Welcome to Class 5 - Foxes

We enjoyed another wonderful Outdoor learning/ Forest School Session. This week, we used clay and natural materials in the Forest School area to make either woodland creatures such as hedgehogs, squirrels, birds and foxes; green men or tree spirits created on the tree trunks.

Class 4 and 5 took part in a drama workshop lead by the Abbey School. We worked in groups of 10-12 and recreated the story of the 'Three Little Pigs' using physical acting. We all enjoyed the chance to do some more drama and have the help and advice of some of their Year 9 students.

We created some fantastic Aztec Sun Art using oil pastels and focused on the use of hot and cold colours complementing each other.

In groups, we made our own Aztec warriors either Eagle or Jaguar Knights. We made sure they had shields for protection and spears or clubs for defence. They wore either a jaguar skin outfit or an eagle one with headdresses attached.

We had a very active and busy Sports Week enjoying sessions in archery, sitting volleyball, skateboarding, taekwondo, golf and rhythmic gymnastics. The class were very enthusiastic and gave all sports a good go showing real determination, teamwork and passion. We also made some wonderful Olympic medals out of clay with intricate designs on them. We also made some wonderful tinfoil sports statues and Olympic themed chalk art.

During our outdoor learning sessions so far, we have made Aztec temples and homes from natural materials and produced some wonderful land art.

We had a fantastic day of designing, testing and racing our very own Formula 1 style cars. In teams, we came up with a team name, colour scheme, logo and car design and then we built a prototype. After testing and tweaking our ideas, the teams all built their racing cars focusing on linking our colours, logos and team names across the car and advertising poster. The teams then tested their cars in the air tunnel, looking at the aerodynamics before moving to test their cars on the track. Each team raced twice against another team to see how fast they could complete the course with the team with the fastest average time winning. Awards were given out to a few teams which the QE staff thought shone in particular areas but everyone took part so brilliantly!

Having just completed our film trailers, it made perfect sense to make an award Oscar statues for our roles in their productions. We looked at the original statues and modelled ours from clay - we took care to mould body parts from one piece of clay and focused on using modelling tools to create detailing. We finished them by painting them gold and adding a plaque.

During Performing Arts week, we listened and appraised a wide selection of Blues and Jazz. We learnt about the 12 Bar Blues and had a go (with Mr Wallace's help) at doing our own using Garageband on the ipads. We wrote our own Blues songs and then created a backing track for them. We also wrote some descriptive writing based on Jazz and Blues musicians. 

After studying the work of Andy Warhol, in particular his Pop Art, we had a go at creating our own using film actors and actresses. We had repeating images and bright bold colours to wow the audience.

We were lucky enough to have a visit from Mr Moore (a professional camera man), who brought with him some of his camera equipment and films/pictures of some of his wonderful work. He gave an inspirational talk about his job, the challenges and highs, showing us some of the pieces he had filmed.

We were lucky enough to have a visit at Sheldwich from the Olympian sprinter, James Dasaolu. He came an did an inspirational talk about his career, the highs and lows and showed us some  medals and running spikes. He demonstrated how flexible and springy he was before running a workout with us as a class. We completed a circuit of 4 activities including, press ups, star jumps, spotty dogs and burpees.

We thoroughly enjoyed the whole film making process, story-boarding, rehearsing, filming and editing them. Everyone took on a role in the process including: costume designer, producer, director, camera person, actors and actresses. We used Computing lessons to learn about different camera angles, how to edit our footage and using imovie! We were thrilled with the end result!

Our focus for History Day was the history of Sheldwich School. We started the day with a walk up to the green to locate the old Georgian school building. Whilst there, we spent time sketching the school using our observational and drawing skills. We looked at the Victorian building attached to the school and had a go at writing using quills and ink in a Victorian cursive script. A history quiz using photos dotted around the school of the school in the early 20^th century was a fun task we also completed. We looked at a range of sources including photos, school roll and attendance documents from the late 19^th and 20^th century. We spent time analysing them, deducing information and investigating what we could learn about the school, annotating them with our ideas.

We completed an Art Workshop with Jo from Animate Arts, whereby we illustrated different letters of the alphabet, completed sketches of different buildings from Faversham and the class even did portraits of me!

This week in our Fantastic Friday session, we made, customised and flew our own paper planes. A simple but fun task!

After exploring different types of angles, as an extension to one of our Maths lessons, we drew, identified and labelled angles on our desks!

