Home Learning WC 8.6.20

Welcome to Peregrine Falcon Class!

Our learning environment

Our Year 5 and 6 classroom, now known as Peregrine Class, has had a refreshing makeover during the holidays in readiness for the year ahead. Take a look at the pictures of our lovely classroom. 

Settling in 

The children have settled in brilliantly to our new class. Today we have been sketching and researching facts about the peregrine falcon. We then made a poster to display our work.  

Where will your reading take you? 

Peregrine Class are going to read their way around the world this year. We are completing the Oxford 'Reading Miles Passport' challenge. Each child has been issued with their own reading passport and for every half book read, the children can earn 500 air miles. As their miles accumulate, they will travel around the world to various countries. As they arrive at a new destination, the children will be given a postcard to take home to their adult in celebration of their achievement. They will also have the opportunity to learn about that particular country and it's culture; if desired, they can share what they have learnt in assembly.   

Library visit

Today we were fortunate enough to visit the library. As well as looking at the books, the children learnt about how they are ordered, the various facilities on offer to a junior member and how to use the self service machine. It was a very enjoyable and informative visit. 

Eagle heights

Our lovely little school had some beautiful, feathery visitors today. Mr Alan Ames, from Eagle Heights in Kent, brought along some birds of prey for the children to see and gave a fascinating talk about these delightful birds. This is especially relevant as, this school year, all our classrooms are named after a different bird. The children learned about the need for conservation, caring for injured birds, their habitats etc. It was a unique and memorable experience for the children. 

Healthy Heads

Peregrine class are working with Fleetwood Town Football Club on a 'Healthy Heads' initiative. Each week we will talk about the qualities needed to be the best person we can be when playing sport, learning in school and when we're at home. After a class discussion, the children will play various games to try and apply the qualities they discussed previously. 

Head Boy/Head Girl speeches and nominations

Today was an important day for our wonderful school. Our Year 6 children had the opportunity to run for the prestigious roles of Head Boy and Head Girl. The assembly began with each child giving a speech to the rest of the school as to why they would be perfect for the role. The children have been working on their speeches for the last week and they have really put their hearts and soles into them. They spoke eloquently, with their personalities shining through in their words, and it was lovely to see. After the speeches the voting slips were distributed and each child cast a vote. We are all waiting, with baited breath, for the votes to be counted. It takes a huge dollop of courage to stand at the front of the hall and speak; we are so proud of all the children who took part-well done!   

Samba

Each Wednesday afternoon, Peregrine class enjoy a music lesson. The session involves singing (the songs chosen are current chart hits and very popular with the children), dancing and the chance to play various instruments within a Samba band. It's an enjoyable hour and the children really do get a lot out of it. The children will rotate instruments as the term goes on but take a look below at the pictures of our first session. 

Teamwork makes the dream work

Our Healthy Heads session this week was all about team work. We discussed what teamwork involves and then had a go at putting it into practice. Our first challenge was to play dodge ball, but from a kneeling position. This required a lot more communication and passing than the normal version. After this, the children had to organise themselves into height order whilst standing on benches - without falling off. It was very entertaining to watch. There were moments where, from the expressions on their faces, you would have thought that they were passing each other on a sheer cliff face (not a low bench in the hall).   

Look at our wonderful writing

Our first piece of extended writing is now complete. We have been working on a character description of August, the protagonist of our class read 'Wonder'. The children have worked hard to pack in all the features expected of Year 5/6 writers and the results are wonderful. 

Head Boy and Head Girl announcements

This afternoon saw the arrival of the long awaited Head Boy and Head Girl announcements. The children voted in last weeks assembly and, after what feels like an age to the children, the winners were announced today. The vote was very close and counted twice, just to be sure. We are very proud to announce the following:

Head Boy - Lucas Randles 

Head Girl - Molly Thomas

Deputy Head Boy - Kian McDermott

Deputy Head Girl - Dzhuliya Hristova

Healthy Heads

Our weekly Healthy Heads focus for this week was fairness. We discussed the concept of fairness first before going into the hall to apply fairness in a sporting context. One of the games we played involved the children standing in a circle and having to catch a ball that was randomly thrown to them by the coach who stood in the middle. The aim was to make it to 20 successful catches. Whilst this might sound straight forward, the game proved tense at times- especially as we grew closer to the magic 20 catches.  

Democracy in action

This afternoon the children voted for who they wanted to elect as House Captain. All Year 6 children were able to apply for the role and if they chose to apply they gave a speech to the other children in their house. Well done to all the children who gave a speech, you did amazingly well. The speeches were well prepared and heart felt. Huge congratulations to the winners, we know you will do your house proud!  

Climates and rivers

Our topic focus for this half term is climates and rivers. We looked at different types of climate and which countries they apply to. We then went to locate various rivers around the world using an atlas to help us.  

River formation

Our topic lesson this afternoon involved looking closely at how rivers are formed and the various parts of a river. We constructed a diagram with labels to show the information we had learnt. As you can see from the pictures below, these drawings aren't far off the technical diagram quality you might see in a text book!  

