WELCOME TO KESTRELS
We are a Year 5/6 class and our teacher is Mrs Katie Dickinson
Autumn 1 2024 Class News
Kestrels are thoroughly enjoying our history topic on World War 2.
This week, the children acted out the Battle of Britain to help them understand the advantages that the RAF pilots had.
In science, the children planned and carried out a fair test involving dissolving sugar cubes.
Summer 2 2024 Class News
Kestrels have enjoyed lots of practical activities to further their learning about 2D and 3D shape in maths.
In science, we are learning about evolution and inheritance. As part of this, the children learnt about Charles Darwin and carried out an investigation to explore the 'beaks' of the finches he studied.
In geography, we have been looking at a variety of maps and learning what the different symbols mean.
Kestrels did themselves proud at sports day with each and every child joining in!
Summer 1 2024 Class News
Pay-to-Play was a huge success today. After a term of preparing, planning and resourcing, it was finally Pay-to-Play! There were a range of events including; penalty shoot-out, face painting, soak the student, lucky dips, guess the name of the teddy and much more.
This annual event is linked to the PSHE and Civic Award work which focuses on giving something back to the school community. This is a great fund raising event and it is always wonderful to see all the children having fun!
Spring 2 2024 Class News
Kestrels class have enjoyed some practical activities to further our understanding of some important scientific concepts relating to space. We produced explanations of why we get day and night to present on a children's TV show. Also, we learnt about how craters are formed and carried out a fair test to investigate them.
Spring 1 2024 Class News
Badgers, Kestrels and Owls all enjoyed a trip to Taunton Museum this week. They stepped back in time to visit Saxon Somerset taking part in a battle re-enactment, making clay runes and building a 'burh' to protect their village. The activities complimented the learning the children have been doing on Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and they impressively showed off their knowledge and skills as historians.
Autumn 2 2023 Class News
Kestrels Class had a great afternoon being tour guides yesterday. As part of their learning on East Anglia, they have been discovering the human features found in the region and the tourist attractions they could visit!
Autumn 1 2023 Class News
It has been an eventful and fulfilling half term in Kestrels Class and we have fitted in so much over the last 7 weeks: settling into the roles and responsibilities of the upper juniors, visits from Court Fields staff, the launch of the Civic Award, History day at Escot, Drama and English Enrichment Week linked to Alice in Wonderland and the Harvest Festival!
The children came back to school after the summer holidays refreshed and ready to learn. They were excited to settle into Kestrels class. Our Year 6s wrote amazing pledges in an attempt to become a House Captain or Vice-Captain, attended training to become Peer Mediators and Playground Leaders and volunteered for a range of other jobs which benefit every child at Beech Grove. It has been really inspiring to see their dedication to their new roles; long may this continue.
During the fourth week, the Mayor of Wellington’s secretary arrived to launch the 'Civic Award'. She explained that the award focuses on the children developing themselves over the year to become active members of their school community and within the wider Wellington community. To be successful and get the most out of the award scheme, the children need to take part in a range of activities, both in and out of school, which develop them personally and contribute towards them becoming an active member of society. The launch was met with great enthusiasm and determination and already some of the folders are looking amazing!
To enrich the learning across the curriculum, but especially within history, the children enjoyed a Living History day at Wildwood Escot. The focus was on bringing their Anglo-Saxon learning to life by exploring the daily life at that time. The children relished seeing the wild animals that the Anglo-Saxons would have hunted, eaten and used for clothing and different materials. They enjoyed handling a range of artefacts and experiencing life in an Anglo-Saxon village making bread, working in the forge and as a wood carver. They especially liked being put in the stocks! As their interpretation skills have developed, so has their ability to think like a real historian would; the discussions they had around what the artefacts might tell us about Anglo-Saxons were impressive - their knowledge of historical significance has really deepened.
