Term 5

Friday 26th April

It has been an incredibly exciting week, with an abundance of learning opportunities. We started the week celebrating Earth Day, considering how we, as a school, could become courageous advocates in helping the planet (largely inspired by Greta Thunberg). We wrote persuasive letters to our eco-council giving them ideas of how we could use less plastic around school. We were overwhelmed finding out how many tonnes of plastic is thrown away every day. 

The excitement built in the middle of the week, when we came in to school to the news that our eggs had started to hatch. The children have thoroughly enjoyed going to meet them and having the chance to consider names for them. 

In music, the children worked extremely hard to build on their understanding of rhythms and notation. Using the famous "Do Re Mi", the children were able to play, sing and write out the music on a musical score. The particularly enjoyed playing the tuned bells.

In Maths, we have been exploring different angles and have started using a protractor to measure the size of angles. Despite finding this challenging, we are persevering with the skills and will continue building upon this next week by looking at angles within shapes.

Friday 19th April 2024

We have had an exciting first week back to term, full of activities and learning new skills.

To begin the week, we delved into our Art project, learning how to use, mould and carve clay effectively. By learning techniques such as coiling, hollowing, pulling, pinching and scratching, we investigated how we would make our Viking faces later in the term. We then planned the techniques we would transfer into our final project piece and the features we would use.

In Maths, we have begun a new topic on statistics, in which we have been learning to input data into graphs and read and interpret data on a line graph. We have also been refreshing our knowledge of time in fluency sessions. Next week, we will continue this topic before starting to look at coordinates.

In English, we have been helping Arthur (the protagonist in our story) decide whether to embark on a perilous journey to save his town by giving him advice. 

Friday 22nd March 2024

It's been another great week in Year 5!

We have started exploring our new English text, Arthur and the Golden Rope, by writing our own playscripts for a persuasive advert for people to visit Iceland. We loved performing these in front of our peers. In maths, we have started our topic on shape, focusing on finding the area and perimeter of polygons and rectilinear shapes! We practiced drawing our own shapes to help us visualise these measurements. 

In other areas of our learning, we conducted our water resistance science investigation. This involved us creating different shaped ship bows using polystyrene and testing which shape travelled the smoothest through water. It's safe to say that our classroom looked like it had been hit by a snow storm by the end! We have continued to practice our music performance for next week's spring concert. We can't wait to show off our ukulele and chord skills. 

Looking in to next week, we are super excited for our Viking Day Trip! 

Friday 15th March 2024

The children have been working extremely hard these week, finalising a lot of their learning. Despite being very busy, the children have had great fun in their learning, rehearsing for musical performances and planning science experiments.

As part of British Science Week, the children have been investigating time and linking this with their understanding of forces. We planned an experiment to test which shaped bow on a polystyrene boat would move the quickest through water, using our new understanding of water resistance.

Friday 8th March 2024

What a week it has been! Not only did we arrive into an Alice in Wonderland land on Monday, we transformed ourselves into the most amazing book characters on Thursday. 

We started our week with a madhatters tea party. Alongside our buddies, we enjoyed delicious sweet treats. Luckily the rain held off for our exciting outdoor activities. We settled down beside the campfire and sang some folk songs. Mrs Kyte challenged us to make our own campfire story using just three objects!

In other areas of our learning, we switched classes on Wednesday for our 'maths through stories' session. We focused on percentages, fractions and decimals to be able to raise enough money for a 'bark park' bench! 

In English, we explored the nonsense poem, 'The Owl and the Pussy-cat'. We practiced performing to one another and are now almost ready to publish our own versions of a nonsense poem. 

Next week is assessment week where we can show off all the fabulous knowledge we have acquired over the last few terms!

Friday 1st March

The children have had a busy week full of a variety of learning. In English, they have been focusing on using "wr" in their spellings, whilst punctuating speech correctly. To show this learning, the children have been writing setting descriptions from our book "Ice Trap" as well as retelling the whole novel in their own words.

