6th - 10th January

Monday 15th July to 19th July 

The last week of the year has been a blast!  We played rounders at the field, had a brilliant water fight, enjoyed a trip to Cattle Country and brought games from home to play in class.  Enjoy some pictures from our water fight and a video of our final recorder session - see if you can guess the tune (one of Miss Dempster’s favourites to sing at the class!).

We wish all of you a really lovely summer break and look forward to seeing you again in September.

Monday 8th - Friday 12th July

Last week we began our DT unit about designing and making a purse. This week we used our pattern to cut out the material and sew them together. We then evaluated our purses - we all decided they were good but could have been a bit bigger! As a class we learnt about relationships, sex education and e-safety with Miss Dempster.

With Mr Moorcroft, we were shown a variety of different environmental organisations and in groups we conducted research about them and then either created a poster or video with all the things we have learnt about them.

On Friday afternoon, we had a go at learning how to code using LightBot app. For the second week in a row we have won the attendance cup so we hope we can win it for the third week in a row next week.  

Monday 20th May 2019 - Friday 24th May 2019

During the last week of term, we created our persuasive videos to share with the school.  Each group picked one trip idea to present to the school.  We then held a vote to see which trip the majority of the school would like to go on at the end of this term.  We also had persuasive posters stuck around the school beforehand giving everyone a taster of what they could vote for.  The choices were a cinema trip, Cattle Country, Air Hop, Weston-Super-Mare beach or Cotswold Farm Park.

We held secret ballots in our classroom and posted our cards into the ballot box.  All the votes were counted and the winner was....

Cattle Country!

Enjoy a few of our videos below.

Tuesday 7^th May – Friday 10^th May

At the beginning of the week in Maths with Miss Dempster, the year 3’s have been learning about the formal written method for division and the year 4’s have been learning to round decimals as well as dividing by 10 and 100.

In English, we have been planning our persuasive piece of writing that will be shown to the whole school later on this term.

In History, we have been looking at the tools that were used by people that lived in the Stone Age.

In Science, we have carried out an investigation in groups that looked at whether certain rocks allow water to pass through them and learnt what the word is when this happens(permeable).

For PE, we went up the field again to practise our skills but we concentrated on being accurate when throwing this week.

Monday 29th April to Friday 3rd May

This week in History we created a timeline of the Stone Age period - we learnt what the terms BC and AD mean, and also the alternative BCE and CE.

In maths with Miss Dempster, the year 4s learnt how to round to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand, whilst the year 3s continued their work on fractions.

In French, we began to learn how to count beyond 10 and played a very fun and competitive game of bingo!  

We reminded ourselves of the notes we've learnt so far in music and played Old Macdonald had a Farm on the recorder - we're finding that tricky d note with all the fingers covering all of the holes a bit of a sticking point!

In English, we started work on persuasive writing and wrote a short text on whether cats or dogs make the best pets (it's obviously cats!).

For PE, we went up to the field with Mrs Knight and worked on some skills - throwing, jumping and sprinting.

In science, we began to look at different types of rocks and their properties.  We then carried out an investigation to discover what changes happen if the rocks are submerged in water. 

Monday 23^rd – Friday 26^th April

After returning from the Easter holidays we were introduced to our new topic for the term which is We Will Rock You. In topic we will be learning about the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age.

With Mr Moorcroft on Tuesday morning we had a brief look at the Stone Age (cave drawings, tools and weapons from this period). After looking at these we then had a chance to make cave drawings that will go on the class display(we went underneath the tables to see what it would have been like to try and draw on a cave wall). Then in the afternoon with Miss Dempster we listened to and learnt our own version of We Will Rock You which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

Later in the week we started recapping time with Mr Moorcroft in Maths and we had our first PE lesson (athletics) of the week with Mrs Knight. Continuing on with making things for our topic display we had the chance in pairs to look at weapons and tools that were used in the Stone Age and we then designed and created them with some of them then being used to put on our display.

Monday 1st April - Friday 5th April

This week we made daffodil Easter cards for our pen pals.  We also typed up our riddles from last week to send along with the cards.  A few of us got to walk down to the post office to post our package.  We also received Easter cards from our pen pals which were lovely!

In RE, we looked at how people make decisions about how to live their lives based on the basic code of what is right and wrong.  We then researched famous people from the past who have stood up for what they believe and then presented our findings to the rest of the class.  We had presentations about Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Emmeline Pankhurst.  We agreed they were all pretty impressive heroes!

We practised all the French we have learnt this term and then recorded a short video of the French song we have been learning which you can watch below.  Can you hear which animals we are singing about? 

We had some very ‘sticky’ visitors who came in to visit us. Try to spot them in the photo below. Apparently, they like to dance to the radio!

On Wednesday, we were enjoying our class book (The Wild Robot by Peter Brown) so much that we decided to all eat our lunches in the classroom together and finish the book off.  

We hope you all have a lovely, relaxing Easter break and we'll see you back at school on Tuesday 23rd April.

Monday 24th – Friday 29^th March

At the beginning of the week we were editing our brilliant stories that we had written the week before. After that we started to look at riddles and began to write some of our own about rainforest animals and we will be sending these to our pen pals when they are complete.

In Maths, we continued with our fraction work with Miss Dempster with the year 4’s learning about decimal equivalents for fractions and dividing by 10 and 100 and the year 3’s were ordering and comparing fractions.

It was our final swimming lesson of the year as well and for the last lesson we did some really fun relay races.

On Friday we went on our school trip to Bristol Zoo. We had the chance to look at many different animals that live in the rainforest whilst also having the chance to see other animals as well. During our education session we learnt some more about the reasons why it is important to keep the rainforest and which animals are the deadliest. To top it off we had the chance to hold a Madagascan hissing cockroach, stroke a giant spiny stick insect and stroke a tenrec.

18^th March - 22^nd March 2019

At the beginning of the week we continued to plan and write our exciting stories using the short story by Pie Corbett called Kidnapped. Before we wrote these though we had a lesson on using apostrophes.

In Maths with Miss Dempster, the year 3’s were finding fractions of amounts and the year 4’s were looking at equivalent fractions.

For RE we continued on with finding out about the different ceremonies that happen for each religion and started to make them into presentations.

On Thursday with Mrs Walker, we were drawing and sketching the inside of various fruits such as papaya, watermelon, kiwi and pineapple. After we finished sketching them we were able to try the different fruits to see what they tasted like.

For our topic work this week with Mr Moorcroft, we wrote a diary about the journey of a fruit from the Amazon that arrives in a supermarket in England and we enjoyed trying to think and feel what it would be like to be the fruit.

In Maths with Mr Moorcroft, the year 3’s have started to learn about adding up money and the year 4’s have learnt how to find the perimeter of rectangles, squares and rectilinear shapes.

Lastly, thank you to all the parents who turned up to our open morning. The children enjoyed having an opportunity to show off their favourite pieces of work to you!

