Year 6 Democracy

Treasure Island Map Homework 

Some outstanding homework pieces have been handed in already this week! Well done to Sophia, Melody, David and Jinjing for your amazing work. This creative map drawing will really help during our classic fiction writing!

In Maths we have been using a protractor to accurately measure angles and calculate the interior angles of 2D shapes. We also identified a pattern whereby the size of the interior angle increases by 180 degrees for each extra side of the 2D shape! 

Exploring Vocabulary 

We have started a new English unit: balanced arguments. To begin the unit, we watched a documentary about orca whales in Sea World. Following this hook, we read a balanced argument called Should animals be kept in zoos? There was lots of specialist, topical and emotive language used so we needed to explore the words used. Using blank word of the day templates, we filled in the information about this vocabulary.

Editing Stations: Tikki Tikki Tembo

Today we have been editing our stories to show a moral. Moving around the tables, we had to complete different editing challenges to improve our work. It is easier to have one focus to concentrate on at a time!

What are we doing? Crucial Crewing!

Our Y6 classes attended a series of workshops run by Trafford's 'Crucial Crew'. We learnt all about how to keep ourselves and others safe and out of trouble, as well as becoming more aware of some of the risks we may face as our independence and freedom increases over the next few years. Our workshops included: being street aware; the dangers of the railways; road safety; basic first aid including the recovery position; the dangers of alcohol (ask us what it was like to wear beer goggles!); water safety and finally antisocial behaviour on public transport. There were lots of important - and sometimes shocking - messages to take away; we are now all aware of how we can keep ourselves safe in the future.

Science: Evolution and Adaptation 

As part of our Science topic we did a whole year group experiment. We were given a selection of colours to decorate a lollipop stick. Mr. Stanley took all the sticks and hid them on the field. Acting as predators, we had to hunt for the sticks. In order to record which sticks were found first, we stuck them to a sheet of paper. We made observations about which sticks were found first and last. The twelve sticks which remained unfound were all from table who could only use green, brown and black pens. This led to a discussion about how animals evolve over time through natural selection. Imagine if they were stick insects!

Reading Journals 

As part of our homework, we complete activities to show our journey through our reading book. Here are Jinjing and Annahita’s outstanding examples!

Topic: The Early Islamic Civilisation 

To begin our new topic, we learnt about the importance of Baghdad in the early Islamic civilisation. We learnt about what made this such an important and special city - especially when compared to life in Northern Europe at that time. To show our learning, we wrote a postcard home from someone visiting Baghdad from Manchester in 900AD. Moving on in our learning, we studied The House of Wisdom, which was a huge library in the centre of Baghdad. We created posters to advertise for scholars around the world to travel to study there.

Badminton

This week we learnt the chasse step used in badminton. We used this for work technique when throwing and catching shuttles. Eventually we felt confident enough to use a racket to return a shuttle and even used a target hoop to aim our return into. We are really enjoying this new sport. 

Robotics Day

We were excited to take part in a robotics learning day! Emily from Salford Foundation came to work with our class on coding and robots. We practised using algorithms accurately, then learnt how to put this to practical use. Using Lego robots connected to a tablet, we completed various challenges. Our school values were put to good use; we had to think critically and problem solve to make the robot follow our commands! Lots of learning from mistakes and celebrating successes!

New Year: New Book!

Welcome back everyone! We started the new term with a new book as a stimulus in English. We explored the traditional Chinese book: Tikki Tikki Tembo. After the first reading, we worked in pairs to identify themes and issues raised in the story. We also shared our likes and dislikes about the story. Finally, to extend our understanding, we thought of questions to ask the characters to find out more about their lives and tried to answer them ourselves based on what we read.

End of World War II Topic

We have come to the end of our topic and what a lot of learning we have done! From learning about the causes of WWII, to our D&T bridges, how life changed for Jews, Anne Frank and our textile art project, we have really immersed ourselves in our topic!

Art: World War II Medals

We have used World War II medals as inspiration for our textile artwork. To celebrate our school values, we have designed medals to celebrate acts which display them. We will be using felt and a range of embellishments to create the final piece. Let’s see if we can build on our sewing skills from Year 4!

D&T Bridges: Evaluating 

We spent some time looking at other group’s bridge structures and offered feedback. We were then set the challenge: If you had one more hour, what would you do to improve your bridge? There were some really practical and thoughtful suggestions! And we will be getting some more time to put our midway evaluations in to action!

Maths Geometry Challenge: Nets

Today, Mr Stanley’s maths set have been learning about nets of 3D shapes. We were given a selection of nets which had been split in two. Our task was to match up the pairs and create the correct nets!

Computing: Exploring ‘Fake News’

As part of our learning about the internet and the worldwide web, we have been using html code. To explore how webpages are created, we have used programs to show them in code form. Taking this further, we have ‘remixed’ webpages using Mozilla XRay Goggles. This prompted an interesting discussion about fake news and critical thinking when using internet sources.

