As a part of our Islamic art topic, we have carved our own lino tile and used it to print a repeating pattern. We were impressed with the children's focus and skill when it came to working with the carving tools. You will be able to see our final work displayed at the Celebration Assembly on Tuesday 19th July.
What a busy week we have had in Year 6! In art, we have built on our knowledge of Islamic patterns and created a design for our lino cut. In PSHE, we have been learning about the effects and dangers of legal and illegal drugs. In computing, we have finished our data handling and spreadsheet topic and have now begun coding. In history, we have used concurrent timelines to aid our understanding of British and world civilizations. Not to mention maths, PE and production rehearsals!
Year 6 are enjoying learning about geometric patterns within Islamic art. During our initial lessons, we have looked at how these patterns were used throughout the early Islamic civilization on tiles, building, ceramics and carpets to name but a few. This week we focused on tessellation, which is an arrangement of shapes closely fitted together in a repeated pattern without gaps or overlapping.
In science this week we have been investigating pulse rates.
Today we have celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Queen's reign. Across the day we have learnt about the Commonwealth, the Coronation and the evolution of technology throughout the Queen's lifetime.
Last Friday, we were lucky enough to have a visitor, Mr Vine, to talk to Year 6 about becoming a director for Disney. He spoke to the children about his ambitions as a child, the way in which he uses story boarding and how important it is to surround yourself with talented people and learn from them. We then, with a side of popcorn, enjoyed watching his latest Disney film 'Ron's Gone Wrong'.
This week, Year 6 have been demonstrating their knowledge and understanding of spelling, punctuation, grammar, reading comprehension and mathematics by completing their Year 6 SATs. We have been incredibly proud of the children as they all worked systematically through the papers and tried their very best; they have shown incredible determination, perseverance and resilience.
This week, in Maths, we hunted for mathematical treasure - solving reasoning problems in a fun way.
The children of Year 6 have worked incredibly hard throughout their gymnastics unit and this week they were able to combine all of their skills in their final springboard jump.
Across the unit, the children have learnt a range of jumps (including pike and straddle) and they also learnt how to use the springboard safely and correctly. Despite some of the children feeling quite daunted, they have persevered and worked hard to improve.
In science this week we have been continuing our work on electricity by learning to draw circuit diagrams. We can now use internationally recognised symbols to represent the components in a circuit, so that any electrical engineer could view our work and build our designs. We found out that circuits are always drawn as rectangles, using straight lines. Finally, we put our learning into practice by building our own circuits and drawing them as circuit diagrams. We have also been busy this week showing what we know with some assessment papers, learning to use a springboard in gymnastics and plotting coordinates in the first quadrant.
This week Year 6 visited Holly Lodge Centre in Richmond Park to take part in the Junior Citizenship programme.
The citizen days are an opportunity for pupils to learn how to deal with different types of dangers, as well as get to know their local police officers and firefighters. They learn top safety tips first hand from emergency service workers, including council officers and electricity company representatives.
The programme involves 10 interactive sessions with the different organisations, which let the children ask questions and play out scenarios they could realistically come into contact with.
The children were given the opportunity to telephone emergency services to report a fire. They discussed safe routes in the event of a fire and the importance of fire alarms.
Year 6 have enjoyed the start of our new geography topic: Europe! The children started their learning by looking at a range of maps which broaden our understanding of politics, topography, population density and history. It was interesting to see the range of countries that make up the second-smallest continent (Europe) and just how much has changed over time in terms of border changes and new countries.
