Kite Class 2022

Video message from Mr Sweeney.MOV

2022 - 2023 Summer Term Topic Webs

2022-2023 Spring Term Topic Webs

2022 - 2023 Autumn Term Topic Webs

Week Beginning Monday 10th July

Although we are wending our way to the end of term, Kites have still been keeping themselves busy with a range of learning opportunities. These have included:

- Forest School where we investigated the trees as an outdoor playground and made tasty s'mores;

- fun swimming sessions with our friends;

- transition morning where we got to move up to meet our new teacher and try some activities as if we were in our new year level; and our current Year 6s going to WVC next year got to visit their new school too;

- started to create our Leavers' assembly to share Year 6's memories with you all;

- RSE sessions;

- wonderful computing with Mrs. Bowen and Mrs Ashby and PE with Mr. Cox;

and

- completing the 2023 Stretham Step and Stride.

Well done everyone for a successful last full week!

Week Beginning Monday 3rd July

What a spectacular week in Year 5 and 6!

This week, we have:

- rehearsed for our KS2 performance;

- performed in our dress rehearsal to KS1 who seemed impressed by the acting and singing skills of the older children;

and

- performed two evening shows and wowed our families with our humorous performance of 'Pirates of the Curry Bean'.

We have also:

- completed some editing of our extended flashback fiction write - 'Piano';

- squeezed in a bit of Maths practice;

- developed our tonal skills within our sketching;

- continued to develop our water confidence and stroke skills in swimming in between dodging rain showers;

- had fun in forest school, letting off a bit of steam from our busy week and making pizza wraps to cook over the fire;

and enjoyed our PE and Computing sessions as always.

Week Beginning Monday 26th June

This week, we have been:

- enjoying our swimming lessons and developing our water confidence, self-save skills and improving both the arm and leg work, as well as breathing for our key strokes;

- showing off the skills we have acquired in Maths and English through our PUMA and PIRA testing;

- continuing our flashback fiction writes based on an animation and soundtrack called the ‘Piano’;

- enjoying creating observational art where children were given sessions to handle, observe and sketch artefacts using a choice of materials;

- participating many rehearsal sessions for the KS2 production, including opportunities for our soloists and trio singers to continue to improve their songs in front of a small audience;

- continuing our weekly Computing lessons (with Mrs Bowen) and PE lesson with Mr Cox;

and

- wowed by our surprise visitor who arrived in a helicopter and spoke to us about water safety ahead of our summer holidays where we might encounter different water experiences.

What fascinating and important learning we can take away this week! 😊

Week Beginning Monday 19th June

This week, we have been making the most of the sunshine during break and lunch times. We have also been:

- enjoying our swimming lessons and developing our water confidence, self-save skills and improving the arm work/ breathing for our key strokes;

- working with data to create accurate pie charts and calculate the mean in Year 6 and have continued to work with decimals and negative numbers (Year 5) in Maths;

- completing our independent, fiction, free-writes based on an inspirational image;

- learning about the Sahara Desert (in Geography);

- finding out more about the movement and phases of the moon (in Science);

- enjoying our Art unit with a lesson called ‘Drawing Decisions’ which focused on the children calling upon their artistic skills/ experiences to make next steps decisions about their artwork;

- participating in several rehearsal sessions for the KS2 production, including opportunities for our soloists and trio singers to wow us with their songs;

and

- as always, enjoying our weekly Computing lessons (with Mrs Bowen) and PE lesson with Mr Cox.

What a lovely week Kite class! Keep up the good work and great attitudes. 😊

Week Beginning Monday 12th June

During this hot and sunny week, we have been:

- planning as a group to create a narrative including flashbacks based on a character's memories called 'Piano';

- writing independently to demonstrate how effectively we can use the vocabulary and structures we have gained this year in our own writing;

- learning how to engage with pie charts, including reading, interpreting, draw and creating percentages - Year 6 and in Year 5 we have calculated with decimals and tried to use the most efficient methods in Maths;

- learning about Ramadan in our Islam unit (in RE) and making links to our Year 5 Earth and Space science learning as well as our understanding of early Islamic civilisations (in History);

- asking 'Are deserts always hot?' (in Geography);

- enjoying further swimming pool sessions and building our water confidence and safety, as well as further developing some key strokes;

- continuing our new Art unit with a lesson called ‘Drawing Decisions’ which focused on investigating various techniques within mixed media (Year 5);

- participating in several read-throughs and rehearsal sessions for the KS2 production;

and

- enjoying our weekly French lesson (with Madame Connolly), Computing lesson (with Mrs Bowen) and PE lesson (with Mr Cox).