We have started our athletics sessions with a focus on sprinting. Exploring different starting positions, developing and improving our reaction times and looking more closely at the best sprinting techniques were all key elements of our learning. We ended the session with some fun relay races, implementing the techniques we have learnt. Furthermore, we have looked at the long jump and the throwing techniques of the push (shot putt) and pull (javelin).

This term, we have Russ from Faversham Tennis Club, coaching us and he has already brought some fun and engaging activities and drills to our sessions. We have learnt about forehand and backhand and the importance of being in the ready position.

We took our Maths outside, using a variety of measuring equipment to calculate the area and perimeter of a plethora of things on the playground in pairs. 

We enjoyed a wonderful trip to the theatre, where we were treated to a super performance of 'Let it Go' by the Canterbury Academy. It was a fantastic production and it was lovely to see some ex-pupils taking part too! Thank you to Mrs Budd for coming along and assisting us.

After weeks of anticipation, we chose and acted out a scene from the Titanic disaster. In groups, we chose a scene, allocated roles and rehearsed a scene or two about the historic event. Each person had a particular part to play and we discussed using our voice, using freeze frames within the scene and fully embracing the role. We then performed our scenes to the class.

T4 Music - Composing and Performing Titanic Folk Songs

This term we studied folk songs, deconstructed them into its parts and then composed our own, including writing lyrics and adding a musical accompaniment. We spent time, editing our lyrics, rehearsing our songs and then performing in font of an audience.

We have been learning about coral reefs: where they can be found; what they are made from; what lives in and around them and how they are helpful to us. We have had a go at making our own from air dry clay. We looked at the different tools and techniques to use to create lots of different types of coral - to great effect. They all look so detailed and wonderful! 

Our focus for Book Week was animal folktales. We read and shared a variety of folktales from a range of different continents and used atlases to locate the countries and continents that the stories were set in. We then planned, drafted and edited our own version of animal folktales giving reasons for why or how the animals had their particular features.

We enjoyed making bookmarks and 3D covers for our favourite books. We also took inspiration from a couple of our folktales and painted turtles using watercolours.

This term we are learning the skills and rules of lacrosse. So far we have practised the art of cradling, scooping and throwing and catching the ball in the lacrosse nets. We are looking forward to applying our understanding in game scenarios.

We used thin, flexible wire to make some turtles or fish sculptures. We found it quite challenging to mould and shape the wire how we wanted it to go but managed to combine and fix them into shapes that are recognisable!

After studying the work of Claude Monet and learning about impressionism, we had a go at producing our own watercolours of the River Thames and Westminster. We could only choose 4 colours and enjoyed exploring mixing and blending to create these striking pieces of art.

Fantastic Friday involved creating things from a small tub of modelling dough - tricky but fun! We also enjoyed playing with the speed stacks although it did turn into who could build the biggest tower! We finished the term with a Fantastic Thursday, where we all play board/card games with each other.

We learnt about the journey of a river and some of its important stages. In groups, we made models of the river system using Plasticine or Lego labelling the key features. Some of us did a detailed painted version too!

We completed our first investigation into our fingerprints. We looked at them through magnifying glasses, blew prints up using a balloon and printed them using ink pads and chalk and tape. We learnt that fingerprints are made in the womb by babies pushing their hands on the inside of the womb!! Everyone has different fingerprints even identical twins!!

As we are studying the Titanic in our English lessons, we took the ship as inspiration for our magnificent artwork. We focused on line and perspective and wanted to use our sketching pencil skills to add depth and shading.

For Art's Week, we focused on learning all about the Dutch painter Pieter de Hooch and specifically studied his painting titled 'The Courtyard of a House in Delft'. We researched all about the artist and created our own fact files about him. Using black pens, we reproduced his painting identifying key shapes and lines. We also had a go at continuing the painting ourselves and writing a mini stories using the painting as a stimulus. Furthermore, alongside the rest of the school, we made A3 sized doors and used photos of places special to us to produce drawings to go behind them.

Term 3 - D.T - Fairground Rides

This term's D.T project has involved us learning and exploring pulleys, gears and levers. We have been learning all about the history of fairgrounds and theme parks so we were challenged with making a ride from K'Nex. In groups, we tried following instructions and building a range of theme park rides with motor power. We then evaluated the the making process.

We made 'values trees' in our RE lesson which had hung on them values which we think are important to live our lives by. These values ranged from forgiveness, honesty, love to trust, friendship and positivity.

We designed our own theme park maps, thinking about the shape of it, zones, rides and other facilities. We considered the different age of the visitors to our park and designed logos for them as well.

We created some art concentrating on conveying motion. We drew fairground and theme park rides using blurring techniques, speed lines, facial expressions, hair and hands flying back all as ways to show they were moving.

