Year 6 Mrs Brennan

Welcome to Falcon Class

Mrs Blakeborough, Mrs Smith, Miss Nixon and I would like to offer you a very warm welcome to Year 6 and to our class page.

Please contact me on the following email address should you have any concerns or questions:

https://sara.brennan@hawthorn-tree.lincs.sch.uk

Summer Term One

Welcome back everyone. All children have completed and returned their Year 6 Easter homework booklets. A huge thank you to all the children, parents and carers who supported your children in completing these. I am so proud of the hard work, resilience and determination that the children have shown this year. Thank you everyone for your hard work and support.

Below are the dates for this year's SATs as well as some useful websites to support the children further. Our class dog will also be visiting regularly this week to support our children. If you have any concerns or questions please do not hesitate to contact me through email or directly by telephoning or popping in.

Monday 9th May - Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (Paper 1)

                              Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (Paper 2)

Tuesday 10th May - English Reading.

Wednesday 11th May - Maths Paper 1 (Arithmetic)

                                      Maths Paper 2 (Reasoning)

Thursday 12th May - Maths Paper 3 (Reasoning)

Here are some web links that you may wish to use to help with SATs practise, ready for May 9th. Simply click on the links below. 

My mini maths

Read Theory Comprehension (Sign in code - SS6QPK2B)

IXL

Corbett Maths

Welcome to Spring Term 1.

Welcome back everyone and wishing you all a Happy New Year. We have got off to a flying start here in Year 6! You will find links to our learning below including Knowledge Organisers which will help support children with their learning.

Our Learning This Term.

English: 

All Aboard! We're off on the Titanic for journey of a lifetime! The children will be writing about their character who travelled either First or Second Class aboard the Titanic. They will write a recount in three parts: Boarding the Ship of Dreams, Life Aboard, Disaster Strikes! Children will also publish a newspaper article outlining the tragic events that unfolded that night. 

In GPaS we been looking at relative pronouns and relative clauses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7UI6Q-0M4k

Maths:

We will be finishing our work on fractions, followed by a short unit on Position and Direction. After this we will move onto Decimals.

Science:

Animals including Humans. We will be looking at how our heart pumps blood around our bodies and how water and nutrients are transported throughout our bodies. How our lifestyle affects our health and how we can make healthy choices.

Geography:

Our topic of Trade and Economics takes us on a global journey to find out exactly where our food comes from. What products the UK exports and why we need to import certain products. We will look at the importance of Fair Trade and how we as consumers can help support smaller businesses abroad.

Art:

Our focus is collage and our artist is Gustav Klimt. The children will be looking closely at his work and producing a piece of collage work based on his style.

R.E.

This term the children will be learning about the Sikh faith and how community and respect help to shape their religious beliefs.

French:

We will be revising the French numbers to 100, revising our French conversation skills including conversations about our ages and our families.

Computing:

E-safety and programme and controlling sprites using Scratch.

PE

Focus on Outdoor Adventure and Athletics which fits in nicely with our Science unit.

Reading Raffle

Congratulations to out final 'Reading Raffle' winners: Maximillian, Alfie, Nourhan and Cillian.

These lucky winners have received a £5 cinema voucher to spend at West End Cinema, Boston. 

Well done and enjoy your visit to the cinema! 

Remember to keep reading!

Mr Jaques 

End of Term Treats

On Thursday 16th December at 1pm, Year 6 will go bowling as part of their Christmas treat.

All children will return to school to be picked up at the normal time of 3:20pm.

Also, on Friday 17th December, to celebrate the end of term and my time here at Hawthorn Tree, we have decided to have a class party to celebrate our time together in Falcon Class. 

We are asking for contributions towards the party e.g. crisps, biscuits, cakes, fruit or sweet treats. I will supply hot food. 

We ask that any food items can be brought into school on Friday 17th, not before.

Thank you for your support - Mr Jaques 

DT - Felt Christmas Decorations

Since October half term, our Year 6 pupils have been researching about the History of Christmas to help them design their own Christmas decoration. Throughout the term, we have written our own design criteria, designed products with the user in mind, thinking about aesthetics and functionality. We have also annotated our designs so we could use these to communicate ideas as well as create step by step plans to help us make our final product.
Our pupils had to make a paper template and learn how to sew a running stitch, backstitch, whip stitch and blanket stitch, before choosing an appropriate stitch to use for their final design. 

Finally, when we made our felt Christmas decorations, we all wrote a detailed evaluation about our final product.

