Menu

Stretham Community Primary School

Welcome

Kestrel Class

Autumn Term Topic Overview

Week Beginning Monday 30th September

Kestrel class settled in for a positive week, depsite the weather having other plans on Monday and Tuesday.

A large proportion of the class joyfully participated in Bikeability activities each morning this week to try to achieve their Level 2. The whole class has also:

- continued to develop our Maths skills around comparing, ordering and rounding values, whilst forging deeper connections through our reasoning challenges;

- been 'wowed' by the history and proportions of the 'California Aqueduct' and what it achieved for the farmers of California;

- been excited to see how 'creative' electrical systems can do in DT;

- enjoyed further chapters of our class novel - Race  to Imagination Island - and further explorations of different forms of text including song lyrics;

- explored how day and night actually happen by becoming planet Earth and experiencing the rotation that makes up a 24hour day;

- enjoyed their History lesson with Mr. Sweeney this week where they learnt about the 'House of Wisdom';

- focused beautifully on the skills required to play an African folk tune (Shosholoza) on the glockenspiels in unison;

- continued to develop our grammar, punctuation and spelling knowledge;

- participated well in our PE sessions for football and fitness;

and 

- started learning how to structure explanation texts.

 

Keep being the best versions of yourselves Kestrels smiley

 

 

Week Beginning Monday 23rd September

Kestrels have trying hard to show their best in their learning this week. We have been:

- using our communication skills to plan and write letters - informal and formal - varying the structure, content and language to fit our audience;

- building on our Place Value knowledge by building and partitioning numbers to 1,000,000 using Gattegno charts, place value charts and numberlines;

- finding out how much water is needed to grow some of the most popular crops in California (Did you know that 9 litres of water are required to grow just 2 almonds!) and how sustainable ththe growth of these crops will be in drought ridden areas;

- investigating electrical systems inside devices at home such as electrical handmixers and fans and the series circuits that make them work;

- learning the differences between the Geocentric (Earth at centre) and Heliocentric (Sun at centre) models of our Solar System created by our greatest scientific minds and how they formed these hypotheses so long ago without the technology we have today;

- acting out the next stage in al-Mansur's origin story for the city of Baghdad and understanding how he needed to cooperate with his people to bring his great plan into being;

- building our fitness levels through micro-circuits (in the Hall - due to the torrential rain);

and have continued to read our class novel 'Race to Imagination Island' alongside excerpts from a range of fiction and non-fiction texts.

Another super week Kestrels with lots to be proud of too!

Week Beginning Monday 16th September

Kestrels have been throwing themselves into all aspects of their learning this week. We have been:

- reading our Class Novel - Race to Imagination Island by Mel Taylor-Bessant - and thinking about the main character Luca;

- been working on our calculation skills (with some of us being brave enough to take on the role of 'teacher' to explain the process)  and then breaking down numbers into the millions for their place value components - even beginning to count using Powers of 10 and Gattegno charts;

- writing a collective class poem all about autumn which was inspired by our reading of 'Here We Are' by Oliver Jeffers, as well as poems by Grace Nichols(Cosmic Disco) and Valeria Bloom (Autumn Gilt). We focus on the language which gave each poem its theme then used our poetry knowledge to play with the structure and punctuation to achieve the right effect for our audience;

- learning about the order and properties of the planets within our solar system through an investigation task that made us all use our oracy skills too;

- thinking about the impact of droughts on various communities including our focus area of California using satellite images;

- learning more about al-Mansur's perfect city of Baghdad and why he chose this location;

- thinking about the messengers of god in Religion and Worldviews;

- putting our fitness to the test in PE by building on our speed, endurance and agility;

- learning about the incredible work of Dorothy Vaughan - one of the first African-American women to be a department leader at NASA and NACA;

- reviewing our knowledge of electrical systems, ready to do some investigating of Electrical Systems in DT;

- and enjoying lessons in Computing with Mrs Bowen and French with Madame Connolly.

Welcome Back to a new school year at Stretham Community Primary School

Welcome to Year 5 and Kestrel class. What a fast paced return to school we have had!

