Stretham Community Primary School
Welcome
Kite Class
Year 6 Topic Web - Spring Term 2024
Week Beginning Monday 22nd April
With SATs just a few weeks away, Kite class have been:
- developing reading fluency and comprehension skills, including retrieval, vocabulary awareness and inference skills, through multiple texts including ‘Dawn at Midnight’, ‘Wonder’ and some past SATs texts;
- learning more about the movements of the Vikings and their journeys further afield within our Norse Culture unit;
- completing regular daily practice of our arithmetic skills;
- upping our fitness levels through out Fitness unit in PE, by working on our balance, speed, stamina, strength, coordination and agility;
- challenging our understanding of the relationships between fractions, decimals and percentages (Maths);
- developing our approach to finding the area and perimeter of various shapes by reworking reasoning questions;
- investigating the way of life in the megacities of South America with a focus on Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo;
- working with Microbits during our Computing lesson with Mrs. Bowen;
- identifying Word Classes and good examples of higher-level punctuation as part of our SPaG skill and knowledge reviews;
and
- using our knowledge of ‘curious creatures’ to create our own scientific journals describing and classifying unusual animals of our own creation in English and Science.
This week, the Year 6 children who will be joining Witchford Village College in September also enjoyed a chance to meet their Head of Year 7 – Ms. Chambers. Children who will be joining some of the other local secondary schools will have a similar meeting of their own in upcoming weeks.
Week Beginning Monday 15th April
Welcome back to the first week of the new term. This week, Kites have:
- used our own research and knowledge of a specific animal to create a non-chronological report, using audience choices to inform our presentation;
- learnt about the key figures of Norse Culture through a story called ‘The Great Tree and the gods’ in History;
- enjoyed getting back into the library after two weeks holidays to choose new books and spend some time enjoying them;
- revisited our rapid recall arithmetic skills;
- began new units in PE, including Fitness, which tested our speed, balance, agility and coordination;
- embedded our understanding of the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages through FDP Bingo as well as other models and challenges (Maths);
- developed our evidencing and explanations through calculations and modelling in reasoning questions;
- delved further into the wonderful characters within the text ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio and have studied key vocabulary whilst also using our retrieval and inference skills;
- enjoyed our Computing lesson with Mrs. Bowen;
- identified Word Classes as part of our SPaG skill and knowledge reviews;
and
- built on our knowledge of ‘curious creatures’ to explore those living things that are hard to classify in Science.
We have had a wonderful first week back at school together. 😊
Week Beginning Monday 25th March
During this final week of the term, Kites have enjoyed:
- using our own research and knowledge of animals to draft carefully crafted blocks of text for non-chronological reports;
- delving further into the foundations of Norse Culture in our History lessons;
- finalising our sensory language writing and getting it ready to show off on our new display – Sensory Stretham;
- participating in OAA sessions with Mr Cox in PE;
- further developing our thinking and the quality of our explanations through multi-topic reasoning questions – with a focus on explaining the connections we need to make before we calculate;
- showing our understanding of forming expressions, using substitution and solving equations in our Algebra unit (Maths);
- watching the Bee Musical performed by Years 3 and 4;
- reading three short texts which included a non-chronological report, an atmospheric poem and an extract from a longer story called ‘Albion’s Dream’ to help us develop our identification of key vocabulary and use of inference skills, as well as more of our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;
- joining the rest of the school in and Easter Quiz (as our annual Easter Egg Hunt was rained off);
- identifying risky situations at home and how accidents (especially those involving electricity) could be prevented by making safe choices;
- creating colourful Easter creations to share with our families.
Wishing you all the happiest of Easter holidays with your loved ones. Enjoy some rest, relaxation and fun and we’ll see you again in April 😊
Week Beginning Monday 18th March
This week, Kites have particularly enjoyed:
- our foray into outdoor writing which gave us an opportunity to appreciate the sensory offerings of our school site;
- delving into the wealth of classes within the animal kingdom in science including creating informative double page spreads about each class including less talked of varieties such as Echinoderms and Annelids;
- applying the sensory language gained from our school site walks to help us free write descriptive paragraphs from a picture stimulus yet again showing that great writing doesn’t always have to happen at a desk;
- participating in OAA sessions with Mr Cox in PE;
- developing our thinking through multi-topic reasoning questions – with a focus on explaining our method for calculating an answer but also explaining the connections we need to make before we can begin to calculate using sentence stems such as, ‘Before I can calculate the value of X, I must find…’;
- showing the connections between finding missing values, forming expressions and substitution when studying Algebra. (Maths);
- reading a discussion inducing picture book called ‘The Proudest Blue’ by Ibtihaj Muhammad (which linked to our recent unit about Living Muslim Traditions), as well as more of our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;
- building our foundation skills including a strong backhand in the next session of our PE unit for Tennis;
- learning to identify situations where basic first aid would be of use and to understand our growing responsibility in preventing a wider range of accidents at school/ home;
- creating compositions for still life sketching;
- starting our humanities units about the Norse Culture (History), and North and South America (Geography).
