We have had a really busy week celebrating different aspects of China.
On Monday we began with an introduction to China- where in the world it is, major cities, etc. Elm went on to discover the Terracotta Army whilst Elder made colourful dragons.

Tuesday brought Rui Liu from St. George's, currently on secondment there from China. She spent some time teaching year 6 how to introduce themselves in Mandarin and then they all learnt an amusing song in Chinese- ask if they remember any of the phrases.
Alongside learning Chinese, the whole year group also took part in the construction of a fantastic dragon, now flying around the hall!

Wednesday saw the return of Rui Liu who taught us all how to write beautiful Chinese calligraphy using brushes and special Chinese ink.
Elm went on to play Chinese games of strategy and Elder to paint in the Chinese style.


On Thursday the activities continued combined with watching the story behind the names of the years of the Chinese calendar. Everyone now knows which year they were born in and have made a decision as to whether they have any of the characteristics from that year. I wonder if you recognise any listed here in your off spring!

Snakes are deep thinkers and tend toward the mystical. They are intelligent but can be secretive. They are good communicators and can put others at ease with just a word.

Horses are warm-hearted and interested in improving themselves. A horse is the spotlight of his community and likes to help others. They like to stay active and are kind to most people that they meet.

The culmination of the week was the building of the Great Wall of Crabtree, built in the hall due to the traditional summer weather. It was great to see all those parents who were able to join us on Friday afternoon- for those who were not everything will be available to view on the evening of 10th July, our annual open evening.

We now look forward to our school visit on Monday- keep your fingers crossed that the weather  lives up to the forecast!

The Year 6 Team

The children are now well into their cycling proficiency activities and are all progressing well. Let's hope that the dry weather continues to hold for the duration of the week.

Wednesday sees the inter school rounders competition with a group of children from year 6 representing Crabtree over at Redbourn Junior School. We wish them luck.

The week of the 24th June is our school Multi Cultural Week- the focus of our week will be China. we would like all the children to bring in an empty shoe box with lid for one of the activities that the whole school will be involved with- we intend to try and create our own Great Wall of Crabtree!

Many thanks to all of those parents who came to the meeting earlier in the week about school journey and the planned sessions with the school nurse. if you were unable to make the meeting and have any questions regarding either topic please see one of the year 6 teachers at the end of the day.

The Year 6 Team

The Final Countdown!

As year 6 enter their last half term at Crabtree Junior School the pace of activities keeps going.

This week sees the return of Mrs Renier- Elm were very excited to  see her on Monday morning.

We have begun our new topic; rainforests and deserts with the creation of classroom rainforests, dry versions only! Alongside this topic the children are also preparing for their cycling proficiency next week, highway codes for this should be coming home this afternoon via pupil post- a little bit of homework prior to the practical sessions. If you haven't yet dusted off those bikes and helmets now is the time. Let's hope that the good weather holds. On that note; please ensure that children do have waterproofs, gloves and trousers for cycling if needed.

Please remember the meeting next Monday in Elder regarding school journey and the fast approaching sessions with the school nurse. There will be an opportunity to preview the DVD that the children will be watching and raise any questions you may have.

The Year 6 Team

A message from Mrs Carter

I just wanted to say a BIG thank you to the parents and children of Elm for their lovely card, plant and chocolate (Thanks to the delicious chocolate, I am still well protected from those desk corners!).

It really was very thoughtful and I was very touched. I very much enjoyed working with you all and was very proud of how hard you all worked in the build up to your SATs. You're a great bunch!



Mrs Carter

So, SATs week is done and dusted and all of the children worked extremely hard. We now have that lull in the term where we await the results of their hard work. A huge well done to every single one of you year 6!

As we wind down slightly towards the half term break we kick off the new week with our annual Eisteddfod- we eagerly await the delights of the display items on Monday along with the cake tasting experience- something we staff always look forward to. Please come along at the end of the afternoon on Monday and view the displays in the hall. The creativity of our pupils never fails to impress and as year 6 arrive at their final Eisteddfod week we are sure that they will leave a memorable impression.
Don't forget to check your timetables and come along and support your children in their performances.

