Inspired by the baskets that apples used to be collected in, Kestrels chose to weave their own baskets for their DT project. The children did find it quite tricky, especially with the side walls of the basket but they persevered, worked well together in pairs, and ended up producing some excellent baskets.
Kestrels have focused predominantly on Science for the past two days. They have used websites, videos and written texts to piece together the details about the lifecycles of flowering plants, mammals, birds, insects and amphibians. The children were very purposeful throughout their work and collaborated to share pieces of information and to explain concepts that some were taking a little longer to understand.
It has been brilliant to see the care and attention that all the children in Year 5 have shown to their handwriting this term. We are very pleased that a few more children have earned their pen licence this week. It will be great to have to whole class writing in pen before the end of the year!
Kestrels have been working hard on writing imaginative stories for the Bells Farm Writing Competition. Inspired by stories and video exerts from BBC 2’s 500 words competition, the children took great care planning, editing and improving their stories, ready to present for judging.
During their Peacemakers session with Phil, the children were set a challenge to complete as a class.
All children had to be able to be in contact with some of 5 large pieces of paper, without any of their body touching the carpet. Working patiently, the children were able to meet the challenge.
However, Phil progressively changed the challenge to make it harder by removing portions of the paper.
As the difficulty of challenge increased, the children did find it hard to think of others and the class initially weren’t successful. Gradually though, following discussions led by Phil, the class started to share ideas and think about how to work most effectively as a team. Planning their strategy together, they managed to complete their final challenge.
In the future, we hope to remember that working collaboratively, as part of a team, is always far more effective than thinking of yourself and your own aims first.
During the previous two Peacemakers sessions, Kestrels have been considering what an alien would think about humans, if they were to land in Druids Heath. The children discussed various aspects of humanity, before focusing on the peaceful ways of humans. In small groups, they then made posters which could explain to aliens how peaceful we are. The class showed great teamwork when making their posters and made well reasoned contributions to class discussions.
Following our debate earlier this week, focussed on whether a sacred Hindu bull should have been killed because it was diagnosed with Bovine TB, we considered different things in life that we care for and those that we would protect. Mrs Johnson, who was working with the class, was incredibly impressed with the mature contributions and thoughtful comments made in response to other children’s suggestions.
Kestrels enjoyed some time in the sunshine in what started out as a lesson on pollination of fruit trees. We examined some of the apple tree blossom on some of the school’s trees and investigated the different parts of the blossom and other plants, discussing their functions. The children were all eager to contribute and quickly their natural curiosity and some excellent subject knowledge from one or two steered the conversation down a different path. From looking at photosynthesis in detail, we then considered the vital role that plants play in the food chain and our world. It was brilliant to see the children’s desire for knowledge and understanding leading the conversation to the areas that they most wanted to find out about.
Aidan deserves special praise for explaining different aspects to the class in great detail, completely independently.
The children enjoyed taking part in a debate revolving around a real life dilemma from a number of years ago. In 2007, a bull was diagnosed with Bovine Tuberculosis and the DEFRA said that it had to be killed, as part of their aim to exterminate the disease. However, the bull was owned by a multi-faith group in Wales, who hold the Hindu belief that all life is sacred and therefore the bull should not be killed.
With great purpose, the children researched and planned arguments for and against the bull being killed. Excellent arguments were made during the debate, children listened carefully and responded intelligently to their ‘opponents’ points.
Well done to the following children for getting excellent results in their Number Clubs:
Archie, Emi, Leah Mc, Josh, Poppy-Rose, Phoebe, Solomon, Cody, Aidan, Kai M, Willow, Isabel, Brianna, Sundus, Kai E and Charlie.
A very special well done to Brianna for reaching the Magic 100 Club.