6KR

VE Day Blog - By Ayomide

On 28th June, Year 6 had an enrichment day, the theme was VE day, which celebrates Victory in England during World War Two. 

To start the day, we decorated bunting in a Great British theme - this was for our afternoon street party.

After that, we made a three course meal using the foods that would have been available during WWII in the correct portions for the rationing that was in place at the time. We made: a starter of cheese and lentil spread (on crackers); a main course of vegetable pie, which had a potato crust; and our dessert was bread pudding. This was all to be enjoyed at our street party.

Next up, we created rag rugs which is a hand-woven rug made with hessian and rags torn into strips. Some children also made models of spit fires.

To end the day, we had a street party in which we ate the food that we made in the morning; then, we played hokey-pokey.

Year 6 couldn't be more proud of the mathletes who represented Quarry Hill Academy at the Catalyst Academy Trust Matheletics Competition.

They truly did us proud and earned themselves a silver medal each.

Congratulations!

Look at that focus!

Skyla and Lilli-Mai have written a blog especially for today's electrical enrichment day, in which we focused on designing, making and playing steady hand games...

Today in our experiment, we made our own games. First, we got:

- copper wires

- a light bulb (but some people used a buzzer)

- a battery pack

- crocodile clip wires

- and plyers

The, using the resources above, we connected them together to create a simple circuit. When the copper wires touch, they act as a switch, turning on the light bulb (or buzzer). 

Now that our circuit was complete, we shaped the wire and designed it however we wanted.

Finally, we played our game!

Science Blog – By Effie

In the paragraph below this blog will discuss a science experiment on grease.

Have you ever wondered how much grease fat you consume? Well read on to find out.

After having a look at the contents of some drinks and sweets it left us curious. How much grease is in our favorite crisps? So we measured out 5g of 6 different crisps, laid it on some squared paper, put a wax sheet over it and crunched it and then left it for around an hour.  Once the hour had passed, we gently put the crisps in the bin and counted how many squares the grease spread to. Here are our results:

French fries: 48cm2   

Tortilla chips: 62cm2

Onion rings: 132cm2

Pringles:  62cm2

Pop chips: 30cm2

Salt and vinegar sticks: 126cm2

So based on these results, we now know that onion rings aren’t the healthiest option for a snack.

This was my science week!

Thanks for reading.

Science Blog – By Jessie and Ibrahim

Aim: To investigate how much grease is in 5g of crisps.

Hypothesis: I predict that the salt and vinegar sticks will have the most grease in them, I also predict that the pop chips will have the least grease in them. 

Equipment:         

• Six bags of crisps ( French fries , Tortilla chips , Onion rings , Pringles, Pop chips and Salt and vinegar sticks )
• Square paper
• Grease proof paper

Method: First, you will need to put 5g of crisps on a squared piece of paper, and then you put the grease proof paper on the crisps and squish until there are just crumbs. Then leave them for a little while until all of the grease is on the paper. Finally, count all of the squares that have grease on them.

Results:

French fries= 48cm2,

Tortilla chips= 62cm2,

Onion rings= 132cm2,

Pringles= 62cm2,

Pop chips= 30cm2,

Salt and vinegar= 126cm2

Conclusion : After our experiment in finding out which crisp had the most grease, we found out that the Onion rings have the most amount of grease covering the squared paper with 132 squares covered. The crisp that had the least amount of grease covering the squared paper was the pop chips with 30 squares covered in grease.

This week, Year 6 had their Art Enrichment Day and our focus was on Pop Art.

Imitating the style of Andy Warhol, We first recreated his famous screen printing in which he mass-produced Campbell’s soup cans. You can see our attempt above.

In the afternoon, we had a go at designing our own original pop art, basing it on everyday food items; this was in preparation for our Science week in which we will be focusing on nutrition when we return after half term.

Now that the SATs are over... I repeat THE SATS ARE OVER! Year 6 have the opportunity to enjoy a series of enrichment days. This week we had DT enrichment day within which we made Chinese dragons. In the video above, you can see us parading our dragons to some Chinese festival inspired music. Enjoy!

This week was SATs week for our Year 6s, and as teachers, we couldn't be more proud!
We started each day off brilliantly, with a delicious breakfast followed by fun games.

