Spring Term

Wow! What a busy first half term we have had! The children returned to school after Christmas with enthusiasm and a real drive to hit the ground running. We kick started the term with a visit from Thomas Kitching and the Young’uns with whom we learnt about Luton’s heritage and wrote a song together. Please keep an eye out on Twitter and the school website where their final piece of music will be posted. Have a look at all the wonderful things that we have been getting up to in our classes.

English

In English this term, Year 5 have been learning how to write an effective action scene. Our model text is based on the book, Beowulf, by Michael Morpurgo. Within this unit, we have focused on specific writing features that we can use to make our own action scene writing. Some of the features we have focused on are:

• Repeated ED verbs– “they wrestled, yanked, heaved and lunged.”
• Sentences of three (to move the action forward)- “He tore his teeth into blood-stained hair and, with a splintering crack of a bone, ripped flesh from the creatures side.”
• Adverbials of action– “As he turned for more prey…” “held him fast by the arm.”
• Prepositions to introduce the action– “Up from his lair and through the shadows..”
• Carefully place adjectives– “ like a crazed animal” “ Grendel’s hideous skull”
• Long and short sentences – “He aimed. Fired.” “And so, finally, splattered and stained with blood, our hero stood, and at his feet, a gruesome carcass lay.”

We have learnt the meaning of new words found in our model text. These include: carcass, splintering, lair, moorland, thirsting, frenzied, seized, gnashing, inferno, thrashing

At the end of this unit the children will write their own action scenes. We are looking forward to seeing their creations!

 

Maths

In maths, children are currently on the topic of multiplication and division. They have worked incredibly hard to understand long multiplication using the area model and column method. They began by multiplying numbers by a single digit and gradually moved on to multiplying 4-digit numbers by double digits. The children were very thorough and worked methodically to solve calculations. Over the next few days, they will learn to solve long division using the bus stop method. Children will be supported with a range of concrete and pictorial representations to aid their understanding. Have a look at some of the fantastic work below.

 

PSHE

Within the Jigsaw lessons, children are working together to identify some of their dreams and goals for the future. They began by creating a dream jar- filling it with all their hopes for the future. Over the next few weeks, children will be exploring different professions and looking closely at different roles and responsibilities people have. They will understand the importance of different jobs and how they contribute to society. They will also be researching careers they are interested in and identifying the steps required to achieve those. Have a look at some of their dreams and goals below.

 

 

 

Reading- The Promise

The children have thoroughly enjoyed our reading comprehension lessons this half term. We have been studying the picture book called “The Promise.” The children have been building on their ability to have discussions and debates; justifying their thoughts with evidence from the text. They have learnt to empathise with character through the use of dramatical techniques like role play, hot seating, conscience alley, role on the wall and writing in role. The children have discussed the many themes and key messages that the author has tried to convey. They have looked at how language informs illustrations and how they illustrations change throughout the story, as well as the impact this has on the reader.

 

Topic- The Monarchy

This term we will be studying the monarchy. The children have enjoyed learning about the many different monarchs that have led our country since Alfred the Great. We have learnt how to plot key events on a timeline as well as learnt what the order of succession means. We have looked at some key figures and the impact they had during their reign, including: Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. The children will also be planning King Charles’ coronation! Have a look at some of the beautiful art work that children made for our class displays! Do you recognise any of these royal objects?

Computing 

In Computing, Linden, Beech and Hawthorn Class have been exploring what is meant by E-safety to gain a greater understanding of the impact that sharing digital content can have. Each class created digital comic strips to highlight how to stay safe online- take a look at the examples below:

We have also spent time identifying the advantages and disadvantages of altering an image digitally as well as the purposes and reasons for doing this. The children used a fun program on Purple Mash called 2Paint A Picture to manipulate their images. You can see some great examples again below:

 

Wow! We cannot quite believe how quickly this term has gone by! We have been blown away by so many of the children in our classes- the quality of work has been outstanding!  Below is a snapshot of what we have been up to over the last few weeks.

