Term 4

Another term of fantastic learning has flown by! Australian Kangaroos have continued with their topic, ‘Frozen Kingdom’ and have now become experts on the polar regions!

English:

In English we have been writing newspaper reports about the recent discovery of the Endurance, Shackleton’s long, lost ship. The class worked hard on using the passive voice and a range of cohesive devices to link ideas within and across paragraphs. We included lots of examples of direct and reported speech in the reports and followed the correct conventions for punctuating speech accurately.   

Guided Reading:

This term we have been practising SATs style texts in preparation for the upcoming SATs reading exams. Pupils have worked hard in increasing their reading speed and using a range of strategies like skimming and scanning to locate and retrieve information quickly.  We have also worked on answering 3-mark questions using evidence from the text to support and justify inferences.

Maths:

We have been learning about how to multiply and divide decimals. We have also learnt different methods for finding a percentage of an amount and have applied these strategies to reasoning and problem-solving questions. We have been focusing on reasoning and problem-solving questions where we have been breaking down problems into steps and applying analytical thinking skills and our mathematical knowledge to solve them.

Science:

Electricity was our focus this term. Through a range of fun practical investigations, we designed circuits, exploring how the number of cells in a circuit determines the brightness of a bulb or the loudness of a buzzer. We used symbols to represent our circuits pictorially and wrote evaluations of our findings.

PE:

In PE this term we have been learning gymnastics and have worked in small groups to put together a sequence that has actions that are matched and mirrored. We have also been learning basketball and have enjoyed learning how to attack and defend as a team as well as developing our passing, dribbling and shooting skills.

Other News:

As part of our topic work exploring the Frozen Kingdoms, we had a guest speaker – Al Sylvester - visit the class. The class was enthralled to hear his stories of his polar expeditions and all the incidental details – particularly how to go to the toilet when in Antarctica! Al was a very inspirational and motivational speaker and the class enjoyed taking part in his dressing up activity trying on all of the polar gear he used to survive in the extreme climate of Antarctica. They got the chance to ask him lots of interesting questions and gained insights into the challenges and wonders of life in the frozen kingdoms. Al's first-hand accounts not only brought the topic to life but also instilled a sense of curiosity and respect for the natural world. The pupils left the session with a deeper understanding of polar environments and a newfound appreciation for the adaptability of the human spirit in such harsh conditions.

Term 3

This term in Australian Kangaroos, we have been exploring the Polar regions as part of our topic ‘Frozen Kingdoms’. We’ve joined Ernest Shackleton’s crew and are on an Antarctic adventure into one of Earth’s most beautiful but dangerous places!

Guided Reading:

In Guided Reading, we have been reading a wide range of different texts such as poems, non-fiction and fiction.  Each week we have focused on a particular reading skill such as retrieval, inference and summarising.  Linked to our topic, we have been reading ‘Brightstorm’ by Vashti Hardy.

English:

This term, we have been using the book ‘Shackleton’s Journey’ by William Grill as a basis for our writing. We have written letters of application to join Shackleton’s crew where we outlined our strengths and skills that would make Shackleton want to take us on his epic journey to Antarctica. We used a wide range of writing techniques such as starting sentences with sub-ordinate clauses and adjectives to make our applications stand out from the crowd.

Maths:

In our Maths lessons we have learnt how to simplify, order and compare fractions. We then worked on adding and subtracting fractions including mixed numbers, multiplying any fraction by a whole number or another fraction and dividing a fraction by a whole number.  We have also looked at the order of operations and applied this to solve fraction problems. The children used their knowledge of the order of operations to carry out calculations involving the four operations.

Science:

In our study on 'Evolution and Inheritance', we explored how data can be categorised as discontinuous or continuous, using eye colour and height as examples. We learnt that, discontinuous data, like eye colour, is divided into distinct categories, while continuous data, such as height, exists along a spectrum.

We created a bar chart to show the discontinuous data of eye colour, showcasing the distribution of different eye colours in our class. For continuous data like height, we constructed a line graph to observe trends and variations across a range of values.

This hands-on approach not only helped us understand the difference between discontinuous and continuous data but also deepened our comprehension of genetic variability and inheritance patterns.

Topic:

We have been learning all about the Polar Regions in our topic, ‘The Frozen Kingdom’ researching the key geographical differences between the Arctic and Antarctic. We’ve learnt about the divisions of the Earth; using latitude and longitude coordinates to locate different places. We have been investigating the diverse characteristics that set the polar regions apart, including their unique wildlife, climates, and geography.

PE:

We have been learning dodgeball and hockey this term. We learnt the key skills involved in these games as well as how to apply tactics when attacking or defending. We also took turns refereeing games, learning to apply the rules consistently and fairly.

