Year 6 Team: Mr M King (Class Teacher), Mrs L Martin : Blog items
Date: 28th Jan 2022 @ 3:56pm
We are over halfway through another half-term in Year 6…where is the time going?!
This week, the children have created some remarkable pieces of writing personifying the seasons of the year. Rightly, they are very proud of their pieces! To accompany their writing, the children also studied the abstract art of Peter Thorpe. Although he is more famous for artwork linked to the theme of space, the children took inspiration from his abstract style and chose colours that fit the theme of their chosen season to create their own abstract pieces. They really are impressive!
On Friday, the children entered class to the sound of some eerie music with candles lit all around. They thought carefully about what they could hear and the images that came to mind before thinking of expanded noun phrases would help describe their thoughts. Next week, we will be writing a descriptive piece on a spooky house…based on the children’s ideas on Friday, it is set to produce some of their best writing yet!
In Science this week, the children concluded their learning about electricity by learning about three types of variables; independent, dependent and control variables. They then designed their own investigations and chose what their independent and control variables were. They checked their predictions out by carrying out the investigation and noted the outcome of their dependent variable.
On Thursday, we had a PSHE lesson all about the impact of words on our mental health. To begin, we were introduced to two new members of class: Adam the Apple and Aaron the Apple. The children were told to be really kind to Adam and say nice things to him but were instructed to laugh at Aaron and tease him. Unfortunately, when we revealed how they looked on the inside afterwards, Aaron was rotten. The children understood the important message of this initial activity: words can hurt. We also thought about how some of us had joined in on the teasing because others had; we connected our thinking back to one of Hedi Argent’s stories last Friday about how a girl called Gurty had played with her when nobody else would. We discussed the word ‘legacy’ and thought about what kind of legacy we would like to leave when we finish our journey at Trinity St. Peter’s. Would everyone remember us for being kind? Would some disagree with that? If so, how could we use these two terms to change some opinions? Do we follow others’ path or do we create our own? Which is more important?
Our final activity was to anonymously write down some of our insecurities. We acknowledged that sometimes we can tease our friends in a playful manner - believing that everyone is enjoying the joke - but it may be the case that what we are teasing somebody about is actually their biggest insecurity, or an insecurity of somebody else in the group, which could make them feel sad or ashamed. Therefore, it was a chance to share the comments we would not like to be brought up about ourselves at this moment in time. When we shared everyone’s responses, the class was silent. Firstly, we were surprised to see so many of the same insecurities mentioned repeatedly by different pupils. This ended up being rather reassuring to learn that we are not alone in our worries. However, we were also surprised by some of insecurities listed and pointed out a few that we would never have assumed could hurt someone’s feelings. We then agreed that we wouldn’t use any of the words / examples mentioned as we could risk hurting someone’s feelings without realising. Overall, it was a very thoughtful lesson that gave the children lots to think about. A sense of togetherness was certainly cemented – so much so, we came up with our own class chant at the end of the lesson!
Children are aware of what their homework is for this week and next week’s spellings are on Google Classroom.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Date: 21st Jan 2022 @ 4:23pm
In Writing, we have continued to read Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Selfish Giant’ as our focus text. Towards the end of the week, we discussed how Wilde writes about the weather and seasons as proper nouns and noted how he uses personification for a more powerful effect. We connected our thinking to other examples of where we have seen this in the media, including Marvel characters (e.g. Thor, Storm) and Disney Films. The children are now currently working on creating a short piece of text that personifies a season or weather type(s) of their choice.
As mathematicians, we have continued to cover key objectives on the Y6 curriculum. Mr King’s group has been learning about ratio and proportion, while Mrs Martin’s group have worked on fractions. Next week both groups will be continuing with these topics, moving into more reasoning based / word problems.
We had a classroom full of scientists this week in our Science lesson as the children carried out and planned their own investigations linked to electric circuits. After learning how electrons flowed through the wires using the energy taken from the battery, some children investigated if the length of wires in the circuit made a difference to how the bulb lit. Other groups investigated how adding a motor to the circuit affected the bulb being lit and discussed and investigated changes they could make to ensure the bulb lit. The children worked brilliantly well together carrying out their investigations and seeing if their predictions matched their findings.
In PE, we returned to the world of athletics, taking part in a variety of events including: chest push, javelin, speed bounce and sprints. Having practised these in Autumn term, the children were given time to refine their skills and decide on their optimum technique for achieving the best results in each event. The children are aware that there is an Athletics tournament coming up this half-term and so were able to use these lessons as an opportunity to try out for this year’s athletics team; we will be continuing with these sessions next week too and taking part in a few more athletics events before moving onto tag rugby.
