Y6 News of the Week – 11.3.22

A jam-packed week of learning has taken place in Y6, we haven't had a moment to spare! I am so proud of each and every one of you.

In Maths this week we have used practical activities to learn all about the area of different shapes and how to calculate it accurately. Using paper shapes really helped us to understand this concept before tackling any written problems. We used squares, rectangles, parallelograms and triangles when solving area problems. We began by investigating each shape independently and then compared them to the area of a rectangle which we know is length x width. We then used this knowledge to find the formulae for different shapes. We were also introduced to the term perpendicular line and perpendicular height. This helped us to find the base of a triangle and the height of a triangle. We also used right angles to help when calculating the area of some triangles. We ended our week by completing an arithmetic paper and enjoyed our Friday time on TT Rock Stars. Well done Y6 you are all stars.

In English this week we have continued to learn our story map to support our descriptive write. We have thought about synonyms to develop our vocabulary and spent some time flipping our sentences to begin new ones with ing verbs as fronted adverbials. We have performed our model text and we have begun our shared write. I am so excited to read them all as I know how proud you are of them.

I have spent this week in book club listening to all my Y6 children read their Big Cat reading books. Great job. I am asking children to read aloud as often as possible as this skill supports their comprehension and development of their English.

In Spellings this week we have continued to focus on the sh sound. Our sessions have used si and ssi as the spelling pattern to support our learning.

We were joined this week by PC Nick who discussed personal safety. He presented different slides where a great discussion took place around different types of safety.

This week we welcomed Madame Sophie into our class to enjoy a well-known story told in French. Madame Sophie brought in many different French books for us all to enjoy.

We began a new unit in Geography this week. Our lesson started with a frozen water bottle, chalk and sandpaper and a mixture of bicarbonate soda and vinegar. What was I creating? We discussed the small experiments and came to the conclusion that we were looking at erosion and weathering. We spent time investigating photographs of different coastlines after discussing the term coast. We tried to spot different coastline features and we will continue with this unit next week.

We continued with our Science unit this week. We needed to classify living things by looking at the classification groups for animals. Children used a wide range of animal pictures to sort according to a chosen criterion. This gave the opportunity to discuss dilemmas and key questions to solve them.

We have begun a new unit in RE this week. We began by thinking about our new question – How does the Hindu celebration of Diwali show their understanding of God? We started our lesson watching the trailer of 101 Dalmatians which then helped us to make a class list of all things we considered to be good and those we considered to be evil. We will continue with this lesson next week by asking how does good overcome evil?

Our History lesson continued this week as we began to look into the Bronze Age. We thought about the developments during this period in history and jotted down our ideas from the introduction of harder and sharper metal weapons to simple local trade networks, to better farming and increased trade, including the invention of simple boats. We watched a video introducing us to burial mounds found on Dartmoor and we will continue with our learning next week.

Our Computing lesson this week focused on nest loops and how to use these to repeat patterns. We are working though our algorithms to code with success.

In our PHSE lesson this week companion planting took place. Companion planting is a method used to grow certain plants and vegetables together. These plants may be very different, but plants need diversity to grow. This is the same for us. We need to be surrounded by people that can look after, support and encourage us in order for us to grow well. Just like plants often need diversity to succeed, so do we. We grow better when we are together. Being a good friend to us is: being loyal, kind, supportive, caring, thoughtful, treating us as equals and accepting us for who we are. To show how we can provide protection, support and encouragement to one another, we sowed different types of seeds into three pots. We worked in four groups and came up with some brilliant group names. We have: Fishy Friendship, Farmer Joe's, Herbal Flowers and the Friendship Group. Within our groups, we are all now responsible for nurturing our seeds as they grow together into plants and vegetables.

We have taken part in different PE lessons.

We have led another Y6 worship with school this week and we have enjoyed time with our buddies.

New maths.co.uk homework has been set.

What a busy week we have had, and I am super proud of all that you have achieved. You have worked so hard. Well done Y6.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Your teacher,
Mrs. B.