We have been travelling to Ancient Greece this term for our new topic, ‘Glorious Greeks’ and we are answering the big question, ‘What have we gained from the Greeks?’

So far in this topic we have learnt about the Greek city states including Athens and Sparta – most of us decided we would rather have lived in Athens, with its democracy and creativity rather than going to war with the Spartans. We have also found out about Alexander the Great, who defeated the Persian Empire by the age of 26! We handled some Greek artefacts from the New Walk Museum, designed and made fantastic Greek pots in art, and Year 6 were lucky enough to spend some time at Ab Kettleby producing their very own film about the first Olympics using green screen technology to transport them to Olympia 2000 years ago.

          

     

 In English, we have read Greek Myths, focusing in particular on the monsters such as the Chimera and Medusa, researching them and writing our own report for a book of mythical beasts. Some of our ideas have been incredibly imaginative (and gruesome!) We have also been reading the book ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief,’ and making connections between the story and the Greek myths that we have studied.

We have been learning spelling in a new way this term, looking at morphology (root words, prefixes and suffixes) and etymology (word meanings). It is helping a lot with how we build words and learn to spell them.

In maths, it has been all about fractions this term – finding equivalent fractions, simplifying, adding, subtracting and finding fractions of amounts…we really are fractions experts now!  We have also been building our number fluency with weekly arithmetic, making sure the four operations and place value are really secure.

    

Forces have been the focus in science this term. We have explored gravity and how it pulls us to the earth and investigated air resistance, which works against gravity. Fun fact – did you know that if there wasn’t any air, a feather and a bowling ball would fall at exactly the same rate?

In RE, Oak class have been learning about Hinduism, thinking about the different things that Hindus do to try and be good, and trying to use terms such as dharma, karma and moksha accurately.

The children have been thinking about their possible future careers in PSHE, discussing the different factors that might affect their future careers, even playing a simulation game to see what their future might hold. They also explored ideas of belonging to support Children’s Mental Health week, and year 6 paid a visit to Warning Zone to learn more about some of the real life and online dangers that they might face as they get older.    

In computing, we have been learning how to use Scratch to make music! We also spent some time thinking about the good and bad uses of AI as part of Safer Internet Day. We were good at identifying when is OK and not OK to use AI, always remembering that it is not a human so it doesn’t understand feelings.

In PE, the class have been working on their jumping, rolling and balancing in PE. They have continued with their Daily Boost every day for 10-15 minutes to keep active which has included everything from Yoda to Samba dancing!

Year 4 and 5 have had a wonderful time visiting Kick up the Arts in Melton for four art workshop mornings, as part of our Artsmark pledge to broaden the range of Arts experiences that we provide for our children. They produced work inspired by female artists with different cultural backgrounds, including printing, collage and 3D sculpture. It has been fantastic to see the progression and confidence grow over the weeks, and some children have even now started to go to their drop-in sessions on a Sunday morning.

     

Right back at the start of the term we kick-started the year with a three-day oracy focus, thinking about how we can make group work and discussion effective (including disagreeing respectfully with someone else’s opinion.) We have tried hard to continue with this as the term has progressed, answering questions in full sentences and using different discussion techniques. It is so important to be an effective communicator, and our aim is for everyone to be able to express their ideas and opinions to make their voice heard.

We are continuing with our Ancient Greece topic and our oracy focus after half term after a well-deserved break!