DT - Flipbooks

We created flipbooks using extreme sports as a focus and tried to tell a little story showing movement through the pages.

We had a marvellous Poetry slam competition this week. The class had written their own poems either individually or in pairs, rehearsed them and then performed in front of the class in a knock out competition.  The performances were judged on the quality of the poem, rhythm, use of gestures and props and eye contact. Everybody performed brilliantly and after a close fought battle, Felix, Leo and Arlo were crowned joint winners!

We investigated the force of air resistance by completing an experiment in groups to see if the surface area of the given paper affected the speed by which it fell. We discovered that the paper with the larger surface area fell slowest as it had more air resistance acting on it.

In gymnastics, we have explored symmetrical and asymmetrical balances in pairs. We created sequences with these balances and thought of ways to transition between them. Next, we looked at counter balance and counter tension moves and with a partner created similar moves on equipment.

We are learning how to play handball this term, we have looked at the different types of passing, accurate shooting and attacking tactics. The children have enjoyed playing some mini-games to put these skills into practise. We have now focused on defensive strategies and general game tactics and enjoyed playing round robin games to implement them.

During our Fantastic Friday sessions this term, we have enjoyed building things from Lego with our friends; making positive affirmation chatterboxes; cutting out and constructing tangrams; mindfulness colouring and turning scribbles into pictures.

In Computing, we are designing our own theme parks and this week we had a go at using the iPads to create a logo for them. We are using an Excel spreadsheet to make a map of our theme park before using it to calculate visitor spending, running costs and profits. Some of us even managed to change the rules and apply a formula to colour code the cells. We used the data to also make pie charts and bar charts to visually represent our theme park's running costs, visitor spending and profit.

Computing - PowerPoint Interactive Stories

This term we have been learning about hyperlinks and using them to navigate between the pages in a PowerPoint presentation. This has allowed us to turn the Choose Your Own Adventure stories that we wrote at the end of Year 4 into interactive digital games. The children had to think carefully and logically to ensure the stories flowed correctly and that all the buttons linked to the correct pages. There are some screenshots from the stories below and, below those, you can download and play a selection of the children's games yourself. Beware though, some of them are quite scary! 

Using our understanding of light and materials (opaque, translucent and transparent), we designed and made Stain Glass Windows.

R.E. day

We thoroughly enjoyed the R.E. Day, focusing on how people from religious and non-religious communities celebrate Christmas. As well as producing artwork inspired by the carol, ‘Angels from the Realms of Glory’ (which will be displayed in St James’ Church), making edible Christmas wreaths and finishing our Christmas Tree Decoration, we also wrote to another school in Germany. We wrote telling them all about how we individually celebrate here in Kent, and we are eagerly awaiting their responses.

STEM Week

Gosh what an amazing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) week we have had!

This week in Class 5 we been inspired by the movie WALL-E; he is our new member of our class J

We have researched engineers and looked at the female scientist Ada Lovelace; she helped create the first computer programme.

As well as designing our own lasers, spaceships and robots, we had fun building our own solar powered robot just like Wall-E.

As part of PSHE (collaborative working), we used our engineering skills to build the strongest, tallest tower out of 6 sheets of newspaper.

A big 'Thank you' to HSBC (Luke and Lucy), who helped us understand Household budgets in their Maths workshop and Education Group who enabled us to extend our learning of Oceans (part of our Term 2 Topic) through V.R. (Virtual Reality) headsets.

Fantastic Friday

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Every Friday during registration, we can sit where we like and undertake an activity to support our well-being. This week we had a challenge:

'What can you make from just one pipe cleaner?'

Such fun was had by all.

What a fun day we had on Tuesday 31st October 

The PTA arranged for us to dress up and take part in a Fun Run, raising money for their Forest School Project.

We have written and performed our own radio plays inspired by the Greek Myth 'Theseus and the Minotaur'. Some super sound effects were produced!

We have been having great fun learning musical notation; reading music notes to play Kum By Yah and writing our own rhythms.

Gosh, what truly amazing homework you all created - we are absolutely blown away by all the effort and time you have put in to it! Each Pandora's box was so unique and so well thought out with wonderful descriptions to match. We are so proud of you and the rest of the school have been thrilled to see your creations displayed in the Junior corridor.

Well done Foxes.

After learning about the ancient Greek alphabet in our Topic lessons, wrote our own names in Greek.

We have began immersing ourselves in the world of Ancient Greeks and thoroughly enjoyed drama based on the story of Pandora's Box.