Stretham Community Primary School
Welcome
Kestrel Class 2022
Video message from Mr Sweeney.MOV
Year 5 and 6 Spring Term Topic Webs
Week Beginning Monday 15th May
Year 5s have had an exciting week, this is what we’ve been up to:
- We began our research for our Non-Chronological Report, about an animal of our choice. We have been planning our layouts during the week.
- In PE, after a warm up of ‘tag’, we practiced our hand grip with a cricket bat, challenged our partner to bowl the ball and we had to return it to them. We had to take refuge in the Roundhouse when a sudden hailstone storm interrupted play!
- In Maths, we moved on to our new unit – How to Read and Plot Co-ordinates. Remember to go along the corridor and up the stairs!
- One of our Science lessons this week has been learning about animals and their habitats. We worked in groups and used our knowledge and the laptops to carry out research.
- Bonjour! Our French lesson took us to rooms all around the house. We were able to label our worksheets in French.
- Can you name the planets in our solar system? Year 5 have been learning ways to remember the order of the planets in relation to the Sun. We felt very sorry for Pluto, though.
- During the week the children have been busy making amazing animals artwork to decorate the trailer for Stretham Feast this weekend.
- On Friday, the children invited Mrs Marsh, our school cook, to join in with our cooking lesson. We made Rice Krispie cakes – delicious.
Well done Year 5 – have a super weekend!
Week Beginning Monday 1st May
This week, Kestrel class have been working hard on:
- reviewing key reading comprehension skills (including retrieval, ordering events, summarising and inference);
- reviewing SPaG knowledge;
-learning all about angles (Year 5 and 6), drawing them, measuring them and finding missing angles on diagrams;
- exploring what Arab life was like before Muhammed (History); focusing on the case study of the San Andreas fault (Geography) and learning about Stephen, Philip and Saul (in RE);
- continuing our new unit about Living Things and Habitats;
and
- exploring rhythms through our Pop Art music unit;
Have a wonderful, restful weekend!
Week Beginning 17/04/23
Well done to Kestrel Class for a wonderful first week back! As the children started to get excited for all of the fun activities that summer term brings, their work ethic only became stronger. In English, we practised our reading comprehension skills, as well as learning some key elements of GPS. In maths, Year 6 studied fractions, decimals and percentages whilst Year 5 investigated statistics. We started our new topics of Early Islamic Civilisations, earthquakes and how the message of Jesus spread in history, geography and RE respectively. Please remember to bring PE kits in on Monday and the children will get changed in school.
Have a lovely weekend!
Week Beginning 20/03/23
This week, Kestrel Class have been writing a balanced argument about the value of gaming in their English work. It has been very interesting to see the differing opinions of children amongst the class and how well they have managed to leave these opinions aside to write a lovely, balanced account. In maths, Year 6 have dived further into algebra, whilst Year 5 have started a new topic on perimeter and area. We have continued our topics of tourism, Christianity across three empires and the death and resurrection of Jesus in geography, history and RE respectively. A recorded version of the class assembly should be uploaded to see this weekend.
Have a lovely weekend!
Week Beginning Monday 13th March
Kestrel class have:
- continued to reinforce the key skills of serving and using a forehand/ backhand ground stroke to enable us to have a rally in our tennis unit (PE);
- revisited KS2 SPaG knowledge by looking at key terms and utilising them in a fun SPaG race challenge;
- enjoyed a ‘Friday Free Write’ based on a single image and the sentence, ‘It had begun.’ where we made use of descriptive and sensory language;
- linked our knowledge of equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages (Year 5) and learnt how to create expressions, complete substitutions and understand formulae to find algebraic solutions (Year 6) in Maths;
- refreshed our knowledge of words which contain the ‘sh’ sound which can be spelt with a ‘sh’ or a ‘ch’ in our SPaG sessions to help us spell words (like finish/ machine) accurately in our writing;
- read about a further ancient empire - Aksumite (History); understood how tourism has changed over time and indifferent countries (Geography) and learnt about what happened to Jesus on Good Friday (in RE);
- found out more about water resistance and the necessity of streamlined forms by designing a perfect boat (Year 5) and continuing our learning about the Linnaeus classification system (Year 6) in Science;
- discussed how important it is to know when our fun is not fun for someone else and how this helps us to understand social boundaries for everyone’s benefit;
and
- created some special Mothering Sunday artwork.
