WELCOME TO YEAR 6 OWLS
Owls are creatures of great integrity. They are also serene and wise, using all their senses to adapt to their surroundings. The wisdom of an owl enables them to be unafraid and tackle any challenges they may face.
THIS TERM'S THEME
'Be Curious'
This Term, Year 6 children will ‘Be Curious’ by asking questions to challenge their understanding. They will do this through design, making and evaluating projects in different Curriculum areas.
P.E AND DANCE DAYS
PE and Dance for Owls will be on a Friday. Please ensure your child comes to school with the correct kit, which is clearly labelled. For more information about kit requirements, please visit our 'Physical Education & School Sport' Page.
We will ensure that PE kits are sent home at the end of every half term.
HOME LEARNING DAYS
Home learning will be sent home on Fridays and should be returned to school on Wednesday. Home learning should be completed to the best standard possible and Mathletics and Times Table Rock Stars should also be completed weekly. We celebrate the efforts of Mathletics and Times Table Rock Stars in our assemblies with special class shout outs and certificates.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Monday 15th April 2024 - Non-pupil day
Tuesday 16th April 2024 – First day of Summer Term
Thursday 18th April 2024 – Rocksteady Assembly and Workshop
Tuesday 23rd April 2024 – RNLI Water safety assembly
Monday 6th May 2024 – Bank Holiday
Monday 13th May 2024 – SATs Week: SPaG Paper
Tuesday 14th May 2024 – SATs Week: Reading Paper
Wednesday 15th May 2024 – SATs Week: Maths Papers 1 and 2
Thursday 16th May 2024 – SATs Week: Maths Papers 3
Monday 20th May 2024 – Thursday 23rd May 2024 – Bikeability
Friday 24th May 2024 – Paignton Transition visit at 2pm
Friday 24th May 2024 – Last day of Summer 1
Monday 27th May 2024 – Friday 31st May 2024 – Half Term
Monday 3rd June 2024 – First day of Summer 2
Wednesday 5th June – Brixham Transition visit at 9am
Friday 7th June 2024 – World Ocean Day
Monday 24th June 2024 – Friday 28th June 2024 – RSHE Week
Tuesday 23rd July 2024 - Leavers Assembly at 2pm-3pm
Tuesday 23rd July 2024 – Leavers Disco – 6pm-7pm
Wednesday 24th July 2024 - Woodlands Trip
Wednesday 24th July 2024 – Last day of Summer Term
MEET THE TEAM
Image coming soon
If there are any issues or concerns, please feel free to come in and see your teacher (Mr King) or alternatively please contact a team leader (Mrs Gidley).
sking@whiterockprimaryschool.co.uk
rgidley@whiterockprimaryschool.co.uk
Year 6 Maths Key Performance Indicators
ACADEMIC YEAR 2023/2024
SUMMER TERM
Summer Term Curriculum Map
Friday 3rd May 2024 - Dance
We have been enjoying our Dance lessons so far this term in Year 6 where we have used inspiration from High School Musical. Our dance is based on the basketball themed song, 'Getcha Head in the Game', so we have imaginary basketballs for the dance. The dance begins with us all dancing in unison, which means we have to each make sure we are counting the beats and stepping or jumping on the correct beat. Last week we added the next part, our duet of 16 beats choreographed together. Then today we were using the next 16 beats to create a quartet dance. While working in our groups of four, we had to use the lifelong skills of compromise, respect and teamwork to ensure everyone contributed to the choreography.
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Tuesday 23rd April 2024 - RNLI Assembly
Thursday 18th April 2024 – Art
As part of our learning in Art, we completed our sculptures. We used pipe cleaners to make the human body and then we decided, as the artist, which material we would use to cover them. We choose between, masking tape, clay, foil, newspaper, and paper. As we completed the sculpture we thought about the action or emotions we were trying to convey. At times it was quite difficult to cover the wires, but we all showed perseverance. They turned out really well.
SPRING TERM
Spring Term Curriculum Map
Thursday 28th March 2024 – DT
This term, we have been designing our own pencil pots. We have used a design brief and created a costings list for our final design. As a team, we worked together to create the final product. We safely used saws, to cut wood to the desired size and glue guns to create secure joins. We were very pleased with what we achieved.
