It can be easy to feel overwhelmed when facing a big challenge – especially when you are unsure where to start. In 6D we discussed the Japanese concept of ‘Kaizen’. Although traditionally applied as a term in Japanese business, the idea itself is routed in taking difficult problems and breaking them down into smaller steps.

Children then had the opportunity to reflect on the idea, and create a drawing or symbol inspired by it. Please see some of our initial reflections below.

On Friday, we had the pleasure of two informative show and tell sessions. In one, we learned about a sibling in the armed forces, while in another we learned about a beloved cat who has sadly passed on and her charming kittens. A big thank you to those who showed this week, please enjoy the photos below.

Today, we loved spending time with our buddies, talking to them all about their boxes of treasure! Each buddy had compiled a range of different objects that were special to them. These included books, photographs, stickers, toys, shells and more! We were very grateful for how articulate our buddies were when they shared their special items and discussed why they had chosen them. Thank you to Year 6 for being so caring and encouraging with their buddies (and to Olivia for being our star photographer!).

What a fun and busy week we have had in 6D. The class have completed some fantastic poems to practise using personification. The students worked hard to draft and redraft their ideas to complete the work. Please see a fantastic example below of a finished piece. Notice how this student used broken repetition to build the pace of the poem. Well done!

We also enjoyed creating classification keys in science using the leaves which we collected on the Meanwood Valley Trail. We discussed how we could distinguish between the leaves – using the following terms to create our classification questions: compound leaves, serrated edges and ovular shaped. We were dissuaded from using colour and texture, given that some of our specimens had started to decompose!

Finally, we enjoyed some mathematical challenges for our early birds this week, including the one below:

We persevered and tried a variety of techniques… Well done to Phoebe and Olivia for being the first to solve the challenge!

We had one challenge, however, that remains unsolved… Could you solve it?

Using the following numbers only once (2, 3, 7, 8, 13, 25), can you make this target number: 449? You can multiply, divide, add or subtract!

We also had a go at some sudoku… Why don’t you give it a try too?

We have had a whirlwind first two weeks in Year 6! We have enjoyed getting to know eachother and reminding ourselves of school routines after the long break. In Maths, we have been revisiting place value, while in Writing we have begun our new poetry unit about the wind! We loved using our new knowledge from Geography (on grid references and coordinates) on our trip today to the Meanwood Valley Trail. We also used our classification knowledge to identify various plant and animal life in the clearing. A special shout out to Matas from Miss Davies’ group for finding a wide range of unusual creatures and even some treasure!

We have also had the pleasure of meeting our buddies this week. Although some were feeling a little shy, they soon warmed up to their Year 6 buddy. Some read with their buddies, while others did some arts and crafts. (Photos to follow in the next post…)