Year 5 Blog
Weeks beginning 25th November and 2nd December
We have had a busy couple of weeks in Year 5 with lots going on, including a ‘no pens’ day
which had us discussing who we might save on a desert island and our monthly Starbooks
book tasting session. Not forgetting a wonderful, extra long weekend in the middle to get
some well-earned rest so we are all ready for the countdown to Christmas!
In Literacy, we have continued to focus on our model text- Why are Raincats extinct- an
explanation text which falls into the non-fiction genre. We have been exploring the tools we
will need to write an effective explanation text, including using causal language, ‘adding on’
openers and technical language. Some of our activities have included being the voice over
to explain how Wallace and Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions work or pretending to be Steve
Backshall explaining why raincats went extinct in video documentary.
In addition, we planned our own innovated explanation texts, which led us to choose a
‘weather’ cat that has gone extinct somewhere in the world. We look forward to reading
these when the writing begins next week!.
In Maths, we continued our learning about fractions, focusing on adding and subtracting a
pair of fractions or a pair of fractions and mixed numbers. The children worked hard to use
their existing knowledge of times tables to convert between improper fractions and mixed
numbers and some even challenged themselves to simplify their answers to their lowest
possible forms.
Every child has put so much effort into their times tables and really enjoy the weekly head to
heads we complete in class before the final school head to head on a Friday afternoon.
Please do continue to encourage your children to continue to practise their times tables
further at home as our head to head finals will continue next half term!
In Theme, we concluded our learning about the Caribbean, focusing on the physical
geography of the islands. This led to research about volcanoes in the region- did you know
there are 19 volcanoes? Do ask your children for more facts about these!
In Science, we continued our learning about forces, exploring how to measure the Earth’s
pull of gravity by weighing objects and exploring what shaped boats would move the fastest
through water!
We hope you all had a relaxing long weekend and are keeping warm and dry in this stormy
weather which is currently around us!
Miss Burton and Miss Hewitt
Week beginning 18th November 2024
What a busy week in Year 5 it has been!
This week we had assessments week, the teachers would like to say well done to the children for working so hard.
In Maths, we have been focusing on fractions and converting (which everybody did fabulous at), they all persevered even when they found it quite difficult.
Moving on from Maths, in Literacy we have been focusing on a specific text called ‘Why Are Raincats Extinct?’ The children have been drawing the story map in their books to help them learn the text quickly and to follow along when needed. We have enjoyed doing this.
In Science we have been learning about forces, the children have been asking many questions as they are really intrigued about this topic.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
By Amelie and Emma. (Otters Class)
Week beginning 25th October
Hello again!
We have had a super final week of the autumn term, filled with times table competitions, 500 Word Stories and even a Halloween Disco, not forgetting the grand opening of Starbooks with a Book Tasting session!
A HUGE well done to Otters’ Class for their excellent, informative and engaging class assembly this week. You demonstrated so much knowledge and understanding of the Windrush Generation and we all loved your rendition of the song ‘You can get if you really want’. Pine Martens, we look forward to seeing what your assembly will be about during the performance on Monday 25th November!
This week has been a great end to many of units of work we have studied this half term. In Literacy, the children planned and wrote their story for the BBC 500 Word Story competition. We will have some time to edit and of course, type these stories after half term, ready to be submitted by the deadline- Friday 8th November.
In Maths, we consolidated our learning of calculation skills, including using written methods for subtraction and addition, using the inverse calculation and calculating cube numbers.
Times tables continue to be a big focus and the children have had practice sessions using Times Table Rockstars which involves them constantly reviewing their progress on their heat maps. In addition, we played games and went head to head to determine our class’ winners of this week who were lucky to sit in the ‘best seats in the house’ in Friday’s celebration assembly for the head to head final, competing with all different aged children from around the school. Of course, this experience was even more exciting as we came dressed as our inner rockstar selves!!
Please do continue to encourage your children to continue to practise their times tables further at home as our head to head finals will continue next half term!
In Theme, we concluded our learning about the Windrush Generation with a double-paged piece of writing. The children summarised all of their learning from the last 8 weeks, creating some wonderful, detailed, informative pieces of writing. And of course finally we opened our ‘Starbooks Cafe’ with a ‘Book Tasting’ event. The children became immersed in experiencing a variety of books whilst enjoying a warm drink of hot chocolate! This event was a big hit which is fab! We look forward to continuing our monthly ‘Book Tasting’ events next half term. Thank you for all of the generous and kind donations for this event, we really appreciate it!
Next half term, we will be focusing on non-fiction writing in Literacy and fractions in Maths. Our theme will be geography-based -The Water Cycle and in Science we will be learning all about Forces. There are also many event days, including Odd Socks and Comic Relief- do double-check the Newsletter for key dates.
Our PE days will remain the same (Mondays and Tuesdays), so as this term, children will continue to come from school in their PE kits on a Monday and we kindly ask that they arrive at school on Tuesday mornings in their PE kits ready for the first session which is at 8.45am.
We hope you all have a relaxing half term, enjoying the outdoors, being surrounded by friends and family. We look forward to seeing you on Monday 4th November!
Week beginning 7th October
What another busy week in Year 5.
Year 5 children have worked super hard again this week. In Maths, we have been developing our understanding of factors and multiples. Next week we will be moving onto prime numbers, squared numbers and cubed numbers. We finished the week by playing a game to test our understanding.
In Literacy the children began to innovate ‘Zelda Claw and the Rain Cat’. They were able to change the characters in the story and thought carefully about how their new character may react to an animal threat. We will be editing these next week.
In RE we continue to look at Sikhism, the children create a fact page about the Sikhism religion and beliefs.