Kite class have also given their best this week when tackling their spring PIRA and PUMA assessments too. We are really proud of your efforts and attitude.
Week Beginning Monday 11th March
Kite class have really enjoyed leaping into their learning this week which has had a science focus in honour of British Science Week. Kites have particularly enjoyed:
- our hands-on ‘Time’ themed daily science challenges;
- investigating pendulums and drawing on our knowledge of Forces from Year 5 to attempt to create a pendulum which swings and stops at exactly 30 seconds - Kites were proud to achieve 2nd place in the whole school competition on Thursday afternoon;
- participating in sensory language walks in our outside spaces at school (no matter the weather!) to gather language to make sensory poetry and descriptive paragraphs and showing that great writing doesn’t always have to happen at a desk;
- participating in a one-off contemporary dance workshop with Jack from JSDC, who taught us the importance of control in our movements to achieve the intended impact;
- maintaining the accuracy of our Maths fluency skills whilst increasing our speed through daily rapid arithmetic practice and extending our thinking through multi-topic reasoning questions – with a focus on geometry this week;
- showing the ‘real-life’ applications of recipes when studying Proportion. (Maths);
- reading a thought provoking picture book called ‘Uno’s Garden’ by Graeme Base (which linked to our current science unit about living things and habitats and our geography unit about migration), as well as more of our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;
- continuing to review and develop our foundation skills in the second session of our new PE unit for Tennis;
- participating in a virtual Science lesson which connected to our current science unit about Living things and how they adapt/ change over time;
- reflecting on risks that exist for us in our daily lives including those as a pedestrian, as a cyclist, near railways and in the sun and how we can adjust what we do to keep ourselves safe;
- summarising our learning within our humanities units about the Lady of Mercia (History), the Living Traditions of Muslims (Religion and Worldviews) and Migration (Geography) and giving ourselves time to reflect on all that we have learnt through these areas of the curriculum by challenging each other with questions of our own creation (Question Matrix).
Kite class, like all the other classes, have also enjoyed shopping in the Science week class shop and discovering pocket-money-priced, science themed items of interest. We hope you all enjoy exploring your purchases with your families at home.
Week Beginning Monday 4th March
It’s been a week of learning and great experiences based around books and animals for Kite class this week. We enjoyed dressing up in our school’s animal theme for World Book Day and all the linked events during the week. Kites have enjoyed:
- our hands-on Animal Experience session on Monday, which not only fed in to our book week theme but also dovetailed perfectly with our learning in Science about Living Things and their Habitats;
- forming and asking questions to Kayleigh from Animal Experience about each of the amazing creatures we handled to help us understand their physical evolution and adaptations;
- choosing a genre of writing they enjoyed and working with a learning partner to complete the research, before writing, drafting and decorating a final piece about the bird our class is named after - a kite – to be part of our class book;
- maintaining our Maths fluency skills through daily rapid arithmetic practice and continued to extend our thinking through multi-topic reasoning questions – with a focus on algebra this week;
- developing their understanding of the importance of accurate language and balance when working with Ratio and making similar applications to Proportion. Continuous use of concrete modelling really helped, as did drawn models! (Maths);
- reading a fun new text on World Book Day called ‘The Koala Who Could’ and some more of a text called ‘The Dream Snatcher’ by Abi Elphinstone, as well as our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio and using this new knowledge to complete some vocabulary and inference based activities;
- starting the first session of our new PE unit for Tennis where we focused on hand-eye coordination and control;
- participating in various virtual author events, including the BBC World Book Day Live lesson and the practical create your own twisted fairy tale event featuring Michael Rosen;
- editing various pieces of work with a fresher mind to rethink which language is the ‘best’ vocabulary for the purpose as well as inserting the most impactful structures and punctuation, particularly the use of inverted commas around blocks of dialogue;
- using previously taught art skills (zentangling) to create our own miniature kites to decorate our class book written in honour of World Book Day 2024;
- completing our humanities units about the Lady of Mercia (History), the Living Traditions of Muslims (Religion and Worldviews) and Migration (Geography) and giving ourselves time to reflect on all that we have learnt through these areas of the curriculum.