We begin a mini topic in year 6 this week- Pattern. we will be looking at pattern in nature, pattern in history, pattern in maths and pattern in literacy. The real challenge is fitting all our many ideas into such a short busy week.

After half term we will be launching our main topic for this term, with a geography focus, deserts and rain forests. Planning for some exciting sessions is well under way and we look forward to sharing the outcomes with you all on open evening in July.

A final reminder to the children to remember your cushions to sit on during the performances during the afternoons. Bring them in on Tuesday ready for the first performances.

Meanwhile, enjoy the sunshine, long may it last!

The Year 6 Team

Week 4 is over and we finished it in style with a treat at reward time whilst basking in the sun in the front garden area- hopefully everyone enjoyed it.

Don't forget to bring your T-shirts in on Monday.
Along with the hard work we look forward to the children designing and making T-shirts to reflect their true personalities. Perhaps we'll discover new sides to some of our pupils that we don't currently know about!

Please make sure that all children have their PE kit in school on a daily basis next week as there may be times when we go out for extra sessions that don't fall on a usual PE day.

Today was the last day for returning cycling proficiency forms as the numbers have to be submitted on Monday- now is the time to clean up those bikes, oil the chain and polish your helmets ready for the start of the course after half term.

Hopefully the sun will continue to shine over the weekend, we wish everyone a restful time with some early nights to help prepare for next week. There is no homework set!!!

We look forward to seeing you bright eyed and raring to go on Monday morning.

Just in case you have mislaid your copy here is the timetable for the week ahead...

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
Registration Silent Reading	Registration Silent Reading	Registration Silent Reading	Registration Silent Reading	Registration Silent Reading
English Reading Paper 15 mins reading time 45 mins for the paper	English Grammar and Punctuation Test And Spelling Test	Maths Paper A No Calculator, 45 mins	Maths Paper B Calculator 45 mins	Science A 45 mins
BREAK	BREAK	BREAK	BREAK	BREAK
PE?		Mental Maths ART		Science B 45 mins
LUNCH TIME	LUNCH TIME	LUNCH TIME	LUNCH TIME	LUNCH TIME PICNIC?
English Level 6 Reading Paper ART	Grammar and Punctuation Paper/ FRENCH	ART	Level 6 Maths Papers 1 and 2	PE
	GAMES (Miss Thomas)			Reward Time

The Year 6 Team.

Another week is almost over and they really are speeding by. All year 6 are continuing to work very hard- Elder have successfully been investigating and growing mould! Elm have begun to create their own animations- we look forward to the finished results and possibly being able to share some of them via our blog.
In art we have been looking closely at faces and drawing some fantastic self portraits. With a little help from technology we have now gone on to make a new version of that portrait in the style of Picasso- some very different looking children have appeared over the last day or so!

Today a third of our year group head off to Woollam's, the OAs ground, to play in the Tag Rugby competition promoted by Saracens. An exciting event, long awaited for after the snow put paid to the original date. We wish all our teams good luck in that.

As we move towards the SATs week, Monday 13th May, we are sending home an important letter giving details of times of particular tests and some of the activities that we will be doing alongside. Please take the time to read this carefully and stick it up somewhere useful, we will also put a copy of it here on  the blog. Now is the time to start encouraging your children to eat and sleep well so they are truly on top of things when we go into that week. All the children have worked continuously hard throughout the year and are more than ready for the week; we are already proud of them and what they have achieved whatever the outcomes.

Looking beyond that week we have also sent out the Cycling Proficiency letters this week- we have to submit the numbers very soon so please ensure that this is returned on time, by Friday 10th May.

So, heading into a long weekend let's hope that the sun continues to shine and that everyone has an enjoyable break, albeit a mini one!

The Year 6 Team