Monday 30 March Year 6 work

Morning everyone .. I hope you had a good weekend.

The button on my school laptop that has a dash on is not working (great!) so I am having to use … rather more than I would normally. Apologies but it’s out of my hands!

Here is today’s work. It’s a ‘marking’ kind of day today! Email me with your scores from all the papers (not separate emails for each paper, one email for all 4!)

Maths:

Answers from arithmetic... mark yours and identify errors. The answers are on photos below…

Answers from Reasoning paper 2... as above … Mark your test (photos of answers below) and try to identify those questions where you didn’t read the question properly.

English:

Answers to Spag from last week. Photos below. Who forgot capitals or punctuation and therefore lost marks?!?!

I have also added photos of the Reading Comprehension test please use these for TOMORROW’S English work (which will be to mark Reading Comp!)

Letters...

Awww, Year 6.

I woke up far too early this morning and realised we are now one week in to our remote learning.

I miss you lot, despite you all having the ability to be remarkably annoying!! (My husband always says I am a genius at both giving a compliment and a criticism at the same time!!).

Anyway, I got up before everyone else (apart from the cats, who both nagged me for grub as soon as I got into the kitchen!!) so I opened two (yep two!) letters from you. Yes, Jody, I CAN guess who it was from … and no, blue is NOT the colour!! And Copus, thank you for your very flattering letter. Not sure I’ve often been called beautiful (well, not for a very long time anyway!!) but I accept the ‘crazy’ plus I do very much like the double ‘awesome’!!

I had a really lovely email from Sara who thanked Year 6 for her letters. I told you people would love them. Writing letters to people who miss company at the moment is such a lovely thing to do. Your grandmas and grandads will be missing you all very much at the moment… why don’t you drop them a line?

Miss you all, very much. xxx

Excting treat for you all!!

OK so, late at night, earlier this week, I was pondering life in general and how to make things more fun (please note, NOT ‘funner’)! I came up with a plan to get all the class teachers together on Zoom and to try to sing a song together for you all, to brighten your days, lift up your spirits, make your hearts sing!!

The result will be published on the SCHOOL blog (not the class blog) TODAY (Friday) at about midday… the school blog is on a different page on this website! ( I think it is the very front page of the website, a bit further down)…

You might need ear muffs! You’ve been warned. Sorry it was meant to be pleasant… and believe it or not, this was after a couple of practice attempts!! Enjoy!!!

Friday 27 March work for lovely Year 6

Hey! I haven’t seen you for a week now! Booo! Hope y’all doing fine (can you tell I went to Texas last summer?!).

Here is Friday’s work - you lucky, lucky peeps!

Maths:

15 mins of times tables writing... working backwards from 12 x 12 down to 1x1 =

Find 10 cans/bottles/packets of different sizes in your kitchen. Write down the weights in descending order. Round them all to the nearest 100g.

Measure the perimeter of one of your doors in your home. Sketch it in your book, showing the dimensions. Then, work out the area. Bonus point – measure the thickness (depth) and measure the volume.  Remember units of measure.

English:

Remaining two texts from your Reading Comp test started last Tues. Answer as well as you possibly can. I will provide the results later (next week). Think of everything we have done in class – how to answer fully, using evidence from the texts.

Remainder of Spag test from orange folder (started last  Tues).

Then - get in your garden and design some sort of pattern with natural materials. If you haven’t got a garden, draw something you can see from your window which is natural rather than man-made.

Work for Thursday 26 March

Me again!! How are you all doing out there?

I seem to have spent hours on my laptop doing work but am gradually trying to sort out a better process for juggling work-related things. I have filled out a very (I mean VERY) big spreadsheet that The Weald sent me - all about you lovely lot (well, 21 of you anyway!). That was fun (not!). It was even more fun when I thought I’d finished but then my laptop started to misbehave and I lost several hours’ worth of work and had to redo it. I was obviously extremely calm in my response…….!! Not sure about you though but, at the moment, with so much going on out in the big, wide world, it makes me realise how lucky I am and I am trying to get annoying little things into perspective.

