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Kidsgrove Primary School
Empowering Learners...Growing Minds
Y5/6 Owl Class Blog - Y5 Reading, Writing, Maths and Y5/6 Wider curriuclum
WC 27th July
English: this week we continued to practice writing a narrative based on the book the 'the explorer', with the children using a range of descriptive skills including metaphor and simile, adverbial phrases, alliteration and onomatopoeia.
In maths, the children consolidated a topic in measurement by finding missing angles, comparing angles, finding missing angles around a point and on a straight line and properties of rectangular shapes.
Afternoons Curriculum:
Geography: we did a two part lesson, one all about animals and species in the rainforest with a focus on the diverse and huge species of frogs and another lesson on deforestation, where the children considered their viewpoints with their new knowledge.
PSHE: With Miss Mayer, the children continued their 'changing me' topic by learning about romantic relationships and attraction.
Music: the children learnt all about woodwind instruments and continued practising reading and playing sheet music using garage band.
SPORTS DAY!
Daniel - I loved the tug of war!
Lucas - I loved the lap race and my parents did so well in the parents race!
Darcey - I loved the sack race.
Logan - My favourite was the sprint race!
Isabelle - The sack race was my favourite.
Mya - Mine was also the sack race because it was really fun. I loved the whole of sports day and it was fun cheering on my teams.
Charlie - I loved the lap race!
Nevaeh - I liked the sack race because while everyone else was doing it Mrs Johnson gave us some hints on how to do it well.
Mika - I loved the lap race.
Cameron - I loved the tug of war.
Josh - It was hard to get up in the sack race but I carried on and finished it.
💪💪💪💪💪💪💪
WC 20th June
Year 5 have worked incredibly hard at their assessments this week, all the hard work has definitely payed off!
Maths: After the assessments, we have gone back to recap finding finding fractions of amounts and finding fractions that keave a remainder before we continue our geometry topic next week.
Writing: we have been continuing to plan and draft a narrative based on 'the explorer' by Katherine Rundell. The children's imaginations have literally run wild with ideas! They have been using skills including adverbial phrases, dialogue, alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile and metaphor to enhance their writing.
Safeguarding: in response to some reports of anti-social behaviour, Mrs Johnson contacted our local PCSO who shared some information with us to support the children's understanding of anti-social behaviour and it's consequences on the wider community. Year 5 and 6 really engaged with this, with lots of questions and responses.
Dance: the school had the pleasure of welcoming a BeActive colleague to teach the children a new dance routine for the afternoon. They did amazing and it was brilliant to see them joining in and trying their best at this new challenge!
PSHE: Year 5 continued their 'changing me' topic by looking at changes in boys as they go through puberty. We had some time to ask questions and talk about feelings of embarrassment or worry.
RE: the children continued their topic on 'why do we believe or not believe in god?' by looking at newspaper articles that can paint an event in a good light or a bad light. This created a debate about whether life is depicted as good or bad.
Spanish: this week we began looking at the different sets of the Spanish alphabet, the children caught onto this very well! Next week we will use this new knowledge to spell our names!
Music: this week, year 5 learnt about how the tightness and space within a drum can effect the pitch and how the strength of the hit effects the volume, before continuing to practise Dance Monkey!
Amongst all this , year 5 and 6 have still managed to gets lots of practice for sports day in! Keeping theme with disability, Mrs Carter planned an incredible art lesson where they used Freda Carlo style art work to paint casts around each other.
WC 13th of June
Reading: This week we have looked at the picture book 'the great Kapok tree', which includes lots of animals telling a man why he shouldn't chop the tree down. This fits in beautifully with out upcoming Geography topic of deforestation and is getting the children thinking about all the cons. They have practised retrieval into inference and retrieval into explain as well as being exposed to lots of different animal names.
Writing: This week, the children completed and published their setting description using a lot of editing and improving techniques. They all ensured that they used adverbials, verbs, figurative language, rhetorical question and similes/metaphors to enhance their descriptions.
Maths: This week, the children finished off their measurement topic of converting metric units by reading and interpreting time tables. They then moved on to angles, which they moved through quickly as they picked it up very quickly and showed a great understanding! In arithmetic, the children have been practising their confidence and automaticity of the four calculations to support their branching out maths.
Music: This week, the children learnt that sound is caused by vibrations that need a medium to travel through. They then looked at some sheet music and used the grand piano on the GarageBand app to apply their knew knowledge of notation to play the popular song 'Dance Monkey. Hopefully, by the end of the term they will have the song mastered!
Spanish: In Spanish, the children used the 'tenner' grammar rule when talking about pet names. They played bingo to apply this knowledge and did brilliantly, checking their recall the following day, they have definitely learnt lots of knew words and know the different between the pronouns 'un' and 'una'.
PSHE: The children asked some very mature questions during their changing bodies topic around puberty in girls. Puberty in boys will come next week, where we will learn in a safe place that the children can feel comfortable in discussing any worries, banishing any myths and being honest about changes to our bodies.
RE: In RE, the children talked about who god is, what he does, what he might look like and continued to debate why people choose to believe in him.
Computing: This term, the children have continued their programming topic by applying it on the programme 'scratch'.
