Welcome to Class 6 - Badgers

Term 3 Curriculum Overview

Term 3 - Design Technology - Ship's Biscuits

Today, linking nicely to our Australia topic, we learnt about the kinds of foods that had to be taken on long sea voyages in the past. We have been learning about Captain Cook's voyage of 'discovery' to Australia in the late 1770's and today we discussed why such long-lasting (but often nutritionally poor) foods were taken on voyages like Cook's. One such food was Ship's Biscuits or 'hardtack'. the children worked in small groups to make the stiff dough mixture needed for the biscuits, weighing and measuring ingredients carefully. They then made careful measurements to ensure the biscuits were rolled to the correct thickness before cutting out. The cook kindly let us use the school oven to cook the biscuits in the afternoon. Once cooled, we tasted the biscuits and evaluated their flavour, texture, aroma and appearance. We also designed packaging for them imagining that we might sell them in modern shops! The biscuits have gone into hygienic storage and once they have hardened and matured we will carry out another evaluation against the same 4 criteria. 

Term 3 - Art - Clay Carving - The Story Telling Symbols of Australia's Indigenous Peoples

In our Art lesson this week, we learnt about the history of Art within the indigenous Australian community and culture. Aboriginal people have used symbolic imagery to tell and pass on stories for tens of thousands of years. They often used ochre and other pigments to paint on cave walls and other rocky surfaces but would also carve directly into the rock with sharp tools - this process inspired our Art today. We used clay and simple tools to create our own 'section of a rock face' or 'cave wall' before using cocktail sticks to carve our chosen symbols directly into the clay. I think you'll agree - the results look wonderful. 

Term 3 - Music - Recorder Tuition and The Kent Music Roadshow

Class 6 are continuing with their recorder tuition with Angela this term - every Tuesday morning. The class are making super progress, not only in their ability to play notes with a much cleaner precision and tone, but in their growing understanding of written notation. We have been learning to play simple compositions containing 3 or 4 notes, playing along to music and following musical notation of the piece displayed on the board. This term, Key Stage Two also had a visit from the Kent Music Roadshow. Their performance was entitled 'Bach to the Future' and took the children on a journey through the different instruments in the orchestra combining live performance with informative talk and audience participation. The class got a lot out of it and it sparked a great conversation off back in class about how many of the class are learning to play an instrument and how many would like to. 

Term 3 - Computing - 'We Are Connected' (Continued)

Having learnt about what blogs are, experimented with creating some simple blog posts and learning about how we can constructively and politely comment upon them, this week we began to prepare for creating our own more in-depth blog posts. We were given three argument topics to choose one from and research online - School Uniform, Formal Testing and Zoos (good or bad). In pairs we researched our chosen topic online and used a mind mapping tool called '2connected' to present and organise our research. We did this on the school iPads. Next time, we will use our research to create a more thoughtful and informative blog post before using the comments section to ask each other questions about our posts.  

Term 3 - Indoor P.E - Gymnastics - Balances

In our Indoor P.E lessons this term we have been doing gymnastics - focusing on the aspect of balancing. In the first week we spoke about what we need to perform precise and sustained balances - co-ordination and good core strength being two key areas. In the first session we thought about which parts of our body we could use to balance on and what length of time a balance should be carried out for to be both effective and safe. In the second session we looked at combining solo balances with balances performed in a pair - again, thinking about which different body parts we can use and precision and safety. in our next sessions we will be looking in more depth at how gymnastic movement can be used to move in and out of (and link) different balances as part of a floor routine. 

Term 3 - Outdoor P.E - Hockey

In our first lesson of this term we briefly recapped the rules and aims of hockey gameplay, split into teams and played some small games. Our overarching aim whilst doing this was to identify the skills that we felt we collectively need to work on in the coming weeks. We discussed our conclusions at the end of the lesson. We felt that shooting and off the ball awareness were big strengths but that we needed to work on passing and tackling mostly. We also felt that whilst dribbling was okay, we needed to practice 'reversing' the head of the stick whilst dribbling to avoid conceding a foul by using the wrong side. The pictures below show the activities we took part in in week 2 to help practice dribbling / reversing the head of the stick further.  

