This week in a nutshell... English We are almost there on the invent stage of our explanation texts and the children have written about lots of different things they find interesting. We have explanations about the life cycle of frogs, tigers, dogs, the creation of the solar system and the extinction of the dinosaurs! We can't wait to see the finished products. Maths We have come the end of our unit on Fractions. The children have shown great perseverance and this has shown in the new knowledge they have acquired. Fractions are a very large part of the Year six maths curriculum so this knowledge will be of great use as a foundation to their learning for the KS3 curriculum next year. Next week we begin decimals and we have already undertaken our elicitation task for this. Science We learnt about thermal equilibrium and heat transfer. We learnt through practical investigations using hot water and ice cubes how heat always transfers from a hot substance to a cold substance until the heat is evenly spread out. We also carried out an investigation to understand what we mean when we say something is hot or cold which involved the children plunging their hands into ice cold water. I think they enjoyed it!! History We took part in some role play in our History lesson on Monday to learn about the story of Rosa Parks and how her small peaceful protest (a refusal to give up her seat for a white person) started a movement which was to change America forever. Computing The children have begun making their own websites, learning about copyright as well as how to use different types of media in their web pages. They are previewing their pages to see how they look on different devices and evaluating their own and others' work Art/DT We have finished our Silberzweig portraits (photos will follow once displayed!) and have started to look at our new D.T project which is called, 'Steady Hand Game'. The children will make a game using components of an electrical circuit, with buzzer and/or bulb too! French We completed our end of unit task where the children had to write independently on the topic of 'our opinions'. They have done brilliantly, under the guide of Madame Jordan and we were both so thrilled to see all the children engaged and confident. The range of vocabulary learnt, alongside rules of grammar and word classes was such an improvement. Well done Year Six. PE We had a great swimming lesson on Thursday and it was lovely to see all the children enjoying and challenging themselves. They always get so much out of these lessons, with the expertise of our instructors and such a great swimming pool. Unfortunately, Coach Edwards was absent this week for our P.E lesson in school so we played netball and practised our ball skills. We hope you have great weekend. Thank you, Miss Ruby and Mrs Ware. Good afternoon Sycamore families and friends, We hope you have had a good week and are looking forwards to the weekend. In English, we have focused on the innovate stage of our sequence, where we have been creating an explanation page for a science experiment. Next week we move onto the invent stage, where we create our own explanations based on our own choice. In maths, we have continued with fractions, in particular multiplying by integers, multiplying by fractions and also dividing by integers. The children have really understood the 'mechanics' behind this and have been so proud of themselves and how much they have achieved. Well done to all! In our history learning we continued with our focus on American Civil Rights and discussed the Declaration of Independence, Jim Crow laws and etiquette and learned how a man named Oliver Brown won a case at the High Court so his daughter Olivia could attend a school to be treated the same as everyone else. It was a fascinating afternoon of learning with the children really understanding the injustice of the time. In our science learning we looked at the question,"Why does heat cause expansion in a substance?" and discovered how particles move much more quickly when heated, how they move more forcefully creating expansion and as a result when they are cooled they contract and therefore take up less space. In PE we have undertaken gymnastics with Coach Edwards and swimming! Our whole class guided reading has been Cloud Busting by Malorie Blackman and this will form our next English teaching sequence. Hello, we hope you have had a good week. We are back into full swing as if the Christmas holidays never really happened! In English we have focused heavily on grammar, looking at active and passive voice, we have looked at using conjunctions and relative pronouns to create explanatory sentences and we have also been orally planning and presenting an explanation based on a previous science experiment. We were able to do this investigation again which added a bit more fun into our English Our spelling patterns have focused on the 'ough' letter string.In maths we have continued with fractions and have focused on addition and subtraction of them, but also using improper fractions and mixed numbers. This Thursday saw the start of our swimming lessons in Okehampton. This week's lesson focused on assessing the children to work out their swimming abilities to match them to an instructor and group. As of next week the children will be swimming in small groups of approximately 9 children and will use the end of the pool depending on their swimming ability. In other areas of the curriculum we began our history learning about Civil Rights in America. This will lead on nicely to remember Martin Luther King on Monday 17th January. We began looking at solids, liquids and gases in science and continued with our portraits inspired by Sandra Silberzweig in art. With Coach Edwards we played unihoc as a one off from gymnastics due to the hall being used for Flu immunisations. Homework This week, we discussed the pros and cons of homework and whilst there were many good points raised against homework we also identified these important points for homework: 1. Being prepared for secondary school where homework will be set daily 2. Consolidating what you have learnt at school 3. The opportunity to pursue your own interests and research 4. (and probably the most important) sharing learning with and spending quality time with parents/carers/grandparents etc at home. The details of this term's homework can be found in Google Classroom including a list of the revision pages set in the SATS revision guides. You will also find our science topic knowledge organiser for you to discuss with your children and ideas for a project on our History topic. These are the details: Create a project based on our history topic of the Civil rights Movement in America in the 1950s and 60s:
Additionally, we have asked to see children's reading records twice a week as we are concerned that some children are not reading regularly at home. We will check reading diaries on a Monday and Thursday, although these should be at school every day anyway. Homework folders and revision books need to be brought to school every Monday. We hope you all have a lovely weekend. Thank you, stay well, stay safe and take care. Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby Happy New Year, We trust this update finds you safe and well after a Christmas break. We have had an incredibly busy three days back in school and the children have focused very well considering. English We have begun a new text, ‘Stuff You Should Know, which is a fun, interesting and colourful explanation about the fascinating stories behind activities and machines that we take so often for gained such as what happens when you use a toaster, press a light switch, send a text on a mobile phone and post a letter! Maths We have focused our attention on a short unit of work on position, direction and movement. Within this the children have learnt about the four quadrants, translations and reflections. They have used vocabulary such as coordinates, plot, grid, and quadrant, positive, negative, x axis, y axis, translate, and reflect, vertex and vertices. All children have completed this well and have felt very proud of themselves because they have been able to talk with confidence about this new knowledge. Next week we will turn our focus back to fractions. Science Heat - In this unit children will learn about heat and particles, heat and expansion, thermal equilibrium and thermal insulators and conductors. History We have a very important and exciting unit of study this half term about the civil rights movement in America in the 1950s. This will form a topic based homework project this half term too. The unit will culminate in a challenging essay. This unit fits well with our PSHE unit which is all about valuing diversity and Martin Luther King Day on 17th January. RE In Religious Education we will be learning about Hinduism and why Hindus try to be good. The children will learn about Hindhu beliefs such as Dharma, Karma, Samsara and Moksha. Art The children will be learning about the contemporary artist Sandra Silberzweig. Contemporary means that she is still living and has been painting all her life. She is inspired by primitive figurative images, sacred powerful goddesses and animals, and both tribal and spiritual symbolism which form the basis of her subjects. We will begin this week by planning portraits before designing their own. DT In a few weeks time we will undertake a DT project based on creating a simple electronic circuit to create a game. Computing We will be evaluating what makes a good website and then creating our own webpage. PE This will be swimming and gymnastics. Homework As previously mentioned, the children will be asked to produce a project based on our History topic but they will also be set regular revision homework this term to prepare for the SATs tests in May. The homework will be set next week but in the meantime please encourage children to read every day and do some reading response from the menu in last terms topic web; practise timetables and review spellings they have been learning last term Thank you. Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby. |
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October 2024
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