Art week begins

Art week has started in Year 6 and we’ve spent lots of time learning about Henri Matisse, focussing in on his bird pictures! We have sketched simple bird shapes, translated them over onto polystyrene tiles and tried to create colourful prints. We are now going to try to create smaller prints in order to produce a set of bird-themed Easter cards.

Later this week, we are going to use recycled materials to produce some bird ‘mobiles’ ( not the telecommunication sort!) and also try to create and use our own quill pens made from goose feathers.

Maya Monday

We had a fabulous day on Monday when Ian, from Mexicolore, visited us. We learned all about the instruments they used ( some amazing whistles and drums), their diet, their clothing and also the punishments given to girls and boys!!! It was a great way to kick start our new topic.

The end of an era!

So, after seven increasingly autumnal weeks, we reach the end of our Victorian topic. The children were excited, this week, to spot people sewing samplers in a documentary in exactly the same way as us.

Well done, Year Six, for a great start to the new academic year. Now, go and have a lovely, safe, healthy half term with lots of fresh air!

Next stop - the Mayans!

Lady Hope Play Park

Year Six have worked really hard to make lovely posters advertising the wonderful, newly revamped play park on our village green. We are hoping to see some of them there in the next few days for the grand reopening.

Sideways view!

As part of our Victorian topic, Year Six have been learning about the importance of silhouette pictures and are starting to create their own.

I cannot wait to have 62 children’s faces in the classroom instead of a mere 31; however, a couple of additional beauties appear to have snuck in. Can you spot them?

Daily 10 !!!

This week, Year 6 started a new daily challenge called ‘Daily 10’. The children have a series of quick-fire maths questions to try to answer within a certain number of seconds per question ( the lowest being 3 seconds per question). It has been great fun and is a huge test of both concentration and agility with mental maths! Very exciting!!!

Buddies!!!

Year 6 were ridiculously excited to finally meet their Reception Class buddies this week! This has been a rite of passage for Year 6 children at out school but sadly, due to Covid, we could not put it in place last year. It is wonderful that we are now able to resume ‘buddies’ as it gives Year 6 children the opportunity to be role models, plus provides the youngest members of our school community with an older friend who can help and guide them as they settle into school life.

Year 6 rising to the challenge

Year 6 have really worked their socks off this week. Not only have we been starting to study Shakespeare’s Macbeth, we have been designing and sewing Victorian samplers and then getting our heads around negative numbers and rounding!!

The children are doing well, getting back into a steady, weekly routine and it is lovely getting to know them. I have enjoyed speaking to a few parents this week and am looking forward to seeing people at our Meet the Teacher Google meet at 10.00 next Monday morning. The meeting link was sent out by Mr King earlier this week. I do have to return to the classroom at 10.30 so will start at 10.00 promptly but am sure I will be able to talk you through all the key points that parents often wish to know.

Welcome to the new Year 6 class

It has been lovely welcoming the new Year 6 children back to school this week. We have done a bit of settling back into school but have also settled back into working hard too! Everyone in Badger Class has written down their goals for the year for a lovely badger-y display and I look forward to seeing how many of these we manage to achieve.

We're back ... and raring to go!!

How apt this heading is, after all of Year 6 managed a safe return to school during this week… and are heading off to pastures new at the end of next week!

I am so enormously proud of this fabulous group of children - they worked so hard despite so many of them being poorly. It is almost extraordinary to me to believe they are all disappearing off to their secondary schools after next week, so I am going to make the best of the time we have left together in what is going to be an absolutely jam-packed final week! This week, groups of Year 6 children presented the maths lessons that they prepared together online during our self-isolation. They were AMAZING and I definitely think we have a few teachers in the making in this class!

Well done, Year 6. You are simply great and I am looking forward to spending the remaining five days of the school year with you… sob, sob….

Weald outdoor fun, plus friends old and new

Oh goodness me - YEAR 6 HAVE HAD A SCHOOL TRIP! I can’t believe, after so many months of cancellations and postponements and disappointments, that we have actually managed to have a full day out again.

