Year 5 Weekly News 22.09.23

Maths has been super exciting lately! We wrapped up the chapter on six-digit numbers (which was a real brain teaser), and now we're diving headfirst into numbers that go as high as 1,000,000! In this thrilling chapter, we're becoming number detectives. We'll compare and order these colossal numbers, put them in their proper places on number lines, and figure out the secrets each digit holds.

In our English adventures, we kept diving into our exciting text, 'Where Once We Stood.' It felt like we were right beside Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins as they touched down on the moon!We didn't stop there; we took the actual words from NASA and the Eagle's conversation and turned them into speech with all the right punctuation. Plus, we learned this cool thing called 'parenthesis,' which means adding extra info to our writing with brackets – like secret messages for our readers! And here's the best part: we're going to write our own thrilling first-person expedition story. To get our creative gears turning, we looked at an awesome example to get the feel of the text. It's like tuning our writing skills to make them shine!

In spellings, we have been learning about silent letters. In particular, we have been focusing on the silent letter 'b'. It comes up in words like 'crumb', 'thumb' and 'comb'.

In RE, we were on a quest of biblical proportions! After our fascinating dive into the world of the Bible last week, we set out to uncover the various types of Bibles and their unique names. The big question on our minds was whether these names were suitable for a children's Bible. We engaged in lively debates, sharing our thoughts and ideas. And guess what? We even put our creative thinking caps on and came up our own name for a children's Bible!

In our recent Computing lessons, we embarked on a fascinating journey into the realm of digital systems. We took a closer look at the intricate process involved when we order something from a store and how it magically arrives at our doorstep. It was like uncovering the secrets behind the scenes of online shopping! This real-world example illuminated the workings of digital systems in our everyday lives, making it all the more intriguing.

We enjoyed another fun session in Forest School this week. For the first part of the session, we recapped the importance of M.R.S G.R.E.N and then went onto recap the parts of plants. We went out and about around the grounds to see how many species of flowering plants we could identify, and we moved back into the classroom to carry out some beautiful observational drawings. For the second part of our sessions, we dissected a lily to find the different components. You did a great job and worked brilliantly as part of a team. Well done, Year 5.

In Science, we learnt about gravity. As part of this, we learnt about the difference between weight and mass. Mass is how much stuff something has, and it is measured in grams etc whereas weight is how much force is being exerted on an item and this is measured in newtons. To enhance our investigation, we carried out an experiment using force metres. We discovered that 10 newtons acts upon every 100 grams.

In history, we've been back to the Victorian era to explore the mighty British Empire. One fascinating thing we discovered is that India was the jewel in the crown of this colossal empire. We were curious about why India held such a special place, and guess what, we found out! But here's the twist: India's time under British rule had some ups and downs. We learned that it brought both good and not-so-good things to the table.

We began our art unit this week. Our unit will be focusing on monotype prints! To get our creative juices flowing, we met an incredible artist named Kevork Mourad. His monotype prints are like a burst of imagination on paper! We used Kevork's artwork as our muse and started crafting our own drawings.

In PHSE, we looked at the difference between being bossy and being a leader. We talked about how being bossy isn't HeartSmart as it is a way to try and control others, and we thought about how on a good day, the only person we can control is ourselves! We realised that it is important to be a leader rather than a boss because it means we are being HeartSmart as we are considering the person as well as the task. This made us think about the phrase: Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:31.

In French, we explored and learnt about different French cities. We described what we saw and compared them with cities in the UK. We learnt about the names and their locations, and we began to think about the different sounds we can hear within the names; sounds we have heard before in French words we already know. For example, we spotted the 'ohn' sound in Montpellier and Lyon is the same as in Bonjour. Next week, we will be moving onto asking and answering where someone lives!

Finally, in P.E, we continued to practice our dribbling skills. We moved around keeping the ball close to our feet, and then worked in dribbling and passing. Next, we moved onto shooting practice. We enjoyed this one and had lots of fun scoring goals.

Have a fab weekend,

Miss Pennance