Kite Class 2021 | Stretham Community Primary School

Back to School – Week Beginning Monday 5th September

Welcome back! We do hope you all had an enjoyable summer and a restful break.

Kite 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 Kites for a wonderful start to the year.

Week Beginning Monday 18th July 2022

What a final week we have had! We were not expecting to lose a couple of days this week to the water issues but in true Stretham style we have pack in a week worth of fun activities and learning in just 3 days. Thank you for a wonderful year Kite class of 2022; have an amazing summer. Here are a few highlights from our last week:

Week Beginning Monday 11th July

After the excitement of production, pool time and Go Ape for Year 6, Kite class have had an engaging but calmer week.

On Monday, we had a visit from Professor Helen Weinstein to discuss our Blue Plaque Project for our community. The children enjoyed Helen's historical knowledge and stories of our local community's past. It has inspired us to make a good start on creating 'Blue Plaques' for the past people of Stretham to share with our community. What an exciting project to be a part of!

This week, we have also continued work on our final presentation versions of out 'Blue Umbrella' stories and have been impressing many members of staff with how effective our writing has become. We are so proud of the narrative we have created for these characters.

In addition, we have been swimming as often as possible to develop our water confidence, our 'push and glide', our technique for legs and arms in freestyle and breaststroke and our free swim skills.

We have also enjoyed our transition days in our new schools (Year 6) and next year's classes (Year 5) and an art project which revolves around sculptor Andy Goldsworthy.

Year 5 ended the week with a taster day at CVC, where they got to enjoy a Sports carousel day and experience a sneak peek of life at secondary school. Year 6 also ended the week on a high - the end of year school disco, followed by their Year 6 Leavers' Camp Out. What a fun way to end the the week! Hope you enjoyed your second to last week of term Kite class; here's to the final wonderful week 😊👏

Week Beginning Monday 4th July

Kite class started the week with the excitement of a dress rehearsal for our KS2 production. For many of us, it was our first time under real stage lighting and performing before an audience so we were quite nervous. We were very proud to show off what we have been working on to KS1 and some other members of the community. On Tuesday, we had our first full show with full sound, lighting, mics, props and costumes. This show was also filmed for family who could not attend and what a show it was! Our Year 6 sang and spoke with great clarity and were wonderfully supported by the backing choruses of Year 5, 4 and 3. Wednesday evening saw our final performance of 'Let the Games Begin'. Although we struggled with technical difficulties with our sound and mics, all the children showed great resilience and impressive skill to keep going. They absolutely embodied the phrase - "the show must go on!" In addition to our production, we have also enjoyed our first swim sessions in the school pool; completing our final paragraph of our extended narrative 'Blue Umbrella '; creating parabolic curves to discover how maths and art meet and exploring underwater volcanoes with a hands on experiment. To end the week, Year 5 were able to enjoy a day with Mr. Robertson whilst Mrs. E and Mr. Coackley took Year 6 on their Leavers' adventure to Go Ape. Well done Kite class for yet another wonderful week 😊👏

Week Beginning Monday 27^th June

Kites have been busy bees this week. We have:

Enjoyed getting all of KS2 together for our production rehearsals;
Continued our run throughs for the whole KS2 Production, practising our key transitions and songs;
Developed our programming for Mbots (Year 5) and Microbits (Year 6);
Started some development activities for line graphs (Year 6) and manipulating decimals (Year 5) in maths;
Revisited the film stimulus ‘Blue Umbrella’ to continue writing a piece of 3rd person narrative writing in the past tense;
Enjoyed our PE sessions;
Prepared for the Ely Arts Festival performance at Ely Cathedral (Year 6);

and

Created our own dragons in art before creating a descriptive paragraph to outline their persona.

