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South America Year 6

Welcome to the South America Year 6 Class Page.  Here, you can find out about everything that we've been doing this term.
Friday 31st March
 
This week was our final session on our electricals topic in DT. We have been learning about electricals in both science and then applying this knowledge in our DT lessons. Over the course of the term we have been designing and creating our own light up Easter cards, creating an electrical circuit on the card using copper tape. This was the first project of this type at Emmaville and it's safe to say we all found it a little tricky. But, the children all showed great resilience and a brilliant growth mindset and we all left on Friday with a working card. I am so proud of them all for remaining positive and for trying and trying again even when they may not have succeeded at first. I'm sure you will agree all of the cards look amazing, and they all felt a great sense of achievement when they were finished.
 
Keep up the great work guys, and have a lovely Easter holidays.  
Friday 24th March
 
This week we have had an enrichment week all about Enterprise. We have had lots of fun activities this that centred around teamwork, communication and skills necessary for the world of work. We had a fantastic forensics workshop all day on Thursday. Throughout the day we swabbed our DNA, took our fingerprints and even got to lift DNA from a crime scene. We learnt lots about the police force and how DNA can be used to help catch criminals... we even got to arrest a criminal of our own! 
This week we also worked in groups to complete a number of tasks; one being a pocket money pitch and the other a bridge building exercise. In the pitch, the children had to work together to create a new business model and decide what they were going to create, or do, to make money. They then had to write a pitch and perform it to the class. They all did brilliantly with this and all stood with confidence in front of their friends to tell us all about their business. 
Friday 17th March
 
Well, we have a had a bit of a crazy week in South America. Miss stevens came in on Wednesday to take over early for Miss McPherson and the class have been amazing! We ended our week with a lovely treat afternoon by watching the movie version of our class reader - Holes. It was great to see the movie come alive on screen and we all enjoyed a little snack with the movie to finish the week off. 
 
It was also an exciting day as we welcomed baby Grace into the world. Miss McPherson updated us on Friday that she and baby were doing well and she arrived early on St Patrick's Day! We can't wait to meet her perfect little baby girl.... Congratulations Miss McPherson, and I can't wait to finish the year with South America.
 
Miss Stevens 
Friday 10th March
 
Last week, on 2nd March, it was World Book Day. This is something we always like to promote at Emmaville, but also highlight that reading is not just something to be celebrated on one day of the year, but promoted every day. We carried out a range of activities, including writing our very own class book, which has been sent away and is going to be professionally published. We are looking forward to seeing the finished outcome of this. 
 
We continued our World Book Day fun this week with a visit from a company called West End in Schools. In Year 6, we focused on the story of Alice in Wonderland. With Rebecca, our West End teacher, we unpicked the main sections of the story, and considered how they could be represented through dance and movement. I was so impressed with how quickly such a high quality performance was put together, and wanted to celebrate the children for the enthusiasm which they approached the activity with. 
 
Enjoy watching the dance below, and watch carefully to see if you can pick out key scenes such as falling down the hole, drinking the magic "Drink Me" shrinking liquid, the caucus race, off with the Queen's head and many more. Well done Year 6!

Friday 3rd March

Year 6 have had a great first week back at school after a relaxing half term break. We are finding it hard to believe that we only have half a year left at primary school, and are keen to make the most of the different things we have left to look forward to at Emmaville. 

A new half term means lots of new learning started which has included learning about golf and gymnastics in PE, studying Alfred Noyes' "The Highwayman" in English, having mature conversations about how we can take responsibility for our health and wellbeing in PSHE and learning and exploring our understanding of electricity in both Science and DT. A busy week as you can imagine!

However, it is our work in Geography which I wanted to highlight this week. Throughout Year 6, we spend a considerable amount of time learning all about aquatic biomes including features of and threats to these different environments. This week, we learnt all about coral reefs, with a specific focus on the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia. A lot of us were surprised to learn that coral is not just bright colourful rock, but indeed thousands of tiny animals known as polyps. We then went on to do our own independent research, and then produced some great information texts to demonstrate our newly acquired knowledge. Here is just a small selection for you to have a look at.

Friday 17th February
 

Year 6 have been instrumental over the last few weeks in helping to organise a fundraising day for CHUF, which was held today. CHUF (Children's Heart Unit Fund) support children and their families who receive treatment at the Freeman Hospital and many of the other hospitals providing treatment for cardiac patients in the North East. This is a charity which, excuse the pun, is very close to the hearts of many families at Emmaville and we wanted to do what we could to give something back.