Term 3 - Computing - 'We Are Connected'

In this sequence of lessons, class 6 will be learning what blogs are and how to contribute to them effectively - not only that, but how to comment on the blog posts of others safely and constructively.

Today, we discussed what blogs are, what there purpose is, how they are made and who creates them. Using 2Blog, the children had a go at creating a simple blog post about one of their favourite things and then had to comment on the blog posts of their classmates. When commenting, their focus was one commenting thoughtfully, politely and constructively - especially if they disagreed with the content of the post. 

This week, Darren from 'Roots to Food' visited Sheldwich. He worked with every Key Stage Two class leading them in a cookery workshop. The children were split into teams and involved at every stage of the preparation and cooking of the dish: Teriyaki Chicken. Poor Mr Cork was absent for the session on his PPA time, so Mrs Lay got to see all of the Badgers awesome cookery skills and sample all the tasty food! By all accounts, Class Six are real set of budding pro chefs who conducted themselves very sensibly. 

In our recent Science Lessons, Class Six have been learning about circuit symbols and how to draw accurate circuit diagrams. They have also been constructed their own circuits using components identified in lists or in circuit diagrams. Today we moved on to looking at the difference between series and parallel circuits and, without too many clues, had to work as a team to construct a circuit where the turning off of one component would not affect the ability of the other component in the circuit to continue functioning. As usual, Class Six did this superbly. 

Having explored the Make Code online platform used to create code for the Micro:Bits and having planned our code in an 'unplugged' previous lesson, today we completed our interactive toy code. For those that had them, the children then attached their coded micro bits to their soft toys before testing out their finished products. We have a few kinks to work out in our next lesson - but the ambition of the children's coding and the level of interactivity this created in their toys - was excellent. 

Class 6 revealed themselves to be the next generation of superstar DJs, producers and pro musicians during our music lesson this week. We used the school set of iPads and had our first lesson exploring how to use the digital musical composition app 'Garage Band'. The children worked individually or in pairs to compose a short piece of music to share with the class - the results varied wildly in their sonic template from death metal to jaunty piano. Super song creation by the Badgers.  

Science Workshop - 'Static Electricity' 

On Friday we were lucky enough to be visited by Ingrid's mum (Rose) who is a secondary school physics teacher. She ran a special interactive session for Class 6 all about static electricity. We started out by finding out about what static electricity is through some discussion, demonstrations and online simulations. After that we used sensitive equipment to measure the the amount of static electricity we could generate by rubbing a plastic rod with a fabric cloth. Then, we had great fun experiencing the hair raising power of the Van Der Graaff generator before finally getting to interact with a plasma ball. We had a brilliant afternoon and can't thank Rose enough for coming in to work with us. Enjoy the pictures below. 

Class Trip - The Royal Engineer's Museum 

Class 6 had a super trip today to the Royal Engineer's museum in Gillingham. In support of our First World War History topic, we took part in three teacher led learning workshops. In the first we learnt about life in the trenches on the Western Front, visiting the replica trench and handling real First world War trench artefacts to try and work out what they were. In our second workshop we learnt about the American woman (Moina Michael) who spearheaded the use of poppies as a symbol of remembrance, we heard the John McCrae poem 'In Flanders Fields' and made two poppies, one to bring home and one to place on the memorial inside the museum before holding our own two minutes silence. In our final workshop we learnt about local WW1 flying ace James McCudden and the medals he was awarded. the children used clay and craft materials to make their own version of one of James' medals. We also had free time to explore the Museum's many exhibits and to - of course - visit the gift shop. A brilliant day of learning.  

This week we had a visit from John with his 'skip 2 be fit' project. Class 6 had a great time using the special skip counting ropes and skipping in 2 minute bursts to John's motivating soundtrack! Mr Cork managed a frankly shocking 145 skips in 2 minutes and the class champion - with well over 200 skips - was Sophie. We look forward to continuing with our six week skip 2 be fit challenge next week.