Every child gave it their best, and we couldn't ask for more.
We even had ice lollies from Mrs Wakeling to celebrate.

Now we look forward to getting ready for our transition to secondary!

Germs!

In Science, Year 6 have been deliberately cultivating germs! … I know – GROSS!

We got 6 slices of bread and contaminated 5 of them with what we thought would be germ infested environments:

Kara licked a slice, Salma rubbed her foot on one, Olivia put her nail dirt on another, David rubbed a slice on the muddy floor outside the classroom and Sayeema stomped on one with her shoes on! The final slice of bread was left so that we could use it as a baseline.

Our aim was to discover how micro-organisms thrive.

Above you can see the pictures of the fungus-covered bread after just one week. We have collected the data from this and will be monitoring the bread for a further two weeks. Imagine what it will look like then!

Year 6 have been working incredibly hard in preparation for their SATs which begin in just two weeks! As you can see from these happy, confident faces, WE ARE READY! 

Bring it on!

The pupils of Quarry Hill Academy can handle anything!

"We are the best school!" - Tommy

"After these mock SATs test results my confidence has sky rocketed!" - Maheera

"Practise makes perfect." - Ameerah

Living Things and their Habitats

We kicked the half term off with a Science lesson all about classification. We learnt why taxonomists classify living things into groups and how split these groups again and again so they become smaller and smaller; this is so each group can be observed by scientists so that they can understand their similarities and differences more clearly.

We too have acted as taxonomists and created our own questions to split animals into smaller groups. Have a look at Kara's example of a classification key above.

We look forward to moving on to classifying plants next week!

We couldn't resist!

6KR have had another go using the Now Press Play headsets to immerse themselves into their learning. This time, our focus was on Victorian Britain...

When your father has an accident down the mine, your family has to go into the workhouse. You decide to stowaway on a train to London to make your fortune and free your family. But how will you, a child on their own, survive the big smoke?

In this experience, 6KR learnt about: the Industrial Revolution: mines, factories, railways – and the role of children; social & economic inequality (including the workhouse), and industrial action; life in Victorian countryside versus the city; and, the Prime Minister William Gladstone, who brought in many reforms.

You’re sitting in your kitchen, slowly finishing off your cereal. With your spoon scrape up the last bits from your bowl. It’s your first day at  secondary school today and you’re feeling too nervous to finish breakfast…

And with that, 6KR were completely immersed into their Now Press Play experience. The children put on wireless headphones and were plunged into the world of their Science topic: Evolution. Absorbed in sound, they became the main character in their story, meeting Charles Darwin, discovering places and solving problems, on an educational adventure they’ll never forget. This time they arrived late on their first day at secondary school and were sent to the headteacher. But a strange-looking man called Darwin was in the headteacher’s office and asked them to accompany him on a trip through time. Their mission? To prove the theory of evolution!

During their experience, 6KR learned all about: the inheritance of characteristics from their parents; how animals adapt to environments over time by inheriting favourable characteristics; the role of natural selection in this process (“survival of the fittest”); and how Charles Darwin proved the theory of evolution, in the face of opposition.

We can’t wait to try out the Victorian Britain experience next!!

Some quotes from the children:

“I feel like I can forget all my worries and go on an adventure.”

“I loved this experience!”

“I feel like this was made for us because we are going into secondary too.”

“It didn’t take me long to be fully immersed into the experience. It felt like we were actually doing and seeing what was said!”

Horror Story Speed Dating!

In English, we have been innovating the story of Hansel and Gretel.

We have developed our own characters, settings and fairytale creatures to grip the reader and produce an original horror story.

Every child has come up with their own unique ideas!

In the pictures above, you can see us speed dating.

We learnt our stories off by heart and shared them with the person opposite us; we answered their questions and then listened to their horror story before moving on to our next partner.

We had so much fun!

Some of us got quite animated and we realised that we were developing our story further, adding extra details as well as speech.

Our stories will be completed and written into our English books by the end of our Friday lesson!

Evolution is how plants and animals have adapted to survive in their environment over many years. This may mean that the way they look or behave has changed to help them suit their environment better.

Charles Darwin sailed to the Galapagos Islands on his ship, the Beagle - his theories have led to much controversy!

We have been experimenting with different beak types and food sources to recreate Darwin's discovery at the Galapagos Islands. We have come to realise why the finches needed to adapt in different ways depending on the type of habitat in which they were living. 