In Maths, they have been solidifying their understanding of decimals by comparing, ordering and rounding decimals. The children have had to really think about the place value in order to develop their reasoning skills.

Within the week, they completed their Science experiment that they planned last week. By pulling different trainers using a force meter, the children were able to identify which trainer in the class had the best grip for an athlete to use. They were able to reason why this was through their knowledge of friction.

Next week will include an array of different activities linked to World Book Week, including some poetry writing and outdoor learning activities, so remember your wellies!

Friday 23rd February 2024

After what felt like a very short half term, Year 5 have settled back into school life with new and exciting units of learning! 

In maths, we have been solving equivalent fractions and decimals and exploring the relationship between tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. This was tricky but we persevered!

In English, we started by researching Antarctica and created our own non-chronological reports. We were fascinated by the fact that no humans permanently live there! Additionally, we practiced writing in role from the perspective of a crew member on board Ernest Shackleton's ship. Who knew conditions were so tough!

In other areas of our learning, we have continued to investigate friction by planning an experiment we will carry out next week. In music, we have been preparing for our spring concert. We have had the opportunity to combine our ukulele skills with percussion instruments - recreating a very popular song!

Next week, Year 5 will delving deeper into understanding the differences between North and South America, as well as enjoying some leap day activities on Thursday. 

Friday 9th February

This week has been an extremely exciting end to the term. We started by performing our well rehearsed chords in Music, adapting what we have learnt on the ukulele, to incorporate an orchestra of different instruments. See below for a short snippet of our musical performance.

In Maths, we have completed our unit on fractions, learning how to find the whole when given a fraction of an amount. We will continue to develop these skills throughout the year, ensuring that we maintain these skills.

This week we got to take part in our DT learning for the term. When given the task to design, plan and make a Viking longship, we were all extremely excited. Despite being slightly disappointed that we couldn't make it life size, we persevered with our team working skills and designed some fantastic models.

Friday 2nd February 2024

As we begin our approach to half term, Year 5 have continued to have a great week. Not only have we had visits from the Police, but also the Kent Fire Service! 5W enjoyed a trip to the pool on Wednesday (practicing our backstroke techniques) whilst 5C got their wellies on and headed to outdoor learning. 

In the classroom, we have explored the amount of friction on varying services by testing toy cars. I wonder if our predictions were correct? 

In maths, we have persevered through another round of fractions. New vocabulary such as 'integer' and 'quantity' have been discussed and applied. 

In English, we have continued exploring different Viking Sagas. We have been applying our knowledge of direct speech to witness statements about the Lindisfarne raid. We particularly loved getting into role and hot seating one another. 

Looking forward to next week, we will be having our DT day. Here, we will be investigating the structures of Viking longships and even making our own! 

Friday 26th January 2024

This week, we have been delving further into our topic on the Vikings. We are thoroughly enjoying our English texts, learning more about Viking Gods. In particular, we loved getting to create our own Viking God, deciding where it might have lived, who would have prayed to it and what they were known for. We are now becoming masters at using parenthesis within our writing.

In Maths, we have completed our topic on multiplication and division, having had lots of practice using column method to solve 4-digit by 2-digit multiplication. We are now also secure in dividing 4-digit by 1-digit numbers, even when there is a remainder. We have also been focusing on recalling our 4-times tables. Next week, we will be learning how to multiply fractions.

In Science, we did an exciting experiment, investigating the effects of water resistance and discovering how buoyant different objects were. By making different shapes out of plasticene, the children soon discovered that boat shaped objects were the most successful, which soon led to the new “scientific” questions of “will my boaty floaty”?

Friday 19th January 2024

Year 5 have had a great week, with lots of Golden Book nominations!

We have continued to explore our English text, 'Viking Boy' - writing persuasive adverts for our own anti-Viking raid strategies! In maths, we have tackled with short division, using our manipulative strategies to visual the methods. Remember to be practicing at home - impress your parents!

