Grange Valley Primary & Nursery School

Welcome to Year 6 - Mrs Kruze's Class 2019-20

Spring 1

It’s been a fantastic first Spring term! Year 6 have thoroughly enjoyed our Science unit ‘Animals Including Humans.’ We have experienced lots of new things relating to our learning in this unit. A couple of our most stand out lessons were definitely going to Haydock High to look at the parts of a heart and learning about the different components of blood by creating a blood cocktail!

In English, at the beginning of the half term, the children explored balanced arguments. They concluded this unit by writing a balanced argument on one of the following debates: Should school uniform be abolished? Should the school week be condensed into four days? The children wrote in a brilliantly formal tone, using points for and against and using evidence to back up their arguments. The children then completed a narrative unit of work based upon a short Pixar clip, ‘Paperman.’ The children really broadened their vocabulary during this unit, ensuring that every sentence written was completed to the best of their abilities!

In Geography, we have explored the unit ‘Enough for Everyone.’ We have learnt all about renewable and non-renewable energy sources, power stations and also food miles. The children were surprised to find out that growing a lettuce in the UK winter in a greenhouse actually uses more CO2 then importing a lettuce from Spain!

This half term, we have enjoyed our lessons with St Helens Music Service. We have used xylophones to create melodies and add percussion behind the melody to accompany them. Everyone loved reading sheet music and also composing some of their own melodies.

In Art, we have loved exploring the work of L.S. Lowry. The children have learnt all about Lowry’s colour palette and how to create tints, shades and tones. They have explored foreground, middleground and background of Lowry’s work and used a range of different mediums to create an image of Liverpool city centre based upon Lowry’s work. Their sketchbooks look fantastic!

In RE, the children have learnt about Hajj and why it is important to Muslims. They explored the different types of guidance in their personal lives and how humans rely on each other during the journey of life. They then learnt all about The Five Pillars of Islam and how each pillar helps Muslims to live their lives in a certain way. Next, they learnt all about the Ummah and the pilgrimage to Mecca. We finished this unit by completing our own virtual Hajj thorough the school!

Year 6 have been working really hard in all of their curriculum areas. Well done to everybody for a fantastic Spring 1 half term!

Autumn 2

Year 6 have had another brilliant half term!
This half term, Year 6's History unit has been WWII. The children have asked the question,'How could Hitler have convinced a nation like Germany to follow him?' The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about WWII and also learning about its impact on Liverpool. The children couldn't believe when they learnt about how Liverpool Docks was so greatly impacted and also how Liverpool was the most heavily bombed area of the country, outside London.

The children enjoyed linking our learning in History to our English unit. We read the book Once by Morris Gleitzman, which is the story of a young Jewish boy who is determined to escape the orphanage he lives in to save his Jewish parents from the Nazis in the occupied Poland of the Second World War. The children wrote incredibly emotive diary entries and I was so proud of their writing!

We also enjoyed a library visit to Haydock Library where we read an extract of Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian, which is another text set in WWII. We really enjoyed going to the library and we learnt lots about being an evacuee!

Year 5 and Year 6 both led a whole school Remembrance Service where we remembered those who had fallen before us during conflict in the past and ongoing conflicts in our world. It was beautiful. Well done Year 6!

In Computing, we learnt all about spreadsheets and how helpful these can be! Lots of new knowledge was acquired and Year 6 loved it so much, they wanted to do even more work on spreadsheets in their spare time!

Of course, we finished our half term with some brilliant festivities to celebrate Christmas. Members of our KS2 Pop Choir performed with a live orchestra at the St Helens Schools Christmas Sing and they also enjoyed performing for the users of the Grange Valley Youth Club and the residents at Heyeswood.

We enjoyed our Christmas Quiz Performance where we were able to show off our singing and dancing talents, as well as test our parents on their Christmas knowledge!
All in all, we have had a really successful half term with lots of learning taking place and also a lot of fun being had!
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

See you in 2020!

Autumn 1

Year 6 have made a fantastic start to this academic year!

Year 6 have really stepped up to the challenge of being the oldest in the school and are wonderful role models. Each child has their own job, whether that be tuck shop monitor, shush monitor, reading committee member or playground buddy. Every child approaches their job with pride and we are so proud to have them set an example to the younger ones!

Year 6 have loved their English lessons so far, with amazing progress all around! In English, we have enjoyed reading Kensuke's Kingdom. Our writing was based around a story of survival and Year 6 wowed me with their superb writing! We certainly have a great reading culture in our classroom!, Children are excited about reading and have developed a positive reading culture within the classroom. Our Starbooks Reading Challenge has instilled a further love for reading, with children requesting books that we have explored in Whole Class Reading from the library to read themselves!

In Maths, we have explored numbers to 10 million, place value, and all four operations. The children are becoming more confident in problem solving and their arithmetic scores are rapidly improving in such a short amount of time. Our enthusiasm for Maths is improving and we are building a culture where we are trying to be the best that we can be and build our resilience in the run up to SATs preparation.

In Science, we have learnt all about inheritance and evolution. We have learnt about acquired and inherited characteristics, how animals adapt to their environments and have set up our own enquiry into growth, using scientific enquiry, measuring and recording skills. We are looking forward to finding out more about the work of Charles Darwin next half term

In Computing, we created our own films, ensuring that we use text, quality recordings, backgrounds and music. The children did a superb job!

In Geography, we conducted a study on The Americas. We learnt all about North and South America and even conducted a fieldwork research project, comparing Haydock to a region of the Americas, Death Valley. Children used a range of enquiry skills in this study, including data collection, interviews with local residents, photographs and sketches of maps and things that they saw on their fieldwork trip.

We have enjoyed a range of fun activities as a class so far. We have enjoyed our Halloween PTFA disco, some of us got to have breakfast with Mrs Kruze as part of her 'always' club and a number of us received awards for bringing homework in on time every week! A number of children also enjoyed a hot chocolate and some sweets with Mrs Kruze for completing this half term's Starbooks Reading Challenge. I hope that there are more lovely faces joining us next half term!

Overall, Year 6 have had a brilliant start to their final year of primary school and I hope that it only gets better!