Week Beginning 06/03/23
Well done to Kestrel Class for a brilliant week, finished off with a fabulous performance in their class assembly. Kestrel Class continued with their topics in maths this week, alongside writing a piece about the day in the life of an animal of their choice. All of these pieces of writing came out wonderfully and it was lovely to see the range of animals that the children selected. I am very proud of the performance of all the children in the class assembly, particularly as unforseen circumstances meant that some children had to pick up extra lines on the day of the assembly. Sorry to those who did not manage to catch the assembly due to the incorrect time being sent out. A video of the class assembly will be taken and posted on seesaw next week for parents to view.
Have a lovely weekend!
Week Beginning 27/02/23
Well done for the wonderful week Kestrel Class! This week in English, we have planned and practised our class assembly for next week, as well as writing a story based off of a book front cover. In maths, Year 5 looked at how to round decimals, whilst year 6 explored function machines. We continued our topics in Geography, History and RE, as well as creating fabulous sketches in art, inspired by the book 'The Explorer' by Katherine Rundell. We used these sketches to create a hot air balloon for World Book Day. It is currently hanging in the library! On Friday, we celebrated World Book Day at school, wearing something comfy so we could snuggle up with a book. We had a lovely session hearing books across the school, which all the children greatly enjoyed!
Have a lovely weekend!
Week Beginning 06/02/23
Kestrels kept up their fabulous pace of learning all the way through their final week before half term. The week started off in amazing fashion, with the children greatly enjoying Roman day, during which they completed a plethora of fun and learning filled activities. In English, we finished our biographies about Charles Darwin (Y6) and Isaac Newton (Y5). The effort the children put into the research, planning and writing for these was wonderful to see! In maths, Year 5 explored tenths and hundredths as decimals and fractions, whilst Year 6 delved into ratio. Motivated by haribos and skittles, everyone learnt a lot. In science, Year 5 conducted an experiment on parachutes, whilst Year 6 explored how Darwin's research on Finches led to his development of the theory of natural selection. We studied black Romans in Britain, the coast of West Wales and the transfiguration of Jesus in history, geography and RE respectively.
Have a lovely half term!
Week Beginning Monday 30th January
This week, Kestrel Class have:
- been working with fractions and decimals in Year 5 and focusing on Ratio in Year 6, where we have drawn on existing knowledge to look at the relationships and patterns between numbers;
- investigated the language and structures used to write effective biographies for the two scientists we have been studying Sir Isaac Newton (Year 5) and Charles Darwin (Year 6);
- begun to group our research about both scientists into logical sections in preparation for biography writing;
- refreshed our knowledge of the suffixes ‘-ance/ -ancy/ -ant’ and ‘-ence/ -ency/ -ent’ in our SPaG sessions to help us make use of them in our writing;
- explored the skill of mirroring and matching poses and actions in a gymnastics session;
- continued our humanities learning about the vital structure of Hadrian’s Wall at the Roman frontier in Britannia (History), looking at different global coastal habitats – finding their similarities/ differences (Geography) and finding out about the Transfiguration of Jesus (in RE);
-tried another alternative form of making music to ‘get into the groove’ – clapping music;
- and began to look at the how people convey meaning through images using a modern artform - Emojis (Art).
Week Beginning 23/01/23
After the changes of routine of last week, this week was back to normal for Kestrel Class. We explored persuasive writing and speech writing in English, culminating in writing a speech from the perspective of Boudicca trying to rally an army. All of the children did fantastically and really caught her voice. In maths, both Year 5 and Year 6 were exploring multiplying fractions and finding fractions of an amount, with Year 6 receiving a tasty treat! In history, geography and RE, we continued our topics of 'Roman Britain', 'Coastal processes' and 'The life and teachings of Jesus' respectively. Year 5 completed a practical all about weighing forces, whilst Year 6 looked at an evolution and adaptation based practical. Finally, we finished the week with Year 5 joining forces with Year 4 to give us a rendition of their Young Voices performance from last week.
Have a lovely weekend!