Dance - Term 2 - Charleston

This week, Class Six began their study of the Charleston. A dance with strong links to our current First World War Topic as it was invented in the celebratory aftermath of the war  the 'roaring twenties'. We began by looking at establishing a tool kit of the basic Charleston steps before building on these and using them as part of our own Charleston flavoured routines in future weeks. 

Computing - Term 2 - 'We Are Toymakers' (Micro:Bits)

Today we started our work on our 'We are toymakers' project. We are going to code a micro:bit and incorporate it with an old toy bought in from home to create a new interactive toy. Today we were re-familiarising ourselves with the micro:bits - we thought about all the inputs and outputs that the micro:bit has. We then worked in pairs to turn them into step counters using the in-built accelerometer. Having created this code, downloaded it to 'the bits' and then testing it - we were then challenged to code extra features for our step counter like a congratulatory message being displayed when you reach a certain number of steps. 

Outdoor P.E - Term 2 - Football

Today we began our football topic in our outdoor P.E lessons. After our brilliantly energetic warm up lead by several of our Sports Leaders, we discussed the most essential game play rules of football. We were then split into four teams and we played three 8 minutes matches. at the end of the session we thought about the matches we'd played and what skills we need to work on in the coming weeks to improve our collective game. We will be focusing on - set pieces (especially throw ins), how to make effective tactical use of empty space on the pitch and safe and effective tackling.  

Music - Term 2 - Recorder Tuition

Today, we continued with our Recorder tuition sessions with Angela. We have been building up our knowledge of different finger positioning to create different notes. Every week we've also been working on our rhythm and pitch skills with vocal warm ups and group singing. 'Boom Boom said the cat' and 'The Breakfast song' are absolute class favourites. Today we put together the notes we'd been working on to play London's Burning. We've also been looking at musical notation and will continue to focus on this aspect in more detail in the coming weeks.  

Book Week 2022 - Perfectly Powerful Poetry / Powerfully Perfect poetry

Class 6 had a great time during Book Week engaging in all things poetic. Having rehearsed it through the week, we gave a class performance of Hillaire Belloc's 'Matilda' (who told lies and was burned to death) on Friday. We held our poetry slam in class, voting Luna Stephen's as our winner - all entrants were wonderful and Luna did a great job as the winner performing in front of the whole school in assembly.  We wrote and created a range of excellent poetry - love hate poems, autumn Haikus, ten random words poems, redaction poetry, birthdate poems and simile and metaphor poetry. The Badgers got a lot out of working with our visitors - Gary Studley and the Deal Poet's Society. They also fully embraced Friday's dressing up day (as you can see from the picture below). Class 6 also excelled at peer to peer reading with class 3 pupils on Friday. We've had a perfectly poetic week.   

St Paul's Cathedral - Virtual Tour

At the moment the overarching study question for the Badgers R.E learning is: "Should religions express their faith (spend their money on) art and architecture or charity and giving?". As part of our studies on this unit of learning, today we had a virtual tour of St Paul's Cathedral. An iconic religious building known for its architecture and art. Via Zoom, Josie gave us a superb guided tour of the cathedral telling us all about its history and the religious significance of different aspects of the cathedral. The Badgers answered Josie's questions brilliantly and learnt a lot about this iconic place of worship.  

Music - Autumn Melodies

In this Music lesson, we thought about what a melody is and the word 'melody' as a piece of musical vocabulary. We listened to some music inspired by the season Autumn. Working individually or in pairs, the children composed an autumn inspired melody using the glockenspiels, they had to create a written score for their melody. The children's autumn inspired tunes were beautiful and the accompanying written notation very clear and considered.  

