Week Beginning Monday 15th July - Last week at Stretham for Year 6

...and so we come to our last website post of the academic year. In fact, it is also the last post of primary school for our lovely Year 6s of Kite class. This week, we have made the most of all our opportunities to try different enrichment activities and spend time together. We have:

- enjoyed a final trip together to Forest School where we made pizza wraps, sang around the fire and free played in the trees,

- swam in our fabulous school pool for the last few times,

- celebrated with our familes at Leavers' Evening,

- engaged with a fantastic Lego programming Masterclass run by Mr. Everest from Kings Ely, where we created vehicles to challenge each other in a programmable tug-o-war,

- completed our final free write based on an eerie short film stimulus called Alma,

- participated in our last couple of RSE sessions,

- spent time with our little buddies,

- engaged in PE with Mr. Cox and Computing with Mrs. Bowen for one last time,

- enjoyed our final, hard-earned reward time by watching the original 'The Wizard of Oz' and sharing tasty treats,

- packed up our school possessions;

and finally,

- said farewell to Stretham Primary School for the last time at our Leavers' Events (assembly, lunch and 'Parade of Honour') on the last day.

Thank you for being an outstanding Year 6 class, Kites. We have loved watching you blossom and bloom over your time at Stretham and are glad we got to be  part of your stories. We know that each and every one of your futures is bright so keep on shining! We will miss you all!

 

Week Beginning Monday 8th July

What an outstanding week in Kite class! 

Monday was the dress rehearsal for the UKS2 production of 'The Wizard of Oz' starring our Year 6 actors in the lead roles and supported by the Year 5 ensemble. The rehearsal was enjoyed by the remainder of the school and was a helpful preparation step before our two evening performances of the show on Tuesday and Wednesday. A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make the production possible, especially Jack Stinton from JSDC who provided the the sound and lighting expertise which helped our cast show off their skills on stage to perfection. A further thank you to all the community members who gave such positive feedback about the performances and made generous donations to our collection.

(Anyone still wishing to make a donation - however big or small- to the performance donation pot to help cover costs would still be able to until the end of the final week of term when Mrs Cullum will do a final count up for us to see if we have covered costs and have anything remaining to add into the Stretham Community Primary School fundraising pot.)

In addition to performing, Kite class have also enjoyed:

- engaging with some more 'Maths Eyes' reasoning challenges across various topics;

- getting in the pool to complete some distance swims and some free swim reward time too;

- making 3d paper/ card models of our ideal playground structure designs;

- starting our eerie, descriptive narratives based on a short film stimulus called 'Alma';

- participating in our final sponsored walk event at Stretham Primary - the Step and Stride to Little Thetford and back;

- athletics and games with Mr. Cox in PE and 

- Computing with Mrs. Bowen for almost the last time;

and

- a very special visit to Forest School with our little buddies from Ladybird class - where they shared their fireside bakes and we sang songs together. What a fabulous way to end the week!

On Friday, along with their reports, Kite class also brought home their SATs results. I'm sure you were as proud of your children as we were. They have done themselves proud.

Kite class, this has been a busy, challenging but brilliant week. We are very proud of all you have achieved!

Monday 1st July

This week, has been a full one with further transition days to secondary for some, as well as our usual lessons, and preparations for the production and the summer fair. 

Kites have particularly enjoyed:

• completing their free narrative write entitled "Made of More", based on a short film stimulus and incorporating as many author techniques as possible;
• creating programme designs for their production and prepping our stall for the summer fair;
• Editing their 'Made of More' write with their peers to seek advice about vocabulary, punctuation, spelling and structure choices;
• discussions around our 'Maths Eyes', where we used images to inspire conversations rich in mathematical language and pose questions to one another that seem simple at the outset but are actually quite complex when paired with the images;
• rehearsing as a Year 6 and also with all of UKS2 for our production - 'The Wizard of Oz' (It's really coming together now!). This production has given us valuable opportunities to develop our sense of musicality, to turn lines into drama and learn how to project our voices in a vaulted space in different ways for singing and speech;

We have also continued our swimming, PE, Computing and RHSE lessons in between all of the above.

Year 6 look forward to the week to come which will include our Dress Rehearsal - shown to the rest of the school, followed by our two performances on Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th July. We hope you've ordered your tickets!

If not, there is still time so please contact the office if you would like to book your places.

