Today, Crew White began an investigation into the affects of exercise on heart rate and the time it takes the heart to recover after exercise. We made predictions, wrote a method and then went outside to test our hearts. We completed moderately intense exercise followed by intense exercise and had recovery breaks in between and afterwards. We took our pulse rate at different times to check how our heart was coping with the increased workload.
Next week, we will present our findings and write up our conclusions.
Yesterday afternoon, Year 6 enjoyed a well-deserved off-timetable afternoon enjoying Mrs Rhodes’ karaoke machine. There were highlights including duets and group songs and maybe some unexpected auditions for the end of year performance.
In Crew White, as well as preparing for our SATs, we have been learning about human life cycles. We have learnt particularly about the emotional and behavioural changes, along with the physical changes that the body goes through.
We produced double page spreads to show off our understanding, thinking about our audience and the purpose of explaining and informing.
In Crew White this morning, we have continued to build on our ideas by mapping feelings of the main character, Francis, in our writing. Once we thought about how the character was feeling, we then created phrases using ‘show me not tell me’ to challenge the reader to infer how the character is feeling, rather than telling them. The feelings map helped us to see how emotions change throughout a story, ranging from positive to negative. Watch this space for our drafting coming soon!
This morning, to help us improve our composition, we created a human sentence using a range of Year 6 grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. Starting with our subject, verb and object, we added adjectives, adverbs and parentheses to our sentence, ensuring correct punctuation was used.
In case you were wondering, the sentence read…The amazing city of Doncaster, which is full of friendly, kind-hearted people) welcomes everyone warmly and has many interesting landmarks.
On Friday, Upper Key Stage 2 visited Doncaster city centre. For half of the day, they learnt about the fascinating artefacts linked to the city. There were Roman shields and rings, stuffed animals, including Billy the Bear, and a variety of coins that had been dug up. This learning was linked to our history case study all about the Ancient Egyptians.
Then, for the second half of the day, they went on a shopping spree around the city centre’s markets. Raspberries, grapes and even dragon fruit were on the shopping list. All of these will be washed, cut up and then enjoyed as part of a fruit salad on Monday.
This fieldwork during hook week is linked to a new expedition where we will learn all about the brain, body and blood and specifically, how we keep our bodies healthy.
Some quotes from the children about their day:
“I thought the day was really fascinating” – Finn
“I enjoyed going to the shops and buying the fruit from the market.” – Rory
“I asked people at the market what they enjoyed about it and they said there used to be more stalls but they like the coffee shops, and that you can get everything you need” – Charlie
Over the Easter holidays, Year 6 were challenged to complete 10 sessions of home learning in an area of learning that had been chosen for them. For some children, they were battling with fractions, decimals and percentages. For others, it was modal verbs that were on the Easter menu.
We were amazed at the hard work and effort shown by Year 6 over the holidays with the vast majority of children bringing back their completed learning and their record logs. To celebrate, and reward them for their work, this afternoon we enjoyed some fresh fruit and a cup of popcorn along with a movie session. Well done Year 6!
This week, during Hook Week in Crew White, we have stepped back in time to learn about the ancient Egyptian ritual of mummification. Of course, we were unable to get our hands on recently deceased pharaohs so we had to make do with all the tomatoes available at the local supermarket.
We learnt about the embalming process and preparing the ‘body’ for the afterlife. We cut off the top of the tomato, scooped out its insides and covered it with salt. We will observe the tomatoes over the next few weeks and see what happens.
Today, UKS2 children had a fantastic visit from a bee expert, who shared fascinating insights into the important role bees play in our world. The children learned how bees help with pollination, allowing plants to grow and produce the food we eat. They were especially interested to discover that every bee in a hive has a specific job, from worker bees collecting nectar and pollen to the queen bee laying eggs, all working together to keep the hive thriving.
The session also explored the different products that bees create, with a particular focus on beeswax and its many uses. The children were amazed to learn that beeswax can be used to make lip balms, soaps, and beard wax, and enjoyed seeing and smelling real examples. The visit inspired thoughtful discussions about how we can protect bees and support their habitats, leaving the children excited, informed, and eager to learn more about the natural world.
This morning, for extended Crew in Crew White, we channeled our inner engineer and worked together to build structures. The aims were to build connections, improve communication and have a gentle restart the term.
We were given 20 pieces of spaghetti, 20 marshmallows and 0.5m of sellotape. The challenge? Build the tallest structure in only 13 minutes. There were varying levels of success…
