Year 5 Weekly Newsletter

Blank number lines have featured in our maths lessons this week. We enjoyed working practically by folding paper to create equal sections, which helped us position numbers accurately up to one million. Finding the midpoints and quarter points supported our understanding of place value and , and gave us a visual way to explore these large numbers. We worked with number lines to 10,000 and 100,000. We then looked at scaled number lines. We used bar models to learn about finding values and being able to use this to add values. We have also enjoyed completing an arithmetic task this week.

In English, our task this week has been to finalise our plans before writing an exploration narrative from a first-person perspective. We worked hard to include speech, parenthesis, and similes to bring our character's thoughts and feelings to life. Our writing focused on the experience of landing on the moon, using descriptive language to capture this extraordinary event. We have then embarked on the exciting journey of composing our first-person exploration narratives. This week, we have written the first three paragraphs. I have loved reading them and I can't wait to see how your stories finish when we write paragraph 4 and 5 next week.

Our reading focus has been to practise reading aloud and it has been wonderful to hear so many readers.

Our geography lesson gave us the opportunity to practise our data handling skills while learning more about exports from the United Kingdom. We learnt that goods can be either commodities or manufactured items, and we used this knowledge to help us classify them. Creating a bar chart helped us to to display information about four different goods that are exported from the UK.

This week in computing, we explored a different type of digital system. We began by describing how a pelican crossing operates, focusing on the sequence of lights and the role of the push-button mechanism. We then investigated how sensors are used to support both pedestrians and road users and how this digital system help us in our everyday lives.

In our Forest School session this week, we enjoyed building shelters for the first time this year. We using the tarp, rope, and pegs. We enjoyed building our own shelters along with coming up with ideas for our surroundings. We let our imagination take over and enjoyed time playing together. We also enjoyed sharing a group fire and toasting marshmallows. As part of our time in forest school, we also harvested apples from the trees.

In Science this week, we have started our new topic of forces. We have enjoyed exploring what forces are. Using a boat, toy parachute and car, we experimented with what forces happen to these items. We learnt that a force means a movement or way to change the shape of something. We then learnt about gravity, air resistance, buoyancy and friction.

RE this week continued to focus on the Bible. We started by predicting how many versions of the Bible there are. We were amazed to find out that there was over 900. We reflected on why there might be so many and realised they need to appeal to a wide range of different people and be available in many languages. We shared a huge variety of the books that we have available in school. We looked at who they may appeal to. We then moved on to learn about William Tyndale. We were impressed to hear about the contributions he made to translating the Bible and even looked at a Bible which houses some of his work!

This week, time has been spent writing and practising our class worship. We really enjoyed sharing this with you all today. Every spoke brilliantly and I was blown away by your confidence. We hope you enjoyed our new song too.

In music, we practised our class worship song. We have really taken to this song and we love the message behind the lyrics.

Maths.co.uk homework has been set for this week.

Have a wonderful weekend.
Mrs Morris and Mrs Pointon