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Year 6
To contact Miss Jordan please email mjordan@cashesgreen-pri.gloucs.sch.uk
Reminders:
P.E. - Our P.E. lessons are every Monday this term (term 4). If they are in school, children need to come to school dressed in their P.E. kit with suitable footwear on this day.
Reading Records - signatures will be counted each Thursday. Children can read to themselves but the record must be signed by an adult.
Homework - Homework will be set on a Friday after school and needs to be submitted online (SeeSaw) by the following Thursday at 9am.
Terms 4 and 5 - Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling
Our topic over the next two terms is Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. Please see below for a synopsis of the story and an overview of what we will be learning in each subject this term.
Harry Potter Synopsis
After the misery of life with his ghastly aunt and uncle, Harry Potter is delighted to have the chance to embark on an exciting new life at the Hogwart's School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. Learning about magic and making new friends, he has the chance to use his new-found wizarding skills to unravel some of the mysteries of his own past - and to uncover some shocking secrets about his teachers.
Class News
Monday 3rd March 2025
We have had a good start to the new term and have really hit the ground running. We have already spent a lot of time reading our new focus text for the term, Harry Potter. This week in our English work, we will be using what we've read to write descriptively about Diagon Alley. In Maths we spent some time recapping the standard written method for division to continue to build our confidence. In Science we spent time in Professor Jordan's Potions Class where we were investigated the effect that different liquids had on unicorn poo (raisins). Sadly, our investigation was VERY SLOW and we spent a long time watching the potions before anything finally happened! As we are now in the build-up to our SATs test we will be spending time working on test techniques and completing tests this term. We did our first Maths one last week and had a really good go at it.
Term 3 - Virginia Wolf - Kyo Maclear
Our third topic for this year is based around the book Virginia Wolf by Kyo Maclear. We have a whole school mental health focus this term. Please see below for a synopsis of the story and an overview of what we will be learning in each subject this term.
Virginia Wolf Synopsis
Vanessa’s sister, Virginia, is in a “wolfish” mood — growling, howling and acting very strange. It’s a funk so fierce, the whole household feels topsy-turvy. Vanessa tries everything she can think of to cheer her up, but nothing seems to work. Then Virginia tells Vanessa about an imaginary, perfect place called Bloomsberry. Armed with an idea, Vanessa begins to paint Bloomsberry on the bedroom walls, transforming them into a beautiful garden complete with a ladder and swing “so that what was down could climb up.” Before long, Virginia, too, has picked up a brush and undergoes a surprising transformation of her own.
Class News
Friday 14th January 2025
A big thank you to those of you who were able to attend our final ever class assembly on Friday! We gave a sample of what we have been learning about in class with a big focus on how we can take care of our mental wellbeing. In English we have been busy writing an advice letter to Virginia (the main character from our class text) advising her on how what she could do to try to help her feel better. We linked this with our Computing skills as we used the laptops to type out our work. In Maths we have finished our algebra unit of work and have now moved onto exploring decimals. In Art we have created our final pieces of work inspired by the work of Romero Britto. We had to think of things that are important to us and incorporate those things into our artwork whilst following a success criteria linked to the work of Britto (yellow, a heart, black outlines, vivid colours and patterns). In Science we have been exploring the affect of exercise, diet, drugs and alcohol on our bodies. We had a look at some imaginary characters lifestyle and wrote what would happen if they carried on with this lifestyle and our recommendations for them based on what we had learnt. In Computing we've been living our best lives using Excel! This week we were given the task of planning an imaginary party. We were given a budget per person and then had to decide what we were going to have at our party (venue, activities, food, drinks, etc). We then used formulas to calculate all of our costs. Some of us found that we came in under budget and so we can add more items to our parties and a few of us found that we were over budget(!) so we have to adjust our items accordingly.
Friday 31st January 2025
Over the last couple of weeks in English we've been working really hard on our narrative unit. After we spent time exploring the book Virginia Wolf, we planned our own stories using the story as our structure. We had to think of an animal that our main character could be likened to after waking up in a bad mood. We have now finished our stories and have proceeded some really good work. As well as being authors this week, we've also been illustrators as we've been adding pictures to our work as we go. In Maths we've been working on our algebra unit and we've been doing incredibly well! In Science we have continued to learnt about the human body, in particular the heart. Today we have carried out a heart rate investigation where we've explored what happens to our pulse rate when we exercise. We had to record our pulse rate after carrying out a series of tasks (sitting, walking, jogging, running, etc). We then plotted our results on a graph. In Art we've continued our learning about the artist Romero Britto. Last week, we recapped our previous learning about primary, secondary and tertiary colours and had a go at continuing and designing our own patterns. This week, we were exploring working with a range of mediums (oil pastels, felt tips, crayons, colouring pencils, biro and fine liners) on a range of different surfaces (paper, card, corrugated card, plastic, sugar paper and tissue paper). We made notes about our thoughts and experiences as we went. This will then inform our next lesson where we will be designing our final piece of artwork and will need to make choices about what mediums and surfaces we're going to use. In Computing this week we've been learning about formula in spreadsheets. We had a go at inputting formulas into Excel to generate the cost of going on a trip by multiplying the number of miles by the cost of fuel.