Geography: this week, the children looked at the arguments for and against deforestation after analysing and evaluating statistics. They came up with a variety of 'in the past 30 years' statements to show their understanding of the graphs and charts.
WC 6th June
Reading: to begin the new term the children read chapter three of 'running wild' by Michael Morpurgo. They loved this as they made connections with the rain forest from their Geography topic and their class book 'the explorer'. Some children also recognised the author from when we read 'War Horse'. They have been focusing on vocabulary and retrieving into explain answers.
Writing: the children have been planning, preparing and investigating the way that Katherine Rundell has set the scene in our class book 'the explorer' to help develop their own setting descriptions. They have used personification and opinion in their drafts, preparing them for their longer write next week. They have loved this setting as they have dived deep into what the five senses would be in the depths of the Amazon rainforest.
Maths: the children have finished their converting measurements topic using metric, imperial and units of time. They have practised many fluency, reasoning and problem solving questions to strengthen and deepen their understanding. In arithmetic, we have been practising multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 and their multiplication/division facts to support their essential knowledge of place value and number throughout this topic. In recall arithmetic, the children have been working with Mrs Johnson to boost their confidence in a variety of number skills.
Afternoon Curriculum: the children have dived straight into their new topic of South America with great enthusiasm as they are making connections with their last Geography topic of North America. They have been using google maps and atlases to identify where it is, which countries make it up and the rivers and oceans around it. They have then deepened their understanding of the human and physical geography by analysing data. They proved their learning by answering questions about the data to create their own statistics, which they then added to an infographic, which they created using their water colour skills learnt in art with Mrs Carter. The children also had a brilliant PE session with Mr Brookes using circuits and continued their fabrics topic based around Freda Karlo with Mrs Carter in Art. The children also began their new PSHE topic with Miss Mayer before they will split into the Year 5 and 6 groups to continue their new topic. In RE, the children learnt about reasons why people choose to believe in a god or not and discussed their own ideas around this using the key words theist, atheist, monotheist and agnostic.
WC 23rd May
Reading: This week, the children have taken a deep dive into their class book 'The Curse of the Maya', answering vocabulary, inference and explain questions before a quick fire retrieval! The children love this story and we can't wait to find out the ending at the beginning of next term before moving onto our next class book!
Writing: The children have produced some absolutely wonderful diary entries - some of their best writing yet in my opinion! They loved getting into the POV of Frederick Catherwood (one of the first explorers to find the ancient Maya temples) and they have applied knowledge from all different areas of our Kidsgrove Curriculum history and geography lessons as well as our class text to add ideas into their independent writing. They have used grammar skills such as relative clauses, parenthesis and a range of punctuation to ensure they are hitting their Year 5 expected targets!
Maths: This week, the children have started and completed a unit on converting measurements, we practiced lots of fluency to consolidate and ensure we knew which measurements we were multiplying or dividing by 10, 100 and 1000! Some of our children have come a really long way in their understanding of number and place value and we are so proud of their achievements.
Afternoon: In Science, the children have practised working scientifically using accuracy and precision to conduct a fair and comparative test based on their own research question. Some groups asked 'how many components can we add to a circuit before they stop working?' and others asked 'do the length of wires make a difference to the brightness of a bulb?'.
In PSHE, we have spoken about relationships and the jealousy feelings that can come along with friendships and relationships with others.
In Spanish, we continued learning the names for members of their family with a concentration on their accent.
In Music, we discussed the rhythm and beat behind the song 'these boots are made for walking' in comparison with more modern and current tunes (before practising our dance for our Jubilee celebration!)
In History, the children created three fact files: one about an important person from the Maya history based on their own research before using their new knowledge of different Maya Gods to create a fact file about them. They then created their own god with an explanation as to what they were a God of, what sacrifices need to be made to them and their characteristics. We had some wonderful and edgy ideas!
In RE, we used debate to discuss the importance of forgiveness, before moving onto learning about the Buddhist's perception of forgiveness. We definitely have some very philosophical and forward-thinking brains in this class room!
In Computing, the children have continued to develop their programming skills as they move away from using the 'draw' function on the sphero and are creating routes by merging blocks of instructions for the sphero to follow. The more they practise this, the more they are becoming experts in it!
In Art, the children have been practising their needlework skills with Mrs Carter to create some beautiful tapestries. We are so proud of the concentration and resilience that the children have shown throughout this topic.
In PE, the children partook in agility courses to practise the control of their speeds.
In Safeguarding, we have learned about the topics of 'dementia', 'water safety' and 'railway safety'.
WC 16th May 2022
Reading: We have had a busy week in reading as we have looked at another type of text - the poem 'The Carpenter and the Walrus' by Lewis Carroll. The children came up with some brilliant ideas around the morals of this poem and the themes that are in it including being wise, trusting strangers and being greedy. The children loved exploring this poem and related it to other stories we have read or things that they were familiar with at home. For example, Mya instantly recalled the characters as being in 'Alice in Wonderland'.
