Monday 29 September 2014

Day of European languages

Mme Baikie would like to say:

Merci beaucoup à Madame Morris et à Madame McGaw pour avoir accompagné les enfants en Polynésie et Madagascar. Merci à Mme Wellham qui ont préparé le travail pour Elm et àMme McGaw pour préparé le travail pour Elder.


Madame Baikie

Friday 26 September 2014

Citizens in action

Yesterday was the long awaited polling day at Crabtree.

Mrs Clements had arranged for us to borrow the polling booths that are used for local and general elections so that we could get a real taste of what going to vote was like. Each booth had a list of candidates names and everyone had a voting slip to complete.

We folded our voting slips in half and posted them into a box for counting.

 
Which box should I tick?
Decisions, decisions!

Deep in thought.


Look out for this week's newsletter with the all important results.

Joella's Blog


So far I have loved the beginning of year six. One of my favourite activities we have done is probably going to the Royal Air Force Museum (R A F). It was fantastic getting a chance to look at all of the planes and go somewhere I have never been before.

Also we have had a chance to do even more art lessons which we did not get to do much of in year 5. Plus we have a chance to take on even bigger responsibilities such as Head girl, sports captains and peer mediators.

Beth's Blog


I must admit that Year 6 was much different to my head’s random ideas. It was pretty stressful but not as much as I thought it might be. I have most enjoyed the excitement of a new beginning. New homework diary, harder work, word book, your own folder everything is better (except more homework of course)! To begin our new topic; terrifically we visited RAF Hendon, the Royal Air Force museum. I have to say, I’m sure I’m not the one who enjoyed it the most as halfway through I had to be collected by my Dad after hurting my leg climbing out of a plane! After our trip, I’m sure we all knew a lot more about WW2 because of the many intruiging planes and the interesting timeline.
Obviously, one of our biggest events was choosing all of the sport captains and head boy and girl and also school councillers. All of Year 6 agree it feels great to have a big responsibility – especially voted for or chosen by Miss Thomas.

 I feel it is better having 3 or 4 groups for the main subjects because it gives everyone a chance and I like the way they have done a reading group as well. We all were missing PE in the holidays with Miss Thomas and now all the clubs are up and running again it feels like Crabtree once more. There have been a lot of changes encluding a new PE teacher Mrs Moxham for indoor PE. We are doing more art and music this year which some people are very happy about. All of the teachers are nice so I think we are happy about that.

 It’s hard to believe we're in year 6 and in one year we will be heading off to a new school, where ever we go? And it  doesn’t feel like we’ve been here for a month, but I am really looking forward to this year. Especially English and PE…

Monday 22 September 2014

Life continues a pace in year 6.

This week we are finishing off our work on biographies with children either writing about Roald Dahl or a sports personality of their choice.

Following our trip to Hendon the children are really beginning to get their teeth into their World War II topic. Some children have brought in the most amazing artifacts and we look forward to sharing all of those soon.

By the end of this week we should be able to announce the many positions of responsibility that the children in year 6 hold- children will find these out in the achievement assembly on Friday. Elections for various positions take place across the school on Thursday when we have been fortunate enough to secure the use of the polling booths many of you use on local election days- a real experience for our young voters. A big thank you to all who have put themselves forward for these.

Spellings this week are all linked to adding -ing to verbs. Children should have brought home their list  today. Tests will be on Friday.

On Wednesday we look forward to the follow up work shops by the NSPCC who delivered an assembly to years 5 and 6 a few weeks ago. Each of the year 6 classes will have a session in the afternoon.

Friday is the day when Crabtree will be celebrating the European Day of Languages. With support from Mme Baikie all the children in year 6 will be spending the afternoon researching facts about a French speaking country- it may not actually be in Europe, but will have French as the main spoken language. Remember to ask your children all about it on Friday when they come home.

