Today we started our science lesson with a quiz on Charles Darwin. Over the past few weeks, the children had written questions about Darwin and then found the answers to some of those questions. We then put the questions together in a quiz for everyone to attempt. They showed a good knowledge of Darwin, although they did get a few questions wrong! We then talked about inherited and environmental features - identifying what features we might inherit from our parents and grandparents and what features can be changed (cutting your hair). The children then used Mr Men and Little Miss characters to create offspring for them, using some of the features from the Mr Man and some from the Little Miss character. During this lesson we began to look at how plants have adapted to their environments. To start, we looked at cacti - we watched a clip on cactus adaptations before recording some of the adaptations cacti had made and how it helps the plant.
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We have completed our topic on Fractions, Decimals and Percentages - here are some examples of the work we have completed.
Good use of these learning gems:We celebrated World Book Day today with a class book swap, where the children brought in books they no longer wanted and swapped them for different books. The children were then given the opportunity to read their new books or their current reading book. We also shared with them the World Book Day audiobook web page so some children used this reading time to listen to a book As part of our 'Engineering Solutions' topic the children looked at the behaviours of a cow that show it is happy and healthy. They then used this information to help them plan a floor plan of a barn in groups. During the next lesson, the children used the planning work from the previous week to individually design a scale drawing of what they imagined a barn would look like that could house 60 cows during the colder months. Great use of these learning gems:Today saw the third poetry recital this school year. In Mandela Class we are lucky enough to have Mr Harvey work with us to help a different group (each half term) to learn a poem off by heart and recite it to the rest of the class. This is a skill, which is not only part of the Year 6 expectations for reading, but is also a life skill which prepares the children for High School and beyond. It always amazes me how all different types of children respond to the task and the change which occurs in their confidence and ability in just 6 weeks. Good use of these learning Gems:
Here are a few examples of the work we have been doing on our latest unit in Maths - Decimals
good use of these learning gems:Our latest topic in DT is called Engineering Solutions, where we find solutions for different problems. This year, we are looking at the problems faced by cow farmers (using an adaptation of the tasks from engineeringeducates). We started by finding out how much of the UK is used for farming/agriculture and the children drew pie charts to show this compared to other ways the land in the UK is used. Following this, we learnt about how methane is bad for the environment and how much methane cows produce. We then went on to design something that could be worn or used by cows to capture the methane in their burps. We then asked a mechanical engineer to look through the drawings and choose the designers of the day - those she felt had drawn and labelled their ideas clearly, were innovative and matched the design criteria given to them. Great use of these learning gems:This morning we began our new science topic on evolution. After the children explored what they already knew about the topic, we went outside and created a human timeline to show how long different living things have existed on Earth. It was amazing to discover the small amount of time humans have been on Earth compared to bacteria. Some children also wondered how much longer we would last on the planet if we continue to damage it. Good use of this learning gem:We had a really interesting afternoon speaking with Margaret (a friend of Mrs Allen) who was evacuated age 5 from Croydon to Devon during WW2.
Good use of these Learning gems:
Our finished sculpturesGood use of these Learning Gems: |
AuthorsWritten by Mrs Matthews & Mrs Hayter (proud class teachers) and their brilliant pupils (Mandela class). Archives
March 2024
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