Each week, Year 6 do Guided Maths which gives us an opportunity to work in small groups and revise learning from earlier this year and even Year 5. It means we’re always revisiting our learning either on our own or with adult support.
Last week, we revised angles and the group on our Maths Challenge Table produced some brilliant independent work.
On Thursday 09 March, Year 6 had a wonderful time with visitors from Leeds University as part of both national STEM week and our Time Travel – Entertainment topic. Our visitors talked to us about how rollercoasters work, discussing the gravitational and kinetic energy involved and how they conserve energy. (This means the amount of energy stays the same but it is transferred into different types.)
Once we understood the science, we were tasked with creating our own rollercoasters using half foam tubes as the track and a marble as the carriage. We got more points if we could create loop the loops, corkscrews or jumps and even more if we could land the marble in a cup at the end!
Take a look at some of our incredible rollercoasters and some fab teamwork.
The winning team got a whopping 70 points: three loops, one corkscrew, a jump and a cup landing!
This week, Year 6 have a mini Maths test and a mini SPaG test for their Practice Makes Perfect homework.
The children could complete it independently, with you or a bit of both by doing it themselves then going through it together. Make sure they make note of anything they’re struggling with as we’ll discuss this as a class in our homework review on Thursday 09 March.
This week’s spelling activity is a bit of fun. Have a look at the Year 3/4 and 5/6 spelling lists you received at parents’ evening (or here) and create a game, quiz, crossword, wordsearch or anything else you can think of which will help us to practise them.
Bring your game to our homework review on Friday 17 March.
As part of our Time Travel – Entertainment topic, we’ve explored how people were entertained in Elizabethan times. Theatres were the main form of entertainment and this, obviously, led us directly to the great work of Shakespeare. We began the week by picking apart Shakespearean language to see whether we could understand it – which we could!
The children were really interested in what it would have been like to go to the theatre in the 1600s and had lots of questions. They then showed off some fantastic acting skills by taking on a snippet of Shakespeare in small groups – very entertaining.
Find out why one parent wanted to contact us about Mrs Valentine…
Thanks to the parent who emailed this:
“I just wanted to let you know how very impressed myself and [my daughter] are with Mrs Valentine’s efforts dressing up and acting out Mary Poppins. She is an inspiration to us all…she showed everyone how to have fun and be part of an event.
[We] are very proud to have her as a teacher at Moortown and hope you all are too.Very well done, Mrs Valentine.”
We certainly are proud to have Mrs Valentine in our school – as we are with all our great teachers. (We’re proud of our wonderfully supportive parents / carers, too!)
This week’s Talk Time homework is linked to a visitor we’ve got next week.
How do rollercoasters work?
Going to theme parks is also a great form of entertainment today so it links to our Time Travel – Entertainment topic. Many of us love them but why and how are they made? Discuss this as a family, with friends, over dinner or in the car and be ready to join in our class discussion on Thursday 09 March.
This week, Year 6 have a mini Maths test and a reading comprehension for their Practice Makes Perfect homework.
The children could complete it independently, with you or a bit of both by doing it themselves then going through it together. Make sure they make note of anything they’re struggling with as we’ll discuss this as a class in our homework review on Thursday 09 March.
This week’s spellings now focus on the prefixes on the left hand side.
Create and practise words with these prefixes and see how many other prefixes you can think of that are not on the list. Be prepared to discuss what adding the prefix does to the meaning of the root word.
You’ll be tested on words with prefixes on Friday 10 March.
On Monday, we had a visitor from UTC Digital to talk to us about the opportunities we have in the future if we want to go into the digital world for our careers or just learn some very valuable skills in digital technology which can be applied across a number of professions.
They explained that, to use, computers themselves are not smart; it’s the people who control them who need to be clever as computers need very specific instructions in order to work. He made us realise just how specific these instructions had to be by asking us to instruct him in making a jam sandwich. Simple right? No. Turns out it’s not. We had bread everywhere, his hands were covered in butter and he kept doing it wrong …all because our instructions were not specific enough.
It was an interesting and enjoyable session for the children and our visitors have emailed us since to tell us how impressed they were with the children’s enthusiasm and behaviour – well done.