Y5 News 11.11.22

I can't believe it's already Friday. We have been so bust this week once again. Where does the time go?

Our Forest School session was definitely a highlight of the week. We were blessed with warm weather, no rain and even some beautiful sunshine. During the morning, we recapped our knowledge of the seven key attributes which something must have for it to be classified as living. We used the acronym M.R.S. G.R.E.N. Next, we went out and about in the grounds to find living and non-living items. Some of us found seeds which led to an interesting discussion. For the next part of our session, we moved onto shelter building. We learnt how to make a shelter using tarps and ropes. Finally, we toasted marsh mellows and enjoyed eating them in our shelters.

This week, we have continued exploring persuasive writing. We have used the model text to understand the tools which can be used when writing persuasively, and we used these tools to try persuade each other to 'buy' a pencil. It was so much fun listening to you all do this. We have also completed our 'Box Up' which is where we unpick what is happening in each paragraph to help us create a generic plan.

In Maths, we have moved onto a new unit. For the next couple of weeks, we will be learning all about multiplication and division. So far, we have learnt about the difference between multiples and factors. We have realised that to achieve our best in these lessons we need to be able to recall our times tables and their related division facts. If you are not confident with all you times tables, make sure you are practising them at home as this will help you.

Back on Monday, we completed the last lesson in our Forces unit. In this lesson, we were learning about water resistance. First, we considered how our knowledge of air resistance could help us with this, and then we planned an experiment to investigate how objects move through water. We learnt that the smaller surface area it has, the better it moves through water because it is streamlined. To bring the unit to a close, we did our end of unit check. You created a mind map to show me how much you had learnt. I was so proud when I was reading them because you have taken on board so much new learning. Well done, team.

In History this week, you also completed your end of unit check. You worked in groups to answer two key questions. First, you had to answer the question: What was the British Empire? It was great to see how much you had remembered and that you knew the British Empire was set of countries (colonises) ruled by Britain. You then had to answer: What was the legacy of the British Empire? You were able to talk about both its good and bad impact on Britain and the countries it once ruled.

We have had two PSHE session this week. Our first was our My Happy Minds session. You recapped the what the six virtues are and learnt that these are also called character strengths. We learnt why character strengths matter, and that we all have our own character strengths. Each of us is different and this is ok and should be celebrated. Our second PSHE lesson was linked to our Drugs and Alcohol unit. We started of the session with a class discussion. It was very interesting to hear your views. Then, you were given 8 photos of different people. You were asked to sort these into who you think would take illegal drunks and who you think wouldn't. You worked in partners to come to your decision and shared your thoughts with the class. As it turns out, there is no way to know if a person does or doesn't take illegal drugs just by looking at them. This was important to understand because we cannot judge someone just on how they look. Also, it is also important to understand that even if someone is wearing nice clothes and looks friendly, we must still be cautious and remember to protect ourselves and not accept anything from them unless a trusted adult is with us.

In our Computing lessons this week, we continued with our Googleslides presentation. We added new slides and began to add the information we gathered last week. We recapped formatting text, inserting pictures and adding backgrounds. In our second computer lesson of the week, you completed a code studio lesson. During the session, you learnt what events are and how programmers use these events in video games. You then got the chance to build a game that you customized with different speeds and sounds.

In Music this week, we continued to practise our Young Voices songs in music. This week we recapped Milligantics. Sing from your heart, involved us singing and learning the actions to accompany this song. We did so well! Lots to think about, but we tried really hard nonetheless. A new song entitled – 'Message' saw us having to really think about our vocal phrasing.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend,

Miss P