Week Beginning Monday 24th June

The week started with a bang for Kite class, who enjoyed their final Sports Day of primary school with their team mates across the 4 houses on Monday of this week. Kites gave their all to the flat races and very much enjoyed their novelty ‘Water Race’. They particularly enjoyed the end where Mr. Sweeney was a very good sport and accepted a playful dowsing by Year 6.

On Monday afternoon, the stage went up in the hall in preparation for the final staging of the UKS2 production. Kites have been fully immersed in their preparations for their UKS2 production of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and have enjoyed becoming their fantastical characters.

After our Rang-Tan writing project, we found out more about how palm oil plantations have been devastating natural areas of rainforest through deforestation. The children were shocked by the statistics we discovered about how many trees had been lost in the last year and the impact of the lost habitat on the rainforest homes of various creatures including orangutans. We decided to write letters to local supermarkets sharing our concerns about the number of products on their shelves that still contain palm oil and to ask them to consider our recommendation about stocking RSPO products instead.

Throughout the week, we have continued to read excerpts from our current Class Reader – ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar – and have discussed the writer’s hints at character features carefully woven within the text.

We have also been exploring the connections between Maths and Art by using number patterns and straight lines to create optical illusions.

We have enjoyed further swim sessions to continue to fine tune our strokes We have also continued our RSHE learning by comparing how the children perceive themselves physically and mentally now, how they think they will be as teenagers and then as grown-ups.

Finally, we have ended the week by going cloud gazing to inspire our planning for our writing assessment based on a short film called ‘Made of More’. Kites were given the freedom to write a piece of fiction inspired by the clouds we spotted in the skies over Stretham and the cloud that featured journeying through the short film we watched. Kites have planned in fine examples of figurative language, descriptive vocabulary and some interesting sentence structures.

Week Beginning 17th June 2024

In Kite class this week, we have leapt into production rehearsals and swimming with equal gusto.

In swimming, our focus has been developing or polishing our front and back crawl strokes. Some children have also been taking on the 'No Fear Float'. We know that if we can float...we can swim...and we can save ourselves. The resilience shown in the pool this week has been so pleasing to see.

As you can see from the photos, the production is well underway. We have started staging and marking out scenes. We have also enjoyed sessions with Year 5 to work on our collective songs. The stage will go up next week then we can really bring life to our show.

On top of all that, Year 6 have also kept going with their Rang-Tan diary writing task which deals with the topic of deforestation from the perspective of a creature living in that habitat. They have enjoyed some further Geography lessons about the Amazon Rainforest and some Maths challenges where we needed to reflect on our reasoning skills once more.

We were fortunate to have an opportunity to learn junior First Aid this week too. Annie, our trainer, gave us some very straightforward guidelines to follow so we could be the most help to someone in need if we were ever required to be. Annie also gave us our certificates and a special information booklet to take home to remind us of what we now know. It feels good to have the foundation of this important life skill before we head to secondary school.

We also enjoyed the Kickathon hosted by Premier Sport and were blown away by the  powerful kicks of our classmates.

Thankfully, the sun has come out and we have been able to enjoy some sessions of outdoor learning too including working on our DT playground designs and discussing our current class reader - Holes by Louis Sachar. 

Week Beginning Monday 10th June

Year 6 are back into the swing of school life and have really enjoyed the variety of activities on offer.

We have:

- enjoyed visits from the Cambridgeshire Smoking and Vaping Awareness and the Mental Health Support team as part of our transition to secondary school preparation;

- loved getting back into the new school pool for swimming lessons;

- using our programming knowledge to navigate a pathway for our M-Bots from Kite class all the way to Mr. Sweeney's office;

- leapt into the role of a young orangutan called Rang-Tan to write his diary documenting his experiences of deforestation in his rainforest home;

- completed the evaluation phase of our science invetstigations around the impact of forces of the design and flight of a hoop glider;

- reinvigorated our key Maths skills through various number challenges, where spotting the patterns in the numbers was the key to success;

- investigated structures within playground equipment and what make them structurally sound;

and

- started some intensive song and script practice for the UKS2 production.

Year 6 Residential - Caythorpe Court 2024

After a gentle start at school checking our bags and doing a quick script read through for production, we had lunch at school before hopping on the coach. We have now arrived safely at PGL Caythorpe Court. Our lovely leader Amber settled us into our rooms and took us off for a tour of the site. We marveled at the forest, lake and amazing activities on offer. Later, we enjoyed out first activity: climbing! Watch this space for photographs...

