Year 5 Homework

14 November 2014

The homeworks this week are Talk Time and Practice Makes Perfect.

The Talk Time homework links to our  SEAL topic: 8Rs of Learning.

I can take responsibility for my learning and behaviour both in and out of school.

Please have a discussion with your children about how they could become more responsible learners and more responsible friends, family members, community members.

Questions for discussion could be:

• How can I make sure that I am always ready to learn? How can I learn more? What can I do if I have a problem at school?
• How can I be more responsible at home? How can I be a more responsible sibling? How can we sort problems more responsibly?
• How can I help my local community? Can I promise to do one thing which will help the local community?

The Practice Makes Perfect homework is another Mathletics challenge which should help embed the maths learning we’ve been doing in class.

Children have told me they have all been able to log-0n at home. However, if you do have any problems, please let me know.

07 November 2014

This week, children have been set an activity on Mathletics instead of their normal Practice Makes Perfect homework. Ask your children about Mathletics; they’ve been using it this week in school and should be able to use it as easily at home! However, if you have any problems or questions at all, please find me.

Our creative homework is:

I can show how to be safe.

Using the Year 6 assembly as our inspiration, I’d like the children to creatively show how they can be safe. Any digital homework can be emailed to our class email address: y5@moortown.leeds.sch.uk

Children could choose one of these situations, or find a new one to stay safe in:

• food
• rail
• road
• stranger
• smoking
• bullying
• coastal/water
• online

It’s half-term…

…so there’s no specific homework this week, apart from ensuring your child spends at least 20 minutes each day reading and 5-10 minutes learning their number bonds / times tables.

Enjoy your October break. If you stay in Leeds, check out all the activities the museums and art galleries have on offer.

17 October 2014

This week, our homeworks are Practice Makes Perfect and Talk Timeand are due in on Wednesday 22October.

PMP: I can find missing angles.

Children have been learning about shape in maths this week. They have a sheet in their book which asks them to find some missing angles in either a straight line or a triangle.

As always, please encourage children to find me before Wednesday if they need further help.

Talk Time: Paper books or eReaders?

More and more people are reading using an electronic device like an eReader or a tablet instead of traditional books. What do you think about this change? Do members of your family have different opinions?

When discussing topics at home, encourage your child to use connectives to signpost their ideas. Use the table below as a guide:

10 October 2014

This week, our homeworks are Practice Makes Perfect and Creative and are due in on Wednesday 15 October.

PMP: I can interpret data in charts

Children have been learning about how to interpret data in charts. They have a sheet in their book with a chart (either a bar chart or line chart) and they have to answer some questions about the information in the charts.

As always, please encourage children to find me before Wednesday if they need further help.

Creative: I can design a coat of arms. 

As part of our Big Topic on our Class Novel, we’re planning on doing some printing of coats of arms. Children have been asked to design their own coat of arms and been reminded of what they are historically and what it might mean for them now: symbols and pictures which represent who they are as a person.

Here are some real life examples:

Some can get very ornate, but I’m not looking for anything this detailed because we won’t be able to print them…

03 October 2014

Our homeworks this week are Creative and Practice Makes Perfect and are due in on Wednesday 01 October.

The Practice Makes Perfect homework builds on our measures learning  in class about length. Children have a sheet in their homework book which asks them to solve some length problems.

The Creative homework is again related to our Fighting Fantasy class novel:   I can create a fantasy item advert.

We will be writing promotions for the next few weeks in our English lessons. Children have to create an item which they might find in the class novel. This could be a weapon like a sword, cross-bow, axe, bow and arrow; a defensive item like armour, a shield or a helmet; a potion or spell which uses particular ingredients to perform a magical power; or it could be something else entirely! The choice is yours!

26 September 2014

Our homeworks this week are Talk Time and Practice Makes Perfect and are due in on Wednesday 01 October.

The Practice Makes Perfect homework builds on our grammar learning in class about main clauses and subordinate clauses. Hopefully, the sheet in the homework books will explain this but if you have any questions, please ask.

The Talk Time homework is related to our class novel. You have to put yourself in the mindset of our main character who is about to start his quest: What three items would you take with you on your quest in the Citadel of Chaos and why?

