Welcome to Year 6.
Our Teachers are Mrs Collins and Mrs Aitbenmoussa and our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Rimstad and Mrs Cheruvarthur.
Mar 142025
Letters, Litres and (e)Lectricity!
We are really enjoying our new class read, a dystopian story called Boy in the Tower. This week, we have written newspaper articles, a formal letter and a Wikipedia entry about an invasive species of plant.
Over the last 2 weeks, we have been revising and learning about measurement and conversion of measure. Volume has been the focus of lessons this week and we have learnt how to calculate it as well as solving problems and carrying out an investigation.
In Science, we are learning about electricity, the different types of circuits and their features as well as how to identify errors in circuits. Next week, we will look at how electricity is made and think about and discuss ‘clean energy.
In Spanish, we have been enjoying our lessons with Ms Bowie from St Albans Boys School, who has been teaching us all about food in our lessons. Having revised our numbers, we also learned how to ask how much something is and answer in euros. This could come in very handy on those trips to Spain!
As the children know, next week, we will be doing another set of mock SATs papers; this is just part of our preparation for the tests which are coming up in May.
In the meantime, we wish everyone a lovely weekend.
The Year 6 Team
Feb 282025
Periscopes, Poems and Present Perfect
It’s been a week of investigations in Year 6. Following some revision on both multiplication and division (to 2 decimal places), children set about using their own examples to prove whether a statement was always, sometimes or never true. They all seemed to enjoy working with the freedom to choose and work through their own examples.
In English, we have spent the week working on poetry relating to our World War 2 topic. The children have enthusiastically written poems, trying out different poetic devices to improve them. In grammar, we have had a focus on tenses – present, future and the more complex past tense, focussing on the past perfect and the present perfect tenses!
In our history lessons, we got to know Winston Churchill a bit better, considering the type of leader that he was and some of the key decisions he made during World War 2. We listened to his famous speech ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ and then thought about questions we might like to ask him and how he might have responded.
Continuing with our topic of light, this week, the children investigated and made their own periscopes, using card and mirrors. See pictures below.
Next week will be a busy one! On Thursday, we will be visiting the RAF Museum and participating in a workshop. Friday will be World Book Day for us with children dressing up to ‘Read Your Own Way’ theme and taking part in various reading related activities.
Have a lovely weekend,
The Year 6 Team
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Feb 142025
Blog posts and Brilliant Discussions
We finished our class book, Leila and the Blue Fox this week and the children have really enjoyed writing an extended blog post based on her adventures and what the main character has learned. They can’t wait to find out what our next book will be…
Algebra – a much feared topic in maths – was on the agenda this week. I think the children were surprised to see how quickly they grasped some of the basic concepts and by the end of the week were getting stuck in and solving some more challenging problems.
In topic, we continue to be impressed with the pupils’ enthusiasm when learning about World War 2. This week, our focus was the changing role of women during this period. Lots of brilliant discussion and hot potato topics that were sensibly spoken and written about.
For homework, we have suggested that the children look through their past SATs papers to revise and go over questions.
Homework
SATs revision
Read x 6
RE – Meditation information page
TTRS
We wish everyone a restful and relaxing half term break.#
The Year 6 Team
Jan 242025
Measuring, Money and Mood Boards
In Year 6 this week, we have been enjoying our Brave Colour Art unit and children have the task of creating mood boards using images from the magazines which have kindly been donated. It was interesting to see what colours and images appeal to different individuals.
On Thursday, 29 children proudly represented Alban City School at the Sports Hall Games athletic competition. They competed in a large variety of events including relay and obstacle races, speed bounce, soft javelin chest push and long jump to name a few. They did a great job of supporting each other and cheering them along. Overall we came 9th out of 16 schools in the area.
The children took part in exciting workshops this week led by the Citizens Advice Bureau. They learned about how you earn money, how banks work, credit and debit cards, interest, debt and risk. They were given £500 each (virtually!) and enjoyed taking part in a variety of tasks to see who ended up with the most money at the end of the session after they worked to earn more or made choices to invest their money, risk it to maybe get more, or spend it.
Next week, we will be having another go at some past SATs papers to see how we are preparing and progressing towards the tests in May. Please remind the children that they are nothing to worry about and we just want them to try their best.
Have a lovely weekend.
The Year 6 Team
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Jan 172025
Arctic, Area & Adverbs
In English this week, we have been delving deeper into the Nordic landscape with our book Leila and the Arctic Fox. We practised writing formally, before writing a covering letter, applying for a grant in order to launch an expedition to track the migration of Miso the fox. Following this, we decided we needed to know more about this interesting creature. The children then worked in small groups to create Arctic Foxy Fact pages for display.
In Topic this week we have continued with our unit on World War II, exploring what life was like as an evacuee. We looked at the reasons why children were evacuated, where and why they were sent to rural areas and imagined what it might have been like and what they would have taken with them.
Area and perimeter were the maths topics for the week. We started out reminding ourselves of the relevant formulae for regular shapes before moving on to the area and perimeter of compound shapes. Children carried out an investigation and worked together to solve some word problems, applying their skills to real life situations.
