Year 6 - christopher Columbus

 Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator. In 1492, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in the flagship Santa Maria, with the Pinta and the Niña ships alongside, hoping to find a new route to Asia. When he finally found land, he presumed wrongly he had discovered the faster more financially profitable route to India  for trade; in fact he had reached the islands now know as the Bahamas.  Columbus landed on a number of other islands in the Caribbean, including Cuba and Hispaniola, and returned to Spain in triumph. He was rewarded and became a wealthy and important man. He is often referred to as the man who discovered America, however he never set foot on mainland America but did set in motion the start of exploration and colonisation of the Americas.  

Curriculum 

What made a man in the 1500's travel west across an unchartered ocean in search of new lands? Who was this man and what did he aim to accomplish on this daring (or very foolish) adventure? These are just some of the questions that year 6 will be exploring through reading, artwork and DT; making replicas of the ships that Christopher Columbus would have sailed in, creating portraits of the man himself; the 1500's equivalent of a selfie!​. It is important to understand the reasons people throughout history have attempted these explorations of the globe. We will uncover what the impact of the explorer's discoveries are on today's world and put ourselves in the place of the indigenous people that he colonised; are there comparisons through history and across the world today?

In our maths learning this half term we will be focusing on deep understanding of place value and then applying this knowledge to reason and problem solve. The aim for mathematical learning in year 6 is to encourage fluency for future understanding.  Our English text is a thoughtful, emotive story about a wolf and a boy; this novel will help us to explore the deep feelings within both characters and gives opportunities for factual report writing about the amazing wolf species.

To tie in with our studies in English, we are working on the topic of ‘living things and their habitats’ focusing on classification and research into the different characteristics of living things. We will conduct field research and report our findings, using observation and technical language to record.

We look forward to a busy and fun half term.