Year 5 Class News

Writing: Francis

This week, Year 5 have started their new writing topic. Over the next two weeks, the children will write a short narrative which creates tension and suspense. We used an animated video as our stimulus which was sourced from the Literacy Shed.

This film is perfect at building tension: the narrator uses pauses and varies the speed at which he speaks in order to build the suspense. As well as speech used to create tension, the music also plays a key part in creating suspense.

Help at home: Watch the video with and without music. How does this alter the tension created?

Cross country star

Congratulations to our Year 3 runner who represented Leeds today in the West Yorkshire cross country final. Competing against pupils from Calderdale, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Leeds, he ran a fantastic race at Temple Newsam and should feel very proud of achieving a top 15 finish.

Living and Learning: Kooth mental health talk

Year 5 had a visitor from Kooth. Kooth is a free, safe and anonymous online website (approved by the NHS) where children from ages 10-18 can receive mental health support.  It is full of self-help tools, mini activities and discussion boards to get the assistance you need. The best thing about it is that every post or comment is approved before it’s live so it’s a totally positive zone.

Some of the main messages from today’s learning were:

• It’s ok to ask for help – it can be really difficult to manage your mental health, so you don’t have to do it alone
• Try to move or be active each day – being active and doing gentle movement each day can help improve your wellbeing
• Find helpful ways to experience, express and manage your emotions – you could try some Kooth mini-activities to help develop helpful habits and valuable life skills
• Focus on what you’re good at – build on your strengths to boost your confidence and self-esteem

• • Help at home: Take a look at the website and discuss what can be done to improve your mental health.

Science and PE: What is physical activity?

This week, Year 5 were joined by some visitors from the University of Leeds. They came in to talk to us about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. By the end of the lesson the children were able to define what physical activity is,  explain why exercise is good for you ​and understand the difference between a warm-up and cool-down. 

Aerobic exercise is a type of activity that makes your heart beat faster and makes you breathe a little harder. ​

Anaerobic exercises are quick and intense activities that use energy stored in muscles, not relying much on oxygen.​ This includes movements like:​

• Sprinting​
• Jumping​
• Lifting heavy weights

Our visitors will be back next week to talk to us about healthy eating and nutrition.

Help at home: Discuss how often we should be active every day and how we can live more active lifestyles.

Living and Learning: Safer internet day

On Tuesday 6th February, we celebrated safer internet day. It was a chance to think about any worries we might have about using technology and the internet, but it’s also about celebrating all the fantastic things technology can help us with.

In one of our lessons, we discussed why it’s important to check with a trusted adult before sharing personal information online. Personal information is any information that is about who you are and what you do.

Websites and apps can collect our personal information and data and use it to provide services to us.

We need to keep this information safe whilst online and not give it to just anyone! We must always speak to a trusted adult before sharing any information online.

In another lesson, we focused on how to have a healthy balance of online and offline activity. The children were able to give lots of different activities to do whilst being offline:

• playing outside
• arts and crafts
• reading a book
• spend time with family

Help at home: Discuss how to help Greg, Jess, Brian and Haya in these scenarios.

Writing: Were the early Islamic civilisation an advanced society?

In writing, we have been looking at discussions. The purpose of a discussion is to think about different sides of an argument. The question we are discussing is ‘Were the early Islamic civilisation an advanced society?’.

This question links to our history topic where we’ve been learning about the innovations of the early Islamic civilisation – a golden age. The children have started to write their discussions: introduction and for point. Tomorrow, we will be moving on to write the against point and conclusion.

Help at home: Discuss if the early Islamic civilisation were an advanced society. Use examples of why they were or why they were not.

Living and Learning: Being safe

For the past two weeks, Year 5 have been looking at how to stay safe. Last week, we talked about permission and consent with regards to different types of touches.

We looked at a number of different scenarios and sorted them into 3 different categories: appropriate, inappropriate or depends on the situation.  The children talked about how kicking is an inappropriate touch, high-five is appropriate and holding hands depends on the situation and who it is with.

We then moved on to discuss how appropriate touches feel on the outside and inside of our bodies. The children suggested that they might feel happy, safe, loved and comfortable and their body might be warm.

Help at home: Sort the following scenarios into appropriate, inappropriate or depends on the situation.

• biting
• linking arms
• hugging
• dancing together

Science: An experiment fit for a king!

Year 5 have planned and conducted an experiment fit for a king. They received a very special message from the King with a problem he was facing.

With this message in mind, Year 5 used the enquiry question ‘Which material is the best insulator of heat?’ A thermal insulator is a material that does not let heat pass through it easily or quickly.

Our scientific enquiry type was ‘comparative and fair testing’.

The children used three materials: fabric, bubble wrap and foil. They wrapped these around their beakers and used scientific equipment to measure the temperature of their ‘tea’. Year 5 recorded their results into their tables.

Next week, the children will analyse their results and see if they have any anomalous results (a result that does not fit in with the pattern of other results).

Help at home: Discuss the independent (what is changed), dependent (what is measured) and control (what is kept the same) variables in this experiment.

Maths: Adding with different denominators

For the past two lessons, Year 5 have been learning how to add fractions with different denominators.

Firstly, we recapped Year 4 learning where we added fractions with the same denominator.

We then moved on to fractions with different denominators. To add these types of fractions, we need to find equivalent fractions that have the same denominator. Once we have fractions that have the same denominators we can add them like we did previously. Have a look at a worked example.

Help at home: Have a go at these questions.

Spring term after-school clubs

*UPDATE*

We do have the following availability for clubs should your child wish to sign up.