WELCOME TO THE YEAR 5 AND 6 BLOG FOR THE SPRING TERM! 

Week beginning 3rd March

Welcome to a busy week in UKS2, with Brookmans Buddies activities, drama workshops and World Book Day fun just to get us started! 

This afternoon, Years 5 and 6 paired up with their Brookmans Buddy from KS1 in order to help them make a dreamcatcher, linked to our World Book Day workshops about 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. The older buddies were brilliant leaders for this tricky task, ensuring that their partners were listening and remained focused. Some super dreamcatchers were made as a result, and we look forward to teaming up again on Thursday to support KS1 writing instructions for this task in their English lesson. 

Years 5 and 6 were treated to engaging drama workshops today centred around our World Book Day theme of woodlands and enchanted animals. Yesterday, each class had been introduced to Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in their English lessons and Bigfoot Arts Education brought this to life in a fun and accessible way in today's workshops! Led by Hayley, we played some collaborative warmup games before being reminded of the main plot and themes of the play. We took part in some characterisation exercises and then acted out a key scene between Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairy kingdom. Hayley tasked each class with creating both tableaux images of the forest and short scenes, which we then pieced together at the end of the session to perform an abridged version of the play. We all enjoyed this immensely and would like to say a big thank you to Hayley and to Mrs Davies for organising this for us. 

Week beginning 24th February

Welcome back for the second half of our Spring Term! We hope you continue to enjoy seeing what we have been up to in UKS2! 

In today's RE lesson, Years 5 and 6 started exploring Christian Holy Week. We began the lesson by looking at a piece of art work, which each table member had ten seconds to observe before sharing themes and images with the rest of their group. After this, we discussed who the witnesses had been when Jesus died on the cross. Working in pairs, the children were tasked with reading relevant bible verses for each witness group to then establish evidence for and against Jesus being the son of God. Ideas were recorded and then shared as a conscience alley at the end of the lesson. Miss Kropman was very impressed with the mature views given!

Week beginning 10th February

Welcome to the final week of a busy half term. Thank you to all of the children for working exceptionally hard over the past six weeks. We hope you like looking at what we've been up to this week in school (choir parents - please see the Music Blog for our epic Young Voices performance) and then enjoy a well-deserved half-term break! Looking forward to welcoming the children back to school on Monday 24th February. Miss Kropman x

This morning saw the first House Curling Competition, with the children having practised their skills in PE lessons with Mr Nicholson this term. This was a closely fought battle in Year 6, with the children initially competing in their houses. The winners then went to the semi-final and grand final. Congratulations to our champions! 1st - Water (Amelia D), 2nd - Fire (Edward), 3rd - Air (Megan), 4th - Earth (Andrew C). 

Week beginning 3rd February

Welcome to February! This week, Year 5 have had their Spurs Next Gen sessions, whilst Year 6 have been completing their Bikeability Cycling Proficiency course. We have also begun our DT task of designing and creating a model of a space shelter! For news of our excellent cross-country runners from last weekend, and the girls and boys football teams in action this week, please see the Sports Blog. 

Year 6 English - Tuesday 4th February

Year 6 have continued to explore how to build tension in their writing this week. After watching a clip from a Harry Potter film, they wrote some fabulous narrative extracts. Here are some examples:

With rage burning in his heart, Harry thundered out of 4 Privet Drive onto the deserted, wet streets. The darkness engulfed him, with no sight of the moon. As the night sky became blacker and blacker, Harry became more exhausted, and slumped on the pavement; the lamppost above him began to flicker sinisterly, eventually dying. Harry was in total darkness: his heart began to thump, thump, thump. Behind him was a playground, and the metal swings began to eerily swing. What was happening? The seesaw was banging menacingly on the ground, whilst the roundabout screeched with the blowing wind. Shaking with fear, the green bushes rustled. Harry sprang up in the bitter rain and pointed his wand forward, as he spotted a looming, black figure…

By Rayan

Fiercely, Harry slammed the dark, wooden door behind him, causing it to moan. He hated his family. He hated his house. He hated his bedroom, But, mostly, he hated his life as he stomped into the darkness. Exhausted, Harry slumped to the floor. Suddenly, a spine-chilling light started to flicker. Harry heard a screech from behind him. He turned around. The swings began to swing – at first, he thought it was only the wind. But then the roundabout started to scream. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. The see-saw started to move from side to side. From the dense bushes, a rustle could be heard. Harry jumped: the hair on the back of his neck stood up. Suddenly, a dark, ominous figure appeared…

By Simukai

Furiously, Harry slammed the door of No. 4 Privet Drive and didn’t turn back. His heart was racing – racing faster than the speed of light. Nobody could catch it. Coursing through his veins wasn’t blood, it was anger. Anger and caution. Harry slumped down onto the wet, icy pavement as fatigue was setting in. Above him was an eerie looking lamppost, flickering in menacing silence. Sinisterly. Creak, creak, creak, was the sound of the see-saw wailing in despair. Thump, thump, thump was the sound of Harry’s heart screaming out for air. There was a lump in his throat, deciding his fate for him…

By Isobella

Week beginning 27th January

Welcome to our fourth week of the Spring Term in UKS2! 

Year 6 were treated to a fun coaching session this morning from Tottenham Hostpur F.C. Despite the appalling weather, we managed to have some of the session outside and learnt about the Spurs DNA - principles of learning about football. We were taught some ball skills and were challenged to use different parts of both feet. Inside, Sonny played fun team games, including creating a list of different club endings, and a football club alphabet. This was a great way to start our week! 