Day 2 Year 6 Residential Caythorpe Court

After a quiet night, we started our day with a hearty cooked breakfast, cereal and fruit. Then, it was off to Activity 1 - Disc Golf. We had a great time in the forest learning the art of combining golf and ultimate frisbee into a brand new sport. Later, we went back in to the woods for our Survivor sessions. It was fun to make use of our fire lighting skills and further developed our wittling and shelter building skills. We did so well we were able to 'weather the storm' that blew in as our final test.

We had a tasty lunch of chicken or cheeseburgers, chips and salad before heading off for the afternoon activities of archery and the favourite - Giant Swing. After a delicious dinner and a quick trip to the gift shop, we were out again braving the elements to take on the 'Passport to World' orienteering challenge. Well done to the winning team but a big well done to us all for surviving the session if somewhat soggy at the end of it!!

Day 3 - Year 6 Residential Caythorpe Court

Gosh! What an action packed day we have all enjoyed today! After another tasty, big breakfast, we dashed back to our dorms to get ready for our jammed packed, activity filled day. Our fun leaders led us through activities of: Raft Building, Problem Solving, High Ropes, Archery Tag and later, Balloon Splash after dinner. Our groups braved the ever changing weather during these energetic activities and loved every second. Everyone took on big personal challenges involving height or water and were really proud of breaking down their boundaries. The team building skills you are acquiring are a sight to behold. Well done everyone - you are amazing!! 

 

Day 4 - Year 6 Residential Caythorpe Court

A fabulous, final, full day at Caythorpe for Year 6 today. The sun was out for us and we celebrated a special birthday for one of our pupils too. Another tasty cooked breakfast with sides of toast, yoghurt and fruit fuelled us for activities which included: Fencing, Abseiling, a Sensory Trail and taking on the Trapeze. You can see from the photographs how much fun we have had and how courageous we have all been when taking on new challenges. Having our friends to support us really helped and a special visit from Mr Sweeney was a lovely surprise! He was so impressed by all we have experienced and achieved this week. After a delicious dinner, where some of the options included Garlic Breaded Chicken, Homemade meat or vegetarian lasagne and tasty salad, veggie and potato side dishes, we headed off for our last evening activity - a D-I-S-C-O! The children were delighted that their favourite leaders - Amber and Benny - were hosting the disco and were there to witness their fantastic dance moves. What a great way to spend our final evening of Residential!

 

Day 5 - Last Day of the Year 6 Residential to Caythorpe Court 2024

It was with mixed feelings that we started our final day at Caythorpe Court. Whilst we have all missed our families, we have had such an amazing experience with PGL at Caythorpe Court that it was hard to think about leaving. Fortunately, after a slightly earlier start to clean our dorms and complete the final pack up, we trooped off with our lovely leader Amber for our final hearty breakfast. Fuelled and ready to go, both groups took on our final two out of 19 activities tackled during our residential adventure. Group One went off to try their hand at the rifle range whilst Group Two took on the Vertical Challenge - one of our trickiest and most tiring climbing challenges to date. After a brief break, the groups switched activities so we all got to try our hand at both. Despite the tiredness creeping in, all the children gave their all to these final activities showing positive attitudes, resilience and the fantastic mutual support we have seen blossom over the course of the week. Well done Kites - you are an example to us all!

After a filling fish, chips and salad lunch, it was time to spend some final moments with our wonderful PGL leaders before grabbing our bags and heading for the coach for the ride back to Stretham. Just before we left, one of the senior PGL managers came out to say her goodbyes and presented each child with a little PGL bear as a gift from the team for being one of the most polite, enthusiastic and delightful school groups they have ever had through! I think that says it all. Here's to an amazing residential - Caythorpe Court 2024!

Year 6 Topic Web - Summer Term 2024

• Year 6 Topic Web Summer 2024 pdf.pdf

Week Beginning 20th May

In Year 6, we have made the most of being 'Post-SATs' to dive back into our curriculum this week. We have enjoyed PE with Mr Cox and Computing lessons with Mrs Bowen, where we used Microbits to take temperature reading around our school site to share with a national study.

We have enjoyed breaking down the 'Working Scientifically' portion of the Science curriculum into stages, such as problem solving, and focusing on them to demonstrate our prior knowledge when investigating.

Year 5 and 6 had such fun on our field trip to the University of Cambridge Botanic Gardens this week. It was fascinating to learn about the plants of various global biomes, to explore the botanic gardens and find the exceedingly tall redwoods.

