CURRICULUM NEWSLETTER SPRING 2

QUIZ ME QUESTIONS SPRING 2

CURRICULUM NEWSLETTER SPRING 1

QUIZ ME QUESTIONS SPRING 1

CURRICULUM NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2

QUIZ ME QUESTIONS AUTUMN 2

CURRICULUM NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 1

QUIZ ME QUESTIONS AUTUMN 1

 

D&T - Viking Boats

For a few weeks, we have been developing our skills in a range of areas. We carried out some research to learn more about Vikings boats - what they were made from and their main features. From this, we drew up a design specification and talked about what was essential and what was desirable. We created and tested prototypes of sails and learnt how to use a junior hacksaw safely. We created exploded diagrams and planned how we were going to spend our time when making our boats.

Finally it was time to make our boats! We spent a whole day cutting, shaping and gluing wood, creating detachable dragon heads, making our final sails and attaching oars and shields. We had an amazing day and showed fantastic teamwork! When we tested our boats, some even floated!

 

Science - Evolution

We have started our new Science topic of evolution and our first lesson focused on adaption of plants (how plants have changed over time according to to their surroundings). We looked specifically at a cactus and identified all of the features that were advantageous to a hot climate.

 

English - Cracking Contraptions

In our English, we have written our own cracking contraptions. We watched some Wallace and Gromit clips and used 'The Snoozatron' text to identify the main features. We wrote a version of 'The Tellyscope' through lots of discussion with our peers and studied a range of grammatical terms. We then moved on to creating our own inventions and writing and editing these. We are hoping to use some of these to enter in the 'Engineering competition' coming up as part of Science Week.

  

 

Maths - Making Links

In Maths, we have been making links between fractions, decimals and percentages. Walking past our classroom, you will often hear us working on our stem sentences. "How do you find 20%?" "Divide by 5!"

We are getting very good at making the links between all of these and applying our learning to reasoning style questions.

 

History - World War II

Our History question for the Spring term is 'What was life like for children during World War II?' We started the topic with some background information on World War II and carried out some research. We also created Wordles to show our prior knowledge.

 

Christingle

To celebrate Advent, Year 5 and 6 led a Christingle service at St Michael's Church. We sang several hymns, read some Bible passages, and made and held our own Christingles. We also made our annual trip to sing at the Caldew Club in the village.

 

Christmas

We used our art skills to create Christmas cards and used our geography knowledge of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) to make our cards more effective.

  

Year 6 were also asked to serve Christmas dinner to the rest of the school. We took this role very seriously and loved being given some extra responsibility.

  

 

Bright Stars

During the Autumn term we have taken part in the Bright Stars programme, where we were given £50 to start up a business and make it grow. A lot of emphasis was put on teamwork and making a successful enterprise which was sustainable and also had links with the local community. We learnt many business skills and worked closely with Jen Hewitt from Paragon Vets. She helped to teach us about how a business works and helped us develop our ideas and form a business plan.

We had a great deal of fun and carried out lots of activities - from a cake sale, to a stall at the HSA Makers Market, and we even dressed up as Santa and his elves to sing carols and spread cheer to others around the village.

  

 

Computing - Online Safety

In Computing, we have been working on developing our understanding of online safety. We discussed how to support each other on and offline and know the importance of being a defender rather than a bystander.

 

Science - Classifying Organisms

In Science, we are learning how organisms are classified. We have grouped and sorted different plants and animals and created our own classification keys. We had lots of fun making a classification key for liquorice allsorts too.

 

English - Winter Poems

In English, we have studied personification and written our own winter personification poems with a range of features. We learnt how to improve our poetry with high level vocabulary and punctuation. We also used our skills to create winter trees inspired by the recent snowy weather.

  

  

  

 

Geography - The Grand Canyon

We have been very busy this Spring term already. In Geography, we have been learning about the Grand Canyon. We learnt that this is situated in North America in Arizona. We studied maps of America and identified and named the 50 states. We looked at the different parts of the Grand Canyon and how the temperature and amount of precipitation is different at the rim and the base. We created bar graphs to show this.

We also created our own stop motion animation to explain how the Grand Canyon was formed by erosion.

We have also created our own desert scrub biomes using a range of materials.

  

 

Science - Light

Our Science topic has been 'How does light travel?'

We learnt that light always travels in straight lines and carried out an experiment to test which materials made the best reflectors. We also looked at the concept of refraction and used a variety of objects to show how this works. When light travels through a different medium such as water, it changes the speed of the light which then appears to make the object look different or bend - refract.

  

 

English - Instructional Texts

We used our knowledge of instructional texts and the story 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' to write our own set of instructions for how to ruin Christmas. We wrote an introduction to hook the reader, used a range of imperative verbs, included expanded noun phrases to make our writing more detailed and edited our work carefully for the final product. Here are some examples of our work. We are very proud of them.

  

 

Reading with Year 2

Year 6 had a great afternoon reading with partners from our Year 2 class after choosing books from the library.

  

  

  

 

English - Setting Descriptions

In English, Year 6 have been focusing on setting descriptions. We looked at various texts and pulled out the features which make it effective. We then worked on starting our sentences in various ways and adding extra detail with relative clauses and parenthesis.

We watched a short clip called 'Alma' and used this to create a setting description. We were so inspired to write that we kept going and wrote the whole story. Here are some examples for you to read.

  

 

Maths - Proving Answers

In Maths, we have been using a range of equipment to prove our answers to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division calculations. We then used jottings and finally formal written methods. We are developing our reasoning skills and are learning how to explain answers to questions with good levels of detail.

 

Science - Circuits

In Science, we are studying 'How can we change circuits?'. Our lessons have been full of practical activities and we have thoroughly enjoyed learning through this. We have learnt how to create a series and parallel circuits and can now draw these using the appropriate scientific symbols.

We all carried out our own investigations to find out how we can make a bulb brighter. We made predictions and tested these out, ensuring we carried out a fair test.

 

Art - Street Art

In Art, we are answering the question 'How is street art created?'. We have found out all about the life and works of Banksy and were amazed to find out that one of his pieces of work - when sold - went halfway through a shredder! Banksy will never fail to amaze us. We followed a tutorial to recreate his work 'Girl with a balloon' and used a range of techniques including using shading and blending with pastels.