Maya trading post!

By Miss S STAINTON13th December 2021

Year 6 have really enjoyed learning about the Maya over this past term so we decided to finish off our topic focus by running a ‘Maya Trading Post’! The children showed excellent teamwork and enterprise skills by working together to buy and trade Maya themed activities for cocoa bean currency (or coffee beans in our case!). The winning team was the group who successfully earnt the most cocoa bean profit. All children showed that they had retained so much knowledge about the Maya from over the past term and worked fantastically in teams to build on individual strengths. Well done!

Human and physical geographical features

By Miss S STAINTON28th November 2021

As geographers, Year 6 worked in groups to research, create and deliver their own presentations which focused on one of the human/physical geographical features within Central America. It was fascinating to spend time researching a parts of the world which are so different to what we experience living in the UK. The children did a great job in sharing their findings and teaching their classmates about their area of focus!

 

 

 

Studying scientific secondary sources of evidence in Y6

By Miss S STAINTON18th November 2021

This week, Year 6 pupils were given a wide range of secondary sources within their science lesson. They worked as teams to classify and group the sources into 3 categories: tobacco, caffeine and alcohol. The children then worked hard to study the sources and evaluate how each of these areas could negatively impact the human body if not consumed sensibly. Each group then collated their findings onto an informative poster – well done Y6!

Black History Month

By Miss S STAINTON20th October 2021

Throughout October, we are celebrating and teaching children about the importance of Black History Month within school. We always openly discuss Black History throughout our day-to-day learning at Christopher Pickering, however it is great to have even more of a focus on celebrating individuals who have overcome adversity during their lifetimes.

We have taken opportunities within whole school and phase assemblies to discuss why it is so important we discuss Black History and how we, as a country, can learn and move forward from mistakes that have been made in the past. We have also been watching videos and discussing individuals such as Rosa Parks, Mary Seacole and Harriet Tubman – 3 amazingly brave and influential black women who stood up for their beliefs and freedom. These assemblies have stimulated powerful and meaningful discussions amongst our children.

Y6 Pig heart dissection

By Miss S STAINTON1st October 2021

For our science experiment this term, year 6 were extremely excited to take part in a pig heart dissection!

We have been working hard learning about the circulatory system and the importance of the heart. This was a great opportunity to explore the 4 different chambers and arteries as we carefully examined the inside of the heart.

Also, within our guided reading lessons, we have been studying the book ‘Pig Heart Boy’ by Malorie Blackman and the main character, Cameron, is due to receive a pig heart transplant.

We could even gently insert our fingers into the vena cava and the pulmonary veins to see which chambers the blood would flow into!

Y6 visit to Sirius!

By Miss S STAINTON28th September 2021

Y6 students had a fantastic day of learning at Sirius Academy West today. We took part in a carousel of olympic themed activities and demonstrated fantastic team work to win as many point as possible for the countries we were representing!

 

In the maths session, we playing ‘archery maths’ and studied sprint times from the 100m races. This tested our mental maths skills and ability to order numbers up to 2 decimal places. We also enjoyed spotting lines of symmetry on the countries’ fags!

We worked really hard in art to develop our light sketching skills and design and draw our own olympic mascots.

In computing, we programmed an electronic game of squash and loved spending time in the designated computer suites!

We had so much fun playing competitive geography games which tested our knowledge on the countries involved in hosting the olympics and also the continents in which they were held!

Y6 Maya Wow Day!

By Miss S STAINTON21st September 2021

We loved learning about all things ‘Maya’ during our themed day. It was a great opportunity to delve into researching and understanding this fascinating civilisation. The day started through carefully examining Maya artefacts and hypothesising about their uses and how they would have been made.

   

We then took part in a Maya themed QR code hunt on a mission to gather and research as many facts as possible – great team work was demonstrated!

We were fascinated when learning about the religious and cultural significance of masks, especially ‘death masks’ which were placed on their dead bodies to guard them on their journey to the afterlife! The ones we designed and made look great on display in our pod area.

Finally, we spent the afternoon observing and studying intricate Maya hieroglyphs and drawing these in our sketch books.

 

Free Verse Poetry in Year 6

By Miss S STAINTON24th May 2021

Over the past week, year 6 have taken inspiration from Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech and have created their own free verse poems entitled ‘I have a dream’.

We explored lots of current topics relating to global warming, pollution and excessive waste. Our final poems were written to spread the message about the damage that is being done to our oceans and children shared their dreams for a brighter future within their poems.

We had some excellent imagery and figurative language being used to portray the children’s passionate messages and warnings to their audience. Lots of inclusive pronouns were also used to include their audience, similar to those used in Martin Luther King’s speech.

Here are just a few examples of their amazing work:

Studying the Irish Famine in Year 6

By Miss S STAINTON13th May 2021

Year 6 have been really enjoying their new history focus surrounding the history of migration to Britain. This week, we explored the Great Irish Famine and why it was a ‘push’ factor, leading to thousands of Irish locals becoming British immigrants.

We studied how the famine impacted the lives of the Irish and studied sources of evidence which helped us make deductions and inferences about this group of migrants.

It was fascinating to learn about how so many people around the world are of Irish descent from when their ancestors emigrated out of the country.

Year 6 Artwork

By Miss S STAINTON13th May 2021

Year 6 have been studying pieces of artwork created by ‘Soraya French’, such as this painting of a shanty town:

 

Soraya French, SHANTY TOWN WOMEN | Exhibition Artwork

 

We observed how she used a ‘layering’ technique and preferred to work in a less-structured, messy style. Using acrylic paints, we then created our own paintings inspired by her works of art.

 

We weren’t afraid to use bold colours and different equipment to apply the acrylic paint, such as spatulas and card, just like Soraya does!