Week Beginning 16/01/23
Kestrel class have been amazing this week! The week started off normally, with the children continuing their topics in maths and starting a Chinese New Year poetry unit in English. We explored Boudicca's rebellion in history and found out all about why our coastlines change in geography. Then, on Wednesday, Year 5 went to the O2 arena for their special Young Voices concert. They had been practising since September and it was their big day. The children sang, danced and behaved truly wonderfully, being fabulous ambassadors for the school and wowing us all. Well done Year 5! Whilst Year 5 were in London, Year 6 had fun of their own, having a go at archery with Mr Cox, doing a lovely computing lesson with Mrs Bowen, before spending the afternoon whizzing through maths puzzles with Mr Robertson. The children ended the week writing lovely acrostic poems about the year of the rabbit.
Another big well done to all the Year 5 children who were so brilliant. Have a lovely weekend!
Week Beginning 09/01/23
Kestrels did brilliantly in our first full week back, continuing the lovely start they made last week. In English, we focussed on our SPaG to create high quality sentences, which were later used in an image inspired piece of creative writing. Year 5 learnt how to do column multiplication up to 4 digits by 2 digits, whilst Year 6 continued with their fractions topic. We studied the Roman invasion of Britain and Caratacus, coastal processes, and the baptism of Jesus in history geography and RE respectively. The children greatly enjoyed learning Kodaly Rhythms in music, simplifying, quavers, crotchets and minims into claps and sounds.
Well done for another fabulous week and have a lovely weekend!
Week Beginning 02/01/23
Kestrel Class settled back into school seamlessly this week, completing a baking project. We started off by making Roman honey biscuits from a historic recipe with traditional ingredients, before tasting our treats. There unique taste created very mixed reactions within the class and we hoped you enjoyed trying them at home. We evaluated our biscuits and decided that if we were to make our biscuits again, how we would adapt the recipe with access to modern ingredients and techniques. Finally, we explored biscuit packaging, what is on food packaging in general and how manufacturers use it to engage with their audience, before designing our own.
Well done for a birlliant first week and have a lovely weekend!
Week beginning Monday 12th December
In our penultimate week, Kestrel Class have not taken their foot of the gas once, working like superstars! In English, we have done a mixture of completing our Christmas cracker stories, practising reading comprehension skills and having a go at some festive writing challenges. In maths, both Year 5 and 6 have continued with their work on fractions. We explored the Roman-Jewish war, Welsh culture and what Christmas means to Christians in history, geography and maths respectively, before finishing off the week with Year 5 practising for their Young Voices performance and Year 6 playing music along to a sound track. We also had a lovely afternoon watching Key Stage 1 performing a dress rehearsal of their nativity.
Well done for being fabulous again! We cannot wait for a lovely, festive time with Kestrel Class next week.
Week Beginning Monday 5th December
Kestrel class have embraced our first week of learning in December by:
- completing our explanation text for the Wallace and Gromit style Snooze-a-tron invention and enjoying a festive themed free write to round off the week;
- delving into the history of the Roman town of Pompeii (History);
- consolidating our calculation learning and using these skills to solve multi-step problems (Year 6) and utilising our fractions knowledge to calculate with fractions (Year 5);
- completing our autumn PIRA and PUMA progress testing;
- completing a fitness session with circuits outside (PE) and trying to achieve some personal bests;
- immersing ourselves in the amazingly rich but tricky Welsh language and culture;
- taking a village walk to complete some observational drawing relating to the lines within architecture;
- discussing and demonstrating an awareness of how humans change over time especially in old age (Year5) and creating series and parallel circuits in our Electricity unit (Year 6);
- finding out what happened next to Mary and Joseph when they escaped to Egypt (the Nativity story);
and
- beginning to practice our Christmas church service offering.
Week beginning 28/11/22
Kestrel Class were fabulous this week, producing lovely recounts of the Christmas Craft Morning, their STEM day at Soham Village College or their time in the explorer's area. The children worked on these throughout the week and finished with brilliant pieces. Continuing our current maths topics, Year 5 and 6 further enhanced their skills. In the humanities, we studied Roman emperors, Multi-ethnic London and the Three wise men in history, geography and RE respectively. We analysed the work of Edward Hopper in art, before finishing the week with Year 5 learning Welsh for their Young Voices performance and Year 6 exploring ways that they could compose film music.