Don’t forget to check out all the story time videos recorded by the teachers just for you. They are on Seesaw and will be there for the next week.
We wish all the Kite class mums, grandmas and mum-like figures in our lives a wonderful weekend with your family.
Week Beginning Monday 26th February
Welcome back after half term everyone!
Kite class have leapt straight back into their learning by:
- developing their understanding and use of speech punctuation;
- making conscious choices about where to use dialogue within their narrative writing to either move the action on, to develop character or to build tension;
- rebooting our fluency skills through rapid arithmetic practice and continued to challenge our thinking through multi-topic reasoning questions;
- using their understanding of the importance of accurate language and balance when working with Ratio. Continuous use of concrete modelling really helped! (Maths);
- completed some vocabulary, prediction, retrieval and inference based activities related to the opening of a new text called ‘The Dream Snatcher’ by Abi Elphinstone and our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;
- enjoyed the final yoga session of our unit where we independently applied our acquired knowledge of specific yoga poses, balance and flow in P.E;
- finding out about the ‘grandfather of classification’ – Carolus Linnaeus and his standardised system for organising living things and then used his system to find out the correct classification for a living thing of their choice;
- edited our descriptive story starts rethinking which language is the ‘best’ vocabulary for the purpose as well as inserting the most impactful structures and punctuation, particularly the use of inverted commas around blocks of dialogue;
- rehearsed our understanding of rhythms through clapping patterns in our Advanced Rhythms unit in Music;
- continued our humanities units about the rebuilding of the kingdom of Mercia (History), discussed the importance of prayer to practising Muslims (Religion and Worldviews) and learnt how voluntary and involuntarily migration can change a place (Geography).
We also enjoyed the first week of various clubs returning to our after-school timetable including SATs club, gardening club, netball and football. What a great beginning to the half term!
Week Beginning Monday 12th February
This week in our school library, we celebrated ‘Book Love’ with our ‘Book Love is…’ display. In addition, every class received a beautifully wrapped, surprise parcel on Valentine’s Day. It was a specially chosen ‘Blind Date with a book’ package for each class. Children loved unwrapping the mystery reads and sharing them in class. Do take a look at our weekly photographs and the English curriculum page to see more of this.
Kite class have also:
- independently written a ‘How to…’ guide to accompany the natural bird feeders they made and hug in the trees around the school grounds. The children made use of step by step photographs or hand-drawn illustrations to make their guides user friendly for all;
- kept up our fluency through rapid arithmetic practice and challenged our thinking through multi-topic reasoning questions;
- consolidated their knowledge of finding fractions of amounts through reasoning challenges and have begun to realise the importance of language and balance when working with Ratio. Concrete modelling really helped! (Maths);
- completed some vocabulary, prediction, retrieval and inference based activities related to the opening of a new text called ‘Malamander’ by Thomas Taylor and our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;
- enjoyed a one-off bhangra dance workshop in P.E;
- explored and applied strategies for managing risky situations including scenarios related to being safe at school, when socialising with friends without parental supervision and when online/ using mobile phones (PSHE);
- enjoyed using what we know about the classification of living things to create classification keys;
- written descriptive story starts or sections from a visual stimuli to focus on the purpose of writing – to engage our audience – through choosing the ‘best’ vocabulary for the purpose as well as the most impactful structures and punctuation. This helped us to think about how to maintain author voice when writing;
- developed our knowledge of different notes and rhythms through our Advanced Rhythms unit in Music;
- continued our humanities units about the growing Viking presence in Britain (History), found out more about the importance of prayer to practising Muslims (Religion and Worldviews) and reflected on the experiences of those forced to migrate involuntarily - Refugees (Geography).
We wish you all a happy and healthy half term. Enjoy your time together and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday 26th February.
Week Beginning Monday 5th February
This week, Kite class have:
- each completed independently written biographies for a well-known figure of their choice being careful to engage their audience and use their writing skill to make the most of their person’s achievements;
- developed the art of dividing any fraction by an integer and finding fractions of amounts (Maths);
- completed some retrieval and inference based activities related to our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;
- made balance the focus for our next level yoga poses and flows in P.E;
- enjoyed reading about the work of scientist Carolus Linnaeus to develop our comprehension skills (alongside the development of our scientific knowledge in the area of classification);
- explored and applied strategies for managing risky situations (PSHE);
- carried out a practical task to give us first-hand experience for writing instructions which allowed us to think about purpose whilst also including our own voices to engage our audience;
- used our flavour combination knowledge to help us hunt for recipes as part of a three-course menu design making the most of our hero ingredients – peppers, salmon and pineapple;
- continued our humanities units about the unity of Wessex and Mercia in the face of a growing Viking presence in Britain (History), found out more about the importance of prayer within Muslim traditions (Religion and Worldviews) and compared the migration stories of two individuals (Geography) to find their similarities and differences.
