Year 6 Class News

More on algorithms

Posted on Tuesday 19 September 2017 by Mr Roundtree

Last week, we reminded ourselves about algorithms and practised giving them verbally through drawing pictures. This week, we made it a little more complicated by writing an algorithm to get a friend through an obstacle course.

As we realised what worked and what didn’t, we had to debug our algorithms to make them successful.

Where do you want to explore?

Posted on Monday 18 September 2017 by Mr Roundtree

We kicked off our Explorers Big Topic today by discussing where we’d like to go exploring. The children shared their thoughts with each other and then their partner fed back. There we re lots of interesting places mentioned: the bottom of the ocean, into space, New Zealand and many more.

Then, we used the Atlases to remind ourselves of some key geographical vocabulary: hemisphere, continent, tropics, ocean names, etc. They also prompted us to think about other places (on Earth) that we’d like to visit which we then visited – via Google Earth.

Finally, we explored some fantastic images – all of which were real places on Earth – and chose which one we’d travel to if we could and why. The Plitvici Lakes in Croatia were most popular in our class.

Hotseating

Posted on Friday 15 September 2017 by Mr Roundtree

On Thursday, we wrote a diary entry as Henry from ‘The Incredible Book Eating Boy’. In order to get into character, we thought about what questions we’d like to ask Henry if he were real and then some of us took on his character, fabulously.

8Rs Creative Homework

Posted on Friday 15 September 2017 by Mr Roundtree

A fabulous start to homework from Year 6. We enjoyed a wonderful presentation from both Edward and Aleena and saw a whole host of different ways we could us the 8Rs at home, at school and in extra curricular activities.

As always, we spent some time looking at each others’ before sharing a comment in everybody’s book.

Here are some we particularly liked:

Computing – with no computers?

Posted on Tuesday 12 September 2017 by Mr Roundtree

We started a computing project this week – without computers! Y6 reminded me what an algorithm was and discussed what made successful and unsuccessful algorithms.

We practised trying to give oral algorithms by drawing a simple picture and then instructing a friend to draw the same (without seeing it first).

Here were some that actually ended up being very similar and we decided it was because the picture was simple in the first place; the instructions given were step by step; and the instructions included descriptions of where to draw things and how big to draw things.

In pairs, we then created some written instructions to try and get me (Miss Rushbrooke) from the front of the classroom to outside the fire door.  I walked into walls, banged by shins, ended up in the cupboard, but – after refining their algorithms as a result of other people’s mistakes – a couple of groups managed to get me outside.

Key Stage 2 tuck shop

Posted on Monday 11 September 2017 by Mrs Taylor

Our fruit tuck shop returns next Tuesday, 19 September.  The tuck shop is available for Years 3 – 6 at playtime every Tuesday and we regularly sell over 100 portions of fruit every week.

The cost per portion of 20p remains the same this year and children can either pay weekly by bringing money on the day or take advantage of our pre-payment offer of one free week per term.

Please return the prepayment reply slip by the end of the week if you would like your child to have that option.

Here are some quotes about our tuck shop from the recent pupil health questionnaires.

  • ‘It is excellent as you get a range of different fruits.’
  • ‘I think tuck shop has yummy fruits.’
  • ‘You are selling healthy stuff which is good for us.’
  • ‘You don’t feel hungry during lesson time.’
  • ‘I really like it as it is a nice healthy snack.’
  • ‘It’s very good and keeps our school healthy.’
  • ‘You get to have fruit at a low price and it helps you to have one of your 5 a day.’

Lots and lots of art

Posted on Friday 08 September 2017 by Mr Roundtree

We’re reading a book called The Incredible Book Eating Boy at the moment and, during our topic lessons, we’re trying to create our own piece of art in the style of Oliver Jeffers.

We’ve had a look at his art and compared it something that has similarities and differences.

Then, we practised drawing in the style of Oliver Jeffers which we notice included rather large heads and very thin arms and legs.

We also noticed that it looked like he used watercolour to create light and shadow in his illustrations so we practised that, too, ready for creating a final piece of art next week.

Marvellous Maths

Posted on Friday 08 September 2017 by Mr Roundtree

Year 6 have had some great Maths lessons this week, recapping some previous learning while honing our explanation and justification skills.

We’ve been reading, writing, comparing and ordering numbers up to 10,000,000 and managed to achieve some fantastic learning while playing some really fun games.

See whether your child can explain what we were doing here and teach you the game, too.

Living and Learning

Posted on Wednesday 06 September 2017 by Mrs Taylor

Living and Learning is our new name for SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning).

Living and Learning will continue to cover SEAL learning but will also incorporate other aspects of PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) such as keeping safe, identity, drug education, physical health, rights and responsibilities and healthy minds.

We begin our Living and Learning learning this week with a focus on manners: I can greet someone politely.

For the rest of this half-term, we’re thinking about the ‘8 Rs for learning’. This theme is about promoting good learning behaviour for your child.

Each week, we’ll focus on two different ‘Rs’. We use an animal to symbolise each ‘R’, which might help your child remember all eight – can your child remember which animal matches the correct ‘R’?

You can support your child at home – we’ve listed a few ideas to help you below. Ask us if you’ve any questions or comments.

Download top tips for promoting the 8Rs for good learning behaviour.

I can show I am ready to learn.

Make sure your child is at school for a prompt start of 08:50.
Make sure your child has had plenty of sleep so they are alert and ready to learn at all times.
Encourage your child to ask lots of questions – that shows they want to learn!

I respond to feedback.

Ask your child if they remember their ‘stars’ and ‘steps’ in English and Maths.

I take a safe risk.

Talk about the difference between a safe and unsafe risk. At school, we want your child to take a safe risk by having a go at answering, even if unsure; trying something new and attempting harder learning.

I take responsibility for my own learning.

Provide time and space at home so your child is able to organise themselves: their PE kit, reading book, homework, spellings and tables… Don’t organise everything for them!
Make a link between rights and responsibilities: your child has the right to a great education, but needs to be responsible for their own learning.

I am resourceful.

Encourage your child to be organised so they can play with a range of different toys.
Encourage your child to try new ways to solve a tricky problem.

I am resilient.

Encourage your child to keep going! Set a tricky challenge or puzzle for your child to do.
Encourage your child to think of different ways of doing things.
Don’t let your child win when they play a game – they need to experience losing, too!
Celebrate mistakes as opportunities to learn – be happy that your child found some learning hard and encourage them to ‘bounce back’ and learn from the experience.

I remember.

Make sure they have time to learn spellings, number bonds and times tables – a little practice daily is best.
Play memory games:

Kim’s game: show them objects for 30 seconds… can they remember all the objects?
Can they build up the sequence, ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple and a bike.’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple, a bike and a cucumber.’ etc … Take turns!

I reflect about my learning.

Talk with your child about what they’ve learnt, asking questions about:

how they learnt
why they learnt it
when they’ll use their learning
how they would teach this to someone else
what learning might link with what they’ve learnt today etc

School meals

Posted on Wednesday 06 September 2017 by Mrs Taylor

Following feedback from parents and pupils (School Council and pupil health questionnaires), and a successful trial of children selecting their main meal on Fridays, we will be extending this to every day from next week.  Children will select their main meal choice at registration.

Please share the menu with your child so they are aware of the choices for each day.