Challenging vocabulary in our literacy
Today in Year 6 we were learning some new words as a part of our Literacy unit. For our lesson, we had to write the word (spelling it correctly), find and write the definition and use the word in context.
We discussed why we should use these words and one of the main reasons is to make our writing as exciting as possible for the reader.
Do you know what all these words mean?
As part of our maths learning, we had to mark some of Miss Tapp’s work.
It was quite tricky for us to see where she had gone wrong – and explain how she had gone wrong.
Here is an example:
Over the last few weeks, we have been practising our netball skills. We have focused on passing accurately, finding space and shooting. Today, we applied these skills to a 5 v 5 game.
Year 6 have been working hard on their spelling. We have used a spelling test that we did at the end of half term to focus on learning from our mistakes. There were lots of learning attitudes on show including collaboration, resilience and resourcefulness.
| Year 6 Home Learning – Friday 1stNovember
(All learning to be handed in Wednesday 20thNovember) |
| Reading Please encourage your child to read for at least 20 minutes at least five times per week. Please record what you have read in your reading record. |
| Spelling Please use Spellodrome regularly at home. |
| Arithmetic Complete the questions (making sure you use your squares in your book to show the workings). We will mark this together as a class on Thursday so we can spend time going over any misconceptions or new strategies. |
| Home Learning Menu
Over the next 3 weeks you must complete an activity/series of activities that total at least 15 points. How you choose to do so is up to you! For example, you may just complete the fifteen-point activity or may choose to do one ten and a five-point activity; you could also choose to do three five-point activities – it is completely your choice! Have a look at the activity menu below: |
This morning, year 6 have worked collaboratively to mark their big writes from before half term. They worked together to pick out what has been done well and what needs to be improved for next time.
Over the past few weeks, four classes from Key Stage 2 have been swimming. At the moment, Holly Class are taking part in their six consecutive sessions. They have shown lots of resilience and hard work to develop their technique with a range of strokes. Year 4 Redwood Class will be swimming after half term.
This morning, year 6 have focused on making sentences more descriptive using expanded noun phrases. We used colourful semantics to label the different word classes.
| Year 6 Home Learning – Friday 4thOctober 2019
(All learning to be handed in Wednesday 16thOctober 2019.) |
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| Reading
Please encourage your child to read for at least 20 minutes, at least five times per week. Please record what you have read in your reading record. |
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| Spelling
Please use Spellodrome regularly at home.
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Year 6 have worked really hard on their home learning over the last three weeks. One of the activity choices was to make an igloo using a material of choice. We have had lego, cotton wool, modroc and even cake and marshmallows! Here are some of the igloo models that have been brought in so far.
Over the last few weeks, Year 6 have been developing lots of positive learning attitudes. Today, we looked at using formal methods for multiplication. Holly Class showed lots of resilience to get themselves out of the learning pit. We talked about the importance of ‘the struggle’ to help with learning. They also showed great collaboration skills to work together and work out where they had gone wrong, learning from their mistakes. Here is an example of the struggle and using purple pen to show progress.
Keep it up Holly Class – excellent attitudes and effort!
Please also see the following links for videos, which we have used in class, for extra support with short and long multiplication.
https://mathantics.com/lesson/multi-digit-multiplication-pt1
https://mathantics.com/lesson/multi-digit-multiplication-pt2
Both year 6 classes have spent time this week drafting out their paragraphs for their non-chronological reports about an animal of choice from the Arctic or Antarctica. They’ve shown great attitudes to learning by always looking to improve their writing and by using the resources available to them.
Today, year 6 showed great resilience during their maths lesson. Some of the groups were focusing on converting between standard units of measure and then applied this to solving problems.
In Literacy we have been learning about non-chronological reports. As a part of this we have been looking at a range of examples.
In one of our sessions we became features detectives. We were looking for ‘generalising vocabulary’ (such as some, mostly, sometimes, often), and technical vocabulary (such as habitat, environment, resources).
Some of us then tried to find synonyms for some of the words. Synonyms are words that have the same meaning (happy, joyful etc).
This afternoon, we started our new topic called Frozen Kingdom. To start off we observed an iceberg. We looked at why there are air bubbles in the iceberg, what happens when salt goes in the water and why the iceberg moves when it melts.
This week, Year 6 have been looking at maths in a different way!
One of the areas we looked at was speed. Speed is not always the best way – sometimes mathematicians need to think deeply.
We played a game called 25. If you are interested – please ask your child to explain. It was a game that seemed very simple but made us think deeply about each move to ensure we won.
When we played this game, we used physical equipment, recorded it visually and with digits. All of these methods helped us think more deeply about what we were doing.
Today, we introduced an exciting, collaborative project, inspired by the work of NASA a few years ago.
