Sharks
Welcome to the Sharks Class page!
Here, you can find out about some of the things we have been learning recently as we are growing and learning together with God.
Mountains to Climb
We began our summer term topic by leaving Ancient Greece behind and time-travelling back to the present day... but we didn't make it all the way back to Fritwell, instead landing somewhere in the Himalayas for our new theme: Mountains to Climb! We used our careful climbing skills to explore the 'mountain range' made by the gymnastics equipment and created collages of mountain scenes.
In English we have read about Lakpa Rita Sherpa, Felice Benuzzi and Claudio Corti and their adventures up mountains. Our class novel is When the Mountains Roared; since it is set in the Himalayas, it will provide useful inspiration for our topic work.
Alpha to Omega
Sharks started the Spring Term with a trip to Ancient Greece, training for the Olympics, cooking Greek salad and making pots and Greek theatre masks.
They have also learnt about the geography of Greece with its independent city states and coastline and of course, Mount Olympus. In History, Sharks have learnt about the Greek army and how the hoplites defeated their Persian enemies with a phalanx battle formation.
English
In English Sharks have been reading lots of Greek myths, especially the Labours of Heracles. After comparing different versions of some of the tasks, we thought about what makes for a really exciting adventure story and then wrote our own task for Heracles where he had to defeat a mythical creature we had invented.
Another myth we start reading was The Apple of Discord, where Zeus had to decide which goddess deserved a golden apple inscribed with 'to the fairest.' Sharks read more myths and used non-fiction texts to find out more about the three goddesses: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite.
Maths
This term, Sharks have been learning about fractions, decimals and percentages. Using their knowledge of how to find equivalent fractions, Sharks have learnt how to compare and order fractions and to add and subtract them by finding a common denominator; they've also learnt how to multiply and divide fractions by integers.
Understanding that the term 'percent' means 'out of 100' has helped Sharks convert percentages into fractions and then into decimals, using their knowledge of place value columns.
Forest School
One of the highlights of our term has been Forest School with Mr Pemble. Sharks love playing 'One, two, three, where are you?' and countdown hide and seek. They have also developed their ability to independently organise themselves into teams undertaking group tasks and creating natural artwork. Some of their best achievements are a whole class hammerhead shark, our house teams Griffin, Pegasus, Phoenix and Unicorn artwork, and Chinese New Year pictures, where they used this term's value of inspired minds to create 5d pieces including sound effects and interactive 'fireworks!'
PE and Science
Our inspired minds and wisdom value have also been evident in this terms Science where we have enjoyed lots of practical lessons experimenting with materials, including using kitchen ingredients to make solutions and suspensions representing different types of mud, and used a chemical reaction to re-create a volcano. In PE, we worked with partners and groups to create a range of interesting counter balances, on the floor and on the apparatus. Trusting our partners to support us in some of these counterbalances required a lot of respect and compassion as well as plenty of confidence, self-belief and endurance.
Big School Birdwatch
Sharks took part in the RSPB Big School's Birdwatch. We had lovely weather and saw a lot of birds, including a murmaration of sparrows and a pair of nesting robins.
Residential to Kilvrough
Year 5 and 6 had a great week on residential at Kilvrough! As well as trying great activities like rock climbing, bodyboarding and kayaking, we learnt independence, organisation and teamwork as we packed our own bags, served each other dinner and looked after our friends!
This summer, Sharks are celebrating DIVERSITY as our new topic. This means we can learn about lots of different people, places and things! Here, you can access our Summer Term Newsletter, our Class Timetable and our current Home Learning Projects.
Year 6 Leavers
Our lovely leavers have had a busy last couple of weeks full of fun events to help them celebrate their time at Fritwell and wish them well as they move on to new adventures!
Highlights have included the flour race on Sports Day, complete with aprons, chef's hats and mixing bowls full of flour (well, they were full of flour before the flour ended up all over Year 6!); the leavers trip to Hill End, where the children took part in lots of active team-building challenges; the Year 6 BBQ and the leavers service.
We have loved growing and learning together over the last few years and are so proud of our leavers, who we know are ready for all the opportunities and challenges ahead of them at secondary school and in the future. Good luck Year 6!
Forest School
Sharks enjoyed their Forest School sessions with Mr 'Pebble' in July. They used natural resources to create art work representing their ideal holiday, and in the second week to create a 'family' tree using leaf self-portraits. Mr Pemble introduced the concept of 'autonomy' so Sharks had to make their own decisions about groups and organise themselves for their learning.
The work they had done on natural art with Mr Pemble tied in brilliantly with our whole school art project, creating work in the style of artist Andy Goldsworthy.
Sports Day: Friday 2nd July 2021
We enjoyed a fantastic week of sports as we held heats to find out the winners of our field events and the egg and spoon race. Sports day itself was a fantastic day of races, including firm favourites the three-legged race, the Year 5 obstacle race and the Year 6 flour race, complete with aprons, chef's hats and mixing bowls.
The whole class showed many of our school values throughout the day: respect and compassion in their sporting attitudes, community, citizenship and service cheering each other on, and personal success with humility for our winners and those who achieved personal bests!
Thank you FoFS for your kind donation which we used to buy Gratitude Journals for every Shark. These lovely journals give us a place to enjoy some mindful colouring, giving us a brain break from our busy days of learning. They also help us to build the attitude of gratitude, so that we focus on the positive moments from our day: this was one of the strategies that the Activators recommended for building positive mental health and we enjoy our daily reflection.
Leavers 2021! The Summer Term is always an exciting time for our Year 6s as they start to think about the transition to secondary school, and ordering their leavers tops is a great way to celebrate this. Luckily, we still have a term of learning, fun and friendship together before our Year 6 Sharks migrate to waters new!
English
Sharks started reading the picture book Malala's Magic Pencil, which introduced us to Malala and the impact she has had on campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan and around the world. We wanted to find out more about Malala's life, so read extracts from her autobiography, I Am Malala, and we found out what it was like living under Taliban rule and how Malala had the strength to stand up to the men who were telling her she could not go to school. We learnt a lot about the lives of people living in Pakistan and it made us appreciate some of the rights we take for granted in our own lives.
We then read Blue is the Proudest Colour about a girl wearing hijab to school for the first time. We enjoyed a drama lesson which helped us to think about the possible motivation behind the way some of the characters acted; this helped us to appreciate the importance of our school value of Respect and Compassion.
We were visited by the Calipha Scheherezade who asked us for stories she could tell to her husband the Caliph. We gave her the Iraqui story, The Word of Power, which we had read in class and then wrote our own versions of another story, The Fisherman and the Genie, to send to her.
At the end of term, all of Sharks entered one of their pieces of writing from this year in the Fonetti Young Author's competition. We are super proud of Evie who received a Highly Commended mention for her short story, and Katie for winning the poetry competition! Well done for your great writing this year everyone in Sharks!