Well done for surviving such a warm week and still engaging with your learning so well Kite class. 😊

Week Beginning Monday 5th June

Welcome back Kite class! After resting and relaxing in half term, you have come back ready to jump into the fast-paced final half term of the academic year. This week, we have been:

- practising for and participating in school Sports Day – the flat races were impressively fast this year. Year 5 wowed with their nimble footwork in their obstacle race and Year 6 got rather soggy in their traditional water race;

- calculating the area of parallelograms and the volume of cuboids in Year 6 and in Year 5 reviewing our times table and decimal knowledge in Maths;

- completing independent non-fiction writes entitled, ‘How do humans live with earthquakes?’, to utilise our Geography learning about Earthquakes;

- learning about the message of Jesus spreading to Rome (in RE) and Muhammad’s return to Makkah (in History);

- getting into the swimming pool for the first time this season and testing out our foundation skills of floating, gliding and some key strokes;

- beginning our new Art unit with a lesson called ‘I need Space’ which focused on the power of imagery in 1950s/ 60s space race advertising and propaganda (Year 5);

- participating in a transition to secondary workshop for Year 6 which helped them to learn how to manage worries and protect their mental health and well-being;

and

- enjoyed our weekly Computing lesson (with Mrs Bowen) and PE lesson (with Mr Cox).

What a wonderful first week back Kite class! Well done 😊

Week Beginning 22nd May

After a week spent on Residential (Year 6) and completing a fabulous micro-project based on our science unit - Living Things (Year5), it was lovely to get back together for a final four days of this half term.

This week, Kite class have:

- read and used a classic fairytale to identify a problem that required solving;

- completed a STEM project to create a vehicle to solve a given problem;

- made use of our scientific knowledge about forces and D.T. awareness of structures to inform our vehicle designs;

- written a set of informative instructions detailing how to build an aquatic vehicle for a safe fairytale getaway (with lots of helpful hints/ tips for our readers);

- built our vehicle designs to make prototypes for testing;

- tested our vessels on a body of water (the pool!) to see if they met the brief.

Year 6 have also successfully auditioned for and been given their parts in this year's production - how exciting! Scripts have been given and lines are ready to be learnt. Year 5 will make such a valuable support crew too. We can't wait to start rehearsals!

Have a fantastic half term everyone!

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 8th May

After enjoying yet another lovely, long weekend (courtesy of a Bank Holiday for the King’s coronation), Kite class have been working hard on:

- participating in SATs testing across the areas of Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling, Reading and Maths (both arithmetic and reasoning) in Year 6;

- completing various revision sessions to help prepare our minds prior to each session of testing (Year 6);

- taking on ‘Year 6 Guardian Angel’ duties for the whole week for the first time as a little taster of what life as a Year 6 could be like next year and as a helping hand to our friends in Year 6 (Year 5);

- measuring/ calculating angles within shapes, looking at regular/ irregular shapes and reviewing our knowledge of 3-d shapes (Year 5) in Maths;

- completing our own write entitled, ‘The Day Everything Shook’, to utilise our Geography learning about Earthquakes, how they happen and what it is like to experience an earthquake first hand;

- learning about the new message that pagan Arabs received from Muhammad, how this message changed the lives of so many Arabs at this time and how Muslim persecution had begun (History); finding out about how we can measure (Geography) and learning how the message of Jesus spread to the Gentiles (in RE);

- continuing our Living Things and Habitats unit, with a focus on endangered creatures and their habitats in Year 5 Science;

- picturing Pop Art through music (Year 5);

and

- creating some one-off animal art, inventing our own PE related games and making dens as part of our relaxing treat afternoon for the end of Year 6 SATs testing celebrations.

Thank you for your support Year 5 and well done Year 6 for showing resilience throughout this demanding week. 😊

Week Beginning Monday 1^st May

After enjoying an extra day in our Bank Holiday weekend, Kite class have been working hard on:

- reviewing SPaG knowledge of Progressive Tenses (Year 5) and a personalised review of our own ‘tricky’ sections of SPaG (Year 6);

- revisiting reasoning skills across the topics of Angles, Statistics, Position and Direction (Year 6) and measuring/ calculating angles within shapes (Year 5) in Maths;

- further reviewing key reading comprehension skills (including retrieval, ordering events, summarising and inference);

- learning about the life of sixth century pagan Arabs living within tribes/ clans (History); finding out about how/why earthquakes happen on fault lines like The San Andreas Fault (Geography) and learning about Stephen, Saul and the Road to Damascus (in RE);

- continuing our new unit about Living Things and Habitats, with a focus on creatures which lay eggs and comparing their lifestyles to the lifestyles of other creatures in Year 5 and Linnaeus classification in Year 6, Science;

- picturing Pop Art through music;

and

- beginning our coronation celebrations as a school community by creating a collective art installation of a crown in the style of Andy Goldsworthy.

