Term 4

English

This term, Atlanta class wrote their own stories! They had complete creative control over what they wanted to write about and include within their stories. They started off by choosing a genre for their writing (fantasy, drama, horror etc.) before creating the settings and characters that they would use throughout their story too. Atlanta focused really hard on using a range of punctuation as well as keeping the story interesting through their description. It made for some great stories!

PE

We have been learning how to play hockey this term in PE. After a few weeks of practice, we are getting much better at gripping the hockey stick in the right position, and passing and receiving the ball correctly too. We have now moved on to playing some games within the lessons, using the skills we have learnt to try to shoot and score some goals for our teams!

We also began learning how to play tag rugby, including how to pass and receive the rugby ball too.

Science

Atlanta got really involved with science over the term, where we have been learning about inheritance and DNA. We thought as a class about how the things we inherit from our parents, like our eye colour, differ from those that we learn through lived experiences, such as our preference of a favourite song.

Atlanta especially enjoyed science week this year, watching all 10 of the eggs hatch into chicks! As a class, we monitored them every day and were surprised to see how quickly they can grow. Children were also given the option to hold them too, once they were old enough.

SMSC/ RSHE

There have been lots of important days in the past few weeks, including water day, St Davids day, poetry day and a day for food waste awareness too. As a class, we have covered lots of these with fun activities to gain an even better understanding of the world around us, current world situations and how we can help too. For example, we made a daffodil for St Davids day and discussed why this day is so important for people who live in Wales.

During the last week of term, the children learnt and practiced a poem, using different tone and volume, before performing it to their peers, which they enjoyed.

History

Our focus for History this half term has been Africa, more specifically how Africa came to be the continent that it is today. After gaining lots of information and learning about how countries within Africa became independent over time, the children discussed their personal opinions through forming a debate. Atlanta thoroughly enjoyed expressing their opinions and giving reasons for their answers too!

Term 3

PE

This half term, Atlanta have been taking part in dance lessons, as well as completing some orienteering activities. This involved lots of team games where we had to work together to reach an end goal. Over the last week of term, we thought up, planned and then played our own team game, partnering up with other teams to play their games too. This was lots of fun and everyone enjoyed it!

English

At the beginning of the term, we introduced our new book, 'The White Giraffe'. As a class, we tried to work together to make our own Origami 'white giraffe', following step by step instructions to do so. We also took a look at character descriptions and how these effect how we imagine the characters in a text when we cannot, for sure, know what they look like. We went on to write reports based on the main character and the beginning of the story.

This past week, we have started to look at the book 'Journey to Jo'burg'. We used paper mache to form orange trees for an artistic piece. After painting these, we then covered them in 'barred wire', made from paper strips, to show how the orange trees were protected in the story. We have started to think about punctuation and how it can be used to express different meaning, or show our understanding within our writing too, such as hyphens and semi-colons.

Computing

We started off computing this half term by looking at how we could use the 'paint' app on the computers to put different shapes together in order to create art using repeating patterns. Another lesson involved us looking at different images that seemed to be pictures from around the world. However, Atlanta soon spotted that these were actually AI generated pictures, meaning a computer had made them. We then used a software called 'Terragen' to create our very own computerised landscape in the style of the images we had seen.

Music

We have taken many trips to the music room this half term! Atlanta have been learning about Djembe drums. Through watching videos (and some trial and error), we were able to learn how to hold the drum properly so that it made the correct noise, as well as how to hit it with different parts of our hands in order to get the desired sound. We have also been practicing our 'call and response' skills, working in groups to create a sequence of notes for the other groups to play back in unison.

Geography

In Geography this half term, we have started to look at rivers. Not only have we looked at the features of a river, but we have also looked at water safety and how to behave around rivers too. Looking at atlases, we found different rivers and plotted these on a map of the world, whilst learning key facts about each. Atlanta worked really hard to put the information that they had learnt into posters, which are now on display in the classroom!

Term 2

English

This half term in English, we have been getting creative with our writing. We started term 2 looking at the life of Ruby Bridges, learning about her struggles and thinking about the difficulties she faced. Then, we wrote a recount of the events including vocabulary and techniques to give factual information about what happened when she started at an all-white school.

For the past few weeks, Atlanta have been working on their very own story, set in the winter, thinking about Christmas too. We started off by creating our own net, a 3-D cube, in the shape of a present. They all worked really hard to include expanded noun phrases and relative clauses within their writing to describe the settings and characters thoughts and feelings. 

Maths

Our focus in maths this half term has been fractions. Using different methods, Atlanta have learnt how to add, subtraction, divide and multiply fractions with different denominators. We enjoyed learning through the use of acronyms such as LCM (lowest common multiple) and KFC (keep, fry and change), to help us remember the different steps needed to answer fraction questions correctly. We are also getting much better at reasoning our ideas in maths, becoming more verbal with our explanations for our answers.

Science

Our topic throughout term 2 has been forces; air resistance, water resistance and push and pull factors too. We started off by defining the different types of force that happen around us all the time, including gravity and began to investigate how forces effect things around us. We have conducted a number of experiments, but our favourite was when we had to use Blu-Tac to make different shapes to see what shape took the least or greatest time to sink to the bottom of a container.

DT

We looked at architects and different types of architecture this half term, focusing on Zaha Hadid and her work. Zaha Hadid was an architect from Iraq who designed buildings inspired by nature. Whilst thinking about this, Atlanta drew up their own designs, also thinking about nature, which we then made prototypes for using clay. We included curves and lines in our work to mimic water or we based our building off of an animal to make sure it really linked to nature and the work of Hadid.

Art

In art, we thought about how we could use the medium of water colour to convey the mood of our painting. We used yellows and warmer colours to show a happier mood, and blues or other darker colours to show a sadder scene, using tone to help us show the mood of the painting too.

Geography

Throughout our Geography lessons, we have been looking at the Earth and the effects that humans are having on it. We began by looking at longitude and latitude in order to read maps effectively, then moved on to consider some of the issues we face in the world today. We covered ideas about how humans are effecting the Earth, but also considered and researched how we are all able to make a difference on a daily basis. Atlanta really enjoyed making posters to raise awareness, and of course, enjoyed taking part in our end of topic quiz!

Term 1

English

This half term, we have looked at the book 'Wonder'. We created some pieces of art based of the book covered, using paint and a portrait of ourselves to do so.

Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at the story of 'Ian', a boy with a disability. We watched a short film about his story and used this to create some drama about what we saw.

After gaining a better understanding of the story, we put some wooden sticks over the top of an image of 'Ian'. This was to represent the fence from the story, showing how he felt separated from everyone else. We then tried to use the wooden sticks to create a prototype of a wheelchair, like the one Ian used in the video.

Art

In art we made our own night sky image based on our science topic Earth and Space.

Computing

Atlanta have thoroughly enjoyed their time in the computer suite, looking at coding on Scratch to make their very own game.

Science

Science has been full of practical work this half term. We looked at how the Earths movement effects whether it is day or night, as well as scrunching up paper to create the different planets. With this, we had to think about the size of each planet, and then placed them where they are in relation to the sun. As you can see from the pictures, we have gotten really good at understand the order of the planets!

I would like to say a massive well done to all of the children in Atlanta class for their hard work, dedication and for constantly wanting to be the best versions of themselves. They have settled well into Year 5 and 6 and I am excited to see what the rest of the year will bring! Keep it up Atlanta.

Welcome to ATLANTA and Year 5/6!

I'm so excited thinking ahead and of everything that we will learn and achieve together. I am looking forward to getting to know those of you, who I have not taught yet and am excited to continue working with those who I get to teach for another great year.