Well done to everyone and have a lovely weekend!
Week Beginning 14/11/22
Kestrel class were fabulous this week, both spreading their wings in learning and spreading kindness in everything they did. This week was kindness week and we completed many kindness related activities. We handed out postcards of kindness to other classes, learnt about Manu, the Kiwi of Kindness and explored anti-bullying techniques such as fogging. Also, we wrote and practised our class assembly for Tuesday. In maths, Year 5 finished their multiplication and division unit before starting work on fractions, focusing in on equivalent fraction. Year 6 spent the week perfecting their long division, with Mrs Everest being very impressed by the children. In other subjects, we continued our topic of Ancient Rome, further delve into exploring population, extended our knowledge of dance and practised our Young Voices songs.
Well done for a fab week!
Week Beginning Monday 7th November
This week, Kestrel class have enjoyed:
- exploring the weird and wonderful inventions of Wallace and Gromit to inspire the creation of an inventor’s written ledger;
- reviewing how the Roman army was constructed in centuries and legions (History);
- using long multiplication to solve problems and finding out how to complete short division calculations (Year 6);
- revisiting our book ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom’ by Louis Sachar;
- enjoyed our starting our new dance unit in PE in which we created a dance using claps and stamps;
- finding out about global population density by comparing known and unknown locations around the world;
- learning about the importance for Christians of ‘First Christmas’ when Jesus was born (RE);
- identifying and understanding the composing techniques used in films;
- drawing our Materials unit (Year 5) to a close and starting our new Science units of Animals including Humans (Year5) and Electricity (Year 6);
- successfully using our zentangle pattern building skills to create repeating relief prints in an individual, as well as a whole class piece (Art).
I would also like to say a big well done to the wonderful tag rugby team who competed brilliantly at a local tournament against 14 other teams.
Week Beginning Monday 17th October
What a jam packed half term we have had so far! So many new areas taught…so many lessons learnt.
This week, Kestrel class have completed and carefully edited our ‘Writing in Role’ task, where the children wrote a recount as one of Hannibal’s warriors or as one of the abducted women of the Sabine tribe. We discussed our understanding of what influences the choices we make in our lives and how we have to be careful of the influence of advertising/ social media on our lives. Kestrels learnt about multiples and factors (Year 5) and Primes & Squares and the formal written method for long multiplication (Year 6). We found out about the role of Scipio in saving Rome. Children particularly enjoyed creating a piece of descriptive writing to independently showcase our writing skills. We successfully completed their units on communication and collaboration (Year 6) and systems and sharing (Year 5) in Computing. In science, we experimented with reversible and irreversible changes (Year 5) and demonstrated our accumulated knowledge about Light (Year 6). In our final session of tag rugby, we played some successful, small scale games. We participated in a live author interview lesson with the authors Kate Wilkinson (who answered our question!), Andy Shepherd and poet Zaro Weil, as well as illustrator Joe Bergen. Year 6 Kestrels enjoyed using our pitch and control when confidently singing WW2 music. We found out why the gospels are so important to Christians (RE) and created our Gustav Klimt inspired final, independent pieces in our sketchbook spreads.
Thank you to all the children for a fabulous start to the year. Have a wonderful and restful holiday!
Week Beginning 10/10/22
This week, in addition to their usual array of lessons and topics, both Year 5 and Year 6 received lovely treats. Year 6 were invited to take part in a STEM day at Soham Village College, completing team challenges in maths, science and engineering. All of the challenges were fantastic and the children loved it! Whilst Year 6 were out for the day, Year 5 had a lovely morning in Forest School. They completed a variety of challenges, including hiding food away for the winter like squirrels and creating fabulous natural pieces of art inspired by Gustav Klimt.
Outside of our treats, Year 5 and 6 continued their maths topics, wrote 'in role' diary entries about when the Romans attacked the Sabine tribe and furthered their knowledge of their history, geography and RE topics for the half term. We practised attacking skills in tag rugby and finished our Christmas cards in art.
Well done for another fabulous week! Have a nice weekend!
