
Orchard Primary
& Pre-School

Orchard Primary & Pre-School
"Small enough to care, Big enough to inspire"
Week 3
This week we have had lots of fun sessions including forensic science, where we had to solve who had stolen the dog from the dog show and who the suspect was and a cricket session with Worcester County Cricket, in which we had fun batting and playing a game called rainbow cricket. We enjoyed these sessions and enjoyed working with outside providers for these. This week we have also been writing our draft non-fiction texts about the Plague and we have explored the history of medicine and antibiotics. In DT, we have celebrated pancake day a week late, making both savoury and sweet pancakes - thankfully we didn't drop any when we flipped them!
Week 2
What a jam-packed week with some lovely World Book Day activities! On Monday we were lucky enough to work with the poet Spoz, where we took part in rhyming battles and created our own chocolate rap poems. We also got to get books signed by him and later in the week we took part in a World Book Day Live lesson with other schools across the country and we also enjoyed doing two draw along sessions with author and illustrator Rob Biddulph!
Spring 2 - Week 1
Wow! Week 1 - finished already! This week has been a busy old week - we have begun to explore our new topic about Plague. Pox and Antibiotics and were able to have a go at using our value of collaboration to create the best looking plague doctor masks, it was a great problem-solving activity. We also were finished off our photography art unit with Mrs Hadley and recreated another famous photo - this time it was 'My Parents' by David Hockney. We were also, all excited that we were getting more food and nutrition lessons in DT and enjoyed making bread rolls on Friday. Lots of us are looking forward to poet Spoz - coming in on Monday - don't forget to purchase one of his books and he will be able to sign it for you!
Week 6
This week we have been doing some practice Secret Agent Tests, to see if we could better our scores from before Christmas - it has also shown us areas that some of us need some more practice in before half term too. We have finished our Brazil topic by looking at the distribution of natural resources and completed our end of topic quiz. We have also continued to explore photography in Art and have recreated some famous paintings - can you work out which famous paintings we have had a go at recreating?
Week 5
A long week - with lots of children off, let's hope we can make get our attendance back up next week! This week we have been busy in Art, making and designing our own album covers in small groups, alongside writing our balanced arguments about deforestation. In DT, we have had fun making vegetable and halloumi skewers. What did the man say when he looked in the mirror? Hall-ou-mi!
Week 4
This week we have been very creative with our art, where we have shown our photography skills. We explored macrophotography, in which we had a go at creating our own close up photos, using filters to adapt them - we wonder if you can work out what some of the images below are! Answers on a postcard! We have also been exploring food packaging this week, looking at the nutritional value of some of the food we eat and exploring what the traffic light system on food means. In Computing we have continued to work on building our own websites about Brazil, next week we will be reviewing these, exploring their functions and how they look on different electronic devices.
Week 3
Another busy week here in Year 6 - we have been writing our own rainforest descriptions this week - thinking carefully about what figurative language (similes/metaphors and personification) we can use alongside exploring why a tardis and four daleks invaded our classroom, a hook for our new text! We have also completed a practical in DT this week, making salsa verde and all crying over the spring onions as they made lots of our eyes water! We also learnt how to cut and de-seed a chilli with care and caution! In Computing we have considered what copyright means and have continued to develop our own websites. Also we would like to congratulate Oliver for his Blue Peter badge and Liberty for her Swimming Trophy!
Week 2
Another jam-packed week of learning here in Year 6! This week we have continued to explore our new text - finding out that our main character has now travelled to Brazil. In Geography we have begun to explore the weather and climate and had a go at creating our own climate graphs for Rio de Janeiro. In a topic linked Art lesson we continued adding to our favela landscapes - look at the fab colours used! Finally we have begun a new project in DT, where we have begun to explore some of the popular foods in North and South America - some of us were brave enough to try a jalapeno!
Spring 1 - Week 1
Welcome back Year 6 - we hope you had a lovely break! Amidst the snow and wintry weather this week, we have been starting to explore a much warmer country - Brazil. We started our topic by using maps and atlases to find out where in the world Brazil is and started to explore some of the main cities within it. We have also started a new book - called A Journey to the River Sea where we have been getting to know the character Maia. In Art this week, we have looked at landscapes and have begun to sketch out our own favela town.
Week 7
A few festive snaps of our Christmas Dinner together this week - well done for all your hard work this year so far Year 6! Enjoy your Christmas holidays and don't forget to bring your Brazil projects back to school with you on the 6th January! I hope you enjoy spending time with your families. Thank you for our presents! Merry Christmas to you all and see you all in the new year, in 2025!
Weeks 5 + 6
A very busy couple of weeks - we have been doing lots of mock secret agent quizzes, alongside creating series circuits to work out how to light up Rudolph's nose and make it the brightest. Some of us have been lucky enough to go to the Abbey and see the Advent Posada along with singing some carols. We have also used our Tinkercad skills to recreate our carousels in 3D computing software.
Week 4
This week has been another jam-packed one! We have been practicing drawing pie charts correctly for given frequency data. In Literacy, we have been exploring a new text - The Gas Mask, which is a portal/flashback story where the main character, Motz, travels back in time to WW2. In Science, we have been exploring variations in circuits, exploring what makes bulbs brighter and dimmer and what makes the buzzer louder or quieter too. We learnt that the less components in a circuit, the louder the buzzer and the brighter the bulb. Then we have been doing more cross-curricular learning in Computing/DT by using software Tinkercad, creating our own name badges, which if we had a 3D printer or laser cutter - we could make these physically.