 

 Today, 17th February, is “Wear Red for CHUF” day and it was lovely to see all of the children come to school dressed in red, adorned with hearts of all shapes and sizes. The children across school all created a heart craft to take home, made or decorated heart biscuits and spent time learning lots about this charity. Over £600 has been raised – a figure which we are very proud of. Have a look at the story below to show just one example of how this money will help.

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Friday 10th February
 
Yet again, lots to celebrate in Year 6 this week. On Tuesday, it was Safer Internet Day; this was important to acknowledge and recognise across school, but as a class, something we feel is particularly important to explore as we become older and start use the internet with increasing independence. We did lots of different activities including offering "agony aunt" style advice to people with concerns regarding the internet, and also an A-Z of lots of different things we use the internet for. On Tuesday afternoon, we also took part in an online Digital Leaders event where we used Adobe software to create some amazing animated posters all about staying safe online. 

We then finished the week with a visit to the Queen's Hall Arts Centre in Hexham to watch Little Manfred, a production adapted from Michael Morpurgo's much loved story. 
 
It is the summer of 1966. Charley and her little brother Alex are walking their dog Manfred on the beach when they notice two older men staring out to sea. A chance encounter brings them together. Slowly, Charley and Alex learn of their mother’s past, and of the friendships that can be formed in difficult circumstances. In 1945, their farmstead home was a posting for German prisoners of war, and their mother Grace was just a little girl. 
 
We thoroughly watched the story fold out, and were very fascinated by the use of staging and clever use of puppetry throughout. 
Friday 3rd February
 
Over the last few weeks, we have been having lots of fun in art, carrying out a relief printing project. Relief printing is when you carve into a printing block that you then use to press onto paper and make a print. The lines or shapes you carve into the printing block will not have ink on them, so will not show up on your paper. Instead, the print will reveal the parts you don’t draw, because they come into contact with the ink. The print will be a mirror image of what you see on your printing block!
 
We have been learning all about aquatic biomes in Geography, so created our prints inspired by the water. This process has taken us a number of weeks, as we have gathered ideas for inspiration, practised sketching different elements and created a final design before carving this into our polystyrene tile and using this to make our prints. I am sure you will agree the finished products were worth the wait!
Friday 20th January
 
Another busy week in Year 6, with lots of new learning taking place. This half term, we are really enjoying our PE sessions, which are focusing on badminton on a Monday and dance on a Friday. It is great to see the children using different skills in these sessions, and working on their coordination, agility and also communication within sport. 
 
In badminton, we have been practising forehand and backhand shots, and learning about a chassis movement to travel around the court. Here are some photos of us in action. 
In our dance sessions, we learnt four phrases of movement involving claps and stamps. We then worked in groups to choreograph routines which involved linking these phrases together to create a small dance. It was great to see how the same stimulus resulted in such different routines being created. I was also pleased with the way in which the children worked together, communicated their ideas and agreed on decisions. A great week!

Friday 13th January
 
Welcome back, and a happy new year to all of our lovely children and their families. I can't wait to see what 2023 has in store for Year 6 - it certainly started on a positive note with an exciting week full of activities to return to school to. 
 
On Wednesday, we had a visit from Gateshead's music team, to deliver one of their ever popular "music workshops". This term's workshop was all about music through the decades, and as well as listening and dancing to amazing live music, we were also educated about key events and fashion from each decade. It was so lovely to see all the children (and teachers) singing and dancing along together. A real highlight for me however, was when our very own Isaac sang in front of the whole school to George Ezra's Shotgun. What confidence, and what a voice!

We also had a visit from author and storyteller Adam Bushnell. Adam is a firm favourite amongst the children at Emmaville, and he always finds brilliant ways to engage and hook the children's interests. This time, our focus was on Victorian ghost stories. The children were enthralled at the range of Victorian medical implements that Adam brought in, including a bone saw, a skin peeler and a skull borer.... Nice! After exploring artefacts, and smelling some, quite frankly, horrific scent boxes, the children had to decide on a Victorian setting for themselves, and worked hard to generate a range of interesting descriptive vocabulary. These ideas were then brought together into some fantastic stories.