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Hewitt and Miss Burton.
Week beginning 23rd September
We have had another great week in Year 5- we didn’t allow the rain to stop us!
In Literacy, we have continued studying the text ‘Zelda Claw and the Rain Cat’. We have done lots of short burst writing to describe settings, feelings and characters, focusing on developing our vocabulary and being really detailed. In Guided Reading, we have continued to read Varjak Paw, focusing on our clarifying skills.
In Maths, we worked on our calculation skills, including subtracting, adding and rounding. Within our tasks, we identified mistakes and explained these to each other. We also played a maths game to consolidate our understanding. In addition, we spent some time viewing our individual ‘heat maps’ on Times Table Rockstars. These highlighted which times tables we need to practise to be able to recall the facts in less than one second. We then used the ‘Garage’ section to challenge ourselves on these times tables. Do encourage your children to practise further at home as times tables will continue to be a huge focus this term!
In Theme, we continued learning about the Windrush, discovering more about the people that came over to England on the boats. We learnt about their origins, occupations and ages but also considered how these people would have felt embarking on this phenomenal life-changing journey.
A little reminder that our PE days are Mondays and Tuesdays. On Mondays, your children will come home in their PE kits and on Tuesday mornings we kindly ask the children come to school in their PE kits too as the first session is at 8.45am.
Have a restful weekend!
Miss Burton & Miss Hewitt
Week beginning 16th September 2024
Another busy week in Year 5.
The children have continued to look at Place Value in Maths. We ended the week with rounding numbers to 100,000.
Remember:
Rounding to the nearest 10 we look at the Ones column
Rounding to the nearest 100 we look at the Tens column
Rounding to the nearest 1,000 we look at the Hundred column
Rounding to the nearest 10,000 we look at the Thousand column
Rounding to the nearest 100, 000 we look at the Ten-Hundreds column
In Literacy we continued our suspense unit, we looked at how we can make the weather threatening as well as how to develop a character's reaction to events within a story. See if your child can recall how Zelda reacts throughout the story.
In Art we are focusing on Observational drawings, this week the children have used lines, tone and composition to draw items in front of them.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Year 5 Team
Week beginning 9th September 2024
What a wonderful start to the new term! We are very proud of how well the children have settled into their new classes.
In Maths we have started to look at Place Value and we have been reading and writing numbers to a million.
In Literacy, we have looked at effective suspense writing. We have spoken about the skills needed to engage the reader and make them want to read more.
We have started our History topic, ‘The Windrush’. The children have been extremely engaged and have asked a lot of relevant questions. We look forward to learning more about this in the coming weeks.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Year 5 Team.
Week beginning 8th July
What another busy week in Year 5! Monday we worked hard on starting our boxing up for our own interpretation of ‘Zelda Paw and the Rain Cat’ and after a week of upleveling language we are set to write our stories next week.
In Maths, we have continued our work on converting millimetres and millilitres to kilometres and litres. We will be continuing this next week.
Wednesday was Art Day and the whole school exercised their creativity with art activities themed around the Olympics. In year 5, we created portraits of Olympic athletes competing in their sports, Banksy inspired street art and a collage of the Olympic rings.
Thursday, of course, was Transition Day and the Year 5s had a fun day in Year 6, writing stories and playing games. We are just as excited as they are to see them take up the role of the oldest children in the school and flourish as they prepare for their next steps.
Today we finished boxing up and played a fun game of Maths Battleships. In the afternoon we finished our projects from Art Day.
We hope you are all as excited as we are for the final full week of the year!
Have a restful weekend.
Year 5 Team.
Week beginning 1st July
This week we have worked hard to get lots of new learning done. In maths we have been working on negative numbers. All children have completed this unit confidently and showed a great understanding throughout.
Literacy this week has allowed us to innovate our ideas and create our own versions of Zelda Claw and the Raincat using the text as a stimulus. The children were able to decide on their own animals for their characters and think about what interesting verbs they could use to describe their characters actions. We ended the week with proofreading and editing our stories.
In Art this week, we were able to link our learning to our History unit on Windrush. We worked together to recreate the Windrush monument and the official HMT Empire Windrush ship. We used water colours to show the different tints and shades.
Have a great weekend
The Year 5 team
Week beginning 17th June
This week we have continued our learning on decimals in maths where we have focused on the most efficient ways to add and subtract decimals. As well as this, we have multiplied and divided decimals by 10, 100 and 1,000 using a place value chart to help us.
In literacy, we have been identifying the difference between concrete and abstract nouns and using them in our work. We have also worked together to create character reactions using powerful verbs. Next week we will start to look into describing the weather to develop the atmosphere in our writing.
In History this week the children worked collaboratively to put a series of questions and answers together to interview each other in the role of someone from the Windrush generation.
We have continued to complete our survival bags this term focusing on the design and pattern as well as refining our sewing skills to piece it together.
We wish you a lovely weekend enjoying the sunshine.
The year 5 team
Week beginning 10th June
The children have shown great resilience towards their assessments this week. Miss Yearwood and myself are very proud of them.
In RE this week we discussed Dharma Day. We spoke in detail about the Eightfold Path and the children created their own Eight -Spoked Wheel. See if your child can remember the Rules of the EightFold Path.
In Science we continued to learn about Animals Including Humans, where we have been discussing the gestational periods of different mammals. This afternoon we explored the different stages of development of a human’s foetus.
We hope you have a lovely restful weekend.
The Year 5 Team.
Week beginning 3rd June
What a great first week back it has been!
In Maths this week, we have started a new unit on decimals. The children have worked hard to practise not one method, but three different methods to add and subtract decimals. The different methods used were a tens frame, number line and partitioning.
