Who will you find in Dragonfly Class?
Mrs Harris (class teacher)
Mrs Alvarez (teaching assistant)
Mrs Watts (teaching assistant)
and …. 31 hard-working children!
Year 6 Summer term pathway 20-21
Year 6 Spring term pathway 20-21
The sun shone and we had a fantastic time at our Sports Day this morning. Below are some of the action shots captured from the morning. The children also enjoyed a sprint race and an ‘egg and spoon’ race. Superb effort from everyone and fantastic concentration when trying to keep the egg on the spoon. We had a great time and the children showed again their fantastic encouragement of each other. Well done Year 6.
Another busy couple of weeks and a fantastic time at Kilve – a selection of photos will follow soon.
In history we have been improving our skills when looking at historical evidence. Building on our use of evidence in the Autumn Term, we considered which sources were primary evidence and which sources were secondary evidence and the advantages and disadvantages of both. We then studied different sketches by Frederick Catherwood of Ancient Mayan sites, temples and buildings to investigate what the evidence told us about Ancient Maya. We even managed to use our maths problem solving skills to help us interpret the evidence: What can I see? What do I notice? What do I already know?
In DT, we have evaluated the designs of Mayan masks and begun to plan our own masks by choosing which style of mask and matching our designs to the key features that the Mayan masks had. We have begun to think about how we will construct our masks: thinking about the type of materials to use, how we will attach different parts and ways in which we can strengthen the mask.
In Computing, we have revisited our learning about collating and presenting data to create our own spreadsheets to compare the key features of a team of superheroes which we invented. We then used the data in the spreadsheet to create a doughnut chart.
We have also enjoyed a visit from Noah’s Ark Zoo which helped to consolidate our understanding of how living things are classified and how they are adapted to their environment. It was great to see our science knowledge in action.
Our Jigsaw this term focuses on Changing Me and we began this topic by playing a game of class bingo where we had to use questions to find people who matched different statements. The fantastic team work and perseverance which was seen at Kilve was needed again to complete the game.
For the Flower Show Year 6 have been asked to write a poem from the perspective of a garden creature on the theme of ‘All Creatures Great and Small.’ We made the most of the good weather by gathering ideas using our senses out on the school field. Our entries will be on display as part of the Flower Show in September.
Wow Year 6 you are in your last half-term at primary school! This week we have made the most of the lovely weather to take our learning outside. In art we were developing our pencil sketching skills by using careful observation to sketch natural objects outside. We chose small objects such as a leaf, a daisy or a snail shell in order to focus in on the detail.
In music we revisited our learning on rhythm notation and used this to compose a piece of music which had two layers. We performed from notation as a class using a steady beat to keep in time and then worked in groups of four to do the same. The result was impressive!
In English we are building on the character descriptions we wrote before half term to convey character in our writing using dialogue and actions. We have explored the character of Lucy in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and considered how this is conveyed in the text. We have used drama to help us imagine how each of the characters: Peter, Susan, Lucy and Edmund might have reacted to finding the wardrobe – acting out what they would have said, how they would have said it and the actions they would have shown. Some of the children had to act like a grumpy, argumentative character and others like a bossy character.
In computing we are finding ways to present data such as using a spreadsheet, creating a doughnut chart and building an infographic. This week we have evaluated different examples of an infographic and have begun to use a spreadsheet to create a doughnut chart.
An important part of our writing in Year 6 is evaluating what we have written and editing it together to make it the best we can. After a long piece of writing, we work in pairs to celebrate our successes and make further improvements. Reading our work out loud to another person really helps us achieve this. We have edited our character descriptions as well as the persuasive information leaflet we wrote linked to our science and PSHE learning on how to live a healthy lifestyle.
In Science we have begun to look at the heart and circulation. As part of this we investigated pulse rate and how different types of exercise affect the pulse rate. We collected data, repeating our measurements three times, and used the average pulse rates to compare the effects of different types of exercise.
As part of the whole school e-safety week, we have explored and discussed the strategies we already have to keep ourselves safe online and improved on these. We used these strategies when we acted out different scenarios which we might have when online and practised telling a trusted adult, keeping evidence, reporting and showing respect. Linked to our PSHE of living a healthy lifestyle, we also looked at our balance of screen time and screen-free time. We considered the different ways too much screen time can affect us physically and mentally and thought about different ways in which we could bring a better balance such as taking breaks more often and screen-free activities such as listening to music, walking, dancing and playing other games.
