Kanchanaburi trip - ...and we're off!

We left in good time this morning and are already on our way to Kanchanaburi. We should be at the War Cemetery by 11am (according to my GPS). At the War Cemetery we will spend some time thinking about the stories of some of the soldiers who died making the railway and then explore those stories deeper at the Thai-Burma railway museum. From there we'll go for lunch next to the bridge over the River Kwai and then head to the resort. You can keep up to date with all our adventures via this blog. I will try to update twice a day.

All set to leave.

5 minutes into the trip and already at the snacks!

Year 6 trip to Kanchanaburi

It's tomorrow! Year 6 and myself are really excited about our trip.

You can keep up to date with where we are and what we are doing by following this blog.

Term 1.1 for Year 6

We have had a great first half term in Year 6. We learnt about how the brain works through our Brainwaves topic and are applying that learning to our classwork to ensure we get the most out of our lessons and homework.
In the second half of the half term we studied New Materials. We revised the different states of matter and what matter is made up of. We tested the properties of materials (scientifically) and can say what properties make them suitable for specific tasks. We also mixed materials to create new ones.
Here are some photos of what we did:

Making observations of melting and freezing rates of different materials

Making new materials (muffins!)

Dissolving experiment

Story writing

Describing materials

We will be going on our school residential trip to Kanchanaburi later in November and will update this blog daily with pictures and our news.

Thank you for all your support,
Mr Collett & Year 6

Welcome to 2016-17's Year 6!

Welcome to the start of an exciting year for the new Year 6. We have a brand new classroom, new interactive whiteboard, new computer lab and new specialist teachers! We've already started to make the space our own and have got to work already. Here are some photographs of what we have been doing already...

Year 6 in front of their first display of work 'All About Me'.

Quiet reading time before the lessons start.

Some tricky opinions being formed about the text we are studying in English.

Working hard in groups on our maths investigations.

Our topics for this year are:
Term 1.1 - Brainwaves (learning how to learn effectively) and New Materials (properties of materials and how combining them change those properties).
Term 1.2 - World War 2 (how the war affected every country, what caused it and what happened as a result). (We will also have our trip to Kanchanaburi in this half term - details coming soon.)
Term 2.1 - Moving People (studying migration from today's current issues to how homo-sapiens colonised the Earth through migration).
Term 2.2 - Shakespeare and Picasso (a study of two creative but different people in very different historical times).
Term 3 - Changes, Personal and Global (a study of climate change and ways in which we can help minimise and, hopeful, reverse the negative effects human behaviour has on the planet and puberty education).
All homework and a lot of other learning discussions will take place on our virtual learning environment, Google Classroom. You can ask your child for access to their account to see what homework they have due and what they are learning in class on any given day. If you would like to contact me you can do via my email acollett@charter.ac.th
Kind regards,
Mr Collett

The last day

We're now on our way back after an amazing lunch at Keeree Tara restaurant courtesy of Kiera's mum. We are running a little late: Google Maps tells me we should be at school at 4:15. So in the meantime here are some photos from last night and this morning.

Last night was the talent show and this morning we had our team-building activities at the resort. All lots of fun. It's been a really great camp. We've learnt something about each of the children and, more importantly, they've learnt a lot about themselves. They have all grown in independence and have put our topic into a context they can now better empathize with.

Well done Year 6!

Mr Collett, Ms Paulette, Kru Bank and Nurse Noodee

Busy day!

Today has been a packed day. We started early and visited the museum at 'Hell Fire Pass' before walking down into the pass and back via the view points. The children were respectful of the place and the sacrifices made by those who were forced to work there. Some of the pupils found the walk tiring, which brought into sharper focus how the POWs must have felt.

After 'Hell Fire Pass' we went on to have lunch at River Kwai Village. The food was delicious and the jungle surroundings were beautiful. From there we caught the train along the 'Death Railway Line', so called because of all the POWs, Thai and Burmese workers who lost their lives building it.

We returned to the resort and played a fun game of water polo. The children are now in their rooms preparing for tonight's talent show.

Here are today's photos so far:

Good morning!

We all had a great night's sleep last night. The children were asleep within 10 minutes of lights out. (A personal best for me and my 20 years of camp experience.) I'm not really that surprised as we did have a very full day yesterday. The campfire, roasted marshmallows, games and Loy Kratong celebrations were great too. 

Looking forward to a great day today as well. 

Here are some photos from last night and this morning: