WELCOME TO KINGFISHERS

2019-20

Friday 17th July

We have come to the end of the year, Kingfishers, and what a strange year it has turned out to be! Next week we have our "Meet the Teacher" sessions - I am so looking forward to seeing you all.  Just think back to last year, when you came into Kingfishers for the first time to find out what to expect in Year 5 or Year 6...we certainly didn't expect to be spending a third of it learning from home.  During lock-down, you have  learned so much about being independent, resilient and creative in your learning, all of which will stand you in great stead for the year ahead.

I have enjoyed all of our Zoom catch-ups, thank you so much for taking part and making them fun.  I hope you enjoyed them too.

Click on the Kingfisher week 7 icon for what we hope will be the last of our home learning!

Friday 10th July

Hello Kingfishers.

I hope you all enjoyed our Zoom meetings on Monday - I certainly did, it was really lovely to see and speak to you all.  I'm looking forward to our next meetings on Thursday next week.  If you haven't been able to join us yet, it would great to see you next time. There is no pressure to speak; if you just want to see everyone and listen, that's fine, and you can keep your camera off if you like.

Click on the week 6 kingfisher for next week's home learning.

Friday 3rd July

Hello Kingfishers!

I hope you have managed to enjoy some outdoor time this week as the weather has not been quite as summery as we might have hoped.  It seems very strange to be saying goodbye (for now) and good luck to all of our Year 6 children, as our "bubbles" have now finished their time in school.

During July, our home-learning will be slightly different.  We are setting you a project, so you will have lots of choice in how and what to learn and present.  Your finished project could be anything from 6 pages long to 106 pages!  As you work, keep sending in pages/chapters to your teachers for feedback.  Click on Kingfisher Week 5 for ideas to help you get started.

We will continue to set daily White Rose maths work and also some structured English work which you could put into your project.

I'm really looking forward to our Zoom meetings on Monday - I hope you can make it!

Friday 26th June

Hello Kingfishers!

Today some of our Year 6 children spent their last morning in the classroom here at ACE - we are sorry to see them go, but so proud of the caring, curious, confident young people they have grown to be!

It was wonderful to see and speak to so many Year 5 children in our Zoom meeting on Tuesday.  We look forward to doing more of these meetings during week beginning 6th July - details to follow.

You will find your home learning for next week on the Kingfisher Week 4 icon.  

Competition!

Thanks to Amy for telling me about a writing competition that offers you a perfect chance to write about the ideas we have been studying in our history and English work, and maybe win a prize!

Follow this link:   https://500words.me/ 

Friday 19th June

Hello Kingfishers!  This week it has been such a pleasure to welcome some of our Year 6 children back to school.  We have worked hard and learned lots, kept one another safe and secure and had some fun along the way.  Even the rain didn't stop us getting outside, at least for a little while each day.  For Year 5 children, we are setting up our first class Zoom chat next week and we will be setting up a meeting for Year 6 very soon. Whether you have been coming in to school with your bubble or learning at home, you will have a chance to catch up with everybody.

Click on the Week 3 Kingfisher below to find all your home learning for next week.  If you are in Year 6 Bubble 1, we will be covering a lot of this work in school.  If you have been in school in Bubble 2 this week, remember to look back at Week 2 if you want to complete any of the tasks we didn't do in class - the art activity has proved popular with the children learning at home this week. If you are in Year 5, remember to look at the work Mrs Taylor has set for her maths group.  You can look at the English work for Year 5 or Year 6 and decide on which challenges to do.  The writing challenge and work in other subjects are the same for Years 5 and 6.

Parents - Our English work this week links to our history lessons and explores powerful, topical ideas.  All the resources referenced are written for a child audience.  You might like to read the stories yourself first and discuss the issues with your child.

Remember, everyone, the most important things are your well-being, health and happiness. With your families, decide on your own way of tackling home-learning. We know that learning online can be difficult.  There is no pressure to complete any particular task at any particular time, but we are always pleased to receive your work by email and give you some feedback.

Friday 12th June

Hello Kingfishers! It's been another strange week, with plans made and changed.  Hopefully we will finally see some of you back in school on Monday next week, and more of you back on Tuesday.  School is very quiet and not at all fun without you!

Your home-learning for days when you are not in school can be found on the Week 2 Kingfisher icon below.  I have dated the lessons to show you when I'm planning to do them with the "bubbles", so Year 6 you know what you will be doing in school if you are coming in.

