w/b 22nd April 2024

Positive Mental Health Workshop

This week, Year 6 had their very first positive mental health workshop with Watford F.C. The children met our representative, Chloe, who introduced games, discussion and other engaging tools to support the children in better understanding mental health. Rules were set at the very beginning to make sure everybody knows that the sessions are not only an opportunity to learn more about mental health but are there to allow us to share anything we wish to add, too. The children interacted brilliantly and enjoyed the quiz as well as the game, and were given booklets which not only contain the activities they will be doing over the next ten weeks but have definitions of key words to give Year 6 the vocabulary to share their thoughts and feelings now and in the future.

w/b 12th February 2024

Share & Learn

The children really enjoyed showing off some of the learning we have done this year so far. We are sure you will agree that the Year 6 children were articulate and confident in their explanations and they relished in the opportunity to talk about aspects of their learning whilst sharing key teaching points with parents and carers. A successful morning which was enjoyed by all.

w/b 5th February 2024

Online Safety - Safer Internet Day

On Tuesday 6^th February, it was Safer Internet Day and we used this as a fantastic opportunity to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for the children at St. Peter's. As you know, we take online safety very seriously so our Online Ambassadors promoted the event with some very special assemblies. They even promoted online safety by teaching special themed lessons not only to their own class but to a Year 1 class too. It was wonderful to see the Year 6 Online Ambassador representatives take on ownership of this, and it is fair to say that they did a fantastic job. They are teachers in the making :-)

w/b 1st January 2024

Literacy - Tuesday by David Wiesner

Our return from the Christmas holidays has seen us begin our whole school exploration of Tuesday by David Wiesner. This text has been chosen specifically because of its power to engage readers and this has certainly been the case with Year 6. Because the book has very few words, the children are having to use their skills of inference and deduction (alongside many others) to work out what is happening and why the frogs are behaving in the way they are. Day two has allowed us to sequence the story by discussing the main parts which led onto the children drawing their own comic strip. The children really enjoyed showing off their artistic skills during this task as well as debating what they felt were the key points within this story.

w/b 18th December

Design & Technology - Sewing

This week we made our very own pillows as part of our DT sewing topic. The children were given the opportunity to show off their creative skills whilst following a design brief and the results have been fantastic! The designs took on board any specifications as well as allowing the children to add their own creative flair and sense of individuality to their creation. They even added zips! 

w/b 4th December

Science - Making Blood

As part of our scientific explorations surrounding the circulatory system, we made blood. It was made in stages starting with water to reinforce the idea that it is liquid. The plasma was then added (yellow food dye) as well as the red blood cells (circular cereal coated in red food dye). This gave our liquid mixture a nice and very realistic blood red appearance. We then added the white blood cells (white marshmallows) which were followed by the platelets (another type of cereal). The specific job of each component was discussed as the blood was created. This resulted in a labelling activity.

w/b 20th November

Literacy - The Curious Gnome

This week the children started to bring their work together surrounding The Curious Gnome. Fresh from drawing their story maps onto their tables to plan out what they wanted to write, the children continued to write the story. Their rewritten story starters helped to get them off to a good start then, it is fair to say that the children galloped ahead with their fantastic ideas. They were clearly inspired and the Year 6 team could not have been more impressed with not only the ideas that came through in their writing but the language choices and use of figurative language, too. Well done, Year 6!

w/b 16th October

Bikeability

This week, Year 6 took part in the national cycle training programme, Bikeability. The children were given the opportunity to learn practical skills and to understand how to cycle on today's roads. These are incredibly important life skills to learn and support the children in leading healthy lifestyles with safety at the forefront of their minds. The children were brilliant and it was great to see many grow in confidence across the week.  

w/b 25th September

Times Tables

We have recently started weekly times tables tests using Times Tables Rockstars booklets. The children have their own booklet and, instead of playing against each other, are focused on their own personal targets relating to times tables knowledge, speed of recall as well as the time it takes them to complete the test. Times Tables are incredibly important and will support the children in feeling even more comfortable with their mathematics work both in and outside of school. All children have a Times Tables Rockstars account so it is a good idea to include practice as part of their weekly homework even if it is not set directly. Ultimately, have fun with it all :-)

w/b 18th September

Whole Class Guided Reading - Poetry

As part of our Whole Class Guided Reading sessions, we have explored a poem called 'The Climb'. We read through the poem and discussed how it sounded and the children noticed a jagged and spiky effect to its reading. The children were then able to explain why this was done (its purpose) as well as its effect on them, the readers. We annotated the poem whilst picking out imagery, its use of language and its structure. The children did a number of tasks in relation to this poem with the ultimate task being for them to write their very own poem. The class did this brilliantly with all writing poems personal to an activity they like but which gives the reader the same effect they had experienced from 'The Climb'.

w/b 11th September 

Literacy - The Curious Gnome Character Work

We have been exploring the idea of 'showing not telling' and how this can relate to the descriptions of characters. We started the lesson by discussing the physical description of Ebeneezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'. We looked at how his physical description informs the reader about his wicked nature without telling us explicitly through his actions i.e. showing not telling.

The children then applied what they know to describing Jasper the Curious Gnome. See if you can work out Jasper's character based on part of an example of a piece of writing:

'His strawberry red cheeks blossom from his blooming face and are perched beside his rounded nose. His smile is wide and beams at all he sees and can melt even the coldest of hearts'.

w/b 6th September

What a Great Start!

Welcome to our Year 6 class page. It is our intention to upload and document many of the fantastic activities that Year 6 take part in across the year so please do check back when you can.

With this being our first week, we have enjoyed getting to know the children better as well as introducing some of the topics we will be exploring together this year.

We were particularly impressed with the children's mathematical thinking and discussion around our Friday task which incorporated reasoning and encouraged the children to consider elements of maths in numerous ways. A great start, Year 6 - well done!