Vive la différence

During French, Peregrine Class have been learning how to tell the time for their work about school.  After watching a short presentation, they have written about the similarities and differences between English and French schools.  They used photos to play matching games on the IWB to practise their new vocabulary.

Raising the roof

This week the children enjoyed another fabulous samba lesson. After playing some rhythm clapping games, a dancing warm up and singing along to some much loved songs - the children each had a turn on the various instruments. As always, the children played wonderfully and they really did 'raise the roof'.  

Lancashire Fire and Rescue 

We were lucky enough to have a visit from the Lancashire Fire and Rescue this afternoon. The firefighters talked to the children about: smoke alarms, general fire safety, road safety (particularly planning a safe route to high school) and safe cycling. It was an informative visit and the children enjoyed asking questions. One interesting fact that emerged during the visit is that children under 135cm tall still require a full backed booster seat. Lots of us were surprised by this, particularly when the tape measure came out to demonstrate the required height.  

Our Healthy Heads Finale

This week marks the end of our Healthy Heads sessions. The final session focused on self esteem and the importance of loving ourselves, as well as others. In our last game the children had to use their teamwork and communication skills to make human letters in their small groups. We had some letters that looked more like hieroglyphics than our alphabet but, for the most part, the children did very well. 

Drumming to the beat

Our weekly Samba lesson had a slightly different sound this week. Instead of the usual instruments we use, this week we used drum sticks to drum along to the music. It was great fun and the children were incredibly focused, they didn't miss a beat! 

Multicultural Week

The festival of light - Diwali

We began our multicultural week by looking at Diwali. Diwali is the five-day festival of lights, celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the world. The festival, which coincides with the Hindu New Year, celebrates new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. With this in mind, we used clay to make a Diya (a special lamp used in India). We will paint and decorate them later this week, before having our own mini Diwali on Friday when we will put a tea light in our lamps and light them.   

Native American art

Peregrine class have looked at the legend of the Mikmaq, an ancient Native American legend about a wild goose. Legend has it that a long, long time ago little geese were dying on their migratory flight. The older birds became very upset by this and came up with a plan to lead and shelter the smaller birds so they survived the flight. Ever since then, Native Americans believe that the King of the wild geese, Kluskap, is the protector of all the small birds that fly into their country. 

A taste of Italy

Italian cuisine was on the menu for Peregrine class this morning. We made pizzas and decorated them with various toppings. As you can see from the pictures, it was an enjoyable and tasty activity - a perfect addition to our multicultural week.

Aboriginal art

Our afternoon took on a rhythmical note today, in the form of Aboriginal clapper sticks. Clapsticks or clappers are a type of drumstick, percussion mallet or claves that belongs to the idiophone category. They are often used to maintain rhythm in Aboriginal voice chants. The children decorated their sticks with Aboriginal symbols before having a go at clapping along to an Aboriginal chant.

African dancing

The children had a unique and enjoyable dance lesson today. The theme was African dance and this complimented nicely with other activities we are doing in class this week. The children gave it their all and did very well.  

Friendship bracelets

Peregrine class made friendship bracelets today. We researched the bracelets and discovered that the handwoven knots used to create friendship bracelets can generally be traced back to Native Americans, although knot-tying also has a history in China and other parts of the world. In China, some of the earliest forms of decorative knots date as far back as 481-221 B.C. The Chinese used knots for many reasons, including decorations for clothing and other things. 

​​​​​​Indian fact file

There is barely a corner of the globe that hasn't been explored in our class this week. This time it was the turn of India. The children completed an Indian fact file, using I pads for research. Working in pairs, they researched information about Indian currency, industry, oceans and neighbouring countries. There were prizes for the best fact files completed. Look at our proud winners. 

Seema Dalvi

We were extremely lucky today to have a special visitor in Peregrine class. Seema Dalvi, an award winning Indian cuisine chef and former secondary school Maths teacher, paid us a visit to talk to the children about all things Indian. Seema was fascinating to listen to, the children were enthralled. Seema talked about the many regions and languages of India and shared a story about being trapped on a bus in a monsoon flood for 24 hours. We discussed the caste system, the fact that the River Ganges is actually called the River Ganga and how to crack coconuts. These are just a tiny handful of the fascinating points that came out of Seemas visit. As if all this wasn't enough, Seema also brought some delicious Indian street style food for the children to sample. 

Diwali

We lit our Diyas this afternoon and had our very own Diwali. It was a lovely moment of calm after a very busy and enjoyable week.  

History brought to life

Peregrine class had an extra special trip to the library today. We were invited to join in a history/drama workshop, based on the Ancient Egyptians. The theme was mummification and all the gory details, perfect for Halloween. It was informative and great fun, the children loved it.   

What is evolution?

Our Science focus for this half term is evolution. We started our learning by thinking about inherited characteristics and the variations that can occur. This led on nicely to looking at how humans, plants and animals can adapt to their surroundings.