Author: Mrs Hogarth

We are really getting into the class novel this half term – Letters from the lighthouse. The author is Emma Carroll who we know from earlier in the year when we read Secrets of the Sun King. The book links directly to our learning in topic about World War II. In the book, the main characters Olive and Cliff, are young children experiencing a war situation and are evacuated to the south coast for their safety. We follow their journey and experience the fear, emotion and moments of happiness with them.

Help at home: https://emmacarrollauthor.wordpress.com/

Use this website to learn more about the author with your child.

In maths this week, year 6 have been using all their knowledge of fractions and applying it to decimals and percentages. They understand that a percentage is out of 100 and that the denominator of a fraction must be 100 in order to convert it into a decimal and percentage. The children recalled their learning of decimals well and could remember their knowledge of tenths and hundredths. They could convert between the two well. The children also applied their knowledge in problem solving and reasoning.

Our new science topic this half term is all about variation and adaptation. As we are studying living things, we are being biologists. We began by looking at our new vocabulary. It is important we understand these words as it will help us in the lessons. We discussed how there are variations within different groups of living things. We know that we have different breeds of dogs etc within the species. We went on to recognise that when offspring are produced, this can create variations. In humans, this can be things like hair colour and eye colour. We completed some tally charts to see which was the most common eye and hair colour in our class. Blue eyes came out on top and brown hair was the most common.

Here is the vocabulary that we are learning this half term.

Help at home: Can you help your child become familiar with this vocabulary?

Our living and learning statement this week is ‘I can give and receive compliments‘. As a class, we talked about what a compliment was and how it made us feel. We discussed that compliments should be less about what people look like physically and more about other aspects of our lives such as our personalities, our strengths and our learning behaviour. We spent some time moving around the classroom and writing compliments on each others compliment cards and at the end we shared our favourite comments. Everyone had a smile on their face at the end of the lesson as it made us feel good about ourselves.

In writing, we are going to be poets! We are linking our love of writing with our love of sport. We have used some videos of children who have been inspired by their love and passion for a sport. They talked about their determination and resilience when playing a sport, how it has made them grow as a person and how it has improved their lives. The children will create their own poems based on a sport or another interest that they are passionate about. They will also include some figurative language. This is something we’ve been working on recently. Ask your child about their poem at home.

Here are a couple of the videos that have inspired us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwyHNHtfl2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5lWgKDnHx0

We have had another week where we have been able to enjoy using the laptops and the micro:bits. Micro:bits are like small computers that can be programmed to create different outputs. They contain an LED screen and can also make sounds. We love them!

This week, the children built algorithms that made the micro:bit act like a Magic 8 ball. It would randomly, when shaken, display yes or no on the screen. In the next lesson, the children were able to turn the micro:bit into a counter. When one button is pressed, it adds 1 to the total. When a different button is pressed, it subtracts 1. The children built their algorithms well and are showing more confidence at debugging when something isn’t working. They were also fantastic at supporting each other.

We have moved on to a different sport this half term – rugby!

In this first lesson, the children were introduced to the idea of passing the rugby ball accurately. They used a point and pass technique and if they wanted to challenge themselves, they could try and put a spin on the ball. They applied this skill in a ‘piggy in the middle’ type game in which the children had to accurately pass the ball and also intercept. The children’s confidence definitely improved during the session and they were also able to develop their team building and communication skills.

We have started our new topic this half term – computing. As always, we began by looking at our new vocabulary and the children rag rated the words depending on how confident they were with the definitions. We talked about how computers are part of a network and include parts such as a server, cables, switches and clients (laptops, tablets, phones). A network allows computers to share information between different devices, usage can be monitored and if a printer is connected, every computer on the network can access it. It makes our lives much easier.

Help at home: Have a look at the new vocabulary for this term. Can you help your child learn the words?

As we are drawing to the end of our geography topic, we are applying our geographical skills to study the impact rising sea levels have on the UK’s coastlines. We spent a few lessons looking at how rising sea levels had impacted places around the world, such as the Solomon Islands. We watched an informative video about the devastating impact on a local community.

Today, we used Digi-maps to study the Holderness coastline and we were able to look at maps from  1890, 1950 and the present day. Using drawing and measuring tools, we could see how much of the coastline had eroded. We compared Hornsea with Skipsea to see the positive impact coastal defences such as groynes have.

Help at home: Watch the video with your child at home. Can they recall the impacts that rising sea levels are having on this community?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/articles/zcyqdp3