As writers, we have delved into the world of myths, legends and monsters and written our own ‘defeat the monster’ story based on the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. The focus was on description and the children really brought the character and the setting to life by using personification of the weather and seeing the setting through the character’s actions and senses. For their final write we had heroes defeating a range of monsters: venomous hydras, poisonous basilisks and raging minotaurs! Using a range of sentence structures, ambitious vocabulary and imaginative descriptions the children really showed how they were thinking about the reader and the impact they wanted their story to have. The more the children read their writing out loud to each other, the more they were able to edit and improve their work showing what great authors they are becoming.
As mathematicians, the children have shown great resilience and stamina with the Year 5 and 6 curriculum. We have built on our existing place value knowledge and moved into much bigger numbers including millions and begun to secure our strategies when adding and subtracting. The children’s arithmetic and times table knowledge are also improving and they are becoming much more efficient in their approach to tackling calculations, estimating their answers and looking for patterns.
As scientists, we have focused on biology; living things and their habitats. The children have learnt about a range of life cycles including, mammals, amphibians, insects and birds and can describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals. They have enjoyed dissecting plants, exploring the local area and setting up different experiments to identify the correct conditions for optimum germination.
Well done on a really productive, rewarding and jam-packed half term!
2022/23 Class News
Summer 2 2023 Class News
The children came back to school after the half-term holidays refreshed and pleased never to see another SATs paper again! They have really thrown themselves into this busy and exciting half term: Bikeability, the residential to Hooke Court, transition to secondary school, SASP multi-Sports at Court Fields, sports day, the Prom, summer concert, water fight and the end of year production - ‘Edith’s Wartime Scrapbook’!
The children continued with their English lessons and quickly became absorbed in ‘Varjak Paw’ by SF Said. With a focus on character and setting description, the children showed, for the final time, what great authors they have become. They focused on sentence construction and choosing vocabulary for impact to write some excellent descriptive paragraphs.
In maths, the children enjoyed combining all their learning from over the year and applying it to real life situations – they became travel agents! They used different websites to look at the weather and rainfall for different resorts by comparing graphs, they compared the prices of flights and hotels and budgeted for spending money - they had great fun! A different project involved the children using their independent and collaboration skills by completing Theme Park Maths. Following the criteria set, the children designed their own theme park and worked through a range of tasks in an attempt to clear a profit after their first year of being in business. In pairs, they had to decide what types of rides they wanted in their parks, how many customer facilities to include and, most importantly, where to place the gift shop! This open-ended task really developed their practical maths skills: money, percentages, the four rules and budgeting. They were a great success with one team clearing a profit of £1 million!
The residential to Hooke Court was truly amazing and it was such a pleasure and a privilege to take the children away. They rose to every challenge and exceeded our expectations with their outstanding behaviour and ‘have-a-go’ approach to every activity. The centre staff were incredibly impressed with them all and commented on what great ambassadors they were for Beech Grove.
Even though there have been so many other events this half term that the children have enjoyed participating in, the Year 6 Prom deserves a special mention. All the children looked amazing and really enjoyed having a night dedicated to celebrating them – they have achieved so much this year and deserve to feel very proud of themselves.
Finally, the end of year production was outstanding. There wasn’t a dry eye in the hall when the children had finished acting, singing and dancing their way through the World War 2 story of Edith. They have worked so hard this half term to put it all together and I know they will be singing the songs for many years to come.
Well done on a really rewarding and jam-packed half term and thank you for being such a fantastic Kestrels class.
Summer 1 2023 Class News
The children came back to school, after the Easter holidays, refreshed and keen to get back to learning. It has been an eventful and fulfilling half term in Kestrels class and we have fitted so much in to the last 6 weeks: SATs, SASP cross country and mountain biking, visiting the Drug Bus at Court Fields school, a visit from the author Joffre White and the King’s Coronation celebration afternoon!
At the end of the Spring term the children delighted in a Maya feast. They ate a range of food including, tortillas, guacamole, bean stew, tropical fruit and hot chocolate made with fresh chillies. The children practised their chopping, grating and slicing skills and had a very enjoyable afternoon. For some it was the first time they had tried some of the food and they found it very tasty and, luckily, not too spicy!
