Sheepstor Y5&Y6

Welcome to Sheepstor Class – Year 5/6

In Sheepstor Class we promote the development of a passion for lifelong learning, and aim to equip the children with the skills they need to achieve to the fullest of their potential. We encourage the children be curious; to question, reflect and form their own opinions; and to develop ownership of their own learning journeys. In this way, our goal is to ensure that the children become independent and resilient learners, setting them in good stead for the next stage in their education, and beyond. 

On this page we have information about our curriculum, home learning opportunities and useful websites for both parents and children.

SUMMER TERM 2023

 This term Sheepstor Class will be learning about the Vikings and King Alfred (Summer 1) and about the geography of Florida (Summer 2). The topic web, which covers all aspects of our learning in more detail, is available below. 

Our Class Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you for the opportunity to get an education.

We are all grateful for the kind and loving teachers who take their time to educate us.

Thank you for all our friends who care for us and help us achieve our learning goals.

Please help us to continue to love and care for one another and to be grateful for all the resources we have.

Amen

Week Ending 5th May 2023

Phew! What an exciting time Sheepstor have had recently! The Heatree residential was a huge success and I'm sure the children will have shared some of their amazing stories and personal achievements with you. I simply could not have been prouder of their behaviour, attitude and willingness to give new and challenging things a try. The photos really don't do justice to just how high those high ropes were! Bedrooms were kept neat and tidy and everybody helped out at mealtimes with laying the tables and the washing up. It was a real team atmosphere and although we were all very sleepy by the time we got back to school, we made memories that I'm sure the children will treasure forever. 

A huge well done, Sheepstor!

Supporting your Year 6 child with the Key Stage 2 SATs

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2022/05/05/everything-you-need-to-know-about-sats/

I hope that the following will be useful in supporting your child in the run up to the 2023 SATs but, as always, please do contact me if you have any queries or concerns. Throughout the year and as part of our everyday learning, the children have experienced SATs questions from past papers and the format and wording style is familiar to them. They have also completed full sets of papers from past years, so are aware of the full range of tests and what these entail.

Please reassure your child that there is nothing to worry about and that we will all be very proud of them for doing their very best!

Please support your child in completing the workbooks that I will be sending out. 

Please continue to practise times tables and the related division facts with your child. Continue to encourage your child to use TT Rockstars at home. 

Please encourage your child to read daily and widely. Listen to them read where possible, and discuss what they have read. 

Ensure that your child is secure with the following word classes: verbs, adjectives, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, subordinating conjunctions, co-ordinating conjunctions and determiners. Ask them to explain the purpose of each, give examples and identify word classes in sentences when hearing them read aloud. 

If possible, please ensure that your child attends the SATs breakfast boosters.

Please support your child in making use of the following websites to practise key skills. 

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/category/22/most-popular

This is a great site that covers a wide range of Maths skills. We particularly like 'Crystal Crash' and use this to practise finding fractions of amounts. 

https://myminimaths.co.uk/year-6-arithmetic-practice-papers/

A useful site to practise arithmetic skills in a SATs style format. There are further helpful activities under the Year 6 tab. 

https://cdn.oxfordowl.co.uk/2019/08/29/13/56/09/5a42eb6a-f57f-4dc4-a66e-bd4c5e27e4b7/SpellingWordList_Y5-6.pdf

Practise the spellings from the Year 5/6 word list

https://swottotspublishing.squarespace.com/free-from-stp-books/ks2-sats-past-papers-english-paper-1-2018

Useful resources for practising spelling, punctuation and grammar in a SATs style format. 

There are a range of commercially available resources, upon which I am able to advise; however given the wealth of free material available online, and the fact that I will be sending practise materials home, please do not feel that it is necessary to purchase additional resources.

Again, please do let me know if you have any concerns, questions or would like to discuss any aspect of the KS2 SATs further.

Miss Harris 

Week Ending 10th March

This week we have been working really hard on finishing our Darwin's Dragon books in English and Beagle flags in DT. The books are now complete, and on World Book Day we were able to share them with the children in Hound Tor, who were very impressed and really enjoyed listening to them! The flags are almost finished and will be part of a large display to be created this week. It has been a pleasure to see the children develop their sewing skills and taking such pride in their creations. Below are some images of both projects. 

Next week, we will be moving on to a new unit of English based on the book 'Our Planet'. We will be writing information texts based on the spoken style of a David Attenborough documentary. If you are watching nature documentaries over the next two weeks, please do encourage your child to join you to help them develop the correct 'voice' for this genre.

Thank you for all your support in creating the children's World Book Day costumes. They were fabulous!

Miss Harris and Sheepstor

Week Ending 3rd March 2023

This week the children have been working really hard on creating their story books based on 'Darwin's Dragon'. This story has really captured their imagination and they have put in a phenomenal effort with their writing, including striving to reach their current writing targets. I look forward to sharing some of their swashbuckling tales of derring-do later on this week! In DT, which is linked to our English unit,  we are also now at the stage where we are ready to begin creating our flags for HMS Beagle, and the class are really excited about this! Their designs are stunning and I look forward to seeing these turned into the finished products. I will be posting photos of these as the week progresses so please do check back to see the work in progress!

In Maths, we have now started to link our understanding of fractions with decimals, and Year 6 are also developing their understanding of percentages alongside this. Our 'arithmetic Fridays' have been a highlight of each week and it has been wonderful for the children to see and feel their own progress week-by-week. Knowing the times tables and the related division facts (and being able to recall these rapidly) makes a real difference to the children's progress in Upper Key Stage 2, so please continue to practise these with your child and encourage them to use TT Rockstars at home. I have now adjusted the settings so that it should not 'shut off' in the evening, but please do let me know if there are any further problems accessing the activities. 

