Sycamore Class
Our class teacher is Miss Brown. We are supported in our learning by Mrs Hughes and Mrs Williams. The children in our class are in Year 5 and Year 6.
Term One 2024
Our new school year has started splendidly! In Week Two, all of Sycamore Class enjoyed a residential trip together. Over the course of the week, we undertook many exciting activities from zip wiring to raft building, a fantastic week was had by all.
In English, we have explored two texts this term ‘Hidden Forest’ by Jeannie Baker and ‘The Promise’ by Nicola Davis. Both books have given us lots of things to think about. We have looked at extinction of animals and how this is impacting our planet. We have also looked at how a small seed can change a city. We have enjoyed these units and have had many insightful discussions and some fantastic pieces of work produced as a result.
In Geography, we have been looking at Fieldwork. We have conducted surveys of our schools and have also created fieldwork sketches. We have looked at the different roles geographers play around our world, and what kind of research they are all involved in.
In Science, we have been learning about Evolution and Inheritance. We have looked at the case of the peppered moth and how they have changed overtime. Through our science lessons, we have understood that these changes occurred because of evolution.
In French, we have looked at the date. We have learned the twelve months of the year in French, alongside the days of the week and numbers up to 31!
In Maths, we have been looking at place value and the four operations. Year 6 were introduced to long division and have learned a new way of dividing 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers!
Term Six 2024
In English, we have been studying ‘Rain Player’ by David Wisniewski. We enjoyed this book and brought it to life by learning this alongside our history unit of ‘The Maya’. We have undertaken a variety of activities such as: instructional writing, writing a set of guidelines that could be used to play ‘Pok-a-Tok’, written missing dialogue from the text, writing next parts of the story and for our final write we wrote an essay, all about The Maya.
In History, we have been looking at the Maya. We were very fortunate to have a visitor from Harry, the Maya Explorer! We got to hear all about how the Maya lived, what they ate, what their religion was and how they are significant today.
In Science, our Topic is ‘Animals Including Humans’. We have found this unit very interesting as we got to explore our circulatory systems. We began this unit by setting up a whole class circulatory system. We were different components of the circulatory system and we got to really understand how it works.
Term Five 2024
Geography – this term, we have been looking at energy and sustainability. We firstly looked at what sustainability is, we did this through looking at the United Nations report ‘Our Common Future’. We looked at the links of the economy, environment and people and how this enables sustainable development.
As we progressed through this unit, we compared Bristol to Curitiba and Freiburg. It was interesting to undertake a comparative study of Bristol and these two places. We then had a class discussion about how we could make Bristol more sustainable.
In English, we have looked at ‘The Island’ by Armin Greder and ‘The Last Wild’ by Piers Torday. The Island was a very though provoking book and led to lots of open discussions about immigration and how we can implement our British Values.
The Last Wild was one of our favourite books this year so far. We really enjoyed reading a book with a dystopian theme running through it. We ended up writing our own dystopian narratives, and let our imaginations run wild!
Science - Our unit this term was ‘Animals Including Humans’. We began this unit by exploring and discussing a big question ‘Is a tree alive?’. This led to lots of discussion about how we quantify living things and what it means to be living. Throughout this unit, we: created classification charts, looked at Carl Linnaeus, created fact files that list the key characteristics of an animal group, understood the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates, looked at plant classification and we answered ‘what are microorganisms and are they helpful or harmful?’.
Summer Production - This term, we found out this years summer production, ‘The Greatest Show’. We are incredibly excited to perform this play and have undertaken auditions to get our parts.
Term Four 2024
History
This terms unit was Medieval and Tudor Monarchs. These lessons were interesting and insightful, particularly when we compared the differences between different kings and queens. We also looked at different battles that took place in England from 1066. It was interesting to learn about how they started and how they ended.
English
In English this term, we have looked at two different books: Stonewall and Grimm Tales. We particularly enjoyed having a go at creating our own dark narratives, these were fun and exciting to create.
Stonewall was interesting as we looked at the history of the event and our main outcome was to create our own Guidebooks for the Stonewall Inn.
Science
In science, we finished off our force’s unit. Our last lesson looked at air resistance and gravity. We created a contraption that would hold an egg and dropped it from a height. We really tried to make sure that the eggs were well protected – some of us were great at this!
