Hi everyone,
Welcome back! I can't quite believe the summer term is starting. The last term of primary school for Sycamore Class! We've got a lot of things to get through this half term. There are 3 weeks until SATs so they are approaching quickly. We have started plenty of revision in class, focusing on our reading comprehension skills, our knowledge of spelling and grammar, and revising all of the key areas in Maths. We complete a revision sheet for early work every day, followed by further activities within lessons. Homework is an important part of revision so please keep up with this at home. In Maths this week, we have been finishing off our learning about shape. We recapped the names and properties of 3D shapes and looked at their 3D nets. In English, we've started a new text called 'A Boy in the Tower'. It's proving very thought-provoking and mysterious, leaving us all wondering what might happen next. A highlight of the week was History where we began learning about WW1. We discussed the many factors that led to the war and we have learnt what life in the trenches was like. Science involved learning the acronym 'MRS GREN' and the 7 life processes. Lots more to come next week! Have a great weekend. As we reach the end of the spring term, I am reflecting on all of the great things that Sycamore Class has achieved. The children have worked particularly hard preparing for their SATs next term, in Maths, reading and SPaG. I have seen excellent dedication and commitment to making progress, and they have all demonstrated great resilience and a positive attitude. After the Easter holidays, we will be focusing our learning on key areas in order to be fully prepared for SATs which are the week of 13th May. I have put a post on Dojo about Easter revision - the suggested timetable and activities are also on the right-hand side of this page.
Something which has been a particular highlight this term has been designing, creating and evaluating model playgrounds in D.T. This was a project which everybody got involved with, and everybody had lots of fun! The effort put into them was superb and everyone should feel rightly proud of their creations. Have a look at the photos below - aren't they brilliant? This final week of term (or 3 days anyway!) has also given us time to finish our gothic narratives. Again, the whole class should feel proud of these as the writing is fantastic! They worked really hard to create atmosphere and use figurative language to add to their description. We have also been working hard in Maths continuing with our Shape unit, thinking about how to calculate angles in different types of triangles. This unit will continue after the Easter holidays. Another exciting piece of writing we did this week was to write penpal letters to some children who attend the school in Normandy which we will be visiting on the French trip. It's exciting to establish this link ahead of the residential as we will be visiting the school and also taking part in a ceremony with the school to mark the 80th anniversary of D-day. Even if children are not attending the residential, we hope to receive some penpal letters back. All that's left is to wish you all enjoy a fun-filled yet relaxing Easter break. See you in the summer term! It's going to be a busy, exciting and brilliant one! Happy Friday!
What a busy week; the last full week before the Easter holidays. This week, in English, we have been planning and writing our own section of the Gothic Novel, 'The Wind in the Wall'. Our focus has been on using figurative language to create atmosphere - something which the children have really enjoyed doing. We've had some fantastically descriptive language using metaphors, similes and personification. Watch this space as next week, I hope to share some of the writing. In Maths, we've learnt all about angles. We have looked at what angles add up to around a point, on a straight line, in triangles and in quadrilaterals. We'll continue this next week and carry it on after the Easter holidays. We've got a few more key topics to cover in Maths but then we'll be focusing hard on targeted areas in our Maths revision. Something that everyone has been enjoying is the work we've been doing in D.T. to design and create model playgrounds. Again, watch this space for photos next week! Science took us outside this week! We were learning about the equation speed = distance ÷ time, with children figuring out their speed as they moved in different ways across the playground - take a look at their creative ways in the photos below! Have a great weekend everyone. Hi,
This week began with a shared assembly with Year 5; a virtual assembly with the Book Trust. It was led by some children's authors and featured chats about their experiences, their journey to writing and then lots of top tips for children who want to become authors themselves. We were also one of only a few lucky schools to win a book bundle so every child received a free book! Have a look at the pictures below. Jumping to the end of the week, today, we are celebrating Red Nose Day. Children have worn something red and we have a bake sale at the end of the day so please come along to buy something tasty and raise money for Comic Relief - a very worthy cause. Onto our learning: In English, we have started a new unit all about Gothic Horror! This has proved popular with the children and we will be looking at how to create atmosphere in our own spooky stories. In Maths, we have started a unit of work about Shape. Yesterday, we practised using a protractor to measure angles and next week, we'll be revising the properties of shapes. In Science, we learnt what 'power' is in relation to energy and discussed why different appliances have different power ratings. In Geography, we learnt about Trans National Corporations and how they control the food industry. Children may be looking at their food packets to discover which of the major companies produced it! Next week is our last full week before the Easter holidays! Have a great weekend. Hi all,
Just a quick update from me to say well done to Sycamore Class for completing their final rounds of mock SATs this week. All done and dusted until the real thing! Lots more practise in class so keep up the hard work. On Thursday, we celebrated World Book Day with plenty of reading, storytelling and some great costumes! Have a look at the pictures below. Next week, we're back to a normal timetable with a couple of special events including a virtual assembly with the Book Trust and then Red Nose Day next Friday. Keep an eye on Class Dojo for updates and the latest information. Hello everyone,