Geography & Design Technology Day

Today, during our Geography and Design Technology day, Class Six have been focusing on food production. We started the day by thinking about where in the world our food comes from and the concept of seasonality. We discussed what issues might result from always having all food products available to buy all year round and the positive impacts of eating food that is seasonal and produced more locally. Working in small groups, we made batches of our very own 'Badgers Quick Pickle Slaw' using in-season British fruit and vegetables and a few store cupboard staples. Our peeling, chopping, grating, macerating and portioning skills were on top form. Next we looked at label design, thinking about how the label on the front of our quick pickle jar needs to entice a buyer and how the back needs to inform them - we designed our labels in our books before transferring to stickers to affix to our jars. In the afternoon, we walked through the beautiful countryside and recently harvested fields to the Scutt family's dairy farm. We met the cows, calves and bull and were shown round by Mr and Mrs Scutt who were wonderful at answering our many questions about dairy farming and milk production. All in all, it has been a fabulous day filled with lots of lovely learning - as you can see from the pictures below.   

Term 1 - Outdoor P.E - Basketball

In our basketball lessons this term we have been working on our dribbling skills and on suing a range of different pass types in different scenarios - choosing the pass type that is most efficient for the play scenario you are in. We have also been thinking about our on court positioning and how we can use space, passing and dribbling to maintain possession of the ball. 

Term 1 Music - Recorder Tuition

Recently, we have had our first recorder tuition session with visiting musician and music teacher Angela. We focused on breathing techniques and some breathing warm up exercises, moved on to talking about how to get the best sound out of the recorder by engaging our tongue and recapped some of the finger positions for notes the children learnt last year with Mr Daintree. We have also listened to and appraised the music of (and found out about) some classical composers of the Romantic Period (during the Victorian era) already this term.  

Term 1 - Indoor P.E - Fitness

In our first few indoor P.E sessions we have been focusing on activities and exercises that specifically challenge different aspects of fitness. We performed standing long jumps to explore our strength, we repeatedly touched alternate elbows to knees on tip toes to test our balance, we explored our endurance by jogging on the spot and tested our reaction speed by dropping a tennis ball over a partners head that had to be caught after 1 bounce only. The children have approached these with energy and enthusiasm. 

Term 1 Computing & ICT

Our lessons in the ICT suite so far this term have been linked with our Topic studies 'Victorian Britain'. We have been using online resources to research what life and working conditions were like for Victorian child workers (either coal mining or Chimney Sweeping). The children's focus was the selection of key information from the websites they were using for their research. At a later point, we will use the research to write a diary entry for one of these Victorian child workers. 

Everything below this title is from the 2021/22 academic year...

Kent Police Open Day Visit - Monday 4th July 

Class 6 had a super day in the sunshine at the Kent Police open day at their training facility in Maidstone on Monday. The event featured a whole host of interactive exhibits (the gaming bus was particularly popular) and live displays. The dog unit and public order displays were greatly enjoyed and much was learnt about modern policing. Just a few photos below to give an indication of the kind of day we had...

Class 6 Sports Week – 2022

Class 6 have had a wonderfully busy and richly varied Sports Week. Our theme was the Birmingham Commonwealth Games so we started the week by finding out all about the history of the Commonwealth and the games. We have had a number of external coaches visit us this week, leading us in fun activities and teaching us more skills in Badminton, Golf, Athletics and Archery. We also enjoyed a number of other Commonwealth sports: we played hockey, handball, volley ball (our own unique mash-up of tennis and volleyball!) and we visited Sheldwich CC up at the Less for a game of Countdown cricket. The club were kind enough to let us use their outfield, pavilion facilities and their dynamos cricket equipment – big thanks to Sheldwich CC. In addition to this we competed in our KS2 Sports Day (crowning Ethan H and Vashti as the fastest boy and girl), found out about the pioneering research of Marie Maynard Daly into Cholesterol, enjoyed our third Secondary School Transition workshop and of course, squeezed in a few class play rehearsals. A fantastic week.