Monday 11^th – Friday 15^th March

This week in English with Miss Dempster, we read the story called Kidnapped. Then in Maths with Miss Dempster, the year 3’s were adding fractions together and the year 4’s were finding out fractions of amounts.

In R.E we had the opportunity to begin to learn about the different ceremonies that happen within different religions. In the future we will be presenting what we have learnt in groups on power point to the rest of the class.

In Swimming this week, some of us had to swim in our pyjamas and Jasper was able to set the record of getting changed in 1.55 seconds!

In Maths with Mr Moorcroft this week the year 3’s created a table to show data and the year 4’s created a time graph from data they had been given. Then both year groups had to answer questions on the various charts and graphs we have been looking at over the past two weeks.

In Art with Mrs Walker we completed our favela painting which has been cut out and stuck up in our class.

During Topic we have started to plan our diary of the journey of a fruit from Brazil that arrives to a supermarket in the UK.

Finally, we have been able to reclaim our title of the class with the best attendance again so here is another photo of us celebrating with the trophy with all the Kestrels in their odd clothes for Red nose day on Friday.

Monday 4^th – Friday 8^th March

During Maths this week with Miss Dempster the year 3’s looked at unit fractions and non-unit fractions whilst the year 4’s were adding and subtracting fractions. For Maths with Mr Moorcroft we have been looking at interpreting and creating bar charts as well as interpreting data in a time graphs and data in tables.

In English we looked at punctuating speech this week and everyone found this very tricky. We have also watched a video about staying safe online and have talked about what we need to do if we are worried about anything that we see.

In Topic we were trying different flavoured fruit juices to help us think of what fruits would work together so we can create a smoothie. Some of the juices tasted delicious but some of them very disgusting.

With Mrs Walker in Art we learnt more about the favelas and started to create a favela painting whilst also drawing a favela in our sketch book.

Finally, we have reclaimed the title of Best attendance in school so here is a picture of us celebrating with the trophy!

Monday 25^th February – Friday 1^st March

At the start of the week in English with Miss Dempster, we were writing show not tell paragraphs to create atmosphere. Some of us received some replies from supermarkets that we wrote to about their use of palm oil and we read our responses out to the rest of the class.  Head over to our Wonderful Writing Wall to read some of our letters and their replies - they are under the ‘Writing to Persuade’ section.  We’d love you guys to post some comments about our brilliant writing!

In Maths with Miss Dempster, we were counting in 10’s, 25’s, 50’s and down into negative numbers. With Mr Moorcroft we looked at how to interpret and create pictograms in year 3 and the year 4’s interpreted pictograms and bar charts.

In Topic with Mr Moorcroft, we looked at the favelas in Brazil and what it is like to live there and discussed how it is different from where we live. On top of this we looked at the day of the dead festival and designed our own masks.

In Art with Mrs Walker, we looked at videos of the Rio carnival and we then made our own masks that could be worn in the carnival.

For the second week running, we also won the Best Attendance in school and everyone was so happy that we won again.  Hopefully we can win again next week to make it three in a row!

Monday 4^th February – Friday 8^th February

In maths this week with Miss Dempster, the year threes have been learning how to use the formal written method for division and the year fours were calculating remainders. With Mr Moorcroft, the year fours were solving measurement and money problems with two decimal places.

In English, the children were doing some creative writing that was focusing on description and the description was of new creatures that they discovered in the rainforest.  We also posted a selection of our letters about palm oil to the supermarkets. Fingers crossed we receive some replies!

All of the kestrels learnt a new tune on the recorder this week and all began to start composing the end of the tune.

On Wednesday afternoon, we finally had the chance to have our class debate on deforestation. The children were given a person that is for or against deforestation and they needed to research why this person had those views and then debate with the rest of the class on the topic. Everyone had the opportunity to speak in front of the class and they all thoroughly enjoyed debating with each other over the topic.

In Art, the children had the chance to finish off their paintings that were inspired by the work of Romero Britto. They finished them off by going over the lines in black pen to define each section of their painting.

Monday 21^st – Friday 25^th January 2019

This week in English with Miss Dempster, we have learnt about palm oil and the negative impact that it has on the environment. After researching about this we have planned and started to write persuasive letters to various supermarkets to encourage them to follow Iceland and to remove palm oil from their own brand products.

In maths, we have begun to learn about decimal numbers with Miss Dempster and with Mr Moorcroft we have been learning about using equipment to measure the mass of objects in and around the classroom.

In topic, we have learnt about deforestation and the impact it has on the rainforest and we have all been given a character to research. We started to research our characters and their thoughts on deforestation as we will be debating the positives and negatives of deforestation.  

In Art, we researched Romero Britto's patterns and we then designed our sculptures with similar patterns that the artist used.  

Monday 14^th – Friday 18^th January

At the start of this week in English with Miss Dempster, we read through the book called ‘The day the crayons quit’ and after reading the book we wrote a persuasive letter using an object from the classroom such as a pencil pot or pencil.

In Maths with Miss Dempster, we were looking at numbers and where they need to be placed on a number line. With Mr Moorcroft we were learning something different in Maths, we learnt about the different methods that can be used to measure a variety of things such as measuring the length of a table and measuring the amount of liquid in a container.

Then for the first time this term we walked down to Stratford Park and we had our first swimming lesson of the year. We also learnt how to ask for food items in French.

On Wednesday afternoon with Mr Moorcroft we watched a video on the different layers of the rainforest and we researched what each layer is like, the animals that live in that layer and the advantages and disadvantages of that layer.

With Mrs Walker in Art, we looked at sculptures made by the artist Romero Britto and we then had a go at creating our own using coloured paper and then next week we will add patterns to our sculptures.

We have also started a new class book called ‘The Wild Robot’ with Miss Dempster.

Tuesday 8^th January – Friday 11^th January

With Miss Dempster we read some cinquain poems. After this we watched a video about the amazon rainforest and the animals that live there, using what we had seen we created our own cinquain poems some of the animals that live in the rainforest.

On Wednesday morning we drew the animals that we used in our cinquain and we coloured them in using oil pastels. In the afternoon with Mr Moorcroft we found out our topic for the next term which is Enter the Amazon and we looked at more animals and then we created our topic front covers by tracing around one of the animals and then using the oil pastels again to colour in the animal in bright, vibrant colours. 

On Thursday we started our new guided reading books with Mr Moorcroft which are called ‘The boy who grew dragons’ and ‘Lost magic’. As well as this we learnt about different types of measurement in Maths and we had Mrs Walker for Art and we looked at sketching feathers and how the use of different pencils to create different tones.

Merry Christmas from Kestrels.  

See you next year!

Monday 10^th December – Friday 14^th December

We started the week as a whole school by learning about how we should treat people and the theme of the day was ‘it’s good to be me, whatever that may be.’ The children created acrostic poems using the word diversity which were then entered into a countrywide competition.

