Home Learning Letter
Summer Term – Week 4
Dear parents/carers,
We hope that you and your families are well and are continuing to find a balance between work, life and rest. Thank you again for all the wonderful photographs that we have received, not only of the children’s work, but also of the children having fun or sharing positivity. Each week, we’re posting all of your images on the website for your friends to see. Please keep them coming! If you haven’t been able to send us a picture yet, it would be fantastic if you could send one this week.
This week, our learning focuses on what the Maya believed. Below is an outline of the tasks related to this focus. If we were in school, this week would have been SATs week. It feels strange not to be in school completing something the children have been working towards throughout their KS2 years, and so we wanted to still mark this week as slightly different. You will notice that there are some ‘SATs’ tasks listed below; these are not normal SATs papers! They are designed to be silly, humorous tasks, which we hope the children will enjoy. Again, we understand if not all of these tasks are completed. Please adjust your home learning as is necessary.
PE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK:
We encourage all the children to try 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. This will include a virtual competition each week. 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.
SCIENCE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK:
This week, look at the ‘What are algae?’ section of the microorganisms website we have been using this half term. If you’re interested, also look at ‘What are protozoa?’
MONDAY
Task 1 – This week, we are going to find out what the Maya believed. Where did the Maya believe humans came from? Read ‘Maya Creation Story’ to find out.
Task 2 – Read and answer the questions in ‘Maya Creation Story Reading Comp’.
Task 3 – If we were at school, this week would have been SATs week! Instead, we have some ‘Silly SATs’ papers for you to try. These are meant to be fun, and Mr SATs man is definitely not going to mark them! Have a look at the ‘Silly-SATs Grammar paper’. Mr Good has completed the paper and it looks like he’s made some mistakes. We need your help to mark it.
Task 4 – Time for our Spelling paper! Miss Wroe has completed her SATs paper, but isn’t sure she spelt all the words correctly. Mark and correct her work on ‘Silly-SATs Spelling’
MATHS – https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-6/ Summer Term Week 3 Lesson 1 Simplify Fractions
TUESDAY
Task 5 – Complete the ‘Maya Creation Story Wordsearch’ . Did you manage to find all the words? Can you remember why each of these words are relevant to the story? If you are unable to print the wordsearch and it has opened as a pdf, use the highlight tool as shown below to highlight the words you find. If you want, create your own wordsearch. It could be on any theme you like.
Task 6 – Yesterday we looked at the Maya Creation Story. Today, we are going to look at the different gods they believed in. Read ‘Gods and Beliefs‘. Which of these gods do you think looks the most powerful or fearsome? Which is your favourite, and why? Which god do you think was the most important or most valued by the Maya? For more information, watch this clip.
Task 7 – The Maya believed in lots of gods and each god had its own role. Have a go at creating your own Maya god – it could be that you create your own version of a god shown in Task 6, or you could create your own god with a different role. Draw a picture of your god. How is your god’s role reflected in its appearance? How does your god like to worshiped? Though dance? Through music? Through sacrifice?
Task 8 – Our Silly SATs paper today is reading. Read ‘Silly-SATs Reading‘ and answer the questions.
MATHS – https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-6/ Summer Term Week 3 Lesson 2 Compare and Order Fractions
WEDNESDAY
Task 9 – The Maya believed that Gods were very important, and often made sacrifices to them. They believed it was very important to keep the Gods happy. The Maya believed it was the job of each city ruler or king to do this. They believed the Gods had chosen the king. Explore this link
Task 10 – Using the information on the link above, create a factfile about Pakal the Great. Try and include as many facts as you can, including which city he ruled, how long he ruled for, and at what age he became king.
Task 11 –Pakal was only 12 when he became king. That’s not much older than you! How would you feel if you were chosen to become king in 1-2 years time? Would you feel frightened, or would you feel brave?
Task 12 – For your silly SATs Arithmetic paper, you’ve got 10 questions to answer. Either print or copy this document. Chop up the questions so there is one question per piece of paper. Ask a family member to hide the questions around the house for you to find. For an extra challenge, you can time yourself to see how quickly you can complete the test!
MATHS – https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-6/ Summer Term Week 3 Lesson 3 Add and Subtract Fractions
THURSDAY
Task 13 – Yesterday we saw that Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered the tomb of Pakal the Great. Imagine that you are a radio broadcaster, documenting the discovery of Pakal’s tomb. There would be lots of excitement about finding a new tomb, and so we want our radio broadcast to reflect this. Write a radio transcript (a script for the radio broadcast) including the details of the findings, such as where the discovery was made and what was found inside. You may wish to include an exclusive interview with Alberto himself! Use the interactive link from Task 9 for inspiration.
Task 14 – Pakal was discovered wearing a jade mask, along with other items of jade jewellery. Masks were a very important part of Maya culture. Explore ‘Maya Masks‘. Design your own mask, and include the following: what material is it made from, what the purpose of your mask is (is it a death mask or event mask? Is it specific to a god?), and what colours you will use. Tomorrow we will make the mask.
Task 15 – For our final SATs paper of the week, we have a reasoning paper, but not like you have answered before! Enjoy and answer the silly questions on ‘Silly-SATs Reasoning’. Remember, these are meant to be silly, and so might not necessarily involve maths!
MATHS – https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-6/ Summer Term Week 3 Lesson 4 Mixed Addition and Subtraction
FRIDAY
Task 16 – Using your radio transcript from yesterday, record or present your radio broadcast. You may do this as a voice note or video. If you’ve included an interview in your broadcast, have fun with changing the sound of your own voice to be a different person, or ask a family member to help you.
Task 17 – Have a go at creating your own Maya mask based on the design you did yesterday. It could be made from card, cardboard or paper. Make sure to send us a picture of your completed work! If you already made one of these last week, you don’t need to make another one (unless you want to!).
Task 18 – Look back on your questions that you wrote in week 1 about what you would like to find out about the Maya. Have you answered any of these questions? Which questions do you still need to find out? Are there any more questions that you have now that you could add to your list?
Next week, we will be looking at the food that the Maya ate. In preparation for making some food next Friday (22nd May) have a look at these 3 recipes: Guacamole Recipe | Hot Chocolate Recipe | Tortilla Recipe. Choose which one you would like to make and speak to your parents about buying the ingredients before next Friday. We appreciate that some ingredients may be hard to come by, and you may wish to substitute ingredients where necessary.
MATHS – Quick Fire Friday! Use the websites below to do this, or alternatively you can complete the questions on this worksheet ‘Quick Fire Friday 4′
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/
We know how challenging it is to manage your own work and that of your children. We appreciate your support and help during this time. If you have any questions or concerns about this learning pack, please do not hesitate to email the school office (office@abbeyroad.notts.sch.uk) or the headteacher (head@abbeyroad.notts.sch.uk) and they will forward your message to us.
We look forward to seeing photographs of the work the children produce!
Miss Wroe and Mr Good