Wednesday 20th March 2024 - Computing
Year 6 welcomed Boris into our classes this week who spoke to us about the importance of online safety. He explained how technology had evolved and whilst it is a brilliant tool for us to use to create and communicate we need to make sure that we are aware of the dangers of being online and how to keep ourselves safe.
Friday 15th March 2024-Spanish
Year 6 have been learning vocabulary related to the La comida food topic. The children have been learning how to say what they like to eat for breakfast
(El desayuno) The children have also written some Spanish food menus and included bebidas, comida and postres. iQue delicioso! The children really enjoyed writing Spanish shopping lists too! iQue fantastico!
We have also been focusing on higher Spanish numbers. Practise these at home!
treinta= 30
cuarenta=40
cincuenta= 50
sesenta= 60
setenta= 70
ochenta= 80
noventa= 90
cien=100
iQue maravilloso!
Thursday 14th March 2024 – Science Week
This week is national Science Week. In Year 6 we completed an investigation to find the answer to this question.
Can the tallest people do more star jumps in 30 seconds?
We made predictions and planned out how our group could answer the questions. Once we had collected our data we presented in a bar chart, line graph or scatter graph.
Thursday 7th March 2024 – World Book Day
Today has been World Book Day. We’ve completed lots of activities today. We started the day with a whole school assembly and saw all the amazing costumes across the school. When we got back to class, we teamed up with a Year 2 class to share a book with them. Next, we made some props for our adults. Can you guess who they are?
After break, we did the BBC Live Lesson, where the presenters created a pop-up library. We also had lots of activities to complete including drawing a front cover from a ‘World of fiction’ and thinking about what kid of subjects we would like to read in a non-fiction book.
It was an activity filled day. We also did ‘guess the title’ where we had jumbled up words and the front cover of the book and needed to work out the title. Then we created designs for the ‘design a nation book token competition’. We also watched ‘Who’s that behind the mask’ where some of our adults disguised themselves and read small extracts from a book – it was brilliant!
Friday 1st March 2023 - Gymnastics
We have been enjoying our Gymnastics this half term and this week we were using strong body tension to hold a counter balance (pushing against each other) and counter tension (pulling away from each other) balance with a partner. We had to trust each other and communicate well to ensure we both knew our roles and had to tell each other when we were coming out of the balance. Before the balances, we warmed up by recapping the Gymnastics shapes and stretches from last week, for example pike, straddle, front support and down dog.
Thursday 22nd February 2024 - Science
In Science, we have been exploring how people and animals have adapted to extreme environments around the world. We discussed what an 'extreme environment' would be and how people and animals overcome the challenges they face in order to survive the extreme conditions.
Friday 26th January 2024 - RE
To support our RE unit 'Why do Hindus try to be good?', we had an online Hindu visitor who talked to us about Hindu traditions. She explained the history of the Hindu religion and the importance of demonstrating good karma. We were also able to share with her some of the facts that we already knew about Brahman. At the end of our visit, she retold us the story of Rama and Sita.
Friday 26th January- Spanish
Today Year 6 had lots of fun learning a ryhme for the verb "ir"= to go in Spanish. We played lots of interactive games and made sentences with the verb "ir" and modes of transport. e.g voy en tren, vamos en autobus...
Can you practise this verb formation at home.
voy= I go
vas= you go
va= he/she goes
vamos=we go
vais=you go
van= they go
iMaravilloso!
Monday 22nd January 2024 – New play equipment
Today the new play equipment has been opened for us to use. We have been very excited to watch the new equipment being installed and couldn’t’ wait to have a go on it. We had so much fun and really enjoyed moving across the trail.
Friday 19th January 2024 - Physical Education
The focus in PE this half term is Health Related Fitness. Children have been learning five elements of fitness, reasons for warm-ups and cool-downs and are able to identify the names of the muscles they are working. They have had to work together to complete extensive relay challenges to help achieve personal fitness goals, and we have also discussed the psychological demands required to persevere when tired.
This week’s lesson saw high levels of effort in the popular game of ‘unlimited dodgeball’ where players could buy their way back into the game by completing a number of exercises.
Tuesday 16th January 2024 – Maths
This week, we finished our topic on Algebra. We have learnt how to find missing values. To help with our learning we have used part-whole models and bar models.
When finding a missing value, we need to apply lots of our prior learning. This included: inverse operations, using the correct symbol and being systematic.
