St John the Baptist CE VA Primary School Year Six

This afternoon, we completed our K'nex Challenge.  The brief was to create a bulldozer that had: a shovel that could be lifted and could push a pencil, a cab for the driver to sit in and other special features.

It was a great afternoon of designing, problem-solving and teamwork.  Each pair then had to present their vehicle to the rest of the class and our STEM visitor.  It was very close, but Hadassa and Grace were crowned as worthy winners.

On Monday morning, Year 6 walked down to Ware Library.  It was a beautiful walk along the river and we saw a variety of wildlife including cygnets, ducklings and rabbits.  On arrival at the library, we had a tour of the building, heard from the librarians about the different services on offer there and had a chance to choose a book to borrow.  It was a lovely morning, made even better by the number of members of the public who commented on the children’s great behaviour and manners.  Well done Year 6!

This half-term, we will be focusing on cricket for one of our PE sessions.  Our first lesson, showed that we have some amazing batters!  Next week, we will concentrate on fielding skills and strategies.

It’s been a sporty week in Year 6!  On Wednesday, we had our next tennis lesson with Miss Cartwright and worked on placement of the ball on the court.  The sun shone for us at last.

We are working hard to be ready for SATS, and on Friday morning we mixed things up a bit and interspersed our SPAG revision with circuits and team races in the hall.  It certainly got everyone’s heart racing!

In PSHE, we have been discussing the use of medicines, other drugs, alcohol and smoking and learning about what the law says.  Some of the children were surprised to find out that it is illegal to try and buy alcohol or vapes if you are under 18.  We looked at various scenarios and thought about whether the law was being broken or not.

We have started a new unit of work in English based on the fantastic book, Blackberry Blue and Other Fairy Tales by Jamilla Gavin.  The children used the text to find evidence about a character’s personality and we discussed what we actually know for sure and what can be inferred from the book.

Maths has covered finding the area of squares, rectangles, parallelograms and triangles and then using this knowledge to solve some tricky problems.  The children have shown resilience and determination.  Well done Year 6!

This week in basketball the children focused on their shooting skills and everyone improved during the session.  It was particularly lovely to hear the children encouraging and supporting each other.  At the end of the session, they had a chance to put their skills into action in mini-games.

We have completed our non-chronological reports about the fictional planet Pandora.  The finished pieces of work look fantastic and will be on display in Year 6.

This half-term, we have been designing, making and evaluating savoury pastry snacks made from seasonal vegetables.

We began by learning about the importance of seasonal produce during the rationing in World War 2 and went on to discover which vegetables are in season in the UK in December.

We had a chance to taste vegetables including swede, parsnip, carrot, turnip and cabbage.  Many Year 6 children tried new things and enjoyed them.  The savoy cabbage was a particular hit!

After that, we worked in groups to choose the vegetables we would use, decide on seasonings and design what the pastry snack would look like.

Yesterday, we learnt how to peel, cut and grate vegetables safely before preparing our own and cooking them.  Then came the pastry work and the cooking.

The resulting snacks were delicious and some said that they will make them again at home!

Wow, what a day!  This morning, we worked really hard to prepare 170 Christingles for all the children in the school.  It was hard work and took some organising, but everyone played their part and smiled (and sang!) their way through it.  We had a special Collective Worship to remind ourselves of the meaning of the elements of the Christingles and to explain the work of the Children’s Society.

Christmas lunch was delicious and then the day got even better when we had a surprise visit from Father Christmas who brought gifts for our classroom.