Kite Class

Week Beginning 31/03/2025

We are at the end of the Spring term; what a fantastic 5 weeks we have had. Kite Class should be very proud of everything they have achieved this term and deserve a good rest over the Easter break. This week we have:

Taken part in the Easter egg hunt and listened to the rainbow raffle draw!
Completed our unit on statistics with a lesson on The Mean. We were very excited to finally learn how to find the average!
Wrote our own debates which asked the question 'should animals be kept in zoos?' Earlier in the week, we carried out a successful debate in the classroom.
Continued reading our book Holes and predicting what we think will be happening next.
In Science, we investigated whether only animals have DNA or if all living things have DNA. We did this by extracting DNA from a strawberry. After the experiment, we made note of the equipment and the method we used so that we can complete the experiment again in the future.

Week Beginning 31/04/2025

Week Beginning 24/03/2025

This week seemed to fly! We have:

Written the first draft of our formal report and edited and revised it. Next week, we will be giving them to the zoo owner to read.
In Maths, completed our unit on area and perimeter. We showed plenty of resilience today when we started our statistics unit by drawing and interpreting line graphs.
Took part in the Battle of the Beaks experiment in our Science lesson. This taught us about Darwin's study on the finches and his research on adaptation.
Focused on teamwork in our PE lessons this week. We had multiple challenges that had to be completed as a team, including: cross the river, standing up with our partner while linking arms and the coat stand challenge!
Finished our drama based on Henry VIII and reflected on the lives of Henry's six wives.
We were very excited to receive letters about our leaver's hoodies!

We have one week left this half term and lots still to learn!

Week Beginning 24/03/2025

Week Beginning 17/03/2025

This half term seems to be going so quickly! It has been another hard working week for us in Kite Class. We have:

Starter our project called Animal Park in writing. We created our own animal park, met a local zoo owner and discussed the reasons for her park being closed down. We finished the week by planning a formal report, which will be given to the zoo owner to explain why her park is being closed and what needs to be done to improve.
Recapped and built on our knowledge of area and perimeter. In particular, we learnt how to identify the perpendicular height of any triangle so that the area can be found.
Continued our tennis lessons in PE, focusing on how to work in a team to keep a rally.
Learnt about hurricanes in Geography and discussed how Hurricane Beryl impact Jamaica through listening to eye-witness reports.
Studied Henry VIII in Geography through immersing ourselves in a drama activity.
In Maths, we listened to and began to play a canon.

Week Beginning 17.03.25

Week Beginning 10/03/2025

It has been a week filled with performing arts opportunities and lots of learning! This week we have:

Finished our algebra learning by working out two unknowns within an equation!
Watched La Luna as inspiration for our dialogue writing and had a go at a role-play activity to generate ideas for what the characters might say.
In RE, started our new thought-provoking unit on Reason and Revelation.
The netball team participated in a netball tournament at Kings in Ely.

During Performing Arts Week, we have all enjoyed:

Meeting Rock Kidz who visited us on Monday 10^th March. They turned our school hall into our own concert venue and allowed us to experience the amazing world of live music. The KS2 workshop that followed was energetic and engaging. We ended with a celebration assembly to really share the message of 'You are Awesome So Be Awesome' (YASBA) to reinforce the positive mental health and self-esteem message of the whole day.
Our visit on Tuesday 11^th March from Rock Steady who shared rock/ pop band instruments in a whole school assembly before leading KS2 in a workshop to create our own band - with 2 vocalists, a lead guitar, a bass guitar, 2 keyboard players and a drummer.
Jack Stinton from JSDC leading a whole school dance assembly on Thursday 13th March with follow up workshops for each class on Thursday and Friday. We appreciated Jack's enthusiasm for dance which taught us that dance is for everyone.
Finally, on Friday 14^th March, we were treated to a Classical Music Assembly, where a String Quartet to played for us and shared their incredible instruments, knowledge and skill within this genre of music.

A huge thank you to all our visitors for enriching our week with performing arts.

Please remember that you will still find the World Book Day story time videos, recorded by teachers at school just for your children, shared on your child's Seesaw page. Do share them as a family at home!

