Year 5 News 23.12.22
Term 1 is done and what a wonderful term it’s been! The children have enjoyed a fun week leading up to the winter break where they have sung their Christmas carols very impressively during two concerts and also had our upper key stage two Christmas party.
Have a brilliant Christmas everyone and a very Happy New Year to you all!
Mr Todd
Year 5 News 09.12.22
This week has been a very busy and productive week where the children have been completing their assessments for reading, writing and maths.
In English, we are near the end of our book (Journey to Jo’burg by Beverley Naidoo) and have made predictions about how we think the story might end. The children have learnt a lot about the apartheid system in South Africa and have impressed hugely through their writing tasks in English this term. We are now exploring two African weather poems; Rain and Rain, Rain, Rain and identifying various poetic features that we are familiar with. The children will then be planning and writing their own stanzas for the poem.
In maths, we are focusing on short multiplication and division. This week the children have been learning how to partition numbers in order to make our multiplications much easier. We then progressed to column method multiplication where all the children demonstrated their knowledge really well and applied their learning of the times tables in order to correctly answer questions.
In history, we have continued to explore the Early Islamic Civilisation and we know are all familiar with what a caliph is, the characteristics of a caliph, the important roles of a caliph and we have also learnt about the first four caliphs after the death of the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh).
In science this week we have been comparing life cycles of plants and animals. The children had the task of being a narrator for a new wildlife program called, “Life” and their job was to compare the life cycles of plants, mammals, amphibians, insects and birds by discussing the similarities and differences.
With assessment week finished, we will work together as a class to address common misconceptions in our tests so that we improve our scores for the Spring assessments! Year 5 have worked extremely hard this week and should be very proud of themselves.
Mr Todd
Year 5 News 25.11.22
The children have produced fantastic non-chronological reports about the fight against apartheid. We have built up an impressive bank of vocabulary to help embed our understanding of this period in South African history. We have moved on to focus on the speech made by Nelson Mandela, 27 years after he was released from prison. The children will pretend to step into the shoes of Nelson Mandela to write a speech to the black community of South Africa and convince them to join in with the fight against the government. All the children have made fantastic progress throughout this unit of work and should be very proud of the work they have produced.
In maths we have been learning about negative numbers. The children have used their knowledge really well in order to explore real life situations involving negative numbers. We have combined our understanding of money and negative numbers and successfully calculated bank balance problems. This week we have been practising out times tables as its vitally important that children know all their tables from their 2’s all the way through to 12’s. All children are encouraged to use TT Rockstars at home as much as they can!
In history, we have continued to explore the Early Islamic Civilisation and how inventions from the 9th century have impacted on our lives today. Did you know that some of the significant discoveries from the Islamic period include: coffee, cameras and algebra?
In science we used the stems of a geranium plant in order to attempt use asexual reproduction to clone an offspring. The children been intrigued to how this process works and have contributed excellently when applying their scientific knowledge and vocabulary to discuss our objectives.
Our recognition board has focused on ‘respect’ and the children demonstrate their ability to be respectful every day in a variety of ways. As a cohort, our target for the rest of the year is to improve our class attendance. As our expectations are high, we are aiming for one month of 100% attendance in order to win a treat! We can do this! Keep up the great work year 5!
Year 5 News 11.11.22
The children have made a great start to autumn 2 term. In English we have been reading Journey to Johannesburg by Beverley Naidoo which follows the life of a young girl during South Africa’s apartheid. The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about apartheid where we have explored the meaning of apartheid, propaganda, the African National Congress Party, Nelson Mandela and the Soweto Uprising. The children are creating a non-chronological report all about the fight against apartheid!
In maths we have spent two weeks learning all about money. We have been exploring quantities of money as pounds and pence, comparing money, ordering money and also calculating change that from various amounts. Having a good understanding of addition and subtraction has helped the children progress through this unit of work.
In history, our new topic is Early Islamic Civilisation. Alongside this, we have been focusing on the religion of Islam in our Religious Studies lessons. The children have learnt where Islam was first started and who was the founder. We have been learning about the importance of Baghdad and the role of mosques for Muslims. We then explored the life of The Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) and identified the main reasons why the Islamic empire spread.
We have started our science topic; living things and their habitats and we have started by exploring how different plants reproduce. Hopefully, we will be able to grow our own plants using the stems of a geranium plant!
With a very busy half term ahead of us, the children have continued their excellent attitude towards their learning. We have been focusing on our school values of resilience and respect recently and I have been impressed with the children’s behaviour and effort to show these values each day.
Another great week in year 5.
Mr Todd
Year 5 News 21.10.22
After 6 weeks, the children have completed their myth and legend stories! They have worked tremendously hard on this piece of writing and should be very proud of themselves. Throughout each published writing piece, the children have included setting descriptions, character descriptions, fight scenes and speech between characters.
Our 5-week maths topic of decimal fractions tenths and hundredth is now complete and the children have progressed really well from where they started in September to now having a secure understanding of tenths and hundredths.
In geography, we have been learning all about how tourism can have positive and negative effects on specific mountain regions around the world. We then explored how these effects can be categorised into social, economic and environmental impacts.
In RE the children have been learning about special places around the world that are very important to Christians. We have been learning how to say the days of the week and months of the year in French. In art, the children practised their sketching skills in the form of a house before learning how to ‘mono-print’ a piece of work.
I have been super impressed with all the children this half term; their attitude to their learning, their behaviour and their willingness to try their best has collectively made this half term very enjoyable for everyone.
Have a great half term!
Mr ToddYear 5 News 07.10.22
This week we have made tremendous progress with our own myth and legend story. The children only have one more paragraph to create – the battle between hero and monster – before we edit all of our work from the past 4 weeks and publish our piece of writing.
In maths we have still be focusing on fractions and decimals, however we have progressed from tenths to now exploring hundredths. We have represented hundredths is various ways and even learned how to order and compare numbers with two decimal places.
For our Magnificent Mountains geography topic, we have been learning how various types of mountains are created and also exploring the main features of these mountains. The children have researched to find examples of the following: fold mountains, volcanic mountains, fault-block mountains, dome mountains and plateau mountains.
Our Religious Education (RE) topic is ‘Christianity’ and so far, we have learned all about who started Christianity, where it began, how it became so famous and also the main beliefs of the Christians.
The children have been learning to say, “my favourite colour is…” is in French and have explored how to maintain good friendships in PSHE.
Another very enjoyable and hard-working week in year 5.
Mr ToddYear 5 News 23.09.22
What a fantastic start to the academic year we have had in our new class. We recently started our class text, Beowulf where we are eventually going to write our own Legend & Myth story. We have started off by exploring the front cover and the blurb before making our own predictions. Through other myth and legend introductions, we highlighted the key features we need in our writing which has enabled us to write our very own introduction.
In maths we have been focusing on tenths and fractions and decimals and how they can be composed additively and multiplicatively. The children have adapted very well to the high expectations of independent work in year 5. We aim to show resilience in order to complete problem solving tasks.
Our topic for this half term is Magnificent Mountains so we have recapped on earthquakes and volcanoes from what we were taught in lower key stage 2. The children have been identifying key mountain ranges on a map of Europe which has involved them developing their map and atlas skills.
The children thoroughly enjoy attending Ashington Leisure Centre on a Wednesday for their weekly swimming lessons and also doing PE on Thursdays with Mr Robertson.
Year 5 have been focusing on ‘respect’ - one of the school’s 7 values – where we have designed our own posters, created plays and all signed our year 5 rules and expectations document.
I have been so impressed with the children, their start to year 5 has set the standards very high so long may this continue.
Mr Todd