***Home Reading Super Stars***
Well done to our pupils who have moved onto the next level of their reading reward charts! Keep up the great work with home reading.
Autumn 2
Art
LO experiment with different styles linked to artists
LO: to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including painting
LO: To use watercolour and acrylic paints effectively
LO: adopt a systematic approach when mixing and applying colours
Using the colour blending techniques we have been looking with Mrs Marsden, and taking inspiration from the artist and designer Jen Aranyi, 6R have been creating some winterscapes for their Christmas cards using watercolours. Pupils thought about how to use a colour pallet and tones of colours to create skylines that reflect winter. We hope you love them as much as we do!
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English
LO: Understand characters feelings and reactions
We have been really enjoying our class novel Armistice Runner this half term. Today we thought about Lily's Grandma and what it would be like to suffer from memory loss. We carried some hot seating to allow us to "interview" Grandma ahead of thinking about what long term memories she may have. We will use this activity to help us plan our flashback narrative.
Art and Design
LO: To experiment with & combine materials & processes to design & make 3D form
Today Year 6 had the sticky job of making salt dough for our Christmas decorations to be made from. Pupils followed the recipe well to make a dough with the perfect consistency then used their hands to make a sentimental Christmas decoration, that we hope they will look back on with fond memories of their final year at Blakehill.
Children In Need
Thank you for helping Blakehill support Children In Need once again this year 6. It was great to see so many members of 6R embracing the theme and wearing their spots for the day!
Maths
Barvember
Throughout November Year 6 pupils have been exposed to reasoning and problem solving tasks involving bar modelling. Pupils found this new approach challenging but once they had become familiar with it were able to look at word problems from a different perspective and found the pictoral representation very useful in supporting them with the various steps of the complex problems.
History
LO: know the location of ancient civilizations
LO: recognise the area inhabited by the Maya
To introduce our new History topic, The Maya, we thought about our world knowledge. Pupils in 6R attempted to draw a world map from memory, naming countries and oceans, then overlayed this with a world map. We then located the continents and the ancient civilizations on our overylay. Pupils were able to name may countries but our knowledge of their location was a little wobbly!
Art
LO: To improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing
LO: To know about great artists, architects and designers in history
6R have produced some fantastic drawings of eyes linked to our Black History Theme of “The Hidden Figures.”
After looking at the work of the artist MC Escher, we focused on his piece that depicts a reflection in the eye. After looking at a number of ways to create a life like drawing of an eye pupils created an eye that held images of importance to the hidden figures Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan. Pupils thought carefully about their use of shade and tone to help create the shape of the eye.
Remembrance Day
Thank you to our Year 6 pupils who very respectfully observed the 2 minute silence today for Remembrance Day.
Spelling
6R are continuing to enjoy playing lots of different spelling games throughout the week to help them learn their weekly spellings. We are really seeing the impact of the spelling strategies taught in the approach the pupils are taking to spell new or tricky words. We are getting quiet competitive with our games of "clear the board" and pupils are really thinking about our spelling rule to support them.
Sponsored Obstacle Course
Well done to all members of 6R who completed our annual sponsored obstacle course today! You braved the wind and the cold to challenge yourself and managed to smile all of the way round! Thank you also to parents and family members who came out in the cold to support our pupils!
Autumn 1
Blackpool Visit
On the final day of half term Year 6 visited Blackpool Pleasure Beach as a stimulus for their Science and Design Technology topics coming up in Autumn 2. Pupils look at her different mechanisms used for the rides in the pleasure beach and considered how the rides work.
During the visit the pupils experienced all of the rides in the pleasure beach which allowed them to push themselves out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves to facing some fears.
Year 6 were an absolute pleasure and we hope they enjoyed the day as much as we enjoyed spending it with them!
English
LO: Identify features of formal and informal language.
This week we have been looking at formal and informal language in preparation for writing a formal letter from Victor Sorrotore, the villain in our class novel " The Good Thieves".