In other areas of our learning, we studied the life of Moses and how through God, he was able to bring freedom and justice to the Israelites. We also took part in a science experiment on Thursday, investigating the impact of surface area on air resistance. It required a lot of scrunched up paper! And finally, we got stuck into some group work in RHSE, identifying all the different careers and jobs and discussing the 'term' salary. This gave us a deeper respect for jobs we may have known little about and allowed us to reflect on what our dream jobs might be.

In wider school life, some of us in Year 5 were lucky enough to experience the Young Voices concert in London on Wednesday! The atmosphere was amazing and it is an evening we will never forget!

Next week, it is 5W's turn for outdoor learning and 5C will jumping back into the pool for their swimming lessons. We will also be starting a new non-fiction, picture text in English, 'The Vikings: Raiders, Traders and Adventurers.' 

Friday 12th January

We have had an extremely exciting week in Year 5. From swimming, to forest school, to Viking raids, it has been full of engaging and exciting activities.

In English this week, we have continued our class text and learn more about our protagonist, Gunnar. We have explored writing some fantastic descriptions, using figurative language and our new skill of using parenthesis.

In Maths, we have completed our topic of fractions, learning how to subtract mixed numbers and have started multiplying using the column method. Despite finding the concept of multiplying two 2-digit numbers complicated at the start, through practice we are becoming more confident.

We started our topic of the Vikings in History this week and was quoted to be "the best lesson ever". Learning who the Vikings were and where/why they invaded, we went on a Viking Raid throughout the school, after planning our invasion and our distraction strategies. 

5W got to take part in their first Outdoor Learning session of the term, whilst 5C went on their first swimming lesson of the year. Next week, 5W will return to the pool as 5C venture into the outdoors.

Friday 5th January 2024

Happy new year! We have had a great (short) week back. 

In English, we started our new Viking story, 'Viking Boy'. We made predictions using evidence from the front cover and blurb, and even wrote our own play scripts (they look great displayed in the corridor!) 

We enjoyed our stunning start in Geography on Friday, exploring two contrasting places and thinking about why people might migrate to and from them. Next week, we become Viking raiders...

5C were very excited to return to their Outdoor learning sessions this week and despite getting quite damp in the afternoon, had a great time. We learnt how to develop our abilities to communicate as a team and even learnt to peel some vegetables (this skill might come in handy at home). 5W will be returning next Thursday so make sure you bring all your layers and waterproofs!

Just a reminder that 5C start swimming this Wednesday and so will need to arrive at school by 8:30 please. 

Next week, we return to our ukulele playing, and continue to tackle mixed numbers. 

Have a fab weekend!

Friday 8th December 2023

Christmas has been creeping in this week...

Following our DT day last week, we spent some time evaluating our final woven wall hangings, reflecting on what went well; the skills we used; and how we overcame the challenges we faced. See below some photos depicting some of the processes we experienced, including dying wool using turmeric and hot water. 

In other areas of our learning, we have continued to tackle fractions, focusing on finding common denominators and converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions. We have also been exploring a range of poems, including Lewis Caroll's nonsense poem, 'Jabberwocky'. Using his techniques, we wrote our own poem based on the creature, Grendel. 

Looking forward to the week ahead, we are excited to welcome Santa into school and sing together at our carol concert. One week to go!

Friday 24th November 2023

We made it to half way through the term!

Year 5 have had a great week with the start of carol singing rehearsals, whilst using the techniques of Michael Morpurgo to complete the missing pages of Beowulf!

In maths, we recapped multiplication and division to ensure we are really confident with our knowledge of factors, multiples and prime numbers ahead of our assessments.

Towards the end of the week, we started making conga lines around our classroom… All for good purpose though, as we learnt about ocean currents and how they move water towards and away from the equator.

Check out photos of us trying on some Anglo-Saxon style chain mail, handmade by our very own Mr Prakash! We discussed how heavy it was to hold and tried to imagine what it would have been like to fight in something like this.