Design Technology Project - Earthquake CAM toys

This week, Class Six found out what CAMs are and how they are used to make parts move in machines and mechanical toys. Our topic this term has been Earthquakes and Biomes so we created a toy where the CAMs would create earthquake-like movement! We had to think carefully about our initial designs and construct with precision using a range of tools and materials effectively. Class Six worked in twos and threes and every group successfully created an Earthquake scene where the CAMs worked to make parts move. Brilliant! Please enjoy the pictures and videos below...

Geography Field Trip To Rye

Today Class Six enjoyed their Geography field trip to Rye (in East Sussex) despite the drizzle. Our aim was to explore the town and to find out as much as we could about how both the human and physical geography of the town has changed over time. In the morning we enjoyed the Town Model presentation, took in the key landmarks through the town and had our picnic lunch in the Gun Gardens. In the afternoon we split into our separate, smaller adult-led groups and explored the town in more detail - climbing the tower of St Mary's Church, descending into the centuries old cellar of the Mermaid Inn and of course sampling the commercial output of the town's Ice cream parlours and sweet shops. Through the day, we made field sketches and collected information about the history, land use and economy of the town. We will be completing a detailed project about the town during our Topic / Geography lessons in Term 6.  

History Day - Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee - The 1950s

For History Day in Class 6, our decade of the Queen's reign was the 1950s.

We started the day by having a go at creating some family trees for ourselves, trying to add birthdates where we knew them (or could work them out).

Then we discussed what we already knew about Queen Elizabeth II and used some primary and secondary historical information sources to find out more. We also discussed what we knew about the 1950s and then found out more using some old 1950s Pathe news footage and some timelines. In our Topic books we created three pronged 1950s timelines - a line apiece for important events through the decade in Britain, the World and for the Queen. We also thought about which event we thought was the most important and why. 

Next up, we used Mrs Dixon's original Coronation memorabilia and some 1953 BBC video footage to find out about the coronation ceremony - we then worked in groups to plan and perform a news radio broadcast telling the people of Britain on the 2nd June 1953 all about the coronation - some superb accents were utilised. 

Finally, we worked in pairs create a piece of artwork to represent a significant event from the 1950s - these will be used on our whole school timeline which will eventually be on display in the hall. A fun day with lots of historical learning  happening. 

MFL Day - 'Around the World in 10 languages...'

Before MFL day, Class 6 had a discussion about which different languages are spoken by our families and extended families. We decided that during our MFL day we would study - Polish, Czech, Moroccan, Mandarin, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Afrikaans, Welsh and German. 

In each language we learnt basic greetings and learnt some key geographical facts about the countries where they are spoken (Population, Capital etc). For each language we completed a specific activity - learning 1-10 and playing Bingo in Moroccan, singing Happy Birthday in Welsh, Tasting Spring Rolls and role playing use of phrases like 'My Birthday is in...' , 'My Favourite animal is....' etc. 

Class 6 impressed throughout the day with their engagement, enthusiasm and brilliant pronunciation and accent work.

Term 5 - ICT / Computing - 'We Are Publishers'

During our 'We Are Publishers' unit of work, we are going to be creating and publishing a school magazine called 'The Sheldwich Times'. In our first lesson we thought about all the different sections and features that a magazine about (and for the pupils of) our school might have - we then got into pairs and each took a responsibility for a section (double-page spread). Working in their pair, the children then did a rough, sketched design of the layout and content of their pages. We then, in the same lesson, discussed content that the children might need to gather for their pages that they can't get from the Internet (specifically the school website_ - some pairs decided they would need to take photos, some to gather work samples from other classes and other to interview pupils and staff. In our most recent lesson, we began to use Microsoft Publisher to create our double page spreads - thinking in particular about our page layout and design. We can't wait to 'publish' the magazine, sharing it with all the other classes.  

Term 5 - Music - Cover Versions

In this lesson, we looked back at 'Come Together' by the Beatles - the song we had studied and performed in Performing Arts Week. We listened to some cover versions of this song and discussed the differences and how the artists had put their own spin on the track. Our aim was to create a cover version of 'Come Together' (Instrumentally or with singing) - with the melody played on a glockenspiel. The children could put their own spin on their cover version by altering the tempo, lyrics or structure of the song. Violet L and Bea did a super job of changing the lyrics - something about Class 6 having two 'cool' teachers - I can't remember exactly. The children did brilliantly as you can see from the pictures and videos below. 