The children have done a fantastic job creating their felt decorations and learning how to sew. Hopefully, these decorations will be hung on their Christmas tree at home. 

Note to parents: the next time your child needs something sewing, ask them to show you their impressive sewing skills! 

A BIG well done Year 6! 

Staying Safe Online- Social Media

Today, Falcons learned that there are many benefits to using social media. However, there are also potential risks.

We learned that it is important that we learn what these risks are, how to manage them and the effects of them so we all stay safe, happy and healthy online.

If we use social media responsibly and with an awareness of the potential risks of sharing information and images, then we can look after our digital well-being.

In groups, we sorted different cards which gave us information about whether things are OK to share online and the other group are those things which are not OK to share on social media.

See how we got on below:

TT Rock Stars - Class Battle

Owls v Falcons

Calling ALL Year 6 pupils! Battle of the Bands is about to begin!

Owls v Falcons

Monday 6th December - Wednesday 8th December 2021

Take part between: 07:00 -18:00 each day!

You will need your TT Rock Stars username and password to play. 

There will be a reward for the winning class, which will be agreed by the winning class, after the battle.

Let the battle commence!

Christmas Hampers

Dear Parents/Carers,

As you know, we are not having a Christmas Fair this year, instead each class is going to put together a Christmas Hamper so that we can raffle these off to raise money for our school.

On Friday 3^rd December there will be a non-uniform day and children in return bring will bring something in for their class Christmas hamper. 

Falcon Class have decided on a 'Christmas Decorations' theme, where the children have chosen to bring in decorating items such as: baubles, tinsel, paper chain kits etc. with a red, green and white theme. 

Year 6 will then decorate a box (hamper) and put everything donated inside. Tickets will then go on sale for £1 per strip and will be on sale from Monday 6th -Friday 10^th December and Mrs Palmer will then draw the raffle with Year 6 and the school council and then the lucky winners will be contacted.

There will also be a class prize per Key Stage for the most inventive/ creative hampers.

Thank you for your support!

Mr Jaques 

Remote Learning

If you are having to learn from home this week, then please find below your child's home learning resources, which will include:

English,  Grammar and Punctuation, Maths, Reading, History, and Arithmetic.  

All resources can be found in folders below.

Simply click on the pencil below and this link will take you to all the resources that you will need for the week.

Many Thanks, 

Mr Jaques 

Fantastic Fractions

This week, Year 6 have started a new topic in maths - Fractions. 

This morning, Falcon Class were simplifying fractions, following on from a RECAP lesson, yesterday, where they were identifying equivalent fractions. 

The children were using fraction walls and knowledge organisers, as well as their previous understanding of factors, to help them find the HCF (Highest Common Factor) to help them find fractions in their simplest form. 

See how they got on below...

Together we can ALL make History!

This week, our Year 6 children will be receiving some exciting information about an important and influential figure from history. At the end of every week, on a Friday afternoon, we will discuss this important figure of world history, discuss how they helped to shape history and see how they are remembered today.  

This week, our key historical figure is Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, Macedonia on 26thAugust 1910. She was given the name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Her family were deeply religious and were dedicated to the Roman Catholic Church. They did a lot to help the less fortunate in their community.
This was to shape the way Mother Teresa lived her life.
In September 1928, aged just 18, Agnes left her home to travel to Ireland to become a nun. She joined the Loreto Convent in Rathfarnam and was given the name Sister Teresa.

Read her story below...

Science - Differing Voltages Investigation

Falcon Class have been learning about electricity and have worked in groups to plan an investigation to identify how the changing voltages within a circuit affect the components within in it. 

We worked together to write an aim, prediction, equipment list and explained how we could make our investigation fair by creating a fair test, before investigation, recording our results and reporting our findings. 

We found out that the greater the voltage within a circuit, the more current will flow. 

See how we got on below. 

Class Dojo

This term, as part of a new reward system, all Year 6 pupils will be trialing Class Dojo as a reward system. 

Class Dojo connects teachers with students and parents to build amazing classroom communities. 

You should have received a parent invitation, so all you need to do is connect with the school and see how your child is getting on. Class Dojo is completely free to use and will allow for all parents to track how many house points their child earns. 

Throughout the year, Key Stage 2 will have the opportunity to earn house points. These will be collated weekly and termly amounts will be announced in celebration assemblies. 