Term Three 2024
Sycamore came back after the Christmas holidays, raring and ready to learn!
English
In English, we began the term by exploring the book ‘Firebird’ by Saviour Pirotta. We found the tale of the bird interesting and dark in places. We saw that being a rich prince, did not necessarily make you a happy one!
The children ended up by writing their own mythical narratives. Instead of having a ‘Firebird’ in our tales, we had unicorns, eagles and lions. Each of us also followed the general pattern of fairy tales.
Science
Forces: We began the unit by exploring gravity, and what it is. This was a great experiment as we used Newton Meters to really see the impact that the forces had on an object. We explored why objects fall to Earth and different scientists who looked at the theories of gravity. We found it so interesting to hear about Newton and the apple!
Geography
In geography, we looked at the topic biomes. We absolutely loved this unit! We found it interesting to uncover what kinds of flora and fauna could be found in each of the Earth’s biomes. We looked at where a place is on the Earth, can influence biomes. We explored the impact that climate change has on biomes and what we can do to help save them.
We finished off the unit by creating ‘biomes in a box’. This lesson was so much fun! Each of us bought in a variety of recycling to create a biome, we made it as accurate as we could.
Art
In Art, we looked at surrealism. We began by exploring our dreams and how this links with surrealism. We looked at Dali and Picasso in this unit.
Term Two 2023
We have had a wonderful term in Sycamore. We have learnt about lots of wonderful and exciting things, that have generated some excellent work and some thought-provoking discussions.
English
In English, we have read 2 different texts this term. Our first text was The Lost Happy Endings by Carol Ann Duffy. We really enjoyed exploring this darker fairy tale and thought the vocabulary used was rich and descriptive. As a result, we ended up creating some fabulous prequels that showed what happened to the witch over time. We explored the use of antonyms and synonyms also. This allowed us to develop our vocabulary.
Our favourite book of this year so far, has been Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. We have adored this book and have been hooked on every word. Harry said ‘This book is so good, that I can clearly see everything going on in my head as we read it.’ We have found it fascinating to revisit our learning of Greek Gods and have had some excellent creations of our own demi-gods.
As part of our public speaking, we all put together an assembly for Remembrance Day. We all researched different areas of remembrance and spoke in front of our school, and an audience at the church.
Writing by Olivia and Poppy Art by Lottie
Maths
This term, both year groups have looked at fractions. We have understood how we can add and subtract fractions in Year 5 and Year 6 have looked at multiplying and dividing them. We have had a lovely term of maths, broadening our mathematical knowledge and understanding.
Science
This term, our unit has been all about light. We began our unit by creating a shadow puppet theatre! We had a lot of fun with our puppets and we understood that we did not need to draw detail, as this would not appear, but instead, we should focus on cutting patterns and detail out if we wanted it to appear. We have researched scientists that altered our views about light, such as: Ibn Al-Haytham, Roger Bacon and Euclid.
In lesson 3, we undertook a variety of experiments. We got out a variety of tubes to see what happened if we shone a beam of light down a hose pipe, we got torches and shined them around the room to see how light travelled and we researched how light made us see objects. Some of us drew detailed diagrams that showed the eye and wrote detailed descriptions about light.
In lesson 4, We recorded our findings into our books and shared our new knowledge with the rest of the class. Next, we created mirror mazes and made it our mission to redirect light beams. From this experiment, it was clear to see how light travelled.
DT
This term, our main focus has been Lighthouses. Our first lesson explored the use of buttresses and trusses and the importance of using these structures when creating lighthouses. We had to create lighthouses that were structurally sound. A majority of us found that by using a combination of flying buttresses and trusses, our structures could hold a lot of weight.
Next, we had a go at creating circuits that would flash. This was important as we knew for our final product, we had to have a flashing light! We recalled our previous science learning to do this. We drew the circuits into our books and made sure we labelled them to allow for success when we come to create our own lighthouses.
In lesson four, we all got to design our lighthouses. We came up with a success criterion as a class and ended up designing lighthouses that would meet the criteria.
Finally, we made our products!
History
This term, our history focus has been ‘The Victorians and the Industrial Revolution’. We were very fortunate to have Jacky (from the Blagdon History Association) come in and talk to us all about what Blagdon was like during the Victorian Era. We learned lots of new things and found it fascinating to hear what Blagdon was like, particularly our school.
