The Spider and the Fly
This week, Y6 have been reading The Spider and the Fly – a poem by Mary Howitt. It was written in 1829 and used as a way to entertain but also to warn children about being overly trusting.
Below are some pictures of our reading lesson where we were using retrieval skills to draw the spider, fly and setting.
Don’t we look proud!
Y6 met Liz Pichon!
This morning, we had a surprise video call from author Liz Pichon – who writes the Tom Gates novels.
Liz talked about where she gets inspiration for her stories and how she plans out the novels before writing. She talked us through how she draws the doodles in her stories and we also had a go – what do you think of our bugs?!
Finally, she read an extract from her new book, Five Star Stories.
Living and Learning: protected characteristics
In living and learning this week, Y6 learnt about discrimination, examples of it and its impact on the people around us.
Discrimination is the unfair treatment of people because of who they are or because they have a certain characteristic or characteristics.
Certain characteristics are protected by law and these are:
- age
- being married or in a civil partnership
- being pregnant or on maternity leave
- disability
- gender reassignment
- race
- religion or beliefs
- sex
- sexual orientation
We had lots of discussion about how those involved would feel and what could be done about it. Help at home by asking your child what they thought to these scenarios.
Challenge your child to name all of the protected characteristics without looking, if they can!
Why are green spaces so important?
As geographers, it’s vital to understand the world around you and the many benefits that physical features can provide.
Y6 have been exploring what urban green spaces are, where they can be found and why they’re so important.
Evie said, “It’s not just one person’s job, it’s everyone’s responsibility to keep our locality (like green spaces) clean, tidy and safe.”
This linked nicely with our Living and Learning theme of the week – I know that rights come with responsibilities.
Have a look at some of the fantastic posters explaining the many benefits of green spaces.
Challenge your child to match the benefit we talked about in class to each of the little pictures below!
Super spelling
This week’s spelling has been about contractions.
Help at home by spotting them in your book when you’re reading together.
Today, the challenge was to write some silly sentences which contained contractions. Y6 were great at it – it didn’t take long!
Here’s how they got on…
They’re a bit sillier than normal because we added in the challenge of including this half term’s spellings, too!
Challenge your child to tell you the expanded forms on the contractions within this post.
Autumn term after-school clubs
*Availability update*
Our after-school clubs are available for booking on schoolcomms. Please contact the office if you need any further information or help with booking places. Clubs will begin next week.
Science: classifying animals
This morning, we’ve been learning about the observable characteristics of different types of animals and plants.
In the photographs, children are finding the characteristics of the different types of vertebrates.
If there is something they are not sure about, they’re using iPads to do secondary research to get an answer.
Help at home by discussing our science vocabulary for this unit!
Passing and ‘Keepie Uppies’!
This half term, Y6 have been improving their football skills.
We’ve focused on passing, so far. Check out the clips below – especially the composure of the first person where she found a successful pass in a game!
Passing in a game and practising the skill uncontested.
We’ve also been trying our hand (well, foot) at a personal challenge – how many ‘Keepie Uppies’ can you do?
Check out some of our first attempts below!
Help at home by discussing the best technique for a pass, why a footballer needs to keep fit or what happens to your body during exercise!
Book Club
Y6 Book Club will now be every Wednesday. This is so that it’s closer to homework on a Friday – I’m sorry for the confusion!
In this week’s Book Club, we celebrated the amazing words and phrases we have come across in the texts we’re reading.
We had a lovely, relaxing reading session and made note of and discussed some inspiring vocabulary or words that made us curious.
Help at home by exploring the meaning of words and phrases when you’re reading together at home. Talk about the word class, root word or other sentences you might find it in.
Living and Learning – 8Rs
This week, Y6 discussed the 8Rs for learning. One of them even is mentioned in our school rules!
- ready
- responsible
- risk-taking
- responsive
- resourceful
- reflective
- resilient
- remembering
Challenge your child to match the statements we talked about in class to one of the 8Rs for learning.
- I am on time for my learning.
- I can give my opinion when I’m not feeling too confident.
- I know where to find information and use it in my learning.
- I learn from my mistakes.
Help at home by discussing which Rs you think are most important in different situations, most common or easiest to do / be.