Week 3
This week we have been continue to explore circuits in Science, exploring what makes a circuit complete (so it works) and what makes it incomplete (doesn't work). We have also continued with our Blitz artwork, adding the silhouette black out buildings and the searchlights. We have also been busy writing our own diaries this week, writing from either the P.O.V of an evacuee or the P.O.V of a soldier - we have been trying hard to really step into the character's shoes and think about their feelings and what life would have really been like during World War 2. In History, we have been continuing to explore World War 2 and we discussed the items that were rationed during the war, comparing them to what we eat and how most of us wouldn't have been able to eat what we listed on our weekly meal plans!!
Week 2
Wow - we have had a super jam -packed week! On Monday, we took part in a live Remembrance service for Remembrance Day and observed the silence, and our head girl and boy and their deputies went to the Abbey to lay some poppy wreaths. Then on Tuesday, we had a fun session in the Space Dome, planetarium, where we got to explore the planets and explored the mission on Mars. In History, we have thought about what life might have been life as an evacuee and had a go at packing our own suitcases. In DT, we have been problem solving, how we can get our carousels to move when attached to the motors without our elastic bands pinging off. Then we have finished celebrating the week by taking part in Pudsey Day (Children in Need)!
Autumn 2 - Week 1
We hope you had a fab half term and we are looking forward to another jampacked half term along with some festive learning too. This week, we have started our new topic - World at War - this history based topic builds upon our learning about WW1 in Year 5, as we recap the events of WW1 and begin learning about WW2. We were lucky enough to have the History Man, come back into school and we loved exploring the different artefacts that he had brought with him - including gas masks, old rifles, old bits of bomb shards and shrapnel and some of the toys that children had during the war. You all looked superb dressed up in your costumes too! In Art we have begun to create a scene from the Blitz in Britain and will continue to add to this artwork over the next few weeks.
Week 8
Wow! Half term at last! This week we have been writing up our magazine articles about Shackleton's journey and finishing off our topics. We all enjoyed learning facts about Shackleton it would seem! In Art this week we have begun to look at a technique called Chiaroscuro and were amazed by a fun trick with masking tape. We will continue to explore this technique after half term and we have also continued making our carousels in DT - attaching the circuits to the bases and making sure we have secured our cut wood to the base too. We hope you all have a safe half term - remember homework is due on Monday and we have our WW1/2 experience day on Wednesday 6th November!
Week 7
This week we have been continuing to make our model carousels, using again accurate measuring skills and the junior hacksaws as well as designing and creating our won microorganism cells out of playdoh. We also were lucky enough to take part in a SCARF (PSHE) workshop, where we explored the school value of aspiration and considered our own aspirations in life. We also explore different techniques that we could do to keep calm e.g. box-breathing.
Week 6
This week we have been super busy exploring a new text - a magazine article about explorer Colby Coombs and created text maps in groups for this. We have also been exploring bacteria, viruses and fungi in Science, where we got to sketch different types of mushrooms! We have also begun to explore some artwork by Dan Fenelon and sketched parts of the art that we liked. In other news, we were lucky enough to go to a workshop at Pershore Abbey to listen to the new organ being played.
Week 5
A jam-packed week! This week we went on our Year 6 Residential to Condover Hall in Shropshire! We braved the wind and rain and had lots of fun making memories as a class. We tried new activities like gladiator wall, abseiling, silent disco, egg protector, archery and archery tag, aerial trek and lazer maze, as well as trying new foods! It was a super trip! Thank you to Mrs Ladds, Miss Jones and Mrs McCullagh for taking us! Please enjoy looking through the photos!
Week 4
This week we have been busy writing up our own Endurance narratives , as well as continue our class text - Floodland. We put ourselves in Zoe's shoes this week and considered whether we should leave Eels Island, alone or with Dooby. We acted this out in a conscience alley. Also this week we have been continuing our DT project and have had a go at creating exploded diagrams - we used the acronym ACCESSFM again to help us come up with some final model carousel designs! Next up for Year 6 is our big residential trip!
Week 3
This week, we have been busy exploring our topic Endurance Explorers and the make up of the world and the tectonic plates. We then explored where we could find volcanoes and earthquakes and we mapped these on a world map. In Writing this week, we have begun writing a draft narrative from either the perspective of Shackleton or a member of the crew. In Science, we have been recapping how to classify animals and had a go at thinking of some questions to help us classify them. We also had a super cool assembly and workshop from Rock Steady on Friday! It was loud but enjoyable!
Week 2
The end of our second week already - wow! This week we have continued to explore our new texts - we have acted in role as the main character, Zoe, in Floodland, exploring her thoughts and feelings as she arrived on Eels Island. In Science, we have had a go at grouping different animals, recapping skills learnt earlier in KS2, including recalling what is meant by the terms vertebrate and invertebrate. In PSHE with Mrs Hadley, we had a teamwork task or making a bridge, in this task we had to work well as a team and we practiced our negotiation skills. In Maths, we have been exploring interior angles and what they add up to in different polygons, we used a formula (n-2) x 180 degrees to help us work this out. In Art, we explored our expressive skills by looking at Diego Rivera's work and we began our own research page linked to this, which we will continue next week! Have a great weekend and remember homework due in date is always a Monday, this is also when we will be sharing next week's homework, so remember to bring in those planners too!
Autumn 1 - Week 1
Welcome back! You are now all in your last year of primary school! This week we have been settling back into school routines, using our teacher's new name (Mrs Ladds), as well as learning about the new golden tickets and how Year 6 works, we have been exploring our new texts Floodland and Shackleton's Journey and we have begun to explore our new topic, Endurance Explorers. We have also been on a science walk to explore living and non-living things in our school environment and have written speeches to read in our stand for the role of this year's house captains!