Tuesday and Wednesday we practised our school dance and then with both Mr Moorcroft and Miss Dempster we made many different Christmas decorations.

On Thursday the whole school went to the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham to watch Aladdin. Everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves at the pantomime and there was laughter, singing and shouting throughout.

Then on Friday we were able to show the whole school our dance that we have been practising for the school play. As a school we went down to the church to run through the performance and then on the way back to school we stopped at Uplands Care Service to sing carols with the Eagles to the people there. We also had the opportunity to make some Christmas decorations with Mr Moorcroft in the afternoon.

Enjoy another one of our advent calendar videos below!

Monday 3rd December - Friday 6th December

On Monday, we made Christmas cards with Mr Moorcroft and Miss Anker. We made two, one for our pen pals and one for our families. They came out pretty good.

Tuesday, the year 4's did factor pairs in Maths and the year 3's did written method for multiplying with Miss Dempster.

With Mr Moorcroft year 4's did money and year 3's did time taken for event on Wednesday in Maths.

On Thursday it was non-school uniform day which was amazing.

Finally on Friday the Kestrels and Eagles went on a trip to We The Curious in Bristol. On our trip both the Year 3's and 4's did a workshop on electrical circuits and using the things we learnt over the course of the term we were able to create our very own scribble bots which we all eventually put together and created some Kestrels Art that will be displayed in school soon. As well we walked around the centre looking at and using all exhibits that were on offer. Everyone had a brilliant day and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The Christmas fun has started in Kestrels. You can enjoy one of the videos from our class advent calendar below.

By Kyra and Mr Moorcroft

Monday 26th November 2018 - Friday 30th November 2018

We have finished our newspaper report about an alien landing on our playground with Mr Moorcroft and they are on our wonderful writing wall.

With Miss Dempster we learnt how to play jingle bells on the recorder also with Miss Dempster we learnt more about French and we went on Kahoot to do some French games and learnt more about food.

We finished Iron Women which was exciting, the ending was happy (also with Miss Dempster).

Finally we made string telephones with cups. The string was in between the cups so it would word and the string had to be straight.

By Frida 

Monday 19th November - Friday 23rd November

With Miss Dempster we learnt food in French and how to say our age. After that we learnt how to play hot cross buns on the recorder.

On Tuesday we did a recount based on a diving giraffe (video).

On Wednesday we planned our conductor or insulator investigation. For the investigation we needed to make sure we have a full circuit for it to work.

On Thursday we learnt roman numerals with Mr Moorcroft and what they stand for.

Mr Moorcroft and his trusted helper.

Monday 12th November - Friday 16th November

With Miss Dempster we finished our biographies on Sir Isaac Newton, some of them were great. Miss Dempster's would have been too if she didn't have messy handwriting!

Also on Monday, we did R.E about Hinduism and we got to draw pictures.

In our French lesson we learnt how to say more colours like pink is rose. We also learnt how to say how are you and how to answer. In recorder we learnt the note g and loads of the recorders went all squeaky.

With Mr Moorcroft we were in partners and we learnt how to make an electrical circuit using bulbs, buzzers, batteries and motors.

We also saw a video of a very strange visitor (see below). We’re going to use this to inspire us to write a newspaper report next week.

By Maisie 

Monday 5th November - Friday 9th November

At the beginning of the week with Miss Dempster, we had our first French lesson. We were learning French colours but at the start we just had funny conversations.

We also had our first recorder lesson and we learnt notes A and B.

With Mr Moorcroft in maths we looked at time. In English we were writing instructions and one of the theme choices was 'How to make an invisibility cloak'.

On Thursday we had school photos and we all missed Six in Six. Also on Thursday we had P.E and we were doing lots of jumping.

By Izzy

Monday 29th October - Friday 2nd November

On Monday, Kestrels class had an extra day of holidays. Meanwhile, all the teachers and teaching assistants were having meetings for the next term.

When it came to Tuesday, we were all a bit forgetful after the school holidays so to get us warmed up we practiced our jungle agility with Mr Stepbeck, our old PE teacher.

The next day we had an interesting Topic lesson of researching Isaac Newton for our biographies. Each chosen group went around the tables doing different things such as asking Isaac (Miss Dempster) questions and looking stuff up on the Ipads.

In English, we looked at features of an instruction text. Lots of people were very good at spotting them.

On Thursday in English, we focused on subordinating conjunctions by looking at sentences and seeing which conjunctions could fit best in the gaps. In Maths we worked on digital time (AM and PM).

Mr Moorcroft and his helper. 

Monday 15^th October – Friday 19^th October

On Monday the 15^th of October the Kestrels class finished making our incredible parachutes. Some worked and some didn’t but they were all fantastic at making them as a team.

On Tuesday the 16^th of October we carried on with our mental subtraction most children used the amazing place value grid on the taking away thousands, hundreds and tens. We did our amazing guided reading session on our new guided reading topic, in the afternoon we did our parachute testing. Like I said before we all did brilliantly in dropping our eggs over the railings.

On Thursday and Friday we focused on anti-bullying with the acronym word STOP which stands for several times on purpose and it also stands for Start Telling Other People. We learnt about Nelson Mandela who thought that non-white people should have the same rights as other people in South Africa. We also learnt about Malala who sent messages to try and stop the Taliban and fight for an education for women and Emeline Pankhurst who was the leader of the suffragettes who fought for women so they had the right to vote.

By Jasper Wilson-Copp

Monday 8th October - Friday 12th October

At the start the week we did our post cards from the Tin Forest with Miss Dempster and we started reading the Iron Woman.

We planned another science investigation about gravity and then on Wednesday and Friday we planned and started to create our parachutes for the experiment on air resistance.

On Thursday and Friday with Mr Moorcroft we wrote our biographies for our characters and in Maths we started working on co-ordinates.

Some of the Year 3 and 4's took part in the football tournament with other small schools.

Jacob 

Monday 1^st October – Friday 5^th October

This week we did guided reading with Miss Dempster and our book was called Tin Forest.

In English, we made a postcard about the Tin Forest using different sentence types.

In Maths with Miss Dempster we did mental addition, it means that you don’t count with your fingers, but it will be easy to work out in your head!

With Mr Moorcroft we did angles in year 4 and in year 3 we did 90⁰ as a turn.

In science we were doing more with magnets and we found out about if you put a paperclip in a glass it will attract to a magnet.

Jess

Monday 24^th – Friday 28^th September

On Monday, we planned our magnet investigation and edited our magnet reports.

On Tuesday, we did 100 more and 1000 more or less than a number.

On Wednesday, we wrote short stories to practise using conjunctions. Examples of the conjunctions we used were however, so, after and meanwhile.

On Thursday, we marked our adventure stories with Mr Moorcroft then we went outside and drew around our shadows. Then at break we went to the drawings and stood inside of them and our shadows had moved.

