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Year 5
Welcome to the Year 5 blog.
PE days for Otters and Stoats are Tuesdays and Thursdays. PE days for Polecats are Mondays and Thursdays.
18.9.26
What a fantastic start we have had to Year 5! The children have settled brilliantly into their new classrooms and routines. They have been busy exploring some exciting, new topics across the curriculum.
In Writing, we have been enjoying the wonderful Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. The children have been writing in role as Michael, using effective verbs and carefully chosen adjectives to create atmosphere and bring their writing to life. We have also been exploring the idea of ‘show, not tell’ when describing emotions, thinking carefully about how characters might behave, move and react rather than simply telling the reader how they feel. The children have started exploring metaphors and have had great fun experimenting with figurative language in their own short poems.
In Maths, we have been developing our understanding of place value, working with numbers all the way up to one million. We have been identifying and placing numbers on number lines and exploring what happens when we find 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 more or less than a given number. The children have also been practising reading and writing large numbers in both numerals and words.
In Science, we have launched (excuse the pun) our new topic, Earth and Space, which has already captured the children's curiosity. We have started exploring our incredible universe and have enjoyed thinking about the Earth and its place in space. There have been plenty of fantastic questions!
In History, we have travelled back in time to begin learning about the Maya civilisation. We have been finding out where the ancient Maya lived and comparing this with where Maya people live today. The children have enjoyed locating places on a variety of maps and in the atlases to start building their knowledge of this fascinating civilisation.
2.10.26
The children have continued to thoroughly enjoy our focus text, Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. They have been busy writing in role as both Michael and Kensuke, exploring the different perspectives and experiences of these fascinating characters. The children have been developing their writing by using carefully chosen noun phrases, adverbials and modal verbs. They have particularly enjoyed capturing the atmosphere of the story and conveying the emotions of the characters, thinking carefully about how their word choices can help the reader imagine each scene.
In Maths, we have started our new unit on addition and subtraction. The children have been exploring efficient methods for solving calculations and have been developing their understanding of how to add whole numbers with more than four digits. They have been encouraged to explain their methods and think carefully about which strategy is most efficient for different calculations.
Our Science learning over the past two weeks has taken us into our very own solar system! The children have been learning about the orbits of the planets in our solar system and discovering how the length of each planet’s orbit varies depending on its distance from the Sun. They have also been investigating why planets are spherical, developing their understanding of the forces that act on them.
In History, we have continued our fascinating exploration of the Ancient Maya. The children have been learning about how Maya sites were rediscovered many years after the civilisation had declined. They have also been investigating the different buildings found at Maya sites and considering why particular structures were built and how they may have been used by the Ancient Maya.
16.10.26
Budding Chefs, Shipwrecked Stories and Mayan Mysteries!
It has been another busy and exciting two weeks in Year 5, with the children getting creative in the kitchen, developing their writing skills and exploring fascinating historical and scientific discoveries!
Year 5 really enjoyed getting hands-on in the kitchen this week. As part of our Design and Technology learning about seasonal food, the children made a delicious potato and leek soup. They practised their cutting skills and thought carefully about how they could adapt the recipe to suit their own tastes. Of course, the best part was getting to taste their creation. We were delighted to have so many children asking for the recipe because they wanted to make the soup again at home. Perhaps we have some budding chefs in our midst.
In writing, the children have been working hard on their own shipwrecked stories. They have been putting all their learning from this term into practice, using expanded noun phrases, adverbials and subordinating conjunctions to make their writing more engaging and descriptive. The children have also been developing their use of show, not tell, learning how to convey their characters' emotions in more sophisticated ways. Rather than simply telling the reader how a character feels, they have been using actions, expressions and physical reactions to help the reader understand the character's emotions.
After working hard to complete our addition and subtraction unit, we have now moved on to our first multiplication and division unit. The children will be exploring multiples and factors, as well as learning about prime numbers, square numbers and cube numbers. There will be plenty of opportunities to spot patterns, investigate number relationships and put their mathematical reasoning skills to the test. The children are looking forward to getting stuck into this new learning.
Our young historians have been busy examining ancient Mayan artefacts. They have been looking carefully at historical evidence and considering what these objects can tell us about Mayan life, culture and beliefs.The children have been thinking like real historians, asking questions about what different objects might have been used for and what they reveal about the people who created and used them. It has been fascinating to see them use clues from the past to build their understanding of this ancient civilisation.
In science, the children have enjoyed learning about the phases of the Moon and discovering why its appearance changes throughout the month. The children have been exploring how the positions of the Sun, Earth and Moon affect what we see from Earth.
Weekly spellings for the children to practise are uploaded weekly to SpellingFrame. Children will have weekly access to this during school time but it would also be great if they could continue their spelling learning at home at least once a week using SpellingFrame.
Times Table Rockstars - it would be great if children were accessing TTRS 4 x weekly for around 5-10 minutes.
Reading - reading is so important to your child's education. Please read with your child daily for 5 - 10 minutes. This can include them reading aloud to you and you reading aloud to them.
Please check back later for information about 5Fest.