This week we have some reading and writing about lockdown and some more learning about the Civil Rights Movement, linked to our history work. There is another lesson about South America, an art lesson, some RE suggestions and the science to finish from last week.  As usual, we have some White Rose Maths and lessons on Grammar and Spelling.  Year 5, you are welcome to look at the Year 6 lessons and do those instead of the Year 5 work if you want to challenge yourself.

Friday 5th June

We are about to begin the final half term of the year and we will still be learning mainly from home. Next week we are delighted to be able to begin welcoming back our Year 6 children, but we will continue to provide learning suggestions on the weekly news pages for both Years 5 and 6.  Please click on Summer 2, Week 1 below for next week’s learning.

I hope that you have all had a pleasant half term break. Please do continue to send in your work and your pictures.  We are here to help in way that we can, particularly if you are not coming back to school.

Best wishes

Mrs Watkins

Wednesday 13th May

Thank you for sending in work and pictures.  Here are a few more things that you have been doing at home this week, including some fantastic art work.  I told you that technique was amazing!

Friday 15th May

Hello again Kingfishers - I hope you liked the message from all the staff.  We really miss you all!

One more week of home learning until the half-term holiday - scroll down to Summer 1, Week 6 in Class News to find this week's suggestions.

Parents, please be aware that this week's RE challenge includes a link to a clip from a BBC radio clip which is on a general area of the BBC website, not on a "schools" page and as such contains content which is aimed at a wider audience.

Thursday 7th May

Hello KIngfishers!  I hope you are all well.

This is a "short" week as we have a Bank Holiday tomorrow to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day, at the end of World War II.  Do you remember listening to some of the speeches made during the war by Winston Churchill?  The BBC are showing "Darkest Hour" at 7:30pm on Saturday, which tells the story behind the speeches.  (It's a PG, so ask your parents' permission first.)

I've posted the learning activities for next week on this page. Scroll down to Class News then click on the Summer Term, Week 5 kingfisher icon to find them.  I recommend the art lesson - the effects you get from this technique are really amazing!  I think I'll have a go at it myself.  And of course I've tried the dance lesson!

I hope you and your families enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend. 

Keep safe, hopefully we will see each other soon.

Best wishes,

Mrs Watkins 

Monday 4th May

Hello Kingfishers!

Thank you for all of the pictures, messages and work that you have been sending in. I really enjoy hearing about the things you have been doing and reading what you have written.  It's good to hear that you are well, cheerful and  keeping busy.

Have a look at what your friends have been up to on this page.  If you would like to send in your work for me to read or check, but you don't want it on the website, that is fine - just let me know in your email.

As usual, you will find maths, English, science and RE activities to do this week.  Click on the Summer Term 1 Week 4 Kingfisher in the class news section below.  You will also find an interesting art lesson based on a picture by Van Gogh.

There is a lot of science work this week.  Parents, please make your own decision about how much you ask your children to complete.  One of the tasks looks at the effects of drugs on the body.  Whilst this topic is from Key Stage 2 curriculum content and most of the resources I have suggested are aimed at this age group, I would encourage you to treat this part of the work as a "PG".  One of the video clips is taken from BBC Bitesize Key Stage 3, with challenging and more complex information.

I am sure you are learning in lots of different ways, in addition to the activities that your teachers are suggesting.  Perhaps you have been following the news about some of the wonderful acts of care and kindness we have seen, for example Captain Tom Moore's amazing fundraising effort at the grand age of 100.  Or maybe the robots looking after sick people in Japan caught your eye. 

CBBC Newsround at https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround is a great place to keep up with interesting events around the world.  Why not clip some pictures and make an electronic scrapbook?

Have a good week everybody, keep safe and I look forward to seeing your work.

Look what Kingfishers have been doing this week...

Monday 27th April 2020

Hello Kingfishers, I hope you and your families are all well.

It's now five weeks since we were all at school together and I am missing you all very much.

We still don't know when we will be back at school, although we hope that it won't be too much longer.  We do know that we have at least another two weeks of learning at home.  Scroll down to the Class News section and click on the Kingfisher icon for Summer Term Week 3 to find this week's work.

Sadly last week we had to cancel our trips to Min-y-Don and York.  I'm so sorry about this everyone, I know how much you were looking forward to these events.  The good news is, Year 5 will be going to Min-y-Don next year, so you won't miss out on that, and we will arrange some day trips for Year 6 during June and July if we are back in school and can do this safely.

