Year 6: Blog items
Date: 10th Jan 2020 @ 1:49pm
This morning, we began our topic on Evolution with a lesson on understanding evolution in finches. We learned about Darwin and his travels on the HMS Beagle, which took him to the Galapagos Islands.Here, he studied the differences between finches on a range of different islands and came to the conclusion that different finches needed a different beak to eat the range of seeds/insects available on each island. To understand this, we took part in a task that required us to ‘be a bird’ and ‘eat’ seeds. We either had a fork, spoon, pair of tweezers or a peg and had to gather as many items off the desks as possible. There were 7 islands with 7 different ‘seeds’. These were: skittles, rice, pasta, marbles, counters, cubes and peas. We found that some items were easy to pick up with our ‘beaks’ and others were very tricky. This helped us to understand how different finches had evolved to survive on each island.
We also took part in an activity called 'Talking Telephones'. This involved sending a message around the circle by whispering it to the person next to us and seeing where changes in the message occurred. We then linked this to mutations with DNA through time, which helped us to understand how mutations lead to evolution.
Date: 17th Dec 2019 @ 2:21pm
This half term we have been looking at mountains and volcanoes in Geography. To link this to art, we decided to draw a volcano and paint/colour it in the style of Andy Warhol. We looked at a range of his pieces of art and discussed what was similar about them all. This included his strong lines and use of vibrant block colour. We were given the freedom to draw our volcano in any style we wanted, just so long as we used his strong lines and bold colours. We think our end products were great!
Date: 10th Dec 2019 @ 8:28pm
Today we began our Christmas celebrations by attending our annual Christmas pantomime at Blackpool Sixth Form College. This year's panto was the Grinch and it was absolutely brilliant. It was very funny and the girl who played the Grinch was utterly brilliant!!
Date: 28th Nov 2019 @ 1:33pm
Our Year 5&6 Basketball Team participated in the Blackpool Schools Youth Games Basketball Festival which took place at Blackpool Sixth College. They were coached by Blackpool Sixth Forms 1st Team Basketball Coach and Players to learn more about the sport and enhance their own skills and performance. As their training session came to an end with the 1st team coach and players, the team then got the chance to compete in a tournament against other Blackpool Schools. Our Team finished 2nd in the group with 1 win and 1 loss, which unfortunately was not enough to qualify for the final. However our team were brilliant. WELL DONE TEAM!
Our Year 5&6 Indoor Athletics Team Qualify For Athletics Final!
Date: 27th Nov 2019 @ 8:56am
Well done to our Year 5&6 Indoor Athletics Team who have qualified for the Blackpool Primary Schools Athletics cup final after finishing in the top 4 in the Year 5&6 North Shore Indoor Athletics Competition which took place at Stanley Park Sports Centre.
The Athletics Cup Final will be held on Tuesday 10th December. Good Luck Team!
Date: 14th Nov 2019 @ 7:51am
The Vikings are coming! The Vikings are coming!
Today we had a brilliant time with our visitor, Wolfrik. Over the course of the day we learned about:
- Weapons and protection
- Arifacts
- Making name in runes
- Food
- Burial
We learned so much with Wolfrik and thoroughly enjoyed our day. Gabriella said, "It's brilliant having visitors like Wolfrik in. We get to look at artifacts and learn so much more by having practical lessons.
Date: 11th Nov 2019 @ 8:12pm
Today, we held our own Remembrance service to honour those brave men and women who have fought for their country. We each made our poppy, which held the name of a soldier who died in WW1. Each poppy was planted, row upon row, in our own remembrance garden. Year 6 then led the service at the front of the school culminating in a two minute silence to remember the fallen.
The One With The Open Morning!
Date: 5th Nov 2019 @ 3:55pm
Today parents were invited in to join us for an hour and assist with our learning. To link in with Remembrance Day on Monday, we all produced poppy art. We were given an A3 sheet with a war poem on and a set of water colours. We were given 4 designs to use as a stimulus and were asked to recreate one of the pictures on the poem - or a design of our own. We produced some excellent paintings and some of them will be used to put up in the hall on Monday.
The One Where Year 6 Do Forest School!
Date: 1st Nov 2019 @ 9:55am
Wow - what a day we had during our forest school session! We started off our session by gathering the resources around the outdoor area to create a spooky structure (Halloween style). We had to work in groups to show our team-building skills and we had to use our imagination to come up with a creative design. Finally, we finished our session by sitting around the campfire fire - we drank delicious hot chocolate and tested out our singing skills as we sang some fun campfire songs. We thoroughly enjoyed our session and we can't wait to see what is in store for us in our next session!
The One Where Year 6 Ride Their Bikes!
Date: 31st Oct 2019 @ 8:23am
Congratulations to the Year 6 children who took part in a 2-day Bikeability course - they all passed with flying colours. All children can now ride their bike safely using what they have learned. Well done Year 6!
