St John the Baptist CE VA Primary School Year Six

On Monday, we all tried to learn a new skill – plate spinning!

After a demonstration, the children moved up on to the field, found a space (this was very important to avoid plate-related injuries) and had a go.  It was really tricky and everyone had to show perseverance and resilience in order to succeed.  A few children were successfu quite quickly and they moved around to coach others who were finding it harder.  By the end of the session, around half the class had successfully spun a plate and the others were very close to doing so.  Mrs Louis took hers home to practise!

Today in Design and Technology, we made pasties from a selection of seasonal vegetables.

To make the pastry we mixed flour, butter and salt and used the rubbing in method until it looked like breadcrumbs.  Then we carefully added cold water until the mixture came together.  We turned it out onton a board but were careful not to handle it too much so that it wouldn’t become tough.  It was chilled in the fridge for half an hour.

Meanwhile, we chopped a variety of seasonal vegetables including potatoes, carrot, parsnips, swede and cabbage.  We also has the option of including onions, sweetcorn and butternut squash.  We used the claw and bridge methods to make sure we were cutting safely.

The final stage was to roll out the pastry, fill it with our choice of vegetables, seal the pasty and bake it.  They looked and tasted delicious!

In Science this week, we began to investigate how we see.  We learnt that you can’t see an object in a black tube even if the object is white.  By punching holes into the box, we discovered that you need light to be able to see.  Next, we will be learning about how the human eye works.

In preparation for our Design and Technology cooking lesson next week, we tasted a variety of seasonal vegetables including swede, butternut squash, parsnip and cabbage.  The children have now decided which vegetables they will include in their pastry snack.  Some discovered new foods that they like!

We have a great first week in Year 6 and the children have settled really well.

In English we have started a unit based on Night of the Gargoyles by Eve Bunting, in Maths we are working on place value, in Computing we have been learning about micro:bits and in PE we got absolutely soaked!

PSHE was about teamwork this week.  The children worked in teams of five to create a pyramid of plastic cups.  That sounds easy, but they could only use elastic bands and string and were not allowed to touch the cups.  It was a tricky task but all teams were successful eventually.  The children had to communicate clearly and calmly to complete the activity.  It turns out that louder is not always better!