Week beginning Monday 3rd October
Kestrels started the week perfectly, wowing with their piece for harvest assembly. They did it the best they ever had done and I'm extremely proud of each and every one of them! Well done! Alongside the harvest assembly, we wrote creative story opening in English about a little boy meeting a robot, focusing on descriptive skills. In maths, Year 5 and 6 both showed good progress in their addition and subtraction units. In science, Year 5 continued with their materials experiment, whilst Year 6 focussed on graph drawing. In History, Geography and RE, the children continued their topics of Ancient Rome, the River Rhine and The Family of Jesus respectively. In music, Year 5 continued to learn their songs for the Young Voices choir performance, whilst Year 6 sang the WW2 song 'White cliffs of dover'.
Well done to everyone for another great week. Have a lovely weekend!
Week Beginning Monday 26th September
Kestrels were amazing once again this week, particularly showing off their creative side in our harvest assembly preparations. We have:
- used our place value knowledge to compare and order integers, round numbers of various sizes (Year 5 and 6) and even thought about negative numbers (Year 6);
- worked in groups to write stanzas of poetry, before learning to sing these as a song;
- completed our self-written and hand drawn comic strip version of the legend of ‘Romulus and Remus';
- learnt more about how adding the -ed suffix sometimes changes the spelling of our root word – this has been helpful for checking tricky spellings when writing our legends;
- found out about the intricacies of the Punic Wars in History;
- begun to investigate which thermal insulator is most fit for purpose by carrying out controlled, comparative testing (Year 5) and investigated how shadows change when an object is moved closer to a light (Year 6) in Science;
- started to play small scale games of Tag Rugby;
- improved our pitch and control when singing WW2 music with expression;
- continued to find out more about the city of Rotterdam and its role in the Rhine (Geography);
- and made some excellent progress with our Christmas card art project inspired by Gustav Klimt.
Have a lovely weekend!
Week beginning 19/09/22
Kestrels flew high once more this week, particularly impressing in English with their Romulus and Remus narratives. Next week, we will finish turning their writing into a graphic novel style piece. In maths, both Year 5 and 6 continued with their topics on place value. We experimented with zentangles in art and created some absolutely fabulous patterns! We learnt all about Carthage in history, Cologne and Rotterdam in geography and Year 6 studied the differences between WW1 and WW2 music. Year 5 started to learn their pieces for the Young Voices choir performance in the O2.
Well done for another great week!
Week beginning 12/09/22
Kestrels had another fabulous week to start the term, setting a brilliant example to all younger children.
This week, we have:
- developed our place value awareness, using this knowledge to solve tricky problems;
- read the legend of ‘Romulus and Remus' in various formats and planned the stages of our own retelling;
- refreshed our knowledge of adding -s or -es for plurals;
- participated in skills practice to develop our backward passing and knowledge of the offside/ onside rules ready to play Tag Rubgy this term;
- Investigated the properties of various materials (Year 5) and discovered how beams of light help us see by periscopes (Year 6) in Science;
- Continued our humanities learning about the changes in the Roman Republic, the city of Cologne on the Rhine and the Coming of the Messiah (in RE);
- and tested out watercolour combinations for our Christmas card art project inspired by Gustav Klimt in our sketchbook/ art portfolio.
Have a lovely and restful weekend, you all deserve it!
Week beginning 05/09/22
Welcome back! We do hope you all had an enjoyable summer and a restful break.
Kestrel class have had a busy week getting to know each other in Year 5 and 6 and getting settled in to our learning for the new school year.
This week, we have:
- reviewed our existing number, times table and calculation knowledge;
- read the story ‘Can I Build Another Me?' by Shinsuke Yoshitake and went through the stages of trying to understand who we are to see if it were possible to make another ‘ME’ (We realised it is not; we are all UNIQUE);
- participated in group games to build our passing and dodging skills ready to play Tag Rubgy this term;
- Started to review the properties of various materials (Year 5) and find out about light by becoming beams of light (Year 6) in Science;
- Begun our humanities unit about the Roman Republic, The Rhine and The Mediterranean and The Family of Jesus;
- and set out the foundations for our sketchbook/ art portfolio.
Well done Kestrels for a wonderful start to the year.
