This week year 6 have been thinking about their history and what makes them unique. This weeks theme in writing has been autobiography, we have looked at the features and have read some. We talked about what has happened in our past and they presented their autobiography orally to a small group. Today they will be writing their autobiography, keep your eyes peeled for some examples of their writing coming soon!

This week Year 5 and 6 worked together this week because it was residential.

The week was themed around the Paralympics.

We researched Paralympics, making notes. We then wrote their biography’s. We also wrote a report about the Paralympics, transforming notes into a piece of non-fiction writing.

We did art in the style of Romero Britto, a famous Brazilian artist. We used an atlas to find out where Paralympians were from, we found it hard to find the countries on our world maps even though we tried to be very accurate.

We discussed what it would be like to compete in the Paralympics. We also played sitting down volleyball. It was lots of fun but it was really hard to not move for the ball! 

At the start of the lesson, children worked in talk partners to discuss, ‘What makes me special’. The children then shared with the class what was special about their work partner. This helped the children to build on their speaking and listening skills.

The children then used the Dot Com characters to identify similarities and differences. They worked in table groups to discuss their work and share ideas. Together, they began to understand the importance of respecting each other and valuing a person for who they are.

To finish off the children explored the story ‘Someone Else’s Shoes’. This encouraged a whole class debate, on the meaning, of the sayings, “Don’t judge someone till you have walked a mile in their shoes.” and “What if the shoe was on the other foot?“

Next week, we will be working with the School’s Community Police officers and discussing the various jobs within the emergency services.

Miss Akers

This Week in PSHE, Year 6 worked in groups to develop a better understanding of the Dot Com characters. They worked together to identify key facts about the character and compiled questions they would like to ask them. Confidently, the children were able to discuss why Dot is a good character for children to relate to. The children felt that Dot faced some of the same troubles that they themselves faced, or could face in the future. They enjoyed learning more about Genie, who is Dot’s best friend, and began to look at the value of true friendship.

Next week, Year 6 are going to explore Article 30 of the UNICEF Children’s Rights handbook. “Every child has the right to use their own language, customs and the religion of their family regardless of whether these are shared by the majority of people in the country where they live.”

The children will explore Article 30 and how this relates to friendship.

Miss Akers

Year 6 have been learning about Roald Dahl this week as this would have been his 100th birthday. We have been reading and learning about the BFG.

We solved BFG word problems including converting between different measures.

We had a note from the BFG asking us to make Sophie a chair. We then had to upscale it 4 times to make one for the BFG.

We wrote instructions so we could tell other children how to catch dreams. We wrote our own dreams into a dream jar so it was ready for the BFG to catch.

We made dream catchers to help the BFG catch more dreams. We drew sketches in the style of Quentin Blake and used watercolours to add colour.

On Friday we could dress up as our favourite character from a Roald Dahl book, Mrs Harris came as the BFG and Mrs Webster came as Mrs Twit.

Have a look at some of our costumes:

Year 6 have been looking at the fruits of the spirit, we have been learning about self-control. We defined self-control as when you stop yourself doing something that would be wrong or hurtful. We wrote scenarios about when we have showed good self-control, we presented these to the class.

We discussed that it was not always easy to use self-control in some situations. To show self-control you can pray, count to 10, mediate, walk away or take a deep breathe. This might stop you doing something you will later on regret.

We worked hard to write some poems about self-control. We used dictionaries to check our spelling and a thesaurus to use precise vocabulary. We enjoyed presenting them to the class and even to Mr Ricketts. Below are some examples of poems, find our display to see more of our work.

Year 6 have had a great opportunity this week to work with members of the Birmingham Hippodrome team. Children have worked with the team to create headdresses and back packs which they will wear when leading the Carnival Parade next week. Children have created all their costume pieces with the Brazilian flag colours and have used a range of materials to create the headdresses and back pack. Year 6 have really enjoyed being creative this week. Look at some our hard work below.

Year 6 completed a Maths challenge where they needed to use their problem solving skills and mathematical knowledge to create a Olympic Torch for the 2016 Olympics. Children were split into two groups. Some children completed word problems related to the Olympics and some children worked in small groups and needed to work from a specification to create a Olympic torch. Children were required to use their knowledge of measure, proportion and problem solving skills to complete the task.