Literacy this week has allowed us to consolidate our learning as we worked together to create compound and complex sentences. The children then had the opportunity to create their own sentences using simple sentences to begin with but then uplevel these to compound and complex sentences.
In Theme this term we will be focusing on the Windrush Generation. This week the children have worked well to write in the role of a historical person from the Windrush Generation. Everyone showed a good engagement and were keen to find out more.
Thank you to everyone for the effort put into international day. The children had a brilliant day educating each other about their individual cultures and learning about our year group's country Canada. Thank you to everyone who provided food, the children throughly enjoyed our food tasting sessions.
Have a wonderful weekend.
The Year 5 Team
Week beginning 20th May
What a busy half term!
In Maths this week we have been consolidating past units. We have looked over column addition and subtractions as well as multi step word problems. Next term we will begin our next unit on decimals. It would be great if you could recap decimals with your child.
In Literacy we have come to the end of our imagery topic. The children have worked extremely hard to showcase all the skills they have learnt to produce their own inventive story ‘This Morning I Met a _____’. We were very impressed with the techniques the children used.
In Science we have explored the differences between insects and amphibians. We have also looked into the metamorphosis and gained an understanding of the changes that can occur.
Next term in PSHE we will be teaching the RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) unit to your child’s class during the week beginning 3rd June 2024. Please be aware that all content is age appropriate for the year group in which it is being taught. Please click on the following link to view the content on our school website
https://www.jupiter.herts.sch.uk/130/pshe-relationships-and-sex-educatio If you have any questions do not hesitate to email the school office on enquiries@jupiter.herts.sch.uk
Week beginning 13th May
This week was another busy week for us all. In maths, we used the skills learnt in our coordinates lessons and applied this to drawing reflections on the horizontal and vertical mirror line. We ended the week with us completing our end of block assessment. This allowed the children to show off all they have learnt in our current maths unit- Position and Direction.
We have had our creative minds on in literacy this week. We have spent time planning and writing our own inventive stories that follow the same structure as our class text- This morning I met a Whale. The children have had the opportunity to change the setting, characters and threats to make it their own but still continue to use different writing techniques to create imagery for the reader.
Our topic in Geography this term has allowed us to look at comparisons between the UK and the Caribbean sea. This week we created a water cycle experiment and concluded by writing about the different stages of the water cycle.
Have a great weekend
Year 5 Team
Week beginning 6th May
We have been getting stuck into lots of new learning this week. In maths, we have learnt to problem solve using the coordinates of only one given vertex. Together, we have also explored translation and been able to describe the position of a shape.
Literacy this week has allowed us to use all the techniques learnt to create imagery in our own innovative stories. Each day we have been able to structure our writing on a new section of the text. Our partners listened to our innovative stories and gave necessary feedback to help us improve.
In Science, we have been looking at living things and their habitats. We have explored how plants reproduce and learnt key vocabulary to help us understand the process better. As a class, we propagated a plantlet off a spider plant to observe how it produces a clone of its parent.
Reminder:
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PE days are Tuesdays and Thursdays- Please ensure children have the correct PE kit in school on these days.
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School ties must be worn
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Hair must be tied back
Week beginning 22nd April
This week in maths we have been identifying and measuring different angles. The children have been able to explain the differences between acute, obtuse and reflex angles. This linked into the children's understanding that angles around a point add up to 360 °.
In literacy we have been understanding the literary techniques used to create imagery. The children have had the opportunity to choose their own setting where they have practised the tools to create imagery. Next week, we will start to write our own innovative stories based on our class text ‘This morning I met a whale’.
In Design and Technology this term we will be focusing on materials. The children have begun to explore a range of different materials trying to find the best material to make a survival bag.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Year 5 Team
Week beginning 15th April
Happy Summer Term.
What a wonderful first week back.
In Literacy, we have begun our fiction unit, ‘This morning I met a whale’. The children have begun the week looking at how to effectively describe a setting. We spoke about using our senses to engage the reader and how we could use suspense to keep them hooked.
In Maths, we began our angle unit, we have recapped different angles and will continue to look more in depth next week.
On Wednesday, the children represented Jupiter in a wonderful way, they showed outstanding behaviour and thoroughly enjoyed their day. Their broomstick picture will be sent home next week.
Have a wonderful weekend
The Year 5 team
Week beginning 18th March
We’ve made it to the end of yet another week.
In Maths this week, we have started statistics where we have learned to read and interpret tables as well as plotting points on a graph.
In literacy, we have spoken a lot about the features of a discussion text. We worked together to identify the different writing techniques used and made a start on our own creative versions of ‘Do monsters like Grendel exist’. Everyone had the opportunity to choose their own mythical creature and use a variety of contrasting conjunctions.
Together, we have explored expressionism in art, where we have used our computing and art skills combined to create portraiture art. We had to carefully consider the colours chosen to show our emotions in the picture.
Reminders:
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Our Tuesday PE lesson has changed to Thursday morning
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All children are expected to wear the correct uniform, this includes a school tie
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End of term arrangements, school will be closing at 1:15pm on Thursday for the Easter break.
Week beginning 11th March
What a wonderful week in Year 5.
It was lovely to see so many of you at parents evening this week.
We started the week with a visit from a mad scientist, who opened our minds to the wonderful world of science! The children have been busy completing different experiments. We created a tasty chemical reaction using icing sugar, bicarbonate of soda and citric acid. We finished the week off with a blast! We put Vitamin C tablets into a film canister and shook it! See if your child can remember the gas we created!
In Literacy we continued to look at our discussion text ‘Do Monsters Like Grendel Exist?’. The children have worked really hard to identify the different sentence types within our text. We explored the difference between a simple sentence, compound sentence and complex sentence. The children finished off the week by writing their own complex sentences.
