Stretham Community Primary School
Welcome
Kestrel Class
Week Beginning Monday 6th January
Happy New Year Kestrels...and what a brilliant first week back you have had!
You have begun the term with your trademark happy chatter to catch us all up on what happened over the holidays and have then got stuck straight back into your learning - well done!
This week, we have:
- invested a lot of time completing independent research to answer the questions - What was found at Sutton Hoo and why were these finds so significant? - as part of our History learning about Anglo-Saxons;
- used our knowledge to plan a diary entry in the voice of one of the two main figures connected to the archaeological finds at Sutton Hoo - Edith Pretty and Basil Brown;
- reviewed our knowledge of clauses with a focus on subordinate and relative clauses and considered how to use these sentence structures in our diary writing;
- revisited our understanding of coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and how we can use them more effectively in our writing;
- consolidated our understanding of how to convert fractions and how this knowledge can help us to compare and order fractions whether the numerators and/ or denominators are the same or not;
- concluded our unit on Oceans by looking at the mutual impact of people on oceans and oceans on people;
- practised our rapid recall of times tables daily - we have realised how valuable this knowledge is to us as mathematicians (TTRockstars is a a really FUN way to practise at home!)
- started a new Music unit looking at 'The Blues';
- begun to develop our netball and gymnastic skills in PE;
- completed our Stories of the Prophets unit in RWV by studying the prophets Dawud and Suleyman to find out which themes connect these prophets for Muslims
and
- enjoyed our first computing lesson back with Mrs. Bowen.
Autumn Term Topic Overview
Week Beginning Monday 9th December
In our penultimate week of this term, Kestrel class have been busy:
- learning British Sign Language to accompany our offering for the church service next week;
- investigating the features of effective instruction writing;
- taking part in our whole school art project with Mrs. Spencer (Look at our colourful, self portraits - we think they are spectacular!);
- watching the KS1/ EYFS Nativity Dress Rehearsal - we thought the children were all AMAZING!
- continuing to practise our arithmetic skills including all four operations, integers and decimals - even taking turns to be 'the teacher' to explain our method and counting strategies to avoid errors;
- discussing our current class novel - Step Father Christmas (an advent calendar in a book) - and made predictions about both the plot and character arcs;
- working with Fractions to be able to recognise and convert both mixed numbers and improper fractions effectively back and forth, making use of models as a visual aid;
- catching up on our Michael Rosen Day viewing;
- developing out teamwork skills of communication and collaboration in PE, whilst also working on our game play for TAG rugby with Mr Banham;
- participating in the Santa Dash on our Festive Friday;
- enjoying a one off dance session in PE with Mr Sweeney;
- discussing thermal conduction and insulation in Science in preparation for our Science investigation;
- enjoying our book advent calendar;
- embedding our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, especially that of Mercia;
- and participating in Christmas jumper day!
One more week until the Christmas holidays and so many lovely events with one another still to enjoy coming up in the final week. Don't forget our school Christmas church service next Friday at St James'!
Week Beginning 2nd December
This week, we welcome the start of December and the festive season at Stretham.
Kestrel class have been:
- Diving deep into our fractions knowledge to refresh our awareness of unit, non-unit and equivalent fractions;
- Completing our dragon descriptions by editing to perfect our final outcomes;
- Recording tracks using the audio function on our laptops and then layering them to play back as part of our Computing unit;
- Learning more about the position and growth of the kingdom of Mercia;
- having engaging conversations about installation art and how examples can be grouped and what consistutes a piece of installation art;
- Classifying and grouping materials basde on their properties - with a focus on transparency, hardness and magnetism;
- Finding out about the vital role our oceans play in the regulation of our climate and what we need to be mindful of to protect our planet for the future;
- Reviewing the key features of instruction writing with a focus on key punctuation and imperative verbs;
- Learning about instructions in French too;
- Reading our festive class novel which is set up as an advent calendar book; written to give us 1 chapter for each day of December in the run up to Christmas (The story has us gripped already!);
- Dipping back into our Fitness unit in PE to complete some festive fitness challenges and have even started to create our '12 Days of Fitness' to keep us all fit and healthy over the Christmas holidays.