Thank you to those of you who have sent in work and pictures.  You can see them on this page.

Please keep sending things in and, if you haven't sent anything yet, be brave and send something this week (remember to ask an adult to email for you).  I love keeping up with what you are doing and I'm sure your friends like to see your home learning, too.

Here is a great website that you might want to take a look at: 

https://thelinkingnetwork.org.uk/home-learning-resources/

I especially recommend the Fun Challenges, Books and Songs sections... one of the songs might give some of you a reminder of happy days in Purple Class!

Keep safe and busy Kingfishers!

Best wishes,

Mrs Watkins

Monday 20th April 2020

Hello Kingfishers

As we begin another week of learning at home, I hope you and your families are all well.

Click on the Summer Term Week 2 icon below to find work for maths, English and science and a suggestion for an RE activity.

Please can you all continue to work on the Year 5/6 spelling list using the dictation sentences that you have.

Year 6 children please continue to work through your CGP Grammar books, working for about an hour which will be two chapters for most of you.  Also please complete a comprehension from you CGP book and check you answers.

If you are in Mrs Allan's or Mrs Taylor's maths groups, please check on Nightingales and Eagles pages for your work.

Tuesday 14th April

Hello Kingfishers,

Welcome to the Summer Term! I hope you have all had a happy Easter with your families, and most importantly that you are all safe and well.

This term you will be learning at home, at least for the first few weeks.  To begin with, we will set you work for maths, English and science each week and Nathalie has suggested some work you could do to develop your French.

If you would like to do some RE work, this can be found on the general class page, at the top.

Do your best but don't worry if there is something you can't do or if you are not quite sure. 

Ask your parents or carers to send a message to the class email address kingfishers@altrinchamceprimaryschool.co.uk  if you have any queries and I will try to answer them.

Remember, there is lots of important learning you can do while you are at home and have fun at the same time.  For example, you could do some fitness work by joining in with Joe Wicks each morning or doing Oti Mabuse's dance class; you could watch the birds in your garden or on your daily walk and keep a nature log; you could take a sketch book with you when you go outside; you could get creative in the kitchen with some baking or even sing along online with Gareth Malone.  Do whatever works for you and your families to stay positive.

I hope to see you back at school very soon.

Very best wishes

from

Mrs Watkins

Tuesday 31st March

It's officially the first day of the holidays, so I won't be posting any work for a few weeks.

In the meantime, are you doing Joe Wicks's work out every morning, Kingfishers?  I've been doing my best!  This morning he asked everyone to think of ideas for "Dress-up Friday" - what do you think Kingfishers, can we do this? I will if you will! Do the work out in a costume (something simple, remember you can't go shopping!) then send me your pics and we'll make each other smile.

Hello Kingfishers!

The sun is shining brightly, reminding us that good things are still happening and we can enjoy ourselves.

A few children are at school this week. Today we made rainbow banners to cheer everyone up.  If your daily exercise takes you and your family past school, look out for them on the fences.  I wonder if you have made rainbows to stick in your windows?

Share pictures and messages with us by emailing them to office@altrinchamceprimaryschool.co.uk

and I will post them on this page.

Keep safe and happy.

xxx

Tuesday 24th March

Hi Kingfishers!

Hope you are all keeping safe and well and managing to have some fun.

It's lovely to see your messages and pictures, I'll put as many as I can on this page.

I'm working from home too today - I don't think I'm having as much fun as you are though!

Keep in touch with each other, your friendships will be really important over the next few weeks.

Very best wishes,

Mrs Watkins

Year 5 and 6 will study a history based topic as their theme for the Spring term, based on the National Curriculum Key Stage 2  requirement to learn about a contrasting non-European Society.  Our topic looks at early Islamic Civilisation and is entitled The Golden Years of Baghdad.

We have selected some quality key texts to inspire our writing, some of which are linked to this topic. 

Work in geography and art will be closely related to our topic and we will take opportunities to make cross-curricular links to other subjects, too.  

Please keep an eye on our class page; we will update it regularly with useful tips and information to help support your child's learning.

USEFUL INFORMATION

This half term our PE will be on Thursday mornings.  Lessons will be lead by coaches from Altrincham Football Club's education programme.  Please ensure kits suitable for indoor or outdoor activities are in school.

Enrichment afternoon continues on Mondays - please bring PE kits/forest school clothing.

English homework set and returned on Fridays please.  Spellings this term will be set and checked on a Monday (note change from Autumn term).

Maths homework is set by group teacher.