Autumn 2023

Welcome back

Hi all.

Welcome back to school and into Year 6. This year will be full of hard work but, with the right attitude, I think we can all do fantastically well. Please keep an eye out for details of parents evenings. We will also hold a SATs information evening later in the school year. 

Autumn 1 - Forests

Our topic this half term is Forests. We will learn about the three main types of forest and the subcategories of vegetation that can be found there. We will look at the distribution of forests across the world and learn more about some key forests in the UK and beyond. We will learn about the importance of forests and forestry. For the first four Tuesdays of term, we will attend Forest School which links in beautifully with our work. Furthermore in Science, we will also be learning about plants and their reproduction. When we look at different types of plants, this will tie in well to our Forest work too.

In English, we are using the book Street Child to help develop our comprehension. We will use the book to help support us when writing non-chronological reports, diary recounts and character descriptions. This knowledge will be really helpful when we move into next half term's topic. 

Week 1

Boy, Mrs Jones has made us work hard this week but now she has a good idea of what we need to be working on as we work towards our SATs.

In topic, we have revisited the concepts of the Equator, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. In addition, we have learnt about the distribution of boreal, temperate and tropical rainforests and coloured in a map of the world to help share our knowledge. 

Week 2

Our learning about Forests is well under way as we have been learning about the different sub-types of forest. On Tuesday. we went to Broomhills Forest School where we tried using a flint and steel to create sparks for a fire, made pancakes, created ornaments with wood slices and played on the equipment. In the afternoon, we went fishing and made cairns. We learnt that on the farm there are both deciduous and evergreen forests. During our forest walk, we discussed why leaves fall from the deciduous trees in winter and used our eyes to spot amazing natural delights. 

 

 

Week 3

This week, we have been learning more about an array of Ordnance Survey symbols and where we can find them. We looked at maps of Carlisle and the surrounding areas to find the key and spot places of interest. We learnt about the symbols for different types of trees and we are going to use this to help us next week when we use Digimaps to consider the physical and human geography that may be found in the vicinity of several forests across the country. 

Forest school was fab again this week. Whilst the rain was heavy, we worked at Broomhill's Farm  doing a number of activities: tying two types of knots using strawberry laces (we got to eat them too!); creating friendship bracelets out of wool; making geocache containers and clues to hide in Forest School; and identify types of tree species using their leaves and some seeds.

Once the rain dispersed, we went to the forest and we made shelters, lit tinder for the campfire and had fun on all the equipment. Later in the afternoon, we went to visit a coniferous forest. There, we hugged some trees and played lots of fun games. We also went to look at the River Lyne; it was extremely deep, dangerous and fast compared to the calm, shallow waters that we fished in last week. 

 

We have created a display board that show cases our learning during our topic lessons so far. It is amazing how much we have crammed in so far!!

 

Week 4

Forest school was lots of fun again. We went on a scavenger hunt, planted daffodil bulbs, whittled cooking sticks from hazel branches so we could heat up some pains au chocolat over the campfire and used string to estimate the age of the coniderous trees in the forest. 

In Art, we have learnt about Zentangles and the principles behind them. We created some of our own and evaluated their effectiveness. I was very impressed with the array of patterns and designs that the class created. Next week, we hope to build on this by incorporating Zentangle patterns into some art that can be displayed in the Oak Tree exhibition, which will be held later on in the school term. 

 

 

This week, we have been working on harvest prayers with Miss Bingham. Lots of us were hoping for the chance to read our prayers in church so we had to pick names out of a hat (actually a beaker!). Six children read their prayers in church and Reverend Ian was so pleased with them that he asked if he could keep them to read in Church on Sunday. Luckily, Miss Bingham had photocopied the ones that we had written in class and some of them are displayed on the wall in our classroom. 

 

Week 5

Sadly, we had our last visit to Forest School this week. We made some necklaces out of twigs and conkers and we were finally able to make a fire fully from scratch using forest debris and our breaths to keep the fires going. We were also able to toast some marshmallows which may have been our favourite snack cooked over the campfire in recent weeks. In pairs, we reflected on our time at the forest and the skills we were able to develop such as problem-solving, resilience and communication. 

 

Week 6

Last week, we used our observational skills to draw simple line drawings of leaves. This week, we have been thinking about how we can improve our art and then adding Zentangle patterns to our new images. I am sure you can agree that they are looking fantastic!!