We also enjoyed completing our Writing challenege - 'Recipes for Friendship'.

What a wonderful week before our half term holidays!

Year 5/6 Visit to the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge May 2024

Week Beginning Monday 13th May

What a week we have had Kites! This week, you completed SATs tests in the following areas:

- Monday - Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Paper 1 and Standalone Spelling - Paper 2

- Tuesday - Reading paper

- Wednesday - Maths Paper 1 - Arithmetic and Maths Paper 2 - Reasoning

- Thursday - Maths Paper 3 - Reasoning (2nd paper)

Every morning, we met for SATs Breakfast Club and tried to get outside for a bit of a play either before, part way through or after each of our tests (when the weather allowed). It was so nice to hear your calm chatter and see your smiling faces as you tucked into your choice of breakfast.

In the afternoons, we completed a little revision each day to ready us for the next day and then did something completely different (played games, did some art, enjoyed PE and Computing sessions, etc) to give our brains a break. 

By Friday, the testing was complete and you were ready for a well-deserved break....so roll on Den Building Day!

Your dens were just like you: creative, fun and utterly unique! It was lovely to see your practical, scientific and architectural skills in action. At one stage, one den evolved into a castle fort!! We particularly enjoyed the way you built some connective tunnels between dens in the afternoon which really just highlighted how inclusive you are as a class. You also had an opportunity to play games, draw, hang out, watch a movie and enjoy the utterly delicious looking treat trays that Mrs. Marsh made for you. (Thank you Mrs Marsh!)

Year 3 kindly made each and every one of us a 'Congratulations' card for finishing our SATs. Thank you Year 3 - how thoughtful you all are.

We also finally got to hand out your Leavers' Hoodies and how fabulous you look. What a lovely way to end the week!

Well done Year 6 - you have shown incredible skills, kindness and resilience this week - a true mark of a successful Year 6!

We rounded off the week with the PSA Colour Dash event which it looked like you enjoyed immensely. Thank you to the PSA for hosting this brilliantly fun event at the end of a long and busy week.

Week Beginning 6th May

After a refreshing Bank Holiday weekend, Kite class came into school ready to complete some final revision and practice questions to prepare us for our SAT testing which begins next Monday. We found that by doing a mixture of independent practice, group work and games/ challenges that we could feel more confident about our knowledge. We even managed to find a way to combine our fitness focus from PE with a SPaG themed game too! Outdoor learning can really help keep us focused and calm. A few learning breaks to the library, some artwork in preparation for the Stretham Feast and reading outside (and the occasional biscuit!) helped too! 

We've enjoyed our learning in other subjects across the curriculum including: Computing, PE, Geography, Art and History.

Wish us luck for SATs Week next week!

Week Beginning Monday 29th April

Kite class have continued to review key areas of Maths, Reading and SPaG ahead of our SATs testing but we have also been:

- enjoying participating in a drumming workshop where we reviewed our Music knowledge of pitch, rhythm and tempo, as well as the importance to listening to each other to perfect our performance;

- using our class text ‘Wonder’ to create a piece of instructional writing called ‘Recipe for Friendship’ for the main character August;

- learning more about Viking life through storytelling the classic Norse tale of Beowulf;

- using our fitness skills to participate in a whole school skipping challenge;

- challenging our understanding of the various concepts including the formulas needed to find the area of triangles, parallelograms and a rhombus, as well as re-exploring the calculation of Volume (Maths);

- developing our approach to working with Statistics by reworking reasoning questions;

- creating a comparative paragraph about the megacities of South America with a focus on Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo;

- programming Microbits to count up and down during our Computing lesson with Mrs. Bowen;

- participating in a SPaG questions scavenger hunt to test our skills and knowledge development;

and

- delving into the world of Microorganisms in Science.

Drumming Workshop

Building and layering rhythms using drums and percussion instruments

Week Beginning Monday 22nd April

With SATs just a few weeks away, Kite class have been:

- developing reading fluency and comprehension skills, including retrieval, vocabulary awareness and inference skills, through multiple texts including ‘Dawn at Midnight’, ‘Wonder’ and some past SATs texts;

- learning more about the movements of the Vikings and their journeys further afield within our Norse Culture unit;

- completing regular daily practice of our arithmetic skills;

- upping our fitness levels through out Fitness unit in PE, by working on our balance, speed, stamina, strength, coordination and agility;

- challenging our understanding of the relationships between fractions, decimals and percentages (Maths);

- developing our approach to finding the area and perimeter of various shapes by reworking reasoning questions;

- investigating the way of life in the megacities of South America with a focus on Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo;

- working with Microbits during our Computing lesson with Mrs. Bowen;

- identifying Word Classes and good examples of higher-level punctuation as part of our SPaG skill and knowledge reviews;

and

- using our knowledge of ‘curious creatures’ to create our own scientific journals describing and classifying unusual animals of our own creation in English and Science.

