In maths this week we have been learning how to calculate surface area of 3D shapes. Here are some pictures of us completing our work.
Today we learned some new vocabulary as we learned about the parts of a circle. In pairs, Year 6 measured the diameter, radius and circumference of circles in class.
World War Two Day - January 2022
To start our new topic on World War Two, Year 6 spent the day learning about the impact of rationing on people's lives. We learned about which foods were rationed and how this affected people's diets. We then worked together to make pear crumbles, learning how to safely use knives and peelers and considering the importance of good hygiene.
We also learned about why people needed to 'make do and mend' as clothes were rationed too! Everybody then completed some sewing, learning how to use a blanket stitch and a back stitch.
We had a great day and made a great start to our new topic for the Spring Term.
As part of our Autumn term art topic, Year 6 have produced their own frescoes (a type of wall painting) inspired by Letchworth Garden City and the local wildlife. The children took inspiration from Ancient Greek artists' composition, colours and tones.
They also studied the work of Michelangelo - one of the most famous fresco painters of all time!
We hope you enjoy looking through our finished masterpieces!
As part of our Autumn unit of learning in French, Year 6 have written their own versions of the children's story: La chenille qui fait des trous (The Hungry Caterpillar).
The children chose their own subject for their stories, used French dictionaries to help with the vocabulary and created their own versions into a storyboard!
Take a look at a couple of the finished articles!
Très bien!
We have linked our work in art to our history topic of Ancient Greek by studying frescoes. In preparation for designing and painting our own frescoes, Year 6 have been using photography to take a close look at nature in our school environment. We have looked carefully at the colour and varying shades that we found in the plants and trees as well as how we could arrange the subjects of the picture to achieve the best composition.
Knowing our multiplication facts are very important as we use them all of the time in maths. We started our Year 6 lessons by recalling our multiplication tables and finding different ways that we could practise them. Here we are playing a game to rehearse these skills.
This week we have been learning about algebra and to finish it off, we worked hard on an investigation using cubes. We put the cubes together in different lengths and worked out how many different ways there were to break each length into two smaller lengths. We were then able to apply our learning about algebra to come up with a rule.
On Friday 21st May, Year 6 participated in a brilliant Shakespeare workshop where they learned about the story of Macbeth. The children helped to act out the story alongside the fabulous actors from the Sky Blue Theatre Company.
We have been using the science skill of observation to learn about the parts of the flower. We each dissected a daffodil to find the parts we had learned about. It was great fun and it prompted a lot of further discussion and questioning.
Dunking Biscuits
We spent Friday morning trying to solve Santa's problem: which biscuit he should dunk in his drink when he gets home after a long night on Christmas Eve? We had fun testing several biscuits before working on the science skill of writing conclusions. Having discussed our findings and how we came to our conclusions, we wrote a letter to Santa with our advice. We hope he makes the right choice!
Ancient Greek Frescoes
During our Ancient Greece topic in History, we have been learning about frescoes which were used to decorate people's homes. We learned that the subject of Greek frescoes were often animals or plants and considered this in our own designs. We then thought carefully about the colours that might be used and experimented with paint to mix specific shades for our work before combining all of our learning to create our own designs. We are really proud of our final pieces of work!
Electricity
We spent a whole day learning about electricity in Year 6. Here are some pictures of us testing out our ideas about what affects the brightness of the bulb. It was fun!
We spent three weeks studying the book, 'Flotsam' by David Weisner. This wonderful picture book allowed us to write some descriptive settings of the 'photos' that appear in the book, create our own weird and wonderful underwater scenes, research the impact of plastic in the ocean and produce our own artwork. We worked hard on our vocabulary in writing and used different techniques to create different effects in our art.
Year 6 are rightfully proud of the work they produced.
Year 6 had a brilliant time learning all about William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. A theatre group visited the school and used the pupils to help reenact the famous tragedy. We will be using what we have learned in future English lessons this half term.
Greek Masks
During our topic about Ancient Greece, we learnt about Greek theatre and the importance of masks. We designed and made our own masks using paper mache. Have a look at a few examples of our hard work.
No Pens Day
The whole school took part in 'No Pens day Wednesday' where we all put down our pens for the day and completed our lessons using speaking and listening and practical activities. Here we are learning about equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages without writing a thing!
