Happy Christmas!

Wow! Beautiful hand sewn decorations! 

The children enjoyed designing their own Christmas decoration which they then made a template for. They used the template to cut their felt and then used thread to decorate. They all used blanket stitch around the edge before stuffing their decoration and attaching the ribbon. Many of the class found this activity very challenging, especially threading and re-threading  their needles! They were all very proud of their finished products. I am sure you will agree they are stunning!

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Computer Control Workshop Day

We have had a brilliant Computer Control Workshop day with Mr Kettle from STEMworks. With excellent teamwork, problem solving and programming skills we have built Lego robots and completed a series of challenges.

We started the morning thinking about how we use computers and how they work (inputs and outputs). We thought about definitions for what a robot is and how we use robotic things in our everyday lives. We then split into groups of 2’s and 3’s and made our 15-minute Lego EV3 robot.

Once our robots were built we were set a series of challenges. Each challenge was worth a different number of points. We were given time to write and test each program, and make any improvements and adjustments needed, before they were judged by Mr Kettle and we were awarded points. For some of the challenges we had to adapt our robot by building extra attachments and adding sensors. We had an awesome day and learnt so much about computer programming!

Life Education Van

Thank you Julie for a fun, engaging and informative session in the Life Education Bus!

We were given the opportunity to discuss not only what a drug is but the difference between legal and illegal drugs. We learnt about risks of smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol and explored through role-play the influence of our friends on decision making. We identified and learnt how to say 'No' in an assertive way.

Harold even joined us for a song at the end!

Rainforest Animals

We have completed pictures of rainforest animals, using our observation techniques to maintain accuracy.

Water Reistance

We investigated water resistance using plasticine. Which shape do you think sank the quickest? 

No Pens Wednesday!

We put down our pens and pencil this Wednesday to take part in 'No Pens Wednesday 2017'. A whole day of learning without doing any written recording! We even managed spelling practice without doing any writing! We thoroughly enjoyed using paper spinners to investigate air resistance and creating maze games using Scratch.

Autumn Term Communication Letter

Dear Parents/ Carers of Year 5 Pupils,

We hope that you have had a really enjoyable summer. It is lovely to be back in school and we are delighted with how quickly the children have settled in Year 5.  We hope that you find this letter and pack of information useful.

Autumn Term Curriculum

Here is an outline of some of the areas of learning that we will be covering in class this term within the topic ‘Saving the World’.

Maths	Place value (reading, writing, ordering, comparing, rounding) Calculations (+ - x). Written and mental methods Fractions, Decimals and Percentages Word problems
English	SPaG Wordplay Poetry Fables Non-Chronological Reports Persuasive Texts Reading- our class text is ‘Journey to the River Sea’
Science	Feel the Force Earth and Space
R.E.	What does it mean to be a Muslim in Britain today? Why do Christians believe Jesus was the Messiah?
Computing	Programming and debugging including a STEMworks computer control workshop day on 4th December
P.E.	Athletics, then  Dance (Tuesdays) Games (Thursdays)
Topic (English, Geography, Art, D.T.)	‘Saving the World’ This will include learning about climate zones, the water cycle, land use, trade links and improving our geographical skills. D.T. will include designing and making a chocolate pudding and a Christmas decoration.

How you can help at home

Homework

Year 5 children will receive one Spelling and one Maths Facts homework weekly. It is really helpful if you can encourage your child to complete their homework in a quiet place where they can fully focus.

As explained in a letter from Mr Short last week the format of Maths homework has changed this year. Your child will receive a list of Maths facts to learn at home (every Wednesday) and these will be tested the following Wednesday.

Your child will learn a spelling rule each week and will receive a list of spellings that follow this rule (every Monday) which they will need to learn for a weekly spelling test on a Friday.

The children will also be tested on a list of 15 half termly spellings at the beginning and end of each half term. We would appreciate your help in supporting your child in learning these tricky words. Thank you.

Reading

As you know children hugely benefit from reading regularly, every night where possible, this is still important in Year 5. We have listened to all children read individually and recommend that they read with an adult three times every week and discuss what they have read. You can discuss unfamiliar words, talk about how characters have developed, make predictions about what might happen, talk about why an author has used a particular type of punctuation, etc. The children should use evidence from the text to justify their answers.

Planners

Thank you for your support already in using the planners. We hope that you find them useful in helping your child organise themselves. The children are using their planners to record homework tasks and important school dates but can also use it as a personal diary. Children will record their weekly spelling, maths facts  and times tables scores every week. Please could you check your child’s planner at the end of each week and sign the bottom of the page. Please feel free to make your own comments. Your child should take responsibility for asking you to check and sign it. Feel free to communicate with us through the planner, but ensure your child knows it is their responsibility to let us know there is a message. We will check and sign the homework planners each Friday.

P.E

We will have P.E sessions on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Our Thursday PE session will be led by Jon and have a games focus. Sometimes our timetable has to change so P.E kit should be in school each day please. A reminder that PE kit should consist of: black daps/pumps/trainers, black shorts and a red or white t-shirt or polo shirt. As the weather is unpredictable it would be useful for the children to have both outdoor trainers and plimsolls (or clean trainers) as part of their kit so that we can use both the hall and outdoors. When it starts to get colder, black/navy joggers and black/red jumpers may also be needed. School PE kit should also be worn for after school clubs.

Art aprons

Children will need to have an old shirt or apron for art. Please ensure your child has one in school at all times. Thank you.

Pencil cases

School provides all the writing and drawing materials the children will need, however, they are allowed to bring in their own pencil case if they wish. The pencil case and its contents are the responsibility of the child and need to fit into their tray. This is a privilege and children may be asked to take their pencil case home if it proves to be too much of a distraction.

