Home Learning for Monday 8th January 2024

Good morning Kites. Please see the attached documents with the details of today's Home Learning tasks and the Maths materials.

Please try each activity to the best of your ability.

Mrs. E

• Monday 8th January 2024 Year 6 Home Learning.docx.pdf
• Monday 8th January 2024 Maths Arithmetic Paper 1 questions.pdf
• Monday 8th January 2024 Maths Arithmetic Paper 1 answer key.pdf

Video message from Mr Sweeney.MOV

Week Beginning Monday 18th December

Kite class started the week with some well earnt and well spent time in our Forest School area. Children enjoyed creating settlements and exploring the wintery (if somewhat muddy) terrain. They also engaged in role play in the mud kitchen, as well as developing skills through den building and making natural bird feeders to take home to their gardens for Christmas. Due to the cold damp conditions, we indulged ourselves with a warming hot chocolate and some homemade rock road (or biscuit alternative) around the fire circle.

We also made a trip to St James' Church to complete a brief run through of our offerings for the church service. It was agreed that the singing and the readings were well performed. Well done everyone!

We have enjoyed a few festive activities in the last few days rounded off with a fabulous Christmas lunch cooked up by Mrs Marsh and served by staff from across the school.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Week Beginning Monday 11^th December

This week, Kite class were lucky enough to be invited to the Early Years and Key Stage 1 Nativity dress rehearsal. We were so impressed by the acting, singing and especially the ‘twinkly star’ dancing of our little buddies. Thank you for sharing your performance with us all. We think you are all stars!

Kite class have also:

- read more of – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’, marvelling at how quickly events took a negative turn for our main character and made predictions about upcoming events for Bradley, Jeff, Carla and Colleen;

- continued to exercise our arithmetic and reasoning brains;

- bravely completed our PIRA and PUMA assessments;

- reviewed our knowledge of equivalent fractions;

- found out about the changing Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia in History;

- further developed our offering for the Christmas church service;

- used our knowledge of electrical circuit symbols and basic circuit construction to set ourselves queries to prove/ disprove;

- enjoyed a bonus Computing session with Mrs Bowen;

and

- planned and wrote our own festive letters in role and festive free writes to use our creative language.

😊

Week Beginning Monday 4^th December

This week, Kite class have:

- continued reading – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’ and tried to use quotes from the text to explain our reasoning for the main character’s thinking and actions;

- evaluated our clay sculptures to conclude our project – take a look at the final products. We think the sculptor Mark Wallinger would be impressed with our efforts;

- unravelled wordy two step + word problems and used our reasoning skills to unpick mathematical starting points;

- participated enthusiastically in the festive Santa Dash;

- began to work on our offering for the Christmas church service;

- reviewed our knowledge of electrical circuit symbols and used our circuit kits to create different circuit set ups investigating the impact of cell numbers on bulb brightness;

- planned and wrote our own mini recount texts;

- read various texts linked to topics we are studying and answered questions using our comprehension skills;

- learnt how to form sentences in the Present and Past Perfect tense;

- and really enjoyed our whole school visit to the pantomime at the Cambridge Arts Theatre on Thursday. Thank you to the PSA, who helped to fund the visit, and to Mrs. Hawes and Mr. Sweeney for their organisation. It was an occasion never to be forgotten! 😊

Week Beginning Monday 27^th November

This week, Kite class have:

- enjoyed more of our class reader – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’ and made comparisons between the experiences of 3 significant characters and questioned what effect the author was trying to create through these repeat experiences;

- continued to develop our arithmetic and reasoning skills;

- been using long division skills to aid reasoning;

- developed our push pass skills in small games of Hockey to more effectively share the game play as a team;

- used our oracy skills (in group discussions) to unpick the reasons for bullying and how a community can support to make positive changes;

- completed our own clay head sculptures inspired by the statue ‘Ecce Homo’ (by Mark Wallinger - previously shown on the 4^th plinth of Trafalgar Square) and by the distinctive facial sketches of Kathe Kollwitz;

- become familiar with the electrical circuit symbols and used them to draw different circuit set ups;

- planned and wrote our own narratives based on a monochrome picture stimulus;

- and really enjoyed welcoming in our families to participate in Christmas Craft afternoon. Thank you for everyone who helped us to fashion such fun and festive crafts! 😊

Week Beginning Monday 20^th November

This week, Kite class have:

- continued to explore our class reader – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’ and reflected on the journey that the main character, Bradley, has been on and the exciting changes that are finally happening for him;

- been using long division calculations to solve reasoning problems and surprising ourselves by how much progress we have made since September in developing our arithmetic and reasoning skills;

