Year 6 have had an extremely busy week writing non-chronological reports about an aspect of World War 2. As we are all completely fascinated by this topic, it was not difficult to decide what areas to write about! Our published work will be on display in the classroom so feel free to come and have a look if you would like to learn more about any of the following: rural life during the war; the roles of women; life on the front line and many more areas.
In Maths, we have revisited our work on fractions, decimals and percentages. Miss Tucker could not believe how quickly we picked up multiplying and dividing fractions, using a funny song to help us. Our homework over the next few weeks will build on this and help us to apply our understanding when problem solving.
We are looking forward to a fun International Week where we will get to visit many countries around the world. In the week following this, we have our trip to The Odyssey to watch Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Look out in future weeks for our writing linked to this.
World War Two
Year 6 have started their new topic 'We'll Meet Again'. We have already learnt about the reasons for the outbreak of war, allies, axis and placed all of the main events of the war on a timeline. Following this, we will be learning all about the Blitz, evacuation and rationing.
In English we have been exploring the book Rose Blanche. This is a story about a young girl called Rose who lived in Germany during the war. From this, we created our own descriptions of the first setting from the perspective of one of the crowd members. Next we will be learning how to create suspense and tension in our writing and then create a story of our own set during World War Two.
Year 6 have been doing lots of hands on learning this week!
In Maths, we have explored the use of Cuisenaire rods to help us find ratios in their simplest form. Using this learning, we then applied our new skills when problem solving.
In Science, we have been learning all about refraction. Refraction is the bending of light rays which happens when light rays travel at different speeds. We have uploaded a picture of a double rainbow which we noticed whilst playing basketball.
Do you know how rainbows form? Check back next week and we will explain!
In Science Year 6 have been learning about the human eye and how it works. We found out all the names of the different parts and what they do in the eye. The different parts are called: the Sclera, the Cornea, the Iris, the Pupil, the Lens, the Retina and the Optic Nerve.
In P.E we started a new sport, Basketball. We practiced our passing and learnt to chest pass, bounce pass and long pass. We were also taught some fun games by people in the class who also play Basketball. We really enjoyed this lesson and we look forward to doing more Basketball this term!
In Literacy we have also started a new topic, which is Doctor Who. We are planning discussion texts about whether or not Darleks should be allowed to live in St Albans or not! To get us thinking about debates, we held our very own discussion about whether children should play computer games before they go to bed. We looked at the key features of discussion texts, such as points for FOR and AGAINST a motion, not being biased and considering different points of view.
On Monday, two magistrates from Legal Eagles paid a visit to Year 6 to help the children learn all about the legal system and the working of a magistrate court. First, they did a quiz about what age you would need to be to do certain things. In addition to this, the children found out all about how people can be affected if vital and precious things are taken from them and this was investigated using role play. After a short break, they took part in a mock courtroom scene with characters such as magistrates, court clerks and witnesses. They then decided whether the suspect was guilty or not guilty. Year 6 found the accused not guilty after considering the witness statements. All of the children thoroughly enjoyed their visit and are sure that future Year 6s will enjoy it as much as they did.
As part of the partnership between St Peter’s and St Alban’s Boys School, Year 6 are taking part in a series of Drama and Design and Technology sessions every Friday until Christmas.
We are having a fantastic time; each creating our own Automata in the DT labs. So far, we have learnt how to use hacksaws, hand drills and pillar drills safely to help us to create the frame. Next week we will be gluing our frames together so remember to look back here for pictures!
We are also releasing our inner thespians and taking part in a number of drama based activities in the Drama studio. Last week we learnt about the history of slapstick comedy and put our learning into action!
In Year 6 we are really enjoying our topic ‘Journey on the Titanic.’ Over the past couple of weeks, we have learnt all about the timeline of events which lead up to the ship’s sinking on April 15th 1912. Did you know that there were only 16 lifeboats attached to the ship even though 2,229 passengers (including crew members) were on board? Therefore there was not enough space for all of the passengers to be rescued. Women and children were lifted on to lifeboats first but unfortunately, not all of the lifeboats were full when they were launched from the ship.
Within English lessons, we were each given a person who was on board the Titanic and created a backstory for them, pretending to be them during drama activities. Even Miss Tucker and Mrs Holmes joined in with their characters Daisy Dahl and Winnie Braund!
In Maths, we are continuing our work on number properties, mental strategies and problem solving. We have come up with a toolkit to help us when solving problems which we have used successfully.
Look back next week to see some of our written work where we have described seeing the Titanic for the first time from the point of view of our characters.
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