Welcome to Class 5 - Foxes

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We had a wonderful time celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - spending the afternoon playing traditional games such as charades, shunt a penny and the tray memory game. We then joined the rest of the school for a lovely community celebration. We sang the national anthem and enjoyed eating lots of lovely party food items, finishing with a refreshing ice lolly.

The class were thoroughly engaged with preparing for and film their own film trailers. We had a variety of props appear and full on make up and hair being done! We are now in the editing process so watch this space for the final things.

For History Day, we started by learning about the Queen and her reign, having a great discussion about the Commonwealth, the line of succession and some of the things she had encountered in her reign. We then focused on our decade of her rule – the 1980’s. We watched a BBC video about Prince Charles and Diana’s wedding and wrote descriptively as if we were there. Mrs Maw even gave us her first-hand experience of being on the Mall enjoying the momentous event. We moved on to focus on some of the key historical world events of the 1980s and produced some wonderful timelines. To conclude, we produced new stamp designs that encapsulated an event from the Queen’s reign in the 1980s.

The children were challenged to select suitable measuring equipment and then use it to measure the length and width of a variety of objects in the school grounds. Following that, they then calculated the perimeter and area too.

In our athletics sessions, we have focused on sprinting: reacting quickly, maintaining our pace and running technique. We have also learnt the standing long jump and shot putt. The focus has been the correct technique for throwing safely and effectively.

For MFL Day, our focus was learning some Spanish. We started by introducing some greetings such as hello, good morning, my name is... and then we researched information about Spain itself, using it to produce some wonderful fact posters. Next, we had a session with Mr Wallace (who speaks fluent Spanish) whereby he taught us numbers 1-10 and played a fun game of 11's in Spanish. In the afternoon, we learnt the Spanish parts of the body vocabulary, learnt how to sing 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' and made some vocabulary magnets. 

After studying the work of Andy Warhol, we had a go at creating our own 'pop art' style portraits of film actors and actresses.

This term's music unit has seen us listen to and appraise a range of film music, learning and recognising the impact and effect of music on scenes. We identified changes in pitch, tone, volume and tempo in different scenes and the impact it had on the viewer. Then we created our own graphic scores for different pieces of music.

During our Topic lesson, we learnt about the history behind the moving image and discovered that a series of inventions led up to the first recorded moving image in the late 1800s, beginning with optical toys that give the illusion of movement. The thaumatrope, a Victoran toy used winding strings to rotate a card with images on both sides which when unwound looked to be moving. We had a go at making our own!

Over the course of last term and this, we were writing and developing our own web pages about E-Safety. We have been using a website called Replit to write the code for our web pages which has included adding images and weblinks, introducing paragraphs, headings and line breaks. 

For Fantastic Friday this week, we enjoyed spending time playing board games together. There was a multitude of games on offer including: Jenga, Twister, Chess, Connect 4, Mastermind and Uno, which I loved playing too!

We all had a wonderful Geography field trip day. We went for a 6km walk around Sheldwich, crossing fields, finding chalk pits, exploring the valley and looking at the cherry trees. We focused on our map skills trying to work out our route on an ordinance survey map of the area and then creating our own maps in the afternoon. We explored the different types of land and how important the area is for farming. In the afternoon, we made our own maps of the area and listened to some informative talks from Mr Gaskain, a local apple farmer and Mr Dean, a game keeper for the Lees Court Estate.

This term in our Music lessons we concentrated on the lyrics of songs and writing our own. We listened and appraised a range of folk songs and sea shantys and then focused on writing songs about the Titanic disaster which we then rehearsed, added in percussion and performed!

This term we are looking at street dance and have been learning particular moves to go along to the music Beggin'. This week we learnt to pop and lock!

In our computing topic this term, we learnt about the network components such as: the school server, wifi router, network switch and ethernet cable. We looked into what the internet is and took part in a group activity sending messages to each other as if we were part of the computer network, each having an IP address. We then looked into websites and web pages and how they are designed in preparation for making our own about e-safety. In pairs we planned put what we wanted to incorporate on our web page. 

Performing Arts week

Last term, we learnt all about the history of fairgrounds and the forces behind how they worked. We investigated pulleys and gears and have now utilised those skills by making models from K'nex  of different fairground rides. We had to work well as a group, allocating roles and reading instructions. We found it quite challenging and had to do a fair bit of problem solving along the way but the finished models look and work well.

We enjoyed a performance from Circo Rum Ba Ba which emphasised the importance on reducing waste and gas pollution and the need for plants and trees.

We had a wonderful day at Chatham Dockyard, exploring life on board the submarine 'Ocelot'. We learnt how to make rope and even made our own. Then we used the rope to explore tying a range of knots. We also made our own ships and raced and tested them in a water tank with a wave machine. Finally, we made rockets and fired them from a rocket launcher which was great fun!

We have all drawn our own versions of the ocean liner Titanic focusing on shape and perspective. They all turned out so brilliantly.

After learning all about the river system and the journey the river takes from the source to the mouth, we made our own models and painted diagrams, labelling the key vocabulary giving definitions of them too.

In our 'Fantastic Friday' session this week, the children made awards for another member of the class from Lego and gave it to them stating the reasons. We had the daredevil award, the caring for the environment award, the dinosaur expert and the kindness award to name just a few. The activity put smiles on a lot of faces 

This term, we are lucky enough to have a coach come in and deliver 6 sessions of badminton coaching. The first was last week and we all really enjoyed it even with the challenges of our small hall. The class were throwing and catching shuttlecocks, passing balls and shuttle cocks between them and even had some doubles games.