We also enjoyed starting our class 'Book Advent Calendar' where each of us will take home our own mini-book to enjoy over Christmas and keep as a festive treat.
To those coming to the disco tonight, I hope you have a fun evening...and to everyone else, have an amazing weekend!
Week Beginning 25th November
With great enthusiasm, Kestrels have been learning about:
- Multiplying and dividing both integers and decimals by 10/100/1000 in Maths using a range of methods including modelling on a place value chart, as well as undertaking fluency and reasoning tasks. We have also revisited our existing knowledge of Fractions;
- A kind kiwi bird called Manu in a story called 'Manu the Kiwi of Kindness' and completing oral reading comprehension to help us revisit skills of retrieval, vocabulary building, summary and inference, as well as reflecting on our PSHE learning around kindness and working together;
-how to create festive crafts to please our Christmas Fair audience;
- Using our own imagined dragon designs, we began to describe who our dragons were, what they looked like and where they were using noun phrases, figurative language, powerful verbs and varied structures;
- Revisited our dragon word exploration and vocabulary gathering work from last week to help us develop our phrases into effective series of sentences/ paragraphs;
- Reading more of our class novel - Race to Imagination Island to find out how the newly formed teams are getting on in the race;
- Enjoying Christmas Craft afternoon with our families;
- How Christianity came to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms via kings like King Aethelbert and their connections to greater kingdoms like the Franks and to a religious leader - the Pope;
- Understanding the impact of weather patterns from the Atlantic on people’s lives on various landmasses;
- Enjoying Tag Rugby with Mr Kirby and exploring our next Dance by Chance section called 'Rock 'n' Roll' with Mrs. E;
- Discussing the Islamic religious story called 'Ibrahim's Call' to reflect on how the role of the prophet is important in the Islamic faith;
- Visiting the Book Fair and searching for new and exciting reads to buy;
and
- Taking part in our school Christmas Fair after school on Friday - Thank you all for your support!
Week Beginning 18th November
Kestrels have engaged with the following learning opportunities together this week:
- Reviewing our knowledge of Multiples and learning about Factors/ Common Factors/ Primes/ and Square/Cube numbers in Maths using a range of methods including concrete modelling, fluency and reasoning tasks;
-Sharing a story called 'Ice Dragon' and completing a reading comprehension linked to our reading to help us revisit skills of retrieval, vocabulary building, summary and inference;
-Playing a game to develop our descriptive vocabulary, with a specific focus on adjectives and synonyms for these adjectives, to help grow our word base for our dragon project;
- Drawing and labelling our own imagined dragons after being inspired by Cressida Cowell's versions (from How To Train Your Dragon) and those from other stories like 'The Ice Dragon' and 'The Land of Roar';
- Collecting our descriptive language to help us create a vivid picture of our own dragons using words alone;
- Reading more of our class novel - Race to Imagination Island to catch up with our characters (some children made some excellent connections between the main dragon character in 'The Ice Dragon' and our main character Luca in our class novel - super thinking skills shown!);
- Exploring the connections that Anglo-Saxon (Jutish) kings like King Aethelbert made with other lands like the Franks to ensure their power and position;
- Studying ocean currents (currents not currants!) in Geography and the connection between ocean currents and climate. We even re-created a gyre in the classroom;
- Enjoying Tag Rugby with Mr Kirby where we used our throwing, receiving and dodging skills and developed our Dance by Chance dance with Mrs. E;
- Revisiting another Islamic religious story called 'Ibrahim's Call' to teach us more about the role of the prophet in the Islamic faith;
- Enjoying trying the new lunch menu;
and
- Taking part in our Non-Uniform Day on Friday to help us prepare a collection of tombola prizes for the Christmas Fair - Thank you for your donations!
