As we say hello to a lovely (well-earned) week off, Year 5 have been busy working hard as we round off some truly fantastic learning!
In History, we are have finished off our unit on the Ancient Maya. It has been so fun exploring all the different ways in which the Maya are unique, from their writing system to their daily life. This week, we focused on how impressive we thought the Maya were in their different ways, exploring their temples and calendar, for example. We justified our opinions and wrote all our thoughts down in a script, ready to give a lecture on the Maya now that we are experts!
In Maths, we continued working hard on fractions, exploring improper fractions and fractions with a mixed number!
In English, we continued to explore narrative writing inspired by the tale of Rain Player! We focused on finishing off our character and setting descriptions, and challenged ourselves to write exciting action scenes!
Our daily grammar skill has been on modal verbs exploring, for example, how different words can show certainty versus possibility.
In STEM, we have continued to build our knowledge of forces by exploring friction. We had an exciting experiment where we explored how different types of surfaces impact the speed a toy car travels. We learned how to record our results accurately and put these on the table. It has been great fun exploring forces and helping the Natural History Museum’s recovery team with the meteorite!
Spellings: This week we focused on the following words which all contain the ‘ue’ phoneme:
Minute Particular Opportunity Actual Peculiar Actually Natural Popular Communicate Blue/Blew
Home Learning
- Read for 30 minutes each day
- Practise times tables for 10 minutes each day
- Practise and revise year 3-4 and year 5-6 spellings that we have covered this spring term, so far, to ensure they have been transferred from working memory to long term memory. You can find these spellings here:
Please encourage your child to break the words down into syllables and sounds, just as we do in lessons in line with the Sounds-Write model.
We start by saying a word to the children, for example accommodate. We ask them how many syllables they can hear (4). We then provide them with all the sounds required to build the word but mixed up (a mm cc o o a-e t d). We then identify the sounds in each syllable and build the word syllable by syllable: a / cc o / mm o/ d a-e t). We then identify any potential challenges with the spelling – for example the double mm and double cc in accommodate. The children then use their sounds to build the word – initially in syllables (a / cc o / mm o/ d a-e t) and then as a single word without any syllable spaces (accommodate).
Maya Hot Chocolate
If you would like to have a go at making Maya Hot Chocolate, here is the recipe! Let us know how it goes!
Cocoa nibs can be bought from a range of stores due to their recent popularity as a superfood. If you can get as many pestle & mortars as possible, it will help spread out the inclusion around the class.
It is traditional to tell stories as you are crushing the beans, so get the children to do this as they are grinding – talk about who we are and where we are from, but a tale about something they have done or place they have visited is ideal.
The pouring was a large part of getting the drink frothy – be careful with the children doing this due to the hot water, but you can demonstrate pouring between two vessels (you’ve GOT to do it from a high point).
Try flavouring with honey, vanilla and (if you chose to) chilli!
Next Half Term:
After the half term break, we look forward to welcoming the children back to school for another fun 6 weeks of learning! Our Geography topic is entitled Dynamic Coasts! If anyone heads to the seaside this half term, make sure to take lots of pictures!
In English, we will be exploring personal narratives, using the book Running on Empty to guide our learning! Our daily skill will be focused on adverbials!
In STEM, we will be exploring the life cycles of all different parts of nature, such as plants and mammals!
In Maths, we will continue to look at fractions, including how to order and compare them!#
In Guided Reading, we will dive into Malamander to support our reading comprehension skills!
PE
The children will continue to have outdoor PE on a Wednesday so it is important to remember correct kit!
Please ensure children have weather appropriate PE uniform in school. This includes a hair band to tie back long hair and tape to cover any ear-rings that cannot be removed.
Forest School
After half term, the children will have forest school with Mr Longden! Please make sure they have weather-appropriate clothing to wear!
Olympus class on Tuesdays
Fuji class on Wednesdays
Sagarmatha class on Thursdays
Book Fair
Mobile Telephones
Only children who have permission to walk home alone may bring a mobile telephone to school. It must be given to the class teacher at the start of each day and will be returned at home time.
Snowdonia
Parents, please respond to the Snowdonia questionnaire sent out by Mr Drane!
Collection
Children will not be able to leave school alone unless parents have completed the online form via parentmail.
Children will not be released into the care of unfamiliar adults without prior notification and / or the provision of the child’s unique PIN number.
Have a restful half term break!
The Year 5 Team