Year 6 Blog – Page 4 – Queen's Hill Primary School

Year 6 Mayan Day

16th May 202411th January 2024

This week, Year 6 launched their new topic, the Ancient Maya civilisation, and participated in different practical activities to begin this unit’s learning. Children made and tasted spicy hot chocolate and discovered that the Maya thought cacao beans were so valuable that they were even used as currency. They explored Mayan temples and had a go at drawing their own and constructing them with marshmallows and spaghetti. They even made Mayan medallions out of clay with imprints of animals on them to show the importance of animals to this incredible civilisation. We were impressed with Year 6’s curiosity and teamwork throughout and look forward to seeing how they get on discovering lots more over the course of the half term!

School Council Christmas Bauble Project

19th December 2023

Back in November, the School Council decided to buy every child a clear bauble to design and decorate ready for Christmas. Each year group chose their own designs and have been busy over the last few weeks creating them.

In Year 1, children filled their baubles with Christmas sequins and they decorated the outside.

In Year 2, children turned their baubles into reindeer and used them to decorate the Christmas trees in their classrooms!

In Year 3, the children turned their baubles into snow globes, complete with snowmen inside.

In Year 4, the children used lots of glitter and glue to decorate the outside of their baubles.

In Year 5, they used tissue paper and glue to create a textured bauble which they filled with yummy treats!

And finally, in Year 6, the children filled the inside of the baubles with glitter, then used white pen to create patters on the outside.

We think they all look amazing! A great big thank you to the School Council for organising this for everyone.

Year 6 Time & Tide Museum Trip

16th May 202417th December 2023

Year 6 had a great time visiting the Time and Tide Museum to round off their topic work on World War Two. They travelled back in time to 1941 when Great Yarmouth was in the thick of the action as a ‘front line town’. They Discovered how the war affected people on the home front and met an ARP warden where they experienced an air raid and quickly had to get into a Morrison shelter. They learnt how to make-do-and-mend with a 1940s housewife and took a look in her home. They visited a shopkeeper who had the children rationing food and even making and trying powdered mayonnaise and carrot sandwiches. And to top it all off, they had bayonet training with a Home Guard soldier. We were so impressed by their curiosity, knowledge and how well they represented QH. Take a look at how brilliant their evacuee costumes were too!

Investigating Shadows

7th December 2023

This week, Year 6 have conducted a shadow investigation to explore whether the distance between an object and a light source will affect the size of the shadow. Firstly, children created shadow puppets and gathered the apparatus they needed for the experiment: a meter stick, a ruler, a torch and their results table. They measured the size of the shadow when their torch was at different intervals from the object and, to keep it a fair test, made sure the shadow puppet remained in the same place for each measurement. Children then reported on their results and found that the closer the light source was to the object, the greater the shadow because more light was blocked. We have been impressed by Year 6’s curiosity and teamwork when working scientifically this week!

Science in Year 6

17th November 2023

This week in Science, Year 6 have started their new unit on light. Children revisited prior learning using a concept cartoon to start their discussions. Then they explored subject-specific vocabulary which they will use and develop their understanding of through investigation and enquiry over the course of this half term.

KS2 Music

13th November 2023

A big thanks to Norwich High School for visiting KS2 music assembly today.

The children participated in a singing workshop before listening to a flute, French horn, clarinet, piano, saxophone, vocal and African percussion recital.

Everyone loved hearing the range of instruments. Thank you!

Romeo & Juliet: The Prologue

16th May 20244th November 2023

Year 6 have had fun exploring the beginning of Romeo & Juliet through drama this week. They used freeze frames to capture parts of The Prologue in Shakespeare’s tragic play and even had a go at translating the tricky language into the modern day. Children will be reporting on the action of Act 1 Scene 1 over the coming weeks and producing informative newspaper reports.

Black History Month: Research and African Dancing

16th May 202413th October 2023

October is Black History Month, and Year 6 have enjoyed researching key individuals for this year’s theme ‘Saluting Our Sisters’ which honours the achievements of black women. Children created brilliant presentations showcasing the notable achievements and contributions made by some incredible black British women such as: Betty Campbell, Kadeena Cox and Malorie Blackman. As well as this, children had lots of fun following along to an African dance tutorial!

Writing in Year 6

12th October 2023

Have a look at the wonderful writing taking place in Year 6, proudly displayed on our classroom walls! Year 6 have published their diary entries based on our text ‘Goodnight Mister Tom’. They have used lots of features of the success criteria we constructed together, including: emotive language, thoughts and feelings and rhetorical questions. Everyone demonstrated fantastic grit and determination with their writing stamina – some children wrote six whole pages! As well as this, lots of concentration was shown in order to ensure the beautiful, joined-up handwriting you can see. Children independently edited and improved their work using green pen in their books and then, using teamwork, paired edited before writing up in neat. It’s great to see so many of our QH crowns being applied – well done all!

Animal Classification

28th September 2023

Year 6 have been learning how to classify animals based on their characteristics. This week they played a game of animal ‘Guess Who’. Using key technical vocabulary children were able to guess each other’s chosen animals by asking a series of questions. There were some excellent questions being asked like, ‘Is your animal a vertebrate?’ and ‘Is your animal cold-blooded?’ We were equally impressed by our year sixes knowledge of a range of species of animals – some budding zoologists in the making!