This project teaches children about the characteristics and features of polar regions, including the North and South Poles, and includes a detailed exploration of the environmental factors that shape and influence them.

W/C - 18/03/24 - Week 5

English

This week in English, we have had another opportunity to create our own excerpts of a narrative. This has been a chance to use our imagination and creativity and pull together many of the narrative skills we have learnt so far. These include figurative techniques such as metaphor, personification and similes. We have also tried our best to make our writing effective and cohesive by using accurate grammar and punctuation - we have used interesting sentence structures and have made sure we use punctuation precisely to create the best impact on our audience.

Maths

As well as the KS2 assessments, we started investigating area and perimeter this week. We noted the difference between the two, one being the distance around the outside, the other the space covered inside. We calculated area and perimeter on compound shapes and then applied our understanding to triangles. 

Topic

We started our final build for the 'Engineer' topic this week. Trying to bridge an 80cm gap with a freestanding bridge only using art straws, A4 paper and masking tape, each group had to utilise all their knowledge and previous prototypes to create a bridge that matched the design criteria. 

In our history lessons, we looked back at the exploration of the Antarctic. We charted the different expeditions, including the race to the South Pole between Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen. 

W/C - 11/03/24 - Week 4

English

This week, Year 6 have continued to develop the skills needed to write an effective narrative. We developed our use of expanded noun phrases to provide rich detail and carefully planned our independent writing, making sure to include all the skills we have learnt and practised so far. As a result, we have written some great and engaging narratives about exploration in polar regions.

Maths

Year 6 have worked hard this week consolidating our learning on fractions, decimals and percentages. In particular, we have looked at equivalences, converting one to another, and ordering. We have also continued with our weekly arithmetic test practice.

Wider Curriculum

In our wider curriculum lessons this week we have started our new DT project ‘Engineer’. By the end of the project, we would have designed and created our own bridges based upon our findings throughout the topic. This week we have been exploring the different types of bridges, finding out how they are made and the different materials that are used to make them.

W/C - 04/03/24 - Week 3

English

This week, Year 6 have been busy brushing up on our skills for effective narrative writing. We have been developing our use of adverbials to describe time and place, using reported speech, and using the past perfect form of verbs to mark the relationship between time and cause. We will pull these skills together next week when we write our excerpts of an adventure narrative set in a polar region.

Maths

In our maths lessons this week we have continued with our topic of fractions, decimals and percentages. We have been converting given amounts into equivalent percentages, decimals and fractions. E.g., 1/10 – 10% - 0.1.  We have also been ordering different amounts by having to build upon our previous knowledge of changing our given numbers into the same style e.g., percentages, making it easier to identify which amount is the smallest / greatest.

Wider Curriculum

In our Wider curriculum lessons this week we have been creating our final Inuit Art piece. We have been using all the techniques that we have been learning over the term to design our print on Styrofoam, then using acrylic paint to print them onto cartridge paper. We have also continued learning about the Titanic, producing a double page spread to show are understanding of the tragedy and all the events leading up to it, as well as what was taken from the disaster.

W/C - 26/02/24 - Week 2

English

In our English lessons this week, we have been further developing our discussion writing skills. This has included using adverbials to introduce contrasting arguments and dashes to separate clauses to help us plan and draft a balance discussion. Our discussion will weigh the benefits and disadvantages of tourism in Antarctica.

Maths

At the beginning of the week, we looked at how to apply our understanding of multiplication and division using decimals in context. We worked through a range of scenarios, highlighting the important information we would need. After finishing the decimal unit, we have now moved onto fractions, decimals and percentages. We looked at equivalence between fractions and decimals, noting that to convert the fraction you first need a denominator of 10, 100 or 1000. By then dividing the numerator by the denominator, it gives an equivalent decimal. (2/10 = 0.2 or 17/100 = 0.17)

Topic

In our wider curriculum lessons this week we have spent art lessons researching Inuit Art in-particular the Inuit artist ‘Kenojuak Ashevak’. We have been researching examples of her work to inspire our own printing project. We have also been completing some work around the Titanic, looking at why it is such a well-known disaster and the impact it had on Transatlantic travel.

W/C - 19/02/24 - Week 1

English

This week in English, Year 6 have been learning the skills needed to write a balanced discussion. We have focussed on using the perfect forms of verbs, short passive voice and developing our adverbial skills for introducing contrasting arguments. Next week we will use these to write a balanced discussion. Our discussion will be: Should Antarctic Tourism Be Allowed?

What do you think?

Maths

In our maths lessons this week we have started our new topic of Decimals. We have been looking at place value with a big focus being on integers and decimals. We have been doing lots of work around reasoning and problem solving, getting the children to pick out the key pieces of information from the questions before identifying what the questions are asking them to do.