We found out all about the inventions that were created in the Victorian Era, from the steam engine to the Spinning Jenny. We were fascinated by the jobs that children would have in the Victorian Era and we had some insightful class discussions about these.
To round our unit off, we had a Victorian School Day. This was an exciting day had by all. Miss Brown dressed up as a Victorian teacher and we all came in dressed as Victorians. We were sat in rows, in boy girl formation.
Term One 2023
Wow, what a term is has been! We have had a fantastic term in Sycamore Class. There has been lots of learning taking place, from Art to English and Maths to Geography, we have explored some fantastic units.
English
In English, we have read 3 different texts this term. The first being ‘Change Sings’ by Amanda Goreman. This was our whole school text that focused on the changes within society and how we can change the world for the better. We have had some excellent writing 
outcomes from this, and it made us fall in love with poetry even more than we did before!
Our next text was ‘The Man who Walked Between the Towers’ by Mordicai Gerstein. We found the accomplishments by Philippe Petit quite extraordinary! We couldn’t believe that one man managed to walk backwards and forwards across the Twin Towers, not just once, but eight times! This unit gave us some further understanding of the world and what events happened during this time. It was eye-opening for us, however, we approached the topic with sensitivity and maturity – leading us to have some excellent class discussions.
Our final book of this term was
‘Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover’ by Markus Motum. As a class, we adored this text. We found it so interesting and gained really valuable knowledge about space from it. As a result of this story, we had a go at creating our own rovers, linking to our Science topic of electricity. We loved bringing our literacy work to life, as well as embedding circuits into them.
Maths
This term, we have explored the Four Operations and Place value in Year 6, whilst Year 5 have looked at Place Value, Addition and Subtraction and Multiplication and Division. We have found it useful to recap our learning in this area, whilst looking at bigger numbers. Year 6 have now learned how to complete and undertake long division, with hints and tips along the way.
Science
This term, our unit has been all about electricity. We have absolutely loved this unit and have had so much fun creating and making circuits. We have looked at concept cartoons and used our knowledge of circuits to predict if they were correct or not. If they weren’t correct, we spent time creating a circuit that would work, whilst discussing misconceptions that they may have had. We have also spent time looking at renewable energy and famous scientists who created electricity. We have just been captivated!
Art
In art, our focus has been landscapes and cityscapes. This is a unit that has been thoroughly enjoyed by all of the children in our class. We have tried and tested different ways of using a palette knife, and seeing which technique we liked best. We have also experimented using water colours this term. We practised our watercolour skills to begin with, this ensured for a successful piece of artwork. We were also able to use any medium we wanted to created water reflective cityscapes. This was incredibly fun and some of us discovered how fantastic soft pastels are. We had a wonderful time blending the colours together. Finally, we got to use pens and rulers to create a cityscape. We played around with sizing and placement of our buildings to ensure we got the desired effect of a cityscape.
Geography
This term, our unit in Geography has been slums. We have found this topic interesting and have had some deep and insightful class discussions about what life is like for people who live in slums.
As a class, we have looked at the UPP and discussed the advantages of them, and then what happened after the Brazilian Government got rid of them. Most of us felt like this was money well spent by the government as it created a safer living environment for those people who live there.
We have also looked at what people in slums have access to and what they do not. We were shocked to see in one slum, there was only one toilet per 1,500 inhabitants. We felt like this is an injustice and discussed how we could improve life in slums with solutions that we would put in place.
Term 6 2023
The Performance and DT
Wow! What a term we have had practising for our performance of 'Pirates of the Curry Bean'. We have worked incredibly hard this term, building props and learning our lines. We enjoyed building props and taking ownership over the play. We have created a Tavern Bar - The Squirty Squid. We sanded down an old unit, painted and decorated it. We had a lot of fun doing this! We have also used our sewing skills to create crabs and fish.
English
We have studied 'Windrush Child' by Benjamin Zephinah. This book was inspiring and had us hooked! We thought hard about what it must have been like for people who came over on the Windrush and what experiences they must have had. The children wrote some very thought-provoking pieces of work centred around this text. The children then all created a memorial that they would like to have created, in memory, of those who came over on the Windrush. We all said we would recommend this book to other children our age!
