Museum trip
This week, we went to the Leeds City Museum to research animals as part of our Life topic. Have a look at a few pictures from our trip. Why not ask your child if they can explain what is happening/can be seen in the pictures below?
We had a really good time in the museum so why not visit yourself? You could even get some ideas for this week’s homework.
Borrow a book, borrow a bike
With 100 days to this year’s Tour De Yorkshire, a local bike library has been set up locally at Moor Allerton Library.
Leeds City Council has introduced a new Yorkshire Bike Bank which will allow residents to borrow bikes as well as books from the library.
Some of our latest Creative homeworks
More fab homework to kick off our Big Topic. Lots of creative ideas made our weekly homework review very enjoyable and we learnt lots from, and about, each other.
Diagrams, messages, facts and pictures were just some of the things we saw around the classroom.
We really enjoyed this poem from Riya…
Many of use decided to go ‘techno’ this week so we also enjoyed listening to, reading and playing the many PowerPoint presentations, blogs and coding that came from the Y5 email.
Update on ‘Life’ in Y5
This week has seen the launch of our new Big Topic, ‘Life’.
It’s an exciting week for us as it comes with a great (very informative) class assembly and a trip to Leeds Museum on Friday morning. We started our topic with an incredible journey from the beginning of Earth, 4.6 billion years ago, to this very day.
As a class, we created a giant timeline in our classroom and then wrote some fantastic, detailed recounts on it.
We’ll be using our ‘Life’ knowledge in English over the next few weeks to write informative texts on various animals: old, new and some just plain old fictitious. Help at home by looking through animal information books, magazines and websites for some vocabulary the children could learn and use in their own writing.
In Maths, we’re focussing on fractions, percentages and decimals. We need to know the relationship between these three areas of Maths and be able to fully understand what they mean and how to use them. At home, help by drawing images of fractions and then identify the equivalent percentage and decimal.
Phonics mornings
This week, we’ll be holding our second of three phonics sessions.
The children are now beginning to learn long vowel phonemes and digraphs (two letters making one sound, like ‘sh’ and ‘th’) and to read and write sentences and longer words.
We expect all parents / carers to come along and see how much the children have learnt and find out ways you can support your child at home.
Maths learning in Reception
In our maths learning this week, we’ll learn about shape and pattern.
We’ll look at shape and pattern around us and in particular shape and pattern found in nature. We’ll look at snowflakes and ice and the patterns and shapes found in tree trunks, sticks and branches.
Number and calculating is built upon patterns; for example, recognising sequences of numbers or the shape of five on a dice with spots, without counting each dot.
As well as noticing shapes and patterns, children need to talk about them in order to develop the language needed to describe the shapes and patterns they see.
The following is a list of vocabulary the children will experience in Reception:
shape, flat, curved, straight, round, solid, corner, sort, cube, cuboid, cylinder, pyramid, sphere, cone, circle, triangle, square, rectangle, size, bigger, larger, smaller, pattern, repeating pattern, match.
A Science experiment
Here are some photos from when we tested different materials to see if they would be a good material to make an umbrella from. We found out that wood and plastic would keep us dry. However, we agreed that a wooden umbrella would be quite heavy to hold above your head! The class worked as scientists by making sure they treated each material the same by dropping 50 drops of water on them all. They recorded all their findings and analysed them afterwards. Mrs Maqbool and I were really impressed! Well done!
This Week
Maths
For the past two weeks in maths, we’ve been looking at multiplication. We reviewed our multiplication tables last week and this week we’ve been applying our learning using the grid method.
Why not challenge your child to solve a similar question to this one?
Next week, we start to look at fractions of shapes.
English
Our English this week has tied in with our class spellings – contractions. Contractions are two words that have been put together to form one word. They’re punctuated with an apostrophe to indicate missing letters. We’ve been using contractions in letters and dialogues.Why not ask your child to count the number of contractions that are in this post?
Next week, we start our learning on report writing which will link with our big topic, Life.
What’s the matter?
In this science mini topic we’ve looked at rocks, soils and fossils. We’ve been digging up the front playground, applying acid to rocks and investigating different types of fossils. Why not ask your child about how fossils are formed?
This week, by Jennifer and Ethan
This week, Jennifer and Ethan have spent some time reflecting on our learning over the last week.
English
This term in English we have been planning and writing news articles about the three little pigs but this time the wolf is innocent. We have already done the main news and the background. This a piece from Bailey’s writing:
At approximately 15:17, Bradley and Albert Pig were left no option but to run to their sister’s house. Mr A.Wolf, who claimed he wanted to invite them to his house welcoming party, said the attack on Wheat Dale Farm was accidental.
Maths
In maths we have been focusing on drawing and calculating angles – including missing interior angles. We have also learnt about symmetry and circles!
Here are some examples of our learning (drawing angles and finding the total of the interior angles of a shape):
Next week, we will be starting our new topic: Life!