Next week, we will be learning all about inheritance!

Despite being over half way through the academic year, 6KR are continuing to surprise and impress Mrs Robinson with their outstanding writing.

This week, the children have developed their empathy skills to understand what it was like for children during the Victorian era; we discovered that this highly depended upon their financial background.

We then looked more closely at children who were forced to work just to stay alive. What they went through every minute of every day was shockingly horrendous. However, the children of 6KR did them justice by portraying their experiences through heartfelt diary entries. 

Mrs Robinson particularly enjoyed the way Faizat referred to the inspection officer within her diary entry, as we had previously written from his point of view. Also, Maheera kept her diary entry realistic by incorporating the tone, dialect and use of grammar that would have been used by the poorer, uneducated children at this time.

We hope you enjoy our diary entries. It has definitely helped us appreciate everything that we have today.

Year 6 were in a state of shock when they returned from their half term...

...we discovered that the school had been infested with rats!

Outraged by the school being overrun by vermin, Year 6 decided that the best course of action was to write a formal letter of complaint to Mrs Wakeling on behalf of the school community.

We hope that Mrs Wakeling sees reason and addresses this severe situation with great care and speed.

Victorian Day - By Maheera

The day started off by moving our tables of six into rows and having our nails checked (apparently mine were too long)! Anyways, our first lesson of the day was handwriting where we could only write with our right hand and practised our cursive lettering; Atees kept getting told off for using his left hand. Sad, right? 

After that, we had our Arithmetic - aka Maths - where we recited our times tables, learnt about farthings, pennies, shillings, pounds and guineas and answered addition and subtraction questions linking to Queen Victorian's life. 

After break, we had an elocution lesson where we tried to pronounce tongue twisters and read stanzas from the poem: The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll. I heard that the other class were misbehaving and received many whips by the cane. Poor Olivia had to sit in the dunce corner, not knowing it meant idiot! 

With extra water, we had gruel for lunch, which wasn't the best but it was okay. Continuing on, we had our chores to do around the house: wiping the floors, tidying the cloakroom and straightening the tables. Lastly, we had our drill class where we played games and had fun.

It was amazing to feel the day in the life of a Victorian kid.

Over the last couple of weeks, 6KR have been planning and preparing to conduct an investigation to identify the variables that affect the size of a shadow. 

In their groups, they narrowed down what they wanted to find out as they know that for their investigation to be a fair test their can only be one independent variable - you can ask any member of year 6 what the different kinds of variables are in an investigation and their importance!

Once they decided on their investigation focus they came up with their aims and individual hypothesis. As a group, they then decided on the equipment they would need and they planned their method. 

Before they conducted the experiment, they also needed to design a results table to record all their findings in. 

This week, they conducted their planned investigation. As you can see above, these varied between each group and every member had a unique role to fulfil.

As with all science investigations, the results were not exactly as predicted! But this was all explained in their conclusions. 

We definitely have some serious and thorough investigators and future scientists in 6KR!

We have had such fun in our mathematics lessons this week!

We have been learning all about geometry and one of our main focuses was recognising, classifying and building three dimensional shapes. As part of this, we needed to solve problems and explain our reasoning. Mrs Robinson challenged us to work with pictorial representations of the 3D shapes to replicate the conditions of our SATs exams; this was challenging as 3D shapes are always based on concrete objects! 

However, we were able to keep Mrs R amused with the way we pulled funny faces and made hand gestures in the air as we were LITERALLY trying to wrap our minds around the 3D shapes to see what imaginary objects we could build out of imaginary nets! 

It was so funny! You can see us trying to ignore Mrs R laughing at us in these pictures as we try to focus on our work - she is so distracting! 

What a memorable week of maths!

In Science we have been learning how light travels and reflects. To consolidate our learning, we tried to make a periscope. 

You will have heard the phrase 'How many people does it take to change a light-bulb?'

This was more - How many Year 6s does it take to make a periscope? 

It turns out that it takes 41 pupils and 4 adults to make just 4 periscopes! Thank goodness for Mrs Bunyan who kept us all on track 😀

We had a lot of fun trying to make them and proved that it really is possible to see round corners when we used the finished product.

Here are some photos of what we learnt about angles of incidence and reflection and how we used our periscopes.

