Chestnut Class

Welcome to Chestnut Class

Classteacher: Miss H. Barten

Week commencing 22nd April: I want to say a huge well done to the whole of Chestnut Class for their amazing hard work in our assessments this week. The children have been doing the SATs papers from 2019 and I have been so impressed by their incredible improvement and wonderful hard work. They should all be very proud of themselves! I hope that you all have lots of fun at the disco this evening and a brilliant weekend too!

Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 15th April: It has been lovely to welcome the children back to class for the first week of the Summer Term. Mrs Chenery and I have been very impressed this week with everyone’s grown up attitude to their learning. It has been wonderful to see them making sensible learning choices in the classroom. This week, we have been exploring coordinates in maths and using what we know already to find missing coordinates for vertices of shapes. We have been looking at setting the scene in our English lessons using lots of descriptive literary devices. We have started our new topic in science of looking at the solar system and I know we enjoyed researching and learning all about the different planets. We have also started our new class text of Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, which was incidentally my favourite book as a child! I know that the class are enthralled by the story already. I hope that you all have a fantastic weekend.

Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 25th March: What a brilliant final week of the Spring Term we have had. The children have finished their class text of ‘Cloud Busting’ and I could tell that they really loved the story. We have been writing a dialogue story in English and have been exploring angles in maths. I was very proud of how proficient we all were when working with a protractor to measure and draw angles accurately. We have been showcasing our knowledge in our P.O.P Tasks for science, history and geography too and I can tell that the children have remembered so much of the sticky knowledge from their learning. I hope that you all have a wonderful Easter break and I look forward to welcoming the children back in the Summer Term.

Week commencing 18th March: 

We have had a lovely week in Chestnut Class. The children have created beautiful portraits inspired by our class text of ‘Cloud Busting’ in the style of artist Chris Ofili. We have been looking at angles in maths and finding the missing angles of shapes and on straight lines. In English, we have started our new topic of dialogue and exploring the way that we can use dialogue to create different effects in a narrative. We have continued to look at classification in science and on Friday we had a super fun workshop with a K’Nex challenge, which I am sure the children will be very excited to tell you all about!

Have a wonderful weekend, Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 4th March: What a busy week in Chestnut class! We have been finding the area of parallelograms and triangles in maths and writing our recount texts in English. The children are loving ‘Cloud Busting’ by Malorie Blackman, we have had lots of interesting discussions about the characters and empathising with their actions and feelings. In art, we have planned our artwork based on Chris Ofili’s ‘No Woman, No Cry’ and we also drew some vector drawings in computing. We explored the characteristics of plants in science and learned all about Anglo-Saxon social hierarchy in history. I have been very impressed by their mature attitude towards their studies on their return from half term. Everyone has been working so hard.

I hope that you have a lovely weekend, Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 26th February: It has been a lovely first week back in Chestnut class. We have started our new class text of ‘Cloudbusting’ by Malorie Blackman, which is a thought-provoking collection of poems telling the story of two children at school and their developing friendship. I know the children are going to love the story as it progresses throughout the term. We have been looking at calculating perimeter in maths and the class have impressed me with their knowledge of this and with their abilities to calculate missing lengths too. In science, we were exploring the different groups of micro-organisms and classifying them into their groups according to their characteristics. In geography, we interpreted the results from the fieldwork surveys about the Northern Gateway that we created and delivered last term. Have a wonderful weekend, Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 12th February: It has been our assessment week this week and we have had lots of discussion surrounding the fact that these shouldn’t be scary – they are simply a chance for me to see any gaps in the children’s knowledge. The whole class should be very proud of themselves for the resilience that they have shown and how hard they have been working. They have been working through Year 6 SATs papers, which is amazing for Year 5 children in the Spring Term. I have also really enjoyed reading their persuasive pieces of writing this week, advertising spy gadgets that they have created! They are such a creative and imaginative bunch! I hope that you all have a wonderful half term full of fun, Miss B 😊