Topic

In our topic lessons this week we have been exploring another historical individual ‘Robert Falcon Scott’. We have been identifying some of the factors that affected Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition and considered how his decisions affected the fate of the expedition, his life and the lives of others. We have also continued to explore ‘Inuit Art’ with the children having a go at being creative this week, experimenting with lines and colours, blending them into one another in preparation for their big piece.

W/C - 05/02/24 - Week 5

Maths

We continued looking at algebra, investigating how to solve equations with missing numbers. We started at the beginning of the week with one and two step equations, using the inverse to help solve the calculations. We then looked at possible answers when we couldn't identify a specific value for the letter, building that up to working with two possible unknowns. 

English

This week, Year 6 have been working hard practising SAT papers on reading comprehension, and spelling, grammar and punctuation. In addition to this, we have had fun creating Blackout poetry - we have using pages from our class novel Northern Lights by Philip Pullman to select powerful vocabulary to create poetic verse whilst ‘blacking out’ the rest.

Topic

 In our art lessons this week we have been looking at using stencils to create some polar artwork. We have been using cartridge paper to transfer our previously drawn designs onto card before cutting them out carefully using knifes to make sure we get every bit of detail on our stencil. We have also been exploring some of the major polar discoveries, using a timeline to plot these in chronological order.

W/C - 29/01/24 - Week 4

English

This week in English lessons, Year 6 have been busy furthering our development of key skills such as colons and using adverbials to link clauses. This has helped us to write cohesive paragraphs that engage our audience. We have pulled this learning together to write non-chronological reports on polar animals. Some of us have chosen to write about existing animals such as Polar bears and Emperor penguins; however, some of us have invented our own. Have you heard of an Arctic Nox, Polar Benguin or a Skelp?

Maths

In maths this week, Year 6 have been learning about algebra. Using shapes, symbols and letters instead of numbers to understand and create formulae and equations has been challenging and fun! Have a look at some of the problems we have been tackling:

Topic

This week in Art, we have started looking at Inuit art and the techniques used to create them. We learned of famous Inuit artists such as Kenojuak Ashevak and gained an insight into the printing techniques used. We have also been exploring more of our electricity topic in science, having a go at making circuits this week, putting in switches, bulbs, buzzers and motors testing different variables to see the affects.

W/C - 22/01/24 - Week 3

English

This week in English, Year 6 have been busy learning the skills needed to write non-chronological reports. We have been adding to our punctuation and grammar knowledge by developing our use of colons, adverbials, and the passive voice. All these skills will help us to write cohesive paragraphs and make our reports about polar animals engaging and exciting for the reader when we write them next week.

Maths

This week, we have been consolidating our knowledge on ratios and proportion. We have applied these skills to geometry, recipes, sequences, and patterns. This will put us in great stead for next week's sequences on Algebra.

Topic

In our topic lessons this week we have been exploring climate change and natural resources. The children have been looking at some of the main causes of climate change and the impact that these are having on the polar regions. They have also explored what natural resources are available in the polar regions and how these can be used for survival.

W/C - 15/01/24 - Week 2

English

In English this week, we have been further developing our dialogue writing and the way that we construct our reporting clauses. We have also had the opportunity to practice maintaining the balance of dialogue we have in our narrative. We will finish this week by planning and writing our narrative using Shackleton’s Journey as inspiration. In this piece, we will have a chance to put all the skills that we have been practicing this term.

Maths

In our Maths lessons this week we have continued with our topic of Ratio. We started the week looking at the relationship between ratio and fractions, this has then built into us using bar models and our knowledge of fractions to solve different ratio questions. We have also looked at scale factors and similar shapes, recapping lots of our prior learning around the topic of shape.

Topic

In topic lessons this week, we have continued with our topic of Frozen Kingdoms. We have been learning about polar climates and have been comparing the Arctic and Antarctic regions. We have also been comparing the polar oceans to the oceans around the rest of the world.

W/C - 08/01/24 - Week 1 

English

This week in English year 6 have built on our dialogue and description writing skills, by using newly taught punctuation such as dashes and techniques to show what characters are feeling rather than telling. We have been using Shackletons journey as inspiration for our writing which ties in with our topic of Frozen Kingdoms. 

We have also started our new book - 'Northern Lights' by Philip Pullman in Guided Reading. 

Maths

This week we have started looking at ratio. We initially described relationships between numbers as additive or multiplicative (2-8 is either plus 6 or 2x4). Taking this knowledge allowed us to scale up or down a relationship whilst keeping the ratio the same (2:1 - 4:2 - 6:3 - 8:4). Finally we learnt how to show this relationship in written form (there are 2 bananas to every three apples) and numerical (2:3). 

Wider Curriculum 

This week we have started our new topic of Frozen Kingdoms. We have been exploring the Arctic and Antarctic, comparing the two and seeing what similarities and differences that we can find. This has given us a great introduction to our topic. In Computing, we started learning about variables, noting that these can change depending on input. In Science, we started investigating components of circuits, noting how the symbols can be used to create diagrams to work from.