In Maths we have been looking at perimeter and area. The children have worked hard to understand the difference between both. They have calculated perimeter and area. We will be continuing with this next week.
Wishing you a restful week.
Year 5 Team
Week beginning 4th March
This week has been assessment week. The children have worked hard to persevere throughout the week and show what they have learnt.
In History this week we discussed the meaning of philosophy and explored the ancient Greek Gods that are still famous for philosophy today. The children gathered lots of information on the philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
In RE this term we will be focusing on the celebration of Ramadan. The children enjoyed sharing what they tried to ‘’go without’’ over the weekend. This week we worked in groups to explore different aspects of Ramadan such as how it's celebrated around the world and the effects food and water have on the body when fasting. The children came up with some interesting points which they will publish into an informative leaflet next week
We look forward to a busy week next week as we step into Science week where the children will take part in different Science experiments. We are also having a Rabbi come to visit us in support of our previous RE topic on Judaism.
** Please note there has been a change to our PE days. From next week, PE will now take place on a Monday and a Thursday. All children should have the correct PE kit in school on these days.
Reading
Please remember all children should be reading daily for at least 20 minutes.
We wish you all a restful weekend
Week commencing 29th January
In maths, we have worked hard to learn different strategies to find fraction of amounts. We applied these different strategies to help us solve word problems. Next week, we will be understanding the link between decimals, percentages and fractions.
We have had our creative hats on in literacy where we have innovated our own stories of Beowulf. Over the week, we have revisited the writing techniques identified in the Beowulf text and applied it to our stories
In RE, we have been looking at the importance of freedom and responsibility. We held great class discussions and were able to understand that there are things we have the freedom to do but it does often come with responsibility.
The children enjoyed number day today, we all had a go at finding triangular numbers, practising our times tables followed by Kandinsky inspired art work in the afternoon.
We wish you a restful weekend
Year 5 Team
Week commencing 22nd January
Another busy week in Year 5.
In Literacy, we have continued to focus on our action text ‘Beowulf’. We began to explore the features of a fast poem including the use of ambitious vocabulary to interest the reader. We then worked together to create an action toolkit to support us with our own action writing.
In maths, we have moved onto our second fraction unit. The children were introduced to key words 'Integer and partition’ these are key words we are encouraging children to use throughout our lessons. Perhaps try testing their knowledge.
In RE this term we are learning about the Jewish celebration- Passover. We have worked hard to understand and retell the story of Exodus. This week, we looked at what Jewish families do to celebrate Passover and the important foods that are eaten during the Sedar meal.
February is LGBT+ History month. As per our Enrichment Calendar, we will be using this as an opportunity to learn about family structures and backgrounds.
Year 5 Team.
Week commencing 15th January
What a busy week in Year 5.
The children have continued to show a positive attitude towards their learning.
In maths we have been finishing our division and multiplication unit. We have worked hard to consolidate what we have learnt and used different methods and strategies to solve different calculations. The children have been able to clearly explain which method they prefer and why.
We continued our Literacy text ‘Beowulf’. On Monday the children put themselves into the role of the character Beowulf.
They thought carefully about how Beowulf’s feelings changed throughout his battle with Grendel. They then used this to create a diary entry. Towards the end of the week we looked at verbs and expanded noun phrases and used them to make our writing more interesting.
In Science we have started our new topic ‘Materials and their Properties’. We began this by exploring vocabulary we would use to describe different materials. See if your child can remember what permeable means.
This term PE will be netball. This will be outside, please make sure your child has appropriate, warm clothing. Earrings needs to be taken out on PE days (Monday and Tuesday).
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
The Year 5 team.
Week commencing 8th January
Welcome back! We hope you all had a well rested and enjoyable break.
Year 5 have all come back and showed a positive start to their learning this week.
The highlight of our week has to be our visit today from the Wonder Dome. This was an exciting experience for us all. All children showed good listening skills and were able to make links with the learning explored in our science unit ‘Earth and Space’.
In maths, we have been learning division. We have worked hard to learn different efficient methods to help us divide 3 and 4 digit numbers by a 1 digit number. The children showed great confidence using their preferred method to solve multi-step problems.
We have jumped right into our new text in literacy, ‘Beowulf’. Together, we have unpicked the scene and come up with interesting and ambitious vocabulary to help us write our own setting descriptions. We have also identified unsure words in the text and worked together to identify their meanings.
In History this term we are exploring Greeks. The children held informative discussions that showed their existing knowledge on this topic. Together, we explored dates and created a timeline of events. Next week, we will be focusing on Alexander the Great.
We hope you have a relaxing weekend.
Week beginning 27th November
What a busy week in Year 5.
In Literacy we have begun our new text ‘Killer Whales.’ This week we have been focusing on ‘Reading as a Writer’. We have been identifying the features of a Non-Chronological Report in preparation for writing our own about a chosen sea predator.
In Maths we finished our fraction unit and moved onto multiplication using a formal written method. We will continue to focus on this over the next few weeks.
Finally, we finished our week with Times Table Rockstars Launch day. Our day began with a showdown between four children in UKS2. A huge well done to Kora and Venanshi in Pine Martens for working super speedy. You’re both amazing Rockstars!
Reminders
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With the colder weather please remember to send your child in with a coat.
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PE days are Monday and Tuesday.
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Please try and read with your child each night.
Week beginning 20th November
It has been another busy week in year 5. In maths, we have all shown great perseverance as we tackled tricky fractions together. We have all learnt how to find equivalent fractions and how to add and subtract fractions from a mixed number.
