Year 6 - Miss mCLOUGHLIN

Dates For Your Diary

The children will be having 3 special rugby sessions starting on Monday 3rd June and for the following 2 Mondays. The children can wear their school PE kits to school on those Mondays.
The children will have their Leaver's photograph taken on Monday 3rd June at 9.00am
Some children will be visiting the Lambton Estate on Tuesday 4th June - letters regarding information linked to this visit have already been sent home.
The children who are involved in the Sunderland Dance Festival at the Sunderland Empire will continue to have sessions on Friday afternoons. The day of the performance is the afternoon of Thursday 20th June. Parents and carers have received letters giving details of where and how you can buy tickets for the performance. Children who are not taking in the dance have been given the opportunity to watch the performance - letters have been sent home about this.
The children will have their transition days at Southmoor on Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th June. The opening evening for parents is on Monday 24th June. Packs from Southmoor regrading this have already been sent home. The children will come into school as normal on those days and school staff will walk the children to Southmoor, but the children make their own way home at the end of the day. If your children is going to another secondary school, you will have received information from them and the children make their own way to and from their new secondary school on those days.
The Leaver's lunch will be on Monday 15th July and the the Year 6 Leaver's Assembly will be held on the same afternoon at 2.15pm. Letters regarding both of these events will be sent out nearer the time.

summer 2

This term the children will be completing their SATs and then preparing for secondary school. In English, the children will be reading Darwin's Dragons by Lindsay Galvin. They will use the text to help them to write a prologue to the original story. They will research about a creature that Charles Darwin discovered on the Galapagos Islands and produce an information text about it. They will design their own dragon and create their own fact file about it. In Maths, the children will learn about area and perimeter for different shapes and how to calculate them. They will also learn how to calculate volume. They will learn about shapes and calculate the angles in a shape and will explore nets of 2D shapes. In geography, the children will learn about mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes. In history, the children will then about the Sunderland hero, Jack Crawford. In science, the children will then about living things and how they can be classified. They will also learn about evolution and inheritance and the work of Charles Darwin. In art, the children will explore the sculpture of Alan Wolfson and create their own sculpture of a building.

Empire Dance and Mowbray Park

Some of the children took part in the Sunderland Dance Festival at the Sunderland Empire Theatre. The children worked with Danielle, our fabulous dance teacher, to learn a routine to the song 'Never Had a Friend Like Me' from the musical Aladdin. The rest of the children walked into town and had a picnic in Mowbray Park before going to the Empire to support our excellent dancers. The children were very excited and proud to see their classmates perform on the stage. They gave a very loud cheer when the dancers first came into the stage and an even bigger cheer when they had finished dancing.

Yacht Trip

Twelve of the Year 6 children were given the opportunity to take part in a sailing trip organised through the Ocean Truth Trust. The children boarded the James Cook yacht at North Shields and sailed it along the River Tyne, near to the Baltic Art Gallery. They slept on the yacht and then the next morning sailed it back to North Shields. When the children boarded the yacht, they met the 4-man crew and were divided into three watches. The children first found out what to do in case of emergencies, such as a person falling overboard and how to use the life boats. The children were given special oilskins to wear to keep them dry and warm. They were also each given a life jacket and shown how to use it correctly and safely. The children, in their watches, were shown how to tie and untie ropes correctly and how to raise the yacht's sails. The children were able to move freely around the deck of the yacht as they wore a special harness with two clips, that attached to special ropes which run around the deck. As the children set sail, they were each given the opportunity to take the helm and steer the yacht. They also kept watch for dangers in the river and other boats, as well as working as a team to lift the sails. The children then spent the night on the yacht and enjoyed sleeping in their narrow berths. After breakfast, they worked in their watches to get the yacht shipshape for our return journey back to North Shields. The children had a fantastic trip and enjoyed learning new skills and new information. The children also developed working as a team skills.

SPRING 2 and Summer 1

This half term, the children in English will be reading the picture book 'Rose Blanche' by Roberto Innocneti and Ian McEwan and will write a narrative based around the life of Rose. They will also write a balanced discussion text. In Maths, they children will learn about ratio and will begin to use algebra. They will continue to practise their arithmetic skills and problem solving skills in preparation for their SATs in May. They will also be very busy practising their reading comprehension skills and SPAG skills ready for their SATs. In PE, the children will be completing a dance unit and some of the children will be chosen to take part in the Sunderland Dance Festival at the Empire Theatre in June. The children will also continue with their weekly French and Music lessons with our specialist teachers.

Science Lesson at Southmoor Academy

As part of Science Week, the children visited Southmoor Academy to take part in a science lesson. The lesson was all about light and shadows. The lesson began with the children recapping their previous knowledge and about light and shadows. The children then used a ray box, which produces light, to measure the size of a shadow produced by an opaque object. The children recorded the height of the shadow at different distances. The children really enjoyed their lesson and using a new piece of equipment (the ray box). It also gave them the opportunity to experience what lessons in a secondary school would be like.