History
Our History topic this term has been 'The Windrush, The Bristol Bus Boycott and The Civil Rights Movement.' We have been really captivated by this unit and have had some wonderful discussions. We have studied Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in depth, alongside Rosa Parks. We discussed what life must have been like for African-Americans in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. We have studied photo sources from this era to back up our reasoning. We studied the question 'Would the Bristol Buscott have happened, had Rosa Parks not have given up her seat.' This generated some excellent discussions and thought-provoking responses.
Maths
Year 5 have worked hard on Negative Numbers, Converting Units and Volume. The children have formed revision booklets to help them with converting units.
Year 6 have had fun with their Maths Themed Projects. The children have been understanding the importance of budgeting, the cost of living and future careers.
Science
Our Science unit this term has been all about growing up, and the different developmental stages a human goes through over the duration of their lives. We have had mature conversations and understand the changes that our bodies go through over time. We have also created leaflets, with the purpose of giving them to other children once they get to our age.
The Wider Community
The History work that we have completed over the duration of the year, has been on display through the Blagdon History Association at a local event. We have had the association in twice this year to talk to us about the changes our village has gone through over the years (during World War Two and the census's). We were really proud to have our work displayed for all to see! We look forward to further visits from them.
Term 5
Geography Visitor
In Sycamore Class, we were very fortunate to have another visit from the Blagdon History Association. This time, Jacky spoke to us about the population of Blagdon since the census began. We were in awe going through the population of Blagdon and found it so interesting to see how jobs have changed overtime. Jacky showed us photos of what our village used to look like (these were from the associations archives, so we hadn't seen them before).
English
This term, we have been exploring the text 'Hidden Figures' by Margot Lee Shetterly. This book is about 4 African-American women, who were human computers for NASA and NACA (as it was formerly known). We have explored the plight and segregation that these 4 women had to go through. In lesson 5, we acted out part of the book with the Judge and Mary Jackson were she was fighting to be the first African American female in her state to attend an all white highschool. The children really got into this role play and were sensible when acting out this scene.
We also studied 'The Promise' by Nicola Davies. We all really enjoyed this book and the meaning behind it. Most of us felt like this book could be written from a futuristic perspective as all of the trees and greenery had gone. The end of this unit saw us all write a sequel to this story. Our versions mostly took on a futuristic perspective. Miss Brown really enjoyed reading these narratives!
Science
In science, we have been looking at life cycles and how they can differ from animal to animal. We each studied two different animal groups and their lifecycles and explored their similarities and differences.
We have looked at the gestation periods of different animals - ranging from mice all the way to elephants! We were amazed at the gestation period for African Bush Elephants - 22 months! Once we had sorted our cards, we plotted the data onto graphs and analysed the data.
SATs
This term, our Year 6s sat their SATs. They did exceptionally well, and we are so proud of them! Whilst our Years 6s took their SATs, the Year 5s took part in some projects to enrich their Science and History curriculum. They created their own animals with: descriptions, drawings and lifecycles, they researched Mae Jemison and the children produced leaflets about Jane Goodall.
School of Sanctuary
On Friday 9th May, 5 children from Sycamore Class, alongside Miss Brown and Mrs Campbell went to the Manor House in Bristol to collect our School of Sanctuary Award. The children represented the school beautifully. Three of the children spoke about their journey to England and read 'Peace Poems'.
School Trip - 19th May 2023
On Friday 19th May, Sycamore Class went to Bristol for a trip! We visited the MShed for a World War 2 workshop. We had a wonderful time exploring all the artefacts and thinking what they could have been used for. We got told hold an exploded bomb from this time period. We could still smell the sulphur coming off of the bomb. We also got to see a typical evacuee's suitcase, we couldn't believe how little they packed! It was fascinating to see how many of the clothes weren't manufactured, but hand-made! Finally, we explored the food from World War 2. We got to see a real ration book and some real food from this time period. The powdered eggs, when shook, still made a noise!
After our trip to MShed, we walked up to the museum. This was incredibly interesting! We got to see the Egyptian exhibit. This included seeing a real sarcophagus! We also got to see some dinosaur bones, some of the children were amazed at how big they were!
