This week, in year 6, we explored some of the artefacts and ruins that were found in the Yucatan Peninsula. They were crafted and constructed by the Maya: a civilisation that spread throughout the Yucatan Peninsula  in modern-day Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Southern Mexico and El Salvador.

We used our observation and inference skills to suggest what the purpose of these building and artefacts were when they where first constructed.

You can take an aerial tour of Tikal (one of the most significant Mayan sites) here:

https://www.airpano.com/360Degree-VirtualTour.php?3D=Tikal-Guatemala

In the last few weeks year 6 have been learning about the rainforest as well as other biomes.

We have been using poetry to describe the rainforest  environment. In our first pieces we were focusing using our senses to transport the reader to the rainforest. We also considered how, in free verse poetry, poets can choose to make breaks in the line to add emphasis or create tension. This is called enjambment – a new words for us all!

Change in the rainforest

The birds chirping in an orchestra of sounds,

The trees swaying to the tune.

The emerald metropolis of the world crammed,

Wildlife.

Stillness of the tranquil rivers glisten in the cloudless,

Sun lit sky.

Last week we also considered more structured poems by looking at a rhythm in poetry called iambic pentameter. In this structure,  each line of the poem consists of 10 syllables. Each meter has two syllables that follow the pattern of unstressed then stressed syllables.

Mr Shakespeare used this structure a lot in his sonnets :

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

We had a go at writing our own poems in Iambic pentameter:

Year 6 started there new topic, Lost but not forgotten.

We were approached by His Highness, King Philip the forest of Spain. We ordered us to assemble a crew and head west in to search the newly discovered world for a rumoured city that was made of gold and jade.

Unfortunately, we encountered a terrible storm. After being battered for days by the storm, we found ourselves in unfamiliar waters.  In desperate need of food, water and supplies, we hastened to the nearest land.

Year 6 played a game of exploring  the Yucatan Peninsula in search of treasure.

Our new topic will focus on this Peninsula, its landscape and the civilisation that lived there.

In year 6 we have been learning about the the Greco- Persian wars. In Topic, we were trying to persuade the the Athenian Assembly  to prepare for another possible Persian invasion; in science we were fighting on the other side, as Persian engineers, preparing our catapults to besiege the Greek cities.

We planned investigations in to the distance, height and speed of the projectiles fired by these catapults. We then used this information to hit the walls of Greek city.