What fun it was too. We spent a full day at The Weald courtesy of the fabulous Mr Meaney there, one of their senior PE teachers. We were kept very safe, in our own bubble all day long, with our own toilets and water fountain, and took part in team building games as well as orienteering, tent building and bouldering.

It was a beautifully warm day which Mrs Harrison and Mrs Powell loved! At lunchtime, last year’s Year 6 even headed across the school fields to wave hello from a very safe distance, Mrs Powell’s eyes most definitely did NOT water!

Year 6 were fabulously well behaved all day long, polite to everyone and enthusiastic in their approach to everything. I am just enormously proud of them all.

Survival and Sport!

Year 6 have had a very busy week this week - it was our Survival week and the children all worked in groups to make dens. These had to have a cooking area, a sleeping area and a toilet area. One group had to do a late re-design as their toilet was right where their heads would have been at nighttime! The dens were then ambushed by myself and Mrs H using a very handy, very long hose!

We have also learnt how to purify water in a survival situation plus have designed a means of escape from a plane for Captain Eggy McEggface, a British soldier in World War Two, using very restricted materials. Only 6 soldiers perished on the playground, with 17 making it back to the homeland.. Well done Year 6!

We have also hugely enjoyed Sports Week, and I was particularly proud of the children for the way they faced their fears with the visiting Cave Bus.

Journalists descend upon Preston, Australia!

Year 6 have been studying the book, The Watetower, by Gary Crewe, and have created some fabulous front pages reporting the curious events taking place recently in the town. I have added some photos here of some of the children’s work. They are also on display in the classroom. Well done, Year 6, for some wonderful writing!

Johnny and the Bomb!

Year 6 have been enjoying the first read-throughs of our summer production, Johnny and the Bomb! Everyone knows which part they will be playing and, between now and the end of term, quite often, one of the weekly homeworks set will be the learning of lines, both in the play and also the songs for the play.

In the next couple of days, we will be adding the music to either this blog or, more likely, to the Year 6 Google Classroom. Children can, from then on, all practise their songs at home too! We will also be working out what props we might need, as well as what costumes.

We are hoping to be able to put on our play on Wednesday 14 July subject to covid rules - more details to follow nearer the time. The songs are FANTASTIC and very ‘ear worm-y’ ! We are all so excited to be able to work towards holding a production this year - I am keeping everything crossed so that we can show everyone how fantastic this class of children are!

Pom-tastic

Finally, finally, Year 6 have been able to make our fabulous pom pom trees. Inspired by the rituals and importance of blossom and spring time in Japan, we used brown paper bags for the trunks, and used a fork to make our pom poms. Thank you to the Hanauers and the Winderbank Scotts for the inspiration for this lovely art project.

Christmas Pie Charts!

It’s that time of year again! We had done our survey… Sprouts got no votes! Children brought in their own pies and it was time to show the results of the survey on them. This led to lots of very messy protractors and full tummies before breaktime!!

December birthdays already!!

At the end of a busy week, we had the pleasure of our second birthday party in Year 6. Sadly, one of the birthday boys was poorly today so there was just one lucky recipient of THE INFLATABLE BIRTHDAY CAKE HAT!

Year 6 have worked really hard this term and I am very proud of them - it is great seeing them having the opportunity to have fun together.

Year 6 Birthdays!

We were delighted to be able to have our first birthday party of the year for those children in Year 6 with September, October and November birthdays. The classroom transformed into a disco for the final hour of the week - Ollie C and ‘Alphabet’ can certainly move!

Happy birthday to everyone celebrating during this unusual time!

Mayan worry dolls

As part of our well-being week in school, Year 6 have been making very small worry dolls (which links to our Mayan topic as well), We still have a few more to make but we like the ones we have made so far.

Year 6 jelly baby science

Year 6 have been working on how light and sound move; we created a wave machine to demonstrate how energy travels along waves and the way that the amount of energy affects the speed. It is a great visual way to begin to comprehend this aspect of science.