Music - Advanced Rhythms
Using clapping and alternative notes names to create group rhythms.
Week Beginning Monday 29th January
This week, Kite class have:
- carefully selected vocabulary and used the ‘A FOREST’ strategies to help create persuasive speeches based on the picture book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’;
- developed the art of multiplying and dividing fractions by other fractions and integers (Maths);
- completed some plot and character retrieval and inference activities based on our new Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;
- utilised both balance and control when performing yoga poses as part of various flows in P.E;
- enjoyed exploring the lyrics of a song which linked to our Science learning about ‘Electricity’ called ‘Wires’ to develop our comprehension skills;
- reflected on the positives and negatives of risk and their role in our own lives (PSHE);
- each independently written a biography about a well-known person of choice, using past learning to support the structure and language choices;
- enjoyed a fascinating talk from special science guest (engineer), Mr. Ashby, who answered all our remaining questions about electricity and energy, with a focus on insulators and conductors, safety and the wonderful world of atoms;
- continued our DT unit by tasting further flavours and exploring some well-tested and some more avant-garde combinations;
- continued our humanities units about the last surviving Anglo Saxon kingdom in the face of Viking invasion in Britain (History) and found out more about Living Muslim Traditions in the diverse setting of Beirut (Religion and Worldviews).
Week Beginning Monday 22nd January
This week, Kite class have:
- completed some fantastic reflections and short pieces of persuasive writing based on the picture book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’;
- further developed our calculating with fractions skills including the four operations (Maths);
- completed some character assessments based on our new Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;
- developed our balance, control and technique in both yoga flow practice and gymnastic sequences in P.E;
- read a non-fiction text which linked to our Science learning about ‘Electricity’ called ‘How Burglar Alarms Work’ to develop our comprehension skills;
- looked at the positives and negatives of risk in our own lives (PSHE);
- learnt about the role of protons, neutrons and electrons in the flow of electricity when dealing with insulators and conductors;
- begun our DT unit by identifying various flavours and considering why certain combinations work;
- continued our new humanities units about the migration – asking why people migrate (Geography) and the arrival of the Vikings in Britain (History);
- and found out more about Living Muslim Traditions (Religion and Worldviews).
Week Beginning Monday 15th January
This week, Kite class have:
- continued to embed our school behaviour expectations (Be Ready, Be Respectful and to Be Safe.)
- completed some fantastic one-off descriptive writing pieces for Mr. Sweeney;
- continued to calculate with fractions including mixed numbers (Maths);
- completed the final pages of our beloved autumn reader – “There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom” and continued our new Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio recording our impressions of the characters;
- developed our yoga flow practice in P.E;
- reflected on our past humanities learning by completing a collaborative Question Matrix;
- created our own layered artwork involving washes, drips, geometry and various media in the style of abstract artist Frank Bowling;
- used our acquired knowledge of Frank Bowling to create our own biographies;
- continued our new humanities units about the migration (Geography) and the arrival of the Vikings in Britain (History);
- and enjoyed learning about the Kodaly method for making music.
Back to School – Week Beginning Monday 8th January
Welcome back! We do hope you all had an enjoyable holiday and are rested and raring to go. Despite our false start to this week, Kite class have been busy catching up with our friends and getting settled back in to our learning for the new term.
This week, we have:
- revisited our school behaviour expectations (We are now clear that at school, we aspire to: Be Ready, Be Respectful and to Be Safe.);
- reviewed our foundations of fractions before thinking about how to compare, order and calculate with them (Maths);
- begun our new Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio, following the story of an ordinary 10 year old boy who sometimes thinks that he is anything but ordinary;
- participated in our first yoga lesson of this term;
- reflected on our past humanities learning by completing a collaborative Question Matrix;
- found out about the amazing life and work of the abstract artist Frank Bowling in Art;
- used our acquired knowledge of Frank Bowling to help us learn about the structure and features of a biography;
- started our new humanities units about the migration (Geography) and the arrival of the Vikings in Britain (History);
- and enjoyed our gymnastics lesson with Mr. Cox and our Computing session with Mrs. Bowen.
Well done for making a wonderful start to 2024 Kites!