The KS2 Summer Production
This year, our play is 'Pirates of the Curry Bean.' The children have had their scripts, listened to the songs and have seen the choreography. We look forward to rehearsing and practising for our performance at the end of Term 6!
Term 4
English
Our two books this term were:
‘The Children of the Benin Kingdom’ by Dinah Orji
‘The Unforgotten Coat’ by Frank Cottrell-Boyce
The Unforgotten Coat, had themes of migration and what it is like to be a refugee. As a class, we spoke about the difficulties refugees can face. We created pieces of writing based on this book, with a refugee who has joined our school. The children enjoyed this and created some thoughtful and inspiring pieces of work.
The Children of the Benin Kingdom, was a book enjoyed by all! The children loved this book and really got stuck into it. We particularly enjoyed how this book linked to our History topic of Benin. The children felt like the book bought our history topic to life even more, with the experiences and adventures that the protagonists had.
Science
In Science, we continued exploring properties of materials. The children particularly enjoyed using junk modelling to create cups and see who could insulate their cup the best. We created a whole class chart and found it fascinating (and competitive!) to see whose cup was dropping the quickest in temperature.
History
We spent this term exploring the Benin Kingdom and what life was like for the Edo people during this time. We discovered what goods the people of Benin traded around the world. We found this task exciting because we got to see how trade links were established.
We looked at the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the roots that were undertaken during this time. The children were very mature within their understanding of this subject area.
Term 3
English
We have studied some wonderful Literacy this term! We studied the Lost Thing by Shaun Tan. From this, we created our own Lost Things and made narratives! We found this unit ever so exciting and captivating!
We studied the Guardians 'Three Little Pigs'. We loved this unit as it offered us a different perspective from the traditional fairy tales that we all know and love. We have acted as lawyers and have explored the story from both, the Wolf and the Pigs perspectives. We were very divided as to who was actually to blame!
Science
Science has been a very exciting unit this term! We have undertaken many different scientific experiments to explore:
- Materials and their specific properties.
- Do materials disappear when they dissolve?
- What factors will affect the rate of sugar dissolving?
- What affects the amount of gas produced when vitamin C tablets are added to water?
Additionally, we explored the impact of varying water temperatures on skittles. We found this so fun and created some wonderful patterns! We particularly enjoyed being able to eat any leftover skittles!
Geography
This term, we have been looking at 'Population'. We focused mostly on the population of Mexico, Germany and the UK. We looked at the different reasons behind the world's population and how it can change. We found the reasons for change very interesting, especially how some countries have a growing ageing population. We explored this further and came to the conclusion that medicine plays a big part in population and increases.
We found it very interesting to discuss and answer 'How do we feed the planet?'. We looked at the issues that comes with a growing and ageing population like the lack of food.
Art
In Art, we did printing. We practised our cutting skills and created some wonderful stencils that we would like to use in our printing pieces. At the end of the unit, we had the chance to use silk screens! We very much enjoyed this unit.
Term 2
English
We have had some excellent texts this term! We studied Anne Frank's diary. From this text, we got some very emotive pieces of writing. We all thought long and hard about the impact of WW2 on people outside our own country. We explored what life must have been like for Anne, by looking at the Annex online. This generated some wonderful, empathetic talks. We all produced diary entries, in role.
The Suffragettes Battle for Equality was another text that we explored. We found this book so insightful and interesting. We could not believe what women had to go through to get the vote! We had class debates about whether it is right to use violence to get what we want. We looked at various government acts from this time; for example, The Cat and Mouse Act. We looked at the Suffragists vs the Suffragettes. We couldn't believe how different the two groups were.
The final book we looked at was The Polar Express. We thoroughly enjoyed reading such a beautifully illustrated book. We thought long and hard about our own versions of this narrative.
Maths
Year 6 explored Fractions this term. We looked at dividing and multiplying fractions! We were pleasantly surprised that this was relatively easy for us all! We enjoyed this unit and celebrate our learning. We also looked at converting units. In this unit, we earned about approximately equals signs. This was new learning!
Year 5 looked at multiplying and dividing. We learnt how to use short division methods, as well as formal methods for multiplying. We enjoyed this unit and found the challenge and concept of new learning fun! Finally, we began to explore fractions. This was deepening our learning from previous years. We found the use of mathematical manipulative helpful!