In Literacy, we have been creating our own narratives using different writing features to hook and engage our reader. Next week, we will start our non-fiction unit where we will be looking closely at non-chronological reports.
In science this week we explored the effects of air resistance using parachutes. We worked in groups to make and test different size parachutes to identify which size would have the slowest drop time.
A gentle reminder that it is Pine Martens class assembly on Monday, the children are looking forward to sharing this with you.
Thursday 30th December is our TT Rockstars relaunch day. Children are invited to dress up as a rockstar for the day. Please encourage your children to keep practising at home, as they could become one of the 4 top children on the leaderboard.
We wish you a wonderful weekend.
Year 5 team
Week beginning 13th
What a challenging week! This week the children have shown great perseverance throughout our assessment week. Well done to you all.
Assessments have taken the main focus in Maths and Literacy this week, but we have continued to explore the features of a non-chronological text. The children used their computer skills to research and produce a creative and informative slideshow to show this information.
In Theme, we looked at six-figure grid references. The children were able to plan and produce their own treasure maps that included compass points and map symbols. In Science this week, we focused on water resistance. We all made boats and tested them out to see how quickly and easily they would travel. In RE we have been learning about Hinduism. We now know a lot more about the Hindu celebration ‘Holi’.
Reminders
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Please remember to read for at least 20 minutes a day.
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Pine Martens assembly- Please remember to send in any photos of your child participating in a cultural activity or celebration. Thank you for the photos already received.
We wish you all a restful weekend.
Year 5 team
Week beginning 6th November
This week we have continued our work with fractions. We began by adding fractions with the same denominator and moved onto being able to add fractions with different denominators. Next week we will be moving onto subtracting different fractions.
In Literacy we became publishers, we finished writing our 500 word stories. These were then typed up by children and entered into the BBC competition. Fingers crossed!!
In Theme we have started our Geography topic, Investigating Our world. We began by exploring ordnance survey maps and looked at the key features. We also started to look at contour lines and what they mean.
Wishing all of our families celebrating Diwali this weekend a bright and Happy New Year.
The Year 5 team.
Week beginning 30th October
We have reached the end of our first week back. The children had great fun using their imaginative ideas to decorate their pumpkins. Well done to our winners.
In Maths this week, we have been recognising equivalent fractions and converting improper fractions to mixed numbers. We will continue to explore fractions further next week.
In Literacy we have let our creativity come to light- we have spent time planning and structuring our 500 word stories that will be submitted later next week. The children will be focusing on finishing these and making improvements for their final versions before the deadline.
This term in Science we will be focusing on ‘Forces’. The children have identified different forces and were able to explain the effect forces have on an object.
A gentle reminder that all children must have their PE kits in school on a Monday and Tuesday. If they are coming to school already dressed in their PE kits, then their uniforms must be packed and brought to school with them.
We hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Year 5 Team
Week commencing 16th October
We’ve finally reached the end of our first half term. The children have all settled in really well and have worked well towards the expectations set out for the year ahead. The year 5 team have all been impressed with their engagement and keen interest in the topics they’ve explored this term.
In maths this week, we have been learning to multiply different numbers using our knowledge of multiples of 10,100 and 1,000. After half term, we will be exploring fractions where we will find equivalent fractions and understand the difference between a unit fraction and a non-unit fraction.
As we will be writing non-chronological reports after half term, we have spent time this week considering the important features used in them.
Together, we have been exploring different ways we can remember how to spell different words. This has mainly been through spelling rules and creating fun memorable mnemonics. Have a go at practising a few;
Accident Through
Bicycle Special
Century Ordinary
Describe Particular
Knowledge Calendar
Treasure Pleasure
We wish you all a restful half term and look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 30th November.
Year 5 team
Week commencing 9th October
This week has been a busy one. In maths we have identified different square and cube numbers. To help us identify these, we used resources such as multilinks to make the shape of a square or a cube.
In literacy we let our creativity flow - we spent time planning and writing our own version of a fable. Once completed, we edited them using the writing features discussed in our lessons.
The Shang Dynasty has been our main emphasis in Theme this term. We now know how the Shang Dynasty was more developed than other ancient societies. The use of the oracle bone, which was used as paper, and the chariot, which was used in war, piqued the children's interest.
Miss Hewitt and Miss Yearwood
Week commencing 2nd October
Maths - this week we have been looking at factors and prime numbers. They learnt how to identify factors of a number using their existing knowledge of times tables. We understood the concept of prime numbers and identified prime factors of a number too. Next week we will begin to look at square and cubed numbers.
Literacy - we started the week by editing our version of The Nodding Tiger. We looked at how to use fronted adverbials correctly within a piece of writing. Next week we will be finishing off our unit of fables and the children will be writing their own fable.
Science - in science we looked at the different phases of the moon. See if your child can remember the correct names. Reminders:
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On Friday we sent home the children’s christmas card designs, if you would like to purchase theirs please return it Monday 30th October.
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Monday 16th Otters Class assembly.
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Parents evening Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th.
We look forward to seeing you then.
Have a lovely weekend.
Year 5 team.
Week commencing 25th September
The children continue to impress us with their positive attitude towards Year 5.
In Literacy we have continued to explore our fable ‘The Nodding Tiger’. The children have planned their version this week and began to write their Innovated version. They have written fantastic opening paragraphs and drawn the reader in.
In Maths we have been focusing on addition and subtraction, the children have recapped their column method strategies and have used these to solve two-step word problems.
Reminders:
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Please ensure your child is reading each night.
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Children are encouraged to bring in a fruit snack for break time.
Have a lovely weekend.
Year 5 Team.
Week commencing 18th September 2023
We finally made it to Friday, what a busy week it’s been.