We have also been doing lots of times table practice using Times Table Rockstars, games on the DSi game consoles and board games. 

I hope you have enjoyed the blog.

Eleanor

Monday 17^th September – Friday 21^st September

This week in topic with Miss Dempster we researched magnets and wrote a report about how magnets were discovered and who they were discovered by. We really enjoyed finding out about all the facts to do with magnets.

In P.E we carried on with improving our skills by playing numerous team games and co-ordination games.

With Mr Moorcroft we carried on with writing our adventure stories and eventually on Friday we were able to complete them. During topic with we also learnt about how our eyes work and what each part of the eye is called and the job it has to help us see. On top of this we have started reading Kid Normal at the end of the day with Mr Moorcroft.

Monday 10^th September – Friday 14^th September

This week in Maths we have been learning about lines of symmetry  and how to find the lines of symmetry in shapes with Mr Moorcroft and we have done place value with Miss Dempster. It was tricky but really fun!

In English we did prepositions like on top, beneath and above. We also carried on with our setting descriptions. We just started guided reading. For our topic in the afternoon we made iron man with bottles and old boxes then covered them in tin foil. The display is super amazing!

We did a poster about how you see using information from the ipads and labelled the eyes. In P.E we played tag stuck in the mud and team games to improve our skills. Then on Friday we had the chance to present our posters to the rest of the class, whilst each group presented the other groups made notes about their poster and what they did well and what they could improve on next time. We’ve had an amazing week!

Bel and Mr Moorcroft

Tuesday 4th September - Friday 7th September

Welcome to the first blog of the new school year! We have had a brilliant first week back with new pupils (year 3s) and a new teacher (Mr Moorcroft).

We started the week by kicking off our topic 'May the Force be with you' by looking at different forces.  We then focused on magnets and carried out a couple of practical investigations. We also started our class novel 'The Iron Man' and began our reading journals.  On top of this, on Wednesday afternoon as a class we created our own class rules and expectations. We also had the chance to create our topic book front covers.

On Thursday and Friday we started English by creating our own characters and writing a character description and then in Maths we were investigating shapes. In the afternoon on Friday, we continued our science work and carried out another investigation to see what materials are reflective.  We will be doing lots more science over the coming weeks.  It's going to be a busy term!

Monday 2nd July to Friday 6th July 

During last week in maths, we were doing some mathematical mysteries.  For those who do not know, a maths mystery is where you have lots of clues to solve that include a mixture of multiplication, division, adding and subtraction.  It is always a lot of fun!

In English, we have ben doing some extraordinary writing.  As it is nearly the end of the year, we were allowed to choose what type of writing we wanted to do based on a cartoon called Marshmallows.  Some of wrote stories, poems, newspaper articles, information reports, explanation texts and diary entries.  So after writing in our books, we then typed up our piece of work on the laptops for printing.  

I would have thought most of you would have heard of our pen pals.  Our lovely pen pals have been a joy to have, but as it is near the end of the year, we have made them a gift to send to them.  We decided to make them badges out of Fimo.

By Imogen

Monday 25th June to Friday 29th June

Last week, we met up with our pen pals at Stratford Park.  When we went to meet our pen pals, it was very hot.  When we got to the park, we did some sketching around the pond.  Then we went up to the big tree to meet our pen pals.  We got to play rounders with them and eat our lunch together.  It was great fun!

Before we went, we got to practise our sketching skills in the classroom. We had to draw lots of different still life arrangements whilst listening to music.  It was a very lovely, clam start to our day.

Later in the week, we watched a short film called Marshmallows.  We were allowed to pick a piece of writing to do based on the video.  We have chosen a range of things to do including poems, stories, non-chronological reports, diary entries and newspaper reports.  

By Liam C and Miss Dempster

Monday 18th June to Friday 22nd June 

In English, we worked hard to write up our balanced arguments about whether childhood is the best time of your life.  A lot of the children are looking forward to being able to drive their own car.  Slightly more worryingly, a number of children included in their argument that a plus point for being a child was that you couldn't get arrested!!

On Monday afternoon, we went up to the field to play rounders.  We were all brilliant although no one was quite as brilliant as Bel!  We were practising in time for our meet up with our pen pals when we're going to play a few games together.  Our mantra for those games is going to be 'Be Like Bel!' - there's nothing she can't catch!

In maths, we worked on some very complex multiplication problems - we're getting very good at solving two step problems now.

Miss Dempster forgot to take any photos of our work this week - she has promised to do better next week!

Monday 11th June to Friday 15th June

In French this week we learnt body parts and tried to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes but we weren't that quick at it! 

In English, we began a unit of work on discussion texts.  We started by having a debate - our debates were about whether Macdonalds should be banned, whether lessons shouldn't finish until 5 o'clock (Miss Dempster had some very strong views on this one!) and whether films are better than books.  We then planned our own discussion text for writing up next week.

In maths, we did lots of work on subtraction.  This week's Times Table Rockstar group winners were Ethan, Maya, Abbie, Lexi and Nancy - well done, everyone!  

We also did district sports practise at the field with Mrs Knight.  

Finally, we added more to our story writing based on The Famous Five.  

By Abbie

Monday 4th June to Friday 8th June

This week we have been planning and writing a book review of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Some of our reviews have been put onto Amazon - see the link below.

On Times Table Rockstars the highest earners for each band were Harry, Lyla, Zsofi, Gautam and Jessica.

We have been doing some more French and this week we looked at classroom instructions.  Miss Dempster is going to keep using the classroom instructions in French with us (if she remembers!) to see if we can remember them.

In maths, we have been looking at completing number sequences. 

By Edie

Monday 14th May to Friday 18th May

Weaving

For the past few weeks, we have been learning about old Stroud and new Stroud.  We learnt about what Stroud was famous for and they are famous for cloth so we have been weaving wool and fabric to make rags and blankets.

Maths

In maths, we have been learning about multiplication - two digit times two digit and four digit times one digit.  We also had some 'Challenge Time' lessons.  For those of you who don't know what Challenge Time is, it is when we are put into pairs and get given a mystery that we have to work out using different methods.

Reading

As a class we are reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  It is about a girl called Lucy and her siblings, Edmund, Peter and Susan!  Lucy is playing hide and seek and hides in a wardrobe.  When she comes out of the wardrobe she finds herself in a mythical land called Narnia. 

English

In English, we are making up our version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  They still all have Lucy as the main character but a different kind character and a different evil character!

Recorders

We had not had a recorder lesson for a while in Kestrels so instead of learning a new, tricky song, we practised some of our old songs.

By Imogen

Monday 7th May to Friday 11th May

On Monday, we started work on multiplication.  We were learning how to solve three/four digit numbers multiplied by one digit and even two/three digit numbers multiplied by a two digit number - really tricky stuff!

On Tuesday, we had our weekly French lesson.  We learnt all the different ways to say goodbye.

