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.

In 483 BC the Athenians discovered a new, rich seam of silver in their mines at Laurium. There was a great debate in the city as to what to do with the new silver. Because Athens was a democracy, the decision had to be made by the assembly which was made up of all the citizens of Athens.

Themistocles, who has a politician, proposed that the  silver should be spent on constructing two-hundred triremes (three-tiered warships).

The opposition to Themistocles was lead by a wealthy citizen named Aristides who opposed spending the silver on ships and instead proposed that the silver be spread among the citizens of Athens.

Both sides presented their arguments in the assembly and the citizens of Athens voted for or against the proposal.

In Year 6, we have been thinking about which side we would be on and how we could persuade our fellow citizens to vote for our proposal.

In our class assembly, we have been taking votes before our assembly debate which shows Themistocles gathering support:

vote one :

15 votes for Aristides, 5 votes for Themistocles

Vote two:

11 votes for Aristides, 9 votes for Themictocles

Vote three

9 votes for Aristides, 11 votes for Themistocles.

Final Vote of the assembly:

7 votes for Aristides, 16 votes for Themistocles.

This week Year 6 have been learning about one of the most famous Greek city states – Athens  We started by researching  about some of the key aspects of Athenian city life: the military, culture, education and government. We then presented our research to the class.

Click here to download information sheets about these areas of Athenian life:

Athens information

This week year 6 have been bringing together all of their learning about Greek storytelling to plan and write their own Greek Tragedies .

We thought carefully about the Greek stories and what they had in common, then we created our own Tragic story structures based on the events  that happened in these stories.

1. Beginning: the main character and setting is introduced.
2. The ‘good deeds’ : the reader is shown the ‘goodness’ of the main character through their deeds.
3. Pride grows: The main character begins to feel prideful about a skill or quality that they have. Here we see events that show the character is changing.
4. The warning : Here the main character receives a warning about their pride, vanity or stubbornness. Sometimes there is no explicit warning, but an opportunity to change
5. The final act of hubris: Here we see the character ignore the warning that has been given to them  and their fate is sealed.
6. Punishment: the main character is punished for their pride, vanity or stubbornness.

Our own stories feature vain playwrights, arrogant warriors, stubborn hunters and greedy fishermen.

We have also been considering tragedies written after the Ancient Greek era. Macbeth is a truly tragic tale of the rise and demise of a Scottish thane.  During our reading of this story, there has been much debate about the role of fate, hubris and greed.

The Homeric Hymns are a collection of hymns that were written to the Greek gods  (and some of the famous heroes and demi-gods of the Greek heroic age).

Although the this collection of hymns is called ‘Homeric’,  they were most probably not written by the poet Homer (the attributed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey). They have been given the title of ‘Homeric’ because they use the same poetic meters and language style as the Iliad and Odyssey.

Continue reading The Homeric Hymns →

This week we have we learning how to use our knowledge of angles to predict the path of light after it has reflected off a mirror.

We used mirrors to help Perseus reflect the light around the walls of Medusa’s lair so as to  illuminate the gorgon without looking into her deadly eyes.