Have a wonderful, restful weekend!

Week Beginning Monday 24^th March

This week, Kite class have been working hard on:

- reviewing key reading comprehension skills (including retrieval, ordering events, summarising and inference);

- learning how to design for a purpose with a focus on Adverts (Art & Design);

- reviewing SPaG knowledge of Modal Verbs (Year 5) and Determiners/ Pronouns (Year 6);

- revisited the skill of finding Percentages of Amounts and how to calculate Area, Perimeter and Volume, as well as reviewing key mathematical terminology/ methodology (Year 6) and started our Shape unit (Year 5) in Maths;

- learning about what life was like from Muhammad growing up in the desert (History); finding out why earthquakes happen (Geography) and learning about Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost (in RE);

- continuing our new unit about Living Things and Habitats, with a focus on the process of metamorphosis in Year 5 and classifying plants in Year 6, Science;

- exploring rhythms through our Pop Art music unit;

and

- developing our throwing accuracy and catching skills in cricket.

Week Beginning Monday 17^th March

Welcome back to the summer term Kite class!

This week, Kite class have put their energies into:

- reviewing key SPaG knowledge (including conjunctions, relative clauses, main clauses and subordinating clauses);

- squeezing in an extra art session where we tested out the geometric patterns and designs usually found in Islamic art, which show beautiful symmetry;

- reviewing our key reading comprehension skills and finding out some good strategies to use for different text types;

- revisited the skill of moving between Fractions/ Decimals/ Percentages, as well as key mathematical terminology (Year 6) in Maths;

- learning about the desert (not dessert!) city of Makkah and the birth of Islam (History); discovering what it would be like to experience an earthquake by re-enacting the Christchurch earthquake of 2010 from a first-hand account (Geography) and by learning about Jesus’ ascension (in RE);

- continuing our new unit about Living Things and Habitats, with a focus on the lifecycle of mammals in Year 5 and continuing classification in Year 6, Science;

- continuing to listen to ‘A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’ and creating a body percussion accompaniment;

- starting to develop our multi-discipline skills in athletics;

and

-enjoying learning more about ‘Crumbles’ and ‘Micro:bits’ in Computing.

Week Beginning Monday 27^th March

This week, Kite class have:

- enjoyed learning more about the meaning behind Easter and participating in the Gener8 assembly on Monday afternoon,

- squeezed in a quick ball skill review in between showers to support our tennis skill development (PE);

- completed our balanced argument responses to the question - Is there any value in gaming?;

- calculated the perimeter and area of various regular/ irregular shapes (Year 5) and learnt how to use division to convert fractions to decimals and found the links between Fractions/ Decimals/ Percentages (Year 6) in Maths;

- refreshed our knowledge of words which contain the ‘u’ sound which can be spelt with a ‘u’ or an ‘ou’ in our SPaG sessions to help us spell these words accurately in our writing;

- been surprised by the rapid changes which saw Aksum become a Christian state (History); understood the importance of sustainable tourism (Geography) and learnt about the final stage of the Easter story (in RE);

- all begun our new unit about Living Things and Habitats, with a focus on the reproduction of plants in Year 5 and classification in Year 6, Science;

- used the text ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom’ to discuss social conventions and how important they are to help people understand personal boundaries;

- sketched our ‘sweet wrapper’ collage using careful observation and beginning to add shading/ colour;

- continued to listen to various pieces of music and make links to Pop Art images;

- written independently on the theme of Easter based on various fiction/ non-fiction prompts;

and

-enjoyed participating in the fun, whole school Easter egg hunt.

Well done for completing the second term of this academic year. Enjoy a restful holiday with your families – Happy Easter from all at Stretham 😊

Week Beginning Monday 20^th March

This week, Kite class have:

- revisited the rules of serving and develop the volley skill to enable us to have a rally in our tennis unit (PE);

- looked at the structure required in a balanced argument text and began to find points ‘For’, ‘Against’ and supporting evidence to respond to the question - Is there any value in gaming?;

- learnt more about calculating the perimeter of various shapes (Year 5) and learnt how to form equations and solve 1 & 2 step problems to find the value of ‘x’ (Year 6) in Maths;

- refreshed our knowledge of words which contain the ‘i’ sound which can be spelt with a ‘y’ in our SPaG sessions to help us spell these words accurately in our writing;

- been amazed by the high and holy church carved out of the mountainside by Ethiopian Christians 1500 years ago (History); understood why people choose to become tourists in popular, sunny locations (Geography) and learnt the resurrection of Jesus and how we celebrate Easter (in RE);

- investigated the force known as Friction recording our findings and knowledge of this force in an informative poster (Year 5) and began our new unit about Living Things and Habitats (Year 6) in Science;

- discussed how important it is to know what sort of social boundaries are appropriate in friendships;

- created a collage from the packaging of our favourite sweets and snacks which we will carefully observe and sketch next week;

and

- listened to ‘A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’, discussed the instruments involved in the orchestra and tried to link various Pop Art images to the different sections/ instruments.