On Wednesday, we wrote our description of our new setting for our versions of The Lion, The Witch and The

Wardrobe.

On Thursday, we started comparing old Stroud and new Stroud.

This week for our Times Tables Rockstar results we looked at 'Star of the Week'.  This week's winners were Marley, Eleanor, Sunny, Liam (again!) and Kyra.  Well done everyone!

Thanks for reading.

By Eleanor

Polite reminder from Miss Dempster and Mrs Knight: everyone needs to have a PE kit in school.  We are having weekly PE lessons which are currently on a Monday afternoon but could be any day of the week.  PE kits needs to be in school every day.  We are currently doing athletics - so lots of running and jumping.  It is very important that the children have appropriate footwear to be able to safely take part in these activities.  Also, as the weather gets hotter, it is important that the children can change out of their sweaty clothes before sitting down and taking part in the next lesson.  We would really appreciate it if you could ensure your child has a PE kit in school for next week.  Thank you very much.

Monday 30th April to Friday 4th May

We did lots this week.  We did our French lesson and learnt how to say how we feel and ask others how they are feeling, which was amazing! 

We looked at who was the week's winners on Times Table Rockstars.  It was Liam, Jessica, Saffy, Izzy and Edie - well done, everyone!

We, of course, did English and this week we were looking at writing speech.  We learnt how to use speech marks and all the correct punctuation.  

In maths we looked at decimals - we were brilliant at this!

On Thursday, the whole class went on a school trip to the Museum in the Park and did lots about cloth and how it was made.

On Friday, the Year 4s went to a see a play about cyber bullying.  It was brilliant!

By Edith

Monday 23rd April to Friday 27th April

On Monday afternoon, half the class did PE and the other half did guided reading.  One group is reading Who Let the Gods Out? by Maz Evans, and the other group are reading Tilly and the Time Machine by Adrian Edmonson.  

With Miss Dempster, we made videos for our pen pals - and hopefully they're going to reply with some videos which we're looking forward to seeing.

Our Times Table Rockstar display theme this week was highest earner.  Our band winners this week were Harry, Monty, Lyla, Zsofi and Gautam.  Each week, Miss Dempster will be looking at a different thing to decide who are the band winners.  It might be quickest speed, highest earner, most improved or star of the week.  Don't forget this is now our weekly homework along with reading at least four times a week.

With Mrs Wride, we did art which was drawing straight lines so that when we were finished they looked like curves.  In our topic, which is Stroud's Red Cloth and Much More, I brought my wooden jigsaw puzzle in of the British Isles.  Also, we designed our front covers for our new topic books. 

By Abbie.

Monday 26th March to Thursday 29th March

A huge thank you to every who turned up on Wednesday to support our pop-up shop.  The children had really enjoyed their week of sewing, baking, drawing, planting and writing poetry, and were very proud of everything they had created.  We made a whopping £129 and I will be adopting our animals over the Easter break.

Don't forget to encourage the children to regularly play Times Table Rockstars over the holiday - this is now their weekly homework. 

Have a happy Easter everyone and see you all next term.  

Monday 19th March to Friday 23rd March

Last week, in science we did an experiment to find out if the way penguins huddle together actually works to keep the middle ones warmer.  We had plastic cups and filled them up with water that was the same temperature.  We then huddled the cups together and measured a middle one and an outside one every ten minutes.

In maths, we did fractions again and we were working out fractions of numbers.  

In English, we wrote poems about animals based on the poem Tyger, Tyger by William Blake.  We are going to sell our poems in our pop up shop we are doing to raise money to adopt a sea turtle.

In DT, we have been designing and building birdhouses.  They look great!

On Friday, we went to Cotswold Wildlife Park and saw lots of amazing creatures.

By Zsofi and Nika

Note from Miss Dempster: Don't forget we are holding our pop-up shop on Wednesday at 3pm.  We look forward to seeing you all there - there will be lots of fabulous things for you to buy!

Monday 12th March to Friday 16th March

Last week, we were doing science - we planned an investigation into whether penguins huddling together actually works to keep them warm.  

Our homework was to make miniature gardens of our own design.  They were fabulous and you can check them out in the photos below.

We have been focusing on our three and four times table and playing beat Siri.  After swimming, we got a leaflet about Times Table Rockstars.  This is a computer or ipad app and it helps you with mental recall of the times tables.  This is really fun and lots of us have already improved our speed (even Miss Dempster!).

We were also finishing off our information texts about one animal that we researched.  Finally, we were doing very tricky missing number problems in maths.

By Gautam

Message from Miss Dempster: Next week, to celebrate the end of our topic, we're going to be having a really fun project week.  We're going to be sewing, cooking, planting and writing some brilliant stuff to sell to you all.  We want to raise some money to adopt a sea turtle so we will be having a pop-up shop on Wednesday 28th at 3pm and hope to see you all there!

Monday 5th March to Friday 9th March

This week in maths we were looking at rounding - rounding to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand.  We also looked at adding multiples of ten and column addition.  Tricky stuff!

In English, we began a unit on information texts.  We looked at all the different features of an information text so that we would know what we need to include in our own.  We then worked in groups to research one animal that we will write a text about - we used books, information sheets and the internet.  

In science, we looked at animal adaptations - do you know why an elephant has big ears or why zebras are stripy?  We learnt all about these and lots more.  

Don't forget to look at our Wonderful Writing Wall (on the main blog page) to see some of our fantastic writing.  We would love some more comments from the parents so please feel free to use our comments box!

Monday 26th February - Friday 2nd March

Last week, in science we looked at the life cycle of a sea turtle.  We learnt all about their lives including the difficulty they have with all the plastic that is polluting our oceans.  This lead on to us thinking what we can do about all of the plastic we use in our day to day lives.  We decided that we would write some very persuasive letters to Mr Lucas suggesting that we stop doing so much laminating around the school (particularly in our own classroom).  Some of these letters can be read on the Wonderful Writing Wall blog - we would welcome your comments on our brilliant writing.

We have also been doing lots of work on our times table skills.  Miss Dempster started a new game with us called 'Beat Siri' - she says a times table question and we have to try to solve it before Siri does (Siri is the voice activated assistant on the ipads).  It's great fun and it's helping us to get a lot quicker with our times tables.  

We have also been doing some lessons about kindness.  We read the book 'Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?' and looked at random acts of kindness we could do around the school.  We also did an apple experiment.  We said kind things to one apple and mean things to another.  When we cut them open we couldn't believe it - the apple that we were mean to was very bruised inside.  It just shows you what unkind words can do!

Lastly, of course, we had our very exciting Harry Potter Day!  Although it was snowed off early, great fun was had by all in the morning.  More can be seen about this on our Whole School Blog.

Don't forget to check some of our writing on the Wonder Writing Wall!

Monday 19th February - Friday 23rd February

This week we received our letters from our pen pals.  They had completed questionnaires for us and we used these to write up biographies about them.  We also used their descriptions of themselves to draw a portrait.  We practised our sketching skills first and this helped us to think about texture and shading.

