Dear parents/carers,

This letter is to outline your child’s learning after the Easter holidays. In the coming fortnight, we encourage the children to take a break.

We hope that you have found the learning resources that we sent home helpful and that you have been able to find balance between learning time and family time. Whilst we want to encourage the children to continue learning at home, the last thing we want to do is create unnecessary stress and pressure in a time that is already difficult in so many ways. We will continue to send home resources with a possible way to structure learning time at home, but we understand that it may not be possible for children to complete these tasks in the order or time frame that we have suggested. If you would prefer to follow your own timetable, then please feel free to do so.  We know many of you have been enjoying and taking part in the range of activities on offer for free online. For example, P.E. with Joe Wicks and stories with David Walliams. We anticipate that these activities will continue after the Easter holidays, and so we encourage the children to take part where able. For daily updates and ideas, follow school on twitter @AbbeyRoadSchool. We appreciate that this document is long and wordy but that is simply our attempt to make the instructions as clear and structured as possible.

This half term our topic will be all about The Maya Civilisation! We will try, wherever possible, to link all our learning to this theme. This will be a five-week block of learning that will build up the children’s knowledge gradually.  Over the course of this topic, we would like the children to produce a research project. This can be a physical scrapbook or a digital file (e.g. PowerPoint) that builds up over time. For each week, the children should aim to produce at least one page or slide in their project based on the tasks that we have set. The children should feel free to choose what they include from the tasks each week in their project and how to present their research. We encourage drawings and photographs to be included to personalise their project. To share the experience, we ask that you to send photos of their work to office@abbeyroad.notts.sch.uk. We will then post all of these on the school website to celebrate what the children have produced and give them the opportunity to see what others have achieved.

Here is an overview of the areas we will be covering in the coming weeks:

  1. Where and when did the Maya live?
  2. What was life like for the Maya?
  3. What was the Maya number system, writing system and calendar?
  4. What did the Maya believe?
  5. What was Maya culture like?

Whilst some of these topics may look exciting, please do not jump ahead – we will send you everything you need each week.

Below is an outline for the week with details of each of the tasks to be completed. If you are viewing this document on the school website, simply click each file name to download that document. If viewing this as an e-mail, please go to the Year 6 page of the school website to find each of the links mentioned. Please note that for maths, because we were previously working towards the KS2 SATs assessments, we have largely covered all of the Year 6 maths objectives. There are two lessons which we have not covered, and so we will use Monday and Tuesday to cover these. From then, we will aim to revise key areas of the maths curriculum. If your child appears confident with the areas set, then you can find numerous challenges and puzzles on the ‘Nrich’ website (https://nrich.maths.org) to extend their learning or focus on other areas.

PE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK:

Each week a new PE skill will be posted on the homepage of the school website. Have a go and see if you can do it.

There are also a range of ways to get your 60mins of activity using the following websites:

  1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/ks2-collection/zr4ky9q
  2. https://www.afpe.org.uk/physical-education/thisispe-supporting-parents-to-teach-pe-at-home/

SCIENCE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK:

Aside from our Maya topic, we are also beginning a new science topic this week. It is all about tiny living things called micro-organisms. Each week we will give you one small task to complete. This week, your task to complete only the first section of this website(<- click the link). The section is called ‘What and where are micro-organisms.  We will complete more sections

MONDAY

Task 1 – Start with a title page for your research project. This could include facts you know already and questions that you want to find out.

Task 2 – Read the document called Meeting the Maya(<- click file names to download) to get an introduction to this topic. Use this information to complete the Activity Sheet Maya Map.

Task 3 –  Timeline Ordering Activity.  Order the dates of these key events. You could use this information to create a timeline in your research document.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/timelines/british/index_embed.shtml This is a link to a timeline of British history (it will require Flash). Choosing one of the dates that you have just sequenced for the Maya, can you find out what life was like in Britain during that same time?

Task 4 – Read Comparing Aztecs and the Maya and answer the questions.