To conclude our week, we had an incredible opportunity to ‘Zoom’ with Holocaust survivor, Hedi Argent. Having learned all about the treatment of the Jewish race during WW2 in our Writing and History topics last term – and with it also being Holocaust Memorial Day next week – the children were very excited about the prospect of speaking to somebody who lived during this time and they already had plenty of questions they wanted to ask before the session even started! Hedi was so fantastic in sharing her story, including how life was for her as a Jew in an Austrian school in the 1930s and how her family sought refuge in the UK after Kristallnacht. She also shared life lessons she had learned around inclusion and kindness, which still stand today.
Children are aware of what their homework is for this week and next week’s spellings are on Google Classroom.
This month's top book picks from 'Love Reading' have also been released today. It shares exciting new story books from a variety of authors for different age ranges.
Please ensure you have read the letter sent via School Spider regarding swimming lessons next half-term. You should have also received Zoom details for next week’s parent-teacher meetings.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Date: 12th Jan 2022 @ 3:08pm
Our first full week back and it’s like we’ve never been away!
In Writing, we have started reading our text focus for this half-term, “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde. The first half of the week saw us making predictions and inferences about the text as we were slowly given more and more detail: from the front cover to the blurb and finally the first few pages of the story. We then focused on the page that described the Giant’s garden and discussed how we immediately knew it was a special place from the author’s use of language. For the latter part of the week, we created our own poems about the garden - using formal language and expanded noun phrases – before committing them to our author books as the first entry for 2022!
Our Reading sessions have followed a similar style of story as well this week with Mr King’s group focusing on another Oscar Wilde tale, The Happy Prince, while Mrs Martin’s group explored “A World Full of Animal Stories” by Angela McAllister. We have also started our new class novel, ‘The Lion Above the Door’ by Onjali Rauf; the children have enjoyed hearing the first few pages and have already realised that racism and buried identities may be key themes in the book.
Maths this week has been recapping many of our Autumn term’s objectives and arithmetic skills. Next week, Mr King’s group will be learning about ratio and proportion; Mrs Martin’s group will be continuing to develop their knowledge of fractions.
In PE, we have continued with our gymnastics unit. This week, the children were not only given the task of performing particular balances and movements, but they were also given levels of challenge to attempt for each. On Tuesday, we focused on inverted balances such a ‘bridge’ and shoulder stands, while on Thursday we practised headstands on cartwheels. By the end of each lesson, some children were so determined to meet each challenge that they did so with time to spare and were able to create their own challenges to then share with the rest of the class – superb! To conclude our unit, we then created our own routines in small groups, incorporating many of the balances and movements we have learned during previous lessons...and they were fantastic! It was also equally pleasing to see some children, who usually shy away from demonstrations, wanting to perform for their peers by the end of this unit. It was a very proud moment!
Finally, this week also saw the commencement of our new Science topic, 'Electifying'. With a quick recap on the knowldge learnt in Year 4, the children learnt about some of the incredible discoveries made within electricity dating back as far as Ancient Egypt through to Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison! The children were able to draw circuits using an array of symbols, which will support them in their upcoming lessons. At the request of one of our pupils, we finished the lesson by listening to the song 'Electricity' from the musical Billy Elliott, which then led into an interesting discussion about stereotypes - we are always making connections in Year 6!
Spellings for next week can be found on Google Classroom; homework for Maths and English have also been set for the children and they are aware of what they need to do.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Date: 6th Jan 2022 @ 4:41pm
Happy New Year! We hope you have all had a lovely Christmas break and are ready for 2022!
It may have only been a short week in school, but we certainly packed a lot of learning in! To begin our new term – as you may have predicted – we spent some time catching up and talking about our Christmas holidays. Whilst we enjoyed hearing everyone’s festive news, we also reflected on who or what made our time so enjoyable and made sure we wrote an early entry into our gratitude journals to list all that we had to be thankful for. We also compared our experience with our previous Christmas holiday - where government restrictions had been tougher - and made sure we acknowledged how grateful we were to be able to see more family members and to celebrate in larger groups this time around…it isn’t all just about the presents!
Following on from our previous Science topic all about the human body, we acknowledged how currently we may be hearing adults and older siblings discussing ‘January diets’ and weight they have gained after some over-indulging on food and beverages! We recalled how these aren’t topics we should be concerned with at this age and revised what it means to have a healthy diet - including how we can best support our mental and physical health as we start to become young adults and go through various changes linked to puberty. In line with the Year 6 Science curriculum, we also learned more about drugs and alcohol and addressed some misconceptions we may hear / could hear when they go to secondary school.