In preparation for SATs, the main focus during English lessons has been on spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) and reading. The children showed great focus as they revised determiners, active and passive voice, subordinate clauses and different tense types among other areas. They enjoyed reading a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry and answering comprehension questions.
Similarly, in maths, the children completed their learning about angles, angles in triangles and different 2D shapes and nets. They recapped how to accurately use a protractor and enjoyed learning how to calculate the angles in different shapes, some of which were very complicated! They then identified the last few one-off lessons they would like to revise, mainly on fractions, decimals and percentages and arithmetic.
They have really worked hard for their SATs tests and their continued resilience and determination to squeeze every last teaching point out of the time left has been impressive.
As scientists, we have relished the opportunity to get out and about in Wellington as part of the topic on Living Things and their Habitats. The children have enjoyed walking around the flower park and the basins looking for different varieties of fungi, trees, flowering and non-flowering plants and animals. They have also enjoyed sketching and reading their books in the sunshine. We will be concluding our learning on this topic after half term.
As geographers, we have begun exploring the Amazon Basin which links back to our work last term on South America and the Maya. The children have used their map reading skills to locate the Amazon river basin and the rainforest and were amazed as we ‘flew’ down into the forest and surrounding villages and towns using Google Earth. The weather within the rainforest has been a main focus as has the structure of the forest: forest floor, understorey, canopy and emergent layer. The children have identified different plants and animals that live within the different layers and how they sustain each other so they survive and help to keep the ecosystem in balance. They really enjoyed creating different food chains for the weird and wonderful creatures that live in the rainforest. We will be concluding our learning on this topic after half term.
The half term was rounded off in true Beech Grove style with an afternoon dedicated to King Charles III’s Coronation. Earlier in the week, some members of Kestrels class took part in a whole school assembly re-enacting what happens during a Coronation and then they took part in singing some really moving and inspiring songs dedicated to the new King. It was a wonderful celebration.
Well done on a really productive, rewarding and jam-packed half term!
Spring 2 2023 Class News
Kestrel’s Class have had a great half term and have really loved all their learning; we have achieved so much: Science Day, World Book Day, Easter Raffle fundraising, Pay-to-Play and not forgetting the snow!
As historians, the children have continued their learning about the Maya and enjoyed delving further into this fascinating civilisation. They learnt how Maya society was organised with a King and High Priest in charge and slaves and farmers at the bottom of the hierarchy, about Maya art, writing, maths and their calendar, about their religion and the gods they believed in and what they ate and how they hunted. The children were especially taken by the human sacrifice element of the Maya’s religion and the accuracy of their calendar. The unit of work culminated in two creative experiences: using clay to create Maya pottery and a Maya Feast. We have continued reading ‘The Curse of the Maya’, by Jonny Pearce and Andy Loneragan, as our class read.
As writers, the children have been captivated by Alfred Noyes’ classic narrative poem, The Highwayman. Once again, the children have excelled in their descriptive writing and have challenged themselves to write from a different character’s point of view. They have relished listening to the poem being read, as well as sung aloud, and have really been swept away by the beautiful, lyrical style it is written in. They have continued to develop their skills of using ‘show not tell’, metaphors and adventurous vocabulary and have really persevered in finding exactly the right word to describe their character. Their writing is on display in the classroom, so please come in and have a read – you will be impressed.
As mathematicians, the children have continued to work their way through the demanding Year 6 curriculum, showing great resilience and stamina. They have continued to revise and consolidate the four operations (add, subtract, multiply and divide), explored the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages and learnt about ratio and proportion.
In science, the children carried out a number of investigations linked to electricity. They made circuits, learnt the correct symbols for the different components and used them in their circuit diagrams and made predictions and drew conclusions about what would happen to the brightness of a bulb if more than one component was added. We finished with a revision lesson on the importance of electrical safety.
Year 6 have finished the term off with two great fundraising events: the Easter Raffle and Pay-to-Play. Both events have been extremely successful and greatly enjoyed by all the children. Thank you, as always, for supporting your child to be successful and in helping them to contribute positively to the wider community of Beech Grove.