What a super week! Well done everyone

Week Beginning Monday 20^th June

Another wonderful week of warm weather and learning in Kites. We have all enjoyed these highlights:

Getting the stage up for our production;
Continuing our run through for each scene from the KS2 Production (for Year 5 and 6) and practicing our key songs within the production;
Finding out more about the programming involved for Mbots (Year 5) and Microbits (Year 6);
Consolidating our Problem Solving with Ratio and Proportion (Year 6) and working with Decimals (Year 5);
Finding out about Greek philosophers (Year 5);
Consolidating our knowledge of the Jewish festival of Passover (Year 5);
Preparing for the Ely Arts Festival performance at Ely Cathedral (Year 6);
Revisiting the film stimulus ‘Blue Umbrella’ to continue writing a piece of 3rd person narrative writing in the past tense;
Enjoying some further rounders skill building and small game play

and

Watching the wonderful class assembly from Wren Class.

Well done for continuing to give your best everyone.

Week Beginning Monday 13^th June

What a beautiful week of weather we have all enjoyed! In addition, Kite class have enjoyed these highlights:

Continuing our full read through and acting out scenes from the KS2 Production (for Year 6) and practicing our key songs within the production (Year 5);
Consolidating our understanding of Calculating with Ratio and how this links to Scale Factors (Year 6);
Acting out Homer’s epic story – The Odyssey – and recording some of the key adventures which slowed his journey home (Year 5);
Using our developing crafting skills to create some fabulous Fathers’ Day cards (Year 5 and 6);
Enjoying a choral workshop with Chris Parsons, our conductor, to rehearse our songs in readiness for the Ely Arts Festival performance at Ely Cathedral (Year 6);
Using the film stimulus ‘The Clocktower’ to inspire a piece of 1st person narrative writing in the past tense;
Finding out why people would want to live around active volcanoes like the fiery Mount Etna;

and

Enjoying some further rounders skill building and game play.

Well done for surviving the heat and giving your best to your learning Kites.

Week Beginning Monday 6^th June

Although we all enjoyed our half term break, Kite class have had a lovely first week back this half term. Some of our highlights have included:

Continuing our full read throughs of the KS2 Production (for Year 6) and practiced our key songs within the production (Year 5);
Consolidating our understanding of Ratio (Year 6);
Completing First Aid Training to provide us with a foundation of basic skills (Year 6);
Using a ‘Draw with Rob’ workshop to help us create a Jubilee Corgi character (Year 5);
Rehearsing songs in readiness for the Ely Arts Festival performance at Ely Cathedral (Year 6 with a little help from Year 5);
Reviewing all the stages in Moses’ story including the Exodus which followed his appeals to “Let my people go!”;
Using the film stimulus ‘Blue Umbrella’ to inspire a piece of 3^rd person narrative;
Learning about the fiery Mount Etna;

and

Enjoying some rounders skill building and game play.

Well done for making this first week back a fantastic one Kites.

Week Beginning Monday 23^rd May

We have enjoyed our final week (well, 4 days really) of learning before the half term holiday. Some of our highlights have included:

Leaping into our first read through of the KS2 Production (for Year 6) and used our science topic of ‘Metamorphosis’ to inspire an explanation text (Year 5);
Continuing to develop our knowledge of decimals through rounding (Year 5) and finding out more about calculating the volume of 3d shapes (Year 6);
Learning about Greek literature and its role in the tradition of theatre;
Completing our ‘zoo education centre’ room design in DT (Year 5 and 6);
Taking part in a creative art workshop as part of the Ely Arts Festival (Year 5 and 6);
Rehearsing songs in readiness for the Ely Arts Festival performance at Ely Cathedral (Year 6 with a little help from Year 5);
Comparing lifecycles in Science (Year 5);
Learning about the next stage in Moses’ story and the power behind his phrase “Let my people go!”;
Finding out more about the Fens (past, present and future) from our visitors from Wicken Fen and Ely Museum;

and

Enjoying the Platinum Jubilee Garden party where we shared games, snacks and laughter as a school community...not to mention the wonderful commemorative coins gifted to us by the Parish Council.

Well done Kites. After this wonderful week of learning, you deserve your half term.

Have a happy and healthy break all!

Week Beginning Monday 16^th May

In true Kite class style, we have got straight back into the flow of things with another fabulous week of learning.