Children are working in mixed teams of year 5 and 6s to produce scientific explanations and diagrams about space, ready to send to NASA
Year 6 have been learning how to read and write the well-known story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ in French.
Pupils have been learning the key phrases by creating vocabulary trees and have re-told the story using the app Tellegami.
At Grenville House this afternoon, in slightly damp circumstances, 13 of our Year 6 children faced their fears, attempted – and in most cases took – the leap of faith! Very proud of their resilience and team work!
The rain failed to dampen our spirits today – after collaborating together to build a sea-worthy raft we took to the water to test our handiwork!
All aboard!
The hailstorms, rough seas and cold winds did not stop our resilient year 6s from coasteering, canoeing and climbing the high ropes! We were incredibly proud of the children for overcoming their fears and giving new things a go! #growthmindset
One lucky group managed to avoid the weather as they were deep underground, crawling through miles of caves in Buckfastleigh.
Bring on day 3!
Year 6 arrived in sunny Brixham today! After making their own beds (which proved challenging for some) and unpacking their cases, the children took part in a variety of activities. Some groups enjoyed the glorious sunshine whilst paddle-boarding around the harbour; others ventured to Buckfastleigh to go caving and some children abseiled down the 80 ft quarry of Berry Head. All children have really enjoyed themselves so far!
This morning, Year 6 became immersed in their new Literacy unit – the Roman times. Over the new few weeks, we will be working towards writing an authentic tale of mystery and intrigue so we needed to research this exciting period in history.
Yesterday, a team of year 6 children competed in a football tournament organised by Exeter City FC. Schools from all over Devon competed- so the standard was very impressive!
After a challenging group stage, Hazeldown went through to the knockout stages of the tournament. A nerve-racking penalty shootout went in Hazeldown’s favour- meaning we progressed to the quarter final stages. A riveting match ended 2-1 to the opposition.
Our children showed a fantastic supportive team-spirit and were very respectful to the other teams.
Well done to all involved!
This week in Year 6 we have enjoyed exploring and expanding our mathematical boundaries through our ‘Week of Inspirational Maths’! We have been finding out more about how to grow our maths brain and create and strengthen our neural pathways. 
During Literacy today, children were using conjunctions to link 2 independent clauses. In addition to this, they were using purple pen to further improve their sentences – clearly showing the progress they were making.
This morning, Ebony Class investigated converting between decimals, percentages and fractions. We collaborated really well to solve a murder mystery using our knowledge and also used dienes to represent whole and decimal numbers.
Well done Ebony class – super problem solving and collaboration!
Today in maths, the children have been comparing and ordering fractions. Using mathematical logic and visualisation, they have been predicting which fraction is biggest. After predicting, they have used mathematical reasoning to prove whether they were correct or incorrect.
Have a look at the purple pen (purple for progress) on the work in the pictures. This shows a super reflective learning attitude.
Keep it up Holly Class!
This morning, year 6 collaborated to produce lots of examples of powerful adjectives, personification, similes, metaphors and inference (show not tell). We are now ready for our big writes tomorrow! 
In Holly class, we’ve been discussing positive attitudes to learning. This has included the importance of working in ‘The Learning Challenge Pit.’ The pupils know that they will learn a lot more effectively if they are appropriately challenged and are experiencing some form of a struggle.
The children are now able to reflect on their learning and challenge themselves by moving onto more difficult tasks within a session. As you can see in the example, ‘Purple for Progress’ has been used to show a brilliant reflective learning attitude.
Keep it up Holly Class!
Today, Ebony class practiced their tag rugby skills. We focused on finding space and changing speed and direction.
| Year 6 Home Learning- Friday 5th October |
| Reading – Please encourage your child to read every day for at least 20 minutes (by week 4, they should already have achieved 30% of their Accelerated Reading target.
Spellings – Spellings will be given out on Monday. Spellings will be given out on Monday. In addition to learning the 10 words (sent out Monday) please practice the ‘ance’ ‘ancy’, ‘ence’ and ‘ency’ rule using Spellodrome. Times Tables Rockstars– it is crucial that year 6 children know their times table facts up to 12 x 12 – this really supports other areas in maths. Have a go at improving your score to progress through your ‘Rockstar’ career. Arithmetic- Complete the questions (making sure you use your squares in your book to show the workings) We will mark this together as a class on Thursday so we can spend time going over any misconceptions or new strategies. |
| SOLE – Holes trip
Having been on a trip to the beach to get into the character of one of the boys at ‘Camp Green Lake’, we would like you to write a reflection of your trip in your home learning book. Please include what you learnt during the day, which learning values you had to use and what you would do differently if you had to build a hole that big again. Also, reflect on how you think the campers would have felt based on your feelings during the day. These reflections will act as a first draft and then will be writing these up neatly during SOLE time. They will then be added to your SOLE book during Journaling week. |
Today, year 6 experienced what it was like to be a juvenile prisoner at Camp Green Lake. After being introduced to Holes over the last few weeks, the children had to get into the role of the characters (children who are sent to a camp instead of prison and treated unfairly) and dig holes as a punishment. The children showed great role play skills as they had to consider how the children would feel in that environment.