Friday 29th April - Geography Day - Local Area Field Trip

Class Six had a wonderful Geography day! In the morning we had a go at drawing basic maps of where we live - thinking about road networks and nearby land use. After that we thought about our place in the world - locating Europe, then the UK, then England and then Kent on a map. We discussed the varied and unique geography of Kent - considering both physical and human geography. We then studied the walking route we were about to take in the local area using OS maps. On our walk, we had nearly blank maps of the local area (with just the roads and a couple of buildings marked on), as we walked, we used compasses and map positioning to keep track of where we were - we marked both our route on the map and labelled as much land use / physical and human features as possible (discussing as we went different types of agriculture in the area - and trying our best to avoid the VERY CURIOUS cows). On our return to school, we had an excellently informative talk from local farmer Mr Gaskain about all aspects of fruit production from seed to supermarket - the children asked brilliant questions throughout.  In class, we used our annotated maps from our walk to create our own detailed maps of the local area, we discussed grid references, added our own grids to our maps and thought about how these could be used to give directions or find places on the map. An amazing day all in all with outstanding Geographical learning going on throughout the day.  

Term 5 - Outdoor P.E - Athletics

In this lesson, we investigated how different types of starting position affected our speed during short distance, sprint races. In groups, the children timed each other utilising a range of start positions (e.g. standing facing forward, facing backwards, lying on the floor, kneeling) - and then discussed and compared the results. Which starting position allowed for the fastest time was fairly unanimous across the groups, but the position that led to the slowest times was much more varied. 

Term 5 - Outdoor P.E - Cricket

This term we have been continuing with our cricket coaching sessions with Mr Hodder. One of our favourite activities was caterpillar cricket where the whole batting team has to run a circuit when the person at bat hits the ball! Exciting stuff. In these photos you can see us taking part in one of Mr Hodder's fun warm up activities and working on our bowling skills (straight arm, side on the the stumps, aim with your front arm) - aiming to be the first team to hit all 6 stumps and race to replace them again.

Design Technology - Pneumatic Animals

Today we completed our 'Pneumatic Animals' Design Technology project. We have been reading the Jungle Book in our English Lessons and finding out about 'Animals and Their Habitats' in Science - so today, we used our Design Technology skills to create a moving animal toy / model. We could choose to create whatever animal we liked and had to use a pneumatic syringe/tubing/balloon system to make its mouth open and close. The Badgers did BRILLIANTLY! The models look fantastic and the jaws open far wider than on Mr Cork's pitiful crocodile prototype. Please enjoy the photos of our hard work below. 

Performing Arts Week - Term 4

This week Class Six, like everyone at Sheldwich, have been enjoying our Performing Arts Week. Our theme: 'BEATLEMANIA'! We have fully immersed ourselves into the musical world of John, Paul, George and Ringo. As well as listening to and discussing plenty of the Fab Four's sonic output, we have completed a number of activities. Please have a look at the photos and videos below to find out more about what we've been up to. What with many members of the class completing their 'Bikeability' training this week too - it's been a busy one! 

Our BIG performance - 'Come Together' 

Class 6 have been working incredibly hard learning, arranging and rehearsing our own rendition of 'Come Together' from the Beatles' iconic Abbey Road album. We have combined: handclaps, djembe drums, vocals and the electric guitar stylings of Mr Wallace to great affect. We will be performing the song in our big celebration assembly on Friday but here is a video for your viewing pleasure. A performance of which Class Six should be very proud... 

Album Design

In this session we studied the innovative album artwork of the Beatles and had a rummage through some of Mr C's 60s and 70s vinyl thinking about the artwork and design of the various sleeves. The children formed 'bands' of 2, 3 or 4 members. Each band had to decide on their name and each member's role within the band (some bands opted to adopt individual stage names too). Each band then worked as a team to design & make the gatefold sleeve for their debut Album's vinyl release. Their album sleeve design needed a list of song names, an album name, thematically consistent artwork and of course - band photos. 

