Wow, can you believe we have reached half term already? Six full weeks into the year has certainly flown by and I can’t quite believe the next time we write at the end of a half term it will be Christmas! We have had another incredibly busy week in Year 6, ending our incredibly busy half term.
In Maths we have continued with our unit, ‘Four Operations,’ focusing on division using different methods such as dividing with remainders, short division and division using factors. After half term we will focus on long division, factors, multiples, prime numbers and then a new unit on fractions! In English we have finished our core text, ‘Inside the Villains’ by creating our own Fairy tale book, which includes a story, all about me page, an introductory page and a pop up page. They really enjoyed creating these books! Hopefully there are some photos attached! After half term we will continue to work on improving handwriting and stamina for writing longer texts. History, Science and Computing- we wrapped up our units this week in preparation for starting new ones after half term. We completed some final assessments and the children have all shown improvements in their knowledge in these subject. P.E with Coach Edwards took place on this morning. The children took part in a mini tournament. After half term they will be learning tag rugby on the school field. We will focus on relationships in PSHE to help children resolve conflicts peacefully and to ensure that playtime issues don’t get in the way of children’s learning. Star of the week this week goes to Maya! Very well deserved. Maya has written the most fantastic story this week, using amazing vocabulary that really creates a picture, using humour that fits with our core text, and punctuation that creates cohesion and excitement. She always works hard, has persevered with complex maths problems and has succeeded with them. Well done Maya. Remember Bikeability 15th November! Have a great half term break, stay well and stay safe and we look forwards to seeing everyone in November! In Maths we have continued with our unit, ‘Four Operations,’ focusing on the multiplication of 2, 3 and 4 digit numbers by 1 and 2 digit numbers. For example, 137 x 23 or in a word problem, 'Will does 37 sit ups every day of the year and Ben does 132 sit ups every day in July. Who does the most sit ups and by how many more. Next week we move onto short and long division.
In English we have continued with our text, ‘Inside the villains’. This is a fantastic book, full of surprises and the children have really got into the characters and have particularly enjoyed looking at the layout and features in this book! They have used the text as their own model to innovate a new story based on the traditional story, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, using the same devices that our core text uses, in their own writing. Spellings- personal spelling list have come home again tonight and they consist of a mixture of Year 3/4 key words that the children need to know based on assessments and 'able' endings where the root word ends in 'e' such as adorable, believable and excitable. Spelling scores were very good this week! Well done Year 6. In History, our focus has been on looking at how the Industrial Revolution changed Feltham near London. We researched the changes and then imagined we were children living during this time and wrote letters to our cousins , explaining the things that had changed and the impact it had on our lives. This included a new mill being built, a new railway link and a Boy's Industrial school too! We will try to share some of these letters at our next parents/carers sharing assembly. Next week, we will look at any evidence of the Industrial Revolution in our local area as we bring our history unit to an end, in preparation for Geography after half term. P.E with Coach Edwards took place on this morning. The children are really getting very good at using tactics and playing as part of a team. Next week they look forwards to a 'mini tournament' of different games they have played. Art- the classroom is looking lovely with lots of artwork around! Please see photo attached! Star of the week this week goes to Fin! Very well deserved. Fin has worked incredibly hard this week and has shown great imagination, story writing skill and humour. He has become a ‘writer’ by using devices the author of our core text has used. Fin has also shown resilience during maths when things have become tricky when lots of steps have been involved. He has shown a much greater sense of maturity, managing emotions very well and being a role model to his peers. Well done Fin. Thank you to all of you who met with us online this week! It was great to see you all and touch base. We would like to reiterate we are always here should you need us. Contact us via the appropriate channels. If it’s urgent, please call the school office. We will always listen and are here to support you and your children with whatever we can. Have a great weekend, stay well and we look forwards to seeing everyone next week! Half term is in sight! Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby. Hello everyone, We hope this finds you well and looking forwards to the weekend. We have had another incredibly busy week in Year 6. We are aiming to make the most of every minute by ensuring transitions are smooth between lessons. If you have looked at the Powerpoint uploaded by Mrs Ware, you will have seen an example of our timetable and just how busy a school day is! Here is an update of what we have been doing this week. In Maths we have continued with our unit, ‘Four Operations,’ focusing on adding and subtracting numbers with more than 4 digits, multiplying 2 two digit numbers using the area method and solving problems with more than 1 step involved. In English we have started a new text, which is called ‘Inside the villains’. This is a fantastic book, full of surprises and the children have really got into the characters and have particularly enjoyed looking at the layout and features in this book! It really is a great book! Spellings- we have focused on adding the suffix ‘able’ to words such as dependable, fashionable and adaptable and some of these words make up the children’s personalised spellings for this week. History- In history, our focus was has been ‘which inventions revolutionised the lives of British people?’ The children learnt about the Spinning Jenny, the water frame and the locomotive and had to complete fact files on one of their choice. Their facts included when they were invented, who invented them, how they changed Britain at that point and what made them so important. P.E with Coach Edwards took place on this morning. The children are really getting very good at using tactics and playing as part of a team. They past couple of weeks have seen them use skills in netball, football and tag rugby. They have thoroughly enjoyed these lessons so far. Art- the children used their zentangle patterns from last week to create a ‘print’ in the style of William Morris. They designed their tile, then printed with it using paints and rollers, changing the direction of the tile to create a repeating pattern. Star of the week this week goes to Ralfie! Very well deserved. Ralfie has worked hard this week, being focused, resilient, thoughtful and conscientious. His presentation has been excellent, especially in maths. These attributes are what we expect to see in Year 6. Well done Ralfie, please keep it up. Responsibility- we have been talking to the children about taking responsibility for their own learning at home and in school. At home this includes reading every school night for just ten minutes and recording it in homework diaries. We had lots of ‘I don’t have time’ during class discussion so we gave each other tips about making time. These included turning off the X-Box 10 minutes earlier, reading straight after tea whilst at the table, on the way to sports clubs in the car, incorporating reading onto a bedtime routine so it helps you to calm down and reading with younger or older siblings. Spellings and times tables need to be practised whenever possible too. Homework- there are only two weeks left before half term to complete three bits of homework. It would be great to see more coming in. Have a great weekend and we look forwards to seeing everyone next week! Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby. This week, year 6 earned their first nugget treat by earning 25 nuggets. They are awarded class nuggets for whole class cooperation, good learning attitudes and great behaviour as a group in playtimes. Their treat was a little party to say farewell to Jorja and also coincided with Kit's birthday!
We started the week with a French lesson with Madame Jordan and learnt about French speaking countries around the world and practised using the question and answer "Comment tu t'appelles?" "Je m'apelle ..." Ask your child what this means and have a practise at home. We began a new unit of work in maths this week and are using the four operations (+ - x ÷ ) to calculate and solve problems. We are inventing our own poetry based on I am Cat and have been investigating dissolving in science. English- In English we completed our unit ‘I am Cat’, where each of the children created their own poems in the style of this one. The children decided to write about dogs, ducks, turtles and themselves and had to include poetic devices such as simile/metaphor, powerful vocabulary, expanded noun phrases, the power of three and also write in the first person. We wrote the poems up in our best handwriting to create a display. History- In history, our focus was ‘How did working conditions change during the Industrial Revolution?’ The children were appalled (and fascinated) to discover what jobs they might be doing if they were born during the Industrial Revolution. We learnt about trappers, drawers and pulleys in the mines and compared the jobs to that in the factories and mills. We then discussed where we would rather work and why! P.E with Coach Edwards took place on a very damp, cold Friday morning. The children are really getting very good at using tactics and playing as part of a team. They have thoroughly enjoyed these lessons so far. Art- the children created their own ‘zentangle patterns’ and enjoyed a quiet afternoon exploring ‘mindfulness’. They have created some interesting and unique patterns and worked incredibly well throughout. As the next few weeks unfold, I will endeavour to post some photographs of the children’s art work, as it’s been great. Star of the week this week goes to Kit! Very well deserved. Kit has shown deep thinking, curiosity and maturity in all aspects of her learning this week. She has worked incredibly hard, always trying to improve and ‘up level’ her work. Kit you have been the perfect role model for your peers and the rest of the school! Keep it up. Please remember to encourage your children to read every day and also to practice spellings too. They come home on a Friday ready for testing the following Friday. We also have 3 weeks left to hand in 3 different bits of homework! Thank you for those bits we have had so far. Thank you, have a lovely weekend and please stay well! This week we have been working on the 'Ready' aspect of our positive learning behaviour code 'Ready, Respectful and Safe'. We used our oracy skills to discuss the importance of learning and how we know when we are ready to learn. We came up with this checklist. I am already beginning to see an improvement in the children's attitude to learning. Well done Year 6. We have learned about pure and impure substances and I'm excited to hear that children have been experimenting with chemical reactions to launch rockets for homework! We have given each child a homework folder which contains spellings, topic homework and reading record pages to use until our new reading diaries arrive. They have been reminded to read every day and record their reading. They need to bring these folders to school every day. The children enjoyed a P.E. lesson with Coach Edwards first thing on Friday, putting skills into practice. In History the children were eager to find out about the impact of the Industrial Revolution on people's health, the crime rate, disease, population and pollution. They discovered who created the Metropolitan police force (clue in the nickname 'Bobbies and Peelers') and learnt about the spread of Cholera. We kicked off our art learning, by focusing on Impressionism, what it is and who were Impressionists and had a go at replicating a section of Monet's, 'Japanese Footbridge'. Well done to Amy who is Sycamore's star of the week. Amy has worked so hard over all areas of the curriculum showing resilience, imagination and team work. She has written an excellent poem in English using the success criteria and has persevered with place value and used rounding and negative numbers. Sycamore have risen to the challenge this week and we have seen an improvement in their attitudes to learning and each other. Keep up the good work Sycamore! This week we have begun our learning in all curriculum areas. A curriculum map for this term as well as a homework web for this half term will be posted on this page. We are waiting for new reading diaries to arrive, but in the meantime, please make sure children continue to enjoy reading at home either with you, to you, or on their own for at least 10 minutes every day. At year 6 they should be starting to read for longer periods of time sometimes too to increase their stamina for reading longer texts. Each child will also bring home a list of spellings to learn each week - this week, these are spellings selected from the Year 3/4 statutory spelling list which they still need to learn.
We have immersed ourselves in the beautiful language of I am Cat by Jackie Morris - we will be writing poetry inspired by this wonderful text. We have been recapping on our place value knowledge from year 5 and have moved on to learning about numbers up to 10 million. With Mrs Ware we are learning about particles in solids liquids and gases in science; speaking and listening in French about sports; learning all about computing systems and networks in computing lessons and learning a Bhangra/Street Dance fusion in our Monday PE lesson. The children are enjoying our futuristic novel called Phoenix. With Miss Ruby, the children have begun to learn about the Industrial Revolution and how it changed the day to day lives of the Victorian's. We will begin our art lessons , which will be a focus on skills and famous artists such as Claude Monet. Congratulations to Heidi who was this weeks' Star of the Week.'. Heidi has displayed positivity, maturity and resilience this week particularly in Maths and English. All the class have been asked to rise to the challenge of being the oldest and most mature children in the school, to lead by example and remember our school values, respectful, ready and safe. Children should have brought home their weekly spellings to learn for next Friday and their new homework topic web for this half term. Expectations have been explained to the children so if you have any questions please ask. Have a brilliant weekend. Thank you. Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby. Welcome parents and children to Year Six. This year Mrs Ware will be teaching on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Miss Ruby will be teaching on Thursday and Friday. We will normally have Mrs Jelley supporting us on a Wednesday and Thursday. We are looking forward to an exciting year ahead.