Wednesday 15th January 2025
We have had a good (and busy) start to the new year so far. We spent part of our first day back exploring our new book for the term Virginia Wolf. To begin with we were just given the pictures from the story and had to put them in the order we thought then went in and make up the story. Once we'd done this we read the whole story and found that lots of our predictions were correct. In English last week we wrote a synopsis of the story and this week so far we've written a diary in role as Vanessa talking about her sister's mood and how she tried to help. Eventually we will be creating our our imaginary worlds and then writing our own version of the story based on these. In Maths we have started our ratio unit of work and we are doing AMAZINGLY well with it and our confidence is soaring! In Art we have begun studying a new artist - Romero Britto. We learnt that he is a pop-artist that was inspired by cubism. He started the Happy Art Movement and wants to use his artwork to spread positivity and make people feel happy. We will eventually have a go at creating our own piece of art in his style. In Science we have started off by learning about the circulatory system and how it works within human. We learnt about the functions of the different components - the heart, lungs, veins, arteries and blood vessels. We ended this lesson by having a go at making our own blood - check out the photographs of this below. Although it was a little bit gross we had a good time and learnt about what makes up our blood and the roll they play in our bodies. Last week in Computing we started our spreadsheets unit of work and had a go at inputting data into a basic spreadsheet.
Blood: Plasma (water with yellow food colouring), red blood cells (Cheerios dyed red), white blood cells (yoghurt covered raisins) and platelets (Rice Crispies).
Term 2 - The Last Bear - Hannah Gold
Our second topic for this year is based around the book The Last Bear by Hannah Gold. Please see below for a synopsis of the story and an overview of what we will be learning in each subject this term.
The Last Bear Synopsis
There are no polar bears left on Bear Island. At least that's what April's father tells her when his scientific research takes them to this remote Arctic outpost for six months. But one endless Summer night, April meets one. He is starving, lonely and a long way from home. Determined to save him, April begins the most important journey of her life...
Class News
Monday 25th November 2024
In Maths lessons we have been continuing to work incredibly hard on our fractions unit of work. We are getting more and more confident with being about to add and subtract with fractions and will continue to go over this often. Next we will be moving on to multiplying and dividing with fractions (which is much easier than adding and subtracting!) In English we have completed a fantastic piece of work on conveying character through dialogue and creating atmosphere. We wrote an interaction between April and Bear from our story but had to think carefully about how we would do this when only one of the characters can talk. We had to portray Bear's side of the conversation through his reactions to April after she spoke. Everyone produced fantastic work and presented it beautifully in our English books. In our History and Geography lessons we have been learning all about the explorer Ernest Shackleton. We have started off by finding out about his famous Trans-Antarctic expedition (1914 - 1917) aboard his ship Endurance. We were amazed to find that despite everything they went through, Shackleton and his 28-strong crew all survived the epic 'adventure'. Last Monday we went on a trip to Cotswold Wildlife Park to kickstart our Science unit of Living Things and Their Habitats. Whilst there we had a talk from two of the Park's Keepers about classification and had a go at classifying some of the animals that we saw. Check out the photographs from our trip below. Since returning to school we have learnt about the Linnaean system of classification and have recapped our prior learning on the criteria for each of the groups (mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians). Next we are going to be moving on to exploring classification keys and having a go at making a few of our own.
Monday 11th November 2024
We have had a good first week back which has been packed full of learning! We started off by exploring our new book, The Last Bear. We are really enjoying it so far and are already over 100 pages in, by the end of the first week! In English we wrote a logbook entry in role as April (the main character from the story) detailing the adventure she was about to go on with her father. In Maths we have started our fractions unit of work. Fractions can be tricky but we are working hard in our lessons. In Computing we carried out an online safety lesson which focused on self image and identify. On Thursday we were very lucky to be visited by the London Sinfonietta Orchestra who we did a fantastic workshop with. As a class, we composed a piece of music which told the story of The Last Bear up to where we've read so far. We even got to perform this to the whole school in an assembly in the afternoon. It was a fantastic experience to be able to work with professional musicians. In D.T. this term we are going to be creating our own hand-sewn Christmas tree decorations. In our first lesson we selected an existing decoration and described the features of them. Next week we will be designing our own decorations which will be ready in time to go on our trees or up for decoration.
