Year 6 - Mrs Godson
Welcome to Class 6G! We are now enjoying our second Cornerstone topic Revolution. We have enjoyed a range of memorable experiences linked to Victorian school days, including handwriting practise, the 'drill', parlour games and examining historical artefacts.
UPCOMING EVENTS FOR YEAR 6:
- 16th - 20th January 2017 - Whitehall Residential
Christmas at Newstead Abbey. Year 6 proudly represented Granby Junior School during our visit to the stunningly maintained Abbey. Children were able to enjoy a range of indoor-based activities that included: making sugar mice, a magic lantern show, parlour games and many more Victorian-inspired sessions throughout the day. The enjoyable experience provided children with inspirational ideas for then writing a persuasive article about Newstead Abbey, once returning to school.
As part of Anti-Bullying Week (14th - 18th November), children were given the opportunity to watch 'Sticks and Stones' anti-bullying production with powerful messages about how to keep safe and what to do if you feel you are being bullied. In Year 6, children have been given the opportunity to discuss bullying scenarios and how these issues may be resolved. Looking at different types of bullying, including cyber-bullying and sexting, our Year 6 children know what positive actions they can follow to keep themselves safe.
Our new Cornerstones topic 'Revolution' has been well received by our class, inspiring children to research the Victorian period as part of their homework and even have a go at some homemade baking ... Yummy!
Our new topic - Revolution - focuses on the history of Victorian Britain.
"Are you listening, boy? What is twenty-seven plus forty-five? Come on - faster now, we haven't got all day!"
Find out about super-strict schools by travelling back in time to a Victorian classroom. Make sure you're on your best behaviour though, as punishments are unquestionably terrible!
Discover a time when great minds thought new thoughts and ingenious inventors created so many things we take for granted today: the electric light bulb, the telephone and even the modern flushing toilet!
You might even get to invent things yourself in the Victorian Dragon's Den...
We will research a time when Victoria was Queen and Albert was Prince Consort - when some people lived in slums while others prospered.
Curriculum
English: reports, historical fiction, biographies, poetry (Limericks), diaries/journals
Maths: algebra, measurements and time, mental strategies for multiplication, division, additional and subtraction
History: The Victorians (schools, homes, slums, conditions in the mines, inventors and their inventions, crime and punishment, toys and games)
Art: Victorian painters
Computing: Digital photography
D&T: home craft and model buildings
Geography: cities and transport in Victorian Britain, using maps
Music: Victorian Parlour Songs
PE: Drill exercises
PSHCE: Achievements
Science: Electricity
Here is the sheet with options for homework projects relating to our next topic, Revolution, which we'll start after October half-term.
Victorian Memorable Experiences - Year 6 very much enjoyed getting into the roles of Victorian children and experienced what life might have been like at school during the Victorian era. Victorian copperplate writing, the drill and parlour games were some of the activities that the children took part in as an introduction to our new Cornerstones topic: Revolution.
Black History Month. Class 6G researched sporting heroes from history.
This term, our children will be learning...
English: to write invitations, instructions and poetry
History: about the ancient Maya
Geography: map work, human and physical geography of Mexico
Science: Light and Shadows
Art: Mayan art
Music: traditional Mexican songs in Spanish
Computing: safe, thoughtful online research and digital presentations
D&T: food of Mexico
PE: Mexican dance
Maths: number work, including: decimals, fractions, conversion, written calculation methods, algebra, converting units of measurement and mental methods. We will also introduce the BAR model for problem-solving.
Today, we enjoyed the privilege of inviting Key Strings to perform and allow our children to experience a range of musical instruments.
Year 6 enjoyed creating their own Mexican-inspired headdresses, developing their designs using feedback from their class partners.
Mexican Celebration morning. Many thanks to all the adults who came to support our costume preparation sessions and took part in our Mayan procession. Our Year 6 children enjoyed presenting their Mexican-inspired poetry, before the offering of a sacrifice to the Mayan Gods (no children were harmed in the process) :-)
Maths Week: Our focus is on planning a family holiday to Mexico, learning about how to select and use data to solve a problem. In teams, we have already been considering reasons for/ against going on holiday and costs to be considered when planning a trip abroad.
This week, we have enjoyed developing our own pieces of poetry that have been inspired by our study of Mexican festivals.
Poetry inspired by our exploration of the Day of the Dead - a Mexican festival
Wow! We have enjoyed a marvellous Monday morning with author Andy Cole learning about 'the art of being brilliant'. Children responded enthusiastically when exploring key elements which included: choosing to be positive; remembering we are amazing; taking personal responsibility plus setting personal goals.
This week, the NSPCC visited our school and delivered their Speak out. Stay safe. assembly to share information with about how our children can keep themselves safe from harm and get help if they have any worries. Year 6 were invited to take part in class-based workshops. The NSPCC's work helped encourage conversations about staying stay - we hope the children will speak about their positive experiences of this at home.
Wow! We have enjoyed another fantastic week of learning. We ended our English focus work on instructional writing by following our written instructions to play the Mayan ball game. Thereafter, we sampled Mexican food that had been created as part of our Homework challenges.
Maya musical appreciation session. Having listened to Mayan music, we were inspired to create our own class piece of music.
Celebrating success
Our Year 6 have made a fantastic start to the new term and are enjoying our Cornerstones topic 'Hola Mexico'. We are continuing to find out about what happened at ancient Maya festivals - there were some exciting and gruesome events!
To celebrate our learning, we would like to invite parents and carers of Year 6 children to come and join us for an end-of-term costume preparation session and a processional march on Wednesday 19th October at 9am until 10:30am. Letters have been sent out with details.
We shall be holding the event initially in the classrooms, before moving onto the school playground, weather permitting. Children will be playing musical instruments and offering readings to the Mayan gods. We shall sacrifice a child to the Mayan gods (no child will be harmed in this process 
).
Children are invited to dress in bright clothing on the day.
Food tasting session
Memorable Experiences
E-SAFETY
Today we have been learning about E-safety. We have dicussed our Rules for Responsible Internet use, as well as the importance of having a secure password. Year 6 have been set a challenge to create a secure password, using the following link: https://howsecureismypassword.net
Year 6 children have been made aware of cyber-bullying and understand that this is non-acceptable here at Granby Junior School. We talked about who to speak to, if there are any concerns.
We have enjoyed sharing homework linked to our Mexican Topic. This has included a quiz about the country, fact files about plants that are native to Mexico, as well enjoying homemade fruit cocktails - a great end to another fantastic week of learning!
