Year 6

 2022 - 2023

Today, Year 6 continue to explore the artwork of Kenojuak Ashevak by creating their own prints. The children used Arctic wildlife as the inspiration for their first attempts using this method. 

Year 6 have loved beginning to explore their new topic of 'Frozen Kingdom'. They have investigated how icebergs float, what makes them melt and how they travel through water. 

On Friday, Year 6 had an amazing time at the Kent Life Museum exploring the Ancient Maya! We participated in many activities including meeting a conquistador, a maya priest and some alpacas - as well as trying our hands at weaving!

Welcome to Mexico! This term the children in Year 6 will be exploring this unique country, from its towering temples and stunning geography to its pulsing rhythms and fun festivals. They will discover the mysterious world of the ancient Mayan civilisation and will their curious rituals. To begin this journey, they have explored the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and have begun to create their own calacas (skeleton) masks...

Term 2

Can the way we stand and move affect our emotions? This is the question Year 6 discussed earlier this week. They explored different types and body language and then created 'powerful poses' that make them feel strong and in control!

This week our Year 6 children have been thinking about our Christian Foundation of Creation. They have been discussing how important it is to care for the environment and what we all do at home and in school to do this. As part of their learning, each class wrote their own survey to find more about what the staff and children at Minster do to demonstrate the importance of taking care of our planet and all living things. The results of the survey are to follow!

As part of our ID topic, Year 6 have been investigating finger prints and how these make them unique! They have used charcoal to coat their fingertips and then removed the 'print' with sticky tape. After this, they could analyse the patterns and see what type of finger prints they have. 

Our Year 6 have been finding out why fossils are so important in helping us learn about the past. They have taken part in a carousel of activities that required them to use their research skills, match animals to their fossils, explain why the dinosaurs became extinct and finally they 'excavated' chocolate chips from cookies to explore the skills need to be a palaeontologist!

Term 1 = ID

 We hope that all our children had a fantastic break and are ready to begin this new school year with even more determination and resilience! This year will fly by but in the mean time we must ensure all the children build up their skills, confidence, values etc to be secondary ready come September 2023.

In order to do this we have lots of exciting and engaging themes planned but we’ll start with this term’s theme which is ID. Our BIG QUESTION that we will be able to answer by the end of term will be, ‘Who are we and where do we come from?’

One of our first activities has been to investigate physical identity and characteristics by using sketching skills to create a self-portrait.

Year 6 - 2021/2022

Safety in Action

Year 6 children visited Dreamland to take part in the Safety in Action event. They spent time with a variety of organisations such as the Police, Fire and Rescue and the RNLI. 

Timeline of World War 1 - The Great War

As we come to the end of our learning about WW1, the children have researched and investigated the chronology of some of the events from this period of history. They have created their own timelines and worked in small groups to add extra information and facts to knowledge they had already gained. 

A Child's War - Term 4 and 5

Year 6 have started Term 4 by immersing themselves in the history of World War 1. We have been learning about the many different causes of The Great War and have explored sources of evidence that tell us more about what life in the trenches would have been like.

In English, the children have researched and written the biography of an animal that played an important part in WW1. There are some truly remarkable stories out there and we have loved learning about these tales of resilience and determination!

In our Science lessons, we have started our topic of Electricity and our first experiment was to use a lemon to create a complete electric circuit....

Frozen Kingdom - Term 3

It has been a fantastic first week back for our Year 6 children. Our topic for this term is 'Frozen Kingdom' and already they have begun to explore the Polar regions from the classroom! In Science, the children have researched the adaptations necessary for animals to live in freezing climates and linked this to Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution. We have transported ourselves to the world inhabited by Ernest Shackleton as he ventured on his expeditions and used this insight to write out own diary entries about a polar expedition.  In addition to this, the children have created their own icebergs to explore the effect of how ice behaves in water. 

We also had lots of fun learning to play music in a jazz style, using the glockenspiels! It is our aim to perform a whole piece - complete with an improvised section - by the end of term. The children have also enjoyed a cheerleading workshop that developed some of the skills they learnt at the end of last term during the previous session.

ATHLETE VISIT 2021

Year 6 have had amazing few days of sports this week. On Monday, we were visited by Nerys Pearce - a competitor in the Invictus and Commonwealth Games. She gave an inspirational speech to the children and also put them through their paces with a series of exercise challenges. On Tuesday, we took part in the Minster Indoor Sports Day and later this week we are looking forward to a cheerleading workshop!

Term 2 - Hola Mexico!

It is hard to believe we have only been back at school for 3 days - we have learnt so much already! This term, Year 6 will be travelling back in time to explore the lives of the Ancient Maya. We will learn all about ritual sacrifices and the way in which their society was organised. Our studies will also focus on the Geography of South America and we will explore the country of Mexico.

Mexican 'Day of the Dead' Masks

The children have completed the first stages in their creation of a mask. They have studied different masks and designed their own pattern and have completed the modelling of a basic mask shape by using paper mache. The next task is to form the structure of the face using mod roc. Photos to follow of the final results!

Science - Adaptation

We have completed our Term 1 topic of Evolution and Adaptation with an enjoyable experiment to discover why birds have different shaped beaks. The children used a variety of utensils to pick up a range of foods - this was very messy at times! They discovered how particular types of food are suited to particular shaped beaks and related this to birds. 

What happened at a Mayan Sacrifice?

Our first piece of writing this term will be a newspaper report based on a Mayan sacrifice. To understand what took place, the children acted as reporters and wrote a series of questions for people at the ceremony - The Priest, The Eye-Witness and The Wife. These people were then 'teleported' to present day and interviewed by the children...

ID

Week 6 has been a busy one in Year 6 (as always!) and we ended the week with a fun session exploring our fingerprints! The children learnt about the different types of fingerprints and how they are used to identify people. After this, they took their own fingerprints, added these to a chart and tried to identify if they had more whirls, loops or arches. 

The Big Question

Creation and Science - conflicting or complementary?

This is the question that we are exploring in Year 6 this term. The children have immersed themselves in the vocabulary for this unit and are beginning to understand the concepts surrounding this question. There has been a lot of discussion in class and the children have thought of questions that they would like to ask a Christian scientist about the relationship between Genesis and how to world came to be. We recently took part in a silent debate in which the children reflected on and explored the beauty of our world and how we should take care of it sustainably. 

YEAR 6 2021 - 2022

Our new Year 6 children have had a fantastic start to the year! Already, they are proving themselves to be excellent role models to the younger children in the school and are demonstrating our Christian Foundations through their learning and behaviour. 

The first exciting topic for this year is ID - this is a fascinating journey through the science of genetics and evolution and allows the children to take a close look at what has made them the person they are today. We are reading the book Wonder, which is capturing our hearts and minds and promoting many important conversations and debates within the classes. The children have already written a character description about themselves and shown a great deal of writing skills. 

We are loving being back in school and are looking forward to many exciting months ahead!

Term 6

Term 5

This afternoon, as part of our English lesson, Silver Class took part in a great debate (I think some of them will be joining Debate Club in Y7!). We debated whether evacuation during WW2 was a good idea. The children came up with some fantastic 'for and against' arguments and argued in a very civilized manner!

In Year 6, we have hooked the children into their Hola Mexico theme by designing, creating and decorating Day of the Dead masks.

First of all, the children studied the masks from traditional Day of the Dead festivals and then designed their own. The next day, the masks were created using ModRoc and once it had dried, they were turned into beautifully decorated and detailed masks.

Stay tuned to see the final creations!!

Oh, and they did all this whilst listening to Mariachi music!