Over the last week, we have enjoyed:

- sharing the book 'Here We Are' as a whole school and finding out what it means to us and where we fit within the world;

- sharing other texts including excerpts from 'The Jamie Drake Equation' by Christopher Edge and some poetry by Grace Nicole;

- revisiting key calculation skills, finding out how to use Roman Numerals and finding different ways to represent value of digits in Maths;

- finding out about the role of water, the water cycle (through a brilliant song and dance routine) and its importance in California (Geography);

- learning about Early Islamic civilisations in History and the amazing story of al-Mansur and his round city which we acted out together;

- developing our call and repeat singing skills through the South African song 'Shosholoza' sung acapella; 

- beginning our unit on Earth and Space in Science, where we used evidence from the past to find ways to prove that the Earth is a spherical body;

- lessons in PE, Computing and RWV too.

We have particiularly enjoyed sharing our new class novel - 'Race to Imagination Island' - and making predictions about the characters and plot.

 

What a lovely first week, welcoming the new members of the class, setting our expectations for learning and behaviour and getting started with our learning too!

Well done Kestrels - keep it up!

 

 

 

Week Beginning 08/07/24

Kestrel Class had a phenomenal week this week. They started off by smashing their production out of the park, with many members of staff commenting on the quality of the performances from everyone involved. The children sang, danced and acted their hearts out and they should be incredibly proud of their achievements! We then had the sponsored walk on Thursday, which was another lovely occasion. None of the children were moaning about the distance and it was enjoyed by all (they particularly liked the biscuits!). In English, we wrote a poem about Stretham School on Monday and Tuesday, before then working in groups to collaborate to create storyboards later in the week, culminating in the children taking part in a free-write. In maths, we focused on negative numbers and converting units. Well done for a wonderful week!

Week Beginning 24/06/24

Kestrel Class had another lovely week, started by a wonderful Sports Day. All the year 5 children competed wonderfully, trying the best in their races and conducting the skipping race very well. Well done in particular to Ruby house, who came away with the victory. We had the pleasure of welcoming King's Ely to run a drama workshop for our children on Tuesday. The children adored the session and we are very grateful to King's for their continued relationship and free workshops provided to Stretham children. We continued our work on decimals in maths, and started our writing assessment in English, focusing on an animation about a cloud. We rehearsed a lot for our production, which is coming on well. In our swimming session, group 2 and 3 focused on backstroke and floats for survival situations, whilst group 1 looked at efficient breathing techniques. Well done for another lovely week!

 

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr Coackley

Week Beginning 03/06/24

Kestrels came back into school with a bang this week, completing some brilliant learning. In English, we wrote a free-write task based upon a picture titled 'Lost'. In maths, we finished our unit on angles and shape, with the children particularly enjoying our learning about 3D shapes. In science, we potted the plant cuttings that we propogated at the start of last half term. Some of the roots had grown to 15cm long! By the end of Friday, all plants still appeared healthy, so hopefully they can be sent home in the coming weeks. We dived into the lives of two children in Viking Jorvik in history before starting our new topic of Buddhism in RWV.

 

Have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 20/05/24

This week, Kestrel Class kept their awesome learning momentum up right until we broke up for half-term. The highlight of the week was visiting the University of Cambridge Botanic Gardens, where we engaged in a number of activities, from learning about chocolate production and tasting, exploring tropical glass houses and measuring trees, to completing a scavenger hunt around the grounds. In English, the children wrote some lovely reverse poems, in which the meaning reverses when read from bottom to top. In maths, we learnt how to calculate angles in around a point and on a straight line. We also took part in a few maths reasoning and problem solving investigations. We investigated the Amazon in geography and compared life cycles in science. Well done for a lovely half-term and have a wonderful holiday!

Week Beginning - 13/05/24

In an unusual week, Kestrel Class were amazing in everything we did. We spent a large part of the week outside, completing a variety of angles related tasks in maths, as well as a sensory walk in English. The children were incredibly sensible throughout, even when the weather turned against us. The children also created some lovely artwork for the school float for the Stretham Feast this Sunday, with the centrepiece being a collage of Esio Trot, made from the children's pictures of tortoises. We looked at metamorphosis in science and will hopefully be able to pot the plant cuttings we took next week.