In Geography, we have been using Digimaps and our knowledge of Ordnance Survey symbols to describe some forests that can be found in the UK. 

 

Week 7

This week, we have been learning about a forest's ecosystem and the habitats within. We created 'lift the flap' books to share the information we learnt. Mrs Jones loved how we personalised our work and used our artistic skills too - they look fantastic!

In PSHE, we have been considering what makes a home feel like home. We read some real-life case studies and talked about the reasons for homelessness. We found out about 3 charities that can help those that are homeless: Shelter, CentrePoint and Crisis. Once we finished our research, we shared what we had learnt with the rest of the class. 

 

This week, Christmas came early to Year 6 when the tunes were on and we worked on creating our Christmas designs to be printed. Using a wash, we created a base in the design of a holly and then we used Zentangle patterns to decorate both the leaves and berries. 

 

Autumn 2 - the Industrialisation of Carlisle

Welcome back, everyone. I hope you had a lovely restful break. This half term is going to be another busy one as we get on with lots of learning and prepare for the Christmas festivities. 

This term, our topic is the Industrialisation of Carlisle. We will delve into the past to learn a little bit about the Industrial Revolution and how Carlisle became more industrial. The people from the archives are coming into visit. Whilst they are here, we will look at an array of primary evidence from the era. Using those, we will learn about the types of industry that were prevalent in Carlisle's past and we will consider the role of women within those industries.

In English, we are going to be using The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to help us with our comprehension as well as setting descriptions. We are working towards writing narratives that use a selection of figurative devices. 

 

Week 1

We have had such a busy week after the holidays. In Maths, we have been learning about long division. At first, we found it very tricky but we are getting good at it now! In English, we completed our work on Street Child. Our last task was to complete an independent recount in role as Jim Jarvis. Mrs Jones is so pleased with our progress!

In Art, we have been working on our products that we plan to sell at the exhibition on Tueday 7th November. Here is a sneaky peek at a few of Mrs Jones'favourite designs for the tote bags!! We created ink designs around our initial (or the initial of a loved one) and printed them onto transfer paper. Once ironed, they look fantastic. 

 

Week 2

This week, we had a visit from Fiona, who works at the archives. She brought a range of primary evidence that relates to our topic on the industrialisation of Carlilsle. We collected data from the cencuses and also looked at maps, photos, documents and booklets from the past. We used this to learn more about life in Carlisle and the factories. Using the evidence, we drew some conclusions around the role of women at that time. 

 

Week 3

This week, Miss Bingham was in charge and we had a great time. Our favourite part of the week was probbaly making blood smoothies with the Year 5 children from Miss Bell and Miss Scotson's classes. We have beem learning about keeping fit and healthy and the human circulatory system. We made smoothies which helped us learn about the components of blood such as plasma and the red and white blood cells. Afterwards, we got to drink our smoothies. Yum!

 

Week 4

In English, we have been reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Mrs Jones fed us turkish delight as we read Chapter 4 just as the Queen used the sweet treat to persuade Edmund to return to Narnia with his siblings. In our lessons, we are building on our descriptive work from last week. We investigated comparative language that could be found within a descriptive piece ofwriting: similes, metaphors, comparative adjectives, the subjunctive form, symbolism and personification. We also learnt about prepositions and creating prepositional phrases from them. We plan to use these in our writing this week. 

Week 6

On Wednesday, we celebrated Christingle in church with Reverend Ian. To prepare for the service, we learnt about the history and meaning of each part of the Christingle. We made our Christingles too using an orange, red ribbon, a candle and sweets. In church, our class went to the front and had our candles lit; it looked beautiful!

Week 7

This week, we were able to watch the LIon, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Eddy the Elf even delivered goodies for us to eat whilst we watched it. Mrs Jones gave us a task to complete whilst we watched the film; she told us that there are lots of links within the story to Christianity and that we needed to note these in our reading journals. She was very impressed with us as we spotted some that even she didn't notice like the Tree of Temptation on the wardrobe. We could see how this fitted into the lessons we learnt about symbolism too as the children in the story were temped by this magical wardrobe. 

Week 8

Mrs Jones nearly typed Week 87 in the heading above and it really does feel like the term has been that long!! In the last week of term, lots of Key Stage 2 came together to perform a carol concert for our parents. We did a fantastic job and it was a lovely end to the term! We hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and a fantastic New Year!