During the Spring term in PE, Year 6 are learning gymnastic and tennis skills.

This week in tennis, the children have learned how to complete forearm returns with their partner using their racket and tennis ball with precision and accuracy over short distances to work on ball control. 

Once the children had mastered this method, they moved on to the challenge of creating a continuous rally with their partner, in which they needed to pass the ball back and forth using their forearm return technique, without allowing the ball to drop.

With these new skills it won't be long before they are able to successfully take part in a tennis match! 

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to another term at Quarry Hill Academy!

We kicked off this term with our history topic: The Victorians.

As part of our new topic we went outside to see our new timeline of British history. It starts with the dinosaurs and brings us right up to present day!

We focused in on when the Victorians were in British history and what eras came before them that may have had influence.

Our first project in history is to write a biography of the greatest and most well-known Victorian of them all: Queen Victoria!

Although we didn't know much about her at the beginning of the lesson, we have now done some extensive research through videos, online searches, books, class information galleries and the class working wall. We are confident and excited to get started on writing up our notes about her full and interesting life.

Merry Christmas!

We have thoroughly enjoyed the start of our Christmas celebrations in Year 6!

We kicked the week off with our visit to the Church for a Christmas service where we sung our songs and heard children read with Reverend Barlow. 

Next, we enjoyed a virtual Christmas carol concert with the rest of the school trust which was put together by children across all five schools.

We had a real laugh watching our own productions of the Year 5 and 6 virtual Christmas performances - which are still available on our Teams page for you to enjoy as a family at home!

As you can see in the pictures above, our class party was a blast! We enjoyed some classic party games in addition to our new favourite - the chocolate game!

We are so looking forward to our disco later this week and all the other surprises that the teachers have planned. Lets hope they have something to show us that will embarrass them instead of us this time...

Over the last couple of weeks, in science, 6KR have been researching how electricity is generated and transmitted.

We have found out how our planet is impacted through the use of renewable and non-renewable energy, in addition to how we gain access and use electricity in our homes and schools. It has been interesting to see both the bigger picture of how the generation and transmission of electricity impacts our planet and the more immediate picture of how much we use and rely on electricity in our everyday life. 

We also started to consider how electricity could be generated and transmitted in the future!

Once the children had gathered all of their research, they created a PowerPoint presentation in their own words so that they could share their findings with other children who are not newly specialists in the subject.

Mrs Robinson was really impressed with their bravery and presenting skills that they demonstrated in front of the whole class! 

Good morning and welcome to the 6KR weather report...

This week, we have been learning how to describe the weather in different localities. We started by looking at weather forecasts in the UK and then we made our own weather reports for Mexico - our focus country in geography.

We had great fun whilst learning how to use the language and symbols associated with weather reports. Did you know, that without accurate weather reports, the plans of individuals and businesses could be greatly impacted by unexpected and disrupted weather, such as strong winds and flooding?

Follow That Star!

6KR have created a nativity themed Christmas hoop to be displayed in the main hall for all to enjoy during their lunchtime and of course their Christmas performances. 

We hope this brings you the Christmas spirit! We are definitely ready for Christmas in year 6! We have already started practising our Christmas performance songs and dance and now we have our decorations up and ready for December next week!

Tis the season to be jolly!

6KR are enjoying their DT project this half term. Linking in with our Geography topic of Mexico, they have been learning about pinatas. We have discovered their true origin and original form and compared that to the modern pinatas we see at special occasions in the UK, such as birthday parties. 

After carefully designing a range of potential pinatas, the children selected and refined one of their designs which they are now creating out of cardboard. As you can see in the pictures, the pinatas are coming along nicely and the children have learnt the importance of ensuring each piece of card is precisely measured and cut to size before assembling the pinata.

We look forward to our DT lessons next week when we will start to bring our pinatas to life by adding our colourful designs using tissue paper!

This half term, 6KR have put a new focus on their reading. We have thoroughly enjoyed the independent reading time we have as a class and we use this time to widen our vocabulary range by noting down higher level words and phrases that we could use within our own written work.

Contrasting from our WW1 focused guided reading book, Private Peaceful, from Autumn 1; this half term, our guided reading text is Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce. As we have been reading this book, we have been asking ourselves questions about how the author portrays each character differently and what we would do if we were in the main character's shoes - developing our comprehension and empathy skills. 