 

Have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 06/05/24

Kestrels were wonderful this week, producing some amazing learning and having lots of fun whilst doing it. The children have really got into the book we have been using in English, Susan Martineau's 'Real-Life Mysteries'. The book explores and gives evidence surrounding mysteries of the earth, such as whether UFOs or sea monsters exist. The children have each chose a mystery from the book to write a discussion text about this week, producing some brilliant results so far. In maths, we started a new topic on shape and angles, this week exploring how many degrees there are in a turn and classifying acute, obtuse and reflex angles. In science, we looked at the marvellous work of Jane Goodall. We created truss bridges out of spaghetti during DT, which yielded varying results, but taught the children a lot. We continued our topics in RWV, history and geography. 

 

Well done for another fantastic week!

Week Beginning 29th April 2024

Kestrels had another lovely week, beginning a new English unit all about discussion text. We are using Susan Martineau's book, 'Real-Life Mysteries: Can you explain the unexplained?' as inspiration for the unit, investigating evidence for and against arguments and how to give a fair account of both. In maths, we have been running the numbers in a statistics unit, exploring line graphs, tables, two way tables and timetables. We were extremely lucky and appreciative to have Rhythmicity give our children a drumming workshop on Monday, exploring rhythm, pulse, West African drumming and much more. We continued our units in humanities, finishing our topic of the Vikings, further exploring Favela's and looking at how Christians celebrate through prayer and song.

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 22/04/24

The children continued their high energy from last week into this week, producing some high quality pieces of work. In English, we have studied the book 'Odd and the Frost Giants', with a grammar focus on commas. The children have written their own monologues from the perspective of a frost giant. In maths, we finished our unit on area and perimeter before moving on to statistics, exploring how to draw a line graph. The children were learning about asexual reproduction of plants in science, during which they took their own plant cuttings and have attempted to make them root. We continued our topics in history, geography and RWV, before creating our vision of what the future might look like in art.

Week Beginning 15/04/24

This week, the children came back to school with fabulous attitudes and got really stuck in with their learning. They thoroughly enjoyed our work on perimeter and area in maths, where we first learnt the basic concepts, before putting them to practice by measuring and calculating the area and perimeter of object surfaces in our room. In science, we started our new unit on Living Things and their Habitat, exploring different types of flower reproduction. We took the learning outside and aimed to find the anthers and stigma of a variety of flowers. In English, we completed our write-up of our elephants topic, with the children independently using semicolons wonderfully. We continued with the same humanities topics as before half term and started to create a remix of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' in music.

 

Have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 18/03/24

Well done for an another fabulous week, Kestrels! I was wowed with the children's maths this week, picking up skills in converting percentages to decimals and fractions. This also forms the basis of this week's homework task. In English, we wrote diary entries from the viewpoint of inanimate objects, trying to capture different perspectives and explore emotions in different situations. These came out wonderfully. In history and geography, we continued our topics of Norse culture and megacities, before learning the song 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' in music, in preparation of creating remixes of it next week. In art, we used collagraphy to print backgrounds for our space themed art, which was a lot of messy fun and sets us up brilliantly to finish our pieces next week. We were very lucky to have a visit from Jack Stinton this week, who ran a brilliant dance workshop that got all the children engaged and enjoying it.

 

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr Coackley

Week Beginning 11/03/24

This week was British Science Week and we had a large focus on it in school. In English, we conducted a parachute experiment, before writing it up fully as a scientific report. The children learned skills in how to write hypotheses, methods and conclusions. We also took part in a whole school pendulum challenge, where the children experimented by changing certain aspects of the pendulum in an effort to make it swing for exactly 30 seconds. In maths, we continued our unit on fractions and decimals, exploring place value charts, partitioning and rounding decimals. We continued our topics in history, geography and RWV, with the children particularly enjoying the sagas of Erik the Red and Leif Erikson. We created printing blocks in art and had a go at remixing Beethoven's Ode to Joy in Songmaker in music.

 

Well done for another lovely week and have a brilliant weekend!

