Blog
Friday 22nd November
The children worked extremely hard this week with their checkpoints! We were most impressed with the effort shown and the consideration of their classmates.
Although it was cold, we still managed to get our 2 PE lessons in. The children are doing a fantastic job of learning a Greek dance. We worked on our passing, running and tagging for rugby. Nothing warms you up more than running around with a rugby ball.
In science this week, we conducted a fair test to test the strength of different types of paper. We did this by seeing how many stones or marbles it could hold before breaking.
In project, the children designed their toys. They drew up a prototype and then had to make adaptions. They also shared ideas for the moving parts in groups. They came up with a range of ways to make an animal move with different types of cams.
Friday 15th November
Maths has been all about multiplication. We revised multi-digit multiplication, multiplication strategies and word problems involving multiplication and division. We investigated factors and prime numbers.
In English, we finished reading Hamlet and the children wrote fantastic soliloquy as Claudius. We also looked at personal and impersonal writing. We discussed the motives each character and the choices they made.
In Science, we tried to create heat insulators. We tested these by recording the temperature of porridge in a range of containers that we had built insulation for. The containers we placed out into the cold. The children were surprised to notice that feathers are actually quite good insulators.
There was lots of designing and building in project this week. The children designed and built a working cam that moved a follower up and down. They tried their prototypes using a range of different cams. Some groups weren’t successful the first time and had to alter their prototypes. It was a great learning experience for them.
Friday 8th November
This week in English, we have moved on from our Treasure unit and onto Shakespeare. We started the week learning and performing scenes from Macbeth and have now moved onto learning about Hamlet. We are focusing on Hamlet, A Shakespeare Story by Andrew Mathews. We have been learning about the main characters, their motivations for their choices and we have been making inferences of these choices.
Maths has been all about mass. We have been converting grams and kilograms. We also looked at comparing imperial to metric units. The children solved word problems based around mass and used digital scales to estimate and weigh a range of objects.
Our new Science unit is called Material Consultants. We looked at various objects and grouped them according to a range of traits. Were they magnetic? Were they flexible? Were they opaque or translucent?
In project, we looked at endangered animals and researched features of a range of endangered animals. We will then choose an endangered animal to create a moving toy.
PE this term focuses on Greek inspired dance and rugby. We were introduced to what Rugby and Greek dancing looks like before we moved like Greek Gods and did catching and passing for rugby.
Friday 25th October
In maths this week, we have been learning about decimal numbers. We have been ordering and comparing decimal numbers, converting to fractions and rounding. We even had some amazing parent helpers for one of our lessons.
In English, we have continued writing about Esther from the short film Treasure. We imagined we were Esther and we wrote a diary entry. We used figurative language and had to include, hyperboles, similes and metaphors and superlatives. This is our final week on Treasure before we move onto Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Autumn 2.
In science, we consolidated our learning by creating a double page spread of information that we have learnt about this term. They turned out fantastic and they included some great facts about our internal organs, transport systems and changes we experience as we age.
In project, Mrs Richardson was kind enough to bring in her grandfather’s WW1 medals. This gave the children the opportunity to see real WW1 medals. We then researched these and other medals that were award during WW1. 
Friday 18th October
In English, we have moved on from The Barnabus Project and onto a short animated film called Treasure. It’s a great short film that shows happiness can be found, even when life doesn’t go your way. The children have been investigating Esther, who is the main character, and the events that may have caused her to end up living in a rubbish tip.
Maths this week has been all about addition and checking our answers through estimating. First, the children would work out the answer and then they would round the sum and see if the answer was similar. The children rounded to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000 depending on the number.
Project was all about life in the trenches. We learnt about the hardships faced by soldiers on the frontline during WW1. We also learnt about a day in the life of a frontline soldier.
In science, we investigated lung capacity. We did a great experiment to measure each students’ lung capacity and then we compared them to different animals and types of people. The average child has a lung capacity of 4L, an adult has 6L but an Olympic swimmer can have a lung capacity of 12L!
Friday 4th October
In English, we have been identifying the features of newspaper reports. As reporters, we came up with interview questions and wrote them as direct speech and as reported speech. We learned about the importance of a catchy headline and how we can use alliteration to create one. Then the children got to create a number of different headlines for the newspaper report they’re going to write next week.
Maths has been all about fractions. We have compared fractions and ordered them. We also looked at real life situations where you use fractions.
In project, we created a timeline for the key events for WW1. The children had strong opinions about conscription when they learned England implemented it in 1916.
In science, we learned about the blood and heart. We measured our heart rates when resting and then we compared them after running around the field.
Music was certainly a blast this week! We sang along to Livin on a prayer and we even played along using boomwhackers.
Friday 27th September
This week was our first week with streamed maths and English classes. This is the children the opportunity to have some learning in the other classroom.
Maths has focused on a range of multiplication techniques. We multiplied by 10s, 100s and 1000s. We multiplied large numbers by 5 but to do this we multiplied by 10 and then halved our answer.
It has been fantastic reading the children’s sequels to the Barnabus Project. They used their own plan, character design and setting design they created previously and wrote their own story set after the Barnabus project. The children had to include, character and setting descriptions, dialogue, paragraphs and relative clauses.
In project, we learned about the significance of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. We also compared transport and weapons from WW1 to modern transport and weapons.
Believe it or not, we managed to avoid the weather and go outside for dodgeball and for our indoor PE lesson, we did a range of group counter balances using benches.
Autumn 1
Friday 6th September
It’s been a great 1st week back. Everyone has settled into year 5 extremely well and it has been a pleasure getting to know the children.
In maths, we have been looking at place value. This has included, reading and writing large numbers, ordering numbers and finding missing numbers. Next week, we look at counting in 10s, 100s and 1000s.
In English, The children wrote a holiday recount, with a catch. It didn’t have to be true. We hope they weren’t true because some children saw zombies, chased lions and even went to space. We also looked at a fantastic short film called The Wish Granter. The children used their skills from year 4 to write a recount of the story and a diary entry from the point of view of the Wish Granter.
Fallen Fields is the name of our project unit and it is all about World War 1. This week we learned about the significance of the poppy.
Science is all about the human body and the changes humans go through as they age. We had fun trying to guess baby pictures of staff members.
Music focuses on a song that we’re sure you know… Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer. This week we listened to the song and tried to work out what instruments were being used and even how the hair styles looked in the glam-rock era.
Friday 13th September
In English, we have started our narrative writing unit on the fantastically illustrated book: The Barnabus Project. After reading the story, we did a deep dive into the main character; Barnabus. The children did a fantastic job of writing a detailed character description of Barnabus.
Maths this week has been looking at implementing a range of mental strategies for subtraction and addition. We used number lines and rounding to help add or subtract large numbers.
In project, we learnt about primary and secondary sources. We also learnt the importance of using a range of sources to learn about a historical event. We learnt that sometimes bias is used when recording of historical events and we learnt about propaganda.
Spanish was quite tricky this week, learning masculine and feminine adjectives, which is quite different to how we describe nouns.