Music

This term, we have been learning the iconic song ‘Livin’ on a prayer’ by Bon Jovi. We started by learning the lyrics and rhythms and then moved onto playing some key notes on the glockenspiels to accompany the song.  Look out for some of our performances on Twitter, coming soon!

Science

This term we started our new topic: “Properties and changes of materials.” We revised some of the key vocabulary and content that we learnt last year and are now building on these key concepts. We have carried out some exciting investigations too! We started by conducting a test on the properties of a range of materials e.g. the flexibility, permeability, hardness, transparency and magnetism of objects. We will soon be moving onto carrying out comparative investigations, like testing the best thermal conductor and insulator. Do you recognise these words? Can you think of everyday objects that are thermal conductors/insulators?

 

Design and Technology  

As part of the ancient Egypt topic work, the children in Year 5 have learnt the importance of a Shaduf and the river Nile. In DT this term, they will be creating a shaduf by applying their knowledge of levers from science. By working as a group, they have begun planning their ideas- trying to select the best materials and resources to create their prototypes. Over the next few days, they will be bringing their ideas to life and creating their final product, ready to put it to the ultimate test. Will their shaduf be strong enough to carry the water from low to high ground? Take a look at some of the initial research they did.

 

Feeling Festive!

A huge thank you to all the parents and carers who came along to our Christmas craft morning- we had so much fun creating wreaths, reindeer hot chocolate and snowmen bookmarks!

We are absolutely loving Bookvent and have enjoyed listening to the children read out their favourite chapter of their favourite book to the whole class.

We are very much looking forward to walking up to Queen Elizabeth School on Wednesday 14th December to watch their Christmas Panto: Robin Hood and His Merry Men. Please do remember to sign and return the permission slip before Monday.

We would like to take this opportunity to say happy holidays and we hope that you all have a restful break ready to return on Wednesday 3rd January 2023.

Miss Islam, Mrs Parkar and Miss Khan

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to our first blog of the school year!

Linden, Hawthorn and Beech class have all made an absolutely brilliant start to the year! All of the teachers are very proud of the children and the great learning which has taken place already. Please do enjoy reading about a few of our highlights below.

PSHE- Building Resilience

For the first two weeks of the Autumn term, we focused our afternoon lessons on the theme of resilience. The aim of these lessons is to develop the children’s growth mindset towards their learning. The children discussed strategies to help them cope with difficult situations and using their favourite ideas, they created a resilience wheel. We also learnt about how to build resilience when faced with challenges. The Learning Pit teaches us that we have to fail in order to eventually succeed. The children had fun creating their own learning pits. We also looked at diversity and its importance in our community. The children created some beautiful posters to celebrate diversity.

 

English- Poetry and Spook-tacular Stories!

In English, we have been writing our own poems based on The River by Pie Corbett. The children included various poetic features including alliteration and similes and their amazing work was even commented on by Pie Corbett on Twitter!

@WigmorePrimary tremendous word play – like a sarcastic clown…. https://t.co/WE9FukKD01

— Pie Corbett (@PieCorbett) September 22, 2022

We then went onto writing the opening and build up of own suspense stories. It’s been great fun learning about ways to engage the reader and how to build tension and suspense into our writing. We learnt that writers can weave in rhetorical questions, short sentences, clues to tantalise the reader, onomatopoeia, similes, metaphors and personification. The children have worked incredibly hard to include these in their independent writing, why not ask your child about which features they have included in their work this week.

Topic- Tomb Raiders!

The children have enjoyed learning about Ancient Egypt through a variety of cross-curricular activities. They first went on an exciting scavenger hunt around the school to find the definitions of key words such as archeologist, tomb and sphinx. We have also explored key physical features and locations in Ancient Egypt by studying several maps and artefacts. The children thoroughly enjoyed drawing their own cartouches to demonstrate their understanding of hieroglyphics too. Take a look at some of the fantastic work below!

Science- May the Force Be With You!