Children can also accumulate these to earn badges that are a visual representation of their individual achievements:

Bronze Award- 50 house points

Silver Award – 150 house points

Gold Award -250 house points

Children who achieve 250 house points or more over the academic year will be rewarded with a Gold Trip. 

Holocaust Educational Trust Outreach Programme

On Tuesday 9th November, Education Officer Cat, from the Holocaust Educational Trust, taught our Year 6 students about Pre-War Jewish Life and Kristallnacht, before inviting Eve Kuglar to discuss her real-life experiences of Kristallnacht and life under the Nazi regime. 

The 9th - 10th November 2021, marks 83 years since Kristallnacht happened in Europe. 

Eve was born in 1931 in Halle, a medium-sized German city where her father owned a small department store. She grew up alongside her sisters, Ruth and Lea, in a period of ever increasing repression against Jews, terrified by uniformed Nazis who seemed to her to be everywhere.

In October 1938 Eve’s 79-year-old grandfather was arrested along with thousands of other Polish Jews living in Germany and returned to Poland in the first ever Nazi deportation. Ten days later came Kristallnacht. Six Nazis rampaged through the family home, destroying household possessions and her grandfather’s sacred Jewish books before marching Eve’s father out of the family home as she and her sister watched. During that night the Nazis smashed the windows of her father’s store, and the next day her mother was forced to spend hours sweeping up the broken glass. Their synagogue, founded by Eve’s grandfather, burned to the ground while the fire brigade stood by. Eve’s mother was able to secure her father’s release. He then left for France and the family was evicted from their home. They went to live with Eve’s maternal grandfather in cramped conditions. In June 1939 the family fled to France on a forged visa.

At the end of our session, our children had to opportunity to ask Eve questions about her life and incredible life story. 

We thoroughly enjoyed this event and are thankful to HET for the opportunity to hear Eve's testimony. 

What is BODMAS?

In Year 6, the children have been learning about BODMAS in maths.

The BODMAS rule is an acronym to help children remember the order of mathematical operations – the correct order in which to solve maths problems.

BODMAS stands for B-Brackets, O-Orders (powers/indices or roots), D-Division, M-Multiplication, A-Addition, S-Subtraction.

The Bodmas rule means that mathematical expressions with multiple operators need to be solved from left to right in this order. Division and Multiplication are considered as interchangeable and depend on which comes first in the expression, as are Addition and Subtraction.

Falcon Class worked hard using BODMAS to solve different mathematical problems, where they had to solve different calculations, which gave them an answer and that answer was matched to a different letter of the alphabet. These letters were then unscrambled to give the children the names of different cities from around the world. The children then went on to solve complex mathematical problems, using BODMAS. 

Creating a Wartime Gas Mask

Last term, Year 6 worked really hard, learning all about WW2. In our DT unit, we were looking at wartime gas mask and why they were so important during WW2.

We found out that during WW2, everybody was issued with a gas mask to protect them in the event of a gas bomb being dropped during an air raid. Luckily, there was never any need for a gas mask to be used properly. It was essential that everybody carried their gas mask at all times wherever they went and you would be fined if you were caught without it. Posters were also displayed everywhere to remind people to carry their gas masks at all times.

Throughout the term, the children researched about wartime gas masks, created their own research questions, asked their peers about the design of a gas mask that they would like, created a detailed product design, which showed them the steps they needed to take to be able to make their own gas mask, constructed wartime gas mask, before writing a detailed evaluation about a finished product.

This topic also fits in with our English topic, Goodnight Mister Tom, which follows the journey of a young boy from London, William Beech, as he is evacuated to the countryside. William also had a gas mask which he carried with him everywhere he went.

Our gas mask were constructed using, paper, cardboard and we used plastic for the eye holes.

Take a look at our pictures, to see how got on with our learning:

Together we can ALL make History!

Each week, our Year 6 children will be receiving some exciting information about an important and influential figure from history. At the end of every week, on a Friday afternoon, we will discuss this important figure of world history, discuss how they helped to shape history and see how they are remembered today.  

This week, our famous figure is Bill Gates. Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28th 1955. Gates is an entrepreneur and businessman and he and his business partner Paul Allen founded and built the world's largest software business, Microsoft, through technological innovation, keen business strategy and aggressive business tactics. In the process, Gates became one of the richest men in the world.

Read his story below...

Addition and Subtraction

Our focus in Maths, over the past few weeks, has been addition and subtraction.