So, on to Thursday’s work.

Maths

Remainder of arithmetic test from orange folder

Remaining questions from  Reasoning questions paper 2 orange folder

English

Science Fiction is precisely that. It is a piece of fiction (not real – made up – a story) with some sort of link to science. It does NOT mean that the setting always needs to be in a laboratory with lots of mad professors in white coats. That can sometimes be a bit obvious.

I want you to research online for a good piece of science fiction. I would like it to be written (rather than a film – more of that later). Your task today is to do that research and find a quality piece of science fiction writing. It only needs to be an extract from a book rather than a whole book, if you prefer. You need to keep a note of this piece of writing (either have the book with you, or know exactly where online you have found it) as you may need to refer to it again later.

What are the key features of Science Fiction writing from the text you found? List them in your red book.

In writing, describe the setting for the piece you found. Then, describe the characters. If you have only read a short excerpt, you may need to use your imagination to describe the setting and the characters.

Message for Year 6 mums and dads

Dear parents

Thank you for supporting all the lovely Badgers with their learning so far this week.

However, this afternoon, I started to feel guilty. Everything is worrying for everyone at the moment and the last thing I want to do is to add to everyone’s pressures and stress. Therefore, if you feel it would be better for you, or your child, to do something completely different on any day, of course, please, please do that instead.

Sometimes, lessons that I set on here will follow on from the previous day. Usually, these can be merged so that the children can capture the essence of the two lessons in just one session. In English, for example, we will shortly be looking at a particular text over a week or so. However, if your child misses , say, Monday’s lesson, it will be possible for them to catch up quickly and still have a go at Tuesday’s lesson.

In the end, it is absolutely your choice. I really hope this helps.

Thanks, and best wishes for health and well-being to all of you.

Wednesday 25 March work - Year 6

Hi folks!! Hope you got on ok yesterday. We will have a few little glitches to iron out over these first few days (mostly caused by me!!). I will put answers to questions/test up on here a few days after you’ve been set them so don’t panic about that yet.

Here is Wednesday’s work…

Maths:

Page from Target Your Maths pg 156 test 1. Photo of sheet below…

English:

Cold task – write the opening chapter to a Science Fiction story. No cheating. I know what classes produce each year when I set this task and I absolutely know lots of children do NOT know what science fiction is. Then, tomorrow, we will talk about what Sci Fi really is!

Write for 30 minutes. Then. The next 30 mins should be used for editing, proof-reading and redrafting! You know that, in Year 6, we don’t accept incorrect use of capitals, missing punctuation, the dreaded comma splicing (google it if you can’t remember - although you should know by now as I go on about it all the time).

Please do not send me photos of your work each day as my email account at school can’t cope with the volume and will get blocked… As and when we are all back together, we can bring all our work in to show people, and I can then do a quick check myself.

Meanwhile, as well as the photo of the maths page, please find a photo of me from 3 years ago when I lost a competition for face painting. Can you guess which family were to blame?! I also attach a pic of Hattie and Arthur working with me in our kitchen this morning. Louis jumped up on a kitchen stool just as I took the photo as I think he wanted to join in with all the fun!?!?

Secondary School confirmation URGENT PLEASE

Dear Year 6 parents,

Every year, I have to complete a very extensive data transfer for The Weald, which takes quite a few hours. Unfortunately, The Weald still have the names of 6 children from Year 6 down as going to them even though parents have told us they are going elsewhere. The Weald now wants me to produce the information for these children, ‘just in case’ whereas I really would prefer not to, as it’s several hours’ of work.

Please, therefore, if you know your child is NOT going there, please notify the LEA without delay, and email me to confirm. If, however you still feel that there is a chance that your child WILL go to The Weald, please also let me know by email asap so I can gather the information.