Finally, a big thank you to all Kite class families for your ‘pink’ donations for the Rainbow Raffle. They were very much appreciated!

Week Beginning Monday 13^th March

This week, Kite class have:

- continued to build our fundamental hand-eye coordination 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 learned 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 Monday 6^th March

This week, Kite class have:

- revisited our fundamental hand-eye coordination to reinforce the key skills of a forehand and backhand ground stroke to enable us to have a rally in our tennis unit (PE);

- enjoyed planning and writing a sensory ‘A Day in the Life of…’ piece from a 1^st person, in character perspective;

- linking our knowledge of fractions, decimals and percentages (Year 5) and learning how to form expressions and complete substitutions to find algebraic solutions (Year 6) in Maths;

- refreshed our knowledge of words which use the ‘que’ spelling for a ‘k’ sound or a ‘gue’ spelling for a ‘g’ sound in our SPaG sessions to help us spell words (like technique / tongue) accurately in our writing;

- discovered how the Byzantine empire changed and continued as the Roman empire declined (History); understood about mountain-based tourism and how it generates finance (Geography) and learnt about what happened when Jesus was arrested, condemned and punished (in RE);

- completed our own investigations into gravity, friction and air resistance by designing, making and testing our own perfect parachute designs (Year 5) and learning about the Linnaeus classification system (Year 6) in Science;

- enjoyed some e-safety stories that encouraged us to be reflective about our own interactions with technology, especially online;

- created some artwork in the style of Magdalene Odundo using chalk pastels and colouring pencils in contracting colours;

- and found out about the links between Pop Art and music.

Week Beginning Monday 27th February

This week, Kite class have:

- developed our speaking and listening skills, when speaking as individuals and as a group, in preparation for our class assembly;

- revisited the key skills of a forehand and backhand ground stroke in our tennis unit (PE);

- enjoyed participating in the BBC Live lesson for World Book Day;

- developing our knowledge of decimals and percentages (Year 5) and embarking in to the world of Algebra (Year 6) in Maths;

- refreshed our knowledge of the rules around adding suffixes after a hard or soft ‘fer’ sound in our SPaG sessions to help us spell words (like referring / inference) accurately in our writing;

- discovered when, how and why emperor Constantine made a big change to participation in religious worship within the Roman empire (History); understood more about the different types of tourism and the finance that surrounds them (Geography) and learnt about The Last Supper (in RE);

- created our beautiful interpretation of the ‘Strangeworlds Travel Agency’ book series in the form of a hot air balloon to be displayed in our Reading for Pleasure display in the library;

- and learnt more about notation in Music.

In addition to all this fantastic weekly learning, we also gathered as a school community to revel in the 26^th World Book Day celebrations on Friday. Children across the school participated in a range of activities including mixed year level shared and buddy reads. It was a lovely day to celebrate reading for pleasure by ‘getting comfy’ and ‘snuggling up with a book’! Don’t forget to use your £1 World Book Day tokens to get a free WBD book. You can preview this year’s books on offer here: https://www.worldbookday.com/books/

There are also lots of ways for you to continue the World Book Day celebrations and book related fun at home to be found here: https://www.worldbookday.com/families/

Enjoy!

Week Beginning Monday 20th February

Welcome back to you all after our half term break. This week, Kite class have:

- found the connections between fractions and decimals to help ordering in Year 5 and we have developed our confidence with Reasoning of the topic of Ratio and have developed our scaling skills in Year 6;

- familiarised ourselves with the basics of hand-eye coordination, as well as ball and racket control in our new tennis unit (PE);

- written final versions of our biographies for the two scientists we have been studying -Sir Isaac Newton (Year 5) and Charles Darwin (Year 6) ;

- refreshed our knowledge of the ‘i before e except after c rule’ in our SPaG sessions to help us spell words (like believe/ receive) accurately in our writing;

- summarised our knowledge about the Romans in Britain, What Christians understand from the teachings of Jesus and Coastal Processes in our humanities sessions before starting our new units on Christians in the Roman Empire (History), Tourism (Geography) and finding out about why bible stories are so important to Christians (in RE);

- recreated the beautiful and moving painting called ‘Gassed’ by John Singer Sargent discussing the artist’s use of colour, composition and subject matter to develop our whole unit focus that ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’;

- and researched more about gravity, air resistance and drag to design 3 perfect parachute prototypes for testing (Year 5) and hunted for evidence of Evolution, specifically looking at the fossilised remains of horse-like species (Year 6) in Science.