Musical activities began in earnest this week with choir and orchestra restarting. We are always open to new members for both so if there are any budding musicians who thus far haven't felt confident enough to join our school orchestra please speak top Mrs Doran or Mr Bishop about giving it a go.

The Year 6 Team

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Spellings


Your children have worked on these spelling rules in class during the week. They will be tested on their spelling lists on Friday, in addition there will be some mystery words that follow the rules learnt, but that are not on the list of given words. This is to ensure that children have learnt and can apply the rules covered.

This week's spelling rules are all linked to plurals:

Rule 1
Add an 's' to the end of the word.
Examples: one book - lots of books
one car - lots of cars

Rule 2
Add 'es' to words that end with a hissing or buzzing sound.
Examples: bus - buses,  wish - wishes,
                        patch - patches, tax - taxes


Rule 3
Words ending in vowel + y, add an 's'
Examples: day - days, key - keys
                        boy - boys


Rule 4
Words ending in consonant + y, change y to i and add 'es'
Examples: lady - ladies, puppy - puppies
                        spy - spies

The year 6 team

Head Boy and Head Girl Presentations


Head Boy and Head Girl Specification


The Head Boy and Head Girl will work with the Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher in the following ways:

·         to show Visitors around the school

·         to take part in or organise and lead whole school assemblies – twice termly

·         to help with the timetabling of the activity trail and the use of playground equipment

·         to ‘man’ the school telephone during lunch break – twice weekly

·         to co-ordinate the writing of ‘match’ requests for the weekly newsletter – when appropriate

·         to award points for lining up after lunch break – twice weekly

·         to prepare the agenda and help ‘chair’ school council meetings – once every ½ term

·         to provide a summary of school council achievements in the school magazine – termly

·         to organise and update the pupil information board – when necessary



Person Specification


The types of qualities we expect of our Head boy and girl include that they should be:                 


·         responsible
·         organised
·         motivated
·         good time management
·         reliable
·         caring
·         offers to help
·         sees solutions not problems

 
Relationships:

·         able to work as part of a team
·         can work with both pupils and adults
·         can motivate other

 
Remember that you will be expected to be a role model for the rest of the school.  To apply you should let your class teacher know that you are interested in the position and have your 3 minute presentations ready for Monday.  You will then show these to your class and the successful pupils will show their presentations to the rest of the school.
On Thursday 25th September we will be having a polling station in the hall for the whole school to vote.  The successful candidates will find out in achievement assembly on Friday 26th September.

Good luck!

Saturday 6 September 2014

Welcome to year 6!

We have had a fantastic first three days in Elm and Elder.  The children have made an excellent start to year 6 - their positive attitude and enthusiasm has really shone through already.

We have been working in our class groups this week and have completed some story writing work - reviewing all that the children have learnt during their time at Crabtree about writing engaging and imaginative stories.

Thank you to you all for assisting the children with their holiday homework.  We have very much enjoyed reading the interviews and reports that the children have produced about WW2.  The range of people that the children have interviewed is extremely impressive and as a result the knowledge with which the children start our topic is extensive - we will certainly be kept on our toes during topic lessons this term!

Next week we begin our first literacy unit which focuses on autobiographical writing.  We will start the week looking at a selection of autobiographies and then the children will begin to compile a plan for writing their own autobiography.  The children's homework this weekend is to collect some items in a box (shoebox size is fine) which will help them to compile their autobiography.  Each child should have brought details of this task home with them this evening.

We are very much looking forward to our first year group trip to Hendon on Thursday next week.  The children should arrive in school at normal time dressed as an evacuee.  We will travel to Hendon by coach and return by 3.30pm (you will be updated by text message as to our likely return time by the office).  The children will need a packed lunch - no fizzy drinks, sweets or chocolate please.

We will be holding our 'Meet the Teacher' presentation after school on Friday.  Please come along and hopefully we will be able to answer any questions that you have about the year ahead.

Have a lovely weekend

The year 6 team.