Next week, we knuckle down for assessment week with an exciting Anglo-Saxon DT day to close!

Friday 17th November 2023

In Maths this week, we have finished our first unit of multiplication and division. We have refreshed our memory of how to complete column multiplication and secured our understanding of how to multiply and divide by multiples of 10, 100 and 1,000. Next week, we will be starting to learn about fractions. 

In English, we have continued reading our text: Beowulf and now know more about the protagonist in the story. We are anticipating the next part of the story and have predicted what we think will happen to Beowulf - will he survive his fight against the evil Grendel?

In Latin, we have learnt some new vocabulary and were able to link this to some English words. In particular, our favourite word was ludi - can you guess why?

Friday 10th November 2023

Half term already feels a long time ago with everything we have been doing! To commemorate Remembrance this week, we compared images from WW2 to recognise how even in war, there were glimpses of hope and relief too. We wrote diary entries from the perspective of a soldier during the Christmas day truce, using plenty of figurative language.

As well as this, we enjoyed celebrating Bishop Chavasse Day in our house groups on Thursday. It was a great opportunity for us to meet with other children in our house to create some amazing Tinga Tinga artwork.

Looking forward into next week, we look forward to finally finding out who this ‘Beowulf’ man is, and visiting St Peter and St Paul’s church for the Year 6 service.

Friday 3rd November 2023

We have had a great start to Term 2, coming in with great enthusiasm, especially towards our new topic learning. The children were excited at the concept of learning about Anglo-Saxons, learning about the 3 tribes and where they came from. It was interesting to refresh some of our geographical skills within this too.

In English, we have started our new book: Beowulf. We have been writing detailed character descriptions and thoroughly enjoyed becoming news reporters and retelling the events from the night that Grendel struck. Despite not knowing who 'Beowulf' is yet, we have made some insightful predictions about who/what they might be.

Next week, we will be starting our new Geography topic on oceans and seas, as well as doing some emotive language to commemorate Remembrance Day. 

Friday 20th October 2023 

We have made it to half term! 

This week has been jam packed with extra-curricular experiences, which has been a great way to wrap up our final term. To start, we had our harvest service at St Stephen's Church and Year 5 were specially mentioned for their amazing poems! The children sat and listened excellently and showed themselves to be great role models for their EYFS buddies on the walk back. In other areas of our learning, we were really lucky to have Dr Francis from 'Working Science' lead a space workshop. We learnt about galaxies, black holes and white light. We even watched him do an experiment involving popping, bangs and flying objects... 

In our writing this week, we have explored fairy tales and begun to write our own. Some of us were challenged to use a 'show, not tell' technique to create a more vivid image for the reader.

Next term, we look forward to starting our new history topic, the 'Anglo-Saxons' which will link to our English text, Beowulf. Please also continue practicing timetables over on TTRS in preparation for our multiplication and division unit in maths. 

Have a restful half term!

Friday 13th October 2023

This week, we have worked extremely hard to develop our language and the vocabulary that we use. We were set a challenge to only write 160 for our persuasive blog post, meaning that we had to carefully select the most effective words. We are now extremely confident at finding modal verbs and using them within our writing.

In Maths, we have furthered our learning on addition and subtraction, reminding ourselves how the two operations work together. We have had to solve inverse operations this week, and decode multi-step word problems. Despite finding this quite overwhelming to start with, we learnt how to break down questions and solve them efficiently.

The children have enjoyed continuing their music learning, perfecting their chords of C and A minor. They are beginning to alternate between the two chords at pace.

We had a very interesting debate in RE this week, discussing the question: "Does God hate?". From starting the lesson with comments such as "I'm excited, this is going to be interesting", to finishing the lesson being able to quote what God hates from Proverbs, the children showed some insightful learning throughout.

Next week, we will be finishing off some of our foundation topics, such as Baghdad, the water cycle and Space.

Friday 6th October 2023 

A whole 5 weeks of Year 5!

