Kingswood

Dear parents and Year 6 children,

We are pleased to be able to annouce the activities which the children will take part in next week. Please note that full details of these will be given to the children on a daily basis:

- Quad biking
- Aerial Runway
- Team challenge
- CSI Kingswood
- Crate Stacking
- Archery
- Nightline
- 3G swing
- Indoor climbing
- Mission maker
- Abseiling
- Jungle Vines
- Orienteering
- Swimming
- Leap of faith

The children have been told that they will have the time and content of activities explained to them in the mornings of each day.

We cannot guarantee what time of which day each child will be doing the activities. However, over the course of the week, there will be plenty of opportunities for the children to take part in a wide variety of activities.

As you can see, we now know that the children will definitely need a swimming costume and an additional towel. Nightline can also be very muddy (depending on weather) so please make sure your child has a bin bag and an addition change of clothes preferably old ones. As said in the meeting, please ensure your children have long sleeves and long trousers as most activities require this. Please don't forget to pack sun cream and a sun hat as well as rain wear and a re-usable water bottle.

Please rest assured, for those children who have specific medical and dietary needs, the centre has been contacted and informed of these.

We aim to update the blog regularly whilst away. However, this will be largely dependent on computer and wi-fi access. There will be regular communication from the school office about how things are going anyway.

All children need to be in school with a pack lunch by 11.15 am. Both class teachers will be in school at normal time if you need to drop your child any earlier. We are sure we can find plenty for them to do! :)

The Year 6 Team

Dear Parents and Year 6 children:
Below is an outline for the children's Literacy homework which will be set every Friday and due in every Monday. Although both Miss Renier and Mrs Doran will go through this in more detail in class, please ensure your children has read this entry and keeps the hard copy of the following guidelines to enable him or her to produce a fantastic piece of writing. 7/20 of the 2011 finalists were from Crabtree, not all children who regarded themselves as usually gifted in literacy. This competition really is open to any child who wants to have a go at expressing themselves on paper. If you would like more information, here is the website:http://www.wickedyoungwriters.com/about_the_award.html.

We hope the children enjoy the process and we look forward to reading their ideas, plans and final pieces!

Maths homework will be set on Monday and Science/Topic homework will be set on Wednesday.

Can we also take this opportnity to remind you about providing a white t-shirt for your child as they will be designing their own Leavers T-shirts in the next couple of weeks. Please also bring back the final forms for the school journey as sent to you earlier in the week.

Finally, the script for the leavers concert will be coming home very soon. We would really appreciate it if you could support your child in rehearsing his/her lines as much as possible at home. We have planned many rehearsals but we also have an extremely busy half term ahead of us. Your cooperation will be a huge help to us. Some of the children may well also need to wear a costume (there will be nothing too complicated!) which will need to be ready for Friday 13th July.

We hope you have all had a great half term and we look forward to welcoming the children back tomorrow.

The Year 6 Team

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Literacy Homework:
Your homework in the next five weeks is to plan, write, edit and publish your entry for the Wicked Young Writers award.  All of the following detail can also be found on the Year 6 blog.
The following homework is set on each Friday and should be handed in on the following Monday. Please ensure your piece of work comes in your homework folder, not loose. By the 13th July, your folder will then include five pieces of work.

Quick reminder of the key rules:
• The story should be 750 words max.
• Typed, not hand written
• Possible themes: friendship, trust, tolerance, prejudice, propaganda, exclusion
• Can be a story, a poem or a playscript.

Use the following guidelines to help you.

Friday 15th:
• Decide the theme for your story. Talk it through with your parents.
• Write a quick summary of the plot in bullet form.
• Write a quick character description for your main characters, not just a physical description:
o Personality
o Strengths and weaknesses
o Character’s background, aspirations etc
• Write a quick setting description:
o Where is the story taking place?
o Create an atmosphere (positive, negative, scary, cheerful)
DO NOT WRITE YOUR STORY YET!

Friday 22nd:
• Use your ideas from last week
• Use this planning format so you stick to a clear structure (or your own)
• Plan your story in detail.
DO NOT WRITE YOUR STORY YET!

Friday 29th:
• Write your story
• Refer to your steps for success
• Stick to your plan
• When finished, read your story aloud to your parents.

Friday 6th July:
• Think about yours and your partner’s comments
• Re-draft your story, try to improve:
o Vocabulary
o Punctuation
o Sentence structure
o Tension where necessary
o Personality of your characters
o Overall structure

Friday 13th July:
• Hand in your last draft, typed
• On the back, write with your age, full name, parents’ email address/phone number


ALWAYS REFER TO THESE STEPS FOR SUCCESS! :)

Steps for success:

StructureI have included all 5 parts to the story
I have an interesting opening which hooks the reader
I have included a build up to a problem which increases tension
I have ended with a resolution to the problem

Language FeaturesI have described the character's feelings, emotions and conveyed his personality
I have used a variety of description techniques
I can vary my sentence structure
I have included speech to move the story events forward
I have included questions to intrigue the reader

Year 6 Target!I have used a range of punctuation to structure my sentences and add effect.

