War- What is it good for?

Our second topic was all about WW2. We started by learning all about how WW2 began and we wrote a newspaper report as if we had just heard the announcement. Next, we learnt about what life was like as an evacuee and read extracts from ‘Goodnight Mister Tom’. We looked at what an evacuee would have packed with them and how they would have been feeling at the time. We then wrote diary entries from the perspective of an evacuee. Then, we learnt all about the Blitz. We acted out what would have happen in an air raid and learnt about the different types of shelters. For this topic we went on two amazing trips. Our first trip was to Duxford where we learnt about the planes and different vehicles that were used during WW2. We also got to go to Bletchley Park, which taught us all about code breaking, and we had a go at a code breaking challenge!

How am I Alive? 

For this topic, we started by looking at the circulatory system and researched the jobs of the: heart, veins and arteries before writing an explanation of how this vital system works. Next, we learnt about the digestive system. We carried out an experiment which replicated the digestion system. After this, we got creative and we wrote a story about a doughnut’s journey through the digestive story and we wrote a poem about eating our favourite food.

Dunkirk Day

We were lucky enough to be visited by Paul Nolan, who let an exciting Dunkirk themed day. We started the day by rein acting the evacuation from Dunkirk. Some of us had to act as the Germans, attacking the French soldiers with machine guns and supported by tanks. Others had to act as the vulnerable French soldiers taking heavy attack from the Germans, whilst others acted as the English soldiers taking attack from the Luftwaffe above.

After this we also had a go at using authentic stretchers from 1940 to evacuate wounded soldiers (represented by helmets) from the beaches and into the hospital boats. We also got the chance to look at the lives of different people during World War Two and the jobs they would have had. Below you can see we got the chance to dress up as: a canary girl, a World War 2 soldier, an ARP Warden, a Fire Guard, Land Girls, a Messenger and Rescuers.

We all sat together in a cramped Air Raid shelter during a raid and sang Run Rabbit, whilst listening to the sound effects of bombs being dropped. Later we got to take part in a quiz where we answered 33 of the 40 World War 2 trivia questions correctly.

Below is the link that takes you to Paul Nolan's website where he has displayed some examples of our WW2 writing:

How am I alive?

We started the year by becoming scientists for our ‘How am I alive?’ topic. We completed our own research using iPads to learn and write about famous scientists. Some of the scientists we researched include: William Harvey, who discovered the circulatory system; Wilhelm Rontgen who is famous for discovering x-rays; Jonas Salk who is known for invented a polio vaccine; and Alexander Fleming who discovered penicillin. We enjoyed writing biographies based on our research. 

We also learnt about the circulatory system through reading nonfiction texts, labelling diagrams and even some drama in which we became different parts of blood such as: red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma. In Maths, we enjoyed collecting and accurately recording data in tables and plotting the results on a line graph. We were able to see the effect of exercise on our bodies by measuring our pulse and working out our beats per minute.

Are we Eco-friendly?

As part of our topic, we looked at different forms of transport we can use to get around the city. We looked at the benefits of walking, cycling and scooting to school. Year 6 had a great opportunity to take part in Bikeability Week. The children enjoyed taking part in the Bikeability course – they worked hard to achieve Level 1 and Level 2 certificates. Firstly, we had to check our bikes properly to make sure they were safe to ride. After practising on the playground, we went out on the roads and we learnt how to read different signs of the road and what risks we need to be aware of.

Back in the classroom, we built on our understanding of risk through our P4C lessons. We debated if it was safer to cycle or walk to school, showing some great P4C language as we argued our points of view, agreed and disagreed sensibly and were able to change our minds. To conclude the session, we showed our final opinion by standing on an opinion line.

In addition, we also wrote some interesting newspaper reports about cycling, safety awareness and a bicycle theft (luckily the bike was found!). We even had time to write an environmental poem, using research from homework based on sustainable energy and deforestation.

Who loves Chocolate?

To kick off our Chocolate topic, we researched how it was discovered and developed over time. We used this knowledge to write a chronological report, packed full of Year 6 skills. After that, we engaged further into chocolate using the well-loved book and film - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Our descriptions and stories based on this were fantastic! Plus, we were able to develop the descriptive skills that we learnt to independently show off our own, self-created chocolate bars. If that wasn’t enough chocolate, we also ate various kinds of the sweet, tasty treat in a comparison text. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. We’ve come out of this topic with a full stomach and a brain full of describing characters, settings and atmosphere; using semicolons for multiple purposes; and using all of our five senses. Here are some examples of our writing.

Given all the chocolate we ate, we thought we’d have to consider healthy living. In science, we explored many different food groups; their purposes; the macro and micro nutrients each contained; and created our own week-long meal plan, ensuring our diet was balanced. We were burning off those extra calories in PE, whilst demonstrating mastery skills such as evaluating, creating and adjusting. We used the core skills in hockey to create our own drill, tweaking it to differentiate and keep everybody active.

Additionally, we explored the active parts of our daily routine. We used the data recorded and (with the help of our maths learning) presented it in a pie chart.

Lastly, learning about deserts was also on the agenda. We defined a desert (not to be confused with dessert); explored their features; located them on a map; and in groups, researched a particular one to create a well-presented, informative poster.