Welcome to The Year 6 Page!
Wonder
Throughout the spring term, we enjoyed reading the book “Wonder”, where we empathised with the plight of the main character August, who has a rare genetic condition known as Treacher-Collins syndrome.
In English, we researched Treacher-Collins in detail, before compiling non-chronological reports to help spread knowledge and understanding of August’s condition, as well as taking the time to write a diary entry, similar in style to the book, recounting a day in August’s life.
“Choose Kind” is a tagline in the book and, working together with our friends, we decorated our classroom with positive messages to help inspire togetherness. Our homework project for the term was also to choose kindness, recording in a diary how we helped and supported our family and friends over a two week period.
ICT
We have been learning how to become app planners in ICT, working hard to solve problems that Year 6 children face every day.
We whittled down our suggested problems to (only!) ten, chose to work in groups with friends who wanted to solve similar problems and then began to plan a presentation to put forward to the Rise Park Dragon’s Den!
When presenting to the Dragons, we were judged on our originality, our app’s usefulness and how well we presented the concept of our app. Some groups were even lucky enough to be “invested” in, which was a small miracle bearing in mind how careful Mr Kelly was being with his money!
Science
We have been exploring the theory of evolution, learning about the life and works of Charles Darwin and identifying evidence for his theory. We constructed models to show what we thought the evolutionary process from fish to elephant would look like.
We have also learned about DNA and the advancements in gene therapy, linking this with our work in Wonder.
Maths
We have been working really hard in all of our maths sessions. So far we have furthered our skills and understanding of place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, including long multiplication and division. We have also investigated prime, squared and cubed numbers, as well as multiples and factors, applying these to problem solving activities. Finally, we have been working with fractions. Each week we engage in fluency activities (speed and skills) then we apply this to reasoning and problem solving activities.
English
In English we have immersed ourselves in the book STORMBREAKER by Anthony Horowitz: a story about how a teenage boy – Alex Rider – becomes a spy. We designed our own “spy gadget” then wrote to MI6 to persuade them to purchase and use our gadget. We have also written newspaper reports about Alex’s exploits. As we write, we have the opportunity to peer and self-assess our writing, making improvements before producing our final published versions. We have also continued to develop our grammar skills, such as our use of the passive voice and the progressive tense.
Linked to this topic we have developed our team work skills in a number of ways including shelter building, team games and designing and making a marble run to transport marbles from each class to meet in the shared area!
Science
Science sessions have seen us plan and carry out a number of investigations. We have studied animals including humans and light so far. We also enjoyed a number of activities based around biscuits during our STEM week. When planning an investigation, we consider what variables to change, how we can ensure our test is fair and we make predictions based on what we know. We use scientific vocabulary in our work and record our findings in a number of ways.
We also had the opportunity to watch the Nottingham Panthers train before we went ice skating with them. It was great fun!!
In September, we started the year by reading Anthony Horowitz’s “Stormbreaker”. Working in teams, we recreated living life as a spy on the run, building a shelter from scratch using a limited number of tools. Many of our Year 6 pupils tasted success, working against the elements to construct their own hand-made accommodation.
In October, we travelled to SI5 in the city centre. Working in teams, we solved a variety of problems, working as spies in training. We even had the chance to complete a mission, saving the future of humanity itself!
In December, we worked together to save Christmas, helping Santa to deliver his stash of marbles by building a run across both 6A and 6H! We all had to work together, in order to allow him to move his marbles with ease. After a lot of trial and error, we succeeded: Christmas was saved!
Written by Abigail Riley, Jason Shelukindo and Ethan Deller:
The Farmers’ Market, which was held on 15th November, was a wonderful opportunity for Year 6 gardeners and chicken carers to showcase the delicious, healthy vegetables and produce that we have grown throughout the year. We also used the eggs from our beloved chickens which provided the main ingredient for the mouth-watering quiches – one of our most popular dishes at the event.
We also enjoyed preparing and cooking the spicy vegetable curry. We had great fun developing our cross-curricular culinary skills (like chopping, peeling and baking.)
We are now looking forward to using the money raised to buy new seeds and other gardening resources to develop and improve our next harvest.