Week Beginning 10.03.2025

Week Beginning 03/03/2025

It has been a fantastic day celebrating World Book Day. We have:

Spent time in the hall reading a book in our snuggle zone!
Watched an event with Michael Rosen and followed illustrators instructions in a draw along.
Been left in suspense when reading our class text.
Chose books to read with our buddies in Ladybird class.
Written our own book recommendations for our reading corner.

During the rest of the week, we:

Looked at a timeline of the living things on Earth and created a scale version of this on our field.
In History, studied the Bayeux tapestry and ordered this in groups.
Continued our persuasive response in Writing.
Looked at diversity in Jamaica (including, urban and rural areas and climate zones).

Kite class have worked incredibly hard this week with their assessments. They should be very proud of themselves and they deserve a good rest over the weekend!

Week Beginning 03/03/2025

Week Beginning 24/02/2025

Where has the time gone? We can't believe that the first week of Spring 2 is already over! It has been a very busy week for us in Kite Class. We have:

Received a negative Trip Advisor review about Camp Green Lake in our English lesson. Our task is to respond to this in our next assessed piece.
In Maths, we have been looking at algebra. Our lessons have involved writing expressions, formula and substituting values.
Had a very interesting afternoon linked to our History lesson when Mr Sweeney played the role of a ruthless leader. The class discovered that we are learning about British monarchs this half term; the first being William the Conqueror.
In our Geography lesson, we started our new topic on Jamaica. For our first lesson, we took a trip to Jamaica (using our imagination) and then learnt about Orlene's migration story. We discovered that Orlene opened a restaurant in Cambridge!
Science this week involved beginning our new unit on Evolution. We were lucky enough to have some real fossils that we could look at and feel.

We are looking forward to the rest of our learning this half term!

Week Beginning 24.02.2025

Week Beginning 10/02/2024

We have had a fantastic week in Kite Class to finish Spring Term 1. We have:

Enjoyed Feel Good Friday by going down to forest school with our buddies, creating art based on our memories from the years we have been at Stretham Community Primary School and watched the film Holes (which is based on the book we have been studying).
Edited and revised our persuasive leaflets by visiting the editing stations around the classroom. These encouraged us to focus on particular skills.
Investigated refraction in Science. We discovered that when an arrow is placed behind a cup of water it changes direction!
Finished our ratio unit in Maths.
Designed our own cities in Geography and considered how the redevelopment of Birmingham may have influenced our designs.
Worked hard to complete a reading and GPS paper to look at our progress from November.

Have a great half term Kites, you deserve it!

Week Beginning 10/02/2025

Week Beginning 03/02/2025

It has been a fantastic day celebrating all things number today! We have:

Attended a number themed assembly.
Created our own yoga positions in PE based on number.
Measured our carrots and collected our results. Then, we created our own bar charts and worked out the class average by calculating the mean.
Learnt about scale drawings in our Maths lesson.
Set up and led counting themed activities for Ladybird class in the afternoon.

It has been a super busy day! This week we have:

Drafted our persuasive leaflets based on our text Holes.
In Maths, we started our unit on ratio and made links with our knowledge on fractions.
Carried out our own investigations in Science to find the most reflective material in the classroom.
Performed our own puppet shows based on the fable 'The Hare and the Tortoise.'

Week Beginning 03.02.2025

Week Beginning 27/01/2025

Kites are having a fantastic half term. They should be very proud of everything they have achieved so far! This week we have:

Finished our non-chronological reports on Ethiopia and taken pictures with our final pieces.
Created our own script for a TV advert to encourage people to stay at Camp Green Lake (linking to our class text).
Completed our unit on fractions, decimals and percentages in Maths. Today, we used a dice game to consolidate our knowledge of percentages of an amount.
Made our own Newton colour wheels in Science. We then got very excited when a rainbow appeared in our classroom!
Continued our yoga lessons in PE with a focus on balance.
Read another fable in Religion and Worldwide Views called The Ant and The Dove.

We are looking forward to Number Day and National Storytelling Week next week!