Year 6 excellent writing examples - Tuesday 28th January

Inspired by the opening extract from Malorie Blackman's 'Pig Heart Boy', Year 6 wrote some dramatic passages today. Miss Kropman was particularly impressed with these:

I am drowning in this roaring silence. I am going to die. I can see the shimmering surface which looks like metres, maybe even kilometres, above me. I feel trapped in a prison, with nothing but water around me. Engulfed, I feel paralysed. I have to take a breath. Just one. My lungs are burning, my eyes are stinging and my heart is gradually slowing. I can feel my soul neglecting my body…

By Lily

I will die.

I will die in this piercing silence.

I must die.

I peer through the grey-white surface of the water. It’s there. So close. Not close.

My lungs are screaming. Help me. Please, please, help me. The chlorine is depleting my vision. I must breathe. If I don’t take a breath, I will drown…

By Ralph

I am drowning in this roaring silence. Every part of me is screaming for air. Just one breath, I need just one breath. As I look up, I can see the shimmer of the pool ceiling above me. My body is getting weaker and weaker. I kick, kick, kick, but, as I’m not getting any nearer to the surface, I realise I am going to die.

By Megan

In their RE lessons this term, Years 5&6 have been exploring Christian beliefs about a loving and holy God. Today, Miss Kropman set them the challenge of creating a stained glass window to demonstrate one of the ideas that we have been learning about. They worked incredibly hard to research and draw their design before getting started with the tissue paper. We can't wait to show you our finished work after our next RE lesson!

Week beginning 20th January

Welcome to another busy week in UKS2. We hope you enjoy looking at the evidence of what we have been up to!

In today’s geography lesson, Topaz learnt about food miles – the distance food which has been produced travels to get to your plate. We researched how far typical items in our fruit bowl had travelled before learning about the biomes that they were grown in. Next, we explored seasonal fruit and vegetables for January in the UK and discussed the benefits of us consuming these as against food produced thousands of miles away. Finally, we started learning about Fairtrade and had a mature class discussion about the decisions that local businesses and shoppers have to make when choosing their food.

UKS2 had a fantastic afternoon today with a Drumba workshop, combining music and movement to keep fit! This was such a fun way to raise our heartrates and also develop co-ordination and rhythmic skills. Thank you to Mr Nicholson for arranging this for us! 

Week beginning 13th January

Please see below some of the lovely activities that UKS2 have participated in this week!

This afternoon, Year 6 learnt about the movement of the Moon and Earth in relation to the Sun. Firstly, we explored this practically on the playground before then making a moving card model of this. Next, we wrote a paragraph to explain our learning, before turning our focus to creating videos to demonstrate our understanding!

Here is Toby's super paragraph:

The Sun is a start which is at the centre of the solar system. It burns at 5000 degrees C, which is twenty times hotter than your oven! The Earth is a planet and it orbits anticlockwise around the Sun. This takes 365 1/4 days. The Earth could fit inside the Sun 1.3 million times! The Earth rotates on its axis and this takes 24 hours. Finally, the Moon is a natural satellite which orbits the Earth. 

UKS2 focused on their geography learning today, dedicating all of the morning sessions to exploring where their clothes come from. In order to facilitate this, they were asked to come to school wearing clothes and shoes of their own choice! Firstly, we looked at the labels to see which countries their clothing and shoes were made in. After making a class tally chart of this, we turned to an atlas and plotted these countries on a blank world map, being challenged to also draw an arrow from the country back to the UK.

After break, we worked independently to produce a bar chart to demonstrate our results and also used technology to display this in varying ways. Our final challenge was to calculate how many kilometres our clothing had travelled to get to the UK from their country of origin. Some of us braved using the scales in the atlas, impressing their teachers greatly! We ended the morning by reflecting on our findings before we turn out attention towards food miles in our next lesson.

In today's RE lesson, Years 5 and 6 explored the Christian view of God being loving and holy. We read Proverbs 6 v16-19, which details seven things which God finds detestable. After discussing what these might look like in a modern day society, the children worked in small groups to create freeze-frames of these 'hateful' acts. They then maturely discussed possible consequences upon society before debating which of these acts were 'unforgiveable' for both Christians and those of a different/no faith.

Week beginning 6th January

Welcome back to school for the Spring Term! We are looking forward to another fun-filled term, starting this week with a visit from the Explorer Dome! 

We were treated to an incredible experience today with the visit of the Explorer Dome to introduce our Space topic. Before entering the dome, we discussed some of the things that we already knew about our solar system and were shown how to safely use the tunnel to go in and out! Once settled on the floor, there were audible gasps of amazement as we viewed the beautiful night's sky projected around the dome. We were then shown close up images of each of the planets, which Casper and Jeff (the dome's guides) taught us about. They particularly focused on explaining why Earth is a 'Goldilocks' planet and why the other seven planets are not habitable. We also looked at the dwarf planet Pluto and learnt why it is now called this. Most interesting in this session, was gaining the knowledge that the Sun is the only star in our solar system, and the other millions of stars visible in the sky are actually outside of this. In the second half of the experience, we learnt about various different constellations and the history and stories associated with these. Jeff particularly encouraged everyone to look at the sky tonight and make up our own ways to name and memorise what we can see. 

This was a wonderful and different way to kick-start our learning about space and we would all like to say thank you to the Explorer Dome guides for such a super session.