Thank you for your continued support 

Miss Harris

Week Ending 3rd February 2023

This week, we have been continuing our work on fractions and are now, after demonstrating great perseverance and determination, total superstars at adding and subtracting these. We have also started to apply our knowledge in the context of word problems, and these have made us quite hungry as many involve pizza! In arithmetic we have started looking at percentages and this has had a similar food-based theme - only this time, it was smarties!  There was some outrage in class at the absence of all the orange ones (and some understandable suspicion as to where they had all disappeared to!) Next week we will be beginning our work on the multiplication and division of fractions. 

In Science, we have been looking at how fossils can be used as evidence of adaptation over time. We were particularly interested to discover that early horses had five toes. The 'Big Questions' have continued this week and we have had some really deep-thinking discussions about how and why animals have changed over time, and how this may apply to humans in the future. 

Week Ending 27th January 2023

One of the best things about being a teacher is seeing the children celebrate their successes and realising the progress they are making. It has been a week of many achievements, and the class are deservedly feeling very proud of themselves; most especially for their diary entries in role as a cabin boy (Syms) on board HMS Beagle. They have really been challenging their vocabulary and getting into character. To bring our learning alive, we explored a range of replica items that would be found on board a ship of the 1830s, including a beautiful brass barometer, sextant and pocket weather forecaster. We even have a ship's cat in the classroom, who I understand is now called 'Mr Whiskers'!

A huge well done to everyone this week in our arithmetic and spelling tests. It was a bumper week in terms of progress, and that's all down to the children's perseverance and determination to master the new concepts we are learning.  

Week Ending 20th January 2023

In English this week, we have been focussing on how authors use different sentence openers to add variety and interest to their writing. DADWAVERS is an acronym which helps us improve the quality of our narrative writing by reminding us of the range of strategies we can use. We have analysed extracts from Darwin's Dragon using DADWAVERS and are now ready to complete some descriptive writing of our own to put what we have learnt into practice. Check back next week to see some examples of our work! 

We were very excited to start our learning about Ancient Egypt this week, and have set up our class museum with lots of hands-on artefacts to explore. The replica Rosetta Stone has caused much discussion in particular, as have X-Ray images of Tutankhamun's mummy. We are really looking forward to immersing ourselves in all things Ancient Egypt next week!

Miss Harris and Sheepstor Class

Week Ending 13th January 2023

This week we have been learning all about fractions, with a focus on finding equivalent fractions and converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions. We have also started our new class book, 'Darwin's Dragons' and began to look at the life and work of Charles Darwin. We found it particularly entertaining to learn that he once rode on the back of a giant tortoise in the Galapagos islands! 

In our writing, we imagined that we were shipwrecked on an island and discovered a new species. This led to some highly animated discussion and some really creative thinking! 

We have also been learning about Fair Trade in Geography, and learnt about the life of banana farmers before they received fair trade status. We were quite shocked to learn that the farmer received less than 10% of the final selling price of non fair-trade bananas and we have discussed how we might change our behaviour as consumers in the future. 

This week has been full of really interesting discussions regarding some 'big' ideas and I have been particularly proud of the children for their curiosity and reflectiveness, as well as their willingness to contribute with energy and enthusiasm.

Craft Afternoon (8th December 2022)

A really big thank you to all the parents (and siblings!) who were able to support us in this event. The children had a really wonderful time and we even had a very special guest come to visit... Father Christmas!

Week Ending 9th December 2022

Phew! What a busy week it's been in school! We have been practising our whole-school nativity, been super scientists and very creative artists during our craft afternoon, alongside all our other learning. 

In Science, we learnt all about how to separate liquids and insoluble materials through filtration. We explored the effectiveness of different filters and looked at them under a microscope to see if we could explain our results. We discovered that filters with the smallest holes are the most effective, but also that dissolved particles cannot be separated through filtration. More on this next week!

Here are some photos of us busy at work.

Week Ending 25.11.22

Our highlight this week was our visit to Morwellham Quay! We spent the morning in role as Victorian school children (and were shocked by how strict the teacher and punishments were!); followed by rock-breaking to find copper ore. This would have been the job of the girls and women whilst the boys and men toiled down in the mine. 

In the afternoon, we went on the train through the mine. This was particularly exciting! We learnt about the development of mining techniques and what life would have been like for the miners who worked there. We did get a little wet but this was mostly because we kept asking the train driver (George) to slow down as we went under the mine shafts above us, which were open to the sky!

The children were impeccably behaved and all the staff were very proud of them. A big thank you also to our parent helpers who gave their time to come with us. A great day was had by all!

Week Ending 18.11.22

This week Sheepstor have been busy working on short and long division. Here is a photo of us enjoying ourselves doing 'big paper' Maths!

We have also been investigating the factors that affect the rate of dissolving in Science. We looked at different sugars under a microscope and compared the size of the crystals with the time each type took to dissolve. 

Week Ending 11.11.22

Sheepstor have been learning how to use long multiplication! We have made some videos to show adults at home the method we use. For our Ukrainian guests, Ailia and Masha have created a version in Ukrainian, using their slightly different version of the method. We had great fun making these and hope that you enjoy watching them!

This is a very useful Grammar, Punctuation and Vocabulary guide with activities and quizzes covering all the elements of the Year 6 Spelling and Grammar (SPaG) test. It would be a great idea to download this and work through it in the months leading up to the SATs – it will reinforce everything the children are learning in class, as well as enriching their writing.