Week Beginning 27.01.2025

Week Beginning 20.01.2025

We are half way through the term already! This week we have:

Studied fractions, decimals and percentages (FDP) in Maths and applied our knowledge to FDP relay on Friday afternoon.
Drafted our non-chronological reports on Ethiopia ready to publish on Monday.
Continued reading our class text Holes and written a diary entry about Stanley's first day at Camp Green Lake.
Learnt about the redevelopment of Birmingham and how the skyline has changed over time.
In Religion and Worldwide Views, read Aesop's fable called the North Wind and the Sun and discussed the moral meaning.
To investigate reflection in Science, we created our own periscopes and used them around the classroom.

Week Beginning 20.01.25

Week Beginning 13/01/2025

It has been another busy and productive week for Kite Class. We have:

Listened to the author Elle McNicoll to learn about her writing and the process of getting a book published. This was a fantastic talk which many of the children were engaged in as we have so many keen writers in the class!
Continued work on the features of a non-chronological report ready to write our own next week.
Finished our unit on decimals by applying our knowledge to word problems.
Carried out a science investigation into how shadows are formed and why shadows look the way they do.
Had some time for mindfulness during our yoga lesson.
Understood the growth of Birmingham and discussed different pull and push factors which can impact population growth.
In Music, we started to look at how we can link art to music and used a variety of actions to create a rhythm.
During RWV, we studied the fable of the boy who cried wolf and thought about the moral lessons being taught.

Keep up the great work Kites!

Week Beginning 13.01.2025

Week Beginning 06/01/2025

Happy New Year! It has been a fantastic start to the year for us in Kite Class and we are looking forward to the exciting opportunities we will have over this term. This week we have:

Started our new class text (Holes) and explored how authors make their book openings effective.
Worked hard to recap decimals from Year 5 using a dice game and built on this knowledge by studying place-value, rounding and multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000.
In English, focused on the features of non-chronological reports and the skills we can use to write to inform. This has included, the use of parenthesis, adverbials, colons and subordinate clauses.
Introduced our new Geography unit on the growth of cities, with a focus on Birmingham. We spent time plotting population growth on a line graph.
Learnt about Aesop and the fables he wrote in Religion and Worldwide Views. We will continue to learn about the different fables that he wrote and their moral meanings this half term.
During our Science lesson, we discussed how light travels in straight lines and used objects from around the classroom and torches to prove this.
Considered the importance of friendships in PSHE and what healthy friendships look like online and offline.
Participated in yoga in our PE lesson and learnt two new positions (the cobra and down dog).

Week Beginning 06.01.25

Week Beginning 09/12/2024

What a week it has been for us in Kite Class! We have:

Thoroughly enjoyed watching the KS1 Nativity with the rest of the school.
Written our own Christmas poem to be performed at the church service next week.
Taken part in an art project with Mrs Spencer all about our school family.
Listened to Mrs Dillon talk to us about her time living in Ethiopia. We even smelt some Ethiopian spices and felt Ethiopian material.
Started to make our Christmas waistcoats by designing our templates and using this to cut out our material accurately.
In groups, discussed an example narrative about discovering a dragon and planned our own narrative ready to write next week.
Completed the Santa Dash in our house teams!

We are all looking forward to the festive activities next week!

Week Beginning 09.12.2024

Week Beginning 02/12/2024

Stretham has been getting into the Christmas spirit! We have:

Been inspired by the fantastic book Darwin's Dragons in English, ready for our story writing this week.
Used a dice game to remember how we divide fractions by integers.
Found fractions of amounts in our Maths lessons.
Created impressive double-page fact files on invertebrates in Science.
Had a talk from Mrs McKee to tell us what it is like to live and go to school in Ethiopia.
Learnt about the sixth Guru (Guru Hargobind) and his trip to Lahore.
Discussed the challenges faced in Ethiopia and the impact this has on the people that live there.