First Week Back The children returned on Wednesday, immediately looking and acting like Year 6 children, now the oldest and most responsible children in the school. It was so great to see all the children gathered together once more in the school hall with Year 6 sitting on the benches enjoying the privilege and taking the responsibility very seriously. We have spent the first few days settling back into normal school life and agreeing our class charter based around three basic ideas: We are READY to learn; We are RESPECTFUL of each other and school property and We are SAFE in and out of school and online. Thursday and Friday arrived and again the children came in ready to learn, responsible and mature. We have played games such as Zip, Zap, Boing, started our class novels, took part in a Place Value maths lesson, wrote a description/story of a dragon including similes and metaphors in English, had our first P.E. lesson delivered by Saints and we have started our Year 6 Art Gallery. Photos will follow! We have participated in an assembly everyday and today was our Celebration assembly where we congratulated Rory who received the trophy for being mature, responsible, keen, polite and helpful. All excellent attributes we expect in our Year 6 pupils. Congratulations to Sycamore on an excellent first week back. We look forwards to kicking off more learning next week. We will update you regularly. Please contact us if you need more information at this point. Thank you, Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby. We said an emotional goodbye to our lovely year six pupils on Thursday. It was fantastic to see them have an amazing night at our first ever Graduation Ball on Wednesday evening. They all looked so smart - so lovely to see them 'dressed to impress'. It was a pleasure to deliver an award to each and every very deserving child in our final year 6 assembly on Thursday morning. They then took pleasure in soaking each other (and me!) in a water fight on Thursday afternoon before leaving to a guard of honour at the end of the day. It has been a privilege to teach this fantastic group of children who have managed to achieve so much in the last two very peculiar years of primary school. I wish them all the very best of luck in secondary school and beyond and look forward to hearing about all their accomplishments in the future. Thank you for being supportive parents and carers and I hope you are able to have a break of some sort over the summer. Can you believe that your child has nearly reached the end of their time at primary school? I bet it seems like only yesterday that you were bringing them for their first day! Don't get me started though....I'm feeling a bit emotional!! We have had a great week - hopefully the outdoor and adventurous activities we have done in forest school and down at the river today will provide lasting memories for them and make up in a little way for not having a residential this year. We have had great fun this week as well as learning a bit more about our local area, investigating habitats and using great problem solving and practical skills. Next week, we will be recording our leaving messages and these will be posted on dojo throughout the week. We will be saying goodbye to Mrs Mathews on Wednesday and of course having our graduation ball on Wednesday evening. We are really looking forward to this and I can't wait to see them all turning up dressed to impress!! On Thursday morning at 9.30, we will have our awards assembly which will be on Google Meet. I will send you a link for this nearer the time. I recommend you use your child's @ntcps.co.uk Gmail account so there is no problem getting in to the meeting. Remember to 'pin' the school window so you can see us as the main screen. I hope you have a fantastic weekend! The weather today just about held out and happily the Sports Day races went ahead as planned. The children were all good sports and competed enthusiastically and fairly cheering their team mates on. We will find out the results of this, combined with the results from the sports day activities they did in PE last week with Mr Stronge, on Monday in a special assembly.
This week we have completed our DT projects (nearly) of model playgrounds with lots of thanks to Miss Ruby for preparing and resourcing this project which the children really excelled in and really enjoyed. We have been swimming once again, explored nets of 3d shapes in maths, begun drawing and researching for an information page about real, extinct and mythical animals and today set up an investigation into mouldy bread!! WE did not have our RSE lesson today because of sports day so will have our final lesson which is about adult relationships and making babies on Monday. Next week, I have some fun activities planned for them. On Wednesday, with the help of Miss Prince our Forest Schools expert we will be having a whole day of outdoor activities which will include den building, ropes and fire building - I think there may be a few marshmallows to toast. Children should wear old clothes and possibly wet weather gear if it's wet including wellies. They will almost definitely get dirty! Then on Friday, afternoon, weather permitting we will be taking a walk down to the river to explore the local area and do a bit of habitat exploration in the shallow water. again old clothes and wellies a must! Have a great weekend everyone, whatever you are doing. I know what I'll be doing on Sunday - I hope many of Sycamore Class's predictions are wrong - we made it to the final - a historic achievement and, as I told the children today, you have to believe you can win if you are going to succeed. I still believe... 😁🙏 |
AuthorWelcome to the blog of Sycamore Class at North Tawton Primary School Archives
July 2024
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