In RE, we learned about the significance of the Eucharist in the Christian faith. This followed on well from our Autumn 1 topic of ‘Life as a Journey’, where we learned about the seven Catholic sacraments, as well as our visit to St. Peter’s Church to attend a Eucharist service last half-term. We recalled how the Eucharist links to the Last Supper and how this is evident through practices observed during a Church service; we also learned how the Eucharist is connected to the Passover and the Old Testament story of Exodus. We realised that not all Christian denominations practise the Eucharist in the same way (and that some denominations do not celebrate it at all!) and were able to identify many themes and values, including acceptance, belonging, friendship, and sacrifice.
We began our new History topic on the Shang Dynasty on Wednesday. Although set during a different period, the children were able to draw on some prior knowledge of Ancient China from watching films such as Disney's Mulan. In our first lesson, we learned some of the key facts about the Shang Dynasty, including when it was in power, who founded it and where the leaders resided. We also reflected on how historians know this information and the reliability of it.
Friday welcomed another Computing Day, this time exploring the world of virtual reality! Using the iOs application, CoSpaces, the children were able to follow various algorithms to design their own virtual reality enviornment, using their skills and knowledge to ensure their environment was: aesthetically pleasing; reflected their creativity and evidenced attention to detail. We saw some very creative virtual worlds - well done, Year 6!
In PE, we were able to resume our gymnastic unit, having had to postpone some lessons last half-term due to Christmas performances taking place in the hall. During this lesson, the children worked in pairs / small groups on counter balances and counter tension. We saw some very creative thinking going on as the children performed a sequence balances at the end of the lesson for the rest of their peers!
Overall, a very busy three days…but most enjoyable! It has been lovely to welcome the majority of pupils back and we are confident it is going to be another fantastic term. For more information on what we will be learning about this term, please click here.
New spellings can be found on Google Classroom. Homework will resume from next week.
Enjoy your weekend!
Date: 3rd Sep 2021 @ 8:06am
What a brilliant start we have had to Year 6!
It really has been fantastic to see all the children return to school with such excitement and enthusiasm. They have all settled in so quickly and the 'Year 6 team spirit' is evident already!
The majority of our first three days back has been taken up by our first PSHE topic - which focuses on the Disney film, Cool Runnings. The film has helped us to recall our school’s vision and values while also allowing us to reflect on our school motto, ‘Choose Wisely’. Throughout the week, the children have participated in various discussions around the themes of the film, as well as individual characters. Using our thinking hats and maps, we have been able to expand on our ideas and consider others’ viewpoints as we have tried to understand what different characters are feeling, the adversities they are facing and how they are choosing to overcome these challenges. This week has also been a great opportunity to connect our learning with our school’s 4C Thinking Curve and reflect on how - throughout the year - we should welcome challenges, as challenges can lead to better outcomes.
Linked to our ‘Cool Runnings’ topic, the children thoroughly enjoyed their first PE lesson on Thursday afternoon. Given the context of the film, it seemed only right that the lesson should be ‘Winter Olympic’ themed, thus the children were divided into different nations and took part in various winter events, including a team version of an alpine skiing event. This activity proved to be more difficult than originally thought, as the children needed to complete various courses while staying linked together throughout. Several conversations on strategy were required as the teams decided their order and calculated how fast they could go without breaking the chain! Eventually, each team was timed on the final ski course to determine an overall winner, but it was teamwork aspect of the challenge that really shone during this time! Although differing in times slightly, every team completed the final course without incurring any penalties – well done, Year 6! We are already looking forward to seeing how the ‘bobsled’ event plays out next Tuesday!
This week also brought us our first Music lesson with Mr Fogg. He led our first lesson without any instruments – instead playing various games that focused on rhythm, beat and tempo! We are very fortunate that he will now be teaching us how to play our brass instrument every Wednesday afternoon this term. Although we are at Robinwood next week, Mr Fogg will still be in to check and clean all the instruments, so please ensure that any instruments which were taken home at the end of Year 5 are returned to school before Wednesday.
We know that many children are excited for our school residential to Robinwood in Wrexham next week. Please ensure you have visited their website and read all the information given, including in their brochure and on their FAQ page. Attached to this blog is also a PowerPoint presentation, which will provide you with information that is specific to Year 6’s trip next week. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch via the class account (y6@tsp.sefton.school).
Please note that weekly homework (including spellings) would usually commence on Friday 10th September, however as the children are in Robinwood next week, this will now commence on Friday 17th September.
In terms of Year 6 reading, the children will have daily opportunities to read, either independently, in a group or as a whole class. Those children who receive their ‘home reading books’ from school will also still be listened to individually every week by an adult. However, it is really important that the children are encouraged to read daily at home and with an adult if possible. If you are struggling with book choices, please refer to the recommendations listed on our ‘Learning at Home’ page, or let us know and we will be able to offer suggestions.
Thank you to everyone for making the start to this academic year so wonderful. We hope you all have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you all next week. We are certain it is going to be action-packed!