Some of the highlights from our week have included:

Leaping into our new class reader ‘Who Let The Gods Out’, a fantastic fiction text based on the high jinx of various Greek gods and goddesses, and have been using our inference skills to unearth character details;
Working hard to develop our knowledge of decimals (Year 5) and finding out more about the areas of triangles and parallelograms (Year 6);
Learning about the Parthenon and its importance in the development of the city-state of Athens;
Designing a room for a specific purpose in DT (Year 5 and 6);
Taking part in a fabulously fun Sports Day and cheering each other on;
Enjoying a session about dental health and hygiene with our school nurse visitors (Year 5 and 6);
Taking part in the Quad kids event at Soham Village Collage;
Learning how volcanoes are formed;

and

Enjoying the class assembly from Hedgehog class – our first since the Lockdown.

Well done Kites – another brilliant week of learning and achievements together.

Week Beginning Monday 9^th May

…and just like that SATs week is over!

Well done Year 6 for showing such determination, resilience and good humour throughout this challenging week. We couldn’t be prouder of your efforts and you should certainly be proud of how far you have come.

A big thank you to Year 5 for rising to the challenge of taking on the Year 6 Guardian Angel duties and for coping with all the changes over the course of the week. You are really starting to show us what wonderful Year 6s you will be next year.

Some other highlights from our week have included:

Continuing our learning about Living Things and their Habitats through a visit to Forest School where we explored various habitats and the creatures living within them (Year 5 and 6);
Working hard to develop our understanding of the links between Fractions and Decimals using various models (Year 5);
Completing our Platinum Project – where we researched multiple aspects of our monarchy, specifically Queen Elizabeth 2^nd, and created various pieces of writing and images in response to what we found out (Year 5);
Revising in preparation for each of our SATs (Year 6);
Finding out more about the history of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Music and learning the lyrics to ‘Rock Around the Clock’ (Year 5 and 6);
Practising for Sports Day and cheering each other on;
Using our structural skills to build classroom dens to hang out in with our friends and eat our special ‘End of SATs Pizza Lunch’ (Year 6);

and

Enjoying some relaxing tree climbing, den building and outside time in Forest School after a busy week.

Well done Kites – you have shown understanding, enthusiasm and resilience!

Week Beginning Monday 2^nd May

Year 5 and 6 have been brilliant amongst the hustle and bustle of this week’s learning.

Some highlights from our learning have included:

Continuing our learning about Living Things and their Habitats;
Working hard to review our arithmetic and reasoning skills (Year 6) and using fractions to solve problems (Year 5);
Immersing ourselves in the events surrounding Moses’ early life in RE;
Completing a piece of writing called ‘Under the Bed’ to make use of our developing SPaG skills (Year 5);
Reviewing our reading comprehension skills and SPaG knowledge in preparation for SATs week (Year 6);
Learning about the roles of Athens, Sparta and Corinth in the Peloponnesian Wars;
Finding out about the history of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Music and learning the moves to ‘Born to Hand Jive’ a classic Rock ‘n’ Roll track in PE;

and

Discovering what happens when a volcano erupts.

Well done Kites – you have shown great enthusiasm and resilience!

Year 6 - Please remember…we believe in you 😊

Week Beginning Monday 25th April

Although this has been a shorter week than usual, Kite class have packed in some fantastic learning including:

Exploring the characters and story within the opening of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet;
Year 6 investing valuable time refreshing their key GPS (Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling) skills as well as their reading comprehension skills whilst Year 5 have been learning some new grammar and punctuation features to apply in their writing;
Year 5 going on a scientific fact hunt to find out more about the functions of parts of flowering plants and the role of the wind and insects in pollination;
Finding out about the what's inside the planet on which we live in Geography where we identified the 4 key layers within planet Earth;
Year 6 reviewing various Maths skills (including shape, measurement, angles, area and perimeter) and even trying an arithmetic paper in the hall setting to get a feel for it/ Year 5 have been securing their knowledge of fractions of amounts;
Rehearsing the skills of relay races in PE
and
Learning about the significance of the story of Joseph and his coat of many colours to Jewish people.

We do hope everyone enjoys the long weekend and look forward to seeing you all fresh and ready to learn again on Tuesday.

