Year 5 News!

In English this week, we have been developing our SPaG skills. At the start of the week, we continued to develop our understanding of fronted adverbials. Using picture stimulus', the children were required to add a fronted adverbial phrase to describe how, when or where. The children aimed to create the most interesting sentences they could think of and they did not disappoint. After we felt confident with fronted adverbials, we moved on to recap adverbs and adverbial phrases. The children started by identifying adverbs within text. We then explored the impact that these had. We then moved on to recap adverbial phrases. The children explored how they could add this additional information about how, when or where to the middle or end of our sentences. Finally, we moved on to learn more about conjunctions. The children recapped that conjunctions are used to join phrases together and identify conjunctions. Then, we used them in our own writing. Showing how we can use one word to join two phrases together. In our spellings this week, we focused on words ending in 'ent'. The children learnt what happens to the word when we add the suffix 'ly' and developed their understanding of the spellings of these words.

In our Maths, we have continued our unit on Addition and Subtraction. We started the week by using our knowledge of rounding to help to check and estimate answers. We considered whether rounding to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000 was the most efficient method. Depending on the number, we rounded to an appropriate amount and then used this to help us add or subtract numbers. This was an important concept to learn, as it can be used in everyday life. Once we were confident with this, we moved on to use mental methods to help with addition and subtraction. This involved making numbers 10 or 100 times smaller before being able to add or subtract numbers or possible rounding numbers to the nearest 10 0r 100 to help us add or subtract. If, for example, we were asked to do 2356 – 297 we would change 297 to 300, subtract this number and then add 3 back on to our answer. At the end of the week, we learnt how to use inverse operations to check our answers. By using the inverse, we are doing the opposite calculations to check that we worked out the questions correctly.

In RE this week, we have recapped the story of Daniel and Nehemiah. To present what we have found about the story of Daniel and Nehemiah and what the meanings are behind the stories they told, we are going to be decorating the shoeboxes. The outside will depict the story of either Nehemiah or Daniel (the children have been given the choice of which story they would like to recreate) whilst the inside will represent what the 'hidden meanings' of the story are. In preparation for this, this week, we used papier mache to cover our shoeboxes ready to decorate.

In French, we finished off learning about clothing. The children have now learnt how to say many different items of clothing that you would find in your wardrobe such as boots, scarf, hat, t-shirt, dress, waterproof coat, trousers and so much more! To make our words memorable, the children added actions for each one and played a game which involved one child saying an item of clothing and the other acting out the clothing that they have said.

In our Art lesson this week, we explored some of William Morris' wallpaper which is still sold in shops today! The children loved seeing the real pieces of wallpaper and gave them a real up-front experience of his work. We started by discussing our first thoughts of the wallpaper they had in front of them and then moved on to discuss the use of a motif. A motif is a decorative image or design which is easily repeated to form a pattern. The children then identified the motif in the wallpaper that they were given. Next, we used 'view finders' to choose a piece of the wallpaper and recreate this using our own sketching techniques. Once the children have draw their design, they then use their watercolour colour mixing skills to choose appropriate shades of colours to match their designs.

To start our Geography lesson this week, the children were given envelopes with different things inside. Some children had rulers, pencils, compasses and scissors but not all of them! Each team had some money, a guide to creating different shapes and the value of them. The aim of the game was to create as much money as the team could and gaining the different equipment that they needed to complete this. However, as some teams did not have the items they needed, they had to trade with the other teams to get the items they needed. This gave the class and hands on insight in to what trading involves. Later on, in the lesson, the children used Atlases to find countries which the UK imports to and exports from. They identified these on a map of Europe. Once the children had finished using the atlases to find countries which import and export different goods, they moved on to research a country which exports to the UK. The children used the iPads and the website https://oec.world/en/profile/country/gbr/ to research their Country. The children used this website to find what their country exports to the UK, how much they export to the UK and how much they make for their economy.

In Computing this week, we completed our first digital literacy lesson. Our focus for this lesson was on creating secure passwords. We started by considering what makes a secure password – the children had lots of great ideas for this already. We discussed how a password needs to be made up a characters, letters and numbers, 8 or more characters, no personal information, no sequence and something memorable. The children then completed a Q&A based on what they had learnt. Finally, we ended by using the website https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password/ to test the strength and security of our passwords.

Miss Handforth led us in our Mindful Monday task this week. We were each given an outline of a mirror and asked to write or draw the qualities that we think we have. In our PSHE lesson this week, we focused on sleeping. The children were each given a sleep diary to complete at home to see how long they sleep for each night. We then moved on to discuss the benefits of a good nights sleep.

We also had a visit from PC Nick this week. He talked to us about how we can keep ourselves and others safe at Halloween and on Bonfire Night.

During our afternoon with Sportscape, we were split into two teams and we competed in different activities. Using the footballs, we completed dribbling activities and played 'King of the Ring' which involves having a ball each and attackers trying to steal the ball and kick the ball out of the bubble. Then, we moved on to take part in a Football match, in which the Blue team won. Towards the second half of our lesson, we moved on to develop our Tennis skills. We took part in a race similar to egg and spoon which involved us twisting our racket to hit the ball with alternative sides of the racket which attempting to move forwards – this really tested our control. We then moved on to hitting the ball to our partner. To end our lesson, we took part in a small game of socially distanced rugby.

We have had another amazing week and I cannot wait to see what the final week of this half term treats us to!

Miss Welch