In Maths this week we have been working on rounding to 10, 100 and 1000 where we have been trying to remember the rounding rule to help us.
In Literacy we have started to explore our new fable ‘The Nodding Tiger’. We have explored the key features of the text as well as unusual vocabulary.
In Art, we are focusing on tints, tones and shade. We have had great fun changing the contrast of different primary colours.
Please note, on non-uniform days children are not permitted to wear crop tops as tops.
Have a lovely weekend.
The Year 5 Team.
Week commencing - 11th September 2023
Wow, what a busy week.
In Maths this week we have been learning to read and write numbers to 1,000,000. We have used place value charts to compare and order numbers in descending and ascending order. Next week we will be rounding numbers to 1,000,000.
In Literacy we have been focusing on our grammar. We have worked at using fronted adverbials correctly. We practised using coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. Next week we will be starting our Fable story for the term and will be exploring the features of Fables.
In Science we have been learning about Space and Earth this week. We made posters about different planets in our solar system. We had to make sure we included facts and our posters were bright and colourful.
On Mondays, the children are welcome to come into school wearing their PE kits, please remember to pack their school uniform in their bags.
Week beginning 4th September
Wow, what a busy first week back! The children have settled in well to Year 5 life and have enjoyed getting to know the adults they will be working with this year.
Some key points to remember:
- PE days are on a Monday and Tuesday
- Please ensure that children have a labelled water bottle in school every day
- Meet the teacher event Wednesday at 3pm
We hope you have a lovely weekend, enjoying the sunshine.
Week beginning 10th July
As we near closer to the end of the term, we are starting to tie up our learning in and complete an unfinished tasks. In Literacy, we published our fantastic warning tales using Chomebooks and in Maths, we have looked at units of measurement and time and learnt how to convert between different measurements.
In art, we have looked at still life compositions and produced our own using a collection of fruit, vegetables and flowers.
In PE, we have been learning how to play rounders. The children have all demonstrated excellent teamwork whilst playing.
We hope you all have a lovely and restful summer holiday and we look forward to welcoming you back in September.
The Year 5 Team
Week beginning 3rd July
This week started with a morning of writing on Monday where the children wrote their own warning stories based on a model text. The children were given a range of interesting settings to choose from such as an ancient temple, an evacuated airport and an abandoned amusement park. The children wrote fantastic stories full of engaging vocabulary and will be publishing their stories on Chromebooks next week.
In Maths, we have been lookig at units of measurement. We started by learning that 'kilo' means one thousand and practised converting between metres and kilometres and grams and kilograms.
Wednesday was Sports Day which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. We were so proud of the sportsmanship shown by all children.
Week beginning 26th June
This week was back to ususal and we started it by revising multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000. The children first calculated using place value charts before moving on to complete questions in their books.
In Literacy, the children wrote their own stories for their writing assessment. They worked so hard and included interesting adjectives, powerful verbs, fronted adverbials and even some embedded clauses!
On Tuesday, we had our first puberty PSHE lesson. Boys and girls are split for these sessions to make them feel more comfortable. We were really proud of how sensible they all were and they asked excellent questions.
We had another transition afternoon on Wednesday where the children split into their three classes. The children completed some art work that will be displayed in their new classroom in September.
Week beginning 19th June
This week was test week at Jupiter which meant that most children sat spelling, SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) and maths tests to see what they have learnt and to identify gaps to inform teaching. We were so proud of the children for trying their best in every test and they should all be very proud of themselves.
On Thursday, we had Electric Umbrella visit who are charity that create amazing live, interactive music experiences with learning disabled people. The children really enjoyed the assembly and came away singing and dancing!
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Week beginning 12th June
This week, we have been continuing to look at warning stories and the children have written their own. They have revised adverbial phrases and learnt new synonyms to use in their writing. Well done!
In Maths, we have been revising a wide range of subjects! We started by looking at negative numbers, then translating shapes on a grid and finally adding and subtracting decimals. The children have worked really hard on these concepts and have used a growth mindset to tackle challenging questions.
On Tuesday afternoon, we all went outside to make 'pop rockets' for science. We filled small film cannisters with half of a vitamin c tablet and water. We turned them upside down and stepped back to watch them fly up into the sky!
Week beginning 5th June
Welcome to Summer Term 2!
This week has been art week and the children have been spending their afternoons working with different children aross the schools to complete different art projects such as creating sun catchers, flip books portraits and crowns.
In Maths, we have been continuing to look at shape and have moved on to look at symmetry and reflecting shapes on a mirror line. Next week, we will move on to adding, subtracting and comparing decimals.
In Literacy, we have been looking at a warning tale about the dangers on train tracks. The children have been focusing on adverbs and challenging vocabulary within the text.
On Wednesday, we had a special visitor in to talk to Year 5 and 6 from the Herts Police CYP Gangs and Schools Team. They come into schools to raise awareness around the impact of knife crime and having conversations around staying safe and making positive choices. The children asked brilliant questions and learnt a lot about making positive choices now and in secondary school.
Week beginning 8th May
This week, we have started looking at angles. We began by classifying angles and have moved on to using a protractor to measure degrees. We have found this a little challenging but we will continue to practise with a protractor next week.
In literacy, we wrote our own finding tale. We all wrote about finding different objects which ranged from mirrors and teleportation machines to portals to the past.
In computing, we have been creating vector drawings which are drawings created on a computer. We learnt how to layer shapes and add colours in different gradients.
Week beginning 1st May
Well, we sure have fitted a lot into 3 days this week!
After a long weekend, we eased ourselves back in with PE on Wednesday. We are currently doing athletics in preparation for Sports Day.
