Seal Class

Bonjour à tous! ( hello everyone!) This week, alongside learning about decimals in maths, writing a persuasive leaflet in English, creating and performing symmetrical routines in gymnastics and learning about biomes in Topic we have also started weekly French lessons. On Thursday, we learnt how to name family members , ask question in French and recapped on the use of masculine, feminine and plural nouns. As we did not do French last term we have had to dig deep into our long term memories! The focus for our PSHE this term is ‘Getting on and falling out’ and we have learnt the importance of giving (and receiving) ‘friendship tokens’. Well done to all of the members of Seal Class who were named by others and rewarded for their acts of friendships. We have discovered first hand that if you keep asking ‘what can I do to help others?’ rather than ‘What do I want others to do for me?’ our community is a happy place to be!!

Our last week of term has been an incredibly busy week. On Tuesday, it was Christmas jumper day and we enjoyed a delicious Christmas Lunch and on Wednesday, Yr6 went to Horsey Gap to see the Grey Seals. There were over 1000 pups on the beach and we learnt a lot about the cows, and bulls as well as the pups themselves. The weather was glorious and we absolutely loved seeing these wild animals in their natural environment. In class we have been exploring the poem-‘T’was the night before Christmas’ and thinking about the true meaning of Christmas. In true Year 6 tradition, we have also made pom pom robins and penguins which we will be bringing home for Christmas. It has been a fantastic ending to a really great term. I would like to wish everyone in year 6 , and their families, a very happy Christmas. Have a wonderful break and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2022!

This week has been a busy week for all! We have been practising our song for the school production, learning and sharing new skills in coding and focussing on speech to advance action in our writing. In maths we have been multiplying fractions and revising long multiplication and division. Next week, we are planning to go to Horsey to see the seals and find out more about these amazing mammals living in their natural environment.

Do you know what an idiom is? If not then ask Year 6!! Each week we have an idiom of the week ( or 2) So far we have learnt the meaning of ‘in a pickle…’, ‘time flies…’ , ‘cat got your tongue’ and ‘in a blue moon’. This week our idioms are ‘cold feet’ and ‘put your foot down’ Not only are we learning about their meaning but we are also trying to use them in our writing and everyday chat. Ask us about them and please tell us a few more that you know. In English, we have finished our unit on ‘Rose Blanche’ and it has been voted our favourite yet! We have been totally gripped by the story and we have amazed ourselves with the quality of the work that we have written. In Maths, we have learnt how to find fractions of amounts and realised just how useful those bar models really are.!! The progress that has been made over the last few weeks has been amazing, not only in class but in the after school maths sessions- well done everyone!!!! In computing, we have started a coding project – we have used Scratch as a platform and learnt how to change, move, change the colour of and add sound to our sprites as well as change backgrounds- we have had great fun!!! later this week we will be writing algorithms and using code to make our sprites count in Roman numerals.

In English this week, we have been continuing with our narrative based on the story of Rose Blanche. We have been exploring the effects of pathetic fallacy and creating atmosphere by using similes and metaphors. We have produced some amazing writing and included dialogue to advance the storyline. In maths, at the start of the week, we have been learning to change improper fractions to mixed number fractions – a really useful skill which has helped us now we are adding and subtracting fractions. As this is our last week on our topic ‘The battle of Britain’ we are focussing on ‘Make do and mend’. We have learnt a variety of stitches and designed our own hand puppets. We are finishing them off today so hopefully we will be able to show your some pictures of our finished pieces next week. It was lovely to see so many parents at our virtual parents evening this week- if you were unable to make it please arrange an appointment.

This week we have been very busy learning to compare and order fractions. We have been using our simplifying and equivalence skills to work out answers and drawn bar models to prove that are answers are correct. In English, we have started a new unit based on the book Rose Blanche by Ian Mc Ewan and this is giving us much ‘food for thought’ as the main character in the book is a small girl (Rose) who is German and lives in Germany during World War 2. We also had our first lesson of Tag ruby this week, and focussed on improving our tagging skills, speed and agility. In topic, we have been learning about clothes rationing and had a go at creating our own ‘ Make do and mend’ items- have a look at the photos to find out more. Well done Year 6- another super week!!

We have been very busy this week as we have been on two trips. On Wednesday we went to Gressenhall for a WW2 experience day. We learnt about the role of the homeguard, Rationing and new recipes, what it was like to be a part of the Women’s Land army and the precautions put in place in the event of an air raid. We had great fun and a true living History experience!!! Please take a look at our photo’s to see what we have been learning! On Tuesday, we were invited by the Royal British Legion to join with them at Mundesley Parish Church for a Remembrance Service. Fourteen members of our class joined with family members of fallen heroes and marked our respect by placing a poppy posy and cross at their graveside. On Monday next week, we are going to visit North Walsham High School to join with other schools to learn about internet safety.

This week has been assessment week in Year 6 but that has not stopped us from having fun! In PE, we focussed on the dance technique ‘stillness’ and performed in the dark (using torches) to Pink Floyd’s song ‘Is there any body out there?’ Our ideas were really creative and everyone showed great collaboration when performing our class dance.

In science we have been learning about the classification system and how to use keys to identify different animals and in PSHE we have thought about the word ‘Peace’ and the qualities people need in order to create peace around them. We have displayed our ideas in class and the classroom is starting to look amazing!!!!

KIND REMINDER: This week is our last swimming lesson- as half term starts next Friday!

In maths this week, we have been incredibly busy exploring the multiples of four, practising formal written methods for division and discovering how useful bar modelling can be to help us to solve word problems. Everyone has worked extremely hard and I am delighted with the progress made!!

In topic, we have been learning about the ‘Bouncing Bomb’ and how to give 4 figure and 6 figure grid references. We also had great fun learning about morse code and ended the session by sending messages to each other using light flashes. Later this week, we had the opportunity to experiment with colour mixing, masking and different painting techniques and we have produced some amazing ‘Blitz’ pictures (which we hope to show next week).

In PE this week, we focussed on the dance skill ‘gesture’ and worked in pairs to create and perform dances to Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Great collaboration, great creativity and above all …great fun!!

In topic this week, we have walked around Mundesley to find out the impact that WW2 had on our local area. We walked to the church to look at the war memorial and visit the grave of the unknown soldier. Mrs Shanahan gave us a very interesting talk about her family member, Jack Shanahan, who was sadly killed whilst learning to fly a Lancaster Bomber.

Following this, we then walked to the Mundesley Coastal Battery to learn about how Britain was ready to defend itself from an invasion by sea and finally, after a long walk along the beach, we looked at the bomb memorial in the centre of the village, dedicated to all those who lost their lives due to the landmines that were placed in the cliffs- another form of defence from invasion. This trip brought home the reality that the War had an impacted everyone!!

In maths, we have been learning about negative numbers and also formal methods of multiplication. You have totally amazed me Year 6- just remember to keep learning those tables!!!