Year 5 News 18.06.21

This summer term is just whizzing by!

During our Maths lessons this week, we have completed our unit on decimals and percentages. But, we are not done yet. Our next unit continues to focus on decimals. This week, the children have learnt how to round decimals. We used our knowledge of place value to help with this and remembered the rule we had learnt for whole numbers. Using place value counters, the children represented the numbers and then decided whether they rounded up or down. In our next lesson, with Mrs Pointon, we learnt about percentages. Our discover was based on a game of battle ships. Using hundreds grids, the children learnt how decimals could be converted into percentages when we divide by a hundred. We continued to learn about percentages in our third lesson this week. This lesson focused on finding equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages. In our final lesson this week, the children consolidated their knowledge of equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages through using hundreds grids and place value counters. We all seem really confident in this area of maths. At the end of the week, the children completed their Year 5 arithmetic quizzes.

In our English lessons this week, we have continued to learn our model text of scene one from the story of Odysseus and the Cyclops. To do this, in their character groups, the children created their own story map for the words their character say. As a class, we then put all of the parts together to help us to learn this. In our next lesson, the children explored the features and tools for writing a play script. We made this in to a spider diagram and noted this down in our books. We can go back to this and use this when we write our own play scripts next week. In order to continue to learn the text, the children have been continuing to act out the model. In our next lesson, we focused on the use of stage directions – this is one of our targets this term. To do this, we looked at how stage directions were used in the text. We considered how stage directions were used for the way we act, our expressions and body language. To understand the impact of this, we played a game. I gave the children a line from a script with the stage directions and they had to act this out to the class. The children loved this game and it put a smile on many of our faces. We then moved on to a short burst write. The focus for this was still on stage directions. The children were given an image of two characters from a film or well known scene and asked to rewrite the script for it. The children could pick from scenes like Harry Potter, Moana and Hercules. In our final lesson, we focused on characterisation (another of our unit targets). For this, the children were given two pages from our story 'Who Let the Gods Out'. In these pages, we looked at how the author had represented Hermes character through how he speaks and how he acts. The children highlighted evidence from the text. Then, through a group discussion, we thought about what this told us about a Hermes character. We made a huge list of adjectives we would use to describe him. Later on in the same lesson, the children were given an image of a man. For another short burst write, they were asked to create a script which informed the reader/listener of what the character was like through the way he spoke, moved and acted.

In our second lesson of RE, we have continued to learn about the role of the Holy Spirit in Christians special events. The children recapped the special events that Christians have and celebrate with the Holy Spirit in Church – weddings, funerals, baptisms and confirmations. We then watched two videos of real confirmations which have taken place. We were then able talk about the ceremony and why Christians might have chosen to do this. At the end of our lesson, the children answered four questions on why Christians choose to be confirmed and why this is important. Using post it notes, the children shared their ideas with the class.

In our lessons with sportscape this week, we continued to develop the archery skills that the children learnt in Autumn term during our Forest Schools lessons. At the end of the session, it was lovely to hear the children talk about how they felt they had improved their skills.

In our Science lesson this week, we learnt about night and day. The children were asked to think about how we have different time zones across the world. The children were able to identify that this was due to the position of the sun. After watching a couple of videos, the children found that it is not the sun that moves but the earth. When the Earth rotates, over 24 hours, it creates night and day. In order to find out more about how the Earth moves. We conducted an experiment based on measuring shadows. The children considered variables we would keep the same and variables we would change. They also made their own predictions. Hopefully, if the sun makes an appearance this week, we will be able to conduct our experiment.

We learnt about the Battle of Marathon in our History lesson this week. We started by recapping what the children already knew about Athens vs Sparta. I was amazed by the wealth of knowledge the children had. Then, we went on to learn about the Battle. I read the children the story and asked them to think about how the Athenians felt when Sparta said they would only help them to protect the Athenians and their land, once their festival was over. In teams, the children acted this out. Next, the children were given event cards that they were asked to reorder to represent the story. Once they had done this, the children wrote a newspaper article to explain the events of the battle of Marathon. Interestingly, we learnt that the word Marathon comes from the Greeks and from this story. In the story, an Athenian boy runs 240km to tell the Spartans that the Persians were coming.

Our Geography lesson enabled us to learn all about the lines of latitude and longitude. We learnt about the position of each imaginary line and how they can be used to identify a specific location. We enjoyed using the measurement of degrees and compass directions to locate countries around the world. 

During our DT lesson this week, the children made their stamps that they will be using to print a Greek pattern on to their cushion material. The children have already designed their cushion with an element of printing. In order to make the stamp or printing tile, the children used art straws on top of grey board. The children had to use multiple layers to ensure the print stood out. Once we had made our stamps, we evaluated how they looked.

We also learnt some more French this week. This week, we learnt how to use yesterday and tomorrow to describe the days of the week and dates. By the end of the lesson, we were able to ask what day it is tomorrow and reply with tomorrow is the ... of June 2021. You all really impressed me with your skills in our lesson this week.

This week, Year 5 took part in the Young Voices Big Sing. This was a fantastic opportunity to be a part of the world record challenge for Young Voices. This was to raise money for mental health charities with their charity single 'Lovely Day'. The children loved taking part and sang beautifully.

In our Computing lessons, we have designed our spreadsheet we will create about the planets. We made a HUGE list of all of the skills that we had covered during our computing lessons and ensured we used each of them within our final spreadsheet. Next lesson, we will fill in the spreadsheet and create graphs from the data.

In our HeartSmart lesson, we watched a Blue Planet clip of how spider crabs shed their hard, outer shell to reveal their soft shell, leaving them vulnerable. We discussed what we thought vulnerability meant, as well as identifying qualities in others in order to build trust for us to share our vulnerabilities with them.

In PE we practised our tennis racket and ball skills. To begin with, we had to strike the ball into the ground while stationary. Next, we had to strike the ball into the ground bouncing our initials. This was quite tricky! We then had to move in and out of our friends still striking the ball into the ground. Follow the leader was the next task. We took turns to weave in and out of other partners whilst making sure we kept bouncing our balls into the ground. Then we had to use our non-dominant hand on our forehand side to strike the ball to our partners over a 10 metre distance. To end our lesson, we played a passive rally.

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend and I am looking forward to next week.
Miss Welch