Week Beginning Monday 11th November
It has been such a busy week at Stretham but we have enjoyed some fantastic learning opportunities together.
This week, Kestrel class have:
- been learning about Multiples in Maths using a range of methods including concrete modelling, game playing and reasoning tasks;
- written a fantasy diary entry that saw our characters (scientists, explorers, friends across galaxies) entring the colourful and simply breathtaking world of a moon called Pandora;
- completed our own designs for 'doodlers' based on our evaluation of the prototype doodler we made together at school;
- continued to read our class novel - Race to Imagination Island - to find out if our predictions about team groupings were correct;
- explored how the migrations of the three Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons and Jutes) to Britain actually happened;
- investigated maritime trade in Geography;
- read a brilliantly challenging poem by Benjamin Zephaniah called 'We Refugees' and discussed the message the poet was trying to convey;
- enjoyed a selection of Michael Rosen poems (especially his performance poems like Chocolate Cake and Strict) as Tuesday this week marked the first ever Michael Rosen Day;
- participated in further Tag Rugby session with Mr Kirby and engaged with our Dance by Chance unit with Mrs. E;
and
- participated in Kindness Week by discussing the difference between unkind/ mean acts and true acts of bullying including bullying online and tried to carryout random acts of kindness with our Positivity Jars to spread a little cheer.
We celebrated Children In Need together on Friday, dressed in spots, stripes or Pudsey clothing and put our pennies on Pudsey to raise a little extra for the charity. Sadly, we also had to say goodbye to Mrs Marsh but we got a chance to thank her for all she has done and give her a little treat from all of us. Kestrels also made her her own positivity jar to take away with her filled with all our messages of kindness.
Week Beginning Monday 4th November
Welcome back Kestrels! We have loved hearing about your half term adventures but have really enhjoyed seeing your smiling faces in school again.
We have had a full first week back and have:
- completed our work around formal addition, subtraction and related skills;
- read further into our class novel 'Race to Imagination Island' and made predictions about who we thought would form a team in the main race based on the contextual clues;
- made a comparison between two poems we have been reading - 'The Listeners' and 'The Highway Man' and a reflection on Part 2 of the 2nd poem - the children had very strong opinions on the outcome of the story for Bess;
- started our unit on Anglo-Saxons by learning about how, when and why the Romans left Britain and what happened when tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes made attacks by land and sea - we used role play to imagine the pleas from the remaining Romans to the emperor in Constantinople and imagined how the 3 different tribes would have responded to the other incoming tribes wants for land;
- collected descriptive language to use in our writing from other subjects, texts we have read and our own experiences of visiting other locations;
- begun to use our descriptive language skills to write a diary entry imagining that we are visiting a fantasy moon called 'Pandora';
- welcomed in representatives from the NSPCC to share a session with us about their 'Speak Out. Stay Safe.' campaign. They taught us all about the ways some children can be treated, how we can keep ourselves safe and helped us to identify safe adults in our lives to support us both in school and at home;
- continued to build our musical skills using the glockenspiels to play a specific tune;
- learnt about the oceans and seas of the world and where to locate them;
- enjoyed revisiting our knowledge of school subjects with Madame Connolly;
- begun to re-tell the story of Nuh and his Ark from the Islamic faith using our own retelling techniques;
and
- have begun to learn the rules of TAG rugby with Mr. Kirby and how to 'Dance by Chance' in PE with Mrs. E.
It has been such a full and fun first week back. Thank you for your enthusiasm Kestrels.
Week Beginning Monday 21st October
Well done for a fantastic first half term in Year 5, Kestrels.
