Year 6 Gallery & Work 23/24

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Week 1! - W.B 14.09.23

We have started the topic we have all been waiting for...World War Two.  Surprisingly, our teachers have managed to plan it into nearly every aspect of our learning and we are engrossed.

Our topic began with a touching animation called ‘Beyond the lines’.  We won’t give away too much, but it follows two young boys as they find themselves in the middle of the D-Day landings.  Along the way, we noticed clues such as TVs, rocking chairs and toy trains scattered across the battlefield but why are two children in the middle of a war zone?  All will be revealed once we complete our setting descriptions in the next couple of weeks.

Walk through of WW2

In History this week, we found out all about the key events and dates of World War Two. We created a timeline plotting these in chronological order from when Germany invaded Poland on 1^st September 1939, when the Battle of Britain began in July 1940 then right up to when the war was fully ended by Japan on 2^nd September 1945!

Each week we are focusing on key vocabulary to help with our knowledge. We revisit the key words throughout the week and they are air force, radar, squadron, interception and dictator. We are always looking for opportunities to include them in our work and writing!

Amelia – ‘I did not realise that America joined forces with Britain in 1942! This would have helped to strengthen our fight’.

Nathan – ‘It must have been so nerve-wracking when Neville Chamberlain announced the beginning of World War Two!’

Amazing Art

This week, we have begun to create our own art work in the style of Escher. We sketched out the outline of a landscape and created a vanishing point and a horizon line where the bright colours fade in to the distance. We added detail and are going to build up our skills next week through exploring water colours. Just you wait and see!

Week Beginning 25.09.23

Year 6

Last week in Year 6 we were privileged enough to visit Beamish Museum, which was a fantastic way to really jump start our World War Two topic! During our visit we took part in an evacuee workshop at Beamish farm. This involved us being able to experience what life would have been like for children our age if we were evacuated to the countryside for our own protection. We learnt about the uses of all the different animals on the farm, although did not enjoy the thought of having to clean up after all of them!

We then discussed the procedure if the air raid siren went off, as well as looking in detail at the different types of planes we would need to identify! On top of all this, we were put through our paces as soldiers in the British army, learning different stances and commands. We had an amazing day out and are thoroughly looking forward to diving deeper into our topic over the coming weeks.

P.E

During P.E this week, we have been discussing the importance of balance and hand-eye coordination which we have linked to several different ball games. This has allowed us to improve our reaction and responses through focused skill development sessions. We have used non-traditional game scenarios to encourage healthy competition and to develop skills when working as part of a team!

We played the games themselves at a very fast pace and made sure to introduce new rules to increase the difficulty as we went! This involved changing the ball, making the pitch smaller and reducing the players on each team. We can’t wait to personalise these games further.

Amazing Art

Following on from our landscape sketch in the style of Escher last week, we have begun experimenting with different variations of water colour paints! We spoke about the importance of blending the different colours we are using together to build up to creating our final piece of work. We looked at different examples by a number of artists for inspiration!

Week Beginning 12.10.23

Year 6

Over the past two weeks we have been working extremely hard on our second big write of the academic year! We have been building up to creating a Setting Description based on ‘Beyond the Lines’ focusing particularly on features such as metaphors and personification to bring our writing to life! We discussed the audience and purpose of this piece of writing before starting in order to be as effective as possible!

We loved exploring different sentence types and vocabulary in order to be as descriptive as possible to help the reader really picture the scene themselves. In addition, we have also been researching information on Anne Frank in preparation for our next piece writing, a biography!

World Mental Health Day

World Mental Health Day (10^th October 2023) is a day to talk about mental health and show everyone that mental health matters. It’s also a day to let people know that it’s okay to ask for help, no matter what you’re going through! We discussed the importance of mental health this week and made comparisons to our own lives.

As well as talking about the subject, we created a ‘feel good calendar’! This allowed us to create a positive activity or idea to perform each day in order to help with our mental health. We discussed the type of things that help keep us feeling positive (family and friends) and then shared them within our groups. Following this, we designed our own calendar using vibrant colours to remind ourselves to always stay positive even when times get tough! 