Next week, we are looking forward to having a workshop all about money and on Thursday 23rd January, some children will be competing in the Sports Hall games athletics competition.
Have a great weekend.
The Year 6 Team
Jan 102025
Maths, Miso and Mustard Seeds
Happy New Year!
Well we have hit the ground running in Year 6 this week. Despite the plummeting temperatures outside, in the classroom we have been busy getting started with lots of new topics.
In English, we made predictions and then started reading the book Leila and the Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, with beautiful illustrations by Tom de Freston. The story is based on the true story of an Arctic fox who walked from Norway to Canada in seventy-six days, a distance of two thousand miles. We are all looking forward to continuing with Chapter 4 next week to find out what Leila and Miso are up to.
World War 2 is often the long-awaited and hotly anticipated topic of the year and it didn’t disappoint. The children were very interested in finding out about the events which happened after World War 1 that led to the Second World War.
In RE we discussed what qualities make a person a good leader. Following on from this, we read the story of Kisa Gotami and the Mustard Seed, which shows how the Buddha used skilful means to help someone who was in a very difficult situation.
Have a great weekend.
The Year 6 Team
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Dec 192024
Capacity, Computers and CHRISTMAS!
And in the blink of an eye – it’s Christmas!
What a busy last few days we’ve all had. In English, we have been wearing out our pens, writing the long-awaited Day of the Dead stories. The children have worked hard, focusing each day on a different part of the story. On Monday, we started with the opening, setting the scene and introducing a character; we followed this by writing the build up and moved on to the main action / problem.
In Science, we carried out an investigation to measure our lung capacity. Please see the photos below.
On Monday, we were treated to a visit from the professors and students. They brought 2 robots with them, which they did some fantastic demonstrations with. The robot dogs are used in the military and are able to map and detect the area around them. We had a great time watching them jump and perform tricks!
We hope you all have an enjoyable and restful break over the Christmas holidays.
The Year 6 Team
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Dec 062024
Percentages, Planning, Prepositions (and chocolate!)
We are really enjoying our new art project this term. We have chosen an animal, linked to South America and used a technique to upscale and make it bigger. We will back it onto cardboard, collage it and eventually hope to make it stand up!
We have had a successful week in maths, revisiting percentages and extending our knowledge to real life challenging problems. Next week we will focus on the property of shape in maths and finally write our stories about Day of the Dead.
The stand out lesson of the week had to be the topic lesson on chocolate. Mayans were the first people to discover the precious cacao beans and they believed they were a gift from the gods. They would dry, grind, and mix the beans with water and chilli to create a drink and even used them as currency to trade. The children had the opportunity to touch, smell and taste cocoa nibs, cocoa butter and then four different types of chocolate of varying from 90% dark chocolate to extra creamy and then a final chocolate where they had to identify the missing ingredient!
Homework:
Topic – Tribe Leader letter
Grammar Quiz
Maths – Percentages questions
Spelling – 10 sentences
Reading x 3
Have a lovely weekend.
The Year 6 Team
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Nov 292024
Description, Dialogue and Decimals
In English, we started the week practising the skill of ‘Show, don’t tell’ to describe the feelings of a character. We continued on with a focus on the variety of punctuation needed when writing speech and ended the week by writing an extract of a story with a balance of both dialogue and description. This will all come in handy when we write our stories in the coming weeks. Next week, we will begin to plan our stories by creating characters and settings.
In maths this week, we have worked on equivalence. Recognising the common fraction, decimal and percentage equivalents such as 1/2 , ¼, ¾ and practising methods for working out other more challenging amounts. Next week, we will revise percentages and multiplication.
We have managed to start work on a piece of work all about the biomes of South America. Linking with the fascinating research that the children presented for their homework, we have started looking at diverse range of biomes that span this incredible continent.
Homework:
Maths Quiz
Spelling – sentences x 10
Reading x 3
Enjoy the Christmas Fair and have a great weekend.
The Year 6 Team
Nov 222024
Fun with Fractions and Festivals
Firstly we would like to start by congratulating the children in both Year 6 classes for their fantastic sharing assemblies. Lovely loud voices, lots of lines learnt off by heart and some top notch acting. Well done!
In English this week, we read the book The Dead Family Diaz – a beautifully illustrated story based around the festival of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). We enjoying learning about this joyful celebration which honours the spirits of the deceased. We learned some of the Spanish words for the objects which form an integral part in preparation for writing a story in the coming weeks.
In maths, we have spent the week learning to add and subtract fractions using both the common denominator method as well as the butterfly method. We have extended our knowledge to add and subtract mixed numbers. We put all this to practise at the end of the week with an arithmetic quiz.
Thank you for the generous chocolate donations so far. Please keep them coming to raise money for the end of Year 6 celebrations.
Homework:
Topic – Slides about 2 South American countries (Due 27.11.24)
Maths – Adding and Subtracting Fractions
Spelling x 10 sentences
Reading x 3
Have a great weekend,
The Year 6 Team