Although the main objective of the trip was to get into character and imagine how tough life would be at the camp, our pupils had a great day and enjoyed digging the holes!
Also, a big thank you to the parents that accompanied us on the trip and even helped out with the digging!
At the start of their new topic, Holes, year 6 have received a letter from Mr Minoia asking for their help to persuade the Public Health, Sanitation and Consumer Products Safety Group that the conditions at Camp Green Lake are unsatisfactory. Today, we have read our exemplar text and highlighted key features of a persuasive letter.
Over the last three weeks, we have been focusing on our whole school topic of ‘My Compass for Life’. This morning, we are writing our biographies about an inspirational figure. Next week (Friday 28th September), these biographies will be on show at our celebration event.
Year 6 Spellings – Week 2 the ‘shus’ sound
Handed out on Monday 17thSeptember. Tested on Monday 24thSeptember.
- Delicious
- Ambitious
- Conscious
- Obnoxious
- Infectious
- Spacious
- Atrocious
- Achieve
- Aggressive
- Amateur
Note: Spellings 1-7 focus on this week’s spelling focus; Spellings 8-10 are from the year 5/6 word list.
Today the children of Year 6 got the chance to go to Crealy Adventure Park. The trip was funded by the PTA to say thank you for all the hard work they had put in over the past 7 years at Hazeldown Primary School.
The children had a great day and there were a few tired faces on the coach on the way home!
We have received some photos that parents took on the morning of the ‘evacuation’. They look absolutely brilliant! Thanks for sending them in.
Here’s some of the pictures from Year 5 and 6’s evacuation day that we took part in today. Activities included, writing and drawing postcards, singing, wartime games and deciphering, Morse Code. A great day was had by all!
Today the children got to experience being an evacuee! Starting off in Teignmouth, they waved goodbye to their parents and made their way to Paignton. After a short stop, they then boarded the steam train to Kingswear.
On arrival, they were met by Billeting Officer Cooke, who lead them to the Kingswear Village hall. The children then took part in a number of activities, which included: postcard writing, drawing, wartime games, morse code challenge and wartime singing.
The children had a great day and impressed many members of the public! Well done everybody!
Today, year 6 received their leavers hoodies from Mr Ludford to celebrate the end of an era at Hazeldown school.
The children were incredibly excited with their new hoodies and will be wearing them with pride around school for the coming weeks.
This week, year 6 worked in their business teams to sell their products during the year 6 market.
The stalls looked incredible! Containing banners, logos and persuasive adverts, the customers flooded in! It was a huge turn out: hundreds of parents and children enjoyed spending their money on ice creams, chocolate, sweets, popcorn and slime!
The children used excellent sales strategies- I’m sure many will go on to be successful business men and women.
Today the children welcomed Ellie Riley, from Footlights Dance Academy, into school, who put them through their paces for the opening act of iCan too.
The children worked extremely hard and showed a great growth mindset in learning a whole dance routine from scratch. The children will now be working hard to perfect the routine for the big event on Friday 13th July at the Princess Theatre.
In recognition of their hard work and mature approach to the green aspects of life, Green Team visited the Pinbrook recycling facility today and the Energy from Waste plant in Exeter to further their education.
They learnt a great deal and their manners and behaviour were complimented throughout – very proud.
Massive thanks to the Rec
ycling staff but especially to Clare and Lorna for offering their time and talent to the trip too!
This week, ‘Lord Ludford’ introduced an exciting business challenge to our year 6 children in the style of The Apprentice.
With a £5 investment, the children will work in teams of 5 to create their own business plans. They must choose a product to design and sell which will be sold to children and parents at the end of the topic. After making back the initial investment, the profit will go towards a treat for year 6. The winning team will be given the opportunity to choose what the money is spent on.
Good luck candidates!
The children of Year 5 and 6 were lucky enough to go and watch the film ‘The Mercy’ at Teignmouth Pavilions.
The children have just finished writing their own stories about a voyage – describing the weather and emotions their character went through. The children really enjoyed the film and it resonated with lots of the stories they wrote.
As well as their writing, the children found it extremely exciting because the film itself was filmed in Teignmouth a few years ago – even included people they knew as extras.
This week, the children have been introduced to a team challenge. Over the next couple of weeks, children will work as palaeontologists to produce a information book to teach other people.
Don’t forget- anything extra you can do at home will help support your team!