Amazing Art

During our Art lessons this term we have been developing different skills to show variations of landscape work. Moving on from water colours last week, we experimented with different types of shading using pencil, aiming to ultimately create a shadow effect across the overall landscape! We had to think carefully about the different ways to manipulate our pencil strokes in order to create the shadows full impact.

 Week beginning 01.11.23

 Year 6

During the last week before half term, in Year 6 we have been working extremely hard on creating our own periscopes in order to look deeper into our ‘Light’ topic. We used paper, cardboard and of course mirrors to construct our own design in order to observe the light being reflected at both ends! We investigated specific details during this experiment such as how tall we could make our design before you stop seeing the reflection. Did you know that light travelling horizontally meets the first mirror in the periscope at 45 degrees, and bounces off at 45 degrees, making 90 degrees altogether – so it ends up travelling vertically downwards?! 

In addition to this, we have also been busy learning the key factors that led to the start of World War Two. We have already studied in detail the steps in Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and the tactical moves he put in place to be in a position to take over certain countries. Using this knowledge, we created a sequence of events to show a step by step guide leading to the beginning of the great conflict.

Finally, we have also discussed the importance of our mental well being and strategies you can use to manage this! Our feelings and thoughts are our mind’s way of letting us figure out what is going on in our lives and how to react and respond. We shared stories of times where we felt different emotions for different reasons and swapped the best ways we could deal with this in the future.

Week Beginning 13.11.23

 Year 6

Over the past fortnight in Year 6, we have been participating in many practical and fun-filled lessons! Last week, we took part in a Lego workshop with the end goal of designing a building of our choosing based around features of a particular animal. For instance, if we chose a termite for our animal, our building would be based around an elaborate system of tunnels. The combination of buildings and animals allowed us to be extremely creative and add specific elements to our design that no other group would have! We were also encouraged to add recycled materials to our plans, in order for the building to become one with nature.

As well as this, we have also been exploring different types of nutrition facts, ranking burgers with the least and most calories, including discussing what a calorie is itself. From this, we identified different ways to make burger patties, mixing mince with a binding agent (egg yolk) in order to create our own! We then came up with different ways to make our burgers more flavorsome and discussed the safety measures you must use when preparing and cooking with different ingredients! 

We also finished creating our biographies of Anne Frank, a tribute to an incredible and inspirational girl. Finally, on Friday last week in school we took time to remember those who gave their lives for ours and everyone continuing to serve. We made poppies in order to decorate the classroom and stood in silence at 11am to pay our respects.

Week Beginning 27.11.23

Year 6

Super Salsa!

As we approach the run up to Christmas in Year 6, we have been extremely busy in the classroom and as ever working hard! We have built upon our burger making skills this week during Design Technology by making salsa from scratch. For this we used a mixture of citrus juices, vegetables and different spices. In addition, we once again discussed the importance of hygiene and being safe with the equipment you are using when cooking in any measure (no pun intended)!

Judaism

As part of our R.E focus this term, we have been looking at the religion of Judaism and how it is represented in our local community. This week, we looked at the Jewish place of worship, the synagogue, and what different elements it has in order to run weekly religious services and act as a support network. We studied objects inside the synagogue itself such as the Ark (where the Torah is kept) and the Bimah, the raised platform that the Torah is read from by the Rabbi.

The Battle of Britain

During our History lesson this week, we have also been discussing the Battle of Britain and the key role that the RAF played in defending our country against the Nazis. At this time, Hitler’s Nazi Germany dominated Europe; his armed forces had swept across the continent crushing all opposition. Only Britain remained undefeated! We identified new vocabulary relating to this such as interception, air force and radar. From this we compared both sides involved in the battle, looking specifically at their air force; the Luftwaffe on one side, and the RAF on the other. Finally we summarised our information in order to show that the Battle of Britain turned out to be one of the significant turning points of World War Two.