In History, we are learning about the ancient Maya and being guided by the following enquiry question: How unique were the Maya? Over the course of two history lessons we have considered how archaeologists learn about the past, compared the Maya classical period with the Anglo-Saxon period (at a comparable time) and explored the Mayan language – including how to pronounce their own names!
In Maths, we followed up last week’s learning on squared numbers by introducing children to cubed numbers. The second half of the week was spent consolidating multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 as well as understanding multiples of 10, 100 and 1000.
In English, we are continuing our unit on biographical writing. The children now know the key features of a biography and have started to research the life and achievements of Rigoberta Menchu who will be the subject of their biographies.
Our daily grammar skill has been parenthesis.
Each child has now been given two writing targets to support them achieve greater consistency and develop as writers. These are the focus of their red pen editing.
In STEM, we have continued to build our knowledge of forces by exploring the relationship between gravity, air resistance and friction. The children had a great time designing and dropping paper parachutes.
They have learned that:
Object speed + larger cross sectional area = increased air resistance
Spellings: This week we focused on the following words which all contain the ‘ie’ phoneme:
Height exercise excitement describe library guided island arrive surprise
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 autumn term to ensure they have been transferred from working memory to long term memory.
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).
PE
Outdoor hockey: Wednesday
Indoor PE: Thursday
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.
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.
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 fun weekend and see you next week when we will be celebrating the lunar new year.
The Year 5 Team