Author: Mr Catherall

This afternoon, we were ‘market researchers’ in preparation for our restaurant day on Friday (ask your child about this exciting learning).

Some of us went to Marks and Spencer’s and Cooplands to see which salads are available. Some of us carried out our market research here in school; either by asking adults or searching the Internet.

We then used our findings to decide on a salad that we will make (and sell – kind of) later in the week.

This week, we have started a new topic: ‘Food‘. Before the Easter holidays, every child in Year 6 suggested a topic they would like to explore. After creating a shortlist, the children voted and decided on ‘Food‘.

So far, we’ve focused on the geography of the food we eat: where some foods originate from; how they travel to our plates; and why some foods are imported while some are produced here in the UK.

We’re excited to explore this topic further and will keep you updated about all our food-related learning.

You can help at home by (amongst other things!):

• discussing the origin of the foods you eat at home
• looking at the food packaging together and making sense of some of the information you are given
• discussing why some foods might be grown in specific countries
• discussing how foods are advertised and how this might affect us as consumers
• encouraging your child to think about the choices they make when choosing food to eat (are they healthy choices?)

This morning, we spent some time reflecting on the skills we practised whilst learning about our last Big Topic: ‘Life‘.

We chose to focus on the skills we need in order to learn because these are important for life-long learning. Knowledge is important, too, but it’s crucial not to neglect the skills that underpin our learning.

We worked in groups to create a ‘diamond 9’; the children were given seven skills and also had to choose two of our ‘8Rs for learning’.

  
Then, we reflected as a class and decided on this ‘diamond 9’:

At the top is the skill we all thought was most important: working with others. All the other skills are important, too!

Thank you to all the children who attended football training tonight. Everyone was focused, positive and tried hard – well done!

Also, a big thank you to the parents who were able to help with walking and being an extra adult.

The children were glad to hear that we have some matches lined up too. Look out for a letter with more details.

Here are some action shots:

  

For the next two weeks, we will be completing a new mini-topic: Loving Reading.

The emphasis of the topic is all about enjoying reading. As you are aware, we already give reading a high profile within our class but this topic will put reading (and a love of reading) at the forefront of our learning.

Lots of research suggests that children who read for pleasure perform better at school and reading is certainly a life-skill!

As part of the mini-topic, children were given some reading challenges to complete over the next two weeks. It would be great if they could finish them all (some are easier to achieve than others).

You can help at home by:

• Encouraging your child to complete the challenges.
• Raising the profile of reading at home (Family reading time? A visit to a bookshop/library? Discussing reading over a meal?).
• Reading with your child regularly; whilst reading for pleasure is important, understanding what you read is even more so. The only way to be sure that children are practising their reading skills properly is to read with them and ask questions.
• Encouraging your child to read more than usual.
• Showing your child that reading can take many forms (fiction books, non-fiction books, e-books, audio books, magazines, newspapers, trusted websites, instructions, recipes, online news).

Again, we thank you for your continued support!

A big thank you to those parents that were able to attend our open afternoon on Wednesday. We hope you enjoyed finding out about all the great learning that’s happened in Y6 during our ‘Life’ topic.

For those that didn’t attend, we reflected on each piece of learning we have done by writing down on big sheets something we remembered.

  
Then, we created a ‘diamond 9’ of the skills we have learnt/practised and some of the knowledge we have gained. It was interesting how everyone had different ideas of what they’d learnt most about.

Finally, we sat down to review our big topic book. It works as a diary of all the great topic-related learning we do!

 If you’d like to find out more about our brilliant ‘Life’ topic, ask your child how they’ve found it.

This week, in maths, we’ve been learning all about measures.

After exploring mass through weighing items using different methods, we moved on to capacity. We spent time measuring, estimating and converting between units. (Remarkably, we didn’t make much mess!)

You can help at home by:

• Encouraging your child to find examples of measures in every day life
• Encouraging your child to estimate the mass/capacity of things you find in the house (eg what do you think is the capacity of that glass? What do you think is the mass of the laptop? What do you think is the capacity of our bath? Hint: benchmarking helps – ask you child about this!)
• Practising converting between units (eg ml to litres, g to kg)
• Using the revision books handed out last week

We’ll continue our learning by solving problems involving different measures.

This half term, as part of our computing curriculum, we have been using a resource called ‘Lego WeDo’. We have built models of animals from Lego blocks and then programmed them to perform actions using the accompanying computer software.

So far, we have focused, and will continue to focus, on using and applying computational thinking concepts.

You can help at home by:

• Discussing your child’s learning with them;
• Talking about how computational thinking concepts effect our everyday lives;
• Encouraging them to think about how they may use some of these concepts without realising.

If, like me, much of this is new to you, or, if you’d like to brush up your own computing knowledge, there are some great websites that can help. Although it’s aimed at teachers, Barefoot Computing offers lots of support with the new curriculum, its key concepts and a breakdown of technical language.