Year 6 Topic Web for autumn 2023
Home Learning for Monday 8th January 2024
Good morning Kites. Please see the attached documents with the details of today's Home Learning tasks and the Maths materials.
Please try each activity to the best of your ability.
Mrs. E
Video message from Mr Sweeney.MOV
Week Beginning Monday 18th December
Kite class started the week with some well earnt and well spent time in our Forest School area. Children enjoyed creating settlements and exploring the wintery (if somewhat muddy) terrain. They also engaged in role play in the mud kitchen, as well as developing skills through den building and making natural bird feeders to take home to their gardens for Christmas. Due to the cold damp conditions, we indulged ourselves with a warming hot chocolate and some homemade rock road (or biscuit alternative) around the fire circle.
We also made a trip to St James' Church to complete a brief run through of our offerings for the church service. It was agreed that the singing and the readings were well performed. Well done everyone!
We have enjoyed a few festive activities in the last few days rounded off with a fabulous Christmas lunch cooked up by Mrs Marsh and served by staff from across the school.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Week Beginning Monday 11th December
This week, Kite class were lucky enough to be invited to the Early Years and Key Stage 1 Nativity dress rehearsal. We were so impressed by the acting, singing and especially the ‘twinkly star’ dancing of our little buddies. Thank you for sharing your performance with us all. We think you are all stars!
Kite class have also:
- read more of – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’, marvelling at how quickly events took a negative turn for our main character and made predictions about upcoming events for Bradley, Jeff, Carla and Colleen;
- continued to exercise our arithmetic and reasoning brains;
- bravely completed our PIRA and PUMA assessments;
- reviewed our knowledge of equivalent fractions;
- found out about the changing Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia in History;
- further developed our offering for the Christmas church service;
- used our knowledge of electrical circuit symbols and basic circuit construction to set ourselves queries to prove/ disprove;
- enjoyed a bonus Computing session with Mrs Bowen;
and
- planned and wrote our own festive letters in role and festive free writes to use our creative language.
😊
Week Beginning Monday 4th December
This week, Kite class have:
- continued reading – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’ and tried to use quotes from the text to explain our reasoning for the main character’s thinking and actions;
- evaluated our clay sculptures to conclude our project – take a look at the final products. We think the sculptor Mark Wallinger would be impressed with our efforts;
- unravelled wordy two step + word problems and used our reasoning skills to unpick mathematical starting points;
- participated enthusiastically in the festive Santa Dash;
- began to work on our offering for the Christmas church service;
- reviewed our knowledge of electrical circuit symbols and used our circuit kits to create different circuit set ups investigating the impact of cell numbers on bulb brightness;
- planned and wrote our own mini recount texts;
- read various texts linked to topics we are studying and answered questions using our comprehension skills;
- learnt how to form sentences in the Present and Past Perfect tense;
- and really enjoyed our whole school visit to the pantomime at the Cambridge Arts Theatre on Thursday. Thank you to the PSA, who helped to fund the visit, and to Mrs. Hawes and Mr. Sweeney for their organisation. It was an occasion never to be forgotten! 😊
Week Beginning Monday 27th November
This week, Kite class have:
- enjoyed more of our class reader – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’ and made comparisons between the experiences of 3 significant characters and questioned what effect the author was trying to create through these repeat experiences;
- continued to develop our arithmetic and reasoning skills;
- been using long division skills to aid reasoning;
- developed our push pass skills in small games of Hockey to more effectively share the game play as a team;
- used our oracy skills (in group discussions) to unpick the reasons for bullying and how a community can support to make positive changes;
- completed our own clay head sculptures inspired by the statue ‘Ecce Homo’ (by Mark Wallinger - previously shown on the 4th plinth of Trafalgar Square) and by the distinctive facial sketches of Kathe Kollwitz;
- become familiar with the electrical circuit symbols and used them to draw different circuit set ups;
- planned and wrote our own narratives based on a monochrome picture stimulus;
- and really enjoyed welcoming in our families to participate in Christmas Craft afternoon. Thank you for everyone who helped us to fashion such fun and festive crafts! 😊
Week Beginning Monday 20th November
This week, Kite class have:
- continued to explore our class reader – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’ and reflected on the journey that the main character, Bradley, has been on and the exciting changes that are finally happening for him;
- been using long division calculations to solve reasoning problems and surprising ourselves by how much progress we have made since September in developing our arithmetic and reasoning skills;
- used our new dribbling skills in Hockey to more effectively beat a defender when playing small games;
- developed our oracy skills through various paired and group discussions around the topic of bullying;
- used the opinions we formed and shared through our discussions of various stimulus questions to write considered responses;
- studied the sculpture ‘Ecce Homo’ by Mark Wallinger (previously shown on the 4th plinth of Trafalgar Square) and used it to inspire plans for our own clay sculptures;
- begun our new Science unit on Electricity by discussing how electricity is formed and the processes by which it is shared safely;
- used knowledge formed from scientific reading about the history of electricity to write non-fiction flowcharts to show the evolution of electricity;
- learnt about the impact of oceans on specific landmasses in Geography, with a focus on extreme conditions of tsunami and hurricanes;
- welcomed an amateur theatre group in to perform scenarios to trigger PSHE discussions as a follow up to our Anti-Bullying/ Kindness week unit. Thank you to King's Ely Prep for your incredible, thought provoking performances.