This week, the Year 6 children who will be joining Witchford Village College in September also enjoyed a chance to meet their Head of Year 7 – Ms. Chambers. Children who will be joining some of the other local secondary schools will have a similar meeting of their own in upcoming weeks.

Week Beginning Monday 15th April

Welcome back to the first week of the new term. This week, Kites have:

- used our own research and knowledge of a specific animal to create a non-chronological report, using audience choices to inform our presentation;

- learnt about the key figures of Norse Culture through a story called ‘The Great Tree and the gods’ in History;

- enjoyed getting back into the library after two weeks holidays to choose new books and spend some time enjoying them;

- revisited our rapid recall arithmetic skills;

- began new units in PE, including Fitness, which tested our speed, balance, agility and coordination;

- embedded our understanding of the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages through FDP Bingo as well as other models and challenges (Maths);

- developed our evidencing and explanations through calculations and modelling in reasoning questions;

- delved further into the wonderful characters within the text ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio and have studied key vocabulary whilst also using our retrieval and inference skills;

- enjoyed our Computing lesson with Mrs. Bowen;

- identified Word Classes as part of our SPaG skill and knowledge reviews;

and

- built on our knowledge of ‘curious creatures’ to explore those living things that are hard to classify in Science.

 

We have had a wonderful first week back at school together. 😊 

Year 6 Topic Web - Spring Term 2024

• Year 6 Topic Web Spring 2024.pdf

Week Beginning Monday 25th March

During this final week of the term, Kites have enjoyed:

- using our own research and knowledge of animals to draft carefully crafted blocks of text for non-chronological reports;

- delving further into the foundations of Norse Culture in our History lessons;

- finalising our sensory language writing and getting it ready to show off on our new display – Sensory Stretham;

- participating in OAA sessions with Mr Cox in PE;

- further developing our thinking and the quality of our explanations through multi-topic reasoning questions – with a focus on explaining the connections we need to make before we calculate;

- showing our understanding of forming expressions, using substitution and solving equations in our Algebra unit (Maths);

- watching the Bee Musical performed by Years 3 and 4;

- reading three short texts which included a non-chronological report, an atmospheric poem and an extract from a longer story called ‘Albion’s Dream’ to help us develop our identification of key vocabulary and use of inference skills, as well as more of our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;

- joining the rest of the school in and Easter Quiz (as our annual Easter Egg Hunt was rained off);

- identifying risky situations at home and how accidents (especially those involving electricity) could be prevented by making safe choices;

- creating colourful Easter creations to share with our families.

 

Wishing you all the happiest of Easter holidays with your loved ones. Enjoy some rest, relaxation and fun and we’ll see you again in April 😊 

Week Beginning Monday 18th March

This week, Kites have particularly enjoyed:

- our foray into outdoor writing which gave us an opportunity to appreciate the sensory offerings of our school site;

- delving into the wealth of classes within the animal kingdom in science including creating informative double page spreads about each class including less talked of varieties such as Echinoderms and Annelids;

- applying the sensory language gained from our school site walks to help us free write descriptive paragraphs from a picture stimulus yet again showing that great writing doesn’t always have to happen at a desk;

- participating in OAA sessions with Mr Cox in PE;

- developing our thinking through multi-topic reasoning questions – with a focus on explaining our method for calculating an answer but also explaining the connections we need to make before we can begin to calculate using sentence stems such as, ‘Before I can calculate the value of X, I must find…’;

- showing the connections between finding missing values, forming expressions and substitution when studying Algebra. (Maths);

- reading a discussion inducing picture book called ‘The Proudest Blue’ by Ibtihaj Muhammad (which linked to our recent unit about Living Muslim Traditions), as well as more of our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;

- building our foundation skills including a strong backhand in the next session of our PE unit for Tennis;

- learning to identify situations where basic first aid would be of use and to understand our growing responsibility in preventing a wider range of accidents at school/ home;

- creating compositions for still life sketching;

- starting our humanities units about the Norse Culture (History), and North and South America (Geography).