In addition to all this fantastic learning, we also met as a school community to celebrate Shrove Tuesday with our traditional, annual Pancake Race on Tuesday afternoon. Congratulations to Sapphire House who were this year’s winners.

Week Beginning Monday 6th February

This week, Kite class had a wonderful start to the week with KS2 Roman Day. What a fascinating and exciting day we shared together! We started the day with ‘Clodia’ introducing herself and explaining how the Roman invasion impacted the way of life in Britannia. We saw how the Romans worked their way across the country on a giant floor map. After play, we participated in ‘The Centurian’s Parade’ with Clodia’s husband, Marcus, where we marched with Roman shields and tried our skills with a variety of weaponry. We also went from ‘Forum to Culina’, matching Latin names to English names of things that we could buy at the Forum. Our other activities were handling replica Roman artefacts including the strigil and a vanity set and we also played some very competitive rounds of Quinque Lineae. After all this excitement, we then met together to see replica weapons and Marcus demonstrated wearing full Roman armour (with a little help to put it on from Mr Lawrence and Mr Coackley). Finally, we learned that Clodia and Marcus were to settle in Lincolnshire and we helped them to design a plan for their villa. It was a fantastic day where we all learned so much and it definitely helped bring our learning of the Romans to life!

We have also:

- continued to find the connections between fractions and decimals in Year 5 and have developed our confidence with Ratio and Scaling in Year 6;

- started to write effective biographies for the two scientists we have been studying -Sir Isaac Newton (Year 5) and Charles Darwin (Year 6);

- refreshed our knowledge of -able/ -ably/ -ible/ -ibly suffixes in our SPaG sessions to help us make use of them in our writing;

- continued our humanities learning about the diverse group of people who made up the group we know as Romans, both in Britannia and around the wider empire (History), looking at different coastal features of West Wales (Geography) and finding out about the Transfiguration of Jesus (in RE);

- read the poem called ‘The British’ in PSHE to find out more about the marvellous cultural melting pot that we live in;

- and used what we already know about gravity and air resistance to start designing perfect parachute prototypes (Year 5) and explored how Darwin used his finch observations to explain his Theory of Evolution (Year 6) Science.

Week Beginning Monday 30th January

This week, Kite 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 Monday 23rd January

This week, Kite class have:

- been working with fractions in both Year 5 and 6, looking at standard and some non-standard ways to find fractions of amounts;

- investigated persuasive language and how it looks in various settings;

- written a persuasive speech (making use of key strategies including 'The Rule of Three', Repetition and Rhetorical questions) in role as Boudicca, the warrior queen, inspired by our learning in History;

- refreshed our knowledge of using the ‘-cious/ -tious’ suffix in our SPaG sessions to help us make use of them in our writing;

- participated in a gymnastics session to develop our higher-level poses including shoulder stands and bridges;

- explored perceptions of gender amongst their peers and in the media;

- continued our humanities learning about structures of Roman towns such as Aquae Sulis – aka Bath (History), fascinating fossil-based finds on the Jurassic Coast (Geography) and further stories around Jesus’ miracles and the parables (in RE);

-investigated adaptations within living things through a replica Darwin style beak investigation (Year 6) and finding out about Newtons work on gravity by using force meters;

- and began to look at the interesting inkblot work of Rorschach and what we see when we look at these unusual images (Art).

Week Beginning Monday 16th January

This week, Kite class have had a week of two halves, divided by the fabulous Young Voices event for Year 5 (and Year 4) on Wednesday. What a wonderfully enriching time the Year 5s had on their visit to the O2 arena in London! All the children got to enjoy sunny views over London before finding the meridian line outside the arena. We enjoyed a short lunch break after which we launched into a rehearsal, beatbox and dance masterclass, and a sound and light check in the afternoon. Everyone was ready to enjoy their packed teas – picnic style – before doing a final freshen up/ quick change prior to the start of the concert. We were delighted to be performing alongside exceptional musicians and performers including the legendary Heather Small, Beatbox Collective and the dance crew Urban Strides. It was a long day (and night) but we have all agreed that it was an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity for us all. Thank you to Mrs. Tait for her expert organising and choral training, as a result of it, we had a GREAT time.

