Dear parents and carers,

In our English lesson this week the children have started exploring "The Lost Words" by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. So far they've thought about the cover and scale of the book, explored collective nouns, made blackout poetry from the introduction and also experienced some of the poems. Today we looked in more detail at the Bluebell poem and the techniques that were used. We also talked about the different animals and plants in the illustrations, and how Jackie has used watercolour and gold leaf in the illustrations. Next week we'll be continuing with this, and looking in more detail at the poems and how they use different poetic techniques effectively, as well as learning more about our local flora and fauna.

In maths this week we have continued the work on fractions. We've moved on slightly to adding and subtracting fractions, including using knowledge of common denominators to find equivalent fractions. The children have been working hard on it and progressing well through the lessons. We'll be continuing with this next week, and moving on the subtracting fractions too.

We really enjoyed sharing some ancient Greek myths and legends today. Most of the children know some stories and some are very knowledgeable indeed! They kept me on my toes with some of the spellings- I did manage Hephaestus right the first time though (although there are variant spellings of lots of the names). We then used our knowledge of these stories to put together a pack of "Top Trumps" style cards. These need a little finishing off next week, but were very funny and also showed the children's knowledge off well. Next week we'll be taking what we've learned into some larger scale artwork based around these stories.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. Have you done your spelling shed homework?
2. Which is your favourite ancient Greek god, and why?
3. What's Mrs Barker's third law of fractions?

Dear parents and carers,

What an brilliant week we've had in year 5! I have been so impressed with the children this week. they've all worked really hard and the standard of their work is improving really quickly.

In English the children have spent this week writing, editing and revising their short nature narratives. I've read them all today and they're super- they all have lovely details in about their settings as well as their character's senses. It was quite a short and simple piece in some ways, so this gave them room to work on their vocabulary choices. We also worked hard on avoiding the trap of starting lots of sentences with "I" when using the 1st person by using different fronted adverbials as sentence openers. The stories work really well so I'm really pleased with the outcome. Next week we're moving on a bit to delve in "The Lost Words" and to start exploring some poetry.

In maths this week we've continued to focus on fractions, and we've been working hard on finding equivalent fractions, changing improper fractions into mixed numbers (and vice versa) as well as comparing and ordering them. The children found this a bit tricky at first, but they were all real steadfast squirrels and they completed nailed it in today's lesson! Their confidence is continuing to build, so I'm really pleased to be able to continue with fractions next week. We'll mainly be looking at adding fractions next week, including within 1 and adding 3 or more fractions.

In our history lesson today we used a special educational version of a video game set in ancient Athens to explore the buildings and temples on the Acropolis. It worked brilliantly on the HUGE touchscreen that we are currently testing in the classroom (although my steering of the character was a bit wobbly!).  Some of the children were interested in downloading it themselves at home (it will work much better on a gaming PC than my old laptop!). You can find out more information about the game here: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/game/assassins-creed/discovery-tour
IMPORTANT: you need the Discovery Tour NOT the main game (which is PEGI 18 so not suitable for children!). The Discovery Tour is PEGI 7+ so suitable for KS2.  It's currently £17 but I got it on sale for £7, so it's worth keeping an eye on the website to see if another sale arises.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. What was the best thing about the huge touchscreen that we had in the classroom this week?
2. What did you learn about ancient Athens in your history lesson?
3. What different clubs did you use in your tri-golf lesson?

Dear parents and carers,

It has been fantastic to be back in school after the Easter break, and we have all had a brilliant week. The children have worked really hard and have produced some great work.

In English we've been working on some sentence stacking, based around a simple narrative about an encounter with a wild animal. Next week we'll be using this to help structure and inspire a piece of independent writing.

In maths we've worked on fractions, starting by recapping some fraction work from year 4 and also building on that with further developing the children's understanding of equivalent fractions. We'll be continuing with this fraction work next week.

I had a great time in the Easter holidays marking the children's science writing about their experiments. Below is a slideshow with a selection of some of their work.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. What are your goals for the summer term?
2. When are where was ancient Greece?
3. 3: What is a fraction?

Dear parents and carers,

Year 5 have had a very busy week! They've worked really hard in our English/Science lessons on carrying out an exciting science investigation and then planning and editing their writing about it. Next week we'll be presenting our writing as a double page spread.

In maths we've continued working on multiplication and division. The class need to continue working on their times tables- currently only around 60% of the class are accessing TTRS. We need this to be 100%! Please support your child in accessing TTRS to complete their homework. Your child needs to let me know if they can't manage the task at home, and I can help in school.

We've enjoyed sharing our finished work based on "What We'll Build" by Oliver Jeffers, and I'm currently in the process of getting the work onto a display. I'll upload photos once it's done, as their work is wonderful!

In PE this week the children started our interhouse competition. We all voted and chose to play a "capture the flag" style game. We've adapted the rules to make the game work better for us, and I'm really proud of how well the class played together in their house teams. Well done year 5!

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. Have you done your TTRS maths homework yet?
2. What did you find out about making the chemical reaction faster in your experiment?
3. What do you know about division?

Dear parents and carers,

We've had a smashing week in year 5! In English, we've continued with our work based on "What We'll Build" by Oliver Jeffers and have been researching and writing about different inventions and developments. We learned to organise our texts using headings and subheadings. Next week we'll be using this in some writing about an exciting science experiment.

In maths we have continued with our work on multiplication. This is improving but does need some more time next week, before we move on to division. Please keep practising those times tables at home- more children used TTRS this week but it's still not all of them yet.

The children have really enjoyed our building projects and most are now finished. After our whole school celebration assembly on Monday to see what we've all been doing, I'll be sending the models home. Most are done but some of the more expansive ideas still need some finishing off!

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. ​What methods can you use for multiplication?
2. What did you build?
3. Have you done your TTRS yet?

Dear parents and carers,

I am really looking forward to welcoming my superstars back into the classroom on Monday. They've worked hard with their remote learning and I am really proud of them. Thank you for all of the help and support you have been giving them.

It was lovely to speak to you all about your children this week in our parent/teacher meetings. Please don't hesitate to contact me (via the office) if you need me at any point or have any questions. 

Next week we will be starting our whole school project, and I am really looking forward to seeing where the children want to go with it. 

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child:

1. What are you looking forward to doing at school next week?
2. What positive things have come out of lockdown for you?
3. Do you know where your bag, PE kit and water bottle are? (Or that might just be in my house where we've lost everything!)

Here's what we have in store for you this week! All of the details are on Google Classroom :)
​Mrs B

Well done year 5! We made it to the half term break. I am so proud of you for all of your hard work this half term and how well you have done with your learning from home. Have a great rest!
​Mrs B

Dear parents and carers,

It has been another busy week for you all- but I am incredibly impressed with the high standard of work produced by the children this week. Their work on area and perimeter in maths was great, especially with those tricky compound shapes. And I was particularly impressed with the amazing writing that they produced for our work on Shackleton's Journey. The children wrote in role as Shackleton, giving a rousing motivational speech. They used techniques such as repetition for effect and similes to make their speech writing really bold and persuasive. Well done everyone!

Next week we'll be continuing with our work on Shackleton's Journey, looking at what happened *after* the Endurance became stuck in the ice. We're also going to look at the features of newspapers, so that we can write a newspaper report about what happened.

Thank you to all of you for the support that you are giving your children at home. Please remember that I am available for help on Hangouts at any time. I might not get back to you immediately, but I will get back to you!

​Mrs B