We also shared our fantastic pieces of homework - we had made brilliant models which are now on display in the hall.  There are lots of pictures below for you to enjoy!

In science, we looked at the life cycle of a sea turtle.  We worked in groups to research one stage of the cycle and then presented what we had learnt to the rest of the class.

By Jacob W (with a few extra bits added by Miss D!).

Mon 5th - Friday 9th February

Please see the whole school blog this week for photographs and news from our 'When I Grow Up' week.

29th January - 2nd February

This week in maths we worked hard on our times tables - lots of practical activities to help us to remember them.  We also started looking at negative numbers.

In English and history, we worked in teams to carry out some research on Jane Goodall - we learnt loads!  We then used what we had found out to write up some fantastic biographies about her.  We all really concentrated on our presentation as some of them were going to go up on a display.

We also had another French lesson.  We have learnt basic salutations, how to ask someone their name and how to tell people our own name.  We're getting pretty good!

Please note that the day the homework is due in is going to change to every Wednesday after half term.  The children will be reminded and a new homework sheet will be sent home with the new dates.

22nd January - 26th January

It was our last week of fractions with Miss Dempster in maths.  We have also written back to our pen pals, but this time we sent them a questionnaire.  This is because we are going to draw portraits of them, along with writing a biography.  When we are finished, we will put them on display in the classroom.

In maths with Miss Sampson, we have started learning about time.  With Miss Walker (in art), we have continued our work on Chris Ofili.  This time we have done patterns with pens in black and white.  Ofili didn't just stay in Africa, he went to New York, Belgium, Wales and lots of different places.  But what made it interesting was that wherever he went, he used different shapes. For example: diamonds from Wales.  Why do you think he did that?

Back to Miss Sampson, we also did posters about plants, and to sign off, we learnt about the importance of holy water in RE.

By Abbie

Start of the Spring Term

Wow - what a busy start to the term we've had!  The children have been excited to start our new topic of 'Roots, Shoots and Poops' which will be all about animals and plants.  Please see our curriculum newsletter below.

To start the topic off, the children had to match some (fake!) poo up with the animals that produced it - they had to think about size, consistency and what they could see in the poo.  It was all very scientific!!

After that, we began to look at other ways in which we could classify animals.  They worked in groups to research a different category of animal and discovered all the ways it could be classified.   We have also used classification keys to help us categorise unusual animals - we now all know at least one echinoderm!

In maths, we have been working very hard on a unit about fractions - it's been pretty tricky but the children have worked incredibly hard.  In English, we have been doing a unit on story writing based on the short film 'The Present'.  This ended with us all writing a short story which involves a character having a change of heart.

We have also started some short French lessons so you can look forward to your children greeting you and asking you some simple questions.  

Lastly, we resumed our recorder lessons and I was very impressed with how much they could remember!  We had a lot of tooting fun!

Kestrels Blog - Week 04/12/2017 - 08/12/2017

On Monday we sorted rocks into metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary. After that we made chocolate rocks, that was very messy. 

We learned about floods and saw photos of the flood in Stroud in 2007. 

On Tuesday we went to the Panto and saw Dick Whittington. 

On Wednesday Miss Sampson came into our class and we went to the church to learn our dance. 

On Thursday we went to the church to practice the play and made a really long paper chain. 

On Friday we practiced the play again and did Christmas activities like colouring and listening to Christmas music.

​​​​​​​By Imogen

Kestrels blog 27/11/2017 - 01/12/2017

This week we had a debate on if Robin Hood was innocent or guilty. We took him to court and found him innocent. 

With Mrs Dempster we found out who our pen pals are. Then we wrote our letters and sent them from the post box. 

We also watched watched a video of an earthquake in our classroom, we wrote a report about it.

We went to the All Saint Centre to sing to the elderly. We sang a lot of songs including White Christmas, Silent Night and Jinglebells. 

By Sunny and Jasper

Monday 20th to Friday 24th

Hi everyone!

In guided reading this week it was all about the wonderful Robin Hood.  

In PE we did some balancing and jumping which was really good fun.

We finished off our fantastic reports about volcanoes.  We then planned a story all about a flood - we had pictures to order that we put on a story mountain.  We then had to write our ideas all around the mountain.  We worked in groups and shared our ideas.  

In maths, we looked at how to solve division using the bus stop method - it was really fun! 

We also learnt about rivers in geography.  

See you next week.

By Jacob F

Monday 13th November - Friday 17th November

Hello everyone!

On Monday, we did some research about volcanoes so that we could write an information report.  Did you know that 80% of the world's eruptions are underwater?  

For our homework, we made volcano models.  They were all amazing!

In PE, we worked on our balancing skills - we're getting really good!

We also learnt all about the water cycle and did a really fun experiment.

By Izzy.

Monday 6th November - Friday 10th November

Hi everyone!

On Monday, it was the start of anti-bullying week.  First we started with games about bullying and we sorted scenarios into what we thought were cyberbullying, normal bullying or not bullying at all.

Then we started planning our animation about cyberbullying and how you should deal with it.  On Tuesday, we had a whole day of making our animation - they took a lot of work!  In the middle of the lunch break all of the ipads started to run out of charge so there were cables and wires everywhere!

On Wednesday, we had a whole morning of finishing our animations off because the parents were coming in to watch them.  Thank you to everyone who came along.

On Thursday, we finished off writing our stories about our creatures we created.  We also did PE where we did lots of jumping.  It was exhausting!

On Friday, we learnt about Remembrance Day and we did a minutes silence.

Thanks for reading.

By Lyla

Monday 30th October - Friday 3rd November

Hi everyone!

On Monday, Mr Stepbeck came and did really fun, exciting and amazing Jungle Agility with us - it was lots of different exercises.

On Tuesday, we went to Lansdown Gallery to look at an art exhibition.  We helped Tom (the artist) design some unusual creatures.

On Wednesday, we started our book journals.  These are where we will record our jottings, thoughts, pictures and anything else we fancy about the class book we're reading together.  

On Thursday, we did jumping and balancing in PE.

On Friday, we planned stories with our new teacher, Miss Sampson, and we drew creatures with pastels.

I hope you have enjoyed the blog.

By Eleanor

Monday 16th - Friday 20th October 

This week, we've been researching the different biomes around the world.  We then designed and made pizza box biomes - they look fantastic!

In English, we've been looking at writing non-chronological reports.  We've been reading the book The Abominables as our class story so have decided to write a report about yetis!  This week we looked at using formal language and describing our yetis.  

In maths, we were working on mental subtraction - pretty tricky stuff.  We did some of our learning in the playground which was great fun.

We have been doing a 'poem a day' for the last few weeks where children volunteer to learn a poem and recite it to the rest of the class.  The children who have volunteered to do this have been brilliant so I've added some videos for you to enjoy.