Having written some amazing discussion texts, we are now concentrating on fiction writing in English and in particular character descriptions. Our new text is a description of Gollum. We have used actions and drawing a text map to help us internalise the text. We have also been exploring the ‘power of 3’. The power of 3 adjectives, the power of 3 nouns and the power of 3 verbs.
In maths we have been using our knowledge of finding the area of rectangles to find the area of triangles and parallelograms using the ways in which they are similar. We explored the different areas using squared paper.
As part of Mental Health Awareness week, we have taken time to be still, listen, look up, look around us and focus on nature. We noticed how calm these things made us feel and how it only takes a few moments of noticing the nature around us to make us feel more at ease.
We have used our history topic of the Ancient Mayan Civilisation to revisit our Geography skills of using maps and map keys to locate places. It also helped us revisit our knowledge of the continents and northern and southern hemispheres.
In computing we are learning how to create both linear and non-linear presentations. We used the app Keynote on the ipads to begin to explore how to use a range of features such as different fonts, animation and inserting photographs. We have begun to evaluate how we can make effective use of different features.
Over the last few weeks we have been incredibly busy in a wide range of subjects in school as we finished exploring our topic of ‘Where is our place in space?’ and our new topic of ‘What lies hidden beneath?’. In English we are building on our persuasive writing skills to write discussion texts ; clearly explaining different viewpoints and giving additional information to support those. In Maths we have explored ratio to solve problems and convert between miles and kilometres.
In history we have explored the chronology of the Ancient Mayan civilisation and how that fits alongside other key periods in history.
We have been busy in computing using databases to search for information and present it as a line graph using an app on the ipads. We have also learnt how to effectively search the internet and how a search produces results and ranks the results which we then see.
We have also been busy collecting and presenting data in Geography whilst investigating the area, population and average rainfall in a range of countries. We investigated whether there was a difference in rainfall between northern and southern hemisphere countries.
As part of our music learning we have learnt how to read a range of rhythm notation and compose and perform short pieces of music using a range of rhythms.
Our learning in MFL has focused on revisiting how we greet people and learning how to ask for items in a shop. We have focused on speaking and writing simple sentences to hold a short conversation.
How lovely to be back! It has been fantastic to see the way that you have returned to school Year 6 – lovely to see you all and to hear all the excited chatter at being back and wonderful to see how quickly you have settled back into great school learning behaviour. In our first week back we concentrated on understanding what makes brilliant learning behaviour and investigated the differences in fixed mindset and growth mindset and how we can be active learners rather than passive learners. We linked growth mindset to a rich tea biscuit! We completed an experiment with a hobnob biscuit and a rich tea biscuit being ‘dunked’ several times into a cup of tea. The hobnob biscuit didn’t last long – it crumbled and fell apart. However, the rich tea biscuit grew before our very eyes ; it soaked everything up ; it was stretched and challenged but took all of that on board and grew because of it. We have decided to be like a rich tea biscuit in our learning – we believe we can improve and grow our learning and we will be resilient learners who don’t give up.
One of our favourite times of the week is the start of Jigsaw when we ‘still’ ourselves through listening to a chime and focusing on our breathing and being still. It makes a real difference.
At the end of the first week we enjoyed celebrating World Book Day. As well as dressing as book characters, we explored the book ‘The Colour Monster’ using our descriptive writing skills to ‘show not tell’ emotions. In Maths we constructed a bar chart of our favourite colours which helped us to revisit our previous learning about equal fractions, the number of degrees in a full circle and how to draw angles with a protractor. We definitely used our ‘rich tea’ resilience to accomplish the pie chart.
We continued our learning about our solar system in science by understanding our the earth’s rotation on its axis causes day and night. To help model this we used a ball, a torch and a blob of blutack! Having explained what happens, we were able to represent the cause of day and night with a scientific diagram and complete a written explanation. Linking Computing, Geography and Science, we have used an online data base to search for information about sunrise and sunset times in countries in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere and plot this information on a line graph.
As part of our learning in MFL, we revisited how we greet people in French and began to use simple phrases and sentences linked to shopping. We revisited our learning about the different determiners used in French when words are either masculine or feminine. In Music we listened to our music of the half term which is The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky. We reminded ourselves of the meaning of the 7 musical elements: duration, dynamics, tempo, pitch, texture, timbre and structure and explained how they were used in the piece of music.
Some more great learning over the last couple of weeks Year 6 – hard to imagine that you now have less than half a year left in Year 6. It has been lovely to hear which secondary school you will be going to and lovely to see you so happy about that.
