Year 6 2013–14

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What Year 6 got up to in 2013–2014

'Time Lord'

Rehearsals are well underway for our Year 6/5 production of 'Time Lord'! The children know all the words to the songs are are almost word perfect with their speaking lines - keep learning everyone!! If you haven't already collected your ticket, please do so - they are going fast! Just to remind you - the performances are: Wednesday 9th July at 1.30pm and 7.00pm. It it shaping up to be a good show!

Set your watches for the time travelling adventure of a lifetime!

Other Faith Fortnight - Monday 9th - Friday 20th June

In this fortnight, the whole school chose another faith to learn about. Year 6 learned about Hinduism and spent a really enjoyable fortnight learning about the creation story, gods and goddesses and the place of worship - the Mandir.  We made some very thoughtful and reflective comparisons between our own beliefs and those of Hindus, realising how important faith is to all people of all different religions. The week ended with a sharing assembly where we all learned about each other's faiths of study.

Science Week: Monday 19th - Friday 23rd May

Year 6 had a very explosive and messy science week! Following our workshop on ‘Kitchen Chemistry’ we decided to make the focus a food one – bread, rice, banana, bicarbonate of soda were some of the ingredients we used to name but a few! But we weren’t making the world’s worst sandwich….. we were testing and investigating.

Firstly, we carried out some food testing to differentiate between starchy and non-starchy foods.  We had heard that our body uses starch to make energy. Starchy foods are bread, rice, pasta and potato. They taste bland as you start chewing them but begin to taste sweeter after a minute or two of chewing. This happens because the starch breaks down into smaller units called sugars. Although our results didn’t conclusively prove this, we did have great fun testing the theory and discovered that the softer the food to begin with, the grosser it was to chew for 2 minutes!!

Later on in the week, we had the chance to work in small groups to plan and carry out our own experiment to find out what happens when vinegar and sodium bicarbonate are combined.  We were given a list of possible equipment to use and were asked to design and write up an experiment that we could later carry out. Well…..our predictions that it would ‘fizz up’, ‘bubble up’ and ‘blow up’ were certainly proved right, with varying degrees of success! We recorded our findings and compared them to our predictions, explaining reasons for why we thought things happened as they did.

Science week was messy, explosive and great fun!

Science Week

Topic Week: Animals and Nature - Tuesday 22nd - Friday 25th April 2014

This time, our topic has been all about Animals and Nature.  We enjoyed a surprisingly sunny walk to the Chevin, collecting an assortment of leaves for our leaf study. We created leaf rubbings, sketches and tracings which we then transformed into fine art and abstract pieces of artwork.  Once back in school, we used a range of websites to try to identify the leaves and trees from which they came.  We also researched into and found out about the anatomy of a leaf and how the leaf functions, including the role of photosynthesis.  In art, we studied the work of Andy Goldsworthy, an outdoor sculptor who creates his work from 'found' resources, using tools made from nature.  His work inspired us to create our own pieces in this style. In maths, we were given a budget of £500,000 to spend on creating our own Wildlife/Animal Theme Park (sadly, the money was virtual!). We needed to consider what we would buy from the selection of attractions at differing prices, before drawing out our park to scale.  We then considered the costs of running the park and kept a running total of our profits/losses. In literacy, we researched an animal of our choice, before planning, creating and performing our own poems about that animal.

This video clip, in which we meet Andy Goldsworthy, and experience how he creates his art work is well worth a watch.  It inspired us:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zh4wmp3

ROBINWOOD: WEDNESDAY 12TH - FRIDAY 14TH MARCH 2014

What fun was had by all at our Robinwood Residential in Todmorden! The children took part in a range of activities including:

• The Giant Swing
• Trapeze
• The Piranha Pool
• Caving
• Climbing
• Canoeing and many, many more!

Everyone attempted everything and showed a real team spirit, cheering on and encouraging each other the whole time. The staff from Robinwood were very impressed, stating that, on many occasions, we were the fastest school to attempt some of the challenges that they had come across!  The children were a real credit to our school and a thoroughly great time was had by all -the question "Can we go back?" was certainly a commonly asked one! 

ROBOT WEEK: 24TH  -  28TH FEBRUARY

Our latest topic week was all about Robots.  We researched the timeline of robotics and were very surprised how wide ranging the term 'Robot' actually is!  In literacy, we watched a film clip depicting the idea of 'artificial intelligence' and had a heated debate about the pros and cons of a world run by artificially intelligent beings. In maths, we revised the properties of 3D shapes and created nets which we used to make robots in all shapes and sizes!!  The week ended with a fabulous exhibition in the hall, where all of the robots we had created as a school were on display for our families to visit.

TOPIC WEEK: SPACE: 7TH-10TH JANUARY 2014

Our second topic week was 'out of this world'! Year 6 took the specific focus of the moon.  We began by thinking about what we already know, think we know and would like to find out.  We then carried out research into the moon and found out some astonishing facts! Did you know, for example, that the moon is 4.5 billion years old? Once again, we grabbed the opportunity to do work right across the curriculum, and had great fun doing it.

Bikeability Training:  14th - 18th October 2013

We were very excited about getting our bikes out for some Level 1 and 2 training.  With the help from some local cycling enthusiasts, we first learned about the workings of our bikes and how to maintain our bikes so that they are road worthy.  We then spent a session preparing our own bikes so that they were safe to ride on the roads.  We had a thoroughly enjoyable week, learning to control and ride our bikes, first around the perimeter of the school playground, then on the mean streets of Otley! At the end of the week, we had all achieved our Level 1 or 2 certificates, and an added level of confidence.  Well done Year 6!

Topic Week:  4th - 8th November 2013: OTLEY

We learned so much about our little market town of Otley this week.  We seized upon great opportunities for geography, history, maths, writing, science, art and DT.

Hard at work!

Pentominoes Investigation

LO: To investigate how many Pentominoes can be made with no repetitions or reversals.

What is a Pentomino?

A 'domino' made with 5 equal parts, joined edge to edge.

Drama in Literacy

Whilst exploring Story Genres, we came across a hilarious short story called 'In the Shower with Andy' by Andy Griffiths.  We took a scene to act out, considering how the author provided the humourous element!

The rubber duck took a starring role!

Designing and Making musical instruments for our IPC Topic: Myths and Legends

Irish Arts Day

Year 6 were lucky enough to enjoy an Irish arts morning, where we worked with musicians and artists, to create some fabulous Celtic art and have a go at some Irish country dancing!