World War II D&T: Can you design a bridge strong enough to withstand bomb attacks from the air?

We have been learning about how bridges played an important part of army strategy in WWII. We learnt about the battle for Remagen bridge in Germany between the retreating German army and the advancing Allied forces. For our D&T project, we will be using woodwork skills to create the strongest possible bridge structure. They will be bombed to see which one is the strongest!

Science Buzzer Games

We have been applying our understanding of electricity and circuits to complete an exciting TASC project. The task we were given was to design and make Buzzer Games for a stall at the Christmas Fair. We had to think about the science that would help us do this as well as an interesting design that would result in a game that would be fun to play and appealing to others. 

Anti- Bullying Week

During Anti-Bullying Week we worked in groups to direct, film and edit our own iMovie clips to raise awareness of making the right choices and the importance of always taking a stand against bullying. Our theme 'Change Starts With Us' made us think about the power of our choices and links brilliantly with two of our school values: We Support and Care for Each Other and Together We Are a Team.

Quest Speed Writing 

We have started our new English unit: Quest Stories. After reading some great examples from this genre, we have picked out language and content features. As a short writing activity, we had to continue from a point in a quest story extract. Working in pairs, we had only twenty minutes to create a fantastic continuation of the story! Then we moved around the room, reading other pairs’ work and giving SHaK feedback!

World War Two: How does it impact on our lives today?

We are three lessons into our new topic and we have learnt so much already! We have gathered our existing knowledge and understanding of World War II, explored the reasons and factors that led to the war and the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany. Some really deep thinking and empathy has been required!

Year 6 Reading Journals

To show our love of reading, we have started to create our reading journals to document our journeys through books. We began this before half-term and we are really impressed with the start the children have made on this project. There are some really creative works in progress!

Science

What a super start to our science topic about the circulatory system! Today we dissected hearts and tried to find structures such as ventricles, atria and significant arteries. We loved being able to use scalpels to cut through the tissues and it was great fun to use a practical, hands-on approach to labelling the heart!

Halloween and Bonfire Night Fire Safety

Thank you to the firefighters of Blue Watch from Sale Fire Station who came to visit us yesterday morning. They gave us some really important messages about keeping ourselves safe around fire and fireworks, which is particularly relevant for events happening over the next couple of weeks. We learnt about the dangers of fireworks and bonfires and also had the chance to have a look around the fire engine.

Word of the Day

Every day in Year 6 we look at the Vocabulary Ninja Word of the Day. We have been expanding our vocabulary for our writing but also to aid our understanding in reading. As we have started a new topic in English, we took the opportunity to create our own Word of the Day cards for new and challenging vocabulary we identified in our WAGOLL.

Peer Editing & Editing Stations

In our English today, we have been editing our ghost stories. We worked in pairs from across the year group, sharing our stories and making improvements. Moving around the room, we visited a number of focused editing stations with instructions for targeted editing work. We have found it’s good to be more focused in our editing!

Peer Editing & Up-Levelling 

We are writing our ghost stories this week so, in preparation, we have been looking at some common errors. Working in pairs, we made corrections and suggestions for improving Mrs Baxter’s Build Up ​​​​​​​part of her story - there was a lot of work to do!

King John I

This week we have been learning about King John I and the impact he has had on lives today. We were amazed to discover that his signing of the Magna Carta was the first time that a British monarch gave away some of their powers. Working from a range of sources, we were able to discuss and present the events which led to the signing of the Magna Carta. We also explored the repercussions of this historic event and how parts of the original document form our British values today!

Gymnastics: Can you create a sequence?

We began our lesson with floor-work, focusing on balances with a changing number of points of contact with the floor. We practised connecting our balances with interesting and fluent rolls. After this, we transferred our sequences and practised our skills on the apparatus. Some outstanding work from some of our expert gymnasts!

Problem Solving: What do you need?

Today in maths, we worked in groups across the year group to solve a challenging problem involving properties of numbers. We were given eight clues to find a missing number and then we had to decide which of the clues were necessary and which weren’t.

Can you order significant monarchs on a timeline?

Today we started to use our knowledge of chronology to order significant British monarchs. We used mixed up facts and pictures to try and gain knowledge to help us. It was really tricky, but a great start to the topic!

Values Artwork

To refocus on our school values at the beginning of a new year, we have been working with a variety of materials to create a piece of art. Our artwork will portray one of our school values using imagery, colour and collage! 

Which British Monarchs have had an impact on our lives today?

Today we introduced our new topic for this half-term. We have been collecting our initial thoughts about our ‘big question’. Working in groups, we discussed key vocabulary and issues raised. Following this, we gathered our thoughts on what we think we currently know, what we need to find out and how we will find the information we need to answer this question!