- used our new dribbling skills in Hockey to more effectively beat a defender when playing small games;

- developed our oracy skills through various paired and group discussions around the topic of bullying;

- used the opinions we formed and shared through our discussions of various stimulus questions to write considered responses;

- studied the sculpture ‘Ecce Homo’ by Mark Wallinger (previously shown on the 4^th plinth of Trafalgar Square) and used it to inspire plans for our own clay sculptures;

- begun our new Science unit on Electricity by discussing how electricity is formed and the processes by which it is shared safely;

- used knowledge formed from scientific reading about the history of electricity to write non-fiction flowcharts to show the evolution of electricity;

- learnt about the impact of oceans on specific landmasses in Geography, with a focus on extreme conditions of tsunami and hurricanes;

- welcomed an amateur theatre group in to perform scenarios to trigger PSHE discussions as a follow up to our Anti-Bullying/ Kindness week unit. Thank you to King's Ely Prep for your incredible, thought provoking performances.

Week Beginning Monday 13^th November

Kite class have enjoyed preparing for our class assembly and have:

- further explored our class reader – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’ and explored its themes of friendship and bullying, along with an upcoming reader called ‘Wonder’ which shares similar themes;

- reviewed various methods for tackling long division calculations;

- used our new dribbling skills in Hockey to beat a defender when playing small games;

- performed our group dance in PE to an audience of Mr. Sweeney, Mr. Coackley and Mrs. E (who were all VERY impressed by our timing, coordination and enthusiasm!);

- compared/ contrasted the poems, both called ‘If,’ by Rudyard Kipling and Ian Bland;

- collaboratively wrote friendship poetry in the style of Ian Bland’s version of ‘If’ in honour of Kindness Week;

- used a monochrome palette as in Picasso’s piece – Guernica – to complete our own symbol-based compositions on the theme of ‘war’ before evaluating our artwork;

- created exploding books to share our knowledge on the topic of Light in Science;

- learnt about the importance of oceans in Geography, and started to find out about the connected kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons in History;

- enjoying some quiet reading time with our favourite books;

- spent time with our little buddies from Ladybird class teaching them playground games and sharing books as one of our random acts of kindness;

- read the sheet music for and used tuned instruments to play the layered song we have been learning called ‘Gift of the Nile’, as well as taking a previously learnt song and tweaking the lyrics to make a special version for our assembly;

and

- celebrated Children in Need by wearing stripes and spots and placing Pennies on Pudsey as our charity donation.

To those that came to watch our class assembly on Friday - thank you!

Here is the poem we wrote collaboratively based on both Rudyard Kipling and Ian Bland's poems called 'If':

If

By Kite Class 2023

If you can help me with my homework,

Then, I will help with yours.

 

If you can make me laugh when I am feeling blue,

Then, I will be a true friend and make you laugh too.

 

If you can share your worries when they feel like a mountain to climb,

Then, I will protect you to the end of time.

 

If you can tell me I’m pretty, inside and out,

When I am feeling sad and drowning in self-doubt,

 

If you can love me through and through,

Then, I will tell you how beautiful your heart is too.

 

If you can make a noise for my rights,

Then, I will stand by you to make the future bright.

 

If you can like me for who I really am;

As much as I appreciate your care for me,

Then we will be friends forever.

Week Beginning Monday 6^th November

Kite class have started November strongly and have:

- further explored our class reader – ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar’ – and discussed the personal journey our main character Bradley is currently taking (so much so that we shrieked in horror as a class as we read of his actions at the end of the latest chapter!);

- reviewed our knowledge of fact family calculations and the techniques for division, using these calculation skills to prove our thinking for reasoning questions;

- completed our next Hockey session to build on our dribbling skills to beat a defender when playing small games;

- completed some Year 6 baseline testing in Maths and English (I’m so proud of your continued focus and positive attitudes Year 6!);

- read and analysed the poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling;

- used a monochrome palette as in Picasso’s piece – Guernica – when creating our own symbol-based compositions on the theme of ‘war’;

- investigated what happens to light when we view it through a prism and how we can take our visible spectrum (rainbow of colours) and spin the colours to return to white light in Science;

- learnt about maritime trade in Geography, and found out how/ why the Anglo-Saxon migrations happened in History;

- read the sheet music for and used tuned instruments to play the layered song we have been learning called ‘Gift of the Nile’.

Week Beginning Monday 30^th October

Welcome back! We hope you had a happy and restful half term.