Kite class have also given their best this week when tackling their spring PIRA and PUMA assessments too. We are really proud of your efforts and attitude. 

Week Beginning Monday 11th March

Kite class have really enjoyed leaping into their learning this week which has had a science focus in honour of British Science Week. Kites have particularly enjoyed:

- our hands-on ‘Time’ themed daily science challenges;

- investigating pendulums and drawing on our knowledge of Forces from Year 5 to attempt to create a pendulum which swings and stops at exactly 30 seconds - Kites were proud to achieve 2nd place in the whole school competition on Thursday afternoon;

- participating in sensory language walks in our outside spaces at school (no matter the weather!) to gather language to make sensory poetry and descriptive paragraphs and showing that great writing doesn’t always have to happen at a desk;

- participating in a one-off contemporary dance workshop with Jack from JSDC, who taught us the importance of control in our movements to achieve the intended impact;

- maintaining the accuracy of our Maths fluency skills whilst increasing our speed through daily rapid arithmetic practice and extending our thinking through multi-topic reasoning questions – with a focus on geometry this week;

- showing the ‘real-life’ applications of recipes when studying Proportion. (Maths);

- reading a thought provoking picture book called ‘Uno’s Garden’ by Graeme Base (which linked to our current science unit about living things and habitats and our geography unit about migration), as well as more of our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;

- continuing to review and develop our foundation skills in the second session of our new PE unit for Tennis;

- participating in a virtual Science lesson which connected to our current science unit about Living things and how they adapt/ change over time;

- reflecting on risks that exist for us in our daily lives including those as a pedestrian, as a cyclist, near railways and in the sun and how we can adjust what we do to keep ourselves safe;

- summarising our learning within our humanities units about the Lady of Mercia (History), the Living Traditions of Muslims (Religion and Worldviews) and Migration (Geography) and giving ourselves time to reflect on all that we have learnt through these areas of the curriculum by challenging each other with questions of our own creation (Question Matrix).

Kite class, like all the other classes, have also enjoyed shopping in the Science week class shop and discovering pocket-money-priced, science themed items of interest. We hope you all enjoy exploring your purchases with your families at home.

Week Beginning Monday 4th March

It’s been a week of learning and great experiences based around books and animals for Kite class this week. We enjoyed dressing up in our school’s animal theme for World Book Day and all the linked events during the week. Kites have enjoyed:

- our hands-on Animal Experience session on Monday, which not only fed in to our book week theme but also dovetailed perfectly with our learning in Science about Living Things and their Habitats;

- forming and asking questions to Kayleigh from Animal Experience about each of the amazing creatures we handled to help us understand their physical evolution and adaptations;

- choosing a genre of writing they enjoyed and working with a learning partner to complete the research, before writing, drafting and decorating a final piece about the bird our class is named after - a kite – to be part of our class book;

- maintaining our Maths fluency skills through daily rapid arithmetic practice and continued to extend our thinking through multi-topic reasoning questions – with a focus on algebra this week;

- developing their understanding of the importance of accurate language and balance when working with Ratio and making similar applications to Proportion. Continuous use of concrete modelling really helped, as did drawn models! (Maths);

- reading a fun new text on World Book Day called ‘The Koala Who Could’ and some more of a text called ‘The Dream Snatcher’ by Abi Elphinstone, as well as our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio and using this new knowledge to complete some vocabulary and inference based activities;

- starting the first session of our new PE unit for Tennis where we focused on hand-eye coordination and control;

- participating in various virtual author events, including the BBC World Book Day Live lesson and the practical create your own twisted fairy tale event featuring Michael Rosen;

- editing various pieces of work with a fresher mind to rethink which language is the ‘best’ vocabulary for the purpose as well as inserting the most impactful structures and punctuation, particularly the use of inverted commas around blocks of dialogue;

- using previously taught art skills (zentangling) to create our own miniature kites to decorate our class book written in honour of World Book Day 2024;

- completing our humanities units about the Lady of Mercia (History), the Living Traditions of Muslims (Religion and Worldviews) and Migration (Geography) and giving ourselves time to reflect on all that we have learnt through these areas of the curriculum.

Don’t forget to check out all the story time videos recorded by the teachers just for you. They are on Seesaw and will be there for the next week.

We wish all the Kite class mums, grandmas and mum-like figures in our lives a wonderful weekend with your family.

Week Beginning Monday 26th February

Welcome back after half term everyone!