Our maths learning both at home and in school has been focusing on measures and using our previous skills and knowledge of multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1,000. Both at home and at school we enjoyed estimating using different units of measure and explaining how we worked out our estimate. We have also explored the meaning of volume and how that can be calculated. In school we used cubes to create shapes with different volumes including some shapes where the cubes appeared hidden from sight therefore enabling us to use the key questions of ‘What can I see?’ What can I not see but already know is there?’ and ‘How do I know?’
You have been putting your creative and persuasive skills to good use in English. Having invented a whole new planet and built a factfile about it, you have written some fantastic letters to an editor of an intergalactic travel magazine to persuade them to include an article on your planet. You are indeed very persuasive – I think I may have to visit them all – especially the ones involving chocolate!
This week we have explored the lines of latitude and longitude in Geography and used these to locate countries around the world as well as revisiting our knowledge of the continents and how to use an atlas. We have also explored simple sentences in French linked to school subjects and reflected on two of the key beliefs of Islam and our own beliefs.
Learning both at home and at school has continued to make me very proud of Year 6. Our class book sessions on TEAMS are one of the highlights of our day as we enjoy each other’s company but also enjoy Kensuke’s Kingdom. The language in the book is fantastic and there are many cliff hanger moments as well as some fantastic discussion about why some events have happened and what might happen next.
In Maths we have continued our focus on calculating with fractions and begun to convert fractions, decimals and percentages which has helped us recap our understanding of decimals. I am really proud of the explaining which I see in your Maths work both at school and at home. You wrote some fantastic stories based on the warning tale ‘Staying Out’ which I enjoyed reading and I am particularly proud of the improvements in your use of cohesive devices – well done Year 6. We have begun to look at an explanation text – The Teacher-Pleaser Machine and have explored this different, more formal, style of writing. To introduce the text, we invented our own machines and created them using people.
In Science we have begun to explore our solar system researching facts about our sun and moon and the planets within our solar system. To help us recall the phases of the moon we have recorded the shape of the moon across a month and to help us understand why there are different phases of the moon, we acted out the moon’s orbit around the Earth.
Welcome back Year 6 – not quite the start to term we may have been expecting but I am so proud of everyone’s efforts since the start of term. You are all working incredibly hard with your home learning and school learning and I am really enjoying seeing and reading all of the work you are uploading. The highlights for me so far this term are seeing you at the different meetings on TEAMS and also seeing how you are helping each other – and me – negotiate the work on TEAMS.
Our plan for the term is attached as a link above and already we have begun to look at some aspects of our solar system and will continue with this over the coming weeks. In Music we have been listening to music from ‘The Planet Suite’ by Gustav Holst and have used our understanding of the different musical elements (pitch, duration, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture and structure) to describe what we hear and reflect on how those elements have been carefully chosen and combined to create different moods in the music. We have used these ideas to create images which represent the music in art work in the style of Kandinsky.
In Maths we have continued with our learning about fractions and have been focusing on calculating with mixed numbers and improper fractions. In English our new Talk 4 Writing text is a warning tale called Staying Out. In school we enjoyed working together to create actions to help us remember the story and the key words and phrases which will help us with our writing. This week we have begun writing short paragraphs to develop our skills of description and using a range of sentence openers. I am enjoying reading your work which shows how you can use effective word choices to convey mood. Well done Year 6.
Year 6 UKS2 Autumn term 20-21 pathway
Your suspense writing was fantastic Year 6 : I really enjoyed reading your descriptions and the ways in which you created suspense. Continuing our focus on conveying mood, emotion and atmosphere through description, we read a range of different extracts from books which described evacuation. Using drama, we explored all the different ways it was possible to ‘show’ emotions so that when we wrote we could use ‘show not tell’. We used a range of senses to describe what is was like inside a railway station waiting to be evacuated and combined this with ‘show not tell’ to write some fantastic diaries. We have also worked on our editing skills to ensure that our writing is the best it can be.
In history as well as placing key events from WW2 in chronological order on a time line, we have also used a range of primary sources to investigate an historical question. We discussed the difference between primary and secondary sources of information and compared the advantages and disadvantages of both.
In computing we have used the ipads to take photographs recreating our art of the half term sculpture: The Thinker which we then uploaded and edited. This was great fun. We have also explored how information is transported on the internet which was incredible and nearly blew our minds!
Linked to our History study of WW2 we looked at a range of pencil sketches completed by Henry Moore and used a range of pencil skills to create sketches in a similar style.
We are loving our class book: Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll (a local Somerset author). We are close to the end of it but will miss it when it is finished. It has been so good!