We have also:

- solved problems using multiplication and learnt a formal method for short division (Year 5) and in Year 6, consolidated our knowledge of adding/ subtracting any fraction, as well as learning how to multiply and divide fractions (using the KFC method – ask your child to show you);

- looked at Chinese New Year themed poetry to unpick its structure, style and language, before using the content to complete a diary entry based on a young person’s experience of traditional Chinese New Year celebrations with their family;

- written poetry of our own, relying heavily on conscious language choices, themed on the Chinese New Year zodiac sign of the Rabbit;

- refreshed our knowledge of using the ‘-cial/ -tial’ suffix in our SPaG sessions to help us make use of them in our writing;

- participated in a gymnastics session to utilise our knowledge of different modes of travelling, including rolls, and various balances in either a canon or synchronised sequence;

- Continued our humanities learning about important figures in Britannia during the Roman invasion, including Caratacus and Boudicca (History), coastal landforms (such as wave notches, arches, stacks and spits in Geography) and further stories around Jesus’ disciples, specifically the Sermon on the Mount (in RE);

- and began to look at the controversial work of artist, Banksy, discussing the fine line between freedom of expression and vandalism (Art).

Week Beginning Monday 9th January

After our first full week, Kite class are now getting back into the swing of things for the new term.

This week, we have:

- developed our awareness of fractions, using this knowledge to find equivalents, order them, as well as add and subtract them;

- completed a slow writing task based on a Literacy Shed image based in a shadowy forest setting to enable us to use varied sentence structures, styles and GPS features;

- refreshed our knowledge of using the ‘-ous’ suffix in our SPaG sessions to help us make use of them in our writing;

- participated in a gymnastics session to review our knowledge and skills around rolls, including straight, forward, straddle and backwards rolls;

- identified different forces in action (Year 5) and discovered the foundations of inheritance that make us - us (Year 6) in Science;

- Continued our humanities learning about how the Romans invaded Britannia (History), various coastal processes (including erosion, transportation and deposition in Geography) and the stories around Jesus becoming baptised and tempted (in RE);

- and completed our adapted Roman Honey Biscuit recipe makeovers and packaging design (DT).

Week Beginning Monday 2nd January 2023

Welcome back Kite class! Although we've only been back in school for two days this week, we have had a fantastic time completing a DT project with a food technology focus. This week, we have:

- Made honey biscuits from an ancient Roman recipe (we developed our measuring and baking skills);

- Evaluated the process and the quality of our final bakes (some people REALLY enjoyed the taste testing element);

- Found out where our food comes from - farm to fork;

- Researched types of modern biscuits on the current market;

- Grouped biscuits using Venn or Carroll diagrams;

- Found out what makes different types of modern biscuit appealing to the current British and global market;

- Adapted the original Roman Honey Biscuit recipe to fit modern pallettes;

and

- Designed possible packing for our newly created biscuit by considering how to make it globally appealing (marketing strategies were actively discussed).

What a super start to the spring term Kite class have had!

Week Beginning Monday 19th December

We've had a lovely last few days in school before the start of the holidays. We have enjoyed lots of wonderful events including:

- watching the visiting pantomime - Aladdin;

- participating in the school church service;

- enjoying some festive quizzes and crafts in our classrooms;

- eating a delicious festive lunch with our friends and teachers;

and

- enjoying a final assembly together with a 'special' visitor.

May we wish you all a happy and healthy Christmas with your family and friends. We look forward to seing you all in January.

Week Beginning Monday 12^th December

In Kite class, we have continued to work hard in all areas of our learning this week, including:

- peer editing our festive themed free writes;

- discovering the sad realities of the Jewish Roman War (History);

- consolidating our Order of Operations knowledge and beginning our Fraction units (Year 6) and calculating with mixed numbers (Year 5);

- managing to complete a fitness session despite the icy weather (inside session);

- finding out about national identity and culture in Great Britain;

- enjoying watching the KS1 Nativity dress rehearsal

(Well Done KS1 – You were AMAZING!);

- collaborating to practise our comprehension skills of retrieval, summary, comparison and inference;

- understanding what gestation is and researching/ comparing the gestation periods in various animals (Year5) and rounding off our Electricity unit by demonstrating all the knowledge we have acquired (Year 6);

- finding out why the stories from the Bible are so important to Christians;

and

- polishing our Christmas church service offering.