Week Beginning 02/12/2024

Week Beginning 18/11/2024

It has been a cold week outside but we have continued to work hard in Kite Class! We have:

Designed our own dragons to inspire our descriptive writing piece. We thought about the descriptive vocabulary, metaphors and similes we could use to describe the dragons we created.
Used the hockey skills we learnt last week to play a game which involved receiving the ball from other players and accurately passing the ball.
Discussed invertebrates in our Science lesson and how we classify them.
Used the Dollar Street website in Geography to compare life in the UK to life in Ethiopia.
In Maths, we completed our work on adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers and applied this knowledge to solving reasoning and problem solving questions.
Finished our first assessment week!

Week Beginning 18/11/2024

Week Beginning 11/11/2024

It has been an incredibly busy week for the whole of Stretham Primary! We have:

Written a formal letter to Mr Tushman persuading him to plan an anti-bullying day for his school. This was based on our class text Wonder.
In Maths, we have been adding and subtracting fractions with the same and different denominators. We also played a dice game to practise finding equivalent fractions.
Described how Carl Linnaeus classified animals and learnt about the different classes. We then played a game to see what we could remember.
Raised money for Children in Need by wearing non-school uniform.
Been inspired by watching the Michael Rosen Day event.
Used our defending and attacking skills in hockey.

Kite Class have started their assessment weeks positively and I am extremely proud of them. Well done Kites!

Week Beginning 11/11/2024

Week Beginning 04/11/2024

Kite class have had a fantastic first week back after half term. This week we have:

Used our persuasive writing skills in Writing to persuade Mr Tushman to have an Anti-Bullying Day and held a debate on why we think this should happen.
Introduced the topic of fractions in our Maths lessons by focusing on how we simplify and find equivalent fractions.
Retrieved knowledge from Year 4 when we discussed the Aksum empire and linked this to our new History topic on Ethiopia and Benin.
Compared life in Ethiopia to our lives in the UK and discussed the location of Ethiopia in Geography.
Progressed in our studies on Sikh traditions in Religion by thinking about the Gurdwara.
Had a visit from the NSPCC and completed a workshop with them which discussed our right to be safe.
Had our first PE lesson on hockey where we worked on defending.

Week Beginning 04/11/2024

Week Beginning 21/10/2024

It has been a fantastic first half term for us in Kite class. We have finished our half term by:

Writing an informal letter from Jack Will to August (characters in our class text Wonder).
Solving reasoning and problem-solving questions which have required us to apply our learning on the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).
Completed our investigation in Science where we changed a variable in our circuit and compared the brightness of our bulbs.
Used our skills that we have learnt during our Art lessons this half term to create a final art piece with a personal meaning.
Learnt about how the Maya loved maths and compared their calendar to our own.
Discussed the Guru Nanak's four udasis.
Finished our letters to the Prime Minister which discussed Climate Change and what solutions we think would make a difference.
Continued reading our class novel and discussing why the author has decided to write using different character perspectives.
Took part in Run for Fun week! We ran 369 laps of the playground as a class in 15 minutes.

I hope you all have a lovely half term!

Week Beginning 21/10/2024

Week Beginning 14/10/2024

Kites have a lot to be proud of this week. We have:

Challenged ourselves in Maths by learning long division and solved problems involving division.
Spent time learning about the character Jack Will in our book Wonder and used inference skills to determine why he carried out some of his actions.
Continued our work on energy in Geography and created our own opinions about nuclear power.
In History, we learnt why maize was so important to the Maya civilisation.
Created our own investigations in Science to test how changing variable can impact on the brightness of a bulb.
Discussed how people convey messages using art and looked at some famous artists who have done this. Then, we thought about our own message and how we are going to use art to convey this.
Created our own group compositions in Music thinking about texture.
Started earning house points as a class!

I am very proud of your resilience this week Kites!

Week Beginning 14/10/2024

Week Beginning 07/10/2024

It has been a brilliant week for Kite class. We have:

Been inspired by the fantastic athlete (Sean Rose) on Monday and attended an assembly where we learnt about his achievements and motivations.
Created our own role-play about a scene in Wonder to develop our understanding of the characters.
Attended the STEM day at Soham Village College where we were challenged to create our own flying machines! We participated in a Maths activity where we had to race around the world and learnt all about the science behind flight.
Focused on division in our Maths lesson and how we can divide using factors.
Engaged in some interesting discussions about our book Wonder to infer why characters acted in the way they did towards August.