Arts Week - Native America
During Arts Week, Year 6 learned about the purpose and appearance of Totem Poles. We investigated patterns and experimented with colours to create our own earthy tones before making our final designs.
Welcome back!
Welcome back to Year 6 and what a great start to the year it's been! We have really hit the ground running and so far we have worked hard at our knowledge of place value in maths; looked at how to create atmosphere and depict character in our writing; started our topic on the Ancient Greeks; learnt about how we see things in science and much much more. In addition to all our classwork, we all had a wonderful day in glorious sunshine taking part in the Olympics Legacy Event at Knights Templar School in Baldock. Everybody competed with enthusiasm and showed great sportsmanship in whichever sport they chose. Our Year 6 did us proud! Well done, everybody - we're looking forward to a great year!
We have been using the iPads to create our own animations in class this week.
After an initial practice, we found we needed to:
- Take LOTS of pictures,
- Move the characters only a tiny amount for each picture,
- Keep the tablet still.
Our work got better and better as we went on!
In Mrs Murphy's English group, the children freeze-framed the role of mischievous boggarts causing chaos in the classroom! They certainly got up to all sorts!
Just before the onset of SATs, Year 6 took part in 'Ultimate Warrior' activities! We pushed ourselves under nets, through tunnels and over fences on an assault course before using shields to protect our 'Emperor' from other class members and their wet sponges! It was an afternoon of fun, laughs and a lot of water!
In science this afternoon, we explored our Wildlife Area and identified trees and 'minibeasts' living in our own school grounds. We were amazed at how many living things there are so close to where we play everyday! What a great afternoon!
After studying the picture book, Journey, we produced some wonderful descriptive writing. Here are some extracts of our work displayed with some sewing we worked hard on to make the hot air balloon basket. We are very proud of our work!
Our topic during the Autumn term is The Battle of Britain. Our teachers asked us to complete a homework project all about The Blitz.
Take a look at some of the work we produced: from models to booklets, posters to poems; we are really proud of what we have completed!
As part of our Battle of Britain topic work, Sycamore class created pieces of artwork using a range of media. We looked at the aircraft flown in the battle and recreated scenes showing shape, movement and shadow.
Heavenly handwriting!
In Year 6, we have been working really hard on our handwriting. Through our writing in English, we re-wrote suspense stories using guidelines to practise fluent, joined and consistently sized handwriting.
Our writing centred around the character: Alma, who visits an eerie shop with disastrous consequences.
Take a look at the link if you would like to see the video which inspired our writing...
I'm sure you're as excited as we are to get going on all that wonderful learning this year. Can't wait!
Have a look further down if you want to get a glimpse of just some of the things we got up to last year.
Mrs M, Mrs G & Mrs L
Please continue reading to see all of our learning so far this year. From the Greeks to gruesome tales in English; problem solving to persuasive speeches.
Enjoy...
Volcanoes!
During the second half of the Spring term, Year 6 learned all about volcanoes. We used maps and atlases to locate the world's most famous volcanoes, before thinking about their structure and how they affect people who live near them.
We linked our English to our topic and read a book called: "Escape to Pompeii". We wrote newspaper articles, setting descriptions and narrative to explore the infamous Mount Vesuvius.
Have you ever left food out for too long? We have been enjoying the sights (and smells) of what happens when you leave some bread in water, on a bookshelf, or on a radiator!
Here are some photos and a write up of the experiment. YUCK!
This term we have been focusing on narrative writing. We used a visual stimulus called 'Alma' to write a narrative story focusing on capturing mystery, tension and suspense.
Some examples of our stories are below; you might even feel some goose-bumps after you have read them!
In maths we have focused on reasoning, problem solving and fluency; we have been working really hard on justifying our thinking and explaining 'how' or 'why' we know things to be true. Take a look at some examples of our work on sequences and algebra:
During the Spring term, we will be learning about mountains and volcanoes. We have begun our learning studying the geography of mountains, including creating our own contour drawings. We used this skill to create similar artistic designs:
In RE this term we have been learning about Buddhism. We studied the eight-fold path, the teachings of Buddha and enlightenment.
Please take a look at some of our drawings of Buddha:
During the Autumn term, Year 6 have learned about Ancient Greece.
Art week, which took place in the Autumn term, took on the theme of trees. Year 6 pupils worked with a number of teachers across the school to create original pieces of work; the children were inspired by nature to create compositions in paint, pencil, chalk and even leaves and wood!