$Discussing equivalent fractions using a fraction wall$

Week Beginning Monday 5^th December

Kite 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 Monday 28^th November

Kite class have thrown ourselves into our learning for another week by:

- continuing to review our GPS knowledge;

- comparing the Roman emperors Claudius and Nero (History);

- consolidating our approach for long division calculations to help us solve multi-step problems (Year 6) and comparing and ordering fractions (Year 5);

- independently planning, writing and editing a recount text based on event of our own choice;

- proceeding to the next step in our dance unit (PE) in which we have learnt Bhangra style motifs;

- finding out about the amazingly diverse capital city of Wales, Cardiff;

- collaboratively analysing the artistic works of Edward Hopper;

- discussing and demonstrating how we record data related to human growth (Year5) and annotating circuit diagrams in our Electricity unit (Year 6);

- continuing our retelling of the Nativity story with a focus this week on the visit by the wise men;

and

- welcoming Star Radio into the school to record our section of their ‘Sleeps til Santa’ song.

Week Beginning Monday 21^st November

After enjoying Kindness week and the success of our class assembly last week, Kite class have jumped straight back into their learning by:

- reviewing our GPS knowledge of sentence types, determiners, quantifiers and pronouns;

- finding out about the first emperor Augustus, originally known as Octavius, the very cunning Roman leader (History);

- practising long division calculations, using a choice of two methods and considering the best way to record remainders (Year 6) and learning to recognise equivalent fractions and convert fractions (Year 5);

- sharing our group reader ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom’ and discussing the clues we are uncovering about the main characters;

- continuing our dance unit in PE in which we created our own extensions to the dance pattern we have created using claps and stamps in small groups;

- finding out about the wonderfully diverse city of London;

- collaboratively designing and making a prototype hat to fulfil a purpose within a small group;

- demonstrating our knowledge of Animals including Humans by completing a timeline of the human life cycle and discussing how we record data related to human growth (Year5) and beginning to design circuits for practical purposes in our Electricity unit (Year 6);

- continuing to work on our Wallace and Gromit inspired invention explanation text;

and

- welcoming our families into the school to share in the fun of our Christmas Craft morning.

Week Beginning Monday 14^th November

This week, was Kindness Week at school. We started our series of events by wearing odd socks on Monday as a celebration of our differences. We ended the week by joining the rest of the country in raising money for Children in Need by dressing in spots and stripes.

In addition, Kite class have enjoyed:

- preparing for our assembly; we really enjoyed thinking of ways to share our learning;

- finding out about the renegade Roman leader, Julius Caesar (History);

- finding out how to complete long division calculations, using a choice of two methods (Year 6) and perfecting our multiplication skills before moving on to equivalent fractions (Year 5);

- sharing a book all about kindness called ‘Manu the Kiwi of Kindness’;

- continuing our dance unit in PE in which we created a dance using claps and stamps in small groups;

- finding out about migration and its impact on various locations around the world and more locally in the UK;

- developing performance poetry techniques;

- demonstrating our knowledge of Animals including Humans by creating a timeline of the human life cycle (Year5) and defining current and voltage in our Electricity unit (Year 6);

and

- successfully developing our ‘fogging’ techniques and finding ways to manage difficult social scenarios to avoid bullying and always use kindness (PSHE).

Week Beginning Monday 7^th November

This week, Kite 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);

and

- successfully using our zentangle pattern building skills to create repeating relief prints in an individual, as well as a whole class piece (Art).

Finally, a wonderful team of young sportsmen and sportswomen represented Year 5 and 6 from Stretham School at the Tag Rugby tournament in Ely. Well done for showing such enthusiasm and dedication to the team! We are really proud of you.

Week Beginning Monday 31^st October

Welcome back from your half term holidays. We have already had a fabulously full week of learning.

This week, Kite class have:

- completed Year 6 baseline assessments in English and Maths (Well done Year 6 – we know it was a tough week!);

- reviewed our key knowledge of the origin and development of the Roman Republic (History);

- revisited the formal written method for long multiplication and how to use it for problem solving (Year 6);

- created a piece of descriptive writing to independently showcase our writing skills;

- enjoyed out PE sessions, despite the rain;

- completed a comprehension skills review using the lyrics from the song ‘Top of the World’ from the film Lyle Lyle Crocodile;

- reviewed our knowledge of how Judaism and Christianity are linked through the gospels (RE);

- enjoyed exploring various pieces of film music and finding out why they are used/ needed in films;

- revisited our learning about the Rhine and the Mediterranean considering how they are changed by physical aspects as well as people (Geography);

- and successfully participated in Level 2 Bikeability training (Year 5). You were praised for your positivity, focus and excellent manners - Well done Year 5!

Week Beginning Monday 17^th October

What a jam packed half term we have had so far! So many new areas taught…so many lessons learnt.