World Book Day

The children enjoyed taking part in World Book Day in March. The children were invited to decorate a white t-shirt linked to their favourite book or with a book theme. There were some fantastic designs. The children also visited a KS1 class and read to and shared stories with the younger children.

SPRING 1

This half term the children will be reading the historical novel 'Where the Sky Falls' by Phil Earle and will write their own narrative based on it. In Maths, the children will multiply and divide with fractions and will convert between different measurements. the children will also begin to use ratio and scale factors. In history, the children will learn about the Second World War and linked to that in DT, they will design and build a model Anderson Shelter Model. In PE, the children will develop the skills needed to play indoor hockey. In Science, the children will learn about how light travels and how shadows are formed. In RE, the children will learn about the beliefs associated with Hinduism.

World War 2 Day

To celebrate their history unit all about the Second World War, the children took part in a special WW2 Day. The children were encouraged to come to school dressed as an evacuee. Many children did this, but we also had soldiers and even Winston Churchill. Prior to the day, the children made a gasmask box using a net of a cuboid. On the day itself, the children made a model Anderson Shelter model using a range of materials including shredded wheat for sand bags. The children also made an evacuee name label and an identity card. The children learned about rationing and tasted some WW2 style food, such as SPAM and an apple and condensed milk dessert. The children also looked at a range of artefacts and even decoded messages using Morse Code. The children also looked at propaganda posters and designed their own to encourage people to 'Dig for Victory' and 'Make Do and Mend'. The children had a great day and learned lots of new things.

Autumn 2

This half term, the children will be reading 'The Ship of Shadows' by Maria Kuzniar and will write a narrative based on it. In Maths, the children will learn to divide by a 2-digit number and will explore fractions. In Science, the children will be learning all about the human circulatory system including the heart, blood vessels and the lungs. In Geography, the children will be using atlases to locate the countries in Europe and their capital cities. In Art, they will look at the abstract art of two artists and will create their own version of their work. In PE, the children will explore movement in gymnastics. In RE, the children learn about people's views of religion and what their beliefs are. The children will continue to have weekly handwriting and spelling sessions in class.

Calendars

The children made their final calendars that they will take home at the end of the term. The calendars depict the four seasons and the children used paper and pens to show the changing of the seasons on a tree. There was blossom for spring, bright green leaves for summer, yellow and orange leaves for autumn and snow and icicles for winter. The children have a lovely session making their calendars for 2024.

Abstract Art

The children in our Art lessons looked at work by two artists. The first was 'The Silent Polluters' by Koren Shadmi. The second was 'Always' by Pez. The children first considered how these two pieces of artwork were abstract art and then they compared the two pieces. Both of the pieces of artwork have an environmental message and the children considered what these were. The children drew their own version of 'Always' and inside the bottle drew a problem the world faces like climate change or destruction of the rainforests. Using pencils, paint and cardboard, the children produced their own version of 'The Silent Polluters'. Their finished pieces of work are on display in the classroom.

AUTUMN 1

This half term the children in English will be writing a narrative in English based on the story 'Oliver Twist' and will write a range of sentence types. In Maths, the children will read and write numbers up to 10 million identify the value of digits. They will also use factors, multiples and prime numbers and complete addition, subtraction and short and long multiplication and division. In science, the children will learn about circuits and draw and make circuits. In DT, the children will make a toy which uses an electrical circuit. In history, the children will learn about the Victorian era. In computing, the children will consider the role of computers in the past, present and future. In PE, the children will develop the skills and techniques of tag rugby. The children every day will have a guided reading lesson and every week they will have regular handwriting and spelling sessions.

Steady Hand Game

In their DT lessons, the children designed a steady hand game which used a range of electrical components like wires, batteries and clips. This linked to our science topic on electricity. The children worked in pairs to create their game, which either caused a buzzer to buzz or a bulb to light up if your hand wasn't very steady.

Visit to Beamish

In History, the children have been learning all about Victorian England and to bring this to life for them, the children visited Beamish Museum. The main focus of the day was taking part in a Victorian school lesson. The lesson was taken by the headmaster of the school and the children had to refer to him as 'Sir'. The children used a fountain pen and an inkwell to practise their cursive writing. They also added and subtracted using pounds, shillings and pence. The children discovered that school in Victorian England was very different from today. The children also rode on a tram and an old fashioned bus. Some of the children went down the mine and saw the pit ponies. They also cottages that would have belonged to the miners and visited the Co-Op and some of the town houses. The children had a very enjoyable day.

Fun in Science

In Science, the children have been learning about electricity and circuits. The children have learned about the symbols used when drawing electrical circuits and drew their own circuit diagrams. They have thought which items in our homes use mains electricity and which use batteries. They have also made circuits using wires, batteries and bulbs and buzzers. The children also in one lesson saw how batteries can be replaced with lemons to make a buzzer buzz and a LED light glow.