Autumn 1 Year 5 and 6 Knowledge Organiser

• autumn-1-clockwork.pdf

Above you will find a copy of our knowledge organiser for this half term. It includes all our key facts and vocabulary for our topics.

Weekly Updates

Week 6

What a way to end the half term!

We had a fantastic day out in Stratford-Upon-Avon on Friday. We spent the morning visiting the birthplace and final resting place of William Shakespeare. We found the words on Shakespeare’s headstone particularly interesting and had a good discussion about grave robbers - “Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbear, to dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed be he that moves my bones.”

When we stopped for lunch we were lucky to get to see the canal lock being used by a houseboat.

Then in the afternoon we wandered up to the MAD museum and the kids were fascinated by all of the amazing automata toys on display. They loved activating them all. Particular favourites were the secret chest, which made lots of the children jump, and the amazing spider. The children loved seeing how the machines worked and applying their knowledge of the different shaped cams to see why the toys moved how they did. We even saw an automaton toy that was able to write all by itself just like in Hugo Cabret!

There were lots of automated marble runs that were incredible to watch and the children were able to have a go at building their own marble runs and try to get the ball through a maze.

One last memory from the day - Christmas came early.

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In our English lesson this week we have focused on writing speech. We explored punctuating direct speech with the help of an Anchor video, which the kids loved singing along to!

Then we used our oracy skills to practise answering interview questions, pretending we were Georges Méliès.

Finally we have drafted a newspaper report providing the answers to the interview questions as indirect speech. Look out for some examples of the children’s great work when we complete them next half term.

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In maths this week we have started our new unit on addition and subtraction and have been focusing on different strategies we can use for solving calculations in our heads - using our skills of place value, partitioning and rounding.

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Week 5

In Science this week we have been learning about reflection and how the angle of the incident ray will always equal the angle of the reflected ray. To demonstrate this, we constructed periscopes using cereal boxes and mirrors. The children had to accurately position their mirrors at 45-degree angles so that the light would enter at the top of the periscope and be reflected down to the bottom of the periscope.

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On Wednesday the children continued their cam mechanism designs by creating accurate detailed 3D drawings. This required the children to learn about single perspective points on the horizon line and drawing perpendicular (L) and parallel (=) lines to create the box frame in 3D. It was a challenge, but we produced some fantastic drawings in the end, and I was very proud of the class for demonstrating their perseverance in this lesson. I will upload some photos of their final designs in due course.

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On Tuesday the class enjoyed a PE lesson practising their catching and throwing skills and developing their focus, ensuring they always have their eye on the ball and are paying close attention to their team.

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On Monday I informed the children that I had won the lottery (not really of course) and showed them my bowl full of money. We discussed what we would do if we had won lots of money and the children had some interesting ideas. It was lovely to hear lots of the children saying they would share it with their friends and family. I then showed them an empty bowl with the phrase "Living a rich life is..." and asked the children to explore what makes life rich (not money). This led us into our RE lesson about Guru Nanak and the evolution of the Sikh religion and their belief in sharing wealth.  Sikhs believe that all people are equal.

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Week 4

In Science this week we have been looking at how shadows are produced. We went outside to sketch some shadows and explore how the object casting the shadow affects the shape and size of the shadow. The weather wasn't on our side but we managed to get some photos and completed our sketches indoors instead.

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In English this week we have been working on writing an action scene based on the images in Hugo Cabret. We have looked at using powerful vocabulary to 'show not tell' what is happening in the pictures, creating the image in the reader's mind. We explored how to show the character's feelings using interesting adverbs to describe how they were acting.

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During our Jigsaw lesson this week we put ourselves in the shoes of a refugee child and thought about the issues they may face and how we can help them to ensure their rights are met. We thought about all the things they would need to have the right to an education and then we thought about what we need and how we may already be perceived as privileged compared to others.

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Week 3

On Friday the children started to think about their designs for their cam toys that they will be constructing in D&T later this term. We have produced some rough sketches which we will be completing and progressing on to accurate drawings next week. Here are some of the ideas the children have come up with so far, which include different motions for their moving feature. The children have had to think about what combination of differently shaped cams they need to create the movement they want.

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This week we have been working on writing an internal monlogue. We have had to imagine we are Hugo Cabret, who lost his dad in a fire, got taken to live in a train station with his drunken uncle and had to train as a 'time-keeper'. His uncle subsequently abandoned him so he's all alone now. He has been trying to fix the automaton his dad had found and been stealing parts from a toy shop, but he got caught by the owner who took his precious notebook with the drawings his dad had made for how to fix it.

On Wednesday we used our oracy skills to ask each other questions, where one partner pretended to be Hugo answering the questions. Here is an example of one of the groups performing their 'hot seat' questioning:

On Thursday we drafted our internal monolgue and have been writing it up in our Wow write books. Here are some completed examples:

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On Thursday this week in Science we learnt about how we see things. The children then modelled this using yellow wool to represent the light beam coming from a light source in a straight line, hitting an object and being reflected off in a straight line to a person's eye.

Week 2

On Friday 16th September children who wished to be considered for the role of school councillor submitted a letter detailing why they thought they would be good for the role. These letters were read out anonymously and the children voted for the letter they thought was the best. The successful candidates will now represent Kestrel class at the School Council meetings. Well done to all the people who put themselves forward.

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On Friday 16th September the children continued working on their computer programming to create a scene from our Class text (Hugo Cabret). This week they have been able to add characters and voices to their scenes.

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On Tuesday 13th September we celebrated Roald Dahl day in our Guided Reading lesson by studying a poem from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The children used their reading skills to summarise the poem into just a couple of sentences.

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On Monday 12th September we started using our Power Maths books and this week the children have been working hard getting to grips with place value of numbers with up to 7 digits!

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Last week I set the children a challenge to write a mini story about a Kestrel. The best story would be chosen, and the name used for the Kestrel in their story would become the name of our class mascot. The winning story can be seen below. Our class mascot will henceforth be known as Melvin.

Week 1

On Thursday 8th September we started our new science topic on Light. The children were challenged to investigate ways that they could prove that light travels in a straight line. Using just pieces of card and a torch the children were able to show that the light could not bend around to pass through holes that were not aligned.

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On Wednesday 7th September we had a look at how cam mechanisms work and the different shaped cams. The children had the opportunity to choose their own shape to create a cam mechanism to investigate what the effect on the linear motion of the follower rod would be.

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On Monday 5th September we discussed the school rules and created our own class charter that each of the children have signed. We also discussed our goals for year 5 and steps we could take to achieve them during our first Jigsaw lesson.

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Kestrel class had a fantastic first week back!

Here are our fantastic class members:

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It was lovely welcoming the children back to Kestrel class today. We had a lovely day and the children were all very enthusiastic. They worked together to agree our class charter to ensure our classroom is a happy, exciting, energising and safe learning environment.

Here is a video tour of the Kestrel classroom. (The displays will be added to throughout the course of the half-term so I will update the website with photographs when they are completed.)