Weekly News: 16th - 20th February

This week promises to be another big week in Year 6. As the Junior School Production The Magical Mystery Tour is only two weeks away many of the students are busy rehearsing and preparing for upcoming show. In the meantime, our current unit continues to spark the children’s interest and motivate them in their learning.

Reflections 9th – 13th March
During the second week of our unit Moving Forward the children continued to research and investigate the physical and emotional changes that occur during puberty. One of the highlights of the week saw the children separate into two groups (boys and girls) and meet with Mr Barrett/Mr Gocentas and Ms Isabel/Ms Jones to ask questions about the various physical and emotional changes that occur during puberty. All teachers were very impressed with the children’s questions and the level of maturity shown by most of the students. Well done!

This Week

Unit of Inquiry
This week we will again practise good research skills as we investigate additional facts about puberty. During the week we will be watching a BBC documentary on puberty where the children will view a number of interviews with different teenagers sharing their experiences about puberty. Later in the week we also plan to introduce and discuss the idea of peer pressure. We are also hoping to host some senior students from SDIS to discuss their experiences with peer pressure and offer some strategies for dealing with peer pressure.

Mathematics
We continue our work on fractions this week, particularly adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators. The children are generally progressing well in their fraction work and are mostly able to simplify fractions and find equivalents (of course this is much easier if the children know all their multiples and factors). In class maths we spent last week measuring and identifying angles. We will continue work on this concept as we prepare to focus on 2-D and 3-D shapes in the coming weeks.

English
In learning about puberty the children have researched puberty facts from both primary (experts) and secondary (reading materials) sources. This week they will practise their note-taking skills as they record facts and notes while watching a BBC documentary about puberty. The children will also use their research and note-taking skills to begin to write factual statements about puberty. During our library research sessions this week the children will continue to refine their skills in using online reference websites, eg. www.bibme.org. In our reading groups the children will continue to read information texts with the view to increasing their vocabulary as well learning more about puberty.

What can I do to help?
# A great website to use with your children throughout our current unit (especially as part of their reading homework) is the Kid’s Health site http://kidshealth.org/kid/
# Please ask your children about the work we have been doing in class. The more adults that speak to them about puberty and help them to understand the inevitable physical and emotional changes that will occur, the less likely the children will be confused about this very important phase of their lives.

With thanks,
David Barrett, David Gocentas and Ms Isabel Costa Pereira