KINGSWOOD RESIDENTIAL TRIP MARCH 2022 - CLICK THE LINK BELOW!

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Week Beginning Monday 18^th April

Kite class have enjoyed their first week of the summer term.

Some of the highlights have included:

Completing our Agriculture unit by considering the processes involved in various types of farming and the impact of particular areas of farming including sheep farming in Wales;
Working hard to develop our algebraic skill base (Year 6) and consolidating fractions (Year 5);
Immersing ourselves in the events and outcomes of three key Persian Greek wars;
Exploring the works of Shakespeare particularly the story of Romeo and Juliet with a focus on using our retrieval and inference skills to find out about the main characters;
Enjoying significant stories from the Jewish bible in RE;
Learnt how to classify living things using the Linnaean system (Year 6) and learning how to dissect flowers to investigate their component parts (Year 5);

and

Completing our Golden Mile run and time check in the sunshine (Great resilience was shown by all).

Gosh! What a lot of learning in just three days – well done Kites!

Week Beginning Monday 28th March

Kite class have enjoyed our final week of this term and have:

Consolidated our knowledge of ancient Greek gods and goddesses by researching and creating an eye-catching double-page spread non-chronological report on the topic;
Learnt about the Greek language and acted out a phase of Homer’s well-known story - The Iliad;
Tested our design skills by creating a coat of arms inspired by our personal preferences;
Discussed agriculture and the changing landscape, as well as how food affects farming;
Tightened up our knowledge of Punctuation and Grammar terminology through a series of mini-SPaG challenges;
Used two step rules to solve reasoning problems and have begun to form expressions in algebra (Year 6), as well as test our protractor skills in a very ‘hands on’ way. Year 5 have been accurately subtracting fractions (Year 5).
Developed our classification skills to group animals (Year 6) and reviewed the main parts of a flower (Year 5);
Enjoyed Year 5/6 challenge games outside in the spring sunshine;

and

Had a fabulous time hunting for Easter eggs.

🐇🎉We wish you all a happy and healthy Easter holiday. 🎉🐇

Week Beginning Monday 21st March

We started this week in Kite class by:

Reviewing our knowledge of ancient Greek gods and goddesses;
Completing the intricate artwork for our Mother’s Day cards;
Finalising our vocal compositions using graphic scores and performing to our peers;
Taking part in a SPaG race to help practise our Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar skills;
Finding a one and two step rule in algebra (Year 6) and adding mixed numbers (Year 5).

Year 5 embarked on their exciting residential to Norfolk on Wednesday whilst Year 6 stayed at school to:

Enjoy an afternoon-long Computing project;
Craft paragraphs for the Climax, Falling Action and Resolution in a narrative based on the short film ‘The Lighthouse’;
Complete some SATs review activities;
Use our classification skills to group animals in the context of ‘The World’s Best (and most organized) Zoo;

and

Have a fabulous time at Forest School to end the week.

Week Beginning Monday 14th March

Throughout this week, Kite class have been enjoying learning about:

The strength of the Greek city states in the face of the growing Persian Empire under the rule of King Darius;
Being a climate change hero through our NFU Live lesson for British Science week;
How to have a ‘healthy’ food plate – for both ourselves and the planet (also as part of our learning for British Science Week);
The process of creating a set of instructions which teach us ‘How to Care for a Fantastic Beast’ of our choice;
About pastoral and mixed agriculture in Geography;
Finding missing values when calculating percentages and starting to explore algebra (Year 6) and continuing our fractions journey (Year 5)
Judaism and two important figures within the faith called Abram and Sarai (in RE);
How to create and link poses using transitions in our dance unit – ‘Dance by Chance’;
Using zentangles to create a piece of spring themed Mother’s Day art;

We also enjoyed celebrating Red Nose Day 2022 on Friday!