Kestrels class have impressed me, yet again, with a wonderful half term.
Spring 1 2023 Class News
Kestrel’s Class have had a great half term and have really enjoyed all their learning.
We began the spring term as historians and dived into the world of the Maya. The children really enjoyed beginning their learning journey tasting chocolate and discovering what else the Maya had invented. So far, we have learnt about where and when they lived, how they built their cities, what games they played and why they were such successful farmers. After half term, the journey continues and we will be delving further into this fascinating civilisation. The children have also enjoyed listening to ‘The Curse of the Maya’ by Jonny Pearce and Andy Loneragan as our class read.
As writers, the children have been authors of an explanation text and a tale of fear. After watching ‘Wallace and Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions’ and analysing the language and structure of explanation texts, they had great fun creating their own machines and writing about how they worked. Basing their ideas on a ‘Monster Tamer’ machine, the children invented a ‘Teacher Pleaser’, ‘Picnic Spot Chooser’, ‘Pet Trainer’ and many more. Their writing was original and imaginative and a real pleasure to read. The children then returned to story writing with a focus on description based on a tale of fear. Setting their story in a scrap yard, they have begun using a range of writing techniques including, adjectives, 'show not tell', similes and metaphors and the senses to create a complete description of their setting and main character. Using a range of sentence structures, ambitious vocabulary and imaginative descriptions they have begun to develop their story and this will be finished after the half term break.
As mathematicians, the children have continued to show great resilience and stamina with the Year 6 curriculum. They have continued to revise and consolidate the four operations (add, subtract, multiply and divide) and link fractions to decimals and percentages.
In science, the children have explored light, how light travels, how we see things and how shadows are formed. They have carried out a range of experiments to show how the shape of shadows can be changed and how light travels in straight lines. The children made predictions, observed what happened, recorded their results and drew conclusions.
We have finished the term off with our ‘Healthy Living’ enrichment week. Every day has had a different focus: Monday was all about exercise and hygiene where the children launched the Daily Mile and took part in yoga in the classroom, Tuesday focused on having a healthy balance of technology in our lives, Wednesday was all about food and drink and the Eatwell Plate and Thursday was mental health awareness which involved mindfulness activities and a visit from three alpacas to reinforce how animals can be soothing and calming. The children also enjoyed workshops from a number of visitors including Kooth, Road Safety and Network Rail.
Kestrel class have impressed me yet again with their dedication, behaviour for learning and resilience as they completed more SATs practice papers. All the children have made progress this term and I am very proud of them.
Autumn 2 2022 Class News
Kestrel’s Class have had a great half term with their learning – they have really worked hard.
At the start of the half term, the children enjoyed our enrichment week all about ‘Celebrating Difference and Diversity’. We discussed how we are all different and diverse, but also the same. In groups, we looked at appearance and how it can show the personality of the person. There were many discussions about how acceptance and lack of judgement is so important and to always be open-minded and kind. We moved onto looking at different cultures and explored where our class’s and Beech Grove community families come from. We were amazed to see how far and wide our community stretches around the world. The culmination of this learning ended with the children sampling food from different countries. Very kindly, some parents made or bought delicious treats, from their culture, for the children to sample and enjoy. We especially enjoyed dahl, naan bread, jollof rice (from The Gambia), bigos, longganisa (sausage from the Philippines), Polish sausage and beetroot soup.
As writers, the children have been authors of a quest story where their main character has been sent to defeat a monster. After analysing and describing different monsters and creating great character descriptions, the children delved into the 'back story' of their monster to explore why they became the way they were. They were able to bring out the gruesome and scary aspects of the monster’s character whilst also bringing a level of empathy and sadness to their creations which showed highly skilled writing. They used a range of writing techniques including, adjectives, 'show not tell', similes and metaphors and the senses to create a complete description of their terrible beasts. The children used a range of sentence structures, ambitious vocabulary and imaginative descriptions to really show how they were thinking about the reader and the impact they wanted their story to have. The more the children read their writing out loud to each other, the more they were able to edit and improve their work showing what great authors they are becoming.