Wow what a week that was! Children and adults alike have learnt about new cultures in Asia this week with a slight break in continent for a quick trip to the steel drum workshop kindly hosted by Roundwood Primary School- many thanks to those parents who accompanied the classes on this trip. For those parents who were able to join their children for the celebratory picnic or for the look around the school at all the work afterwards we hope that you enjoyed seeing the outcomes of the activities that the children had worked so hard on all week. We were really proud of the work that the children had produced to such a good quality in the short time they had available. Amongst the items on display were sculptures in the making, printing, willow pattern plate designs, Japanese fans and informative posters showing that it hasn’t just been a week of art. Moving on to the work we will be doing after half term- we will be launching our new topic of climates and habitats alongside preparing for our end of year concert and school journey, not forgetting cycling proficiency and those long anticipated days at the new secondary schools. Next half term, we will also be reverting to our normal pace with regards to homework so as to prepare the children for their transition to Secondary school. As part of the preparation for school journey would like the children to design their own T Shirt for the day we leave. For this they will need either a plain white t shirt or some other pale colour on which to produce their design. Many thanks for your support, The year 6 team.

Dear Parents and Year 6s, What a week the children had! We have never seen so many pupils work so hard and embrace SATs with so much determination and enthusiasm. Each member of our year group really wowed adults with their positive attitude last week. We can really breathe a sigh of relief as this important milestone has passed. We are sure children also enjoyed their doughnut challenge and ice lollies which they all thoroughly deserved! After all, there must be some benefits to being in Year 6! We will also soon publish some pictures of the art work that the children produced during the week in the afternoons. Onwards and upwards however… although Year 6 have been working hard to prepare for their SATs recently, we now need to keep a structured momentum for the rest of our term to prepare the children for next year...this week we are moving on to our next mini topic on “Racing to the Moon” which the children asked for last term. During this week, we will be writing some newspaper reports and poetry related to the 1st landing on the moon, making 3d modroc figures of astronauts, building space stations and doing some shape investigations. Next week will be multiculturual week. We will be focusing on Asia, specifically on China, India and Vietnam. One activity will involve a chopstick race so if any of you have got a stack of unused chopsticks at home and want to get rid of them, please feel free to donate them! :) Homework this week is limited to the planning of the children’s space stations and completing reading diaries. Children have been given time in class to plan what they are going to build. They will need to spend more time at home to ensure they have thought through their plan and have all the equipment they need. They will need to bring this equipment in by Wednesday 23rd May 2012. In the longer term, homework will go back to its normal “pace” after half term so as to prepare the children for next year’s sudden increase. The Year 6 Team

The SATs week has finally arrived and the children are well prepared for what lies ahead. We have stressed to the children that this is an opportunity for them to show off to us what they can do; throughout their time at Crabtree they have been well prepared and we envisage a successful week ahead. Please help your child to approach their tests in the same way that they would approach any assessments; plenty of early nights, make sure they have breakfast before coming to school, do their best and by reassuring them that we will all be proud of what they achieve. As the weather takes a turn for the better, hopefully staying that way, we are looking forward to spending a bit more time outside; please make sure that PE kits are in school everyday. As you will have seen from the time table sent home during the week the afternoons are planned to be very light hearted. Thinking ahead… We will be doing a mini topic, Race to the Moon, once the SATs are out of the way and would appreciate it if the children could bring in some old cereal boxes, aluminium foil and cardboard tubes, the type found in kitchen roll or wrapping paper for our craft work. Contributions should be brought in from Friday onwards. Thank you in advance for your support here. The Year 6 Team

What a week it has been in Year 6- so much hard work there has practically been steam coming out of the children's ears!

Wednesday saw the most exciting science lesson of the term so far- making the phases of the moon from Oreo cookies. A huge thank you to all those parents from Elder who supported us in this and sent in packet upon packet of Oreos. The children cetainly made the most spectacular phases of the moon, but alas the evidence was eaten!

As usual the reading comprehension is due in on Tuesday, the first day back next week. If your child has identified any weak areas, particularly in maths, please encourage them to access Sam Learning.

As we reach our long weekend we wish you a very restful and hopefully dry few days.

The Year 6 Team

ICT Information for Parents

E Safety Updates

Hi All,

I hope that you are all enjoying the summer term so far.  Hopefully the sun will come out soon but at least the weather has dried up.

I wanted to write to everyone as I have received an e-safety newsletter which had some great resources mentioned for parents to support you in keeping your child safe at home on the internet.

• Hertfordshire LEA: http://www.thegrid.org.uk/eservices/safety/parents.shtml  they are always updating this page with new resources, links and leaflets to support e-safety in the home
• CEOP have launched a new video specifically for parents and have also updated their parents section. This link can be included in your next newsletter: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/parentsguide/  
• Childnet parents section http://www.childnet-int.org/safety/parents.aspx  
• BBC Webwise – online safety for parents http://bbc.in/JmYSKG  
• Google Family Safety Centre http://www.google.co.uk/familysafety/

Childnet Film Competition

This is an annual event, run by Childnet, for children aged 7 – 16 years with a primary or a secondary theme. This may be something that your child is interested in doing at home if they have a specific ICT interest.

Pupils will need to plan and make a short film based around the primary theme of:

The internet can make your life easier, let me show you!

The closing date for the competition is 5pm on Friday 15th June 2012. For further details: http://www.childnet.com/film-2012/default.aspx  

I hope that you find these links useful.  Please do pop in any time if you have any ICT questions; my door is always open. 

Miss Wilson