Welcome to 6L!

Scroll down to check out of all the learning we have been doing in 6L!

Spring Two!

Welcome back! This half term, our Geography unit is a Swadlincote Study! For our Sensational Starter, we will be going to Rosliston Forestry Centre to explore the physical features of our local area. In Science, we will focus on evolution and inheritance, whilst our key question during RE lessons is 'Is Christianity still relevant today?'. In Maths, 6L will be focusing on area and perimeter, angles and shape. We will continue to explore a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts in Reading, as well as a selection poems. In our Writing sessions, we will be producing a biography of a world-famous explorer and producing a wishing tale.  

Our current class story is The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day by Christopher Edge.

Maisie is no ordinary 10-year-old: she passed her maths GCSE at age six and is now studying for a degree. For her tenth birthday, she's hoping for some essential ingredients to help her build a nuclear reactor. Yet a horrified Maisie finds that her family have disappeared - and outside her house, a dense blackness has appeared which she has no explanation for. How will she find her parents and her sister and bring them back home - and what does all this have to do with her experiment?

Welcome to 2022 6L!

Spring One

Welcome to Spring One! This half term, in Maths we shall be exploring Converting Units, Ratio, Area, Perimeter and Volume. During Writing sessions, we shall be producing a poem, a newspaper report based on a world-famous archaeological discovery and a losing/finding tale. In Reading, we shall be exploring a variety of poems, fiction and non-fiction texts. We will explore the mysterious and fascinating world of Ancient Egypt in History, whilst exploring Light in Science. We will consider 'Is Anything Ever Eternal' in RE and we will discuss our 'Dreams and Goals' in PSHE. Computing lessons will see the children develop their programming skills, as they learn how to program using the Scratch tool. 

Our class book this half term is 'Hatchet' by Gary Paulsen. 

There was a wild crashing sound, a ripping of metal, and the plane blew through the trees, out over the water and down, down to slam into the lake . . .

Brian is a city boy. Not used to living rough. Until his plane crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness. All he has is a hatchet - and a desperate will to survive. Now Brian must learn to live the hard way - or die.

This half term in History, we have been learning about the Ancient Egyptians. Our key question has been 'What is the Gift of the Nile?'. We considered just why the Ancient Egyptians became such a powerful and influential civilisation. The children had great fun making a replica of a 'shaduf' - a genius invention, which helped to transport water from the River Nile. This would help to grow crops in the Black Land (the area besides the river which was suitable for growing crops).  

We learnt about the careful and skillful steps of the mummification process. To help the children imagine this process, we mummified tomatoes! We created a natron solution and delicately preserved the tomatoes. 

In addition, we learnt collaboratively about the Gods and Godessess of Ancient Egypt - Anubis particularly intrigued the children! 

Our Science topic this half term is light. We begun the half term by proving that light travels in straight lines, before conducting an experiment based on shadows. We completed a line graph using our findings, proving that the closer a light source is to an opaque object, the wider the shadow of the object will be. In addition, we proved that the shadow of an opaque object is the same shape as the object that is blocking the light rays.

In addition, we explored refraction (the bending of light) before studying the human eye. Finally, we concluded our learning by creating periscopes, which helped the children to see around corners! 

This half term in Maths, we have been continuing to work on our arithmetic skills. We have focused on percentages and fractions, as well as algebra. In addition, we have studied measurement, concentrating on reading scales and converting between units of measurement (kilograms to grams, for example). 

In Reading, we have been continuing to study a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts, some of which linked to our Ancient Egypt History unit. 'The Dramatic Death of Cleopatra' was a particular favourite! 

In our Writing sessions, we have produced a poem based on the 'Gift of the River Nile', a non-fiction newspaper report on the legendary discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb and a narrative adventure story based on a daring archaeologist. Our sentence stacking lessons have helped the children to broaden their vocabulary! 

Autumn 2

Welcome back! During our writing lessons this half term, we shall be writing a letter to Scrooge for our non-fiction unit and writing an adventure narrative based on the spooky Graveyard Book. In reading, we shall we exploring fiction, non-fiction texts, a particularly gothic poem and a playscript based on a Roald Dahl classic. 6L will be investigating fractions, decimals and percentages in maths, whilst we will look at 'Living Things and their Habitats' in science. Our geography unit is 'We Are Geographers' - we will exploring OS maps and symbols, completing orienteering activities and working on our map skills. 

This half term, our class book is 'The Graveyard Book' by Neil Gaiman.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more.

But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod's family.

A deliciously dark masterwork by bestselling author Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by award-winning Dave McKean

Curriculum

In Reading, we have been continuing to explore a variety of fiction and non-fiction text types. We read a descriptive extract from Neil Almond’s Skellig and the children were asked to draw their interpretation of the garage and the being the narrator discovers within. The children then predicted what the creature is and predicted what they think would happen in the next chapter. Additionally, we studied a text based on the famous British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. The children could not believe what he achieved!