As mathematicians, the children have continued to show great resilience and stamina with the Year 6 curriculum. They have refined their multiplying and dividing skills and are now feel confident with a secure strategy. They have also revisited their learning about co-ordinates and developed their problem-solving skills in this area. The children’s arithmetic and times table knowledge are also improving and they are becoming much more efficient in their approach to tackling calculations, estimating their answers and looking for patterns.
In science, the children have continued investigating the properties of different materials. They have carried out more experiments that prove that materials can undergo changes which can be either reversible or irreversible. These involved, dissolving effervescent tablets under different conditions to see when a solution reaches its saturation point and burning tea lights to show how a different product is made. The children made predictions, observed what happened, recorded their results and drew conclusions.
In geography, the children have really enjoyed exploring their local area and the region of the South West. They have looked at the physical and human features found in the South West of England and have studied a variety of maps, images and data. They have realised that the South West is a major tourist destination with farming and agriculture as its main employment. They used their maths skills and knowledge of percentages to make comparisons with other parts of the UK.
Kestrels class have impressed me yet again with their dedication, behaviour for learning and resilience as they completed more SATs practice papers. All the children have made progress this term and I am very proud of them.
Kestrels were amazing in the Christmas Carol concert. Their singing, ukulele playing and narrating were a joy to hear.
Well done and have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Autumn 1 2022 Class News
It has been an eventful and fulfilling half term in Kestrels Class and we have fitted in so much over the last 7 weeks: settling into Year 6, applying for and getting various roles and responsibilities, visits from Court Fields staff, the launch of the Civic Award with the Mayor, a history workshop, trip to Nothe Fort, playground politics and the harvest festival!
The children came back to school after the summer holidays refreshed and ready to learn. They were excited to settle into Kestrels class and take on the fulfilling roles, responsibilities and privileges that come with being in Year 6. They wrote amazing pledges in an attempt to become a house captain or vice-captain, attended training to become peer mediators and playground leaders and volunteered for a range of other jobs which all benefit every child at Beech Grove. It has been really inspiring to see their dedication to their new roles and long may this continue.
During the third week the Mayor of Wellington, Councillor Mark Lithgow, arrived to launch the Civic Award. He explained that the award focuses on the children developing themselves over the year to become active members within the Wellington community. To be successful and get the most out of the award scheme, the children need to take part in a range of activities, both in and out of school, which develops them personally and contributes towards them becoming an active member of society. The launch was met with great enthusiasm and determination and already some of the folders are looking amazing!
To enrich the learning across the curriculum, but especially within history, the children enjoyed two experiences; a Somerset in wartime workshop and a trip to Nothe Fort. The children relished learning about what life was like in Somerset during World War 2. They enjoyed exploring artefacts and learning how rationing impacted on everyone. They tried on an air raid warden’s uniform, put out an imaginary incendiary bomb and become historical detectives to work out who a suitcase belonged to and who had been evacuated. As their interpretation skills have developed, so has their ability to think like a historian. The discussions they had to decide who the suitcase belonged to, based on the artefacts and evidence, was lovely to hear. Their knowledge of how cause and consequence are entwined throughout World War 2 is impressive, as is their deepening understanding of government and society.
The trip to Nothe Fort really brought other aspects of World War 2 to life and the children experienced what it was like to go to school, be in an Anderson shelter during the Blitz and to ‘make do and mend’ in the laundry and kitchen of a typical home. Whilst they enjoyed using the dolly and mangle to wash and press their clothes, they did appreciate the hard work that was involved and how lucky they are today to have a washing machine at home. They were also shocked to realise how strict schooling was and how children were treated. To increase the children’s knowledge of the war and to give them a different perspective on it we have also read the story books ‘Friend or Foe’ and ‘Adolphus Tips’ by Michael Morpurgo. Even though they are fiction books they are still historically accurate and it was wonderful that the children used this extra knowledge when talking to the historians at Nothe Fort.
