Author: Miss Goswami

History: We are Historians!

This half term, our topic is History! We will be learning about both British and world history. We have started to learn about the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age and we will be shortly moving on to Ancient Egypt.

In our lessons this week, the children had to recap and revisit their knowledge from the unit so far to sort a range of statements into the correct time periods.

They then went on to learn about different ancient civilisations across the world around 3000 years ago. We used the iPads to look at secondary research.

Help at home: Take a look at our key vocabulary for this unit. Can you use these words in sentences?

Living & Learning: Eight Rs for Learning

This week our L&L statement was ‘I use the eight Rs to help me learn.’ We started off by recapping the 8Rs and then looked at each one in detail and discussed different statements that match the 8Rs.

  • reflecting – I look for feedback from my teachers and peers and think about how I can use this to improve.
  • remembering – I find links between what I am learning and what I already know.
  • resilient – I stick at things even when they are difficult and do not give up; I stay positive.
  • resourceful – I know where to find information and use it in my work (word walls, support sheet etc.).
  • responsible – I am respectful with everything (presentation, resources etc.).
  • risk-taking – I can ask questions and give my opinion in a group/class situation.
  • responsive – I can respond appropriately to peers and adults.
  • ready – I always want to learn new things.

Help at Home: Discuss with your child which 8R for learning they feel confident in and which they feel like they need to improve.

Science: We are Physicists!

In Science, we have been exploring the impacts of friction and air resistance.

Here are the definitions:

We first tested which object would have the least amount of friction on a surface: an ice cube or wooden cube? Our prediction was that the ice would be the quickest therefore it has the least amount of friction. Our scientific enquiry type was ‘fair and comparative’ tests.

The children then went on to test air resistance (or drag). We tested that if our surface area increased would it slow us down or speed us up? Bin bags were our equipment of choice, have a look at our experiment:

Not only did we found out that an increased surface area means more air resistance therefore, we ran slower with the bin bag than without, but we also had a lot of fun doing it!

Help at home: Discuss different scenarios that are impacted by friction and air resistance.

Half Term 1

In Key Stage 2, instead of asking you to learn a short list of spellings each week, you will be given a longer list (roughly 40 words) that we will focus on in that half-term. Don’t worry, we’re not asking you to learn them all in one week. Instead, we’ll ask you to focus on learning these words over the course of the entire half-term. There’s a few reasons for this:

1.     We want you take responsibility for your own learning and start to figure out how you learn best (there’s some ideas below). Even if that means making some mistakes along the way.

2.      Lots of research suggests that learning more spellings over a longer time leads to better remembering how to spell them in the long-term.

3.     Similarly, lots of research suggests that if you learn something for a week and don’t come back to it you’ll likely forget it anyway

4.     We won’t have a ‘formal’ test each week. Instead, we’ll mix it up. We might ask you to test each other on the words you’ve been learning. We might test the words at random and then you’ll know which words you need to practise more and which words you’re confident with. We might just think about some of the words and share ideas for how we’re going about learning them.

5.     Ultimately, we want this to be about learning – and not just getting them right in a test.

How you decide to do this is up to you. You might decide to focus on the trickiest words first. Or, you might decide to learn 8 words a week and really focus on these whilst still practising the others, too. For some of you, you might already feel confident with some of the words so might choose to not practise these at all. However you decide to do it is up to you. The important thing is that you’re learning them and learning how you like to learn them best.

Every Friday, we’ll spend time practising or testing (informally) or discussing all things spelling so be ready (one of our 8 Rs for learning) to join in!

If you need some ideas for practical things to do, check out the Super Spelling Strategies Guide on the school website.

This half-term, our spellings are linked to the rules and strategies we’ll be learning in class:

  • homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently)
  •  ‘double up for a short vowel sound’
  •  ‘drop the y for an i’
  • using apostrophes for contraction (eg can’t, won’t)
  • adding the suffixes ed, ing, er, est
  • adding the prefixes un, dis, im, in, ir, il

Each Friday, you’ll be tested on 8 of the words from the list below.

Living and Learning: Rules

In Living and Learning this week, we looked at the school rules and why they are important. We then discussed how we can show the rules are being followed in school. For example, we can show we are respectful by using our manners or we can show we are ready by having eyes on the speaker.

We also discussed our school’s Acceptable Use Agreement for their use of the internet in school. This document has been sent home with your child today; please sign and return them ASAP.

Help at home: Discuss what rules you have at home and compare them with the school’s rules. Are they similar? Are they different?

Welcome to Year 5!

Welcome back after the summer holiday. We hope you had a happy and healthy summer. It  has been great to see so many happy faces back in school.  The children have settled really well in their first week and are adapting to new routines, classrooms and teachers.

This week, we will send the children home with a reading book and a new reading record book. It is really beneficial that your child reads at home daily – it improves fluency and increases the enjoyment of reading. The children can record what they’ve read at home in the reading records. We will also set a task for them to complete at home. Please ask your child what their task is for their homework and actively encourage them to think about the presentation of their work in the journals and the importance of neat handwriting and accurate use of punctuation.

Thank you to all the children who have come to school in the correct uniform and PE kits this week. If you are unsure of the uniform, please click the link to see what is required.

Important Dates

PE – Tuesday and Wednesday

Spelling test – Friday

Library – Wednesday

Class assembly – Wednesday 20th November 2024 & Wednesday 26th February 2025

We are looking forward to a successful year!

Staying Safe Week!

Last week was our themed week: Staying Safe. Year 5 were very busy learning how to stay safe in a range of different scenarios and situations.

On Monday, we kicked off the week with a road safety assembly. In this, the children recapped how to stay safe in each type of travel (car, bike/scooter, bus, train and walking).

  • A seatbelt must be worn every journey – whether that be a long or short drive.
  • You must not distract the driver.
  • If there is a seat available on a bus or train you must sit down.
  • Travel with an adult.
  • Green Cross Code: Think, Stop, Look and Listen.

At the end of the day, we had a water safety assembly. The children discussed the difference between canals and rivers and how to stay safe around them. You should always ‘Stay Away From the Edge’.

Help at home: Can you spot the dangers in the poster?

On Tuesday, we started off the day with an assembly on hate crime and the subsequent consequences. We learnt that in law they take into consideration 5 of the protected characteristics (religion, race, sexual orientation, gender and disability). Year 5 then had an assembly about online safety. In this, the children were able to revisit their knowledge about how to stay safe on games: reporting bad behaviour, not accepting someone you don’t know etc.

Next, Year 5 were visited by the one and only D:Side Dave. Dave came in to also talk to us about online safety. In this session, the children talked about the positive and negative effects of social media and discussed how to make responsible and safe choices on the internet. Take a look at how long each social media site has been around for.

Year 5 used their detective skills to work out if online profiles were real or fake.

To finish the lesson, we looked at the different age ratings on games.

Help at home: Can you identify any of the warning symbols?

To finish off the day, we had a session about promoting good health. The children learnt about how they can keep themselves healthy and happy.

On Wednesday, we started the day off with an assembly lead by RNLI. Did you know RNLI stands for Royal National Lifeboat Institute? Alan came in to speak to us about how to stay safe at sea and on the beach. He discussed the flags that you might see on a beach and what they mean. You must swim between the yellow and red flags to be seen by a lifeguard.

Later on in the morning we had a talk from the local firefighters. In this session, they told the Year 5 and 6s how to prevent fires at home: using reliable charging cables, making sure candles are extinguished and cleaning the hob after use. Firemen Sam and Dave told them how to help stop a fire spreading too – whether that be shutting all the doors at night or testing smoke alarms regularly.

On Thursday, the whole school had an assembly about how to stay safe around dogs. We then later had a session with Mrs Hill. We learnt that there are two things you must do before stroking a dog: ask permission from the owner and let the dog sniff and come to you first. We looked at a range of different scenarios between 6 different dogs and an imaginary character called Tom. The children needed to be dog detectives and decide if Tom could have been hurt and who was responsible for the consequences. Lots of children thought different dogs were responsible but Charlie was able to deduce that Tom was responsible!

To finish off the morning, we had a session with the British Military Martial Arts.

To finish off our Staying Safe week, we learnt about sun safety, railway safety and we had a session learning about first aid.

There are 5 ways to protect yourself from UV rays: SLIP, SLOP, SLAP, SLIDE, SHADE.

  • slip on clothing to cover your skin
  • slop on suncream (20 minutes before the sun and every 2 hours to reapply)
  • slap on a hat to protect your face and scalp
  • slide on sunglasses to protect your eyes
  • seek shade whether that be natural or human-made

In our railway safety lesson, we watched a video and discussed how to be safe near railways and on train platforms.

In our first aid session, we tried to help our partners by tying bandages around their head injuries. Year 5 also got to try out CPR.

There are 4 steps to take before CPR:

  1. Try to wake up the casualty
  2. Shout for help
  3. Check for breathing
  4. Call and ambulance

 

Drop Down Morning

Last week, Year 5 have had a drop down morning. We looked back at 3 subjects to recap: History, Geography and Computing.

History

In our History lesson, we revisited the Viking and the Early Islamic Civilisation. The children played Pictionary with their key vocabulary from this unit.

Then, they had picture prompts to help them recall facts about each historical time period.

Computing

Year 5 had the task of sorting their key vocabulary so the word, picture and definition matched. After, they completed a RIC about Scratch coding.

Geography

The children recapped their Year 3/4 knowledge about volcanoes. They labelled the different layers of Earth; found information about dormant, extinct and active volcanoes; and recalled knowledge about geographical vocabulary.

Design Technology: I can use tools and materials to add applique to my product.

This week, Year 5 have been adding applique to their cushions. Applique means ‘pieces of fabric sewn or stuck on to a larger piece to form a picture or pattern. The children were mostly using running stitch to add this. They have been incredibly resilient in this work and not giving up after tying SO many knots.

Take a look at their work:

 

Help at home: Donate an old piece of clothing that we can use to stuff our cushions. We want to be sustainable and therefore recycle old material. The piece of clothing will be cut up so make sure you won’t want it back!

Science: We are biologists!

In our next science unit, we are biologists. Biology is the study of living things.

In this week’s lesson, we dissected a flower called Alstroemeria. We labelled the different parts and discussed which of them make up the male and female reproductive systems. Have a look at our work:

Help at home: Label the different parts of the flower.

Flower Parts