Have a lovely half term everyone!

Miss Dempster

Monday 9th - Friday 13th October 2017

This week, we made erupting volcanoes with vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, food colouring and water.  I was really scared and thought it would explode!  It didn't!  It was a lot of fun.

Izzy and Masie performed their poem of the day and it had a lot of rhymes.  I thought it was really funny.

We learnt another note to play on the recorder  - note 'g'.  I found it beautiful!

We continued to work on our papier mache volcanoes with Mrs Wride.  

We have been learning about 3d shapes and made some out of pipe cleaners and straws.

By Imogen

Monday 2nd October - Friday 6th October

We've had another great week in Kestrels!  In geography, we've been looking at the different layers of the earth.  We had great fun making the layers out of playdough.  We then labelled the layers and wrote descriptions of each one.  Jasper and Jacob W both then went home and made their own versions of the playdough layers which they shared with the class.

The next day, we were looking at how volcanoes are formed.  We played volcano top trumps to learn about different ones around the world and plotted these on a world map.

We started our 'poem of the day' sessions where children volunteer to learn a poem by heart to recite to the class.  Abbie started us off with a wonderful rendition of The Owl and the Pussycat.  We're looking forward to hearing some more over the next few weeks.

We also learnt how to play some more notes on the recorder and are getting better at our timing (we can now all play the same note at the same time - phew!).

With Mrs Wride, we continued our papier mache volcanoes which are starting to look pretty fabulous!  We have also been enjoying our weekly library sessions. 

We've had some brilliant video weather reports sent in for homework - well done, guys - and some of these are posted for you to enjoy!  

Week commencing 25th September 2017

This week, Mr Frostbite came in to see us.  He is a mountaineer and it was very exciting.  We learnt all about his experiences of climbing different mountains all around the world.  We also got to look at some old and modern mountaineering equipment.

We then started working on writing diary entries.  We are going to write a diary entry about climbing a mountain.  We looked at describing what we would see if we were in a base camp.

In art, we created our final pieces of work based on The Great Wave.  This time we used a mixture of pen and paint to create our pictures.

With Mrs Wride, we made cones for our papier mache volcanoes that we are working on.  It was hard!

By Finley.

W/C 18th September 2017

This week in Kestrels we wrote haikus - these are a type of poetry which can only have 17 syllables.  They normally have five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line and another five in the last line.  We wrote them about natural disasters around the world.

In Art, we have been looking at the work of Katsushika Hokusai.  We were focusing on The Big Wave and created our own versions using chalk and also printing using polystyrene blocks.

In RE, we wrote an acrostic poem about the Creation Story.

Lastly, we have all started learning the recorder! Each of us has our own recorder and we will be practising lots in class.  We learnt how to play the notes A and B, and we learnt how to play a short tune called 'Stuck in a Traffic Jam'.  It was great fun!

From The Kestrels

Message from Miss Dempster:  Spellings for most children will start some time next week.  With regard to the box about Rainbow Maths in the reading records - the children should (hopefully!) know which Rainbow Maths target they are currently working on.  They can practise this any way they choose!

W/C 11th September 2017

We had a great time in Kestrels last week!  We started our topic off by looking at all the different types of natural disasters and where in the world they occur.  We had to work in groups to research one type of natural disaster and then teach the rest of the class about it. Some of us created large posters to share with the class whilst some of us recorded video presentations.

We then worked together as a whole class to create a large map of the world - the map had been split up into forty parts and we were each responsible for one bit.  Sunny and Jacob were responsible for Africa which they found tricky because there are so many different countries.

With Miss Francis we read 'How to Live Forever' by Colin Thompson.  If you want to live forever, you'll have to read the book!  We also started to learn about the Creation Story in RE.  

Very importantly, we learned how to use a dictionary and find out what words mean - such as 'desolate', 'leotards' and 'quince'  If you don't know what any of these words mean, you'll have to look them up in a dictionary.

We're great at balancing - that's what we practised in PE.  We had to try hard not to fall over!

Finally, we've started Rainbow Maths which we really enjoy doing and it means we're getting better and better at mental arithmetic! 

Another busy week!

By Everyone in Kestrels

Welcome Back Kestrels!

We have had a brilliant first week back in class and the new Year 3s (and teachers) have all settled in well.

On our first day back we had some challenges to complete - there was skipping, running and welly throwing!  Bel was our welly throwing champion - she managed to throw it over 11 metres!  Edith was the skipping champion, and Gautam and Monty were our speedy running champions.

In the afternoon, we had to work in teams to create a bridge out of newspaper that was strong enough to hold a dictionary and tall enough to have a football rolled underneath.  This required lots of team work, communication and perseverance!  

On Thursday, we did some excellent artwork for the front of our topic books and had our first PE lesson.

We are all really looking forward to the fun-packed year of learning ahead of us!

Kestrels Class

2016-2017

THANK YOU for a absolutely wonderful year full of learning and laughs. I have had a brilliant year with the children. Everyday the children make me incredibly proud with all their achievements. They never fail to make me smile and laugh out loud. It is safe to say I have the best job!

To say thank you I wanted to share some of my favourite memories of the year with you all.  Enjoy 

WINNER!

And the winner is.....

Mark Hendzel

Congratulations. Your prize will be sent home on Monday!

QUIZ TIME

As part of homework this week the children created quiz questions. All questions are based around our topic theme. They then decided to create a class quiz using their questions for the parents to answer and submit.

So please have a go and submit your answers to:

kestrels@uplands.gloucs.sch.uk 

However....

The children have requested that you don't cheat! So no Google and no asking them for the answers! 

The winner will be announced 7th July on the Kestrels blog and will receive a tasty prize! (In the event of a tie in scores the person who submitted the quickest will win)

1. How many airports are there in Brazil?

2. How many times could you fit the UK and Ireland into the Amazon Rainforest?

3. What is the population of Brazil? 

4. True or False the Inca Empire used arm bones to make flutes?

5. How many countries are in South America?

6. Name the animal from the Rainforest that has a floppy nose.

7. What is the size of South America in km2?

8. How long is the Amazon River in km?

9. What is the name of the famous beach in Rio?

10. What is the name of shack town in Rio? 

Good Luck!!

Bristol Zoo!

This week we have written recounts about the trip trying really hard to describe everything throughout the day. Check our some of our amazing photos from the trip.

Amazon appetites!

This week was food week. We had a week of trying all different new and exotic foods.

On Tuesday we made smoothies using different fruits found in the Rainforest.  They were:

Strawberries, bananas and orange juice (nice easy one)

Papaya, guava juice and acai berries

Mango, passion-fruit juice and coconut water

On Thursday we then tried the individual flavours of different fruits. We learnt how to safely crack open a coconut (Miss Tedaldi hit it with a hammer) and an avocado. We tried:

Coconut

Coconut water

Papaya

Pomegranate

Avocado

Passionfruit

Mango

Guava

Brazil nuts

Acai berries

The class favourite was pomegranate and the least favourite was avocado. We then wrote about our tasting experience describe what it tasted like and which was our favourite and why.