Many thanks your help with this is much appreciated as it will save me an afternoon’s additional, and probably unnecessary, work. Mrs P x

Tuesday - Reasoning paper question clarification

Sorry - the photocopier doesn’t make shading clear at all. Question 4 on the Reasoning paper - it is the top two rows which are shaded!

Year 6 work for Tuesday 24 March

Here it is! This is what you have been eagerly awaiting! The Year 6 work. Whoop whoop!

Do not start until Tuesday!

We will start using tests from the orange folder (the tests are Set B). Everyone SHOULD have this as it was given out early on. Most of you also now have a yellow folder (contains SET A tests - sorry for doing B before A - I had intended on doing A in school but that was before everything suddenly altered!! I am not usually so illogical!). The third folder that almost everyone now has (AC and BC - yours is waiting for you outside school) which is pink and has 2017 tests. Yellow and pink folders will be used in future weeks.

Maths

Orange folder – First 20 arithmetic questions from paper 1

Orange folder - First 5 reasoning questions from paper 2

15 mins on TT Rock Stars

Answers will be put up in a few days’ time.

English:  

First 25 Spag test questions from orange folder

First text from Reading Comp red folder (All about Mice). Remember everything we have learnt about how to CAREFULLY and THOROUGHLY answer questions!

Topic:

Choose one topic challenge to commence today.

Other: Please try to get out in your garden, whatever the weather. If you don’t have a garden, open your windows wide and enjoy the fresh air.

Enjoy, y’all! I’ll catch up with you tomorrow. Mrs P xx PS - I have attached a copy of the most beautiful visitor to school this morning. This is Ronnie Hannan. He is only 3 months old and looks like a dark haired womble. In fact, his curly brown locks reminded my of my lovely boy, Ted, who is stuck in Spain right now. Guess what? Yup - those curls nearly made me cry!!

Monday 23 March ... information and work for TOMORROW

Well, staff have been in all morning and I am staying at school for the rest of the day. Hattie, my daughter, is helping out today too, which is rather nice for me! She seems to be outside in goal for much of the time - having two brothers has obviously been of at least some help to her!

I have put any left-behind pencil cases outside the main entrance - please come to collect them if you need them. I have only put out the ones I can find - if yours is hidden somewhere, well, it’s not going to be found by me!

I have also left compasses and protractors there for collection IF (but please, only IF) you do not have one at home. The rest will be used by school. In addition, I have left a few more copies of the play script if you were not in last week to collect one yourself. Please only take one if you didn’t receive one in school.

I have also left plastic folders for AC and BC, as well as a pink folder of tests for AC. I think everyone else has received theirs either in school or by delivery by a friend/neighbour.

As Mr King stated in one of his letters last week, no work was being set by class teachers for today, Monday. I have had quite a lot of questions about this. I will shortly be setting work (in a separate blog post) for Tuesday’s work. Where relevant, I will add photos of answers to work set later on in the week.

Thanks, Year 6 - keep well and be happy. Enjoy the sun (it looks lovely from where I am sitting, in the classroom) and I’m looking forward to heading home to my garden later to have a cup of tea outside in the fresh air! Check for another blog post shortly, with details of tomorrow’s work.

Au revoir... hopefully only for a little while

What a strange week it has been. I am so proud of my lovely class for keeping on working, keeping on being chirpy and positive, and for keeping on coming into school and brightening my days. Today, we bid au revoir to you all whilst the country works hard to overcome the virus.

Although I may not see some of the children for quite a while, I have given them all means by which to get hold of me in the meantime and I will try to ring around to everyone over the next couple of weeks. Remember to keep a close eye on the class blog for ideas of things to do each school day.

Everyone (including Mrs Cave and myself) now have a letter or two to open from our friends in class. These shouldn’t be opened yet - save them for when you’re missing people.

I’ll miss you all very much so do please keep in touch. Mrs P xx

Peace... amidst the chaos!