You have completed Week 8 of this half term by:
- continuing to develop your calculation skills through inverse pyramid challenges, 4 in a Row games and multi-step problem solving;
- reading the incredible poem, 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare and making links between it and 'The Highway Man' by Alfred Noyce;
- using your GPS knowledge of expanded noun phrases, effective verbs and adjectives to build a descriptive text entitled 'Autumn Walk';
- drawing together your knowledge from the Geography unit 'Why is California so Thirsty?' to create a poster to explain the interlinked aspects of water use, water management and the impact of drought;
- creating an interactive moon phases dial to help us explain the movement of the Moon in relation to the Earth's movement about the Sun;
- explaining how Early Islamic thinkers paved the way for modern mathematicians, physicians and scientists;
- investigating how electronic doodlers can be adapted to create different patterns (using various artist's materials) by changing how the counterweight is placed;
- finding out about the upcoming Hindu festival of Diwali and creating a Diwali inspired decoration featuring rangoli patterns and paper diva lanterns;
- seeing how coordination supports our fitness development;
and
- reading our class novel to unpick the unlikely friendship that has developed between our main character Luca and another racer called Grayson.
I hope you all enjoy your well deserved half term holiday. See you in November! 
Week Beginning Monday 14th October
This week, Kestrel class have been:
- reviewing and developing their mental strategies and formal column methods for addition and subtraction;
- gathering sensory language to create a descriptive write on an autumn theme;
- learning how to effectively pink pen edit our free writes;
- considering the next steps for California and their water management, for both rural and urban settings, to help avoid future drought;
- creating a scientific model to help us explain the movement of the Earth's moon in relation to Earth and the Sun;
- demonstrating their understanding of how Early Islamic civilisations learnt about the wider world through astronomy, maths and geography;
- enjoying Computing sessions with Mrs. Bowen, where they discussed things that cannot be found on the world wide web and why;
- able to show Mr Kirby that they have learnt to run their own games of football, including the refereeing responsibilities, without him having to step in;
- continuing their analysis of The Highwayman - Part 1 - a poem by Alfred Noyce, making predictions about the narrative to come in Part 2;
- enjoyed a French session with Madame Connolly describing others traits;
- continued to dissect our class novel - Race to Imagination Island - considering the character traits of one of the racers called Tiago;
and
- completed another phase of our Fitness sessions focusing on balance.
A big well done to the Year 5 girls who participated in the Girls' Football event on Friday.
We have also rounded off our week by 'Wearing Pink' to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. Well done to everyone who joined in!
Week Beginning 7th October
Kestrel class has had a busy week of learning and activities related to wider school life.
We have:
- been inspired by the paralympic athlete, Sean Rose, and his story which showed the importance of determination, resilience and a positive attitude;
- completed fitness circuits with Sean Rose to test our strength, agility and resilience;
- continued to read our Class Novel - Imagination Island - and have summarise the stry so far whilst making predictions about what will happen next;
- completed our learning about number in Maths and have moved on to the mental strategies and formal written methods for addition;
- explored how Day and Night happen across the time zones of the world;
- learnt about the greatest minds in our Early Islamic Civilisation studies and their learning in astrnomy, geometry and geography;
-questioned what will be next for California in their forward planning for water provision and drought reduction;
- completed our explanation text in English, where we used our scientific knowledge of how Day and Night happens, to explain it to our audience;
- learnt a bit more about the First Prophet according to the Islamic faith;
- enjoyed PE with Mr Kirby - where he praised us for our teamwork and our fantastic Computing lesson with Mrs. Bowen;
- enjoyed a live webinar with author Hannah Gold (The Last Bear/ The Lost Whale/ Turtle Moon) and the illustrator of these texts - Levi Pinfold. We were able to pose our questions to them and receive live responses;
- participated in team related fitness activities to improve our agility, speed and application of game tactics;
- listened to the speeches for (given by Year 6) and participated in the vote for our house captains for the year;
and we have started to look at the language of a poem called 'The Highway Man' by Alfred Noyce - we enjoyed being dictionary detectives to find out the meaning of archaic vocabulary.
Keep up the positive attitudes Kestrels!
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
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
