Week 1 term 1 2022

This week we have had a busy start to the year! In Maths we have begun our place value topic, with numbers up to ten million. In English we have been exploring dream poetry whilst developing our VIPERS skills. (Check the reading section for VIPERS information!) Year 6 planned and wrote incredibly thoughtful dreamcatcher poems using both negative and positive imagery - half preferred writing the positives and the other half liked the negative writing! In Science we began our 'living things' topic and created classification keys for animals of our choice, using key words. In P.E we began our tag rugby unit, developing our attacking and defending skills through a very successful Capture the Flag game warm-up. In Art we began sketching our dream art using Chagall as inspiration... more to follow next week when we start our final pieces with colour! Well done Year 6 for a fantastic first full week back, as well as those who took part in the Kent Test. You have all displayed an excellent attitude to learning this week!

Week 2 term 1

This week we continued our place value topic in Maths and looked at negative numbers. In English we created more free verse dream poetry, using our knowledge of abstract and collective nouns to help us. In art we created our final Chagall-inspired pieces and used new oil pastel techniques - we now know what sgraffito and scumbling is!!! In P.E we continued working on our tag rugby skills, developing passing formations as well as dodging to avoid getting tagged. In Science we used the Linnaean System to classify and tried to find the closest related species to our first choice animals! In Geography we began our North America topic, looking at the countries that make up this continent. We finished by looking at the USA and all the different states, each choosing a state to research. In Music we began a new project; we have been accepted by the English National Opera to carry out a challenge to finish a piece of music from them! We are all very excited about the project.... and the free lanyards obviously!!!!!

Week 3 term 1

This week has been a short one but still busy as usual! In Maths we began our revision of the written methods for long addition, subtraction and multiplication whilst remembering to use effective mental strategies too! We began our dream story writing in English and are working hard to improve our grammar! We started our flashback writing using a music video for inspiration. In Science we created our own species using ideas from the Linnaean System. In Geography we have been using Google Earth and finding locations using the lines of latitude and longitude. In French we talked about environmental challenges and used the terms 'il y a' and 'il n'y a pas.' In Music we have continued our project with the English National Opera, creating our own wordles for our chosen colour... mint! (And got the lanyards on again!) We had a successful Harvest festival, sharing poems and prayers written with Mr Day as well as super artwork. Well done everyone for getting involved.. from taking part to helping out in the Key Stage 1 service and helping with the sound/ computing equipment. At the end of the week the rain didn't stop Year 6 as they enjoyed some P.E in the hall!

Week 4 term 1

This week in Year 6 we have spent the mornings working through our assessments and Year 6 have shown amazing resilience and a super work ethic! In English we have been developing our writing techniques, innovating dream stories whilst developing our character description and deeper emotion! We have even included our own flashbacks by using shifts in tense. In Music we have split into groups to begin creating graphic scores for words associated with mint for our English National Opera project. In Science we considered fair testing whilst creating a mould investigation. Each day we have been checking our bread - some children are very keen to see what happens! In Geography we used the Koppen System to investigate different climates in the Americas. In Art we thought about skylines in North America and created 'worm's eye' views of sky scrapers by thinking about vanishing points and perspectives! (See our sketches below which will be developed further next week!)

Week 5 term 1

This week we have started our division topic in Maths, revising short division and applying it to problems. We have also used factor pairs to help us divide with larger numbers mentally. In English, we wrote our final dream stories, developing independence. To finish, we visited different editing stations to improve our work. In Music, we have been working in groups to create music for a variety of words linked to our colour 'mint.' Graphic scores have been created for each word, with layering, as well as musical vocabulary (pp, mp, p, f, mf, ff). In Science we have been recording our mould results... the art cupboard is causing the most excitement! In French we have been improving our listening skills and in Art we have painted our worm's eye views with great results! This week we also had a visitor, Mr Rick Bradley, who along with Mr Towse is our link governor. It was fun having him in the hot seat and we had a lovely morning!

Week 6 term 1

This week we have started our long division topic in Maths and the children have picked up the system really well! However, we make sure that we always think about using easier methods such as mental methods or factorisation if we can first! In English we have focused on Black History Month and learnt about Martin Luther King Jr. and his 'I Have a Dream' speech. We considered our own dreams and wrote about justice for all. In art we drew our heroes that we wrote about for homework, cultural and historical role-models. In Music we finalised our group compositions and began to put them together to create one piece, ready to be sent to the E.N.O next week. In French we put our French sentence work about the environment to the test for a monopoly style game! In Science we finally finished our mould recordings, writing up our findings! In Geography we considered San Diego and watched videos made by Mrs Hoad's friend, a teacher in San Diego!! Finally, we finished the week with our House Captain elections. All the children did a wonderful job with their presenting skills and we are really proud of them. Well done, too, to the children who didn't go for the role but supported the younger ones! Great role-model work this week!

Week 7 term 1

For our final week, we have been looking at mental strategies in Maths as well as BIDMAS - which has become a bit favourite in year 6! In English, we have researched the life of Walter Tull and have written persuasive letters to the Ministry of Defence in support of Tull receiving a posthumous Military Cross award. In art we looked at the story 'Tar City' by Faith Ringgold and created our own skylines that we would like to soar over. In Geography we went on a field trip around the village (led by a very knowledgeable Mrs Miller) to see the changes in the village, particularly from the 1970s. Using old photographs, we became detectives, trying to spot where businesses used to be. In Computing we had fun designing and creating web pages, trying to get as high a ranking as we could. This week we also finished our final composition for Music and sent the final piece to the English National Opera. Please look at the folder to hear the sounds..... envy!!!!