Week Beginning 04/03/24

Kestrel class did brilliantly in their learning this week. In a week spent celebrating World Book Day, we focused a lot on reading, reading texts about circuses, our book 'Wonderscape', and a variety of animals, including of course, kestrels. In English, we made a class book about kestrels, in which, the children could write a piece of work of their choice. Some chose diary entries, others chose stories, one group chose a poem and another group created a labelled diagram of the bird's physical features. In maths, we started to explore the relationship between fractions and decimals, finding equivalency for tenths, hundredths and thousandths. We continued our topics in history, geography and RWV. The children loved our music lesson, during which we used Chrome Songmaker to create our own music. Have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 26/02/24

Kestrels did brilliantly in their first week back, challenging themselves in all aspects of their work. We finished our unit on fractions this week, exploring how to find a fraction of an amount and then how to find the whole if we are presented with a fraction of an amount. Whilst this is one of the most challenging topics of Year 5, the children were incredibly resilient and all of them made good strides with it. In English, we focused on diary entries, analysing a range of texts and then planning and writing a short entry of our own, based off a picture stimulus. We finished our Migration and Lady of the Mercians topics in geography and history respectively, and moved onto new topics of North and South America and Norse Culture. In music, we explored looping beats and in art we experimented with creating the same piece of artwork using 4 different materials.

 

Well done and have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 12/02/24

Well to all the children for keeping up their amazing work all the way to the end of the half-term, absolutely smashing this final week! Their finished reports on Vikings were truly brilliant and will be displayed in the classroom as a testament to their hard work. In maths, they have multiplied fractions and found fractions of an amount, both very tricky skills that the children have persevered through and achieved. We continued our topics in geography, history and RWV and explored space in art. In PE, we finished our gymnastics unit by creating sequences and performing on the equipment.

 

Have a lovely half-term!

Week Beginning 05/02/24

Kestrel Class participated in their learning brilliantly this week! In English, we researched Vikings and started to write an report on them, which we will finish and present next week. In maths, the children have worked very hard on learning to multiply 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers, which forms a part of the homework alongside bus stop division questions. We continued our topics in history, geography and RWV. In music, we explored composing purely vocal music in attempt to represent abstract art. In science, we created presentations and performed them in front of the class on why the Earth has day and night. In computing, the children were working with Crumble kits.

 

Have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 29/01/24

This week, Kestrel Class has done more fabulous learning! We have completed a 'dreamy' free write in English, exploring an image containing dream jars. In maths, we have been working on subtracting fractions. In science, we made some brilliant orbit models for the sun, moon and earth (see pics).We continued our topics of Vikings and migration in history and geography respectively. We made graphic scores in music to show Sia's Titanium, which turned out brilliantly! Finally, we attempted forwards rolls during PE, which the children greatly enjoyed.

 

Well done for another brilliant week!

Week Beginning 22/01/24

Kestrels have been brilliant this week, completing some wonderful pieces of work, having the opportunity to display their work in the school art gallery and some children representing the school in a local dodgeball tournament. We were writing our Frida Kahlo biographies in English this week, finishing a unit of work that the children that the children greatly enjoyed. We also presented our Kahlo inspired pieces of artwork in the Stretham art exhibition 'A Collage of Colour', with many parents coming along and being wowed by what they saw! We were adding and subtracting fractions in maths, an studied the differences between heliocentric and geocentric theories of how the earth and sun move, concluding that the heliocentric theory is the correct one. We continued our topics of Vikings and Migration in geography and history respectively. In PE we were working on more partner balances, but this time taking our work onto the apparatus. Also sport related, some of our Year 5 children combined with some of the Year 6 children brilliantly to compete for the school in a local dodgeball tournament, in which they competed valiantly and ended up with 9 won games. Well done to all the children for another  fabulous week and I hope that you all have lovely weekends!

Week Beginning 08/01/24

Kestrel Class have made a fabulous start back to the term after the Christmas Holidays, basing a large portion of their learning on the artist Frida Kahlo. We researched her life in English, preparing to write a biography of her next week, as well as starting some Frida Kahlo inspired art for the Babylon Gallery. In reading this week, our topic was beetles, studying a text about dung beetles, an extract from the book 'Beetle Boy' and the lyrics to the song 'Eleanor Rigby' by The Beatles. We explored methods to convert between mixed numbers and improper fractions in maths and started a new gymnastics unit in PE. We starting new topics of Lady of the Mercians, Migration and Living Muslim Traditions in history, geography and RWV respectively. In science, our new topic is Earth and Space, with our first lesson focusing on the evidence for how we know the earth is spherical.

