We all took on a tricky crossword today which gave us clues to words in a text. We had to understand the definition of the word in the clue and then find it in the text above to decide whether it was the correct word.
Once we’d got all of the answers, we checked that we now knew what these word meant, using the clues and how they were used in the text above.
Last week’s homework was Talk Time which involved discussing the children’s response to the question, ‘Is tourism a good thing?’
Using the notes we’d made at home, Year 6 engaged in a debate today and everybody had something to say; it was great.
Year 6 have a list of spellings to learn again this week, this time from the Year 5/6 spelling list. We’ve been learning them in class and have come up with some great ways of remembering them.
Create ways for you to remember how to spell these words and generally practise using the strategies in the back of your homework book. There will be a test on Friday 17 November.
Today, half of Year 6 made veggie burgers. Everyone found it extraordinarily fun as we have not cooked in ages! We all used cooking skills to make our bake: bridge and claw chopping methods, grating, frying, blending, moulding and – of course – washing up.
We tried out three different recipes. One was carrot-based, another was courgette-based and the final was mushroom-based. Not everyone expected they’d enjoy it but many loved it! For example, Noah didn’t expect to like it but absolutely adored it!!!
Take a look at us in action.
Our great writing continued today as we explored the effect of using adverbs in our writing. We finished the lesson by completing word studies in pairs on quite ambitious adverbs – but ones which it would be possible to use in the descriptive writing we’ll be doing later in the week.
Word studies are a great thing for you to do at home too, particularly with spelling words the children are finding difficult to learn or understand.
In our studies this week, we made sure we identified the definition of the word, drew an image of what it means and used it in a sentence. Then we could decide what our final quarter would be: word family, spelling practice, synonyms or antonyms.
In our Writing lessons this week, we’re learning about all the different ways we can add detail to our writing, particularly to add lots of description.
We’ve explored how expanded noun phrases can be used: towering mountain with snow blanketing the top.
Then we moved on to look at using preposition phrases. Working in pairs and using a great image of the Land of Neverbelieve, we came up with preposition phrases we could use in a piece of writing we’ll be doing next week.
This week, the children have a list of spellings to learn. These words are all from the Year 3/4 spelling list and so the children should already know them. We’ve been looking at them in class this week, coming up with ways of remembering them. This might include saying them in a certain way, looking for words hidden inside, following spelling rules or just something very silly which sticks in our heads.
peculiar = Don’t trust peculiar people because they peck (pec) you (u) and they’re liars (liar).
separate
different
peculiar
favourite
accidentally
actually
disappear
occasionally
interest
weight
calendar
possession
In their homework books, the children should note down a way of helping them to remember each word – this might be one we’ve come up with in class, or one of their own.
Today, Y5 and Y6 visited Fountains Abbey as part our Explorers topic. The trip was particularly exciting because each group were able to plan their own exploration of this National Trust site.
Whilst some of us were off exploring the Studley Royal Gardens, the rest of us were spending ‘A Day in the Life of a Monk’. In this fun workshop, led by National Trust volunteers, we visited the abbey, learnt lots about its history and learnt how monks lived their fascinating lives. Did you know that monks considered heating using a fire a luxury? Or, that they had seven church services a day and one in the middle of the night? Even harder to imagine, they lived almost their whole life in silence. (Some of us would certainly struggle with the last one!)
When exploring, we each had a role to play within our group: map-reader, photographer, visitor surveyor, artist and time-keeper. We were in charge of making sure we visited the places of interest the people in our group wanted to see and had to ensure we were back at our ‘base’ at the correct time. It was really fun to politely approach members of the public and carry out a visitor survey (a geography fieldwork skill). Can you believe that someone had travelled all the way from the USA?
To enhance our geography learning from the classroom, we continued to compare Fountains Abbey with Machu Picchu. We found lots of similarities: they have similarly interesting histories, they are both ruins, they first became ruins in quite similar ways, both places were used by religious people to celebrate a god and we found out that farming was crucial in both places.
We all had a great time and will certainly sleep tonight (the adults will anyway). As always, the children were fantastic ambassadors for our school and we received several compliments from the public.
Here’s some quotes from the day:
The first half-term of this school year has seen a slight drop in attendance compared to the same period last year. Nevertheless, attendance at Moortown Primary continues to be high – many thanks for your support.
What about each class? Well, a big well done to pupils (and parents/carers!) in Year 4 and Year 5 – attendance for these two classes is all above the school average.
Also impressive is the attendance for our reception children. It can be quite common that children in Reception have more missed school days as they build up immunity to common bugs; however, our current Reception cohort has an attendance figure just short of the school average – well done!
We’ve worked hard across Topic and Writing over the last three weeks. As part of our Explorers topic, we decided to find out all about the Arctic. We started off by thinking up questions we’d like answered about this area before sorting them into categories. This created the four subheadings for our report:
Then, we spent four lessons finding out and making notes. In one lesson, Miss Rushbrooke acted as the expert and taught us all about where and what the Arctic is and we made notes.
We also found out lots about ‘Its Exploration’ through reading; ‘Indigenous Animals’ through internet research (with lots of discussion about reliable sources); and ‘What does the future hold?’ by watching some information videos.
Once we’d gathered everything we needed, we put pen to paper to pass the information on in the form of a report. Here’s Ollie’s first paragraph:
Finally, (that’s right, we’re not done yet) we worked with a partner to thoroughly edit each other’s writing and there was some great teamwork going on.
Fantastic project from Year 6 which they’ve put huge amounts of effort into right from beginning to end.