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.