Kings School - Dance

On Thursday, pupils and staff from the Kings School performing Arts department came to Sheldwich, they treated us to a superb performance in a whole school assembly in the morning and then every class had a 30 minute workshop where they learnt an entire dance routine. 

'All you need is Glockenspiels' 

In this lesson, we listened to the Beatles classic 'All you need is Love'. We then used musical notation to learn how to play the melody of the song on a glockenspiel. 

1960s Dance

In this session we learnt some iconic 1960s dance moves before using them -and moves of our own creation - to from our own dance routines to the Beatles' 'Saw her standing there'. 

Beatles Biographies & Drumming

In one lesson we researched the history of the Fab Four, from the their humble origins to their global renown. We created biography texts about the band. In another session, we used the djembe drums to explore our rhythmic skills, adding percussive layers to Beatles songs: 'Get Back' and 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'. 

Term 4 - 'The Ballad of Charlotte Dymond' 

In our English lessons this week we have been studying 'The Ballad of Charlotte Dymond', a wonderfully evocative narrative poem by Charles Causley about a real-life murder that took place on Bodmin Moor in the 1800s. We have completed several activities based around the poem culminating in our whole class performance of the poem which we did 'in the round'. Please enjoy the video of our performance below... 

Term 4 - Music - Volcano Documentary Soundtrack - In this lesson we watched a clip from a David Attenborough documentary about the power of volcanoes. We thought about how the soundtrack had been used to compliment and enhance the visual footage. Working in small groups, we had to create our own composition to soundtrack a 1 minute long section of the documentary. We used tuned and untuned percussion instruments (some groups used their voices too). Mr Cork recorded the audio of each performance and then at the end of the lesson we listened to each recording played alongside the 1 minute long section of the documentary. We voted on which group we thought had created a composition that accompanied the footage most effectively - with the winning 13 votes - well done Adam, Matthew and Sullivan's group. 

Outdoor P.E - Cricket - Class 6 are lucky enough this term to have Mr Hodder providing us with cricket coaching sessions on a Wednesday afternoon. So far, we have been working on our fielding skills  - taking part in games and activities designed to improve and develop our throwing (accuracy as well as power) and catching skills. 

Indoor P.E - Volcano Dance - we have been looking at how to use our bodies to create movements and positions (in pairs and small groups), inspired by all things volcano - different types of volcano, how lava flows, the build up of heat and pressure beneath the ground etc. We have worked on how to link these movements and positions to create routines. 

'We Are Computational Thinkers' - In our Term 4 Computing lessons we have been thinking about how computers can be programmed using algorithms to make them carry out certain tasks. We have thought about how important the order of instructions within algorithms are. We explored how we worked out the shortest route between two points on a map and learnt about how Google Maps does the same task. We also used Scratch to code a 'change calculator' - the kid that a vending machine might have to give the right change but in the fewest amount of coins. 

Arts Week 2022 - This week, Class Six based all of their Art work on pages 26 and 27 from the book 'It's up to us' - an illustration created by Australian artist Blak Douglas. We completed many different activities: we extended the image, we recorded our thoughts about it, we researched the artist and his other works, we found out about the natural disasters mentioned on the page, we created art works based upon words and phrases taken from the text accompanying the picture, we created mixed media collages using cut outs from the image, we even created poetry inspired by Blak Douglas' piece - all culminating in our final pieces inspired by the picture, framed in black and with accompanying explanation. The children's output has been incredible. Check out the the three photo slideshows below to witness their awesomeness! 

We are Connected - In our Term 3 Computing Lessons we are learning how to 'Blog' safely and effectively. Above you can see how we used software to create a concept map of research so that we can blog accurately about the for or against animals in captivity debate. We also had a go at blogging about E-Safety and thought about how to comment on people's posts in a constructive, complimentary and appropriate way. 

