Sharks May Update!

This term we are spending time in Forest School on a Wednesday, getting to know the great outdoors and learning more about nature.

With Mrs White, in line with our Living things and Their Habitats unit, we have been investigating helpful and harmful microorganisms. We have observed the conditions needed for mould to grow on bread, placing bread in various places around the school: in the fridge, dark cupboards and damp or dry areas. We also noticed that the bread which had been handled the most grew the most mould…

In Guided Reading and English, we have been enjoying reading Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. So far, we have written Haiku’s and balanced arguments to consider whether or not Michael’s family should have set sail on a round-the-world adventure. We have also written letters home from Michael’s perspective, our own alternate endings and our own short stories using the opening sentence of the text. We used Purple Mash to type up our Haiku’s, check them out!

Within Maths, we are currently revising shape and angles.

In PE, we have begun athletics and are enjoying the drier weather, allowing us to have our PE sessions outdoors. Polite reminder that PE is every Tuesday and correct PE kit should be worn to school on these days.

Careers Week
We enjoyed a brilliant, insightful Careers Fair where we had the opportunity to speak to a range of different visitors to discuss their job roles and ask questions. Year 6 were also given the opportunity to apply to be Head Teacher or Deputy Head Teacher for a day as part of Singlewell’s Careers Week. Congratulations to our Shark who was selected as Headteacher!

The children have had fun learning about different careers this week and thinking about what they want to do when they grow up. To mark the end of Careers Week, we came to school dressed as what we want to be when we grow up. Can you guess the roles we are dressed as?

Happy Easter from Sharks!

As we near the end of another term, we wanted to take a moment to share with you some of the wonderful things Shark Class has been up to. It's almost hard to believe that it's the end of Term 4 already!

In English, we’ve been focussing our writing based on an animation called ‘The Lighthouse Keeper' and this has provided some excellent opportunities to write in both first and third person perspectives and really delve into the feelings of characters within it.

In Maths, we've been honing our own arithmetic abilities and working on our ability to answer questions with a little more pace. We've also delved into the fascinating world of fractions, decimals, and percentages. Recently, we've been tackling concepts like translation and reflection of shapes.

In Geography, we've delved into the intricacies of global trade. Learning about the journey that items take before reaching the shelves of our shops has been both eye-opening and fascinating and we've also looked into globalisation of brands.

Other fun activities to note this term included Red Nose Day, our Southern Water workshop, World Book Day and our Easter event. We’re now all looking forward to a relaxing Easter break though and having a little time to recharge our batteries ready for Term 5.

Shark Class

 

Sharks March Update!

We're thrilled to share the exciting highlights of this term with you!

In Geography, we've been focussing on the captivating theme of trade- looking at imports and exports to the UK.  We've been exploring the trade relationships between countries (and the UK), understanding how goods and services flow between nations and what challenges they face.

In our art lessons, the focus has been on capturing the beauty of landscapes. We've been able to unleash our creativity, experimenting with various techniques and using watercolours and looking at how to create disappearing lines.

Recorder resurgence! The return of recorders in music has added a melodious note to our term. The enthusiasm and progress in music are indeed noteworthy and they've picked up quickly where they left off from at Christmas.

The book "Coming to England" has enthralled our English lessons and Guided Reading sessions. This compelling narrative has sparked insightful discussions, inspiring us to write some excellent recounts and letters. World book Day was also a big hit, with some fantastic costumes on show! We’ve also been lucky enough to have an author visit from Tola Okogwu.

Tennis triumphs! The Reintroduction of tennis in PE has been a hit, and there's been some excellent racquet skills and control on show. Hopefully over the coming weeks we'll soon be able to introduce more competitive elements.  

We’re looking forward to more exciting discoveries, adventures and achievements in the coming weeks before the end of this term and we’ll see if they’re better than meeting the ducklings we currently have in school.

Shark Class

Sharks February Update!

As we approach the end of this term, we wanted to share with you some exciting highlights as (yet again) it’s been a very busy and productive term filled with activities.

In Maths this term, we've delved into the world of decimals and place value. We've tackled challenging problems and applied both new and existing knowledge to real-world scenarios.

In English, our focus has been on enhancing writing skills through the exploration of "The Giant's Necklace," which we've delved into for both our writing and guided reading activities. Additionally, we celebrated Story Telling Week, which has allowed us to showcase our imaginative narratives and storytelling skills. We’ve also been fortunate enough to have a few parent readers come in and read to us as well as having time to read and share our books with Year 3.

For PE this term, we've participated in gymnastics, where we’ve been able to explore diverse ways of moving whilst also working on refining our physical aspects such as muscle tension to master various positions/poses. 

In Design and Technology, we've been able to become young designers and have impressed teachers with our creativity and ability. Throughout the term, we've designed and produced our own cushions, using a range of sewing techniques. This hands-on experience has helped us to develop our practical skills whilst also creating a sense of pride in creating something meaningful to us.

Have a wonderful break and we’re looking forward to the exciting adventures that next term brings!

Mr Evans 

All the information delivered at the Year 6 SATS Parent Workshop is at the bottom of the page.

Sharks January Update!

Shark class has kicked off the New Year with remarkable focus and a positive mind-set, paving the way for an abundance of exciting new learning experiences.

Our Physical Education (PE) sessions have introduced us to the world of gymnastics under the guidance of our coach and we’re pleased to be participating in PE indoors during this term! We've revisited fundamental movements like tuck, straddle, pike, pencil, and star, seamlessly incorporating them into synchronised or cannon movements. The experience has been both educational and entertaining.

Our current literary adventure involves delving into the captivating narrative of "The Giant's Necklace" by Michael Morpurgo. We've engaged in various writing activities, including crafting our own story endings and writing newspaper reports. The process of predicting Cherry's fate and subsequently discovering the poignant conclusion was a highlight for us.