Week Beginning Monday 7th March

Kite class have been hard at work this week learning:

About the expansion of the Persian Empire under the changing rule of King Cyrus and later King Darius;
How to use our persuasive language structures and vocabulary choices to effectively engage an audience in the final versions of our travel brochures;
How to investigate the impact of friction on the movement of everyday objects on various surfaces (such as shoes moving across a floor) using a digital investigation tool (Year 5) in Science;
About pastoral agriculture in Geography;
How to balance the benefits against the risk of an activity (PSHE);
How to find equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages to allow us to order values efficiently (Year 6) and calculated with fractions (Year 5);
About a new religion – Judaism - in RE;
To use relationships and space to change how a performance looks in our dance unit – ‘Dance by Chance’;

and

How to combine our understanding of vocal compositions and graphic scores to create a composition which represents a colour of choice in Music.

Week Beginning Monday 28th February

What a fun packed week of festivities we have enjoyed in Kite class this week! In between celebrating Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) and World Book Day, we have:

Begun learning about the growing kingdom of Persia under the rule of King Cyrus in History;
Taken part in the House Pancake Race on Shrove Tuesday;
Developed our persuasive language structures and vocabulary choices to engage the audience for our travel brochures;
Concluded our investigation into the impact of water resistance on variously shaped objects (Year 5) in Science;
Participated in the World Book Day live lesson and held our own Book Café to experience our first ever ‘Book Tasting’ session;
Started to learn about the different forms of agriculture in Geography;
Listened to authors and illustrators including Cressida Cowell, Humza Arshad, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Maisie Chan live at the Cambridge Theatre to launch World Book Day;
Learnt how to convert fractions to decimals and their link to percentages (Year 6) and compared/ ordered fractions (Year 5);
Concluded our teaching about the Hindu faith, with a focus on the specific festivities for deities like Parvarti, Ganesha, etc, in RE;
Developed our understanding of dynamics in our new dance unit – ‘Dance by Chance’;

and

Made time to enjoy all the World Book Day pyjama wearing and special menu eating; book reading; library using; Story Suitcase Showcase visiting (well done to everyone who joined in the competition); book tasting and story sharing on offer during World Book Day. What a wonderfully full and fabulous week!

Week Beginning Monday 21st February

Welcome back to the new half term. In Kite class, we have leapt in by:

Consolidating our knowledge of the Indus Valley civilisation and trying to solve the remaining puzzles they left us;
Using our powers of persuasion to develop powerful vocabulary for some persuasive travel destination brochures;
Investigating the impact of water resistance on variously shaped objects (Year 5) in Science;
Drawing together our geography knowledge of settlements;
Performing and evaluating our vocal compositions based on a visual stimulus;
Deepening our understanding of calculating with decimals and their link to percentages (Year 6) and manipulating Fractions (Year 5);
Merging our learning of the origin story of the Hindu god, Ganesha, with the role of Shiva in beginnings and endings for Hindus, in RE;
Beginning our new dance unit – ‘Dance by Chance’;

and

Making time to celebrate the palindromic date – 22/02/2022 – on a very special ‘Twos-day’ at exactly 2:22pm.

Week Beginning Monday 7^th February

In this final week of the half term, Kite class have:

Celebrated the new Lunar New Year with our little buddies in Ladybirds (Year 6);
Spent some time engaging with activities to support our understanding of children’s mental health and well-being week,
Met two authors – Christopher Edge (author of ‘The Escape Room’) and Jenny McLachlan (author of ‘The Land of Roar’ trilogy)– as part of an online literary event;
Learnt how the Indus Valley people ran a system of trade and bartering rather than using money, as well as how this impacted on their ability and need to travel;
Challenged our reading comprehension skills in English;
Found out about fossils and their link to the topic of Evolution (Year 6) and Partially proved our parachute hypothesis through investigation (Year 5) in Science;
Understood how to create vocal compositions from a visual stimulus;
Deepened our understanding of Position and Direction with a focus on Transition and Reflection (Year 6) and secured our foundation of knowledge of Fractions (Year 5);
Focused our learning on the origin story of the Hindu god, Ganesha, in RE;

and

Learnt how to combine more challenging balances, movements and apparatus within a short gymnastic performance.