Science
In Science, we explored 'Earth and Space'. We watched a mesmerising video that showed us the scale of the Earth in comparison to other planets, even galaxies! This hooked us right into the unit and we couldn't wait to find out more! We created 'Hitchhikers Guides to the Galaxy' booklets, to showcase our learning of Earth and Space. We looked at creating pnumonics to help us remember the planets and their order. Miss Brown took us all onto the playground with inflatable planets. We looked at the movement of the planets in relation to the Sun, Earth and Moon. We really enjoyed doing this and remembered a lot!
History
In History, we looked at World War 2. We were very fortunate as we had a guest speaker come in to talk to us! She informed us all about what Blagdon was like in WW2. We learnt a lot about: what life was like for the people who lived here, the American soldiers who stayed in Coombe Lodge, the evacuees who came from London and the surrounding areas, the 'Phoney Village' and the blockade built on Blagdon Lake! We had a wonderful afternoon, we were very excited when Jackie (from the BHA) let us wear real WW2 fireman's helmets!
We explored what events led to World War 2, how Britain prepared for the war, whether or not Dunkirk was a victory or disaster, the impact of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, how the Allies prepared for D-Day and finally, the legacy that was left behind.
Topic 20
In Topic 20, we explored Population. We looked at the key vocabulary that we would need for the unit. We also looked at some various countries to understand their demographics.
DT:
What a fun unit this was! We made shelters, this linked to our WW2 topic. We explored a variety of shelters to begin with. We wanted to make sure we fully understood the concept of them. We also built up our skills on how to use knives and saws. When we made our shelters, Miss Brown poured a variety of different things on them - sugar, potatoes and water - to see if we had met the design specification, most of us did!
Term 1
English
Wow, what an exciting start to the new academic year! We have really enjoyed settling into our new class and getting to know where everything is!
In English, we have studied our whole school text 'Journey' by Aaron Becker. We went into the school hall and saw a wonderful scene from the story set up on the stage. We thought carefully where all the objects were placed and what was around us. When we went back into the class, we consolidated our learning of preposition phrases and wrote an excellent piece of work.
At the end of this unit, we all worked hard to create a sequel to this book. We added in additional characters and sent them off on a journey they would never forget!
We are currently studying 'Can We Save the Tiger?' by Martin Jenkins. This book has created some very thoughtful responses about extinction and what it means for the planet. We have all chosen an animal that is close to extinction and have so far created; persuasive speeches and non-fiction pieces.
To summarise our time in camp, we all generated recounts! We all had such a fabulous time on camp and wrote happily about our time away. We used our 'Professional Publishing Portfolios' for the first time and created excellent pieces of work.
Maths
In Maths, both year groups have studied Place Value. In Year 6, we explored numbers to 10 million! In Year 5, we have looked at numbers to 1 million.
Currently, Year 6 are looking at the four operations. We have shown great resilience in this unit and have worked hard. We looked at multiplying 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers.
In Year 5, we have looked at addition and subtraction. We have explored the column method and have worked hard to ensure we are writing this in the right way. We have also looked at exchanging.
Science
We have really enjoyed our Science unit so far. We are learning about Evolution and Inheritance. In our first lesson, we created some mind-maps showing what we already know. We will add to these at the end of this science unit to show how much our learning has grown.
In our second lesson, we looked at inheritance. To explore this in-depth, we looked at Little Miss and Mr Men. We then created the offspring that they could have! We learnt a lot in this lesson and created some fantastic offspring with detailed sentences explaining what they inherited from their parents.
Then, we explored how lizards and snakes have adapted overtime and what characteristics help them to survive in their environment. We found this interesting and generated some insightful pieces of work.
Next, we did an experiment using: tweezers, chopsticks, bulldog clips, pegs and sugar cube tongs to see which 'beak' would be the most effective at collecting food. In our groups we fed back our data and summarises that the best item to collect food were the chopsticks. We then discussed how this related to Darwin's Finches. We summarised that the chopsticks were the most effective because of their length and we could vary the pressure that we put on them.
Geography
In Geography, we are looking at Fieldwork. In our first lesson, we used atlases to explore where various geographers carried out their fieldwork. Using the atlases and what we had learnt in the lesson, we transferred the information onto world maps. It was interesting to see all the different areas that fieldwork can take place.