The culmination of two weeks poetry leaning was our very own poetry slam competition. The class wrote poems about a topic of their choice, either individually or in pairs. We edited and improved them,rehearsed and learnt them off by heart and even made props to use in the performances. Every competitor performed wonderfully and it was very hard to settle on a winner. The group winners were: Harlow and Max, Millie and Ilona, Ingrid and Nayara and Sophie and Freya. These all performed again and Millie and Ilona were crowned poetry slam champions 2022!

Our week of art was focused on the above piece of work by the artist Poonam Mistry from the book 'It is up to us'. We looked at different elements of her picture and used different mediums to complete a range of work through out the week. We did water colour turtles, made wire sculptures of fish and turtles, created a replica of the original piece, researched our artist and created artist studies, collaged fish and we took up the role of illustrator to the text from a different page of the book. We also created some wonderful nature art in the woods of some creatures from our artist's painting. The class worked very hard and I have been amazed by all their talent.

In our RE lesson, we discussed the importance of having values that we tried to live our lives by just as Jesus had. We then spent time outside making our own values trees.

This term, our Music topic has been rock music and we have been learning to perform the song 'Livin' on a prayer' by Bon Jovi. We have compared it to lots of other songs from this genre and have been learning the accompaniment on the glockenspiel.

This term, we have been concentrating on partner balances using counter tension, counter balance and supportive teamwork. We have explored a range of balances with a partner on mats and then extended these on to apparatus this week. We have given each other constructive feedback and enjoyed showing our best moves to each other and putting them into a sequence.

This term, we have been improving our Excel skills by designing a theme park plan, calculating the visitor spending and the running costs. We have presented this information in tables using formulae and pie charts!

A huge thank you to everyone of you who, for my very generous gift - I love it! It was such a thoughtful present and my toes have very much enjoyed being nice and warm. I am looking forward taking my daughter Isobel to the zoo to enjoy some family time. I do hope you all had a magnificent Christmas and I can't wait to see you all on Tuesday 4th January to start a new term.

Mrs Fairs

We plunged into STEM week with enthusiasm and creativity to burn. The class were passionate about helping to save and protect the environment and world we live in and this produced some wonderful discussions throughout the week. We designed inventions for the future, created items of clothing from recycled materials, constructed LED torches and made covers for them, recycled cardboard to make clipboards and discussed ways to help prevent climate change. One of the highlights of the week, was getting to use some thermal imaging cameras around the school which was pretty cool!

F1 STEM Day at Q.E

Class 5 attended the Q.E Grammar school to take part in a fantastic STEM Day, The day was all themed around the F1 in schools challenge and the children competed in teams to design, make and test their own F1 car model. Initially, within their teams they discussed and created team names, logos, colour branding and initial car designs. We then made prototypes and discussed the physics behind making a fast, aerodynamic car. The children’s ideas were amazing and so creative – team names included: The Conquerors, Bolt UK, Storm, Pantha and Fiesty Phoenixes and bold bright team branding was very clear. For the next stage, we explored different body shape designs, types of wheels, extra features such as wings and spoilers. After, the teams constructed and built their models they tested them in the smoke air tunnel, edited and tweaked their designs and made some wonderful team posters to help promote their teams. The day culminated in a competition to see whose car was the fastest –getting the chance to test them on their air powered track. After a very exciting competition there were two teams left to fight it out for the title – Bolt UK (Max and Oscar) and The Conquerors (Dotti and Emily C). With each team taking one win, their overall average time decided that champions which was Dotti and Emily C. Some other awards were handed out too: Overall Champions – Ilona and Seth, Best Design – Ingrid and Isaac, Teamwork Award – Millie and Harlow and Dotti and Emily C.

What an amazing day we all had – one we will remember!

During RE Day, our focus was the Hindu festival of Diwali. We learnt about key aspects of the religion, Hinduism and the history behind the festival. We then designed our own Rangoli patterns, learnt about mandalas and painted our own onto stones. We enjoyed some Bollywood dancing and made friendship bracelets. Finally, after learning about the story of Rama and Sita, we produced Scratch animations retelling the story in the I.C.T suite. I think that the day was enjoyed by everyone.

Last term, the class were lucky enough to have Mr Daintree come and teach them how to play the recorder. They learnt how to play the notes, record the notation on paper scales and write their own short musical pieces using particular notes. Have a listen to the class playing 'Hot Cross Buns' together.

We held our own ancient Greek Olympics this week, which saw us all compete in 5 events: long jump, shot putt, sprint, javelin and a long distance race. The winning boy and girl for each event were awarded a prestigious laurel wreath!

Book Week was amazing in Class 5! We read the book Friend or Foe by Michael Morpurgo which was set in World War 2. The class loved the book and the work that we did on it was exceptional. Throughout the week, we wrote letters home as an evacuee, descriptive writing using photos as a stimulus, acted out a chapter of the book and turned parts into cartoon strips. We enjoyed reading to Class 2 and Class R, making fact posters about child evacuations and even created some chalk Blitz art.

In Class 5, we have been enjoying our Fantastic Friday sessions so far. We have listened to calming music, explored swirl patterns, had time to build things out of Lego with  other people and reflect on our school experiences this year.

Khan Maths homework to be completed by the evening of Wednesday 22nd September. The spelling test will be on Friday 24th September and your English homework needs to be handed in by Monday 27th September. Please feel free to email me your homework if that is easier to foxes@sheldwich.kent.sch.uk.

Mrs Fairs

In groups we rehearsed and performed a section of the Greek myth Pandora's Box. The performances were funny, detailed and told the story accurately.