Food technology
Last week, Year 5 made a mushroom and chickpea curry as part of their food technology learning. They had to chop onions, measure spices, crush garlic and stir the mixture in order to make the curry. They knew how to stay safe and used cutting techniques like the bridge grip. Once it was finished, they were able to taste what they had made accompanied with some naan bread. Everyone loved the taste with many children asking for more!
Help at home by using the recipe we have sent home. Is there something they would change when making it at home?
Half term football opportunity
Here’s a new football venture starting locally during half term.
Living & Learning: Me and my community week 2 November
Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place from Monday 2nd November. This is the first of two themed weeks in the year. In our ‘Me and My Community’ week, children will learn about what it means to belong to a community, from family to national or even international communities. Importantly, our children will also learn to respect and celebrate different communities.
Active travel in the community
We encourage children to get out in the community in an active way on their way to and from school. By walking/scooting/biking to school, families will be keeping our community safer and healthier by reducing congestion at the school gate. Maybe even pick up a piece of litter on the way. Even by parking further away from school your child could then travel the final part of their journey by foot, bike or scooter.
Email us ([email protected]) a picture of your active travel, maybe by a landmark in our community on your route to school, for the chance to win one of three vouchers. Entries to be submitted by 4pm on Thursday 5th November.
New school charity
At the end of the themed week, classes will have the chance to discuss our charity shortlist and the Junior Leadership Team will have the final vote for which charity they would like our school to support, replacing our current charity, Martin House Hospice.
Identity day
Friday 6th November will be a non-uniform Identity Day. Children are invited to dress in clothing that represents part of their identity, for example uniform from a club they attend, a team they are part of or support or traditional dress to represent their heritage. There is no donation or contribution required for this day.
SAVE THE DATE PTA coffee morning Friday 6th November 9-10am
As part of the week, we welcome all parents and carers to an informal coffee morning to meet other members of our school community including representatives from the PTA. A whole school community Wake up Shake up will follow at 9:50am in the main playground.
Can you help?
Maybe you speak another language and you would be happy to speak to children about this or you would like to share about your own family culture and heritage. If so, please contact the office to pass on your details. Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?
Living and Learning: I respect others
In our Living and Learning lesson last week, Year 5 learnt about discrimination and the protected characteristics.
Discrimination is defined as ‘the unfair treatment of people because of who they are or because they have a certain characteristic(s)’. We discussed examples and the impact of discrimination.
The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination based on protected characteristics.
We remember the protected characteristics by using the mnemonic:
DR GRAMPSS
Disability
Race
Gender reassignment
Religion or beliefs
Age
Marriage or civil partnership
Pregnancy and/or maternity leave
Sexual orientation
Sex
Help at home by asking who makes sure these characteristics are protected?
Science: conducting a fair test
In science, we’ve been conducting a fair test to examine whether the surface area of a parachute affects the time taken for it to fall. We gathered all the equipment we needed and thought about the different variables. An independent variable is the thing we will change during the experiment. In this case the surface area of the parachute. The dependent variable is what we will measure – the time it takes to fall to the ground. The control is everything we will keep the same. Can your child remember what we had to keep the same?
We took six separate measurements so that the test was as reliable and accurate as it could be. Next week, we evaluate our results and come to a conclusion.
Help at home by asking what their prediction for the experiment was? Why do they think that?
Reading: reading poetry out loud.
This week in reading we’ve been reading the poem ‘Matilda who told lies and got burned to death.’ We have explored new vocabulary as well as comparing the poem to stories and tales we’ve heard before. The week culminated in the class breaking into pairs to learn and then perform the poem to their peers. We thought about what makes a successful performance, including volume, tone and pace of our voices. After a bit of practice, we were able to perform the poem excellently.
Help at home by practising reading stories and poems out loud. This will help when we are given a poem to learn for National Poetry Day next week!
Maths – adding and subtracting decimals
The first three weeks in Maths have been focussed on decimals. We’ve learnt how to write, order and compare numbers with tenths. This week we were calculating with decimals using column addition and subtraction. We were able to apply our fantastic addition and subtraction skills we learnt in Year 4 to calculating with decimals.
Make sure you remember this top tips:
Line up the decimals so every digit is in the right column.
Don’t forget to put the decimal point in the answer!
Look carefully – you might need to place a zero tenths when you are subtracting a decimal from a whole number.
Here is a great example of how it should be laid out in our book.
We worked really hard on some difficult measurement problems involving decimals too. The children thought carefully about what operation they needed to use and calculated accurately.
Help at home by discussing when we would use decimals in everyday life.
Autumn term after school clubs
Science – air resistance
This half term in Science we are investigating forces. We know that the strand of science we’re learning is Physics.
We have already learnt about friction and how it can affect the speed of an object. This week, we looked at air resistance. First, we compared how a flat piece of paper and a scrunched up piece of paper fell through the air.
Then, we investigated the effects of air resistance on ourselves. We timed ourselves running across the playground. Afterwards, we ran holding a binbag behind our heads. We found that air resistance slowed us down and we could not run as fast.
Help at home by discussing other forces that children can experience.
Living and Living: 8Rs 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.
The children came up with some great examples of how they can use the 8Rs during the school day.
‘I can show I am ready by having positive body language.’
‘I take safe risks by putting my hand up and answering questions even though I might not be sure of the answer.’
‘You can show resilience by practising and practising – just like in the skipping festival last year.’
‘You can be responsive by responding to the feedback Mr McGriffiths gives you.’
Help at home: Name all the 8Rs and discuss how they relate to learning at school and at home.