It has been a very busy week for us. Well done everyone for all of your hard work!

Week Beginning 07/10/2024

Week Beginning 30/09/2024

It has been a week filled with creativity, hard-work and challenge! We have:

Completed our first piece of assessed writing in Year 6. We wrote a diary entry based on our fantastic book Wonder.
Used our knowledge of series circuits to build our own circuits.
Played a multiplication dice game in Maths to support our learning of multiplying 4-digit by 2-digit numbers.
Created our own piece of Chiaroscuro art using charcoal.
Learnt about the features of a typical Maya city in History.
Used role-play in English to help us understand the thoughts and feelings of characters in Wonder.

Well done this week Kites!

Week Beginning 30/09/2024

Week Beginning 23/09/2024

It has been another busy week for Kite class this week! We finished our week with our wonderful Harvest Festival assembly this morning, it was lovely to see so many families in the hall. This week we have:

Read more of our fantastic book Wonder and completed lessons on past tense, first person writing and using apostrophes for different purposes in preparation for writing a diary entry next week.
Found common multiples and common factors in Maths, using multi-link cubes to help us.
Accurately drawn simple and series circuits in Science ready for us to build our own circuits.
Discussed the definition of strength in PE and tried some exercises (including plank, squats, burpees and lunges) that help to build strength. Furthermore, we identified the muscles that were being used during each activity.
Learnt about the Maya civilisation and the importance of the jaguar.
Created our own 'waves' in Music using different textures in our groups.
Studied the impact that fossil fuels are having on our environment and compared non-renewable and renewable energy sources.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and I look forward to seeing you all next week.

Miss Barnes

Week Beginning 23.09.2024

Week Beginning 16.09.2024

It is our second full week back at school and our Year 6 lessons are now in full swing! This week we have:

- Had Witchford Village Collage visit us to discuss what secondary school will be like and to answer any questions that the children had. Kites class were very excited to hear all about what the day in the life of a secondary school student looks like and what opportunities will be available to them next September.

- Completed a fitness lesson for PE which encouraged the children to compare the difference between stamina and speed. We discussed pace and how this will help us when running for longer distances.

- Reflected on our homework from last week where the children investigated wind turbines in our Geography lesson and discussed the energy mix in the UK.

- Revisited our GPS (grammar, punctuation and spelling) knowledge in English, focusing on word classes and sentence structure.

- Continued reading our fantastic class novel (Wonder) and answered questions where the children were required to use their retrieval skills to find evidence in the text.

- Listened in our assemblies which have discussed the meaning of peace and what this looks like in our school and beyond ready for International Day of Peace tomorrow.

- Finished our first unit in Maths (place-value) and used our reasoning and problem-solving skills to answer a range of questions on addition and subtraction.

It has been another great week in Year 6, keep it up Kites class!

Miss Barnes

Week Beginning 16.09.2024

Week Beginning 09/09/2024

Welcome to Kite's class page!

What a fantastic start we have had to this academic year. Kites have come into school every morning ready to learn and demonstrated that they are ready for their Year 6 responsibilities. This week we have:

- Started our Year 6 duties around the school: helping in the office, library, out on the playground and in the lunch hall.

- Discussed how we are ready, respectful and safe in Year 6 and how we set the example for other year groups in the school.

- Introduced our new topic in History by learning about Mayan traditions and studied Mayan symbols in Art.

- Created impressive poetry based on our book 'Here We Are' which we have studied in our English lessons.

- Revisited our Year 5 knowledge on place value and introduced numbers up to 10,000,000 in Maths.

- Had a exciting Science lessons where we looked at how electricity works and created our own static electricity!

It has been excellent to have a class full of engaged individuals who are ready for their Year 6 journey. I am looking forward to another brilliant week next week and thank you for welcoming me into the Stretham family!

Miss Barnes