Week commencing 5th February: We’ve had a very busy week in Chestnut class doing lots of extra work for our Children’s Mental Health Week. The children created beautiful hands made out of clay and wrote some really inspiring quotes for the hands to hold. We also had our ‘Walk and Talk’ session on Friday where the children were encouraged to walk outside and talk together to share how they are feeling. Throughout the week, we have also been writing our ‘Letters of Gratitude’ to each other which has been a really sweet way of showing others that their kind actions have made us feel happy and cared for. I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend, Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 29th January: The class finished their quest stories this week and I have been so happy with the outcome! They have used so many elements of our quest story writing toolkit and I so enjoyed reading them all. We have started exploring algebra in maths and it has been great to see the children embracing the magic of solving mathematical mysteries, using what they know to find out what they do not know. We had a very interesting lesson on Tuesday, attempting to complete various circuit challenges to utilise our scientific learning about electricity. It was great to see the children working so well in their groups and trying their best to problem solve together. In history, we learned all about Sutton Hoo and what an important archaeological Anglo-Saxon discovery it was. The class created some beautiful and informative topic work surrounding their history learning which I know they were very proud of. I hope that you have a wonderful weekend, Miss B 😊

Week commencing 22nd January: We have been exploring fractions this week in our arithmetic and it has been wonderful to see the children’s confidence grow as the days have progressed. We have also been looking at percentages in maths and using our previous mathematical skills of making a number 10 and 100 times smaller to find 10% and 1% of a number. We have started to write our own quest story in English, following the structure of the model text and using our own imagination to come up with some brilliant characters and quests. The children had a very creative afternoon in art on Monday, where we made our own stick figures inspired by Alberto Giacometti. We did this using pipe cleaners and tin foil and they looked fantastic when placed in lots of different “spy” themed poses. I hope that you have a lovely weekend, Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 15th January - We had an exciting day on Thursday delivering our letters out into the local community as part of our geography fieldwork. I can already tell that we are going to collect some fantastic qualitative and quantitative data about people’s attitudes to the Northern Gateway. Thank you so much as well for filling out a form for our research. We have concluded our focus on decimals in maths this week, and the children have been utilising their place value grids to help them make decimal numbers 10, 100 and 1,000 times bigger. Things are getting extremely thrilling in our Stormbreaker book, as the main character is undercover working for MI6. It is so lovely to see the children on the edge of their seats as we read each chapter. In English we have been looking at using different literary techniques to write an engaging quest story. We also created some beautiful work for display which I will be very happy to have up on our walls. Have a wonderful weekend, Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 8th January: It has been a lovely second week of the Spring Term in Chestnut Class. The children have been working incredibly hard in maths on decimals and working with them to ensure that the decimal point is in the correct place when adding or subtracting. We have been continuing to focus on writing a quest story in our English lessons and on building action through dynamic vocabulary choices. On Thursday we designed our letter which we will be sending out into the local community on our exciting geography field trip next Thursday. We also started our new art topic and researched the work of artist Alberto Giacometti, discussing his interesting sculpture and the way he is influenced by shadows. I hope that you all have a fantastic weekend, Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 1st January: We have had a wonderful two days in Chestnut Class to mark the start of our Spring Term. Mrs Chenery and I were so happy to welcome everyone back to class after the festive break. We have started our new class text, which is the action-packed Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. The children also wrote me the beginning of a quest story in English and have been impressing me with their arithmetic skills in maths. We have got a very exciting few weeks of learning ahead of us for this term, with some interesting fieldwork in geography and exploring electricity in science.

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2024 and I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas.

Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 4th December: This week the children have taken part in their first lot of assessments. I am so proud of their maturity and resilience towards the tests that they took. These assessments are to help me identify any gaps to support further teaching in the Spring Term. As well as this, the children have also been working hard to rehearse their Christmas songs ready for their performance at St Michael’s Church on Tuesday 12^th December at 7pm. We can’t wait for you to see it! 😊

Week commencing 27th November: It has been a very busy week in class and I am so proud of every member of the class for how hard they have been working, and with their best effort too. We have started our new unit in English, looking at discussion texts and considering whether wolves should be kept in captivity. Our Wolf Wilder book in our reading lessons is getting extremely exciting as the main character Feo heads to St. Petersburg to rescue her mother. The children have given me some very empathic and perceptive responses as we explore how the different characters are feeling and their motivations too. I loved our PSHE lesson this week where we discussed our aspirations and goals for the future and it was great to find out that I have such an ambitious bunch of children of whom I am sure will achieve their dreams. Have a wonderful weekend and wrap up warm! 😊

Week commencing 20th November: We have been practising our Christmas songs this week, ahead of our exciting performance at the church in December. The children have also been writing their own tales of fear with a focus on character. I was so impressed with their creativity and their ability to use different literary techniques from our toolkit. We have ‘At Home’ evening every Monday until 4pm so please feel free to come and read the stories in your child’s English books. We have continued to look at fractions in maths, and converting mixed numbers and then subtracting and adding them together once their denominators have been made the same. We learned all about Viking longships in history and I loved seeing the children’s designs with their scary dragons at the prow. Mrs Chenery and I are so proud of the children this week for their hard work and increased focus. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, I cannot believe how fast November is going! 😊

Week commencing 13th November: We had an extremely eventful Tuesday this week – I am sure the class were so excited to inform you that we had a dinosaur visit us in the classroom! The children were so surprised and delighted – it was lovely to see. I have put some pictures on this page for you to have a look at. We also had a very interesting science lesson where we were dissecting parts of a flower and identifying the different elements, like the stamen and the carpel. I have also uploaded pictures of this for you to see. We have been focusing on fractions in maths and on simplifying and converting them from mixed numbers into improper fractions. We finished our wolf prints in art which look absolutely beautiful and I cannot wait to put them on display. In English, the children have been writing their own stories focusing on creating an engaging character. I hope that you all have a lovely weekend :)

Week commencing 6th November: What a busy week we have had! On Tuesday we were lucky enough to have an artist visit our school and we followed his careful advice to create some amazing self-portraits. I have put these onto our page on the website if you would like to have a look. I’d also like to say a big well done to those children who took part in our cross-country competition and also the Roman Cup for squash. We are very proud of your sporting skills and most of all, your kind and encouraging sportsmanship. We have been focusing on character in English and have planned and started to write our own pieces of work. Division has been the focus in maths and we have been looking at giving remainders as fractions as well as decimals. We also had an interesting science lesson where we looked at the life cycles of an insect and a bird. Have a fantastic weekend 😊

Week commencing 30th October: It has been a wonderful first week back in Chestnut class. We have started our new English focus on writing about character. The children all wrote a cold task focused on characters visiting a haunted Whitby Abbey. We have also started to look at division in maths and the different ways that we could approach dividing numbers, such as by changing the dividend and the divisor so that the quotient remains the same. We also explored partitioning the dividend into multiples of the divisor to make finding the quotient slightly easier. In science, we have started our new topic of classification of living things and our first lesson explored the life cycles of a mammal and an amphibian. The children also researched the physical and human geographical features of Norway in their geography lesson. I have been so impressed by the wonderful learning behaviour I have seen this week and I think that every member of Chestnut Class should be very proud of themselves for all of their hard work.