Monday 8th January 2024 – Art
This term our new Art topic is about Henry Moore. He was born in Castleford, Yorkshire, England in 1898. Leeds School of Art to learn to become a sculptor. He was inspired by nature and ancient civilisations like the Mayans. Most of his sculptures are of the human form.
In our first Art lesson about him, we used our sketchbooks to collect ideas and share our thoughts and feelings about his artwork. Here are some photos of us being inspired!
Wednesday 3rd January 2024 – Bikeability
Today, Michelle from Bikeability came into school. She took assembly and got us to think about why it is important for us to learn how to be safe on the road, when we ride our bikes. Michelle talked to us about what to expect if we take the course and we watched some videos to show what the children were doing, from signalling, shoulder checking and completing a u-turn.
If you would like to sign up, there is an online form which has been sent, via email, to parents/carers.
Year 6 Class Reader – Spring Term
This is the class reader for Year 6.
Here is the blurb from the back of the book:
February 1941. After months of bombing raids in London, twelve-year-old Olive Bradshaw and her little brother Cliff are evacuated to the Devon coast. The only person with two spare beds is Mr Ephraim, the local lighthouse keeper. But he's not used to company, and he certainly doesn't want any evacuees.
Desperate to be helpful, Olive becomes his post-girl, carrying secret messages (as she likes to think of the letters) to the villagers. But Olive has a secret of her own. Her older sister Sukie went missing in an air raid, and she's desperate to discover what happened to her. And then she finds a strange, coded note which seems to link Sukie to Devon, and to something dark and impossibly dangerous.
AUTUMN TERM
Autumn Term Curriculum Map
Thursday 14th December 2023 – Geography
In Geography we have been learning about the structure of the earth. We then moved on to find out about volcanoes. At the end of the topic, we made our own volcanoes to explode. Here are some photos showing what we did.
Tuesday 5th December 2023 – Swimming
Today sees the last day of our swimming sessions, for this year. We have had a brilliant time developing different techniques. Everyone has pushed themselves to be more confident and safer when we are in the water. Our instructors have helped us to build up our stamina and swimming style.
Friday 1st December 2023 – Year 6 Learning Celebration.
Thank you to all the parents, carers and adults who came to our Learning Celebration. We enjoyed sharing a snapshot of the learning we have being doing during the Autumn Term, in Year 6. Well done to everyone who had a go at playing the Ukulele and joining in with our science investigation. We also noticed that some of our adults are budding artists. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
Friday 1st December 2023 – Let’s think in English.
During our ‘Let’s Think in English’ sessions, we are using our language skills to communicate our ideas about a text or video. In today’s session, we used a section of a story called, ‘Survivor’. We had some fantastic ideas about how we thought the character felt, at different parts of the narrative. In these sessions, we take into accounted everyone’s ideas and give reasons for our thoughts. We work in a small group and listen to each other’s opinions.
Friday 17th November 2023- Spanish
So far this term in Spanish, we have been learning how to describe our personalities using the key structure "Soy". We have also focused on daily routine phrases and reading a Spanish text for key information. We have looked at how to form the verb "vivir" (to live) in the present tense. We made verb flowers to help us remember the formation. iQue maravilloso año 6!
Take a look at the amazing Spanish work. iQue fantastico!
Monday 13th November 2023 - Anti-Bullying Week
Today marks the start of Anti-Bullying Week. This morning, we listened to Mrs Tomkinson's assembly and watched Andy and The Odd Socks singing this years new song, 'Make a noise'. Lots of us wore our odd socks to encourage people to express themselves and to celebrate individuality.
Monday 13th November 2023 – Science
In Science, we have been learning about osmosis. This is when water molecules move from a high concentration to a low concentration. We completed an experiment, with jelly babies, to show osmosis in action. We used tap water, salt water and lemonade to see how they jelly sweet would change. We measured its original size and then it’s size after 24 hours and made observations about what it looked like.
Friday 10th November 2023 - Dance
In Dance today, we created dances to show the destruction of tornadoes. We had to include appropriate dynamics (how we move) to express the movements of a tornado as well as including other dance elements, such as different levels, directions and speeds. In Year 6, we are expected to include dance techniques we have learned in previous years and so some groups remembered to include canon in their dances to add more interest for the audience.
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Part 1
Part 2
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Thursday 9th November 2023 – Music
In Music today, we began to learn how to play the ukulele. We learnt how to hold the instrument correctly so that we weren’t pressing on any of the strings, which would have changed the sound. We labelled parts of the ukulele and found out what job they do. Next, we then learnt how to strum and pluck the strings and joined in with a song, ‘My Dog has fleas’ from the Charanga website.