As writers, we have delved into the world of portal stories and written exciting narratives where the main character is transported to another place. We based our writing on ‘The Gas Mask’, where the main character is transported back to World War 2 when they try on their grandma’s old gas mask. The focus was on the setting and really bringing it to life through the use of description, personification of the weather and seeing the setting through the character’s actions and senses. For their final write we had characters disappearing from boot fairs, museums and attics and reappearing in different stages of World War 2. Using a range of sentence structures, ambitious vocabulary and imaginative descriptions the children really showed how they were thinking about the reader and the impact they wanted their story to have. The more the children read their writing out loud to each other, the more they were able to edit and improve their work showing what great authors they are becoming.
As mathematicians, the children have shown great resilience and stamina with the Year 6 curriculum. We have learnt about statistics and have gathered and represented data in a variety of different ways. We have refined our place value knowledge and moved into much bigger numbers including millions and secured our strategies when adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. The children’s arithmetic and times table knowledge are also improving and they are becoming much more efficient in their approach to tackling calculations, estimating their answers and looking for patterns.
As scientists, we have focused on the properties and changes of materials. The children have experimented with the best materials for keeping drinks warm, dissolving sugar, separating and filtering materials and insulators and conductors within an electrical circuit. We will be concluding our learning on this topic this term.
Well done on a really productive, rewarding and jam-packed half term!
2021/22 Class News
Summer 2 2022 Class News
In their own words, Kestrels Class have had "the best half term to round off Year 5!"
The children have continued to show all of our school values, but especially resilience and courage; our trip to Clip ‘n’ Climb proved to stretch us all as we tried to beat our personal challenges.
As writers, we have built on our knowledge of story writing by adapting our model text ‘The Canal’ to write our own warning tale focusing on settings. The children showed great recollection of the toolkit of a warning tale story and were able to apply the complex language skills effectively.
As mathematicians, we have developed our knowledge of position and direction and properties of shapes. We then moved on to converting between units, both imperial and metric.
As geographers, we have been looking at ‘Weston-super-Mare’. We started our learning with a field trip where we were able to see the wide range of human and physical geography features. We used a compass to navigate, looked at different coastal features and enjoyed tallying the different types of tourism we could see. We loved being able to put our learning from the classroom, in to practise.
As scientists, we have explored evolution and inheritance. We are now able to explain how adaptation and natural selection impact on an animal’s chance of survival in the wild and how it can lead to changes seen throughout time. It was interesting to think about our own families and spot similarities and differences we inherited. Some of us wondered which traits have been lost along the way. We carried out a science experiment to support Darwin’s discovery of the finches found in the Galapagos Islands. We found this learning really interesting which then led to many discussions about how different animals adapt to their environments and if the environments are changing, how will the animals we know and recognise adapt?
We loved art week and felt very proud that we could share our artwork with our families and friends. We think that when the art was exhibited alongside our peers, it made each individual piece even more striking.
Summer 1 2022 Class News
The past term has flown by and Kestrels have continued to show all of our school values.
We began the half term with ‘Environment and Healthy Living Week’. During this week, we had many visitors and had time to explore how to keep our minds, as well as our body healthy. We particularly liked using the Headspace app to calm and focus our minds. I have heard that some children have continued their relaxation techniques at home too! We took a trip to the park to take part in some outdoor yoga. Hearing the birds, at the same time as practising yoga, was a special moment. Kestrels enjoyed the workshop from Carymoor and enjoyed being detectives as they learned about wildlife near and far. On top of this, we also successfully completed some team building challenges; one of them was to transport a bucket of water from one side of the playground to the other. The only problem was that the buckets and utensils had holes in!
As historians, we have explored the changing power of monarchs since the end of the Viking and Anglo-Saxon period. One of our favourite lessons was when we created our own modern-day Magna Carta, thinking carefully about our new rules linked to the British Values. When we shared them as a class, we realised that we all have very similar views on how to live a life full of good choices and how to be a good citizen. We know and understand how the Magna Carta has influenced society since being written and know that some of the statements are included into today’s laws. Linking to some of our history work, we really enjoyed our Jubilee celebration. We loved watching everyone else’s performances and enjoyed sharing our poem. In class, we created a non-chronological report all about the Queen.