In Design and Technology (D&T) this term, we are embarking on a creative journey to design and craft our very own felt cushions. During the preliminary stages, we are honing our sewing skills and experimenting with stitches such as running stitch, zig-zag stitch, blanket stitch, back stitch, and over stitch. As we progress to the design and production phase of our cushions, we will carefully select stitches that align with our desired outcome, considering both functionality and aesthetics.

In the realm of science, we embarked on an intriguing experiment to unravel the mystery of "how does the heart beat?" Through hands-on exploration, we created and tested our very own pumping heart models. Check out the snapshots of our scientific endeavours in the pictures!

We look forward to continuing our hard work this term and seeing the results of our creativity in D&T!

Mr Evans

Sharks December Update!

As we draw another term to a close, it's remarkable to reflect on the many experiences we've shared. From bustling cake sales to the freedom of own clothes days to raise money for incredible charities, it's been a term brimming with activity, sandwiched between our hard work in the classroom.

Fortune smiled upon us with favourable weather, granting us the luxury of conducting nearly all our PE lessons outdoors. Engaging in tag rugby, we honed teamwork skills and revelled in spirited matches, fostering camaraderie among us.

Our musical journey this term focused on mastering the art of playing recorders. It was a delightful revisit, finding that our prior knowledge harmoniously resurfaced, resulting in surprisingly melodious tunes!

In Art we’ve looked at different types of portraits, exploring the expression of emotions through diverse styles. From crafting intricate wire models to capturing our essence through self-portraits, we ventured into the realm of individuality and creativity including looking at what we wear to express ourselves. 

For our first self-portraits, we used tracing paper to outline a photograph of ourselves and added meaningful words and phrases which we felt captured our personalities best. The technique used is Micrography (drawing with words). Here is how they turned out:

Embracing resilience, albeit with slightly fatigued fingers, we sculpted wire into models, shaping them to reflect emotions. Witnessing the transformation was a testament to our perseverance:

Our English topic culminated in the completion of "Holes" by Louis Sachar, concluding with a cinematic treat as we watched the film adaptation last week.

Thank you for your unwavering support throughout, and now, we eagerly anticipate a well-deserved rest over the Christmas break.

Warm regards,

Mr Evans

Sharks November Update!

We’ve had a great start to the term and have really enjoyed some of our new learning. In PE we’re continuing with team sports and have been participating in tag rugby. So far we’ve been learning about passing and using the space we have.

This term, we’re learning about mountains in Geography and we’ve already found out lots including: how they’re measured, how they’re shown on maps and where we can find certain mountain ranges.

In Art, we have begun our “Express Yourselves” unit where we are considering how we express our individuality and emotions through our clothing and facial expressions. This has already been fun and given us lots of laughs when looking at and copying different expressions. We are looking forward to making our wire sculptures as our final product towards the end of term.

In Maths, we have started looking at fractions and are building upon our prior knowledge covered in previous years. Alongside this, we are now partaking in “Arithmetic Fridays” to increase our speed and accuracy with mental calculations including battles on TTRS against our other year group class.

We are continuing to read Holes by Louis Sachar in English and Guided Reading which has allowed us to access a range of writing opportunities such as: creating posters, descriptive writing, fact files, setting descriptions and letters.   

We’re looking forward to welcoming you to our book afternoon on Wednesday and it was also great to see some of the children at our book sale event this past week.

Mr Evans

Sharks October Update!

What a first term in Y6 we’ve had! We have had an awful lot of fun this term and covered some interesting topics. We’ve also been very fortunate that we’ve been able to welcome our parents into both our Colour Run and Autumn Workshop, we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Our Harvest appeal this term was also a huge success so thank you for your continued support this term for events including our Harvest collection, bottle tombola donations and for sponsoring your child to partake in the Colour Run.

Within English, we have finalised our text “Wonder” and have all truly learnt something special about empathy and our treatment of others. This led to some excellent writing including letters and diary entries. In conjunction with, and in celebration of, Black History Month, we enjoyed texts “High Rise Mystery” by Sharna Jackson and “Happy Here”, both written and illustrated by black authors and generated our own freeform poems, reflecting what makes us happy. Many of us have become so invested in these stories that the books are now being read as individual reading books.

We have also learnt a lot about Crime and Punishment through the ages within History and we’re pleased to hear that many of the traditional forms of punishment from years ago have now been dropped! In DT we’ve managed to design and make some of our own bridges and find out about the engineering behind certain designs. To finalise our Netball unit this term, we played a year 6 Whales VS Sharks Netball match which allowed us to put our skills to practice. It was a lot of fun!

Mr Evans

September Update!

What a busy start to Y6 it has been and we can’t believe that we’re already half way through term 1! We’ve been able to hit the ground running and got off to a flying start.

So far, we’ve really enjoyed learning about bridges in DT as we’ve been able to get hands on and have a go at building lots of different types. We’ve learnt the names of different parts of bridges and been fascinated by the sheer amount of engineering and design that goes into designing and building them.

In English we’ve been reading High Rise Mystery by Sharna Jackson, which everyone seems to have really enjoyed, and also studying the story of Robin Hood for our writing tasks and we will shortly start to look at the story of ‘Wonder’.

Children have really enjoyed netball this term and seem to have discovered what a fast game it can actually be! There’s been some good teamwork and skill development over the past few weeks which they’re now getting to apply to game scenarios.

In History we’ve been looking at Crime and Punishment and how this has developed and changed over key periods throughout history. We’ve found out that there’s been some very intriguing punishments!

We can’t wait to see what fun next term brings!

Mr Evans

If you were unable to attend the 'Meet the Teacher' session, here are the slides shown for your information.