On Friday it was baking day! We tried all the different bakes first (lovingly made by Mrs Day-Lewis) before splitting into groups to make some. We used all different ingredients that you would find in the Rainforest.

With Thursday’s leftovers Mrs Day-Lewis had made some coconut bites (which we then loved). She also made some delicious chocolate smoothies and chocolate mud pie. What we didn’t know is that they contained avocado in them but most of the class enjoyed it!

We then made:

Quinoa muffins

Brazil nut bites

Cricket flour brownies (yes that’s right Cricket flour)

Check out all the photos and videos from the week below. There are also the recipes of the bakes if you would like to try them at home.

Homework Stars

Homework this week was to write a diary based on life in either the Rainforest or a Favela house. Check out some of the stars. 

Kestrels Carnaval

We have been learning about the famous Rio Carnaval this week. We had a dance to some Carnaval music and composed some ourselves using our hands and musical instruments. Check out the pictures and videos!  

Homework Stars!

Check out this weeks homework stars. Well done everyone had their homework this week! 

Day of the Dead

Check out some of our amazing Day of the Dead masks that we created at the end of last term. 

Homework Stars!

Homework this week was to write a poem about a Rainforest animal. We had some really lovely poems. Check them out below! 

The animal poem

There was a spider who lived in a tree,

That had eight eyes but still couldn’t see

That the bug he was after

Was dying with laughter

Then it swallowed the poor spider for tea

By Finley

Jaguar

They eat with their jaws and kill with their paws

They eat fish, snakes and deer that quiver with fear

They live in the trees with peculiar leaves

Yellow with spots they eat lots and lots

The Jaguar lives alone and protects its home by pouncing on its prey

They roar with their great wide jaw

Sneaking through the trees peeking through the leaves

By Jacob  

The Snake 

The snake slivers below snapping its jaws

He slides across the canopy capturing his prey

To have his feast of the day

He lays under the sun ready to strike a mouse out no his latest hike

He basks in the sun amongst his own kind

He hisses he sheds his skin

He thinks he is the king

By Liam

Homework Stars!

Another amazing week of homework! This is always one of Miss Tedaldi's and Miss Anker's favourite homeworks to see. The children always show bags of creativity and imagination.

Check out some of the 2D and 3D models! 

Debating Deforestation 

Today was our debate on:

'Is deforestation good or bad for our planet?'

In order to debate this we split into two teams and had certain roles within our teams including:

Logger, Government Official, Environmental scientist, Forest inhabitants, Fast food restaurant owners, Cattle farmers, Pharmacists and Conservationests.  

After some very heated debating from both sides the jury decided that deforestation was bad for our planet. 

Check out some of our photos!

Homework Stars!

Check out some of our amazing front covers for this weeks homework!

24th April 2017

We have worked super hard this week on our new exciting topic. Already we have designed our new topic front covers with Rainforest animals. We even learnt about continents and oceans of the World, countries of South America and the layers of the Rainforest! 

Next week we will be learning about deforestation and the effects on the Amazon Rainforest. We will be holding a debate in class on the issue. 

Floresta Amazônica!

Goodbye Vedi Vidi Vici! 

We had a wonderful end to a brilliant topic with the amazing Museum! If you missed it check out the photos below. 

An invitation to...

Kestrels' History Museum!

This term the Kestrels have been working extremely hard on putting together a Museum about their topic. The Museum will be open to view on Wednesday 5th April at 3:00pm.

Everyone is welcome!

Check out some of the photos below to see what might be on display. 

Homework Stars! 

This week we had to use a Learning Power at home. Our learning powers are Reflect, Relate, Persevere, Reach and Curious.

We are Legends! 

Today we have been in our writing workshop. All of us have written a full story, that's right, a whole story! From beginning to end we have told tales of Roman legends. Our classroom has been full of three headed lions, wicked witches, glorious gladiators and supreme soldiers. We will be making a proper story book with front covers and blurbs.

Our teachers are very proud of how hard we have worked today. 

• First we wrote our letters.
• Next we put a lined piece of paper under a normal piece of paper so we could write on the lines.
• After that, we read it through so it made sense.
• After we did all that we wrote over it with a black pen.
• We scrunched it into a ball then unscrunched it.
• After that we rubbed it in coffee and ripped some parts off so it looked very old and brown.
• Then we pretended we were the other person and we wrote a reply without a plan.

By Beatrice, Anoushka, Sunny

Homework Stars!

This week we have lots of stars for some amazing writing! Check out the photos! 

Roman Mosaic!

In Art we have been working on creating marvelous mosaics. Today we challenged ourselves to make a whole floor mosaic! Working in teams we persevered and are really proud to share with you

'Majestic Uplands Birds Mosaic'. 

Homework Stars!

This week we had to design and make a quiz for our museum. Check out the photos for the stars! 

6th March 2017

Another busy week in Kestrels class this week! We have been finishing writing out short stories inspired by our Roman work.

PE was great fun! We made a sequence of shapes using our Roman knowledge which we then put to music, making it a story.  

We have also finally finished our amazing class Mosaic.

Homework Stars!

This week we had to write a review of our school trip to Caerleon!

Check out the photos of this weeks homework stars! 

Caerleon! 

2nd March 2017 

We have had a fantastic day out exploring the Roman town of Caerleon! All the children were brilliant coming to all the teachers sharing new facts and information they had found. The behaviour was excellent and they were great ambassadors for the school. Well done! 

We visited lots of places around the town including the Roman Baths, Amphitheatre and Barracks. We then had a great look around the museum and had a workshop all about school life in Roman times. We even had a chance to try on some armour! 

Check out some of the photos of our day! 

Homework Stars! 

Our homework this week was to create a Roman Numerals maths challenge for our Museum! Check out some of the photos. 

Homework Stars! 

Our homework this week was actually two pieces!

First was based on our work on the story of Romulus and Remus. In the story they created their own city which later became the city of Rome. We had to imagine we could create our own city. What would it be called? Give it a name and state 8 things that would be special about our city.

Second was to present a small research project a Roman God and present our findings in any way we liked.

Check out some of the Homework stars for this week in the pictures!  

20th February 2017

Welcome to our first weekly blog!

This week we started writing some stories based on Rome. We set the scene this week describing in lots of detail what we could see, hear, smell and touch! Next week we are moving onto describing our characters.  

Homework!

Week 6- due in Wednesday 22^nd February: Understanding and Analysing: Over the half term break research a Roman god of your choice. Create a short project of this god highlighting why they were important to the Romans. You can present this in any way you like.

Check out next week's blog for the homework Stars of the week!

Genius Week!

Welcome back after half term! Take a look at some of our photos from our Genius week. We had a very exciting week learning lots of new skills and finding our Genius.