Children should talk to you and other family members and friends about the subject and must give reasons why their items would be important. On Wednesday, we’ll then have a discussion about which items the children think would be most useful. When discussing their reasons, children should be encouraged to use connectives when making their points:

*’However’ is often seen mid-sentence (sometimes correctly eg It won’t work however hard we try; sometimes incorrectly (although debate continues on this point) eg It rained all day however we still had fun); we have decided to teach as a connective add-in only ie not as a conjunction.

19 September 2014

Our homeworks this week are Talk Time and Practice Makes Perfect and are due in on Wednesday 24 September.

The Talk Time homework is I can talk about the types of books I like and why I like them. 

Children should talk to you and other family members and friends about the subject. They need to have a good awareness of different genres of story and that authors write in a particular style to suit a particular audience. This discussion will hopefully help children with this.

The Practice Makes Perfect homework is I can write descriptive sentences about a character.

This week in English, we have been writing descriptions of characters in the Fighting Fantasy books. Your child has a picture of a character in their homework books and should write about this character. Below is a quick guide with a couple of ideas for how you could help your child to improve their descriptive sentences.

Start with quite a simple sentence:

The scary monster was holding a battle-axe.

1. Improve the vocabulary

The scary monster was holding a battle-axe.  Scary isn’t a strong enough adjective for this sentence so I’m going to change that and improve the vocabulary in the rest of the sentence: The petrifying monster was wielding an enormous battle-axe. 

3. Include an add-in (opener, ender or middler) to their sentence.

I’m going to add a middler to our sentence to give the reader some more information about the monster. Notice the commas used to separate the middler from the rest of the sentence: The petrifying monster, who was bearing down on me, was wielding an enormous battle-axe which was covered in dried blood.

12 September 2014

Now your child is in Year 5, he or she will be given two pieces of homework every week – this additional homeowrk is in response to parents’ feedback. Every week, your child will get a Practice Makes Perfect homework which will usually be extra practice in English or Maths. He / she will also receive a Creative or Talk Time homework. Both pieces should be handed by Wednesday.

This week, the Practice Makes Perfect homework is a maths activity which will test and reinforce the learning we’ve been doing on doubling and/or halving.

The second homework is Creative and is an opportunity for children to show what they have learned in our first mini-topic of the year, Where in the world?

Here are a few ideas we came up with as a class:

Ready to learn

It’s the summer holidays and, in line with our homework policy, there is no formal homework set over the six-week break.

That doesn’t mean that your child won’t be learning!  We learn all the time – and so do children, whether it’s through play, day-trips, independent reading, discussions at home…

And of course, you’ll be keen to support your child at home so the basic facts aren’t forgotten.  Please think about key English and Maths knowledge that you can gently practise over the holidays:

• number bonds: knowing pairs of numbers that add to make ten, like 3+7=10 and therefore 10-7=3).  When your child is secure with pairs that total ten, can they extend this knowledge to pairs which make 20 (13+7=20, for example) and 100 (such as 30+70=100) – make this fun by using some sweet treats or how about stringing ten loom bracelets on string and then hiding some and making the link with the ones that are left (how many are hidden if you can see three bracelets?)
• times tables: Year 2 children should have an emerging knowledge of the 2 times table and the 10 times table at least, and children who have just finished Year 4 should know all their times tables (up to 12 x 12) and the division facts, too (7×8=56 so 56÷7=8) – think about chanting some times tables or buying an app to practise just a few minutes every day to keep your child’s knowledge sharp!
• reading: lots of reading over the holidays will help your child in lots of different ways – visit the local library; take part in our Extreme Reading competition; if you’re going to a theme park or museum, read the leaflet and the website… there are loads of opportunities to build in reading as a daily activity!
• writing: reading will help your child’s spellings and writing style, so don’t force lots of writing, but do try to encourage some useful, purposeful writing – write some postcards to friends and relatives , or send some emails instead, and make lists for what to pack on holiday, or what to buy if planning a sleepover.

Check out this guide about supporting learning, useful whether it’s term-time of holiday time!

Finally, make sure you enjoy the summer break!