Year 6 rugby

Our first sports topic this year was rugby out on the field. Most of our class were very new to rugby but we gave it 100% and in particular it was great to see the girls really get stuck into the topic.

We learned how to throw and catch a rugby ball effectively, how to pass whilst on the move, how to organise a defence and how to carry out basic skills such as side stepping, playing the ball and supporting an attacking team mate.

Sadly, the Fish Finger Monster was unable to join in with any of the sessions due to having the following illnesses every single Monday between the hours of 2pm and 3pm;

• Week 1; Bad back.
• Week 2; Arms and legs fell off (but grew back)
• Week 3; Orangitis
• Week 4; Unable to see or hear
• Week 5; Slept in
• Week 6; Detention with Mr Edensor
• Week 7; Forgot his PE kit
• Week 8; Deep in a state of contemplation.

A little bit of self-belief and a lot of mud, rain and wind is all you need to have a great game of rugby, here’s the fearsome Year 6 class in action…

Roman art exhibitions

Our Romans topic has seen us produce some excellent story writing work but we have also had the chance to create some rather fetching art work as well. We have focused only on dry media this term and have learned the delicate skills of charcoal rendering, experimenting with shade and blending contrasting colours using chalk pastels to create some very abstract Roman art.

We began by using the god of war, Mars, as our inspiration but from then on it was up to the pupils to create their own exhibitions and go in their own artistic direction...

Roman Adventure Stories!

The first glimpse you'll see from the great authors of tomorrow - enjoy it.

We have worked incredibly hard in Year 6 this year with our writing and the end result for the first half term was our magnificant Roman books.

The creative curriculum topic really proved useful this half term as we spent four weeks creating epic adventure narrative by following this list of steps...

1. Create character biographies.
2. Create a detailed story plan, or 'synopsis'.
3. Create a prologue to draw our readers in.
4. Write chapter 1 - a whole 'Big Write' in itself!
5. Write chapter 2; the problem.
6. Write chapter 3; the development.
7. Write chapter 4; the solution.
8. Write our 'epilogue' chapters which take place AFTER the end of the story.
9. Back page 'blurb' to entice our audience.
10. Illustrations - such a hard task...
11. Front page decoration.
12. Paired proof reading and peer assessment - essential!

So as you see, this was a little more than merely 'writing a story' - we wrote BOOKS and every last member of Year 6 should feel very proud of the achievements, your parents and carers certainly were!

Editing the final drafts before sticking everything together...

It's a hard life isn't it, girls!

Proof reading and peer marking allowed us to correct our own work as well as offering our friends some helpful editorial advice.

Black history month - story telling workshop

During Black History Month the school was lucky enough to get a very special visit from an African drum teacher. Year 6 were the first class to undertake his fantastic story telling workshop in which we were able to tell the story of a village asking for rain to help their crops grow. This involved following a dance routine, keeping to a complicated rhythm, chanting the rain dance lyrics and spending a lot of energy.

Every single pupils gave 100% to this activity and the rain dance and story telling workshop was enjoyed by all. Let's have a look at how we did...

Persuasion and argument week 1 - Live debates!

Our literacy this week has seen us start the persuasion and arguments half term. This week we have focused on speaking and listening by preparing and undertaking live debates. We debated the following topics;

• Should school meals be free for all children?
• Should the school day be extended by one hour a day?
• Do we really need to come to school.

We started by splitting the class into six teams. The teams were then given a topic to discuss but weren’t told whether they would be arguing in favour of or against their topic question. This allowed us to anticipate what the opposing debate team would probably say so that we had instant responses to their points.

Groups had to also use rebuttal responses to add sophistication to their work and create opening and closing statements for their audience. Once the debates had finished, the class voted and we then got to see which team had been the most persuasive!

The debates were a fantastic exercise in speaking and listening and all pupils gave a fantastic account of themselves. This is an activity we will be repeating regularly in Year 6 this year so watch this space for more excellent debate reports…

Nothing like a bit of speech writing...

Mini debates in preparation for the real thing!

Amber plotting her next move...

Mrs Gray spying on the other team...

And we're off!

The class gave a great account of themselves with their mature, respectful speaking and listening skills.

Science Topic 2 - How we see things!

This half term we will be looking at how we see things in a variety of ways. Our first lesson looked at how light reflects off objects and enters our eyes and that is how we are actually able to see the images in our brains. Did you know…

• Light travels in straight lines.
• Light bounces off things and into our eyes.
• Light travels faster than anything in the universe.
• Our eyes see things upside down and the brain turns the image the right way up again.
• The eye is attached to the brain by the ‘optic nerve’ which carries information to our brain and allows us to recognise what we have seen.
• Light reflects off objects and into our eyes at the exact same angle it approaches objects from a light source (such as the sun or a torch). These are called angles of incidence and angles of reflection.

Our class took onboard some very heavy scientific information and worked brilliantly together to discuss some very complicated new learning. We finished our lesson by examining for ourselves how light rays approach objects and are reflected from them into the eye. More to follow…