Kite class have leapt straight back into their learning by:

- developing their understanding and use of speech punctuation;

- making conscious choices about where to use dialogue within their narrative writing to either move the action on, to develop character or to build tension;

- rebooting our fluency skills through rapid arithmetic practice and continued to challenge our thinking through multi-topic reasoning questions;

- using their understanding of the importance of accurate language and balance when working with Ratio. Continuous use of concrete modelling really helped! (Maths);

- completed some vocabulary, prediction, retrieval and inference based activities related to the opening of a new text called ‘The Dream Snatcher’ by Abi Elphinstone and our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;

- enjoyed the final yoga session of our unit where we independently applied our acquired knowledge of specific yoga poses, balance and flow in P.E;

- finding out about the ‘grandfather of classification’ – Carolus Linnaeus and his standardised system for organising living things and then used his system to find out the correct classification for a living thing of their choice;

- edited our descriptive story starts rethinking which language is the ‘best’ vocabulary for the purpose as well as inserting the most impactful structures and punctuation, particularly the use of inverted commas around blocks of dialogue;

- rehearsed our understanding of rhythms through clapping patterns in our Advanced Rhythms unit in Music;

- continued our humanities units about the rebuilding of the kingdom of Mercia (History), discussed the importance of prayer to practising Muslims (Religion and Worldviews) and learnt how voluntary and involuntarily migration can change a place (Geography).

We also enjoyed the first week of various clubs returning to our after-school timetable including SATs club, gardening club, netball and football. What a great beginning to the half term!

Week Beginning Monday 12th February

This week in our school library, we celebrated ‘Book Love’ with our ‘Book Love is…’ display. In addition, every class received a beautifully wrapped, surprise parcel on Valentine’s Day. It was a specially chosen ‘Blind Date with a book’ package for each class. Children loved unwrapping the mystery reads and sharing them in class. Do take a look at our weekly photographs and the English curriculum page to see more of this.

Kite class have also:

- independently written a ‘How to…’ guide to accompany the natural bird feeders they made and hug in the trees around the school grounds. The children made use of step by step photographs or hand-drawn illustrations to make their guides user friendly for all;

- kept up our fluency through rapid arithmetic practice and challenged our thinking through multi-topic reasoning questions;

- consolidated their knowledge of finding fractions of amounts through reasoning challenges and have begun to realise the importance of language and balance when working with Ratio. Concrete modelling really helped! (Maths);

- completed some vocabulary, prediction, retrieval and inference based activities related to the opening of a new text called ‘Malamander’ by Thomas Taylor and our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;

- enjoyed a one-off bhangra dance workshop in P.E;

- explored and applied strategies for managing risky situations including scenarios related to being safe at school, when socialising with friends without parental supervision and when online/ using mobile phones  (PSHE);

- enjoyed using what we know about the classification of living things to create classification keys;

- written descriptive story starts or sections from a visual stimuli to focus on the purpose of writing – to engage our audience – through choosing the ‘best’ vocabulary for the purpose as well as the most impactful structures and punctuation. This helped us to think about how to maintain author voice when writing;

- developed our knowledge of different notes and rhythms through our Advanced Rhythms unit in Music;

- continued our humanities units about the growing Viking presence in Britain (History), found out more about the importance of prayer to practising Muslims (Religion and Worldviews) and reflected on the experiences of those forced to migrate involuntarily - Refugees (Geography).

We wish you all a happy and healthy half term. Enjoy your time together and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday 26^th February.

Week Beginning Monday 5th February

This week, Kite class have:

- each completed independently written biographies for a well-known figure of their choice being careful to engage their audience and use their writing skill to make the most of their person’s achievements;

- developed the art of dividing any fraction by an integer and finding fractions of amounts (Maths);

- completed some retrieval and inference based activities related to our Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;

- made balance the focus for our next level yoga poses and flows in P.E;

- enjoyed reading about the work of scientist Carolus Linnaeus to develop our comprehension skills (alongside the development of our scientific knowledge in the area of classification);

- explored and applied strategies for managing risky situations (PSHE);

- carried out a practical task to give us first-hand experience for writing instructions which allowed us to think about purpose whilst also including our own voices to engage our audience;

- used our flavour combination knowledge to help us hunt for recipes as part of a three-course menu design making the most of our hero ingredients – peppers, salmon and pineapple;

- continued our humanities units about the unity of Wessex and Mercia in the face of a growing Viking presence in Britain (History), found out more about the importance of prayer within Muslim traditions (Religion and Worldviews) and compared the migration stories of two individuals (Geography) to find their similarities and differences.