This half term we have been developing our understanding about forces. We have revisited, as well as learnt some new, key vocabulary and tried to remember the different types of forces around us. We discussed the terms “balanced” and “unbalanced” forces and used everyday objects to demonstrate this new concept. We learnt about Sir Isaac Newton and how he developed his theory of gravity. Following this, we explored the effect of gravity with objects in the classroom. We identified the difference between Mass and Weight and used Newton meters to find a correlation between the two. We then moved onto learning about Galileo and his discovery that gravity causes objects of the SAME size and SHAPE, regardless of their MASS to fall at the same rate.

This week we will be investigating the effects of air resistance by making parachutes of varied sizes, shapes and materials and testing how quickly (or slowly!) they fall to the ground.

Finally, we are very much looking forward to seeing you all at Parents’ Evening next Tuesday and Wednesday. As ever, thank you for all your support and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask your child’s class teacher.

The Year 5 Team 🙂

 

English

In English, children have completed writing a twisted tale of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. Their creativity and imagination were evident through their fantastic ideas. They have used expanded noun phrases, embedded relative clauses, subordination, parenthesis among many other grammatical features. Why not ask your child how they have twisted their story? How can they twist other traditional tales? Read a particularly good example below.

We have now begun our new unit of work on persuasive speech. The children have learnt the definitions of key vocabulary that will be used throughout this unit such as pollution, fauna, prospect and endangering.

Maths

The enthusiastic mathematicians in year 5 have enjoyed learning about different types of angles. Ask your child if they can explain the difference between acute, right angle, straight line, obtuse, reflex and full rotation. Children have also learnt to use protractors to measure and draw angles accurately.

We will be continuing to work on angles over the next few weeks. Children will learn to recognize and draw parallel and perpendicular lines and develop their reasoning about 3D shapes.

Science

We have just started our new unit of work on Living Things and Their Habitats. The curious scientists have learnt about the process of metamorphosis and have begun comparing different life cycles of insects such as honey bees, butterflies and damselflies. Have a look at a few life cycles below.

Over the next few weeks, the sequence of learning will focus on:

–        In English, we will be studying the skills needed to produce a persuasive speech.

–        In maths, we will be solving questions related to position and direction.

–        In science, we will continue to explore the life cycle of different animals and plants.

–        In Geography, we will learn to read maps and investigate countries in different continents.

Reading and writing

The children have just completed their unit on information texts. They researched endangered animals during their ICT time, finding out about where they live, what they eat and why they are endangered. They then wrote a report on their chosen animal. Why not ask your child what they found out about their animal? Here is a particularly good example.

   

We are now working on twisting the traditional tale of Red Riding Hood. The children have looked at the tales of Goldilocks and The three little pigs and how they have been twisted. Ask them about the two stories below.

 

Maths

For the past few weeks the enthusiastic mathematicians in year five have been investigating the relationship between decimals, fractions and percentages. They then moved onto calculating with decimals. Have a look at a couple of pages from the children’s power maths books to show some examples of the types of questions they have been solving.

Monarchy

The children have continued looking at significant monarchs of the United Kingdom. They have compared the lives of our two longest serving monarchs, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II.  They then wrote a diary entry as if they were present at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Below are two examples of the many excellent pieces completed.

 

Passport to the World

As the ‘wow’ factor introduction to our geography based unit we will be studying in the coming weeks year 5 had some crew from EasyJet visit on Monday 16^th May. As you can see from the pictures below great fun was had by all, with the children learning about aircraft safety, first aid and how to become cabin crew.

Over the next few weeks the sequence of learning will focus on:

* Completing our twisted tale and moving on to writing persuasive texts to encourage people to protect the environment.

* In maths we will be moving onto look at geometry, studying angles and the properties of shapes.

* In French we are looking at food and how to order what they would like in French.

We are pleased to welcome all students back to school after the Easter break, relaxed, refreshed and raring to go!