Kite class certainly did so this week they have:

- written dramatically in the role of the narrator to retell the final scenes of the poem ‘The Highwayman’ (based on the work of Alfred Noyce)’ showing how language can set a scene, create tension, develop emotions in the reader and hold the readers’ attention;

- reviewed the techniques for short and long multiplication, using calculation to prove their thinking for reasoning questions;

- continued to develop our arithmetic skills and understanding how they can support our reasoning;

- took a second attempt at participating in the Active Run challenge (to make up for when the rain came before the holiday) and began to review our basic skills in our first hockey session;

- been excited about Halloween and plunged all that interest into our ‘Freaky Friday Free Writes’;

- investigated symbolism in artwork using Picasso’s piece – Guernica – as our inspiration to create a symbol-based composition of our own about ‘war’;

- discussed the imapct gender stereotypying online in Computing;

- investigated Refraction in Science through three mini investigations and through whole class discussion/ debate we had observed;

- started to learn about the difference between seas and oceans in Geography, and made links between previous units on the Romans and our new unit on the Anglo-Saxons in History;

- completed our first Hockey session to develop dribbling skills to beat a defender;

- and identified our personal support networks, including those available to us at school and how those support networks can provide us with support in new situations.

 

Enjoy a fun and safe Bonfire weekend 😊

Week Beginning Monday 16^th October

This week, Kite class have:

- (some members of the class) participated in Bikeability and were proud to achieve their level 2;

- begun to learn about square and cube numbers (understanding how they connect to area and volume),

- continued to make pleasing progress in our arithmetic and have begun to feel a little more confident our reasoning skills by articulating our processes;

- written dramatically in the role of either the narrator, the Highwayman or Bess (from Alfred Noyce’s poem ‘The Highwayman)’ to consider how the main character would feel and react to the behaviour of others, using descriptive detail and figurative language to paint our readers a picture;

- participated in the Active Run challenge (as much as we could before the rain came!);

- completed our investigations about changing shadows by reflecting on our results and which aspects of our testing didn’t fit ‘fair test’ criteria in Science;

- summarised our learning from Geography, Religion and Worldviews and History;

- and completed a fitness circuits carousel to develop components of stamina, strength, balance and agility.

 

Have a restful, happy and healthy half term 😊

Week Beginning Monday 9^th October

This week, Kite class have:

- welcomed John Hardwicke in to share a Light and Life assembly;

- learnt about the rules of divisibility and prime numbers, continued to make good progress in our arithmetic and have begun to feel more confident our reasoning skills by articulating our processes;

- demonstrated our ability to turn poetry into prose using Alfred Noyce’s poem ‘The Highwayman’ as a starting point and including descriptive detail and figurative language;

- participated in the Hula Hooping challenge at Bronze, Silver and Gold level;

- enjoyed a STEM challenge day hosted by Soham Village College where we won three awards – for our arithmetic skills, our vehicle design skills and for our teamwork;

- investigated shadows and thought carefully how best to record our methodology and observations in Science;

- found out about how assessing drought risks can help future generations (Geography) and found out the significance of the story of David and Sulayman within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);

- and tried the art techniques of ‘halo’ and ‘chiaroscuro’ when using charcoal for line drawn portraits.

Week Beginning Monday 2^nd October

Kite class have enjoyed their first school week of October.

This week, we have:

- welcomed Mr Sweeney, our new Headteacher, into the school community and enjoyed his assembly;

- learnt about common factors and multiples, continued to leap forward in our arithmetic and have stretched our reasoning skills by learning to articulate our processes;

- learnt the different ways authors can make use of semi-colons and the role of figurative language in Alfred Noyce’s poem ‘The Highwayman’;

- read and summarised the classic, narrative poem ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyce;

- developed smoother strokes, lines and breathing during our swim lessons;

- enjoyed some getting to know you time with our little buddies in Reception/ EYFS;

- used non-standard music notation to create a piece of body percussion music;

- began to investigate shadows and carefully record our predictions and methodology in Science;

- found out about the importance of the Californian Aqueduct (Geography), how the city of Baghdad developed the wisdom via astronomy, maths and geography (History) and found out the importance of what happened when Musa listened to God within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);

- and developed the new art techniques of ‘halo’ and ‘chiaroscuro’ when using line drawings for portraits.

Some Year 6s even got involved in Tag Rugby training for an upcoming competition whilst others ran Active Crew sessions involving hula hoops for children of all ages on the playground. 

Lovely to see you all getting active and getting involved in school life!

Week Beginning Monday 25th September

We’ve had another brilliant week in Kite class.