Last term we made drawstring bags in D.T. which have now all been sent home. Check out the photographs of us with our bags below.
Term 1 - Who Let the God's Out - Maz Evans
We have had a super start to the year with our new Year 6s. They've started the year off really well and are ready to learning. They are already being good role models as they are now the oldest children in the school.
Our first topic this term is based around the book Who Let the God's Out by Maz Evans and our primary focus is Ancient Greece. Please see below for a synopsis of the story and an overview of what we will be learning in each subject this term.
Who Let the God's Out Synopsis
When a shooting star crashes to earth, it lands Elliot smack bang in the path of Virgo - a young Zodiac goddess on a mission. But when the pair accidentally release Thanatos, a wicked death daemon imprisoned beneath Stonehenge, they’ve got nowhere to turn for help but to the old Olympian gods.
These gods are used to getting their own way and they’re more than capable of creating a little chaos themselves. After centuries of cushy retirement on earth, are Zeus and his crew up to the task of saving the world - and solving Elliot's problems too?
Class News
Monday 21st October 2024
Over the past two weeks in English lessons, we have written instructions on how to kill the mythical creatures from our stories and have written a past tense report all about some of the Ancient Greek City States. We drew upon our knowledge from previous History lessons to help us with this. Our writing was split up into three sections about different City States - Athens, Sparta and Corinth. In Maths we have been working incredibly hard over these past few weeks developing our ability to carry out long multiplication and have learnt several different written methods for division. We have learnt how to use short division, division using factors and long division. Lots of us found long division tricky but we gave it a really good go! In Science we have learnt about adaptation and how living things have changed over time. To help explore this concept we read a book called How the Borks Became and looked at how these imaginary creatures changed over time due to their ever changing environment. In D.T. we have been busy using a sewing machine to create our drawstring bags. We have been taking it in turns to work with Miss Stanley and Mrs Taylor to work on these. We're hoping to have them all finished this side of half term so we can bring them home. In Computing we have designed our own 'falling' games and are in the process of adding the code to them so that they are fully-working games.
Monday 6th October 2024
We have had a busy couple of weeks in Year 6. In our English lessons we've been working very hard on writing our own Greek Myths based on the structure of Theseus and the Minotaur. We developed our own heroes, mythical monsters and quests that needed to be fulfilled within our stories. Next week we are going to be moving on to writing instructions on how to kill the monsters from our story. In Maths we have been working really hard this past week on the standard written method for multiplication with a particular focus on long multiplication. We are getting there and will continue to practise in class. In Science, following on from our workshop with the Natural History Museum, we have been learning all about inheritance. We used Mr Men and Little Miss characters for this. We picked a mother and a father and drew what their offspring might look like based on inherited characteristics. Before completing our work on our book, we had a go on whiteboards - check out photographs of what we did below. In Computing we have been learning all about variables within games. We know what a variable is and what types of different variables can be added to a game (score, lives, time) and have had a go at putting these into some pre-made games. This week we will be starting to design our own games in which we will need to add variables. In D.T. we have continued to learn a range of different hand stitches - running stitch, back stitch, blanket stitch, cross stitch, zig-zag stitch and had a go at sewing on a button. We will be moving onto having a go at using a sewing machine soon.
Wednesday 18th September 2024
What a fantastic few weeks we have had to kickstart our first topic of our year. We spent our first couple of days exploring our new book and did our first piece of writing for the year. We wrote diary entries in role as one of the main characters from Who Let the Gods Out. Over the last week we have begun exploring Greek myths in our English lessons. We have read a few different myths and discussed the common themes of them (a hero, an evil King, a quest, a ferocious beast to overcome, etc). We will then use what we've read to write our own myths next week. In Maths we've been off to a flying start with our place value unit of work which we are almost at the end of. In History lessons we started off by looking at the chronology of Ancient Greece and where it fits in amongst other periods of history we have studied at school. We have then gone on to learn about democracy and how the Ancient Greeks were the first to develop a democratic society. We compared democracy in Ancient Greek times to democracy in our country today. In D.T. we are exploring textiles this term. In our first lesson we spent time exploring a range of different textiles, focusing on the different stitches used to join the pieces of fabric together. In last weeks lesson we spent time practising threading needles and tying knots before moving on to completing a running stitch. We will continue to have a go at a range of hand stitches over the coming weeks before moving onto our final project. Finally, our Science unit on 'Evolution and Inheritance' kicks off this week with a virtual visit from the Natural History Museum in London.