In some of our term 3 Music Lessons we have looked at the song 'Lean On Me' by Bill Withers. We listened to and analysed different elements of the song, learnt about its writer/performer and his inspiration in writing the piece. We made posters where we considered what we had learnt about the song as well as our own opinions of it. We also learnt to sing the song and soon we will be working on re-interpreting it into our own cover versions.  

In our gym lessons this term we have been working on paired and solo balances. Thinking about how many points of contact we have with the floor and the precision and strength of our balances. We have also been working on performing balances both into and out of rolls. 

In our Term 3 Hockey lessons we have been focusing on improving our use of  key skills. We have worked on push passes and how to receive a pass effectively with the full length of the stick low to the floor and we have also worked on our dribbling skills - turning the head of the stick to avoid using both sides of the head and being able to look up and about whilst we are dribbling. 

Computing - 'We Are Toymakers'

During Term 2, Class Six have become interactive toy designers in their computing lessons. We re-familiarised ourselves with the capabilities of our Micro:Bits, explored the possibilities offered by the sound outputs of the Micro:Bit, researched existing sound-making toys and finally designed, coded and created our own. using a range of inputs such as shaking the toy, dropping the toy or pushing buttons on the Micro:Bit, children programmed the toys to respond with a range of sounds and musical melodies.

STEM Week! What a week. We've been up to all sorts. Building our own torches, learning a binary number trick and thinking about how robots are used on Mars with Mr Blair. We got up close and personal with Mrs Hayhoe's Chameleons on Tuesday. And with Mrs Blair, we created our own clipboards emblazoned with our environmental protest slogans, learnt about Climate justice (gathering fossil fuels and money for our assigned 'parts of the world' got competitive) and used thermal imaging cameras to carry out an energy efficiency audit around the school. In class we have ben busy designing and making cases and covers for the torches we built during Mr Blair's workshop session.  

The children have also been busy with Mr Wallace making these awesome button decorations for our school Christmas tree - which of course the children will be bringing home with them at the end of term to adorn their own trees with.  

HSBC - Representatives of the HSBC bank came to Class Six today to deliver some financially themed learning workshops. In our first session, we learnt about how to shop for food efficiently - using our Maths skills to interpret the many deals and offers and get the best value. We thought about how this could then progress into menu planning with a budget in mind. In our second session, we learnt about financial fraud - discussing the many and varied ways that fraudsters may employ to part us from our money and the strategies and precautions we can employ to ensure they don't. 

R.E Day - Diwali

Class 6 had a fantastic day today. We started off by discussing which religious festivals and celebrations we were aware of - what religions they are associated with - how they are celebrated and why they are celebrated. We then found out some key facts about Hinduism before 'zooming in' on the Diwali festival and the story of Rama and Sita. We re-told the this epic story in our R.E books either as a story or as a cartoons strip. We then worked in groups to act out the story of Rama, Sita, Ravana and -of course - the monkey king. The performances were all wonderful. In the afternoon we learnt how to Bollywood Dance with Miss Wharlow, Tried our hand at a bit of Yoga and made beautiful lanterns and Rangoli patterns (of which, I think Lakshmi would definitely approve). Please enjoy the pictures of our day below.   

After our hard work in our Basketball lessons in Term 1 - we have been honing our football skills this term. In these photos you can see us working on our goalkeeping skills. we focused on getting our body behind the ball and catching where possible and then parrying where it was not possible to catch. 

Dance - Charleston & Broadway - After their hard work in Term 1, following - and creating their own - challenging aerobic fitness routines, Class 6 have been learning the Charleston and some Broadway dance moves in Term 2. They have thoroughly impressed with their precision and sense of rhythm. They started by learning a tool-kit of 'moves' from within each dance style and then worked in small groups to develop and perform their own routines with a mixture of both the original moves they learnt and some moves inspired by each style of dance of their own creation. Well done Class 6 - 4 tens from me.