Planners and reading books.

Please have these in school, in the classroom, each day. Thank you.

We look forward to working closely with you. Please don’t hesitate to come and see us if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Michelle Parkin and Mrs Marika Hortop

Budding Entrepreneurs!

Year 5 have been busy this half term with their enterprise project. They had to plan a ‘healthy’ activity, suitable for every child in the school to try on enterprise morning. With a budget of just £6, each group had to advertise and promote their activity, decide on a price to charge per go, source and buy their prizes and create their own score chart. On Wednesday 28^th June, each class came to try out their activities. Great fun was had by all and the Year 5s were fantastic at explaining their activities and encouraging children to have a go and spend their money! They raised an amazing £181, half of which will go to their chosen charity ‘Cancer Research’ and the other half towards school equipment. Well done Year 5, we are so proud of your wonderful teamwork and all that you have learnt throughout this project!

Acids and Alkalis

On Wednesday 14th June Mrs Madgwick, a Science teacher from the Cotswold School, came and did a very engaging and practical Science lesson with Year 5 on 'Acids and Alkalis'. Using indicator paper and a pH scale we investigated if 15 everyday household products (eg. shampoo, vinegar, milk) were acids or alkalis. It was a very enjoyable lesson and we learnt so much! 

 

Computer Control Workshop Day!

Thank you so much to Mr Kettle from STEMworks for a brilliant Computer Control Workshop!
We started the morning thinking about how we use computers and how they work (inputs and outputs). We thought about definitions for what a robot is and how we use robotic things in our everyday lives. We then split into groups of 2’s and 3’s and made our 15-minute Lego EV3 robot.

Once our robots were built we were set a series of challenges. Each challenge was worth a different number of points.

Challenge 1 – STOP  (worth 20 points)
We had to start with our robots in the STEMworks box, program our robot to travel forwards in a straight line and stop with the 2 front wheels exactly on the black line at the stop sign.

Challenge 2 – PARK  (worth 30 points)
We had to start with our robot in the STEMworks box, program our robot to travel forwards to the end of the mat, turn right, travel forwards and park the whole robot inside the other STEMworks box.

We then adapted our robots, adding sensors to tell it to stop and adding sound files.

For the afternoon session we were given 3 different challenges. We had to complete as many of these, as accurately as possible, in the time given. Each challenge was worth a different number of points with 140 points in total up for grabs! We had to write and test each program. When each program was ready it was judged by Mr Kettle and we were awarded points. We had to adapt our robots to complete these challenges.

We had a brilliant day and learnt so much about computers and computer programming!

Summer Term Communication Letter

Dear Parents/ Carers of Year 5 Pupils,

Welcome back! We hope you are well rested and ready for an action-packed term! We have already started this busy term with a fantastic week of ‘Bikeability Training’.

Summer Term Curriculum

Here is an outline of some of the areas of learning that we will be covering in class this term. 

Maths	Measure (time, volume, distance, perimeter and area) Geometry (angles, reflections and translations, 3D shapes) Problem solving
English	Word Play Poetry Biographies and Autobiographies Stories from a different point of view SPaG
Science	Living things and their habitats
R.E.	Who is Jesus? What do people believe about him?
Computing	Programming (STEMworks Computer Programming Workshop Day – 15th May) Analyse and evaluate data
P.E.	Athletics Rounders and Cricket Swimming (after half term)
Topic (History, geog, art, D.T.)	Mysterious Remains Enterprise

How you can help at home

Homework – Please note change of day

Year 5 children will continue to receive one English and one Maths homework weekly. However, as a change from last term, we will ask for Maths homework to be handed in on Tuesdays and English homework to be handed in on Wednesdays. We will set some MyMaths homework tasks as part of the Maths bubble homework. If you do not have access to the internet at home children are welcome to use laptops at school to complete these tasks during Friday lunchtimes.

If your child has any trouble with homework, all they need do is come and ask us (where possible before the due date).  It is also appreciated if you could help encourage children to take responsibility for their own homework. Each homework should take half an hour. If your child does not complete the task within this time, please sign it at the bottom, to let us know they have spent half an hour working on the task.

In addition, the children will continue to learn a spelling rule each week. They will receive a list of spellings that follow this rule every Monday and will need to learn these for a weekly spelling test on a Friday.

Please find attached to this letter the half termly spellings the children need to learn at home (and what they scored when tested on these spellings this week). These will not be taught in lessons and will be tested at the end of the half term. Thank you for your support with this – it makes a big difference.

Reading

Please continue to read regularly with your child. It is so important as children become more fluent with their reading that they understand what they have read. Please ask them questions about the characters and plot to check their understanding and encourage them to express their own opinions about a story/book. Please also encourage them to read aloud with appropriate intonation and expression, paying careful attention to punctuation marks used by the author.

Planners

Please could you check your child’s planner at the end of each week and sign the bottom of the page. Your child should take responsibility for asking you to check and sign it. The children will record their weekly spelling and times tables tests scores in their planners. We will collect the homework planners each Friday.

P.E

The children will have a P.E. session on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Sometimes our timetable has to change so P.E. kit should be in school each day please. It would be useful for the children to have both outdoor trainers and plimsolls (or clean trainers) as part of their kit so that we can use both the hall and outdoors.

Planners and reading books

Please have these in school each day. Thank you.

Enterprise Project

We are hoping to run an enterprise project later this term. More details to follow.

Please don’t hesitate to come and see us if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Michelle Parkin and Mrs Marika Hortop

Bikeability

What a busy start to a busy term!

We loved our Bikeability sessions with Alex and Fiona, our confidence and skills have really improved!