Art:

Linked to our topic, we have been learning about Inuit art. We looked at some of the famous Inuit artists and how they create sculptures and carvings based on the resources available to them in the Arctic. We then created some Arctic animal stencils and used these to make our own soap sculptures. This presented many challenges and was a great experience for the class to see how difficult the technique of carving is to master giving them greater appreciation of the Inuit artists who are masters of this technique.

Term 2

We have had a great term in Year 6! The class have worked incredibly hard and are acting as great role models to the rest of the school.

In our English lessons this term, we have been writing balanced arguments to answer the question ‘Should children have been evacuated during World War 2?’ The class researched information about the reasons for and against this and then went about presenting them in a written piece with an introduction and a conclusion. The main focus of the writing was to include cohesive devices (to link their sentences and paragraphs together). The class was able to incorporate a wide range of these.

In our Maths lessons, we learnt about the order of operations, investigating its effect on calculations and considering why it is important to have an agreed order. We learnt how brackets can affect the order of operations. Using these concepts, we completed calculations, solved problems and diagnosed mistakes in calculations. We then moved on to learning how to simplify, order and compare fractions and adding and subtracting fractions including mixed numbers.

In Science lessons, we have started our new topic about Evolution and Inheritance. We have learnt to describe the characteristics of the five different kingdoms and micro-organisms. We have investigated how fossils form and how they give us information about the past.

In our Topic lessons, we have continued learning about Britain at War, linking the end of the First World War to the stat of the Second World War.  We looked at the causes of the Second World War and made a priority diagram about which causes we thought were the most significant.  We have also made timelines of the key events at the beginning of the Second World War. The class split into groups and each group researched a key event at the start of the Second World War. The groups then combined their research to make a human timeline!

Other learning

In Art lessons, we have been learning about observational drawing, where we have produced some detailed pieces, that show line, tone, shading (in the form of cross-hatching.

In Music lessons, we have continued to learn the Ukulele. The class has been learning to play the song ‘You are my sunshine’ using three chords.

In Computing lessons, we have been learning about variables and how they can be used in games to store information that might be changed. We built our own scoreboards in Scratch.

Term 1

Australian Kangaroos have made a great start to the new school year. The class is thriving in their role as the senior year group in the school and they are setting the standard in terms of behaviour and learning for the younger year groups to follow. They have coped well with the transition from Year 5 and have adapted seamlessly to the increased responsibility, accountability and workload required in Year 6.

Guided Reading:

This term we have been focusing on the reading skill of inference.  The class have read a wide range of different text types and have been working on ‘reading between the lines’ to make inferences by using clues provided in the text.  We have looked at different SATs style questions and worked on increasing our vocabulary by reading new words in context; discussing their meaning and using dictionaries to find definitions.

English:

In our English lessons, we've linked our writing to our topic about 'Britain at War'. We’ve written setting descriptions for a bustling train station filled with evacuees. We’ve also written diary entries, immersing ourselves in the experience of being an evacuee. Our focus was on using informal language, writing in the first person, and incorporating advanced punctuation like semi-colons and ellipses. Drawing inspiration from our class text 'Goodnight Mr. Tom', we've also tweaked some characters and settings for our diary entries. Next, we'll be writing a balanced argument, answering the question: Should children have been evacuated during World War II?

Maths:

This term we have worked on place value and the four operations, focusing on multiplication and division. We have learnt to read, write, order and

compare numbers up to 10,000,000 and determine the value of each digit. We are now able to divide numbers up to 4 digits by a two-digit number using the formal written method of short division and long division where appropriate, interpreting remainders according to the context.  We have also been solving addition and subtraction multi-step problems in contexts, deciding which operations and methods to use and why.  The class has been completing daily arithmetic questions to improve mathematical fluency and prepare them for the arithmetic SATs Maths paper.

Science:

This term we have been learning about light. We have carried out investigations and experiments into how light travels and some of the ways it changes through refraction.  We made periscopes to explore how light can be reflected at different angles and created our own rainbows by using water to split white light into its spectrum of colours. The class produced some beautiful detailed scientific diagrams to show the inner workings of the eye. We also carried out an investigation into how white light is made up of a spectrum of different colours by creating our own rainbows

Topic:

Our topic this term has been about Britain at War. We researched and developed our understanding about the fundamentals that were behind the First World War and which countries were involved, as well as the alliances that were formed. We have looked at life in the trenches during WW1 and have researched and written a non-chronological report on this.

Art:

We have looked at how distortion and abstraction is used to create abstract art. We linked this to our topic ‘Britain at War’ and created abstract art pieces based around evacuee children.