Music - Advanced Rhythms

Using clapping and alternative notes names to create group rhythms.

Week Beginning Monday 29th January

This week, Kite class have:

- carefully selected vocabulary and used the ‘A FOREST’ strategies to help create persuasive speeches based on the picture book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’;

- developed the art of multiplying and dividing fractions by other fractions and integers (Maths);

- completed some plot and character retrieval and inference activities based on our new Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;

- utilised both balance and control when performing yoga poses as part of various flows in P.E;

- enjoyed exploring the lyrics of a song which linked to our Science learning about ‘Electricity’ called ‘Wires’ to develop our comprehension skills;

- reflected on the positives and negatives of risk and their role in our own lives (PSHE);

- each independently written a biography about a well-known person of choice, using past learning to support the structure and language choices;

- enjoyed a fascinating talk from special science guest (engineer), Mr. Ashby, who answered all our remaining questions about electricity and energy, with a focus on insulators and conductors, safety and the wonderful world of atoms;

- continued our DT unit by tasting further flavours and exploring some well-tested and some more avant-garde combinations;

- continued our humanities units about the last surviving Anglo Saxon kingdom in the face of Viking invasion in Britain (History) and found out more about Living Muslim Traditions in the diverse setting of Beirut (Religion and Worldviews).

Week Beginning Monday 22nd January

This week, Kite class have:

- completed some fantastic reflections and short pieces of persuasive writing based on the picture book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’;

- further developed our calculating with fractions skills including the four operations (Maths);

- completed some character assessments based on our new Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio;

- developed our balance, control and technique in both yoga flow practice and gymnastic sequences in P.E;

- read a non-fiction text which linked to our Science learning about ‘Electricity’ called ‘How Burglar Alarms Work’ to develop our comprehension skills;

- looked at the positives and negatives of risk in our own lives (PSHE);

- learnt about the role of protons, neutrons and electrons in the flow of electricity when dealing with insulators and conductors;

- begun our DT unit by identifying various flavours and considering why certain combinations work;

- continued our new humanities units about the migration – asking why people migrate (Geography) and the arrival of the Vikings in Britain (History);

- and found out more about Living Muslim Traditions (Religion and Worldviews).

Week Beginning Monday 15th January

This week, Kite class have:

- continued to embed our school behaviour expectations (Be Ready, Be Respectful and to Be Safe.)

- completed some fantastic one-off descriptive writing pieces for Mr. Sweeney;

- continued to calculate with fractions including mixed numbers (Maths);

- completed the final pages of our beloved autumn reader – “There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom” and continued our new Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio recording our impressions of the characters;

- developed our yoga flow practice in P.E;

- reflected on our past humanities learning by completing a collaborative Question Matrix;

- created our own layered artwork involving washes, drips, geometry and various media in the style of abstract artist Frank Bowling;

- used our acquired knowledge of Frank Bowling to create our own biographies;

- continued our new humanities units about the migration (Geography) and the arrival of the Vikings in Britain (History);

- and enjoyed learning about the Kodaly method for making music.

Back to School – Week Beginning Monday 8th January

Welcome back! We do hope you all had an enjoyable holiday and are rested and raring to go. Despite our false start to this week, Kite class have been busy catching up with our friends and getting settled back in to our learning for the new term.

This week, we have:

- revisited our school behaviour expectations (We are now clear that at school, we aspire to: Be Ready, Be Respectful and to Be Safe.);

- reviewed our foundations of fractions before thinking about how to compare, order and calculate with them (Maths);

- begun our new Class Novel – ‘Wonder' by R.J.Palacio, following the story of an ordinary 10 year old boy who sometimes thinks that he is anything but ordinary;

- participated in our first yoga lesson of this term;

- reflected on our past humanities learning by completing a collaborative Question Matrix;

- found out about the amazing life and work of the abstract artist Frank Bowling in Art;

- used our acquired knowledge of Frank Bowling to help us learn about the structure and features of a biography;

- started our new humanities units about the migration (Geography) and the arrival of the Vikings in Britain (History);

- and enjoyed our gymnastics lesson with Mr. Cox and our Computing session with Mrs. Bowen.

Well done for making a wonderful start to 2024 Kites!

Year 6 Topic Web for autumn 2023

• Year 6 Topic Web Autumn 2023.pdf