It's been really lovely this week to be able to catch up with lots of you at parents meetings. As ever, thank you for your ongoing support at home - be it practising times tables, helping with homework or even organising P.E. kits etc. It all goes such a long way to ensuring your child's journey through Year 6 is a positive one. I've said this many times about this class and I stand by it - they are a fantastic group of children to teach! This week, I've watched as they've been captivated by our class book in English (The Invention of Hugo Cabret), listened as they've shared their understanding of energy transfer in science and smiled as they've practised their French vocabulary out loud. We really do squeeze a lot into the week in Year 6 but they embrace it all and relish a challenge. Next week, we are undertaking our final round of practise SATs. These will be really useful to me as I can identify 'gaps' in learning and target our revision activities and lesson time to these. In the meantime, have a restful and relaxing weekend. Hi everyone,
As Spring 2 term begins, we've been working hard again in Sycamore Class. Our writing for the next few weeks is based on the book 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret'. This is a brilliant book which is a combination of pictures and words, to tell the story of an orphaned boy who lives in the walls of a Paris train station and spends his days keeping the clocks running. One day, he discovers a notebook belonging to his late father and his world changes as he strives to build the automaton that his father created. This week, we've written lots of short outcomes based on this book including a persuasive speech, a mini chapter and a balanced argument. In Maths, we're continuing our unit about Fractions, Decimals and Percentages. We've been practising finding a percentage of an amount. It was a bit of a revelation that 'per cent' means 'out of a hundred'! This term, we swap from History to Geography and our topic is 'Globalisation'. We looked at what globalisation is, and in future lessons we'll be learning how our food, fashion and other parts of our lives are influenced by globalisation. In Science, we are learning about energy. Did you know that energy cannot be created or destroyed? We also learnt about different types of energy and energy stores too. P.E. has had to be indoors because of this rainy weather. Please enjoy the photos of some classroom fitness and yoga! Hello everybody,
As I write this, I'm reflecting on how we are already half way through the year! Time really seem to be flying at the moment. This week, we've had some fantastic writing. The children have created a 'Letters to the editor' newspaper page featuring both informal and formal letters sharing opinions about the Three Little Pigs case. After publishing them using the Chromebooks, the children thought about how to lay them out on the page. In Maths, we've started a unit on Fractions, Decimals and Percentages. We will be finishing this after half term but progress has been good so far and children have learnt how to convert fractions to percentages. The next step is learning how to find a percentage of a number. In History, we rounded off our unit about Civil Rights by learning what the Black Lives Matter movement is and why it is important. We compared the movement to the actions of civil rights protesters in the 1950s in the USA and looked for ways in which it's similar and ways in which it's different. Science involved a very exciting investigation where we looked at the best way of keeping an ice cube frozen! The children were able to use what they know about thermal conductors and insulators to decide which materials would be the best for wrapping the ice cube in. Every week, we do an arithmetic test in class to prepare children for their Maths SATs. This week, there was a noticeable improvement in scores so well done to the children. We have a week to rest and relax now but after half term, we will be starting lots more revision activities in preparation for the assessments. Please support your child in completing the weekly homework as this is vital to their revision. Enjoy a relaxing week and I'll see you after half term. Hi all,
This week seems to have flown by and I have a feeling next week will too! In English, we started a new unit of learning based on a parody video of The Three Little Pigs. We've written lots of short extracts practising the passive voice, parenthesis and formal tone amongst other skills. In Maths, we've revised decimals and reinforced our understanding of place value, adding & subtracting, multiplying & dividing and rounding. Science looked at why different materials make good thermal conductors and insulators - learning which we will consolidate next week. History has been really interesting as we've been learning about Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and his famous 'I have a dream'. Thank you for the Normandy consent forms. It's all looking very exciting! Enjoy this week's blog and news from the past couple of weeks.
The children have been working extremely hard on their writing. They have planned their own fairy tales based on the common characteristics of the Grimm tales which we've been reading. They then started work on their first drafts of their stories, trying to include the year 6 writing skills. Redrafting is an important part of the writing process and this is something which we've worked on a lot this term. The children have spent time redrafting a lot of their writing in order to improve it and make it the best it can be. Something we have also had a big focus on this term is handwriting and I've seen some super effort with this! Have a look at some of the writing in the photos below. In Maths, we've learnt about ratio and algebra. Algebra is a new concept to all of the children but it has been grasped excellently. Some children have been challenged with questions which require deeper thinking and it's been great to see the mathematical thinking and discussions here. Next week, we move onto recapping decimals before we focus on the links between decimals, fractions and percentages - an important topic with lots of links to real life. The children have been really enjoying our learning in History. We've been learning about the Civil Rights movement in America in the 1950s and 1960s. Last week, we learnt about Oliver Brown and why he took the Board of Education to the Supreme Court. We then learnt about Rosa Parks and how she refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. We then wrote diaries in role as Rosa Parks, using an informal tone to emphasise how she might have been feeling. In Science, we learnt about heat transfer between particles. We conducted an investigation about heat conduction and observed how one end of a spoon heated up before the other end. Next week, I am holding a SATs information evening for parents (children are welcome too) on Monday evening at 5pm. I really hope to see as many of you there as possible. Enjoy the weekend! |
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April 2024
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