On Thursday, we had another mindfulness session with our mindfulness coach, Mrs Mortimer, who taught us that negative thoughts and feelings are just like dark clouds or buses that pass us. Similarly to clouds and buses, it is okay to acknowledge them and know that they are there but it's also important to remember that they will pass.
We were also visited by the NSPCC on Thursday who led a 'Speak Out, Stay Safe' workshop. These sessions support children to feel empowered - knowing how they can speak out and stay safe.
On Friday, we started the day with our weekly music lesson where we looked at samba music. We then had our Coronation Day picnic! Desite the weather, we all had a brilliant day and enjoyed being with our families.
We hope you have a brilliant, long weekend.
Week beginning 17th April
Welcome back to school!
We have arrived back with a bang and have started a new topic, Sow, Grow and Farm. This new geography topic will first focus on allotments and will move onto trying to grow our own food and using natural produce to create a tasty soup.
In Maths, we have been looking at finding the area of shapes and have been solving problems relating to area. For example yesterday, we had to create a park that was
80cm2 and within that park, we had to accurately measure draw a lake, forest and a marsh.
In Literacy, we have started looking at a new finding tale called 'The Game'. It is similar to the film Jumanij where two children find an unusual looking game in school which leads to mayhem! The children will be writing their own version of the story in the next two weeks.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Week beginning 20th March
Well done to the children for their amazing efforts completing their Spring Assessments. This week, we spent time reviewing our answers to build on our prior knowledge. The children found it very helpful spotting key mistakes and learning how to build and improve their answers, especially when considering questions worth more than one mark.
In Theme, the children have learnt about the discovery and spread of coinage throughout ancient Greece! They completed instructions for how to make coins, explored imagery found on ancient coins, and designed their own special coin. They then created a mould using plasticine, which we filled with plaster of paris. We are very excited to see how they turn out next week, when we will hopefully paint them bronze!
In Literacy, we completed our Writing assessment. This term, we looked at creating non-chronological reports, and this was focused around an invented 'new planet' of their imaginations. The children have worked hard to develop their writing through use of conjunctions, noun phrases and modal verbs.
In Maths, the children have learnt about percentages! They have linked this to prior learning on both fractions and decimals. They have made excellent progress in this area and are learning to recognise and use equivalences between all three concepts.
Week beginning 13th March
It has been a much shorter week than usual - with lots and lots of learning to fit in!
The children have sat some of their Spring Assessments - these are Reading, Maths and SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) booklets which support us with assessing the childen against Year 5 learning objectives. The children have worked very maturely to complete these.
In Computing, we have been busy learning how to create our own quizzes on Scratch.
We have been pushing ahead with Guided Reading, as we still have a few chapters to go until we finish Percy Jackson!
Week beginning 6th March
Well, despite the crazy weather, we have had a great week in Year 5! We started the week by looking at different types of mammals in science and deciding which characteristics makes an animal a mammal.
In Maths, we continued to look a decimals and in particular, converting decimals from tenths to hundredths, comparing and ordering decimals and rounding them to the nearest whole number and to one decimal place.
In Literacy, we have revisted some spelling rules in preparation for our SPAG (spellling, punctuation and spelling test) and spelling test that took place on Thursday and Friday.
The children will sit reading and maths papers next week. These will inform teachers' planning for summer term and to find where specific support is needed.
Also, just a reminder that some children have been asked to bring PJs in for swimming next week. You will have received an email if you child needs to.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Week beginning 27th February
We have thoroughly enjoyed World Book Week. It was lovely to some of you enjoying storytime on Tuesday evening and what a fabulous effort you have all made for your character dress up. You looked fantastic! Year 5 focused on The Mad Hatters Tea Party this week and to link to this theme, we tasted different fruit teas and guessed the flavours, investigated which biscuit was the best to dunk in tea and programmed our own short Alice in Wonderland computing programme.
In literacy this week we have looking at the wishing tale, King Midas and the Golden touch. The children will be innovating their own version of the story next week.
In maths we have been looking at decimals and in particular, hundredths and thousandths.
Week beginning 20th February
What an amazing first week back we have had!
In Maths, we recapped our learning on fractions, before moving onto decimals. We have looked place value of numbers up to two decimal places, and began to explore tenths as both a fraction and a decimal.
In Literacy, we have looked at wishing stories. We thought carefully about the idea 'be careful what you wish for' and what this could look like if a wish was granted. We explored vocabulary carefully and practiced writing descriptive language, including prepositions.
The end of the week culminated in a very successful Greek day! The children were invited to come in wearing traditional Greek clothing. They explored pottery as a primary source of evidence for the ancient Greeks, and had a go at designing their own vase in the Greek 'orange and black' style, depicting imagery from myth.
Next week is Book Week! We are excited for the children to immerse themselves in our chosen story - Alice in Wonderland.
Week beginning 6th February
We have finished our first Spring half term and the children should be very proud of themselves!
In Literacy, we have had a focus on poetry, looking at cinqaine poetry and haikus. The children needed to think carefully about word choice to ensure their poem fitted within syllable requirements - they found this tricky but were very successful!
In Maths, we have revisited fractions. The children have learnt how to multiple whole numbers by fractions, find fractions of amounts and recapped converting improper fractions into mixed fractions. They have made lots of progress in what is a very tricky topic.
We are half way through our Guided Reading text - Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief! This week our key reading skill we practiced was inference.
In Theme, we explored the Parthenon in Athens. We then worked in small groups to construct this using clay, cardboard and art straws. We thought very carefully about how to construct the roof of our buildings - with mixed success.
Have a great half term - we look forward to welcoming the children back Monday 20th February. Please remember we will have our Greek theme day on Friday 24th!