This week, Kite 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;

- 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;

- learnt about multiples and factors (Year 5) and Primes & Squares and the formal written method for long multiplication;

- found out about the role of Scipio in saving Rome;

- created a piece of descriptive writing to independently showcase our writing skills;

- successfully completed their units on communication and collaboration (Year 6) and systems and sharing (Year 5) in Computing;

- experimented with reversible and irreversible changes (Year 5) and demonstrated our accumulated knowledge about Light (Year 6) in Science;

- played some successful, small scale games of Tag Rugby;

- 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;

- enjoyed using our pitch and control when confidently singing WW2 music;

- found out why the gospels are so important to Christians (RE);

- and created our Gustav Klimt inspired final, independent pieces in our sketchbook spreads.

😊We all wish you a relaxing, happy and healthy half term! 😊

Week Beginning Monday 10^th October

This week, Kite class have:

- made use of our SPaG skills by including comparatives (-er) and superlatives (-est) in our ‘Writing in Role’ task, where children choose to write a recount as one of Hannibal’s warriors or as one of the abducted women of the Sabine tribe;

- enjoyed a visit to Forest School (Year 5 – to learn about resilience in the natural world at this time of year and to create their own natural versions of Gustav Klimt’s artwork using autumn colours) or a visit to Soham Village College (Year 6 – to enjoy some S.T.E.M. experiences);

- continued to develop our number knowledge and calculation strategies (Year 5 and 6) – both mental and written;

- Acted out the 2nd Punic War, where Hannibal attacked Rome, in History and recorded our findings about Hannibal as a leader;

- investigated the best methods for separating materials including magnetic attraction, sieving and filtering (Year 5) and used various apparatus to explore and explain how the angles of incidence and reflection are the same (Year 6) in Science;

- enjoyed a show and tell time with our ‘little buddies’ in Ladybird class (Year 6);

- further improved our game play in small scale games of Tag Rugby;

- enjoyed developing our pitch and control when singing WW2 music;

- shared the next step in Mary’s story which involves her cousin Elizabeth (RE);

- and completed our Christmas card art project inspired by Gustav Klimt ready to send off to the printers.

Week Beginning Monday 3^rd October

Kite class enjoyed celebrating Harvest this week by sharing our own version of a Roman myth to explain the seasons. By retelling this ancient story, it reminded us how grateful we should all be for the things we have in our lives – both the big and the small.

This week, we have also:

- enjoyed an opportunity to develop our oracy/ spoken performance skills;

- used a visual stimulus to inspire a piece of descriptive writing which made use of our senses;

- used our newly reviewed place value knowledge to develop our addition and subtraction strategies (Year 5 and 6) – both mental and written;

- learnt more about how to spell words which end in -le, -el, -al and -il;

- discovered more about the 2nd Punic War, where Hannibal attacked Rome, in History;

- drawn some conclusions through our investigation about which thermal insulator is most fit for purpose (Year 5) and used the data from our shadow investigation to practise graphing (Year 6) in Science;

- improved our game play in small scale games of Tag Rugby;

- enjoyed singing WW2 music with expression to show off our pitch and control;

- found out more about the changing Rhine (Geography);

- shared the annunciation within Mary and Joseph’s story (RE);

- and finalised our Christmas card art project inspired by Gustav Klimt.

Week Beginning Monday 26th September

Kite class have shown some super listening and organisational skills during their learning this week.

This week, 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);

- collaborated with our learning partners to re-write a Roman myth/ legend in our own words. This story helped the Romans to explain the yearly harvest;

- 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.

Week Beginning Monday 19th September

After an unusual yet historic start to the week, Kite class have managed to stay on track with their learning. This week, we have:

- used our place value knowledge to sequence stages in tricky problems and solve them;

- combined our simple blocks of narrative for the legend of ‘Romulus and Remus' with hand drawn images and speech bubbles to make our own comic strip retelling;

- refreshed our knowledge of adding -ing for progressive tense verbs and using extended noun phrases in our SPaG sessions to help us make use of them in our writing;

- enjoyed time with our little buddies (Year 6);

- discussed the properties of thermal conductors and insulators to help us plan our own investigations (Year 5) and discovered how shadows are formed (Year 6) in Science;

- identified different ways of working together online (Year6);

- reviewed our knowledge of WW2 music;

- continued our humanities learning about the challenges between Carthage and Rome (History) and the city of Rotterdam on the Rhine (Geography);

- and created zentangle patterns over our watercolour base blocks for our Christmas card art project inspired by Gustav Klimt.

Week Beginning Monday 12th September

After our first full week, Kite class are now getting into the swing of things for the new school year.

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, using inverted commas and fronted adverbials in our SPaG sessions to help us make use of them in our writing;

- 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.

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.