In Guided Reading, Year 6 have used some of the words from our text and have been looking at shades of meaning and putting words in the order of strength and levels of words. This helps us with shades of meaning when we are writing and also gives us some lovely synonyms to use to making our writing more interesting.
This week we focused on the words: govern, vast and agitated.
Year 6 have been learning about how to write a descriptive and engaging paragraph. Through editing they have attempted to apply a range of skills to ensure a great piece of writing. They did this by editing (either independently or with a pair) to ensure the piece of work would entertain the reader through description! By reading each paragraph aloud or talking to a peer, they were able to improve and share great examples.
In year 6 we created a shared piece of writing. Using an image as a stimulus, year 6 identified adjectives, powerful verbs, adverbs, phrases and figurative language. We then used all of these elements to write a paragraph that described the environment.
What did you like about this writing process?
In art, Year 6 have been learning about surrealism.
Surrealism began in the 1920s. It was all about experimenting with imagination. Surrealists were inspired by a famous psychologist called Sigmund Freud. (A psychologist studies behaviour and how people think). He thought and wrote about the mind, memories and human instincts.
Surrealism ‘juxtaposes’ images which don’t usually go together. They liked to put together things that are not normally seen together – such as a starfish and a shoe!
Each pupil had to draw an object/thing from one of the following categories: body parts, fruits/vegetables, kitchen items, animals, plants/trees and items of clothing.
Each group was then tasked with combining these drawings in a way that made a surrealist piece of artwork!
What other unexpected things would you put together? How about drawing a tree wearing a scarf or a squirrel with a monocle?
This week, Year 6 have been learning about electricity! They got to experiment with circuits, trying to connect all of the components in a way that made the bulbs light up!
Through investigation they realised that the bulb wouldn’t light up unless the wires were connected to both the positive and negative ends of the cell (battery), and that the wires were properly attached to the metal parts of the bulb unit. As a greater understanding grew, they then tried to create a problem within the circuit and encouraged a peer to solve the problem in order to make a complete circuit.
Why do you think the wires must be connected to the metal parts of the components? Would the bulb still light up if we connected them to the plastic parts?
We also found out that if we add more bulbs into the circuit, they wouldn’t light up as brightly! Why do you think this is?
Homework this week consists of two parts:
Please see the homework sheet which we will send home with you.
Look at the 6 x table. Do you know it well and can you recall it quickly? Do you notice any patterns (e.g. What happens when you add the digits of each number? What do you notice about the tens and units when you write them out?). Could you design a poster in your book to help others to learn it easily? What division facts do you know with the 6 x table? Can the 6 x table help you learn any other table? How?
e.g. If I were doing an investigation into the 9 times table, I might do the following:
1 x 9 = 09
2 x 9 = 18
3 x 9 = 27
4 x 9 = 36
5 x 9 = 45
6 x 9 = 54
7 x 9 = 63
8 x 9 = 72
9 x 9 = 81
10 x 9 = 90
I can see that the pattern is odd, even, odd , even.
The digits add to 9 (0+9=9, 1+8=9, 2+7=9, etc)
The tens go up by 10 and the units go down by 1
If 1 x 9 = 9, I know that 10 x 90 = 900 and that 0.1 x 9 = 0.9
If 5 x 9 = 45, then 45 ÷ 9 = 5
Do all multiples of 9 have digits that add up to 9? 342. 3+4+2 = 9 and 342÷9 = 38, so it is in the 9 x table (38 x 9 = 342).
Over the last two weeks, we have been learning about electrical circuits. The classes have been investigating circuits by making simple and more complex ones using batteries, wires, bulbs, buzzers and switches.
Today, Eagle class began to learn the symbols that are used when drawing diagrams of electrical circuits. I said we would have a quick quiz before next week’s science lesson and promised to blog the resource we used today. Here it is!
As in previous years, the children in Year 6 are expected to read at home every evening and to record this in their Reading Diaries. Continuing to develop reading skills is a crucial part of Year 6 learning which has an impact across the curriculum. As part of their reading each night therefore, children need to write an appropriate comment which shows their understanding of what they have read. This might be:
There are many other types of comment that would be valid and we have discussed and modelled these in class. Every child has a list of prompt questions stuck into their Reading Diaries which they can refer to if they are feeling stuck about what to write.
Class teachers will check every day that the children have recorded their reading and written a suitable comment. Failure to do so will result in a yellow card warning and subsequently a detention. If you are at all unsure of what is expected, or have any questions at all about reading in Year 6, please do not hesitate to contact your class teacher who will be happy to help.
For homework this week we would like you to do some vocabulary exploration. Write definitions for the following words and then put each of them into an engaging sentence.
environment, frequently, persuade, privilege, recommend
Choose one of the words, and create a Frayer Model based on it – find synonyms, an antonym and draw an illustration as we have been doing in class.
Lastly, choose a word you are unfamiliar with from your own reading book. Find out what it means and then do a Frayer Model for that word too.
In Eagle class today we did some shared writing. This is a process which involves the whole class working together to share ideas, build sentences and construct a joint piece of writing. In this case we began by looking at a photograph from the rainforest. We collected everyone’s ideas for words and phrases that immediately came to mind for describing the picture. We then talked through different ways of structuring our paragraph and creating a series of engaging sentences which flowed together as a cohesive description. Here is our final piece.
