Class Blog

What a week! 

With only a few weeks left of their time at Quarry Hill, Year 6 have made the most of their activity week! 

We started off at The Nuclear Races. Mud, mud and more mud was the theme of the day - I hope everyone had fun with the washing! The children were amazing, everyone got stuck in and tried every one of the obstacles we were challenged with! 

The following day we took a stroll to the park, unfortunately the splash pad wasn’t working but it didn’t stop us having fun in the sun. It was great to all be together at the park, building sandcastles, climbing, playing football and just spending time together. On our return to school Mr Coyne cooked us a fabulous BBQ where we had crisps, chocolate and the ice lollies to follow. Once back in class we had a chilled out five minutes playing the pirate game!! Ask one of the children to tell you all about it! 

Our day didn’t stop there though, we headed home only to return to school in the evening once we were clean and fed for a movie night then sleepover. There was probably more sweets than students in the hall but we had an amazing time getting comfy and making our own sleeping areas. Going to sleep was definitely not high on our list of things to do and most of us stayed up to the early hours chatting and enjoying the last event of the children’s primary school years. 

The next day was a challenge kind of day! In between sleepy rests and lolly breaks there were a bunch of fun games and point scoring opportunities. And the winning team was awarded a Curly the Caterpillar cake! So it was all worth it. 

Ask us about the Gecko game and if we can do anything impressive! 

A massive well done to all the children who took part all week, who tried it all, got involved and kept smiling throughout all of it. We are #soproud of all you and the unpredicted journey you’ve had to take through your last years as primary school students. 

There’s only a few weeks left and I’m certain we will fit lots of fun and memories in that time and I can’t wait! 

See you all on Monday after some much needed rest. 

Miss Weller 

This week had an exciting end in Year 6 as we concluded with Art Day and Race for Life! 

We started off by looking at pop art by Andy Warhol. We imitated his existing works to create a collaborative piece which looked amazing once we had put it together. 

Race for Life this afternoon was a bit damp but we powered on through to raise money for a good cause! The children were amazing and all given well-deserved medals at the end. 

Activity week to come next week! Soooooo exciting! 

It has been lovely to see everyone back after half term and we have made the most of the lovely weather by having a VE Day victory tea party as part of our enrichment day, immersing ourselves in the celebrations of World War 2 ending. 
We made patriotic bunting, listened to music from that era then made seasonal fruit kebabs, using only fruit that would have been available at that time, due to implications of importing and exporting. Everyone used the propaganda motto, 'make do and mend', to dress in their best 1940s style outfits too.
We took our tables and chairs outside to then celebrate and have our lunch together in a street party style. We then played hopscotch and enjoyed the fun together.
Thanks to everyone who helped provide fruit for the children and helped with the efforts to dress up.

Even though it has been assessment week and the children have worked very hard in their tests, there was still time for some fun! Not only did we have movie night but also an enrichment day where the children built Chinese dragons in their chosen groups. 

 

The children used their ICT lesson last week to research the background of Chinese dragons, what they looked like and how they were made, in order to gather an idea on how their team would make theirs using different resources.

 

The children then were asked to bring in cardboard on the day and they used paint, tissue paper, feathers and other art resources to create an impressive dragon. Everyone contributed to their team and we are pretty proud with how they have turned out. Well done to you all!

In English this week we have been looking at the video Ruin on Literacy shed:

(See link)  https://www.literacyshed.com/ruin.html.

 

This is a post-apocalyptic film set in a derelict city overtaken by nature. The task for the children were to write a setting description. Together, we played with vocabulary and explored how we could use interesting sentence openers, such as verbs, as well as writing expanded noun phrases around the five senses.

 

Here are a few of my favourite sentences from the children:

 

‘With each passing day, tall, twisting trees grow, thrive and tighten their grip onto their new and forever home.’ – Mya.

 

‘A lost city lay silently waiting to be freed from the might of the botanical force that suffocates the world.’ – Sami.

 

‘Reeking a sense of mysteriousness…’ – Aariz

 

‘As clouds peacefully drifted across the sky, a whisper of a gentle breeze whistled through the isolated buildings.’ – Marwa.

 

After reading through the children's work at the end of the lesson, I was blown away by everyone’s effort as they had worked really hard. Yet one piece of work stood out in particular that sent shivers down my spine. It was the child's use of descriptive language and how they created a picture of nature taking over the once vibrant city. This piece of work was from Sami and he even got to read his work to Mrs Wakeling who was as equally impressed.

 

See the picture to read his amazing work. Well done Sami!

