Year 6 - Buzzards
We are currently reading (Term 2)
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We were reading (Term 1)
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Weekly Timetable Term 2
Useful links:
What have we been up to?
Year 6, Buzzards Class
Term 1
On day 1 of term 1, every child in the class planted two sweet pea seeds.
Year 6 is all about growth, and so it seemed appropriate to plant a seed and watch it grow as a metaphor for our development this year.
We have visited our sweet peas every week in the greenhouse and watched them grow - and in the last week of term we pinched them out, to encourage stronger growth and more flowers, and moved them into bigger pots. They will continue to grow!
We all need the right environment and resources to grow and develop to our full potential.
In science and the wider curriculum we have had a focus on living things and their habitats. Week 1 was all about buzzards - our class animals - and the children produced some fantastic spreads in their project books about buzzards, their diet and habitats.
During our memorable visit to Wildwood we encountered many other wonderful animals. Highlights included seeing arctic fox cubs, bison, wolves, and Boki the brown bear, who some of us saw climbing a tree.
After our trip we followed the news with interest of the pioneering brain surgery performed on Boki. He has been recovering well.
The workshop with the brilliant education team there also taught us about the huge variety of bird beaks as examples of the ways animals adapt to their environment. Different diets and habitats result in different beak shapes.
In R.E. and History we have been learning about animals too - and their cultural and spiritual significance around the world.
For instance, the Mayans worshipped deities shaped like jaguars, birds, and feathered serpents, while in Hinduism the main deities also have associated animals. Ganesh, one of the most popular deities, is the elephant god. Hindus pray to Ganesh for good luck, inner peace, removing obstacles and preserving knowledge.
Maths is a big focus throughout Year 6 as the children prepare to make the transition to secondary school, where maths will remain compulsory all the way up to GCSE. As with all skills, the only way to get better is with practice! After half term we will get into our new routine with homework in CGP Maths books.
In our English lessons we have been studying books with a refugee theme. We started the term with the graphic novel “When Stars Are Scattered”, and our story book is “Boy, Everywhere”, about a refugee from Syria.
A particularly memorable day this term was when the youth ambassadors from the Kent Refugee Action Network came to visit our class. They gave an assembly to all of Key Stage Two, and then Year 6 had an hour to interview them about their experiences. It was an inspiring day and the children asked perceptive and respectful questions. They wrote up what they learned from the visit as newspaper-style reports in our English lessons.
You can read a couple of examples of the writing below: