Welcome to Year 6

Science week 13 March

The children were given the task of designing a healthy street food dish that celebrates at least one item of British produce as its star ingredient. They had to explain its nutritional benefits and its benefits for the environment.

Geographical features of South America 13 March

The children were given a list of questions highlighting different aspects of South America such as rivers, trade, climate and terrain. The children worked in mixed groups and each one was asked to select a category. They worked together to produce a map with factual information for the category. They then delivered presentations to the rest of the class about their chosen topic:

• Mountains
• Rivers
• Trade
• Climate
• Terrain

World Book Day 5 March

For World Book Day, the children in Year 6 wrote an assembly script to share with the whole school, outlining their favourite books and reasons for this, why they love reading and how books are also important to each religion. The children’s reasons for enjoying reading were so lovely, that we then turned them into a display in our reading area.

Here is an update on the curriculum for Year 6 during this term:

Following our updated curriculum, we will shortly be beginning our new focus question: ‘How has Brazil changed as a result of colonisation?’

Our focus questions help us to accumulate knowledge over the course of this academic year to be able to answer our big question: do invasions change countries forever?

During this focus, we will be learning to name and locate the countries of South America and their capital cities. The children will be identifying the main physical and human characteristics of these - including mountains, rivers, trade, climate and terrain. Additionally, the children will be learning that South America is famed for the ancient cultures of people such as the Incas who left glimpses of the past through artefacts and architecture. The children will then specifically focus on the geography of Brazil and its location within the continent. The children will realise that the continent has a long history of colonialism and interactions with other people and cultures, especially from Portugal, Spain and the Continent of Africa, have left their mark. Today, most South Americans are likely to speak Portuguese or Spanish. Finally, they will focus on Carnival (or Carnaval do Brasil) which is a festival that occurs before Lent - usually around February. It is one of the most well-known carnivals in the world and takes place over 3-4 days in cities all across Brazil.

In Design and Technology, the children will make Instruments (to compliment their holiday project masks) for carnival performances.

They will make products through stages of prototypes, making continual refinements. They will ensure that their products have a high quality finish, using art skills where appropriate. They will use prototypes, cross-sectional diagrams and computer aided designs to represent designs. Additionally, they will create innovative designs that improve upon existing products.

They will be cutting materials with precision and they will refine the finish with appropriate tools (such as sanding wood after cutting or a more precise scissor cut after roughly cutting out a shape). When making their instruments, they will show an understanding of the qualities of materials to choose appropriate tools to cut and shape. 

Art and Design 12 February

The children have looked at using mixed media (paint, glitter, foil and black ink) to experiment with colour.

Art and Design 11 February

The children have been exploring Gustav Klimt and have focused on his use of pattern.

Team building 4 February

The children from Year 6 at both Whaplode and Weston worked collaboratively on some problem solving tasks ahead of our joint residential.

Online Safety 4 February

Year 6 had an E-safety talk today from the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership. They learnt very important and useful information about choosing sensible passwords etc.

Anglo-Saxons 24 January

Our current focus questions is ‘What was the impact of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain?’

Sutton Hoo kindly sent us a collection box full of artefacts.

Pantomime 19 December

Year 6 really enjoyed the Christmas pantomime (Rapunzel) at the South Holland Centre.

Christmas Carols 18 December

The Year 6 children did a fantastic job retelling the Christmas story at our carol service.

Christmas Lunch 17 December

The Year 6 children really enjoyed their Christmas lunch today.

DT 17 December

The Year 6 children have been learning about the British colonisation of North America. They have used their knowledge of this and the symbolism of the USA flag to design their own symbolic flag designs. They have then produced these through material and sewing.

Christingle 10 December

Year 5 and Year 6 enjoyed making enough Christingles for everyone in school to have one.

Each element of a Christingle has a special meaning and helps to tell the Christian story:

• The orange represents the world
• The red ribbon (or tape) symbolises the love and blood of Christ
• The sweets and dried fruit represent all of God’s creations
• The lit candle represents Jesus’s light in the world, bringing hope to people living in darkness.

St. Mary's Church Whaplode 5 December

Every child at Whaplode primary school has considered the current school value of hope and has written a beautiful, meaningful message on a dove which has been decorated to use as Christmas tree decorations. Year 6 and Year 2 then went to St. Mary's Church Whaplode to decorate a Christmas tree with these decorations.

GIST 20 November

As part of the National Child Road Safety Programme, GIST came to visit our school and Year 6 enjoyed listening to information with regards to this topic, including stopping distances, blind spots etc.

Peterborough Phantoms 8 November

Year 6 enjoyed listening to players from the Peterborough Phantoms talking about sport and being healthy.

Geography 8 November

Year 6 have been learning about North America and have been using atlases to located the physical features of the continent including mountains and rivers.

DT

The children have sculpted their pencil sketched Roman bust designs using clay. 

Celtic towns vs Roman towns

TheYear 6 children have been learning about the impact of the Roman invasion of Britain. As part of this, they explored pre-Roman towns and learnt that the Celtic tribes lived in scattered villages. They lived in round houses with thatched roofs of straw or heather. They then looked at how this changed under the Romans who designed towns in the form of a grid, with streets built at right angles to each other and parallel with one of the two main roads. Their buildings were constructed from stone and brick. The children then made models to replicate their understanding of this.

Tone

The Year 6 children have been developing their art skills by exploring tone. They learnt about the hardness of different pencils.

Texture

The Year 6 children have been developing their art skills by exploring how lines can be used to show texture. The children looked at a variety of techniques including hatching, contour hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, smudging and random hatching. The children these used these techniques to shade a classroom object.

Roman Busts

The children are going to be making their own Roman busts from clay. To start with, they looked at pictures of Roman busts and learn that some are veristic (truthful, old and wrinkled to show experience and reliability) while others are idealistic (youthful and athletic looking). They have begun by completing initial designs for their Roman busts of themselves depicted in a Roman style. They are very impressive!

Macmillan Coffee Morning 27 September

The Y6 children did an excellent job holding a coffee morning for parents.

Collective Worship 12 September

Year 6 displayed a lovely collective worship to the rest of the school about the Bible and its contents. They role played two of its stories: Noah’s ark from Genesis and Jesus calming the storm from the New Testament.