Kestrels

Kestrels Class!

Autumn Term

This term our theme was Crime and Punishment!

We particularly enjoyed looking at crime and punishment through the ages as a part of our enhanced provision. In Science we did electricity and forces where we learnt about how electrical circuits work and how forces affect the objects around us. We particularly enjoyed wiring up carousel rides and coding them to spin two different ways and to have flashing lights, as well as having a paper aeroplane competition! We created collages in Art using mixed media and in geography we learnt about the counties of the UK. In R.E. we questioned if believing in God is reasonable and felt safe to share our own opinions and ideas on this.

Year 3 and 4 were looking at the Baker by the Sea in English and completed some beautiful poetry. Year 5 and 6 read The Promise and wrote a sequel to the story where someone was in charge of planting the seeds just like the girl in the book. In Maths we started with place value and worked really hard on number bonds, times tables and using these to calculate using the four main operations.

Our theme for the second half of Autumn was Bravery and Courage!

Lots of our learning was about Space exploration and the bravery and courage of astronauts. In Science, we learnt lots about our own solar system including the different planets and the movement of the moon and of Earth. In History, we looked at the Space Race between Russia and USA and wrote newspaper articles about the moon landing. In D.T. we looked at space buggies and how they move across different landscapes and in different temperatures. We then designed and made our own space buggies out of things we find around the house.

In English, we looked at the Suffragettes and wrote balanced arguments about the suffragists and the suffragettes and the use of violence in protests. In Maths we looked at fractions, specifically adding and subtracting them.

Spring Term

This term, our theme was Freedom and Equality!

We looked at animals in captivity and how it affects them. We had a debate about whether or not we should keep animals in zoos. We also looked at evolution, which culminated in the Year 5 and 6 trip to the Museum of Zoology in Cambridge. We studied the Mayans in History and Mexico in Geography and we learnt about all of the Mayans’ achievements alongside the landmarks which they created in Mexico. In Art, we looked at the artist Bisa Butler. We created printed artworks with portraits of influential women including Florence Nightingale, Ada Lovelace, Mary (Jesus’ mother) and Rosa Parks. These portraits are so beautiful, we are making a gallery of them in the classroom. We also looked at a tricky topic in R.E. which was about how the great thinkers explain the meaning of life, knowledge and the world around them. We created some artwork with birds representing the Christian idea of the immortal soul.