Week Beginning Monday 13th November
Kite class have enjoyed preparing for our class assembly and have:
- further explored our class reader – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’ and explored its themes of friendship and bullying, along with an upcoming reader called ‘Wonder’ which shares similar themes;
- reviewed various methods for tackling long division calculations;
- used our new dribbling skills in Hockey to beat a defender when playing small games;
- performed our group dance in PE to an audience of Mr. Sweeney, Mr. Coackley and Mrs. E (who were all VERY impressed by our timing, coordination and enthusiasm!);
- compared/ contrasted the poems, both called ‘If,’ by Rudyard Kipling and Ian Bland;
- collaboratively wrote friendship poetry in the style of Ian Bland’s version of ‘If’ in honour of Kindness Week;
- used a monochrome palette as in Picasso’s piece – Guernica – to complete our own symbol-based compositions on the theme of ‘war’ before evaluating our artwork;
- created exploding books to share our knowledge on the topic of Light in Science;
- learnt about the importance of oceans in Geography, and started to find out about the connected kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons in History;
- enjoying some quiet reading time with our favourite books;
- spent time with our little buddies from Ladybird class teaching them playground games and sharing books as one of our random acts of kindness;
- read the sheet music for and used tuned instruments to play the layered song we have been learning called ‘Gift of the Nile’, as well as taking a previously learnt song and tweaking the lyrics to make a special version for our assembly;
and
- celebrated Children in Need by wearing stripes and spots and placing Pennies on Pudsey as our charity donation.
To those that came to watch our class assembly on Friday - thank you!
Here is the poem we wrote collaboratively based on both Rudyard Kipling and Ian Bland's poems called 'If':
If
By Kite Class 2023
If you can help me with my homework,
Then, I will help with yours.
If you can make me laugh when I am feeling blue,
Then, I will be a true friend and make you laugh too.
If you can share your worries when they feel like a mountain to climb,
Then, I will protect you to the end of time.
If you can tell me I’m pretty, inside and out,
When I am feeling sad and drowning in self-doubt,
If you can love me through and through,
Then, I will tell you how beautiful your heart is too.
If you can make a noise for my rights,
Then, I will stand by you to make the future bright.
If you can like me for who I really am;
As much as I appreciate your care for me,
Then we will be friends forever.
Week Beginning Monday 6th November
Kite class have started November strongly and have:
- further explored our class reader – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’ – and discussed the personal journey our main character Bradley is currently taking (so much so that we shrieked in horror as a class as we read of his actions at the end of the latest chapter!);
- reviewed our knowledge of fact family calculations and the techniques for division, using these calculation skills to prove our thinking for reasoning questions;
- completed our next Hockey session to build on our dribbling skills to beat a defender when playing small games;
- completed some Year 6 baseline testing in Maths and English (I’m so proud of your continued focus and positive attitudes Year 6!);
- read and analysed the poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling;
- used a monochrome palette as in Picasso’s piece – Guernica – when creating our own symbol-based compositions on the theme of ‘war’;
- investigated what happens to light when we view it through a prism and how we can take our visible spectrum (rainbow of colours) and spin the colours to return to white light in Science;
- learnt about maritime trade in Geography, and found out how/ why the Anglo-Saxon migrations happened in History;
- read the sheet music for and used tuned instruments to play the layered song we have been learning called ‘Gift of the Nile’.
Week Beginning Monday 30th October
Welcome back! We hope you had a happy and restful half term.
