Welcome to Chestnut Class
We are really looking forward to an exciting year of learning. Please keep checking our class page for more information.
Spring 2 - Frozen Kingdom
Our topic this half term is 'Frozen Kingdom'. Our main text focus in English is the book 'Solo'. It is about a penguin lost in the Antarctica. We will also be learning about the famous explorer Ernest Shackleton.
Book Week
This year our focus for Book Week was Comic and Graphic Novels. We started the week with a visit from Steve Webb, who shared with us his stories. We then took part in a workshop with him where we explored syllables within words to create a rhyming paragraph.
We also created our own comic strips and began to create our own graphic novel. We had lots of fun learning the skills of how to be an exciting author.
Creative Arts Week
During Creative Arts Week, we learnt different skills from the artist Darrell Wakelam. We began by having one sheet of cardboard to create a mask and anything we cut off we had to stick back onto the mask in a different way.
We also used his techniques of slits to create some 3D turtles.
In the afternoons, we worked in small groups to bring together all the skills we had learnt during the week to create a penguin.
Spring 1 - Unsinkable
Our topic this half term is 'Unsinkable' where we will learn about the history of the Titanic and its tragic journey. We will be reading 'Samson's Titanic Journey' in English to fully immersive ourselves into our topic. During the half term we will also visit the SeaCity Museum where we will take part in workshops linked to the Titanic.
Titanic Trip
We had lots of fun visiting the SeaCity Museum. We learnt about the Titanic and got to see some different artefacts. Some of us got to dress up as different passengers and crew members who were on the Titanic.
We were very lucky to have a visit from an author, Ali Sparkes. She helped us to develop our creative and imaginative story writing techniques. We had lots of fun creating an adventure story.
Science Week 2025
We launched into the half term with Science Week where our focus was 'Everyday Materials'. We learnt about different materials and their properties. We sorted classroom objects and explored whether they were manmade or naturally made.
We thought about which material would be the best insulator through an ice cube experiment. We predicted which material would be best and throughout the day we observed the ice cubes.
Towards the end of the week, we drew on all of our knowledge from the week to create a lifejacket that would provide a buoyancy aid and keep the barbie doll warm. We had lots of fun during the week and loved sharing our knowledge at the Science Fair.
Autumn 2 - Up in Smoke
This half-term our topic is 'Up in Smoke'. In History, we will be learning about the Great Fire of London and the impact it had on the city. In Art, we will be looking at Pointillism to create some inspired fire art.
Paul Sturgess Visit
We were very lucky to meet Paul Sturgess this term, he is the tallest basketball player in the world. He showed us all of his achievements playing basketball. We also got to participate in basketball workshop with him which was very exciting!
We started this half-term with Maths Week. Our learning was based on the Crystal Maze. We completed three different challenges linked to mathematicians from different countries to earn crystals.
This half term we have had a visit from West Sussex Fire Service and 'MyDentist'.
The Fire Service taught us how to be safe during a fire and who we need to contact to keep us safe. We also got to explore the fire engine and learn about all the different tools they have.
Our visit from the dentist discussed with us the importance of dental hygiene and how we should we looking after our teeth.
Autumn 1
Our topic this half-term is 'Field to Fork'. In Geography, we will be focusing on food and where it comes from and in Science we will be thinking about what plants need to survive. Our main text in English is 'Avocado Asks' by Momoko Abe.
Goodwood Farm Trip
We had a great visit to Goodwood Farm. We learnt about the different crops that grow on the farm. We explored the diary farm, looking at how cows are milked and the variety of diary products that are made.
After lunch, we went on a very very wet forestry walk to learn about different trees and wildlife in the woods.
Olympic Maths Investigation Day
We took part in different activities to collect data. We did 'Cotton Bud Archery', 'Pom Pom Shot Put' and timed ourselves in some sprint races. We had to record our scores for each event. Then we used the data to record a bar chart.
We loved our Maths parade and enjoyed seeing everyone's outfits.