Reading and Writing

Since our return from the Easter break, we have started our new topic of information texts. The children wrote their cold write about the house elves from Harry Potter and we have been learning how to take notes whilst finding out about whales. The children have been surprised by some of the facts they found out. Why not ask them what the size of a whales heart is and how old was the oldest known whale?

The children have continued with reading their class books. We are all enjoying the stories and can’t wait for the installments each day.

Maths

In maths, we have continued our work on decimals. The children have been learning to convert fractions to decimals and decimals to fractions. They have just started to compare and order decimals. Below is an example of one of the pages they completed in their power maths books.

Topic

We have just started our new topic of the Monarchy. The children completed a time line of the key events in British history and the Monarch’s who were on the throne at the time. They have then studied Henry VIII, finding out about his life, wives and achievements. They then worked in pairs to produce a book all about his reign. Here are a couple of pictures of the work produced.

         

Over the next few weeks, the sequence of learning will focus on:

–        In English, we will be focusing on information texts

–        In maths, we will be continuing our work on decimals by looking at the relationship with percentages, before moving onto to problem solving with decimals.

–        In topic, we will be continuing our new module on the British monarchy by looking at the coronation of the kings and queens.

–        In Music, we will start our unit on Dancing in the Street.

Spellings will be on a Wednesday and the children will be set 4 Mathletics lessons and 2 Reading Eggs lessons each week for homework to prepare them for year 6.

Reading and Writing

The children have enjoyed writing an action scene using all of the different techniques we have learnt from studying Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo. We have now begun to learn about characterisation and scene setting. This week we have written a character description from a picture and another child from another class will attempt to draw the character from the anonymous description.

Here are two descriptions

Can you draw a picture of the character?

How accurate do you think your drawing will be based on this description?

In Reading, the children are continuing to read the class book to help master the skills of inference, prediction, summary and the retrieval of information.

 Maths

In maths, we have continued to learn about fractions. We have been learning to add and subtract fractions with mixed numbers and different denominators. Next week, we are moving on to decimals.

 Science

We have completed our topic on Earth and Space. The children have finished the unit by learning about day and night and the seasons. Ask your child if they can explain the difference between rotate and revolve.

Over the next few weeks, the sequence of learning will focus on:

–        In English, we will be focusing on characterisation

–        In maths, we will be focusing on decimals

–        In topic, we will be starting our new module on the British monarchy

–        In Music, we will continue to practice The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and use glockenspiel to perform.

Don’t forget the music marathon on Thursday the 31^st when the children are encouraged to come to school dressed as their favourite musician. In the next few days, we will be asking them about their favourite songs to include in our singing marathon.

We look forward to seeing you next week on parents evening (Tuesday the 29^th and Wednesday the 30^th) to discuss your child’s progress.

The children have worked incredibly hard this term and we are proud of all their achievements. We hope you and your families have a wonderful relaxing holiday.

We can’t believe another 3 weeks have passed. Here is what has been happening so far.

Reading and Writing

The children have enjoyed producing a boxed-up plan for their own version of the action scene from the Beowulf story. The next stage is to use their plan to create an innovative write.

In Reading, the children are continuing to read the class book to help master the skills of inference, prediction, summary and the retrieval of information.

Maths

The Children have started learning about fractions. So far, they have learnt about equivalence and converting fractions into mixed numbers. They have also learnt to simplify and apply their knowledge to compare fractions.

Science

The children have continued to learn about space this term. They have enjoyed learning about the lunar cycle and the phases of the moon. They are currently writing a newspaper report about the first moon landing that took place in 1969.

Over the next few weeks the sequence of learning will focus on:

• In English, we will continue to write our own version of the action scene using all the skills taught in the lessons so far.
• In maths, we will learn how to add and subtract fractions.
• In Science, we will continue to study space and discover why we have day/night and the seasons.
• In music, we will continue to practice The Fresh Prince of Bell Air and use glockenspiel to perform.
• Oak Class will be performing their assembly on Tuesday the 8^th of March.