This week, we have:

- started our Maths unit on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and have stretched our thinking with reasoning questions on this topic;

- shown huge steps forward in arithmetic and the thinking required to tackle reasoning questions;

- learnt the different ways authors can make use of hyphens by looking at  Alfred Noyce’s poem ‘The Highwayman’;

- read the first 2 parts of classic, narrative poem ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyce and created a modern language version of one stanza of the poem;

- developed our breathing techniques alongside our strokes during our swim lessons;

- learnt how to create non-standard music notation for a piece of pop music;

- reviewed the parts of our eyes, how they help us to see and began to investigate shadows in Science;

- continued our humanities units about the importance of water for growing produce especially vital products like almonds in California (Geography), how the city of Baghdad became the House of Wisdom (History) and the story of Ibrahim’s Call within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);

- and used our art skills to create something wonderful to celebrate Christmas (to be revealed closer to Christmas!).

 

Kites – you have been inclusive, creative and shown kindness this week. What wonderful attitudes you have!

Week Beginning Monday 18th September

Despite the windy weather this week, we have kept ourselves focused and achieved a lot in Kite class.

This week, we have:

- completed our Maths unit on number and place value;

- demonstrated growing skill in arithmetic and the thinking required to tackle reasoning questions;

- modelled independent GPS and word level knowledge when annotating William Blake’s poem ‘The Tyger’;

- read the classic poem ‘The Tyger’ by William Blake and created an imitation of his poem, by keeping structure and poetic features, on a different theme;

- continued to develop our strokes during our swim lessons;

- developed our layered song called ‘Gift of the Nile’ in Music, where, as a class, we sang in two parts (one provided the beautiful echo to the main);

- thought more about light and how it helps us to see in Science;

- continued our humanities units about the importance of water across the world especially in warm climates like California (Geography), how the perfect of the city of Baghdad was built (History) and the story of The Great Flood within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);

- identified different ways of working collaboratively on paper and online using Scratch;

- and used our art skills to create something wonderful to celebrate Harvest next week.

 

Kites – you have shown kindness and tenacity this week. Keep up the excellent attitude!

Week Beginning Monday 11th September

What a fantastic first week we had! This week has also been an enjoyable one in Kite class.

This week, we have:

- continued to build on our number, place value, times table and calculation knowledge;

- completed some GPS practice around identifying word classes;

- read the classic poem ‘Jabberwocky' by Lewis Carroll which is full of nonsense words (otherwise known as Portmanteau words) which strangely (due to the sentence structures/ position of word classes in the English language) still suggest a storyline and make sense;

- learning how to perform a poem and the difference a performance can make to understanding;

- continued our swimming lessons for this academic year;

- developed our layered song in the ‘Here Come the Egyptians’ unit in Music, where, as a class, we sang in three parts (one in ‘D’, in ‘F’ and in ‘A’);

- thought more about light (beams travelling in straight lines) in contrast with dark (an absence of light/ shadows) and identifying sources of light in Science;

- enjoyed Mrs. Spencer’s assembly about ‘Making Your Mark’ through art inspired by the book ‘The Dot’ and took on her ‘create your own dot’ challenge;

- moved on with our humanities units about the importance of water across the world especially in Farming (Geography), the perfection of the Round City: Baghdad (History) and The Stories of the Prophets within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);

- and finalised the ground rules for our learning environment in PSHE.

 

Kites - Well done for another great week and your brilliant attitude during our visit from Mr Quayle from Witchford Village College. You showed a very sporting attitudes during our school council election speeches and some impressive speaking skills to boot!

Back to School – Week Beginning Monday 4th September

Welcome back! We do hope you all had an enjoyable summer and are raring to go after a restful break. Kite class have had a busy week catching up with our friends 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 ‘Once Upon an Ordinary School Day' by Colin McNaughton and Satoshi Kitamura following the story of an ordinary boy until the moment his life became less ordinary. We paused the story at this moment, imaging what could happen when his life becomes less ordinary, and wrote our own creative endings;

- participated in our first swim lesson of this academic year;

- learnt the first part of a layered song in our ‘Here Come the Egyptians’ unit in Music, where as a class we sang in two parts (one in ‘D’, the other in ‘F’);

- found out about light by becoming beams of light (Year 6) in Science;

- started our humanities units about the importance of water across the world (Geography), The Round City: Baghdad (History) and The Stories of the Prophets within the faith of Islam (Religion and Worldviews);

- started learning about street art by creating a wildstyle style tag piece using our names as inspiration;

- and discussed the ground rules for our learning environment in PSHE.

 

You have also impressed us with your calm manner around the school and your kind welcome to your 'little buddies' from Ladybirds. Well done for a wonderful start to this academic year Kites!