Tuesday 17th October 2023 – Writing and Drama with Paddleboat
This half term we have been lucky enough to have Paddleboat come into Year 6 and work with us on a Murder Mystery. We shared our ideas and created some writing of our own.
The Paddleboat team put all of our ideas together and came up with two scripts. We got to read them out. The first one told of the adventures of Detective Flamingo and the second group had the investigator Red Herring solving the mystery.
Friday 13th October 2023 – Science
During our science sessions we are learning about different components of our blood. We completed an experiment to answer this question:
How does the size of the blood vessel effect the blood flow?
We collected some results and made observations.
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Thursday 5th October 2023 - Coasteering
On Thursday afternoon, we got together with Reach Outdoors. We put on our wetsuits, buoyancy aids and helmets and headed down to the picturesque Churston cove. Owls were brilliant at showing their bravery and water-confidence skills. We then swam around to Fishcombe cove and carried out some activities. Owls were having such a fun time that a local Brixham seal made an appearance to see what we were all up to. We were all incredible, showing how supportive we can be and our positive attitudes.
Soon we’ll have some photos to show you from Reach Outdoors.
Friday 29th September- European Day of Languages
Year 6 had a fabulous day on Tuesday celebrating EDL. The European Day of Languages is a celebration of different languages spoken in Europe. Everyone can take part in this special day! Children at school, children at nursery, children at home, as well as teachers and parents/carers!
It is celebrated is on the 26th September each year.
Year 6 had lots of fun during their EDL session with a European fun photobooth. This was decorated in different European flags. The children also learnt how to say “hello” in different languages.
Try and say these!
Bonjour- hello (FRENCH)
Privet-hello (RUSSIAN)
Ola- hello (PORTUGUESE)
Halla- hello (SWEDISH)
We sang lots of songs. Here are the links:
Friday 22nd September 2023 - Dance
Year 6 have started to learn some traditional Greek steps as we are learning about Ancient Greece. Today, after learning some of the steps, we put together our own little dance sequence with just four of the moves. We will be developing this over the next few weeks, creating our own Greek dances in groups.
Tuesday 19th September 2023 - Paddleboat Theatre
We were very lucky today and had a visit from Paddleboat Theatre. They put on a Murder Mystery themed show about the many crimes of Constance Shadows. During the show, the lead investigator, Rufus Capers, was wrongly accused for murdering Constance Shadows. With our help, Aggie, his assistant, released Rufus from prison and it was discovered that Constance Shadows had escaped through a secret door in the Mayor's Manor House during his party!
Wednesday 13th September 2023 – Reading Roundabout
Today, we had someone from the Library Services come into our classroom to share the new books we’re getting in our school library. They had been separated into six different groups: Realistic fiction, Wild about animals, Laugh out loud, Thrills and chills, Magical adventure, and Fascinating facts. We looked at the cover, checked out the blurb and read parts of the book to see if we liked it. Each of us created our own list of books we’d like to read this year. It was such good fun to share books together!
Monday 11th September 2023 – Art
During our Art session, we started our new topic on portraiture. We have begun by using different pencil grades. In our sketchbooks, we experimented with creating grey shades – thinking about how much pressure we were putting on our pencil. We also looked at a range of sketching techniques for shading. We used wiggling, hatching and cross-hatching to shade and discussed, as a class, how these techniques gave a different effect.
Wednesday 6th September 2023 – First day back
During Owls first day back, we completed lots of learning. In Maths, we were looking at numbers up to 100,000. We used place value charts and counters to show the value of each digit. Next, we completed our elicitation task for writing. Our first Writing Unit will be based around the book, ‘101 things to do to become a superhero or an evil genius’. In the afternoon, we looked at a short story during our PSHE session and completed some freeze frame shots to act out one of the scenes.
Year 6 Class Reader – Autumn Term
This is the class reader for Year 6.
The blurb on the back of the book says:
Lily's life is in mortal peril. Her father is missing and now silver-eyed men stalk her through the shadows. What could they want from her?
With her friends - Robert, the clockmaker's son, and Malkin, her mechanical fox - Lily is plunged into a murky and menacing world. Too soon Lily realizes that those she holds dear may be the very ones to break her heart...