MATHS – https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-6/ Use Week 1 Lesson 5 to introduce and learn about scale factors. For each lesson, there is a short video explanation, followed by a ‘Get the Activity’ worksheet. We would like the children to complete the worksheet. We understand that printing may not be possible, and so writing answers or drawing shapes on a separate sheet of paper is not a problem. For this first lesson there is a lot of drawing shapes using squared paper. You do not need to use squared paper if you do not have any available.

TUESDAY

Task 5 – Let’s look at some of the ancient sites in the Mayan world. Start by reading Ancient Maya Cities and answering the questions.

Task 6 – Now we’re going to focus on one particular Maya temple called Chichen Itza. As you read and research, take notes of any key facts or pieces of information because tomorrow we are going to start a piece of writing about this amazing place. Read the document called Chichen Itza to see lots of pictures and learn about what you could see if you went to visit this temple. This information will help you tomorrow.

Task 7 – Visit https://historyview.org/library/chichen-itza/ It’s an interactive video with 360o photos. While the video is playing, click and drag to look around!

MATHS  – https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-6/ Use Week 2 Lesson 1. Complete the ‘Get the Activity’ worksheet.

WEDNESDAY

Task 8 – For writing this week, your task is to produce a tourist information text, encouraging tourists to visit the ancient ruins of Chichen Itza. Read through the example of the advert for the ancient Ruins of Tikal. How is the reader encouraged to visit? Think about the content of the writing, including vocabulary and information!

Task 9 – Before writing your own tourist guide, make a plan for the structure. There should be a mix of text and pictures (either your own drawings or from the internet). Using your facts and information from yesterday’s task, add bullet points to the planning sheet provided to organise your information into paragraphs. Your first paragraph should introduce where and what the Chichen Itza is. If you want, you can use the Tourist Leaflet Planning Sheet to organise your work.

Task 10 – Let’s build!  Your task is to create your own drawing or sculpture of the Chichen Itza. Be creative: you could make your sculpture in your garden out of pebbles, twigs etc, or you could use recycled materials. You could also make a Lego model, or even build your sculpture using books! If you would prefer to draw, your drawing could be painted, sketched and shaded, or collaged. (Remember, there are lots of pictures in the text you read yesterday for you to see the detailed stone work and design.) Don’t forget to take a photo of any finished sculptures or artwork to share!

MATHS – https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-6/ Week 2 Lesson 4 Introducing Angles. Complete the ‘Get the Activity’ sheet.

THURSDAY

Task 11 – Take some time to enjoy your own book today. Set a timer, see if you can read for 30mins without taking a break.

Task 12 – After researching the site of Chichen Itza, today you will start writing your tourist information page. Before you start writing, let’s read one more fact file so that we have as much information as possible. Read the file called Chichen Itza Fact File to zoom in on certain parts of the temple and learn about them.

Task 13 – It is time to start writing! Use your plan from yesterday and the ideas you saw on the Tikal text. Your writing could include a range of information:

  • Where is it?
  • When was it build?
  • Why was it build?
  • What can you see there?
  • Any other facts that you thin are interesting or important.

As well as this information, include a picture of your creation from yesterday. This could be a photograph or the actual artwork. Like with any piece of writing, make sure you take the time to check your punctuation and spelling. See if you can include a range of punctuation and sentence structures.

MATHS – https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-6/ Week 2 Lesson 5 Calculate Angles. Complete the ‘Get the Activity’ sheet.

FRIDAY

Task 14 – Finish and improve your writing from yesterday. Add colour to your pictures and make the page look exciting! Remember we’re trying to encourage people to visit – we want to make the reader excited and interested in finding out more.

Task 15 – How do we know so much about this ancient civilisation? Your task today is to research and explore the findings of Frederik Catherwood.  Read through the document called Frederick Catherwood.

Task 16 – Reading comprehension. Read the Frederick Catherwood Reading Comprehension and answer the questions.

Task 17– Choose one of the pictures drawn by Frederik Catherwood. Try and create your own version of his drawing. This could make a wonderful whole page of your scrapbook, or take a photo of your final version and put it on a slide! Alternatively, you could create a 3D drawing of one of the images by using Paint 3D.

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.

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/

And finally…

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