Week commencing 16th October: We finished Viking Boy this week and I know the children absolutely loved the gripping ending to the story. In art we were focusing on drawing different parts of our partner’s faces using shading in the style of Frank Auerbach. We had an interesting history lesson where we explored the concept of Danegeld and why it was introduced. Multiplication has continued to be the focus in maths, and this time multiplying four-digit numbers by two-digit numbers and we finished off writing our instructions in English, all about how to fight like a Viking. I hope you have a brilliant half term :)

Week commencing 9th October: We have started writing instructions in English this week, all about how to fight like a Viking. We have been using our adverbs of time and manner to make our instructions clear, and introducing our work with rhetorical questions. We have been looking at column multiplication in maths and partitioning a larger number to make multiplication easier. In geography we looked at compasses and even started to explore sixteen points! In art, we started to look at the work of artist Frank Auerbach and his technique of reductive drawing. We used rubbers to continually rub out elements of our art to create a spooky, haunting effect which looks smudged and blurred. I have been impressed with how hard the class have been working, especially when persevering with some tricky concepts in maths. I hope that you have a lovely weekend and I look forward to meeting you next week at parents’ evening. Miss Barten 😊

Week commencing 2nd October: I have loved reading the children’s suspense stories this week. They were so creative and full of so many elements of the toolkit from our English lessons. In maths, we have been exploring properties of number and learning the definitions of factor, multiple, square, prime and composite. We also had an interesting RE lesson discussing the words theist, agnostic and atheist. In history, we researched Anglo Saxon kings and explored the force of friction in science. The children sketched beautifully realistic depictions of plants and flowers in art and have given me some amazing explanations for their ideas in our reading lessons, remembering to give us evidence from the text.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend 😊

Week commencing 25th September: We have had a very busy week in Chestnut Class full of lots of learning and fun too. The children conducted their own science experiment in groups this week, investigating the impact of the force of water resistance on different sized shapes. In English we have planned and started writing our own suspense stories and I have enjoyed seeing how creative the children can be whilst still following the structure of our model text. In our reading lessons, our class book of Viking Boy is becoming more exciting every week with twists and turns that are keeping us on the edge of our seats! The children have been consolidating their use of the column method for addition and subtraction in maths and learning the importance of lining our numbers up so that they are in the correct place value column. We have also welcomed our new wonderful teaching assistant into our classroom over the last couple of weeks and the children have been working hard with Mrs Chenery.

I hope you all have a brilliant weekend :)

Week commencing 18th September: What a wonderful week it has been where I continue to be enthralled by the amazing behaviour of my new class! What an enthusiastic, engaged and polite bunch of children they are. We have had a fun project running throughout our week, where we have been compiling poetry anthologies and exploring many different types of poetry, as well as writing poems of our own. The class have written a haiku, a limerick, an acrostic and a shape poem all themed around our class text of Viking Boy. These are very impressive and I am sure that the children would like to show theirs off during our ‘At Home’ evening on Mondays. We also had a lesson where we practised performing our poems - focusing on tone, pitch and volume. I know the class have felt inspired by our daily focus on a different poet and watching a video of them performing their work. We have heard poetry from Grace Nichols, Benjamin Zephaniah, Michael Rosen and Joseph Coelho.

I hope you have a great weekend :)

Week commencing 11th September: We have had a very busy week in Chestnut Class and every single member of our classroom should be so proud of themselves for working so hard and adjusting to a new routine. We conducted an experiment in science where we investigated the impact of air resistance on different sized parachutes. In history, we discovered who the Vikings were and where they came from and in computing we explored the definition of a system and the importance of them having an input and an output. We have been writing some fantastic sentences all themed around suspense writing in English and have also been investigating rounding numbers in maths. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week commencing 4th September: What a lovely first three days back at school. I have loved getting to know the new Chestnut Class and every single member should feel so proud of themselves for their effort and positive approach to the new school year. I can already tell that we are going to have so much fun in Year 5 together. We have started reading our new class text of Viking Boy by Tony Bradman and we are all engrossed in the story already. Our English lessons have been focused on creating suspense in a story through personification and powerful verb choices and we have been exploring place value in maths. In science, we did an experiment investigating the gravitational pull on the Earth's surface and we learned some Ordnance Survey symbols in geography. We also created some absolutely stunning artwork that I cannot wait to put up on display.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend in the sunshine :)