Pupils sorted different types of written communication into formal and informal then identified the language features used in both categories. Pupils will apply this to their own letters later in the week.
LO: Identify features of formal and informal language.
This week we have been looking at formal and informal language in preparation for writing a formal letter from Victor Sorrotore, the villain in our class novel " The Good Thieves".
Pupils sorted different types of written communication into formal and informal then identified the language features used in both categories. Pupils will apply this to their own letters later in the week.
Oracy
LO: seek information through clarification.
This week we used our focus for Black History Month as a conversation topic for our Oracy Lesson. Using images of a segregation march and a black lives matter march pupils considered which statement was best to complete the sentence stem given. Pupils focused on challenging each other in their justification for their choice through the use of our sentence stems. Pupils were able to do this in line with expectations of our talk rules.
English
LO: Deepen the skill of understanding why characters behave in particular ways
We have started to meet some new main characters in our class novel "The Good Thieves". To help us really consider the point of view of different characters we have been taking part in some drama activities. This week we devised some questions for Silk and took it in turns to take on her character and be interviewed. Pupils used the events from the text week to help them structure their answers to the tough questions their peers had written.
Spelling
6R are really enjoying playing lots of different spelling games throughout the week to help them learn their weekly spellings. So far connect 4 has been the firm favourite! Pupils have built strategies up throughout the week to help them learn spelling rules, letter patterns and tricky bits and these have then be applied when completing our weekly spelling tests.
Computing
LO: recognise how data is transferred across the internet
This week we have been thinking about how data is transferred over the internet. We have thought about networks and how information passed through these networks. We were fascinated to realise how information is broken down into smaller parts called packets in order to allow them to be transferred across the internet quickly.
Science
LO: Describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including plants.
Today 6R were able to take full advantage of our wonderful school grounds to explore the plant kingdom. Pupils leaves from around the grounds and used their features to sort and group them then, using the same features, identify what plant they came from.
Science
LO: Describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including animals.
This week we were able to knowledge we have gained about the taxonomy system devised by Carl Linnaeus to sort and classify the living things we had previously looked at. At the end of the activity we realsied that we had all grouped our living things in the same way, re-enforcing to us why Carl Linnaeus devised the classification system.
Oracy
LO: Respond to others appropriately
This week we have been focusing on responding to others appropriately in our Oracy lesson. We used the plight of the Capercaillie for the topic of conversation. The majority of 6R were very empathetic towards the plight of the Capercaillie and were passionate about trying to persuade those who disagreed with them to change their opinion. Although pupils were passionate they were respectful to one another and our talk rules.
Computing - Communication and Collaboration
LO: describe how computers use addresses to access websites
This week Year 6 have been thinking about how information is able to be accessed on the internet and how communication reaches us over the internet. We thought about the use of IP addresses (internet protocol) and DNS addresses (Domain Name Server). 6R were able to understand why we use DNS addresses rather than IP addresses when looking for a website.
English
LO: edit and re-draft work
6R have been finding it difficult to know where to start for the editing process of their writing so we have utilised the reading phones we use at Blakehill to support us with this. Pupils were able to listen to themselves reading their work back and were able to identify errors in their sentence structure, verb tense and grammar. Pupils were then able to edit their work to make the improvements needed.
Science
LO: Describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics
Our Science topic this half term is classifying living things. Today we looked at a variety of living things then thought about how these could be sorted and grouped using similar characteristics. All groups found a different way to organise their living things and this opened up some lively discussion points about the reasoning behind the choices made.
After grouping our living things we found about Carl Linnaeus and his taxonomy system that is still used today to classify all living things.
English
LO: Make predictions
Using a prop bag as the stimulus for our class novel, pupils made initial predications and inferred what links could be made between the objects in the prop bag. There were some very interesting ideas around the items and pupils were able to correctly infer that the narrative will be set in the 1920's.