The highlight of our week was certainly our trip to Tonbridge school for a morning of sports. We participated in activities such as hockey, tag rugby, and cricket! But that wasn’t it! On our arrival back to school, we got straight onto the playground to have a go at some wacky science experiments. Some us were able to make stick men move, whilst others were able to stand on cardboard cups without them breaking!

In other areas of our learning, 5W partook in their second round of outdoor learning, but this time roasting marshmallows and lighting fires! Both classes were also lucky to welcome a new music teacher who introduced us to the ukulele. This is a great opportunity for all of us to learn a different instrument and hopefully perform a few renditions of popular songs.

Next week, we will be reporters, reporting on the arrival of a stranger to the Princess' palace, whilst also continuing to explore the reason as to why California is so thirsty in our Geography lessons. We will be looking forward to going to visit our EYFS buddies again ready for our church visit in the final week of term!

Friday 29th September 2023

The children have excelled themselves this week, modelling growth mindset throughout all areas of their learning. In particular, we have persevered with a challenge concept of place value in Maths: rounding. Despite being scared of rounding at the beginning of the week, we are now confident at tackling any problem we are given.

In English, we enjoyed writing some glorious descriptions about a pomegranate. We chose effective adjectives and created noun phrases in our writing. For example:

"It's skin was as shiny as newly polished leather boots."

"As soon as you cut it open, it exploded with tiny, ruby juice, with miniscule, heavenly droplets."

"It was a thrill of exotic, tropical taste."

The highlight of our week was definitely meeting our buddies in EYFS. We showed great leadership skills as we found out some information about our buddies and shared a story with them. They enjoyed showing us their classroom and play equipment. We can't wait to meet up with them again soon.

Friday 22nd September 2023

Certainly more of an autumnal week this week, Year 5 worked hard nonetheless! In Maths, we have been refreshing our place value knowledge and starting to recognise, write and work with numbers up to 1,000,000! Our desks were covered with place value charts and counters to help us better visualise these concepts.

In English, we have explored informative writing and the key features of this genre. We have worked hard on planning, drafting and creating a leaflet informing adults about refugees to combat the rumours discussed in our English text.

In other areas of our learning, 5W enjoyed their first outdoor learning session yesterday. It was fed back to Miss Warwood that there had been plenty of hiding in bushes and fire lighting… excellent! Geography saw us venturing out into the wind and rain to make irrigation systems to help us better understand how California transports  water. Can you remember which part of California has the most rain fall? 

Friday 15th September 2023

This week, we have been working extremely hard. In Maths, we have been securing our knowledge and understanding of place value. We have used different manipulatives and we were even allowed to write on the tables to solve problems (only in whiteboard pen though). At the beginning of the week, we delved into our imaginations in our English lessons. We had to plan our own adventure just from an image, in which we explored high vocabulary to describe our experiences.

In Music, we have loved exploring different rhythms and notation. Although it can get quite noisy with everyone playing their instruments, we have been beginning to learn some dotted rhythms. We composed our own rhythms and can now start to write notations on a musical stave.

 5C also had a wonderful start to Outdoor Learning, using sit spots, playing games, striking flints and sketching the moments of Autumn that we captured. 

Friday 8th September 2023

What a week to be back at school! Despite the extreme heat, Year 5 have settled into their new classrooms with their new teachers this week. We spent Monday creating our class charters, completing pupil profiles, and explored the parable of the Wise and Foolish Builder.

In Maths this week, we have been reminding ourselves of addition and subtraction methods, as well as our timetables. We are looking forward to starting our Year 5 curriculum next week! In English, we have been writing letters to our new Reception buddies which has helped us to identify the key features of an informal letter. Children also enjoyed planning and writing an 'unbelievable summer' recount (we had many in 5W who supposedly flew to Mars over the break). In other areas of our learning, we learnt about the creation of the Round City of Baghdad, exploring the role of the Caliph and astrologers. We rounded off the week with our coding lesson where children started to create their own moving games. 

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine.