Author: Mr Catherall

This morning, as part of STEM week, we were lucky to have a visitor who taught us how to code robots. In groups we were given a car and a computer and by the end of the session each group had programmed their robot to move in a variety of ways.

It was really exciting and we learnt lots about computer coding, science, maths and working with others.

Ask your child if they can figure out what this robot would do.

    Hint: the number ‘1’ = forwards mode.

We learnt that coding can be quite frustrating – one tiny mistake in your script can mean that your robot does nothing. However, we did enjoy de-bugging (finding the errors) our scripts to ensure they worked.

Computing can be a scary topic for some adults (most of us aren’t part of the coding generation like Y5) but there are some great online resources that can help. A particular favourite of mine is Barefoot Computing. It’s free and links closely to the National Curriculum. Although it’s aimed at teachers, it will be beneficial for everyone because the website is also easy to navigate and understand.

Here’s some pics of us coding our robots…

We had a great time dressing up and celebrating our very own Victory in Europe day on Friday.

It was a fantastic way to end our ‘Class Novel’ topic and we all had a great time. As well as having lots of fun at our VE day party, we also reflected on all the great learning we’ve enjoyed over the last eight weeks. It was particularly useful to hear which aspects of the topic the children have enjoyed the most and why.

Ask your child what they learnt over the course of this big topic and discuss the relevance/importance of this learning.

Also, discuss their views on the class novel they read. Did they enjoy it? Why? Did they empathise with the characters? Why?

Due to STEM week, guided reading this week will not be happening as usual. On Friday, all children were asked to have read to their target page by Tuesday. Please don’t worry if your child doesn’t quite manage to read to their target page – I appreciate that it may be difficult to manage on top of homework and general life (although most groups will have had their target page set on Monday and Tuesday last week giving them almost a week to read).

When changes to guided reading are made it is always to improve learning. Although your child may generally read on a set day (eg Tuesday) this will change from time to time. Please don’t allow your child to be anxious about not having read to their target page – this does not make reading enjoyable. Instead, encourage them to read to their target page soon after they are given it.

Thank you.

As always, we reviewed our homeworks as a class this week. The standard of homework is always high in Y5; I love it. Seeing how children respond to creative homeworks is one of my favourite things. It gives me lots of teaching ideas, too – thanks Y5!

This week, we were particularly impressed by these pieces:

 Edward’s pot-washing time sheet.

 Sam’s collage of maths in everyday life.

 Pippa’s news report – love the jokes, Pippa!

 Megan’s maths game.

This week, in English, we’ve been learning about poetry. We started out by comparing and contrasting a wide range of poems (some well known, some less familiar) and then began to unpick the poets’ use of figurative language. As it was Remembrance Day on Friday, and our Class Novel topic is heavily linked to WW2, we learnt ‘In Flanders Field‘ off by heart – ask your child if they can recite it to you!

Then, on Friday, we split into groups to perform the poem. Every group captured the mood and were able to portray this through their performance. Each group incorporated actions into their performance and one group even had the subtle, faint whistle of a bird in the background.

Here are some action shots…