In Maths, 6L have been working extremely hard! We finished off our place value unit, recapping factors, multiples, prime numbers and squared numbers, before moving onto fractions. We have been exploring equivalent fractions, simplifying fractions and next, we are moving onto improper fractions and comparing fractions. 

In Science, we are studying Living Things and Their Habitats. We began our topic by considering the different classifications of livings things that the children already knew. We completed an 'explore' task and the children discussed the similarities and differences between different classifications. After this, we moved onto classification keys. 

In Writing, we have been looking at the famous story of 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens. The children will be writing a persuasive letter to the infamous Mr Scrooge from the perspective of his hard-working employee Bob Cratchit. We have been examining different persuasive techniques and applying them to this festive story. In addition, the children researched Victorian Christmas traditions and reflecting on what Christmas was like for a Victorian family. 

Welcome to Autumn 1!

Welcome back to school! I hope you had a restful summer and that you are feeling positive about coming back to school! This half term, we will be studying World War Two (History), Electricity (Science) and considering ‘What is the best way for a Christian to show commitment to God?’ (RE). We will also be covering E-Safety and Digital Literacy in Computing, whilst we will study ‘Being Me In My World’ in PSHE. In our core subjects, we will be working hard to cover the Year 6 curriculum. In Maths sessions, we will be working on Place Value, Addition, Subtraction and building on our arithmetic skills, whilst in Writing we will be writing a recount based on a wartime evacuation. In Reading lessons, we will be studying a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts based on World War Two.

We weren't supposed to be going to the pictures that night. We weren't even meant to be outside, not in a blackout, and definitely not when German bombs had been falling on London all month like pennies from a jar.

February, 1941.

After months of bombing raids in London, twelve-year-old Olive Bradshaw and her little brother Cliff are evacuated to the Devon coast. The only person with two spare beds is Mr Ephraim, the local lighthouse keeper. But he's not used to company and he certainly doesn't want any evacuees.

Desperate to be helpful, Olive becomes his post-girl, carrying secret messages (as she likes to think of the letters) to the villagers. But Olive has a secret of her own. Her older sister Sukie went missing in an air raid, and she's desperate to discover what happened to her.

Then she finds a strange coded note – a note that changes everything and which seems to link Sukie to Devon, and to something dark and impossibly dangerous.

World War Two Sensational Starter

Wednesday 8th September 2021

Welcome to 1940! The air-raid siren is bellowing, it's ear-splitting drone awakening the cold December night as frightened civilians flee to the safety of their Anderson shelters. The Germans are here...up above...in the sky...

To start off our World War Two History unit, we worked with Historic Workshop to share a wealth of knowledge all about WW2. The visitor played the role of the Chief Air Raid Warden of the Nottingham Division, and it was his job to transport the children back to the times of the Second World War! He was able to take the children back to 1939 and immersed them in interactive activities that made them feel as though they were living in war-time Britain (on the home front). The day was full of enriching and highly engaging work and the children learnt a great deal about life in World War Two. The rare artefacts, including a Morse code machine and an authentic WW2 gas mask, went down particularly well with the children, whilst the sound of the air-raid siren is one that is not easily forgotten...

In History, we used both primary and secondary sources to research the key events of the Second World War. We then placed them in chronological order to create our own timelines. 

We started our electricity unit by completing a pre-learning grid, to see what the children could remember from their Year 4 and Year 5 learning. We then completed an explore activity, giving the children the chance to create firstly simple circuits before the children challenged each other to make the circuit drawn on their partner's whiteboard using the scientific symbols. We then applied this learning by recognising symbols and then drawing our own scientific circuits. 

Fantastic Finale!

We combined our WW2 unit with our electricity unit to create model Anderson Shelters. The children used their knowledge of WW2, circuits and their design and technology skills to make these models. The first stage involved planning out their design and thinking about the materials and equipment they would need. The children then took a visit to forest school to collect any natural materials, such as moss, leaves and twigs, for their design. Next came the building stage. Once their structure was completed, the children painted their models to make them more realistic. To finish, the children used their knowledge of electrical circuits to add a simple circuit to create light in htheir shelter. The children really enjoyed this activity and it helped cap an excellent half term of learning!

Black History Month

For Black History Month, Year 6 learnt about the the life and the achievements of Walter Tull. Walter was the first black professional outfield footballer and the first black British officer during World War One. We learnt about his experiences with racism and the incredible courage and resilience he showed during his life. We discussed the impact of people like Walter and how he has inspired future generations of black British athletes. The children read the book 'Respect: The Walter Tull Story' by Michaela Morgan, before creating a collage based on Walter's life and his legacy. We linked the artwork with Remembrance Day, reflecting on the British heroes who have served their country during wars.