Welcome back Year 6! The last 2 weeks have gone by so quickly. I am really proud of how well you have settled back into school and the work that you have completed. Over the last 2 weeks we have enjoyed our new Talk 4 Writing story called The Old Mill and have written some fantastic suspense description and even explored figurative language in our writing. I look forward to reading your own stories over the next few days. In Maths we have been learning how to use bar modelling to represent word problems in order to choose the correct calculations to solve the problem. As part of this we are joining in with Barvemeber for this month and spending additional time during the week solving problems. I’m really impressed with your bar models and the complexity of problems we are solving.
In Science we have explored light and used some simple experiments to prove and explain that light travels in straight lines. We have also explained how we can see objects because light travels in straight lines and is reflected by objects.
On Wednesday we joined with the school and our community to reflect and remember on Remembrance Day. In class we reflected on the sacrifices others have made, our thanks for all they did and how we could choose to live in order to honour their memory. It was a lovely to be able to visit the village memorial garden in the afternoon to be quiet, reflect and place our poppies around the memorial. Thank you for such a special, respectful time Year 6.
Wow! The first half term in Year 6 is nearly complete! You have made such a fantastic start to your final year in primary school. As I marked your books yesterday, I reflected on how much progress you have made and on how much work you have completed. It is lovely to see the care you take with your handwriting and your presentation – well done Year 6.
Over the last couple of weeks, we have been busy with science and experimenting with and explaining different forces. We have investigated gravity, air resistance and friction and learnt the importance of careful planning and accurate measuring when we complete an experiment. We have also developed our understanding of the term variables in an experiment.
We have been incredibly busy in Maths this half term learning about place value in whole numbers and in decimals, developing our use of written methods and estimating to check answers and how to calculate with negative numbers. I have really enjoyed hearing your explanations about why a question is correct or incorrect and hearing your reasoning as you work. Amazing! In English, we have completed our own defeat the monster stories and worked in partners to support each other to edit the punctuation, sentence openers and use of conjunctions to make even more progress with our writing. I loved reading them Year 6 and I look forward to reading your non-chronological reports all about different Quantock dragons.
Our first Talk 4 Writing text of the year is Beowulf and we are learning how to write a defeat the monster tale. We began by retelling the tale using actions to help us remember the key parts of the plot. We then looked at the different features of the text and the range of different writing techniques that were used. Last week, we put these into practice as we wrote our own versions of a class tale about a dragon called Grindfore who lived in a dormant volcano on the Icelandic island of Surtsey. Despite Grindfore’s best efforts to destroy the village leaving himself living in peace and solitude inside the volcano, the viking hero Ragnar defeated him. We worked hard to make language choices to convey atmosphere to our readers and to describe the different characters of Grindfore and Ragnar. Year 6 you have already made fantastic progress in your writing and I can’t wait to read your own individual stories this week.
We have continued our learning in Geography by using the 8 points of the compass to describe the relative location of different places on the Quantock Hills. Some even accepted the challenge of using 16 points of a compass. We built on our skills of interpreting a simple map key by interpreting the symbols used on an OS map. Using a section of the Quantock Hills OS map and key we described the different physical features of the landscape at different places such as Crowcombe Park Gate and Shervage Wood. For an additional challenge, some of the class also interpreted the contour lines on the OS map and were able to describe whether someone would be walking up or down hill and how steep the gradient would be.
We have also been creative by recreating part of the picture of the term which is Autumn Landscape with Four Trees by Vincent Van Gogh. In this artwork, he focused on his use of colour which gave us the opportunity to build on our colour blending skills. We also focused on using different brush strokes and techniques to mimic his painting style. The results were impressive and several are on display around school.
Welcome to the start of a brand new year! The last 2 weeks have already flown by and I have been incredibly proud of the way that the children have settled back into the routines of school and with the fact that they are already demonstrating fantastic learning behaviour.
In our Jigsaw sessions we have concentrated on how we felt about returning to school, our hopes and goals for the year and the importance of having a growth mindset which always tries and never gives up. We discussed many different quotes which help us to reflect on growth mindset but one already used quite a bit is, ” It’s okay not to know but it’s not ok not to try” followed by “Success lies upstream – you cannot drift there.” Dragonfly Class I can tell that this is going to be an amazing year – I am already proud of you. Keep going with giving everything your very best effort.
Our learning pathway shares the areas of the curriculum we are focusing on this term. Last week we enjoyed an introduction to our topic of ‘Whose Footsteps are we Following in?’ (focusing on our local area) by exploring the humble – yet potent and powerful – whortleberry. Already we have developed our skills in: Art, Music, Geography, Computing, Reading, Writing and Maths. We have been busy. Great work so far Dragonfly Class – keep it up!