Kite class certainly did so this week they have:
- written dramatically in the role of the narrator to retell the final scenes of the poem ‘The Highwayman’ (based on the work of Alfred Noyce)’ showing how language can set a scene, create tension, develop emotions in the reader and hold the readers’ attention;
- reviewed the techniques for short and long multiplication, using calculation to prove their thinking for reasoning questions;
- continued to develop our arithmetic skills and understanding how they can support our reasoning;
- took a second attempt at participating in the Active Run challenge (to make up for when the rain came before the holiday) and began to review our basic skills in our first hockey session;
- been excited about Halloween and plunged all that interest into our ‘Freaky Friday Free Writes’;
- investigated symbolism in artwork using Picasso’s piece – Guernica – as our inspiration to create a symbol-based composition of our own about ‘war’;
- discussed the imapct gender stereotypying online in Computing;
- investigated Refraction in Science through three mini investigations and through whole class discussion/ debate we had observed;
- started to learn about the difference between seas and oceans in Geography, and made links between previous units on the Romans and our new unit on the Anglo-Saxons in History;
- completed our first Hockey session to develop dribbling skills to beat a defender;
- and identified our personal support networks, including those available to us at school and how those support networks can provide us with support in new situations.
Enjoy a fun and safe Bonfire weekend 😊
Week Beginning Monday 16th October
This week, Kite class have:
- (some members of the class) participated in Bikeability and were proud to achieve their level 2;
- begun to learn about square and cube numbers (understanding how they connect to area and volume),
- continued to make pleasing progress in our arithmetic and have begun to feel a little more confident our reasoning skills by articulating our processes;
- written dramatically in the role of either the narrator, the Highwayman or Bess (from Alfred Noyce’s poem ‘The Highwayman)’ to consider how the main character would feel and react to the behaviour of others, using descriptive detail and figurative language to paint our readers a picture;
- participated in the Active Run challenge (as much as we could before the rain came!);
- completed our investigations about changing shadows by reflecting on our results and which aspects of our testing didn’t fit ‘fair test’ criteria in Science;
- summarised our learning from Geography, Religion and Worldviews and History;
- and completed a fitness circuits carousel to develop components of stamina, strength, balance and agility.
Have a restful, happy and healthy half term 😊
Week Beginning Monday 9th October
This week, Kite class have:
- welcomed John Hardwicke in to share a Light and Life assembly;
- learnt about the rules of divisibility and prime numbers, continued to make good progress in our arithmetic and have begun to feel more confident our reasoning skills by articulating our processes;
- demonstrated our ability to turn poetry into prose using Alfred Noyce’s poem ‘The Highwayman’ as a starting point and including descriptive detail and figurative language;
- participated in the Hula Hooping challenge at Bronze, Silver and Gold level;
- enjoyed a STEM challenge day hosted by Soham Village College where we won three awards – for our arithmetic skills, our vehicle design skills and for our teamwork;
- investigated shadows and thought carefully how best to record our methodology and observations in Science;
- found out about how assessing drought risks can help future generations (Geography) and found out the significance of the story of David and Sulayman within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);
- and tried the art techniques of ‘halo’ and ‘chiaroscuro’ when using charcoal for line drawn portraits.
Week Beginning Monday 2nd October
Kite class have enjoyed their first school week of October.
This week, we have:
- welcomed Mr Sweeney, our new Headteacher, into the school community and enjoyed his assembly;
- learnt about common factors and multiples, continued to leap forward in our arithmetic and have stretched our reasoning skills by learning to articulate our processes;
- learnt the different ways authors can make use of semi-colons and the role of figurative language in Alfred Noyce’s poem ‘The Highwayman’;
- read and summarised the classic, narrative poem ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyce;
- developed smoother strokes, lines and breathing during our swim lessons;
- enjoyed some getting to know you time with our little buddies in Reception/ EYFS;
- used non-standard music notation to create a piece of body percussion music;
- began to investigate shadows and carefully record our predictions and methodology in Science;
- found out about the importance of the Californian Aqueduct (Geography), how the city of Baghdad developed the wisdom via astronomy, maths and geography (History) and found out the importance of what happened when Musa listened to God within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);
- and developed the new art techniques of ‘halo’ and ‘chiaroscuro’ when using line drawings for portraits.
Some Year 6s even got involved in Tag Rugby training for an upcoming competition whilst others ran Active Crew sessions involving hula hoops for children of all ages on the playground.
Lovely to see you all getting active and getting involved in school life!
Week Beginning Monday 25th September
We’ve had another brilliant week in Kite class.