As writers, we have built on our knowledge of portal tales and have enjoyed writing a tale based on ‘Time Slip Scarab’. Our invented stories were full of excitement and included hooks for the reader. Some of the portals had us exploring medieval times; others travelled back to World War 2. We thought carefully about how we could add detail to engage the reader and ensure they have a clear picture in their mind from our description as well as focusing on our openings and endings.
As mathematicians, we have embedded our knowledge of the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages. We can now easily convert and solve problems using all three. We used our place value knowledge to add and subtract decimals, even where there are different amounts of digits in the numbers.
As scientists, we have developed our understanding of life cycles across different animals. In detail, we looked at the different stages and used key vocabulary to explain the process the animal goes through. We were really intrigued to learn that some animals undergo complete metamorphosis, whereas others undergo incomplete metamorphosis.
Spring 2 2022 Class News
Kestrels have had an excellent half term and have been very successful in all their learning. The children have continued to be amazing at showing all of our school values, but especially resilience and courage as they take on new challenges in their learning.
As Geographers, Kestrels have had an exciting half term developing their understanding of the human and physical geography found in the North American state of California. We have explored the importance of crops and farming in the Central Valley and how water shortages impact this agriculture and the economy.
As scientists, we have continued our learning about space. We have learned how to use the ancient method of using a sun dial to tell the time, explored how shadows are made, and how they change throughout the day. We have spent lots of time outside carrying out experiments and reinforcing our learning. To finish the term, we were lucky enough to have an amazing experience in the 'Explorer Dome' which we all truly loved. Some children commented that they thought the videos and information were so interesting, they want to go every day!
As mathematicians, we have developed our understanding of fractions and can now add and subtract fractions as well as multiply them. We have enjoyed using our new knowledge to work collaboratively to solve a variety of problems. We have continued to increase our fluency of times tables – something we will be continuing with next term.
As writers, we have been authors of a newspaper report. We took our inspiration from our own finding tales last term and created a newspaper report on the finding. We had all sorts of reports, including: lost jewels, abandoned children, treasure maps and new species. We thought carefully about the reader, ensuring that our sentences were factual and included quotes, both direct and indirect.
We can't wait for more exciting learning next term!
Spring 1 2022 Class News
As historians, Kestrels have had an exciting half term learning all about the Vikings. We have had the opportunity to find out if they were just raiders and learned they had many more skills which have influenced our lives today. We have also learned about Alfred the Great and considered if he deserves the title of ‘Great’. Some of us agree but some think he was ‘just doing his job’ so should just be known as Alfred.
As scientists, we have enjoyed learning about space. We know how day and night occur on earth and have several ways to prove that the earth is spherical. Our space learning linked nicely with our computing unit where we created a database all about the different planets.
As mathematicians, we have enjoyed learning new multiplication and division strategies and are now using our multiplication recall in our fraction work. We have been using Cuisenaire rods to help us explore equivalent fractions and have built our own fraction wall.
As writers, we explored the poem ‘The Listeners’ by Walter de La Mare and have written our own poem in the same style. We enjoyed learning about the differences between poetry and fiction story writing. We can't wait for more exciting learning next term!
Autumn 2 2021 Class News
We have had an amazing term full of exciting learning. We have enjoyed learning about plant reproduction and even explored asexual reproduction by taking cuttings of plants, watching them develop roots and potting them in our classroom. We love caring for them and watching them grow.
In DT we have designed, made and evaluated a fairground ride (with lots of perseverance!). We are very proud of our hard work and enjoyed sharing our creations with our peers.
We have had a great term learning all about the Geography of East Anglia. We looked at a range of maps including topographical maps, ready to investigate the human and physical geography of East Anglia.
We are looking forward to celebrating the end of our learning about East Anglia and the Anglo-Saxons with a trip to Escot for an Anglo-Saxon day in the new year.