Week beginning 30th January
This week has been a busy one! We started by revisiting fractions in maths and multiplying them with integers (whole numbers). In Literacy, we have been looking at SPAG (spelling, puctuation and grammar) and in particular, how to use 'was' and 'were' correctly.
In art, we have been looking at portraits and we used iPads to take photos of our own portraits. We thought about different expression and how we can convey different emotions with our face.
Lastly, we had a great time celebrating number day today. Everyone dressed as a digit and we had fun learning with jelly beans. We even learnt about fractions, data handling and estimating with jelly beans.
As part of number day, the trust are holding a competition on TT Rockstars all weekend so please do encourage your children to play this weekend!
Week Beginning 23rd January
In Maths, we have continued to look at division, working up to dividing 4 digit numbers, both with and without a remainder. We then applied this knowledge to word problems involving both multiplication and division.
In Literacy, we have invented our very own Greek myth. Many of us have done so by changing the perspective of the story, 'Theseus and the Minotaur, telling the story as if we were the Minotaur. We have focused our grammar on using subordinate clauses and our writing will hopefully reflect this!
In our history learning about the ancient Greeks, we have begun to look at the roles of men and women at this time, with a particular focus on Classical Athens. We learnt about the social hierarchy at this time and compared to our learning about Ancient China. We then worked in groups to roleplay the different social classes found at the time - with great success!
On Wednesday afternoons we explore Art. This week, we used oil pastels to change photographs into artwork, adding extra emotions and tone with our strokes.
Week Beginning 16th January
In Maths, the week began with the childen learning how to divide using counters and a place value chart. They thought about having to exchange when there were not enough counters in a column and this led on to the children dividing using a more formal method (bus stop method).
In Literacy, we have been continuing to look at the myth, Theseus and the Minotaur. The children innovated their own version by the end of the week. We had a range of Greek Gods and mythological creatures mentioned such as a pegasus, a centaur and Medusa!
Tuesday brought round another week of swimming which the children are thorougly enjoying. Members of the public have also noted how well the children have behaved whilst at the leisure centre! Well done Year 5!
In Science on Monday, we looked at thermal insulators and conductors. We wanted to find out which material would be the best to keep our lunch cool and we found that it was tin foil!
Please note that our new homework bingo is now up on the website. Spellings are yet to be uploaded as we are currently reviewing how we give out spellings as a school. Please also remember that the children should be reading as often as possible and continuing to practise their times tables.
The websites below are all great at supporting children to develop and practise their Maths and Literacy skills.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
https://grammarsaurus.co.uk/portal/free-materials/
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Week Beginning 9th January
It has been lovely to see the children back at school after the holidays. The children have been sharing their Christmas holiday stories and we have been thinking about the new term ahead.
In Maths, we have been continuing to learn about multiplication. The children were introduced to the grid method and then a formal, written method. Children are given the opportunity to choose whichever strategy they prefer and encouraged to use concrete resources as often as possible.
In Literacy, we have been looking at Greek myths to tie in with our 'Ancient Greek' theme. The children learnt Theseus and the Minotaur off by heart and with actions before writing their own imitated version at the end of the week.
Tuesday saw our first swimming lesson of this term. We were so proud of how resilient the children were and how much they had remembered from the lessons last year.
Week Beginning 12th December
Well, what a fun Monday we had to begin the week! We hope everyone enjoyed the snow day and had a chance to go out and play in it! When we came back to school on Tuesday, the children continued to look at fractions in Maths where they learnt how to convert improper fractions to mixed numbers and apply this when adding and subtracting fractions.
In Literacy, the children wrote detailed paragraphs titled "What Christmas is...". The children used figurative language such as similes and metaphors to write what Christmas means most to them.
The children ended the week by writing a suspense text imagining they were taking the final penalty in the World Cup!
We now have mindfulness lessons every Thursday morning where our own mindfulness coach, Mrs Mortimer, teaches us strategies to help regulate our emotions. These sessions have started brilliantly and we look forward to continuing them after Christmas.
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
Week Beginning Week Beginning 14th November
Welcome to our new Year 5 blog on our new website!
In Maths, the children have continued to explore fractions. We have built on our learning from last week, looking at comparing and ordering fractions, and moving on to adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators. The children have impressed us with their positive attitude towards some very tricky concepts!
In Literacy, we have reached the conclusion of our unit on persuasive writing. The children invented their own school of choice, creating floor plans to show the layout of the building. They have applied all the skills learnt to write a persuasive advert for their school, using AFOREST technique to include persuasive devices. Finally, we have worked in small groups to come up with persuasive presentations for our Year 2 children, to encourage them to read more! It was lovely watching the children act as role models with the younger pupils.
In Geography, we have explored contour lines used in maps! The children used rulers to mark every 1cm on a potato and carefully drew around these for a 3D representation of contour lines.
In Music we have begun to learn 'The 12 Days of Christmas'! It may only be November, but we are ready to practice until it is perfect and wow you with our performance.
7th November
What a busy week in Year 5!
In Maths, we have been looking at fractions. This is a unit which can involve some tricky concepts but the children have used their growth mindset to tackle the challenge activities and can now recognise and make equivalent fractions and convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers.
In Literacy, we have continued to think about persuasive writing and persuasive techniques such as using emotive language, alliteration and rhetorical questions. We will be applying these next week when we write a persuasive letter encouraging people to come to our school!
Today, we had another fun music lesson where the children were learning to play the ukulele. The children listened carefully and learnt a few songs.
Lastly, the whole school gathered together today to have a 2 minute silence on the playground. To commemorate remembrance day, the children created poppy sun catchers which are proudly displayed in our classrooms.
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
