Cacao Bean

In history, we have been learning about where the cacao bean comes from and how it’s grown. We used QR codes to access some reading materials providing lots of information. We then had to use our skimming and scanning skills to help us locate the relevant information to answer questions.

We the looks at the differences between how the Maya processes cacao beans and how they’re processed now to keep up with the demand.

Friday Fun in the Sun

On Friday afternoon, Maddie, Reuben and Mimi practiced their addition to 20 skills on their whiteboards. Then, we were treat to a sensory story with Crew Haigh. We enjoyed having an ice cream treat like the children in the book- “Lucy and Tom at the Seaside” then doing some painting mark making in the sunshine.

Experience day 2

Today in our writing lesson, we took part in a second experience day. This one all focussed around the touch, taste and smell lenses as this is what we will be including in our PP4 chunk. We tried a variety of sweets and built up our vocabulary ready to use on Monday.

Dear Year 6…

I know we’ve said this alot but well done for your hard work so far, we are extremely proud of your perseverance, resilience and positive attitude towards learning. You have tackled all the challenges presented to you with enthusiasm, and we can see that you are completely ready for the SATS tests next week.

This weekend, we want you to chill out and enjoy the sunshine – do something nice, enjoy time with your family, read a book, go to the cinema, eat some nice food or play out with friends – as I know you have all told me you are doing. Just remember to eat well, have early nights (yes that needs to be in bold), to laugh a lot and just enjoy your weekend!

Above all, we want you to believe in yourself and know that you have done everything that you possibly can to be the very best that you can be. So now is the time to take all what you have learnt and get it down on paper because you could not have worked any harder. Let’s show everyone what Y6 crew at Carcroft can do!

Good Luck!

Writing Experience Day

In preparation for our final plot point in writing, we were super excited to spend a lesson taste testing a number of different types of sweets. These sweets triggered different taste buds on our tongue, meaning we reacted to them in different ways. We were able to use our experience to create a bank of vocabulary to support our writing. We pulled lots of funny faces – especially with the sour and fizzy sweets.

What is the cost of a bar of chocolate?

In expedition, Crew Hamill began looking at the process involved in making a chocolate bar out of a cacao bean. We identified the main steps in the process and matched these to a description of what each step involved, placing them in chronological order. We were then given a picture of each step that we had to also match up correctly. Following this, we looked at some facts about chocolate production, such as, children are used to collect the cacao beans and on average, cocoa farmers earn just 6% of the final value of a bar of chocolate. We had to decide whether these facts were fair or unfair and make a decision on what we thought overall. We were very surprised by how many unfair comments there were and couldn’t believe children were used for many of the steps.

The Monkey King!

For today’s RE lesson we looked at a story called, ‘The Monkey King’. A story told by Buddhists about how to show care to others. We learnt how initially the Monkey King was selfish and didn’t want to share his mangoes with the other monkeys because they tasted too good! But then when the Human King caught one and wanted more and was willing to kill the monkey tribe for them, the Monkey King knew he had to make a sacrifice! He quickly used his body as a bridge and let the other monkeys climb over him to get across the river to safety. The Human King saw this kind action and recused the Monkey King for being so kind and let all of the other monkeys live. They then all shared the tropical fruit together. We all learnt a lot from this story, especially how to be kind to others and why being kind and caring is so important. We thought about questions that we might ask the Monkey King such as, why did you decide to help your tribe? Did your feet hurt? Did you think you were going to die? etc. We also thought about the different characters feelings at different points in the story. At the end of the lesson we shared some of the sacrifices that we have made for others.