Y6 Pig heart dissection

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!

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!

KS1 Stay and Read

In Key Stage 1 we invited our parents and carers in this week to stay and read. We showed our special visitors what we do in our Phonics lessons. Then we read our reading book to our visitor  and our visitors read a book for pleasure to us.

 

We had a great time!

Y6 Maya Wow Day!

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

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

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

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!

Innovating The Night Pirates

In Year 2 we have been studying the pirate adventure story ‘The Night Pirates’. This week we are going to write our own story based on it.

Today we innovated the ending and wrote our own end paragraph in pairs.

We had some fantastic ideas.

Year 2 Pirate Poetry

Year 2 have been looking at the poem ‘I Wish I Was a Pirate’ by Tony Bradman. We learned signifiers for the poem and the performed our poem to the rest class.

 

We are now going to write our own pirate poems based on Bradman’s poem.

 

Year 2 Are Learning about Habitats

Year 2 have started a new Science Topic; ‘Living Things and Their Habitats.’ First of all we learned what a habitat was and then we looked at a Polar Habitat, River Habitat, Ocean Habitat and a Forest Habitat.  After that we sorted animals into the correct habitats!

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