Home Learning 08/01/24

Week Beginning 11/12/23

Kestrel Class had a wonderful penultimate week, cramming in lots of learning before the Christmas break. Our English unit was a tribute to the late Benjamin Zephaniah, studying his poem 'Talking Turkeys' before writing our own versions focusing on saving the oceans. Our geography topic this week linked well to this, covering the impact that humans are having on oceans. In maths, the children started a unit on fractions, learning how to recognise and make equivalent fractions, a vital skill for Year 5/6. In history, the children were captivated by Sutton Hoo and the wonderful artefacts found and the story of the dig there. We have been practising our Christmas song, 'Christmas in any Language', as much as possible this week, preparing for the performance in the Church on Tuesday. Well done to Kestrel Class for another amazing week and I hope you all have lovely, restful weekends before a final push next week!

Week Beginning 04/12/2023

This week was full of festive fun for Kestrel Class, culminating in an amazing pantomime trip and Christmas jumper day. In English this week, we have revisited our work on modal verbs, before completing a Christmas themed free write with a stimulus of a decorated tree. In maths, we continued our work on multiplication, multiplying 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers, before moving onto problem solving skills. We studied the next lessons of our Anglo-Saxons and Oceans in history and geography respectively. On Thursday, we went to the Cambridge Arts Theatre for their pantomime version of 'Mother Goose'. The children were impeccably behaved and represented the school and the village wonderfully. Then, on Friday morning, the children took part in the Santa dash at school, having a competition to transport presents across the playground as fast as they could.

 

Well done everyone for a fabulous week!

Week Beginning 27/11/23

This week, Kestrel class wrote amazing stories about picture from the book, 'The Mysteries of Harris Burdick'. The image they wrote about was called 'Uninvited Guests' and children came up with a whole range of stories, including Sherlock Holmes style detective stories, phantasmal stories and stories about naughty elves. In maths, we focused on short multiplication and division. We continued our Oceans and Anglo-Saxon topics in geography and history respectively, before putting everything together in art and finishing our wonderful 'Things important to me' pieces. We had the third lesson of our 'Dance by Chance' unit in PE, which the children greatly enjoyed. Well done to all the children for another lovely week.

Week Beginning 20/11/23

This week was topped off wonderfully with Kestrel's class assembly, wowing the parents with our learning about the Early Islamic Civilisation and 1001 Arabian Nights. In English, we added the finishing touches to our Who Let the Gods Out, creating some amazing final pieces! In maths, we explored square numbers, prime numbers and cube numbers. In history, we continued our topic of the Anglo-Saxons, looking at how the Jute tribe of Kent was connected to the Franks, before focusing on the links between oceans and climate in geography. We continued our 'What's important to me?' poem art, creating the backgrounds to our work. In music, we continued from last week, playing the 12 bar blues through their entirety, which turned out brilliantly. Have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 13/11/23

Kestrel Class continued to soar this week, producing some wonderful work. We continued our topic of newspapers in English, based off part of our class story, Who Let the Gods Out. In maths, we explored multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000, learning strategies to improve speed and accuracy in this process. We looked at ocean trade in geography and how the Angles, Saxons and Jutes migrated to England. We completed our second week of 'Dance by Chance' in PE, before starting a piece of art about things important to us in art. We used the chords learnt last week in music to start to learn to play the 12 bars blues. Well done everyone!

Week Beginning 06/11/23

Well done to Kestrel Class for another lovely week! In English, we finished our unit on relative clauses, before starting a new topic on newspaper writing. In maths, we continued to focus on common multiples and factors, before moving on to study prime numbers. In geography and history, we have continued our topics of oceans and the Anglo-Saxons respectively. We played blues chords in music, drew poem portraits in art and started our dance unit in PE. Have a lovely weekend!