We have also explored how geographers collect their data. We learnt that geographers collect their data in a variety of ways. We decided to create a field sketch of the school, using OASIS as our guide.
In the following lesson, we looked at data and how we can collect it. We wanted to look around our school and see which area we found the most appealing. Lots of us voted for the front garden!
At camp, we also read maps during orienteering. We found this exercise fun and we were able to successfully locate the different areas.
Topic 20
In Topic 20 this term, we are looking at World War 1. This is because our History topic next term is World War 2. Our first lesson explored how World War 1 began and has allowed us to build upon our underpinning knowledge. We have so far explored: what World War 1 was, the causes of World War 1 and The Battle of Arras.
RE
In RE we have been looking at Sikhism. The question that we are answering over the duration of this unit is 'How far would a Sikh go for his/her religion?'. This has been an interesting unit for us. We have explored our own commitments in this unit and have had some excellent class discussions. We have looked at the Story of Khalsa and found this interesting and insightful.
Art
In art, we have been looking at space! We have studied two artists in depth: Julie Perrot and Peter Thorpe. We have been looking at their work and analysing some pieces; saying what we like and dislike.
We have also been using oil pastels. We have experimented using oil pastels and how to effectively create pieces of art. We have practised our blending skills.
Academic Year 2021 - 2022
Term 6
This term started off with a mystery Maya visitor! Professor Jones came in and taught us all about the Maya and showed us what life was like for them. During this visit, we had so much fun! We explored what the Maya wore and what food they ate. This links to our history topic this term. In class, we have looked at the discovery of the Maya Civilisation, The Gods and Religions that they worshipped and Maya writing.
Our book in English this term, is the Last Wild by Piers Torday. We have discovered what life would be like in a dystopian world. The children have thought carefully and considerately in this unit of work and have produced some fantastic pieces of work. We particularly liked describing the main character in this story - Kester - as he can't speak, but can communicate with the remaining animals. We had a class discussion centred around the importance of animals and what the world would be like without them.
In Science, we are exploring the circulatory system. We have found it so interesting looking at the different parts of the heart and the various components needed to ensure our circulatory systems are functioning properly. We have also enjoyed looking at the components in blood. We now understand what blood is made out of and how certain cells within our bodies can stop the blood from moving freely around the body.
We have been most excited about practising for our school play this term! Our play is 'Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies'. We have all really got into our parts and have truly made them come to life! We are practising really hard and cannot wait to show our grownups what we have been doing!
We spent a day working on, and consolidating our DT skills to create some props, backgrounds and costumes for the play. We used a variety of materials to help us with this and have produced some excellent creations!
Year 6 have enjoyed their transition days to their various schools, and have all come back absolutely buzzing about becoming a Year 7!
Term 5
In Term 5, we built up our sewing skills to create the final product of a cushion! We had so much fun during this unit of DT! We learnt a variety of sewing skills, such as running stitch, back stitch, cross stitch and over stitch. We had to think carefully about what stitches we wanted to use on our final product. We explored the use of embellishment and applique to discover what we liked the most.
In English this term we have been exploring 'Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief.' We have really enjoyed this book so far and have worked hard in our learning. So far, we have produced a fantastic piece of writing, based on a predicted chapter. We really enjoyed thinking about what may happen next... especially as we had just found out which God was Percy's father! We have also created a leaflet advertising Camp Half-Blood. We used extracts of text from the story to create our leaflet, we found lots of clues as to what the camp could be like! In addition to this, we created a map, using the text extracts. We had a lot of fun doing this!
In Maths, we have carried on with properties of shape. We have tried hard to remember the amount of angles in a triangle, square and rectangle in Year 5 and in Year 6, we have had to remember the angles in a quadrilateral!
In Geography, our topic is Energy and Sustainability. We have found this unit insightful and interesting so far. We have learnt about sustainable energy and unsustainable energy. We found it interesting learning about all types of energy sources available to us. In class, we have had lots of discussions about this topic, and we have been having some wonderful class discussions!
In Science, our topic is Living Things and Their Habitats. We have been looking at how we can order and characterise animals! We had a go at creating our very own characterisation charts, which went really well!
We have also looked at plant categorisation and we learnt about flowering and non-flowering plants. We created a fact file about these plants and the work we produced was excellent.