So, in a week where the world is dealing with tricky decision, Year 6 have made some beautiful Peace posters. These will be entered into the Lions’ Club competition later this month.

Thank you to all the parents who turned up for parent consultations yesterday - I hope you found them as useful as I did. I also hope you came away from the meetings knowing how very proud I am of all the children in Year 6. They are working really well and are starting to see that hard work reaps rewards!.

We have a fantastic Year 6 Class

Year 6 are working really hard and are committed to proving how capable they are by the time we reach May. This week, they are taking home copies of a Reading Comprehension test and a Maths Reasoning test which they sat earlier this week. They need an adult at home to go through these tests with them to try to improve their answers. The more collaboration we can generate between home and school, the better for these lovely 10 and 11 year olds.

Please could the adults feel free to add written comments and/or suggestions for their children to help them.

Also, please, a reminder for everyone to remember to send their slips back to school asap showing which secondary school their child will be attending. Many thanks.

Yummmmmmmmy .... not!!

Well, my pelvic floor exercises were severely tested this week (and I had an enormous third baby!!) when Year 6 tried to follow one another’s sets of instructions on how to make a ‘deluxe’ sandwich!!! Most of them forgot about the existence of 'knives etc on their first attempt. Despite this, they still chose to tuck in with gusto after they had made their edible delights. I was even offered a nibble. I politely declined!!

Thanks to all you lovely parents for coming along this morning for the SATs talk. For anyone who couldn’t make it, the powerpoint that I used is further down on the Year 6 ‘Our Learning’ page on the website… down near the bottom.

A class of lovely little angels (... I mean angles!)

Years 5 and 6 combined this morning to practice using protractors together. Mrs Powell made a complicated-looking sheet for us to measure but we quickly spotted that we didn’t actually need to measure every single angle. As long as we knew that a straight line had 180 degrees, we could save ourselves lots of time. We then checked our measurements to ensure they made sense. We could do this as we know that the sum of the internal angles for a triangle is 180 degrees, 360 for a quadrilateral, and 540 for a pentagon.

Street Dance

This week Year 6 had a visit from Laura, a street dance teacher. Laura taught us a range of hip hop and break dancing moves so we could put them together into a dance. It was great to try different styles and some were tricky! Street dancers traditionally have grumpy faces when dancing but this was very hard to do as everyone had a great time.

Art Week

In Year 6, we also looked at the picture, The Battle of San Romano by Uccello, as part of our Take One Picture work in school. We focused in on the people in the background, and tried to replicate one of the running men both in drawings (with movable legs, no less!) as well as in a PE lesson. We also used the painting to inspire us in writing, creating a range of lovely written pieces covering a large number of genres. Finally, we looked at the importance of flags and tried to understand why the flag in the painting was so prominent. We have made our own, large and fabulous Year 6 flag which will go up on display in school shortly. We used heraldry symbols to try to create our own mini flags within a flag!

Finally, thank you to everyone for all the lovely Christmas presents I received from everyone - I am so grateful. I am still trying to decide what to spend my voucher on (I I take ages deciding these things - it is the cause of much ‘debate’ in my house at the moment but I find that that is part of the fun of a voucher!!!) xx

Mayan mocktails!

Year 6 enjoyed themselves this week designing and then making (and then consuming!!) Mayan mocktails. They tried to use ingredients that were authentic and would be available to the Mayans such as mango, pineapple and even chocolate. The children worked really well together in their teams, and the variety of drinks produced was astonishing. One team even used a carved out melon as their ‘cup’.

Mayan visitors

We spent Monday morning immersed in a Mayan world when Ian from Mexicolore visited us. We have learnt lots of interesting facts about the Mayans and are looking forward to learning even more as the half term progresses. Some of us played different instruments, dressed up in unusual outfits and a couple of us tried playing a rather different game using a very heavy rubber ball and our hips!