Summer 1 

It has been a short half term but has been action packed with many activities. It was fantastic to see many  Kingfishers dressed up for our Viking topic launch day. During the day we participated in a virtual workshop, researched key facts about Vikings and recreated Viking portraits using sketching pencils.

In this first week, we also participated in a Drama workshop. The class used their acting skills to bring alive characters from Macbeth. They used a range of drama strategies to explore the themes in the play and had a dabble at using Shakespearian language to devise their own interpretations of the script.

Our English work used the stimulus of Beowulf. Kingfishers have worked really hard to create their own mythical beast which Beowulf had to defeat. The class really tried hard to achieve the success criteria within their writing. This included using alliteration, fronted adverbials, building tension in their narrative and using expanded noun phrase. Kingfishers embraced this writing process and using their editing skills to improve their own writing. I am sure your child will happily share with you their ideas about their narratives.

Both the Year 4s and Year 5s have successfully grasped our Mathematical concept using decimals and percentages. The Year 4 have been using money to add and subtract whilst the Y5 have been relating decimals to their percentages. Kingfishers always work well collaboratively and thrive from completing mathematical challenges. The class will often share and explain their reasoning when solving mathematical problems.

One of our highlights this half term in our Science has been investigating how sound travels. The class enjoyed making predictions and then carrying out experiments to prove their predictions. One of our investigations, involved us being on the school field and seeing how sound can travel and how the pitch and volume changes from a different distance.

On the Thursday before half term we took part in a virtual Road Safety workshop. This definitely highlighted and reminded us about how we need to keep safe on our roads.

Finally, we ended with our DT day where we found out all about weaving.  We had a go at paper weaving, used a card loom and even created our own weaving frame using twigs we found in the woods. 

We wish you a very happy and safe half term break. Hopefully with some long awaited warm sunshine!

Spring 2

It has been an unusual Spring Term for us all, however we were delighted to have the whole of our Kingfishers class reunited for the last 4 weeks. We all quickly returned to our daily routines and have loved being able to share our learning with each other again. It’s been great to see how quickly the class have bonded again and how well they all work together.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our ‘What’s it like to live in Brazil?’ topic. One of our highlights was learning about the Amazon Rainforest and the different layers that make the rainforest. We used our DT skills to make creative boxes which model these different layers. Have a look at the pictures below which show our exciting display.

We linked our learning from our Topic lessons to our English lessons. We researched and discovered all about the advantages and disadvantages of deforestation. We used different drama techniques to explore and articulate our own opinions. Our extended writing outcome was to write a balanced argument which explained and used evidence to support both sides of the arguments. Kingfishers produced some excellent pieces of writing which we shared with our peers.

After some challenging Fractions work in our Maths at the beginning of the term, we moved on to Position and Direction objectives. The class spent time working together to explore coordinates, symmetry and translation. We all enjoyed investigating and explaining our reasoning for these concepts.

Our Science topic of ‘Electricity’ has been great fun this term. We had many opportunities to make electrical circuits and to use a range of equipment. We particularly enjoyed using the electrical balls where we could create a human circuit!

As always we've enjoyed doing a range of activities in our PE lessons including having an opportunity to try out archery!  

To end our term we finished with our RE day. Our concept was ‘Symbol of the Cross’. We looked at the Easter story and the relevance of the empty cross. In the afternoon we used paint to symbolise the importance of the cross to Christians. Please look at the pictures below of these.

We are very much looking forward to our Summer Term. We will be kicking off our first week back with a Viking topic launch and a Shakespeare Drama workshop focusing on the play of Macbeth.

Autumn 2

We can’t believe that we are at the end of our Autumn Term 2 and ready to begin our Christmas celebrations.

In Kingfishers, we have had an action packed half term, whilst being busy with all our learning, we have also had lots of fun.

We kicked this half term of with our Roman’s launch day. The children thoroughly enjoyed dressing up in their costumes, building Roman roads with biscuits, creating mosaic tiles using grout and building their own Roman chariots. This was an inspiring way to begin our topic.

We have had lots of hands on investigations during our Science this half term. Kingfishers loved exploring different materials and how they could change state from solids, liquids to gases. We carried out experiments to find melting and freezing points, this was particularly fun when we used the chocolate!

Maths this half term has involved multiplying and dividing by 10,100,1000 and finding out the area and perimeter of shapes. The class have worked well with their talk partners to apply these skills to solve mathematical challenges and to explain their reasoning.

During English, we have all loved creating our own mythical dragons and writing our own non-chronological factual reports about these creatures. We have been so impressed with the commitment each child put into this work. All the completed, published reports are all on display in our classroom.

Last week, Kingfishers participated in our RE day, linked with the annunciation. Many of the class contributed many thoughtful responses. The highlights from our day was our drama and art work linked with the concept.

To conclude our term, we have been practising our carols for our Y4/5 Christmas performance, we hope you enjoy it.

We would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and hopefully 2021 will bring us more joy.

Autumn 1

We have had such a great Autumn Term 1 in Kingfishers class. We have been really impressed with how well the class have gelled together, a real team spirit is shining in our class.  Perseverance has been an essence in our mind-sets this term, we have been determined to try our best in our work.

Our biographical and narrative writing linked with our Guided Reading text, Kensuke’s Kingdom, was a real hit. The extended pieces of writing which each child has achieved have wowed us. The vocabulary and different writing devices which the pupils are using are fantastic. We have also been pleased with how positively the children edited their work and could independently make improvements.

So far in maths we have competed our units of work on Place Value and Addition and Subtraction.  Both Year 4 and Year 5 children have become more confident using column methods for calculations.  We've enjoyed challenging ourselves with problem solving and reasoning tasks and have all become more confident explaining our working.  We've had quite a few battles on Times Table Rockstars with other classes - all of which we have won!  

We all thoroughly enjoyed our RE Day, our concept was Temptation. Many of the children contributed many valuable ideas, they especially enjoyed the Art and Drama work linked to our day. We certainly have some budding thespians in our Kingfisher class!

In science, we have been exploring the environment around us discussing the positives and negatives! We have investigated the wooded areas to see what creatures we could find and identify and will continue this throughout the year to observe how this environment changes. We have looked at how humans can have a negative impact on our environment but also the changes we can make to improve it! Over the year we will make a hedgehog highway to ensure that hedgehogs have enough room and a bug hotel.

During our Art day we focused on landscapes.  First we studied the work of Ken Done and used oil pastels to create a landscape of the school grounds in his style.  We then experimented with mixing colours with paint; creating colour wheels and shade strips.  Finally we painted a landscape picture of the school grounds.  We're very proud of our work which is displayed by our classroom and in Ms Bundy's office!  

Our topic for the first half term was, "How is Bologna similar and different to South Wonston?"  We used a range of different maps and enjoyed using Google Earth to explore what Bologna is like.  From looking at information from children who live in Bologna we found that there are many similarities between their lives and ours: some of them like the same food as us, do the same subjects at school and have the same hobbies.  We were quite jealous that they live near mountains so can go on skiing holidays easily!  

We are really looking forward to our new half term with Kingfishers.

Mrs R & Mrs H