Well done Year 5 for all of your hard work last week. I saw some really work on Google Classroom! 

This week we are sentence stacking Shackleton's motivational speech in English, and we are continuing with are and perimeter in maths. Have a look at the file above for more information, and keep an eye on Google Classroom for your assignments. 
​Mrs B

Dear parents and carers,

We really enjoyed watching the "Cinderella" pantomime today. Thank you to the Friends for buying us some popcorn!

In English this week we have planned our stories based on "Cosmic". Next week we'll be writing them! The children have worked really hard on their planning and I'm really looking forward to reading their stories.

In maths this week we have worked hard on factors, prime numbers and square numbers. Next week we'll be continuing with this by looking at cube numbers before moving on to multiplying and dividing by 10, 100, 1000. 

In our science lesson this week we learned about levers and pulleys. We watched a fantastic video about pulleys by Destin of Smarter Everyday. You can watch his YouTube channel by clicking the button below:

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. Why does a pulley (or snatchblock) make lifting things easier?
2. What did you enjoy about the pantomime?
3. What's special about prime numbers?

Dear parents and carers,

Well, that was a busy week! This week the children have been doing some assessments for me, including arithmetic, problem solving/reasoning, times tables, spelling, reading and punctuation/grammar. They've worked really hard and what I've marked so far has been really positive. I was particularly pleased to see that every child's times table knowledge has increased since September. Well done, Ock Class!

Next week we're back into more usual routine. In English we'll be starting to plan some independent writing based around Cosmic, and in maths we'll be continuing with our work on factors and multiples. 

Our KS2 carol service is coming on well. This week we have recorded all of our parts, and also created some lovely artwork to go along with it. I'll be starting to put this together with parts from the other KS2 classes next week. Watch this space for details on this before the end of term!

There is a really exciting event at the Museum of Natural History tonight, that you can watch and take part in via Youtube. Have a look at Steve Backshall's Youtube page for more details.

We also did one of Rob Biddulph's drawing lessons today after we'd finished our assessments- you can check those out here.

Don't forget to keep learning those spellings and practising your times tables!

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. How do you draw an octopus?
2. What did you put onto the snakes and ladders board in Jigsaw PSHCE?
3. What did you find out about friction in science?

Dear parents and carers,

In English this week we have worked hard on putting together our "Cosmic" stacked sentences. The children are also really enjoying listening to the story- the dads have just started competing for votes in order to go to space. As expected, Liam is not doing well at this!

In maths we have finished off our statistics work on graphs and tables. We did some work on timetables, which was pretty tricky, but the children were real steadfast squirrels, and persevered well. We also had our first lesson of our new unit on multiplying and division, where we learned about multiples.

In science this week the children really enjoyed being Q again, and investigating how to make a submarine that uses water resistance in order to fall slowly. We only had one major water incident (the wet play games cupboard certainly lived up to its name!) and the children were fantastic scientists. Here are some photos of their experiments:

Next week we'll be continuing with some of this work, but it's also our autumn assessment week, so we'll be doing some assessment papers in English and maths. It's nothing to worry about- I make it as low stress as possible and we all just try our best.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. Have you done your Spelling Shed and TTRS homework?
2. What did you find out about the submarine designs in science?
3. What does multiples mean?

Dear parents and carers,

Gosh, that week went fast! There was lots of hard work in year 5, and some really fantastic work.

In our English lessons we have continued to sentence stack, based around the brilliant book "Cosmic". I've been reading nice big chunks of the book to the class every day, and they are really enjoying it. It's a very funny book, but it also deals with ideas around family, friendship, risk and adventure. Next week we'll be continuing with this work.

In maths this week we've focused on line graphs and tables. We've been reading and drawing line graphs, and gathering information from them to answer problems. It's been a while since most of the children came across a line graph, so there was lots of consolidation and practise at first, but now we're really flying :) Next week we'll be rounding this off by looking at two way tables and timetables, before doing an end of block assessment.

In our science lesson this week the children really enjoyed investigating the effects of air resistance by trying to find a parachute design that would slow down our spy friend, Jamie Bond, the most. There was lots of string and sellotape used, but we managed to find that the larger the area of the parachute, the slower it fell. It was tricky to work this out without accurate measurements, so it was great to see the class learning to use the stopwatches properly. Next week we'll be continuing in our job as Q by investigating water resistance.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. Why do larger parachutes fall more slowly?
2. How does Liam convince the grown ups that he's a dad?
3. How do you read a line graph?

Dear parents and carers,

In our English lessons this week, the children have enjoyed starting to explore "Cosmic". In our writing, we've been particularly concentrating on writing complex sentences. We'll be continuing with this next week.

In maths we've started looking at some statistics work, concentrating on line graphs. This has been going quite well so far, with lots of good work on recapping some elements from year 4. Next week we'll be moving this on to cover some new ground, including drawing line graphs accurately.

In Science this week we started a new topic on forces. This week we concentrated on gravity, thinking about what gravity is and how it works, and we measured the mass and weight of different objects. This unit is really practical and hands on, so I'm really looking forward to the experiments that we'll be doing over the next few weeks.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. What's the difference between weight and mass?
2. How does Liam feel when he does something risky?
3. Why are line graphs useful?

Dear parents and carers,

It has been a lovely first week back of the autumn 2 term! On Monday we enjoyed the challenge of weaving with yarn and paper plates, in order to make some poppy decorations for the installation outside the church. I've been down to see it this afternoon and it looks really lovely, so I hope that you'll be able to see it yourselves over the next couple of days. We've spent some time talking about Remembrance Day and have looked at the beautiful book "Memorial" by Gary Crew and Shaun Tan. We've discussed why Remembrance Day is important and how learning about the past helps us to see how we want our lives to be shaped. 

In our English lessons this week the children have finished off the second draft of their stories, having revised and edited their first drafts. Some children have also had time to present their stories in "best" for display. I am really impressed with the quality of the children's writing, and I am looking forward to talking with them all about their writing next week. On Monday we start our new unit of work in English, based on the hilarious "Cosmic" by Frank Cotrell-Boyce.

In maths this week we've spent lots of time looking at using the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction, as well as rounding and estimating answers and solving multi-step problems. The children have really been Steadfast Squirrels and Bounce Back Bunnies in their maths this week. Next week we'll be rounding this off with and end of block mini- assessment, before moving on to some work on charts and graphs.

​I'll leave you with this amazing double rainbow that we spotted from our classroom door this week :)

Mrs B
Three things to ask your child this week:

1. Have you done your TTRS and spelling homework?
2. What days are PE, and are you wearing your PE kit?
3. Why are memorials and Remembrance Day important?

Dear parents and carers,

We made it to half term- yay! It has been a very long and tiring half term, and your children have worked exceptionally hard. They have coped so well returning to school and with the changes that making us more covid-secure have brought. I was lovely to talk to most of you over the past couple of weeks about your wonderful children and how much progress they are making. If you didn't make an appointment to talk to me, please contact the office and I'll do my best to squeeze you in next half term :)

In English this week we have continued with our independent writing, this time learning how to edit and revise the first draft. We'll continue with this for the first week back after half term, as it's not quite finished yet. We'll do our final redraft and share our finished stories then.

In maths this week we have mainly focused on subtraction, including looking at the column method for subtraction when you need to exchange (or as we called it when I was at school- "borrowing"). Some children were shaky at first but have really been Steadfast Squirrels and Must Do Moles, and I am really pleased to see how much improvement they've made in it over the week. After half term we'll be finishing off our work on addition and subtraction, including looking at estimating answers and using the inverse relationship.

We really enjoyed our interhouse football skills competition this week. Watch this space for the results early next half term!

When we return to school we will be creating some artwork for our Remembrance Day installation, and also carrying out some work based around Children in Need.

I hope that you and your children all get some time to rest and recuperate over this half term break, and I'm looking forward to seeing your children when we return to school for the autumn 2 term.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. How do you do column subtraction?
2. How do you play a ukulele? (HINT- the answer isn't "badly"!)
3. What's been the best thing about this half term at school for you?

Dear parents and carers,

This week in our English lessons we have finished planning our stories and have now started to write them! This is very exciting :) I'm really looking forward to reading the completed pieces. We're taking it very slowly and gently as it's been a whole since the children have done a long piece of writing, but they've made a really good start. Next week we'll be continuing with this, and will hopefully have finished our first drafts, and maybe started to edit and revise them. On Wednesday we did some work on inference, by being a detective and using clues in a picture to figure things out. Next week we'll be trying this with text, rather than pictures.

In maths this week we have been recapping addition and subtraction involving exchanging. We've used drawn place value counters and also the column method. Next week we'll be continuing with this.

In science we really enjoyed learning about the Moon today. The children have made little models that show how the Earth and Moon rotate, and how the Moon orbits the Earth. After half term we'll be rounding off this unit of work with a recap and some assessment, before moving on to our next topic.

In our PE this week we've been practising our football skills, ready for our interhouse PE football skills competition next Monday afternoon. The competition should be fierce!

Please note that the spelling test will be on THURSDAY next week, as it's an INSET day on Friday :)

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. What other words are there for adding and subtracting?
2. What does inference mean?
3. What do you know about the Moon?

Dear parents and carers,

It has been lovely to welcome some new children into our class this week, and I'm looking forward to welcoming a familiar face back next week, too. It's also been lovely to have our parent/teacher meetings, as I always have lots of lovely things to say about your children. I'm looking forward to catching up with the rest of you for parent/teacher meetings next week.

In English this week we've finished our sentence stacking based on Float, and are now moving on to planning our version of this story. We're flipping it on its head and calling it "Glide", and this time, a child will be making a paper plane instead. Next week will involve planning this version of the story, and also hopefully writing the first few paragraphs. We'll also be looking at inference in our whole class reading session.

In maths we've rounded off our work on place value, and next week we'll be moving on to look at addition and subtraction. We'll be recapping some work from previous years to make sure that these areas are secure before covering the year 5 curriculum in this area.

I've really been enjoying our PE lessons this half term. We've learned about different types of exercise, and tried out lots of different body-weight and cardio exercises in the form of circuits. The children have also come up with their own circuits and taught them to the class. There are some photos of their great work below:

The spellings for this week are:
financial commercial provincial initial spatial palatial controversial initially controversially financially

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. How do we get night and day on Earth?
2. Which was the happiest and saddest story step in "Float"?
3. ​What was your environmental promise, based on "Clean Up"?