In week 3, we explored whether we thought all bacteria was harmful or unharmful. We created leaflets displaying our knowledge in this area, we also researched using the iPads and found out some very interesting things!
Also, this term, Year 6 completed their SATs! I am very proud of how hard they all worked! Now we can look forward to our end of year performance!
Term Four
This term so far has been super! This week we performed at The Playhouse in Weston in 'Dance Their Socks Off.' We were crazy scientists for this show and performed a four-minute dance to a huge audience. This was a great experience for us and despite the nerves, we were amazing!
This term also marks our new topic - Mediaeval and Tudor Monarchs. This week, we have studied the period from 1066 and looked at whom the rightful heir to the throne was. We had a class debate and discussion and surmised that William I was who we felt was the rightful heir.
In English, we began our new book 'Rain Player' by David Wisniewski. We have had such fun learning about the Ancient Maya game 'Pok-A-Tok'. We were unsure however if we would like to play it!
In Maths Year 6 have begun learning Algebra. We found it useful to be able to draw pictures to help us visualise the algebraic equations.
In these pictures you can see the amazing Ancient Egyptian contraptions that we have made! We made these contraptions, linking to our science topic of 'Forces', to show the affect that friction can have.
This week (week 3) we have worked hard in English to research the Ancient Mayan's, linking to our English book 'Rain Player'. We have attempted to research a variety of areas, with the aim of presenting our knowledge to our peers. We are also going to attempt to write an essay - we can't wait to show you our results.
We have had lots of fun this term looking at our science topic, Forces. During this experiment we used an old-fashioned whisk with gears to see how long it would take us to whip cream. We were surprised when it took us over 300 whisks!
During Science, we have been exploring water resistance as part of our learning around Forces. We made boats using junk modelling, and we timed how long it would take us to move from one side of the container to the other. We had to think carefully about what materials we used as we didn't want the boats to sink! The fastest time was 9 seconds.
Term Three
We have been doing lots of fantastic learning across all curriculum areas. We are studying Biomes in Geography and have learnt about the various biomes and the features of them.
In English this term, we have studied 'The Princess's Blankets' by Carol-Ann Duffy. We thought this was a fabulous unit and created some superb writing outcomes; we created our own fairytale!
We are currently studying 'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan. We are really enjoying this insightful book and have had some wonderful class discussions about it.
We are encouraged to use a wide variety of vocabulary in our English work. In our classroom we have a word wall on display, where we add any words we have never heard before or are unsure of their definitions. This has been a really useful tool to aid our learning.
In Science, we are exploring Forces. So far, we have looked at gravity and Isaac Newton. We found this particularly interesting and learnt all about the Theory of Gravity! We undertook our own experiment using Newton Meters to collect data on the weight of items in the classroom. Importantly, we have also looked at the difference of weight and mass.
In Math's we have been looking at Decimals, Percentages and Fractions. We have looked at the relationship between these three mathematical areas and have secured our understanding.
In Art, we are exploring 'Cityscapes'. We have had a lot of fun creating beautiful pieces of art in this unit. So far, we have explored the work of Charles Fazzino. We discussed his pieces of work and really liked how bold and bright they are. Based on Fazzino, we have created some super pieces of 3D pop art. In lesson 2, we looked at Leonid Afremov's abstract art work as a basis for our final product. We explored the use of palette knives and how they can be used.
Term Two
In Term 2, Class 4 spent 6 weeks learning about lighthouses, their functions and how they worked! We had so much fun exploring how to build lighthouses. We firstly started with creating basic structures and worked our way up to creating magnificent pieces of art!
In November, we began our learning journey of The Industrial Revolution. We explored the key features of Victorian society and what it was like to be a Victorian during this time. In particular, we looked at living and working conditions. We had discussions and decided, whilst the Industrial Revolution helped our lives today, we would not have liked to have lived then! We were shocked to find out about Victorian schools and made leaflets advertising our own Victorian schools! We found it fun to be in charge of our own curriculum!
In December, we explored 'Grimms Tales' in English. We particularly enjoyed this unit of dark fairy tales. Our unit ended with us creating some deliciously dark tales!
Term One
In October 2021, Class 4 and Class 1 went together to go apple picking in our local orchard. Class 4 enjoyed the responsibility of looking after our youngest pupils.