Week Beginning Monday 31^st January

We have made it to the end of this rather long month and embraced February. Kite class have also:

Celebrated the start of the new Lunar New Year (it’s the Year of the Tiger) and our super day of all the ‘2s’ – 2:22pm on 2^nd day of the 2^nd month in the year 2022 (2:22pm 2/2/2022 – we created our own calculation challenges based around all those ‘2s’);
Learnt how the Indus Valley people used technology to help them make ‘wonderful things’ – like the replica clay tiles we made drawing on archaeological sources to guide us;
Understood how to represent a piece of music as a graphic score;
Deepened our reasoning skills when working with fractions and started our new unit about Position and Direction (Year 6) and secured our division skills when using working with remainders (Year 5);
Completed our Fairy Tale Times Newspaper reports using reporting language as well as inverted commas around our source quotes;
Focused our learning on the Hindu god, Ganesha, in RE;

and

Learnt how to combine more challenging balances, movements and apparatus within a short gymnastic sequence.

Week Beginning Monday 24^th January

This week in Kite class, we have:

Learnt about ‘Synesthesia’ – people who see colours/ shapes/ images when they hear music – and completed our own synesthesia experiments using various pieces of classical music;
Defined what gives a certain type of settlement its status;
Improved our reasoning skills when working with fractions, including the Four Operations Rules (Year 6) and division skills when using various methods (Year 5);
Learnt more about how the Indus Valley people made use of marvelous early technology to create impressive cities;
Completed our phased narrative (called Lune et l’Autre) that shows changes in atmosphere and makes use of figurative language and our growing vocabularies;
Discovered more about the important gods which Hindus worship in RE;
Learnt how to combine more challenging balances, movements and apparatus within a short gymnastic sequence;

and

A better understanding of the what a budget is and how best to make use of one in our futures.

Week Beginning Monday 17^th January

This week in Kite class, we have:

Completed the final phase of our ‘Art through the Ages’ project by adding the finishing flourishes of colour to our Picasso Portraits (Year 5) and painted our Dali ‘Melting Time’ sculptures before photographing them for display (We later added our creations to the whole school gallery which we also visited so we could enjoy everyone else’s marvelous artwork.);
Worked hard to develop our calculating fractions and mixed number skills including all four operations (Year 6) and multiplying using a formal written method (Year 5);
Learnt more about the Indus Valley civilization through the puzzles archaeologists have faced;
Been inspired by a short film to help us write a phased narrative that shows changes in atmosphere and makes use of figurative language;
Found out further details about how, where and why Hindus worship together in RE;
Learnt how to use more challenging balances and movements within a short gymnastic sequence;

and

A better understanding of the difference between wants and needs and how to balance our life goals.

Spring Term Week Beginning Monday 10^th January

Kite class have enjoyed their first full week of the Spring term.

Some of the highlights have included:

Completing the next phase of our ‘Art through the Ages’ project – Picasso Portraits (Year 5) and Dali Melting time sculptures;
Working hard to develop our calculating fractions and mixed number skills (Year 6) and calculating the area and perimeter of compound shapes (Year 5);
Immersing ourselves in our learning about the Indus Valley civilization and finding out a bit more about different types of settlement around the globe;
Using our research to write a biography of a famous artist;
Finding out about how Hindus worship together in RE;
Learning how to use our rolls and linking movements to create a canon or synchronisation movement;

and

Finding our more about the role of a budget and taxes within our country.

Spring Term 2022 - Week Beginning Monday 3rd January

Welcome Back Kite Class!

We hope you all had a fantastic holiday and enjoyed a good rest with your families.

Although we have only been back for two days this week, we have already enjoyed:

- Starting our art projects on Pablo Picasso (Year 5) focusing on his portraits and Salvador Dali (Year 6) focusing on his piece 'The Persistence of Memory';

- Starting our biography research on the same artists (Picasso/ Dali) in English;

- Practising addition/ subtraction of fractions (Year 6) and reviewing the calculation of Area and Perimeter (Year 5);

- Learning about what inflation is and what role money plays in our lives and may play in our job choices for the future;

and

- developing our rolls in PE.

We are already looking forward to more fun in our learning next week!