This week in 6SW we have revisited our science experiment to see how microorganisms have thrived in different conditions! In our experiment, we took slices of bread and exposed them to different bacteria. We then placed the bread in an air tight bag and waited to see what would happen. Looking at the results this week revealed that the slice of bread which was kept the cleanest had the least amount of mould growth, whereas the slice of bread that was rubbed on the floor had the most mould growth. It is safe to say the five second rule has now gone out of the window! The children really enjoyed this activity as it was surprising to see which surface had the most bacteria.

We have had one eventful week at Quarry Hill! Our favourite teddy bear, OfsTed, was stolen and 6SW were particularly determined to find the culprit who did this. In order to do this successfully, we participated in a range of activities whilst the evidence unfolded. Specifically on Wednesday, the school found a ransom note from the thief. 6SW were efficient in finding out how we could find some clues from this. They took writing samples from each member of staff and analysed their handwriting. Shortly after, we identified the main suspects for this crime- great work detectives!

I would also like to say a huge thank you to 6SW for having me in their classroom for the past four weeks. You have all been incredibly welcoming and patient with me whilst I found my feet! I have been amazed at the quality of work you produce in all of your lessons, as well as being the funny, kind and supportive pupils you all are. I have learnt so much from you all and I wish you the best of luck for the remaining time in year 6 and more importantly in secondary school- you will all be fantastic! Miss Marri. 

After a good rest, 6SW have been back ready for their final term!

We've started new topics in history, learning about the start of WW2 and some of the key leaders involved and in science we have started learning all about living things and their habitats.
This week we looked at the work of taxonomists, who classify animals into different species so it is easier to identify and group then. We had a go at classifying animals ourselves in order to arrange them in the best way for a new zoo!
 

6SW have been writing diary entries this week based on the video Replay. Their powerful and emotive writing has been an absolute pleasure to read as they tell us all about the heart wrenching days of Theo and Lana. 

We’ve been planning for a fun experiment on shadows that we are carrying out in science next week and have carried on learning about the Victorians by studying the industrial revolution. 

Our week was concluded with Red Nose Day where we wore our crazy collection of noses to raise money for Comic Relief! 

It has been lovely to see 6SW return to school this week, although they were absolutely fantastic at remote learning it is even more fantastic to see them back in class.
We carried on our hard work back at school by starting a new English unit based on the video 'Replay'. The children wrote some truly emotional diary entries as Theo, a boy who had been trapped in a bunker in a post-apocalyptic world and I can't wait for what comes next in Theo's journey!
We have also been continuing our topics on Victorians in history and light in science.
The children had lots of fun investigating the purpose of periscopes and even had a go at making and experimenting with some.

We had a device free day this week to make way for parent consultations and it was amazing to see what the children had been getting up to, expressing themselves away from the computer. I’ve heard beautiful singing, seen some amazing dancing and got to look at some amazing art work. We have carried on our work on the Victorian era with the children showing off their understanding of schools in the Victorian era by comparing them to our schools now.  

This has been what we hope to be our final week of remote learning and we have been so incredibly proud of the resilience our children have shown, on the days they’ve been amazing and on the days they’ve needed extra words of encouragement, they have still tried!
Thanks also go to everyone that took the time to chat with me online. It was lovely to catch up with how the children had been getting on and how we are prepared to return to school next week. 

 

We are all excited to see each other, safely, back in class soon but while still online this week we have been writing newspaper reports based on our book for last half term, Pig Heart Boy. 
We looked at presenting factual information formally, using a wide range of accurate, specific information.
This week we also started our topic of light and had a go at experimenting with torches and mirrors at home, finding somewhere dark to complete our investigations - I have watched some fantastic videos reporting back some of the class' findings.
We had breakfast club on Friday where we all met with our breakfast and had a chat and a catch up about what we would be doing over the weekend.
Once again I am so proud of the children who are always online and always taking part in the tasks they are set. You are all amazing.

 

This week Year 6 had a Victorian Day where we had lessons from Victorian teachers on etiquette, appropriate dress, arithmetic, handwriting and chores!
Everyone got involved and tried out some activities to make them feel like they were really living in Victorian times!
Everyone had so much fun and we loved seeing what everyone got up to at home!

 

We also want to thank all the parents who joined us this week for our maths workshop, it was lovely to see the children working collaboratively (and sometimes showing off their skills) to their grown ups and explaining how we do things in maths at school.

To finish off the half term we had breakfast together on Teams and then spent lunch time together too, catching up and chatting about what we're going to be getting up to with our half term.

Hopefully everyone has a nice restful half term and we look forward to seeing you all back again on the 22nd February!