Date: 28th Oct 2019 @ 3:36pm
To link in with our unit on 'Volcanoes and Mountains', today we had to build and 'erupt' our own volcanoes. We were split up into groups where we had to use the resources (cardboard, plastic bottles, PVA glue, paint and strips of newspaper) to shape a volcano made from paper mache. Once we had built our volcanoes, we then headed outside where we used white vinegar, bicarbonate soda and red food colouring to 'erupt' them. We had a great morning during our WOW session and we can't wait to learn more about volcanoes and mountains.
Autumn 2 Topic Overview 2019/20
Date: 28th Oct 2019 @ 2:28pm
Date: 28th Oct 2019 @ 2:27pm
The One With Electricity At Aspire!
Date: 17th Oct 2019 @ 9:38am
Today, Year 6 went to Aspire to take part in an electricity workshop to link in with work we have done in our Science topic. The children were tasked with carrying out an investigation into what would make a bulb brighter/dimmer in a circuit. They all agreed that adding more cells to a circuit would make the bulb brighter as there was more electricity being supplied to the bulb.
The One Where Year 6 Go To Church!
Date: 14th Oct 2019 @ 8:34pm
Year 6 ended their R.E. unit of work with a visit to St.Mark's Church. The Vicar and Matt (Church Army) answered the children's questions all about life as a Christian and Baptism.
The One Where No Pens Were Allowed!
Date: 10th Oct 2019 @ 1:52pm
On Tuesday 8th October, the whole school took part in No Pen Day. The aim of the day is to communicate with others and to work collaboratively on set tasks. The day was full of interesting conversations, which allowed the children to think more deeply about their learning.
The One With The Harvest Assembly!
Date: 10th Oct 2019 @ 1:46pm
Today Year 6 led the school in the annual Harvest assembly. The children explained the history of harvest and how we should be thankful for the food we have to eat. We also discussed World Food Day and how we should work together to help put a stop to world hunger. We were joined by Matt Rowley from the Church Army, who also spoke of the importance of helping others and being thankful for what we have. After the assembly, we delivered all the items that had been donated to Vincent House - a charity which helps and supports the homeless in our local area.
The One Where Year 6 Teach Year 1!
Date: 4th Oct 2019 @ 12:18pm
This morning, Year 6 planned and taught an R.E. lesson to Year 1 all about Baptism. By the end of the lesson, the children could describe what happens during a baptism service in church, name the special objects needed for a baptism and explain why it is an important ceremony for Christians.
Date: 1st Oct 2019 @ 6:48pm
Today the Book Bus came to visit. Each class had a 20 minute slot to visit the bus and peruse the shelves!! Children were invited to bring £10 so they could buy a book or two. As a school we will receive a percentage of what we made on the day - we will then be able to buy more new books for the school.
Date: 1st Oct 2019 @ 6:39pm
Today the school held its annual class council representative elections. Any child who wanted to put themselves forward for the position was asked to write a manifesto that included why they wanted to be considered for the role and what they thought they could offer. They then had to read these out to their class. Each class then took turns going into the hall to make their vote. The votes were counted by lunch time and in assembly this afternoon the winners were announced.
Congratulation to Charlie and Millie who will be representing their classes this year.
The One Where They Play Hockey!
Date: 1st Oct 2019 @ 6:32pm
Our PE unit this half term is hockey. Over the past few weeks we have been practising keeping control of the ball, dribbling the ball into positions and push passing to a partner. This week we have progressed to playing competitive matches against each other. We are learning to mark a player and intercept the ball when it comes near us. We still need to work on getting into a space and not all crowding around the person with the ball!
Date: 19th Sep 2019 @ 8:33am
What a brilliant few days we have all had together at PGL. From the moment we arrived to the moment we left, we were busy taking part in exciting activities. Throughout the stay we took part in :
- Canoeing
- Climbing wall
- Buggy building
- Survivor
- Raft building
- Archery
- Jacob's ladder
There was plenty of food to keep our strength up and lots of games with our leader Lewis in between activities. We all had a brilliant time and made memories for life.
Date: 19th Sep 2019 @ 8:11am
Today Year 6 had their first visit to the library @thegrange. We will be visiting every month so that the children can regularly change their books and be exposed to a variety of authors and genres. The books will stay in class as part of quiet reading time during Guided Reading sessions.
Date: 11th Sep 2019 @ 5:00pm
This week we began our topic of 'Electricity'. We were given a range of electrical components and several tasks to try and complete within a given time. The tasks were to:
- Create a simple circuit to make a bulb light,
- Create more complex circuits to make a bulb dimmer/brighter,
- Add a range of other components into the circuit, such as motors and buzzers,
- Make a switch to turn the bulb on/off,
- Test a range of everyday items to work out which ones are conductors/insulators.
Some brilliant learning and discussions took place during the sessions.
The One With Mrs. Rose's Stolen Ring!!
Date: 3rd Sep 2019 @ 7:49pm
To link in with our unit on crime, today we had to solve the case of Mrs. Rose’s stolen ring. We were given three clues to look through: shoe scrapings, finger prints and chromatography. Once we had investigated each piece of evidence we were able to whittle 5 suspects down to 2. It turns out Mr. Jones had taken the ring to teach Mrs. Rose a lesson about leaving her valuables lying around!!
