break in the text, as if a new episode or chapter might be beginning. We’ve only read a third of the story, and our main character appears to have drowned. What do you think might happen next? What could the remaining story be about? Do you think Cherry has really drowned?
Task 4 – Read the next part of The Giant’s Necklace up to ‘We’re both tired of it, but we’re proud of it see, and we’ve nowhere else to go, nothing else to do.’ (page 20). Was your prediction from Task 3 correct?
Maths – Summer Week 5 – Multiply decimals by integers
Learning Video | Worksheet| Answers
If you would like more maths to do, click here for an optional extension activity.
WEDNESDAY
English
Task 1 – SPaG – Click here for today’s lesson which is about verbs and modal verbs. Read the information and watch the videos before completing the task at the end of the instructions.
Task 2 – Reflect on what we have learned about the story so far. Read the final part of the Giant’s Necklace. What did you think about the ending? How did you feel?
Task 3 – From the ending, what do you think Cherry should do next? Do you think she should return to the mine? Do you think she should stay with her family? Or, do you think she should do something else? Why do you think she should do this?
Task 4 – Create a comic strip for the different sections of the story. Include the parts of the story that you think were the key sections. You could include speech bubbles if you wish. Tomorrow we are going to turn these key parts into a diary entry as Cherry.
Maths – Summer Week 5 – Divide decimals by integers
Learning Video | Worksheet | Answers
If you would like more maths to do, click here for an optional extension activity.
THURSDAY
English
Task 1 – SPaG – Click here for today’s lesson which is about dashes and hyphens. Read the information and watch the videos before completing the task at the end of the instructions.
Task 2 – We’ve read all of the story! Was it what you expected when you heard the title? Complete the comprehension questions about the story to see how much you can remember. You may need to look back through the text to help you.
Task 3 – It’s time to write your diary entry, recounting what happened to Cherry that day. You should start from the beginning of the story when Cherry and the family were heading to the beach. Write your diary in the past tense and in the first person – as Cherry. You will need to use words like ‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘my’. We are going to write our diary entry over today and tomorrow, so you do not need to finish it all today. You could write up to the part where Cherry drowns today, leaving the rest to complete tomorrow. Try and use powerful description, along with a range of punctuation in your work.
Maths – Summer Week 5 – Decimals as fractions
Learning Video | Worksheet | Answers
If you would like more maths to do, click here for an optional extension activity.
FRIDAY
English
Task 1 – SPAG – Follow this link and play the game to revise some spellings.
Task 2 – Go back and skim read all of the story again. From the point she’s washed back up on the beach to the point where she arrives back home, there are many many clues that she had died – especially when in the cave. Can you spot them?
Task 3 – Re-read your diary entry. Does it make sense? Is it all in first person? Is it in the past tense? Make any edits or changes you might need. Now, finish your diary entry. We want to make sure that it has an emotional ending and shows how Cherry would be feeling at the end after realising what has happened to her. Use lots of rhetorical questions and description to do this. You may want to end your diary entry by hinting towards what you decided Cherry should do next.
Maths
Quick Fire Friday! Every Friday, we would like the children to practice answering questions quickly. Use the websites below to do this, or alternatively you can complete the questions on the worksheet called ‘Quick Fire Friday 1 Sheet’
Times Tables Rockstars: https://play.ttrockstars.com/
Hit the Button: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Daily 10: https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-6/
Children should use the top left drop down menus to select Level 6 and the relevant areas of maths they want to practice. They can then select their own time intervals. Answers will appear at the end.
Quickulations: https://www.transum.org/Software/SW/Quickulations/
Wider Curriculum Activities
| Subject | Task |
|---|---|
|
Geography |
An introduction to Coasts.
Read this booklet and follow the instructions within it. |
| Art | Using paintings for storytelling.
This week we have read the Giant’s Necklace, which is a written story. Then, create a piece of artwork that tells the story of the Giant’s Necklace. |
| Computing | Programming
This week we are going to code our own version of the game Flappy Bird! Follow these steps to code your own version of the game! |
| PE | As mentioned in previous weeks, it is important to do 60 mins of physical activity each day. This can take any form you wish, but Notts School Games Organisers are now publishing weekly PE ideas which we would like all the children to have a go at. The new plan for each week will be published on our school website at this link. Click on the most recent link (at the bottom of the list). Please choose the ideas that are relevant to your child’s age. |
| P.S.H.E. | Being Me
This week’s lesson is all about our future goals, and any worries or fears we may have about them. |
| Science | A topic about exercise and a recap of the heart and muscles.
Use this website. This week, look at the introduction and the ‘benefits of exercise’ sections. |
