Author: Mr Roundtree

Merry Christmas to all…

‘Twas the first term of Y5, and all has been well
Not a child has been slacking, not even Isabelle;
The maths has been mastered by Emre with care,
In PE, Malique has launched balls through the air;
Natalia tries hard to learn all words anew,
And Addam can also remember a few;
Keiron and Jorja and Luke filled their heads,
With knowledge of space that got them out of their beds;
Ava loved Malham, Ben and Dominic too,
Adwait loves puzzles, that much is true;
When out on the playground, Raj makes such a clatter,
Ebonnie, Indi and Grace love a natter;
Away with the knowledge of stories is  Mia,
And Kostas and Haider and Sarah and Riya;
When to our wondering eyes, great writing he shows us,
A fantastic report about Tim Peake from Moses,
With a little time telling from Talha and Frankie,
and Jack now writes sentences that are really quite swanky;
Owen and Zaiyad code and do shout,
“Now Word!  now, Scratch! now Raspberry Pi come on out!”
Aleena tackles numbers without any fear,
As do Manya, Naran and Subbi with cheer;
So off home you all go, get out of my sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

It’s Christmas…

There are no homework tasks or spellings during the holiday period.

Instead, support your child in other ways. Make sure they take part in family events, encourage them to relax and catch up on some reading at home, encourage them to send thank you notes (emails are fine, too!) – all these things will help their English skills of speaking and listening, reading and writing.

Plenty of maths skills can be practised, too – planning some top telly and considering times and durations of programmes, working out what half price is when the sales start… could your child even help with some cooking to use various measures?

Whatever they do, make sure your child, and you, have a happy and healthy Christmas break.

11 December 2015

For our Practice Makes Perfect homework, we’re remembering the work we’ve done on estimating and measuring angles.

To be able to estimate and measure angles.

In homework books there is a sheet showing some angles.

  • Name the angles
  • Estimate how many degrees they’ll  measure
  • Use a protractor to measure them
  • Compare this with your estimates

This homework is due on Wednesday 16 December. If pupils need to borrow a protractor, they need to pick on up before Wednesday.

11 December 2015

This week’s homework is Creative and is due on Wednesday 16 December.

To be able to show what an angle is.

For a change, we’re being creative with Maths, this week. Show what you know about angles: what are they; where do you see them; what are they called; how do we measure them; and anything else you can think of.

It’s up to you how you demonstrate your knowledge of angles. How creative can you be?

  • Take photos of angles around you.
  • Make an information leaflet.
  • Create a piece of art filled with angles and label them.
  • Present your information verbally.

Think you know…?

Make sure your child is safe online.

An updated version of Thinkuknow, the child internet safety website for parents and carers, is now live at www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents.

The new site is still in a trial period. It offers a completely refreshed suite of articles and guidance on all aspects of child internet safety. Please do have a look around the new site. You might also help by completing the user survey (this appears as a pop up when you visit) – your comments and ideas will help shape the final content and improve resources and support to families.

Families can visit www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents to access advice and support on how to keep children safe from sexual abuse, both online and off. Articles provide guidance on topics as diverse as:

  • challenging harmful sexual attitudes and promoting positive behaviours;
  • helping a child with autism negotiate life online;
  • supporting a child who has been sexually abused; and
  • dealing with a range of online issues such as sending nude selfies and viewing pornography.

Users will find films, downloadable guides and useful links to support organisations. Families can also use the website to access the CEOP Safety Centre where they can report abuse and exploitation direct to Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

Bedtime reading

We like these top tips to promote bedtime reading (and the advent calendar!).

We like these top tips to promote bedtime reading from Book Trust.

Although these are specifically for children who are starting to read by themselves, there are plenty of tips to support children of all ages.

(The Book Trust’s advent calendar is brilliant, too!)

Students become teachers

I was able to put my feet up earlier this week as the children became the experts. First, we recognised what aspects of our learning we were stronger and weaker at. We then practised how to teach somebody else something we were confident with. Finally, we paired up and had a go at teaching.

IMG_1782


 IMG_1785

Both student and teacher were positive about this approach and asked if we could do it more often.

The run up to Christmas

There are two weeks left before we all disappear for the festive season. It’ll be busy, as usual, in Y5. What will we be up to?

Topic – We’re starting to round off the learning we’ve enjoyed about space through Tim Peake’s mission to the ISS (International Space Station). To celebrate what a fantastic topic this has been, we’ll be collating all of our knowledge to take on a D&T/Science project to create our own rocket for launch. We’re still using Makewaves to showcase our learning.

English – Our noses are in newspapers at the moment. We’ve explored reports of the moon landings from 1969 and we’ll be coming back to the present next week to report on Tim’s upcoming mission. For the final week, we’ll get our creative juices flowing again and see if we can write for a given audience. The aim will be to create a Christmas story book to be read to the children in Reception and Year 1.

Maths – Dig out your protractors next week as we start learning how to measure angles. We’ll recap the names of different angles before learning how to measure them and then explore angles in shapes.

04 December 2015

For Practice Makes Perfect, we’re returning to Mathletics. All of the children have been assigned three tasks related to time.

  • What time will it be?
  • Elapsed time.
  • Using timetables.

This homework is due on Wednesday 09 December. If there is any reason that this homework cannot be completed at home, please let me know on Monday (before the homework is due).