Let us know if you have read or plan to read Millions as we would love to hear your opinion about the boys' situation.

Enjoy all your home-time reading Year 6 and remember to log it on GoRead!

We have kicked off Autumn 2 with a hands-on double Science lesson!

In Science this half term, we are learning about electricity. Today's objective was to be able to represent a simple circuit as a diagram. WELL, not only were 6KR able to do this, they were also able to construct series circuits and parallel circuits before also drawing these as diagrams using the correct scientific symbols! We are so proud of them. Make sure you ask what the difference is so they can show off their new knowledge and understanding. 

We have also discussed electrical hazards in the home so if you need any help the children will be able to teach you how to stay safe whilst using electrical appliances!

6KR have had a fantastic start to their final year at Quarry Hill Academy.

To celebrate their successes, we have made two corridor displays of their best work. 

We have our History display which focuses on the lives of Henry VIII's wives. This was an extended write which the children poured all their energy and effort into to ensure they captured the impact each wife had on Henry's reign whilst still including their demise...

Our Art display not only represents the great Mosaic work that the children completed but gives an overview of the curriculum of their first half term in Year 6. You can see mosaics of:

- Their guided reading book, Private Peaceful

- A diagram of the heart, from their Science topic

- The Tudor Rose, which they learnt about in History when we focused on the War of the Roses and the Battle of Bosworth

- The QHA Badge, to represent our Core Values

We hope you all enjoy your half term and look forward to all our new topics after the break!

To end our history topic of the Tudors this half term, year 6 have completed their first ever double page spread. 

The children have impressed us with their in-depth research and ability to compare the different life styles of the rich and poor during the time of the Tudors. 

Moreover, they have managed to display their findings in original, creative and eye-catching ways to ensure the reader gains a deeper understand of the way in which Tudors lived. 

Now we are asking ourselves, how has the gap between rich and poor changed between Tudor times and modern day life? 

This half term, year 6 have been studying mosaics as part of their art project. This week, we have taken a small break from mosaics to explore a similar art technique: pointillism. 

Like mosaics, pointillism artwork also needs to be studied from a distance to allow the viewer the chance to decipher the forms, colours and shapes more clearly. Too close and you cannot appreciate the whole picture and the artwork can look undefined and a ‘jumble’ of colour.

Our end product is a beautiful field of poppies which will be displayed at the Intu shopping center in Lakeside ready for Remembrance Day.

We hope you get the chance to go and visit our artwork!

In history, we have been studying the Tudors.

We started out term by finding out how the Tudors came to power - a result of the Battle of Bosworth, which ended the 30 year long War of the Roses.

Our next project was to research Henry VIII and his infamous reign; we now understand the individual impact each of his wives had on how he ran the country. 

Now we are finding out about the differences between the lives of the rich and poor during this period of time. We will be comparing and contrasting the clothing, diet, living conditions, leisure activities and work of these different classes of Tudors over the next two weeks. 

This half term, our science topic is the circulatory system.

So far we have found out what the circulatory system consists of and why it is so important for our bodies to function. We have also examined the heart more closely, looking at its different features and purpose.

Most recently, and excitingly, we have been looking at blooooood! This week, we discovered that, although blood appears to simply be a red liquid, it is so much more complex than that! The blood actually has four key components.

We used the resources above to represent these components and made some of our own blood. We learnt so much - as you can see in this beautifully presented work!

Remember to ask the year 6 pupils what these four components are as well as their unique roles!

6KR are thoroughly enjoying their first guided reading book of year 6! We are reading Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo, and without giving away too many spoilers, we have definitely discovered some of the twists and turns already! As you can see, we have also redesigned the front cover and answered some challenging comprehension questions based on the storyline. 

The adults in year 6 look forward to hearing more about the books the children are reading at home (and updating on GoRead). Remember to ask us about what we are reading! This is also displayed on the Guided Reading wall. 

Happy reading!

6KR have had a great start to their final academic year at Quarry Hill Academy!

They have demonstrated outstanding behaviour both in class and on the playground, proving themselves to be good role models for the rest of the school.

As you can see above, they have met the high handwriting and presentation expectations in addition to producing interesting content using a range of sentence types.

We are all #soproud!

Keep it up Year 6!