Year 6

Our transdisciplinary theme this term was ‘How We Organise Ourselves` and the central idea that we have been exploring was: ‘Lifestyle choices can contribute to health.`

As part of this term’s provocation, the children completed an 'I think, I see, I wonder' activity, which looked at how lifestyle choices might affect the health of our hearts; calculated their resting heart rate, before and after exercise; and learned about the functions of the heart. We finished the afternoon with the children being inquirers as they generated questions that they hoped to find out about this term's topic.

Once the children had been introduced to this term’s topic, they started the term by discovering many ideas about ‘How bodies operate’. The children inquired into how the Circulatory system works and how nutrients are transported around the body. The children were given agency over how to present what they found out through an explanation text. Then, the children compared the human heart to other mammals and presented their findings using their Chromebooks.

Our second line of inquiry this term was to investigate ‘How we can impact our bodies’. The children started this line of inquiry by researching and gaining knowledge about William Harvey and Galen’s research about how the body works. Then, they reviewed what other things can impact our bodies such as: drinking, smoking, taking medicines and vaccinations. The children went on to present their findings from this as their own Google Site. To finish off this line of inquiry, the children conducted their own science investigation into ‘Which activity increases our heart rates the most?’. The children took part in five athletic activities during their PE session and then took their own heart rates and recorded this using a database. The children were then able to present their findings as a chart using their Google sheets knowledge. The children were also given agency over how to present this and produced some beautiful double page spreads.

For our final line of inquiry, the children have investigated ‘How to make the right lifestyle choices’. The children have begun to design their own healthy meal. Some have even been risk-takers and chosen popular dishes we all love and changed specific ingredients to try and make it a healthier lifestyle choice. The children will be cooking show presenters this week creating a script advertising their healthy meal whilst explaining why it is important to make healthy lifestyle choices as individuals. Finally, the children have written their own narrative in the style of ‘Wonder’, which has been our class reader this term. It has been amazing to see the children get into character writing this and seeing their passion and excitement for this book come to life.