This week has been mental health week and we have had a really lovely week together reflecting on our mental health. 
We started moodboards - a collection images or words or anything really, that we felt represented who we were. Being ourselves is really important and it gave us the opportunity to really think about ourselves and look for images to represent our likes, thoughts and feelings.
We had wellbeing Wednesday - we took some time to enjoy an activity either that we loved or wanted to try and thought about how grateful we were for what we did have, focusing on the positives.
To finish we had Dress to Express.
We met for our 9am meeting in our jammies! This was followed in the afternoon by our favourite outfits, things we hadn't had a chance to wear in a while or things we just loved to wear. It was so nice getting to look at all the lovely things people had chosen. Because we are really fancy we even had a change of outfit for guided reading! 
Thanks as always to our parents supporting at home, it's nice to have you as part of our 6SW bubble - see you all on Monday morning for 'Bring a parent to Teams'.

 

6SW have all been absolutely amazing at negotiating their way around Teams, not only to get their own work done but also helping others who are finding things tricky. Their resilience has amazed me and I am incredibly proud of all them.
I am equally proud of all the parents of 6SW who have supported the children and Quarry Hill to help us settle into remote learning. Thank you.

 

We have been working so hard on the four operations and shape - this week we have looked at 2D shapes, 3D shapes, nets and tessellation! The children have been so creative and resourceful with what they're got at home and how they can use their devices.
I was blown away by the creativity of children who completed a beak evolution challenge in science. We looked at how different 'foods' could be eaten by different 'beaks'.

We've completed the first term.
A huge well done to all of 6SW who have worked their hardest and got straight back in the swing of it immediately when they returned in September. 
This week has been super Christmassy - we've completed crafts, worn Christmas jumpers, had Christmas dinner, Been to a Christmas disco and even starred in and watched a whole collection of Christmas performances. We are certainly ready for a rest!
Merry Christmas to everyone, we look forward to being back in January for a fun Spring Term!

Piῆatas are coming along well this week, they've all taken shape and we are adding the frills and decorations for the finishing touches!
6SW have had such good fun planning, writing, preparing and performing their Christmas video for you all. We hope you all enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you!

We got festive in science this week and looked at how the bulbs were lit in a set of fairy lights. We considered what happened when one bulb broke and how the circuit could continue by comparing series and parallel circuits. Everyone displayed some fantastic investigational skills!

This week, we’ve also created our festive hoop for the hall - 12 drummers drumming! 

As part of our geography unit, we have been learning about Mexico. We have a good understanding of where it lies in the world and how its location compares with the UK so now we are identifying what the climate is like in both countries. Using data on temperature and rainfall, we have plotted line and bar graphs to display our findings.

After spending some time learning about piñatas, the time has come for us to plan creating our own. In class this week, we looked at existing piñatas then we dismantled them to see how they are made. From here we wrote instructions for how to create our own. 

Thanks for everyone who has sent in cardboard – we definitely made use of it! Can’t wait to show everyone the finished pieces! 

6SW have been working so hard this week, not just in school but at home, getting to grips with online learning. The school have invested in new learning platforms so that if another full lockdown occured, the children will be prepared to continue their learning at home. The children were doing extra tasks throughout their evenings to check their log in details worked and to familiarise themselves with the new websites. I was very proud of them all for putting in the extra effort. Another well done for all the children who took an active part in the recent TTR battle! We're in the lead at the moment so fingers crossed we stay the highest class in the school!
Thanks also to all the parents for taking time out of their evening to speak to me, it was lovely chatting about the children and well done to everyone who managed to access Teams for a video call!

6SW had a well deserved half term rest but now they’re back and ready for action! 

We’ve started our new geography topic, studying Mexico and we’ve been investigating piñatas in DT. 

Our science topic for this half term is electricity so we started off by constructing simple circuits then made sure that our scientific diagrams used the symbols correctly.

It was assessments this week, all of the children tried incredibly hard and gave their best. There were lots of moments of pride as well as resilience and perseverance from those who want to do even better next time.

Out on the playground, the amount of equipment we can use has been reduced due to the virus so we have been finding other ways to stay active by trying out different activities and adapting some of these into new games. We’ve used a stopwatch and have taken out paper and clipboards to record our scores and then try to beat them!

This week, we have been writing the biography of Anne Frank in literacy and in science, we have been explaining how the heart works, naming each part and how it functions. We've been getting competitive on Spelling Shed and Scholastic Reading Pro as well as fitting in time to improve our times tables on TimesTable Rockstars.
6SW finished off another fantastic week by representing Hello Yellow, supporting YoungMinds.

6SW have been busy this week. We’ve learnt about the six wives of Henry viii and how his many marriages impacted on his reign. We also had a go at making our own blood - using sweet related alternatives of course! Can you guess which part of the blood is represented by which?

6SW have come back to school with an inspirational attitude and instantly got back to working hard and showing what fantastic things they can achieve. We've created our class rules collaboratively; started our history work on the Tudors and have been learning all about the circulatory system.