Week Beginning 30/10/23

Kestrel Class came back with a bang after half-term, brilliantly tackling a week of challenging learning. Our focus in English this week was relative clauses, but we also found time to complete a spooky, Halloween themed free write based off a picture stimulus. In maths, we investigated multiples and factors, learning to how to find common multiples and factors across two numbers. We started new topics of oceans and the Anglo-Saxons in geography and history respectively, before embarking on a blues adventure in music. The children explored the life-cycle of a human during science and gender-stereotyping in computing. Finally, to top the week off, some of our children were part of the Stretham tag rugby team that beat out 7 other schools to win the silver league at the East Cambridgeshire tag rugby tournament. 

 

Well done all!

Week Beginning 09/10/23

This week, Kestrel Class focused greatly on the Islamic Golden Age, studying 1001 Arabian Nights in English. The children broke down the story of The Poor Man's Dream, acted it out to get to know it better and then wrote their own versions of the story. Then, at the end of the week, the children were each given a new story to read in groups with the aim of writing these themselves next week, creating a class version of 1001 Arabian nights. In maths, we finished our addition and subtraction unit, preparing for our new multiplication and division unit that we will start next week. We continued our topics of California, Early Islamic Civilisation and Baghdad in geography, RWV and history respectively. In art, the children started some lovely geometric patterns inspired by Middle Eastern architecture. Children completed a fun hula hooping challenge in PE, as well as exploring drumming rhythms in music. Well done Kestrels!

Week Beginning 02/10/23

Kestrels had a wonderful week of learning, highlights including designing our Christmas cards, conducting crazy science experiments and learning to drum to African rhythms. In English, we designed our own mythical creatures and wrote instructions for how to take care of them. In maths, we continued our work on addition and subtraction, focusing on multi-step reasoning problems and inverse operations. In art, we created some brilliant, abstract Christmas card designs using a centre piece of Christmas trees. In science, we conducted two fun experiments to investigate irreversible changes. The first experiment we carried out was combining warm milk and vinegar to create casein plastic. The children moulded this plastic into shapes and will hopefully be able to bring home their creations when fully set next week. The second experiment we conducted was mixing vinegar with bicarbonate of soda to create enough gas to blow up a balloon. Well done for a brilliant week of learning!

 

Week Beginning 25/09/23

Kestrel Class have soared high this week, producing some lovely work and engaging brilliantly with all the learning. In English, we finished our narratives based upon the animated film, ‘The Lighthouse’. The children created some incredible stories at a very strong level, impressing us all. In maths, we started our addition and subtraction topic, practising our column addition and subtraction skills. In RWV, geography and history, we studied Ibrahim’s call, Almond farming in California and the construction of Baghdad respectively. We learnt all about breathing during our swim sessions. The highlight of the week was the children’s fabulous performance for Harvest Assembly, blowing the audience away with their song. Well done!

Week Beginning 18/09/23

 

Sorry the lack of updates here last week. This week in Kestrel Class, we have done a lovely array of activities. In English, we finished our persuasive pieces of writing from last week, advocating for an extra break time, before moving onto writing stories based off of the animation, 'The Lighthouse'. Our primary focus in maths was rounding, whilst we observed how the temperature of solvents can affect solubility in science. In geography, the children explored why California is running our of water and in RWV, the children learnt about Nuh's ark. The children continued the tag rugby unit in PE, practised breathing in swimming, choreographed their Harvest Assembly performance and dived into the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser in art. Well done for another brilliant week and have a restful weekend!

Week Beginning 04-09-23

 

Well done to Kestrel Class for a wonderful first week back in school. They have all coped with the transition to Year 5 and the accompanying expectations brilliantly and we are very proud of all of them. This week, we have been exploring place value in our maths topic, as well as some times tables refresher games outside. In English, the children have written stories about an event that they did in their summer holidays but with a crazy twist. For history, geography and religion and worldviews, the children studied topics of The Ancient City of Baghdad, Water and Islam respectively. We sang a traditional South African song in our music lesson, before developing our observational drawing skills in art. Finally, in science, we explored properties of materials.

 

Well done again for a fabulous first week!

Video message from Mr Sweeney.MOV

Still image for this video
Top