In today's lesson (21/09/21), we have been solving complex multi-step addition and subtraction problems and using the rules of RUCSAC (Read, Understand, Choose, Solve, Answer and Check) to help with the understanding of different word problems.

The children were encouraged to use a formal written method to solve these complex problems and some children were even drawing their own bar models, before using the inverse operation to help them calculate the missing number from the original question. 

Well done Year 6!

Year 6 Reading List

Below are links to two external websites that provide suggested book titles for children in year 6 to read:

Books for Topics: 50 must-reads for Year 6:

https://www.booksfortopics.com/year-6

The School Reading List:

https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/reading-lists-for-ks2-school-pupils/suggested-reading-list-for-year-6-pupils-ks2-age-10-11/

Working Periscopes

This week in science, we have been learning about how light travels in a straight line and how the light rays reflect off of different objects, enabling us to see. 

Throughout the lesson, we found out that a reflection allows for us to see around or over other objects e.g. a wall, and that a periscope allows for us to be able to do this. 

We worked in smalls groups and used cereal boxes, detailed templates and mirrors to create our own working periscopes however, the task was more challenging than it sounds. Firstly, we had to create a list of our own instructions on how to make the periscope, before using these instructions (hopefully instructions which were accurate) to create a working model.

Take a look at our pictures below to see how we got on!

Britain Declares War!

This afternoon, Wednesday 8th September, Year 6 learned about the outbreak of World War 2 and reasons for why it started. The children created timelines of events leading up to the war, used maps to identify which countries were involved and found out about who their leaders were. 

For almost six years, from 1939 to 1945, Britain fought the toughest war it had ever experienced. World War II was total war - every person, every business, every service was involved.

Britain did not fight alone, the war also involved many countries. World War II involved 61 countries with 1.7 billion people (three quarters of the world's population).

Fifty million people lost their lives and hundreds of millions people were injured.

In 1933 the German people voted for a leader named Adolf Hitler, who led a political party in Germany, called the National Socialists or Nazis. Hitler promised to make his country great again and quickly began to arm Germany again and to seize land from other countries.

Shortly before 5am on Friday 1st September, 1939, German forces stormed the Polish frontier. Tanks and motorised troops raced into the country over ground, supported by Stuka dive bombers overhead. A total of 1.25 million Germans soldiers swept into Poland.

World War Two in Europe began on 3rd September 1939, when the Prime Minister of Britain, Neville Chamberlain, declared war on Germany.

Welcome to Falcon Class

Mrs Blakeborough, Mrs Smith, Miss Nixon and I would like to offer you a very warm welcome to Year 6 and to our class page.

Throughout the course of the year, there will be lots of different and exciting challenges which we are going to tackle together as a team, working together and supporting each other. There will also be lots of exciting roles and responsibilities for your child to become involved within, allowing us to grow in confidence, independence, and resilience and more importantly, allow for us to be immersed in fun and develop our love for learning. These include roles in our School Council and Playground Leaders.

Each week, your child will be set homework which links in with the learning taking place within the classroom that week. We encourage you to support your child with the tasks which have been set, alongside listening to your child read at least twice a week – our homework timetable can be found at the bottom of this page.

Throughout the year, different reading challenges will be set and reading will be celebrated throughout the school. We also have a class reading challenge, where the children can receive raffle tickets for the number of times they read to an adult each week. These tickets will then be entered into a raffle, where you child could win a gift voucher for Boston, West End Cinema.

We also have some fantastic Year 6 texts to read this year including: Anne Frank’s Diary, The Titanic Detective Agency, Hidden Figures and not forgetting our first text of Goodnight Mister Tom in support of our English and History lessons for Term 1. 

If you do have any concerns or queries, then please do not hesitate to contact us (preferably by phone or email) before or after the school day.

If your child is struggling with homework, then please encourage them to come and speak to myself, Mrs Blakeborough, Mrs Smith or Miss Nixon BEFORE their homework is due in, this means we can go over the homework together in enough time.

On a Thursday afternoon, Mrs Blakeborough will be teaching R.E. to our Year 6 pupils and they will also be able to enjoy exciting music lessons from Lincolnshire Music Service - the children really enjoy these hands on sessions. 

Please keep browsing our class page for important updates, homework timetables, knowledge organisers, curriculum newsletters and more importantly, the children's learning – these can all be found at the bottom of our class page.

We hope you enjoy browsing our page and we look forward to working with you closely this academic year.

Many Thanks, 

Mr Jaques