This week, we have:
- started our Maths unit on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and have stretched our thinking with reasoning questions on this topic;
- shown huge steps forward in arithmetic and the thinking required to tackle reasoning questions;
- learnt the different ways authors can make use of hyphens by looking at Alfred Noyce’s poem ‘The Highwayman’;
- read the first 2 parts of classic, narrative poem ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyce and created a modern language version of one stanza of the poem;
- developed our breathing techniques alongside our strokes during our swim lessons;
- learnt how to create non-standard music notation for a piece of pop music;
- reviewed the parts of our eyes, how they help us to see and began to investigate shadows in Science;
- continued our humanities units about the importance of water for growing produce especially vital products like almonds in California (Geography), how the city of Baghdad became the House of Wisdom (History) and the story of Ibrahim’s Call within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);
- and used our art skills to create something wonderful to celebrate Christmas (to be revealed closer to Christmas!).
Kites – you have been inclusive, creative and shown kindness this week. What wonderful attitudes you have!
Week Beginning Monday 18th September
Despite the windy weather this week, we have kept ourselves focused and achieved a lot in Kite class.
This week, we have:
- completed our Maths unit on number and place value;
- demonstrated growing skill in arithmetic and the thinking required to tackle reasoning questions;
- modelled independent GPS and word level knowledge when annotating William Blake’s poem ‘The Tyger’;
- read the classic poem ‘The Tyger’ by William Blake and created an imitation of his poem, by keeping structure and poetic features, on a different theme;
- continued to develop our strokes during our swim lessons;
- developed our layered song called ‘Gift of the Nile’ in Music, where, as a class, we sang in two parts (one provided the beautiful echo to the main);
- thought more about light and how it helps us to see in Science;
- continued our humanities units about the importance of water across the world especially in warm climates like California (Geography), how the perfect of the city of Baghdad was built (History) and the story of The Great Flood within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);
- identified different ways of working collaboratively on paper and online using Scratch;
- and used our art skills to create something wonderful to celebrate Harvest next week.
Kites – you have shown kindness and tenacity this week. Keep up the excellent attitude!
Week Beginning Monday 11th September
What a fantastic first week we had! This week has also been an enjoyable one in Kite class.
This week, we have:
- continued to build on our number, place value, times table and calculation knowledge;
- completed some GPS practice around identifying word classes;
- read the classic poem ‘Jabberwocky' by Lewis Carroll which is full of nonsense words (otherwise known as Portmanteau words) which strangely (due to the sentence structures/ position of word classes in the English language) still suggest a storyline and make sense;
- learning how to perform a poem and the difference a performance can make to understanding;
- continued our swimming lessons for this academic year;
- developed our layered song in the ‘Here Come the Egyptians’ unit in Music, where, as a class, we sang in three parts (one in ‘D’, in ‘F’ and in ‘A’);
- thought more about light (beams travelling in straight lines) in contrast with dark (an absence of light/ shadows) and identifying sources of light in Science;
- enjoyed Mrs. Spencer’s assembly about ‘Making Your Mark’ through art inspired by the book ‘The Dot’ and took on her ‘create your own dot’ challenge;
- moved on with our humanities units about the importance of water across the world especially in Farming (Geography), the perfection of the Round City: Baghdad (History) and The Stories of the Prophets within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);
- and finalised the ground rules for our learning environment in PSHE.
Kites - Well done for another great week and your brilliant attitude during our visit from Mr Quayle from Witchford Village College. You showed a very sporting attitudes during our school council election speeches and some impressive speaking skills to boot!
Back to School – Week Beginning Monday 4th September
Welcome back! We do hope you all had an enjoyable summer and are raring to go after a restful break. Kite class have had a busy week catching up with our friends and getting settled in to our learning for the new school year.
This week, we have:
- reviewed our existing number, times table and calculation knowledge;
- read the story ‘Once Upon an Ordinary School Day' by Colin McNaughton and Satoshi Kitamura following the story of an ordinary boy until the moment his life became less ordinary. We paused the story at this moment, imaging what could happen when his life becomes less ordinary, and wrote our own creative endings;
- participated in our first swim lesson of this academic year;
- learnt the first part of a layered song in our ‘Here Come the Egyptians’ unit in Music, where as a class we sang in two parts (one in ‘D’, the other in ‘F’);
- found out about light by becoming beams of light (Year 6) in Science;
- started our humanities units about the importance of water across the world (Geography), The Round City: Baghdad (History) and The Stories of the Prophets within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);
- started learning about street art by creating a wildstyle style tag piece using our names as inspiration;
- and discussed the ground rules for our learning environment in PSHE.
You have also impressed us with your calm manner around the school and your kind welcome to your 'little buddies' from Ladybirds. Well done for a wonderful start to this academic year Kites!