In Writing, the children have continued their non-fiction writing by exploring the journey of Frederick Catherwood as they have now almost finished drafting their diary entries. They have used grammar skills such as parenthesis, relative clauses and comma lists and have explored with sentence structure to make their writing fit the genre. They have also ensured it has been written in the past tense, in first person and in an informal and chatty style.
In Maths, the children completed their decimals topic with an end of topic assessment using Mirodo to check their understanding of different aspects. They have done brilliantly in this topic and have begun to make some progressions in recalling the variety of skills they have learnt over Year 5, including rounding, sequencing, multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000.
Kidsgrove Curriculum
This week the children have been practising their performances for the Platinum Jubilee celebration day next week! They have also set up some Science experiments using circuits to test and compare the performance of different voltages in Science and have completed more learning on the Maya by creating their own Maya people up and down the hierarchy, showing the different kinds of things they would have worn.
WC 9th May 2022
Reading and Writing
This week, the children have been using the prologue of the book 'The Island at the End of Everything' by Kiran Millwood Hargrave to support their practise of retrieval, inference, vocabulary and explain questions. They loved this book and have asked to continue reading so keep your eyes out for it!
In writing, the children completed their persuasive leaflet based on Chichen Itza by creating some beautiful final publishes, after some rigorous editing and peer-assessing! They have also began to plan and prepare for their next write, which will be a diary entry from the point of view of Frederick Catherwood, who was one of the first people to discover ancient Maya ruins. The children have researched the book 'Jungle of Stone', which is all about Catherwood's discovery and how he found it to create a story map to support their writing of his first encounter with an ancient Maya ruin. They are very excited about this write and I can't wait to see the beautiful work this talented bunch will produce!
Maths
This week the children continued their decimals topic to support their understanding of Number and Place Value. The level of high quality reasoning and problem solving answers I have seen this week have been brilliant as they deepen their understanding of decimals. Arithmetic has supported their learning by practising column method for addition and subtraction and recalling turning improper fractions to support their understanding of wholes and decimals.
Afternoon Curriculum
We have had some jam-packed afternoons and I have got lots of pictures ready to put into our Owls Class floorbook! At the beginning of the week, the children continued their Science topic of electricity by playing memory games to practice their knowledge of the scientific symbols of circuit components. On Tuesday, we completed a Skills Builders lesson based around team work by looking at the advantages and disadvantages of responsibility. The children then began an RE topic of forgiveness by looking at how it is presented in Judaism and looking at the story of the Ten Commandments before practising their programming skills by getting their Spehero balls out of a maze that they had made! On Wednesday, we continued and built on our learning of Ancient Maya by creating the trade routes between the cities and looking at what they supply and demand was like across Mesoamerica. On Thursday, the children continued their Art topic with Mrs Carter by creating fabric to accompany their Freda Carlo inspired creations and had lots of fun in PE on the field! On Friday afternoon, I was blown away by the children's knowledge of Coral as we collaborated with the Soneva Academy to begin a course of modules from the Maldives that will support our learning next term of climate change!
WC 3rd May 2022
Another short week for the children but they have returned from the bank holiday ready to learn and eager to achieve!
Reading and Writing
Year 5 have been using the lyrics from the song 'be prepared' from lion king to answer a series of retrieval questions before moving onto explaining and inferring parts of the song. They loved using something that they already knew as it gave them a bit more understanding of the text. Make sure that the children complete their reading homework this weekend as it will give them some prior knowledge for next weeks reading too!
In writing, the children have worked extremely hard at a persuasive leaflet by including devices such as rhetorical question, exaggeration, alliteration, opinions presented as facts and emotive language. I can't wait to show you some of their published masterpieces! They have used Chichen Itza as their subject for their leaflets, which links beautifully with their Maya topic and they are beginning to make lots of connections with it using their new knowledge.
In Maths, Y5 have begun a topic of decimals to support and consolidate their understanding of number and place value. They have worked really hard at understanding how to add and subtract numbers within one before finding the complements to one. This week they will be crossing the whole and working with ones and decimals!
Afternoon learning,
The children have had lots of fun continuing the learn about the Maya civilisation in Kidsgrove Curriculum as they used their DT skills to structure a 3D map of where the Maya temples and cities were! Using their new knowledge of the trade back then they are going to continue building this map to show the different routes and products that were traded between the 10 cities. As a treat afterwards, they continued using their DT skills to make Maya hot chocolate (which included adding chilli powder and cinnamon!)
In Science, we have begun our Electricity topic and I was blown away by how much some of the children already knew! They made lots of links between Scientist's names and products that we use today. Furthermore, they made the connection of how many women were involved in inventing electrical equipment but the inequality in the fact that their names aren't as famous! We definitely have some bring sparks in Science, who show some real passion about the future of electricity in society!
WC 25th April 2022
Writing: This week the children have been beginning to collect information all about Chichen Itza ready to write their persuasive leaflets. We also took apart a WAGOLL to learn all about the features in a persuasive leaflet including emotive language, rhetorical questions, introduction with points of view, short sentences in the present tense, cause and effect conjunctions and exaggeration.
In reading, the children have been focussing on retrieval and explain questions using the beginning of the story 'The Secret Garden'. Some children are beginning to really strengthen and deepen their answers in their independent work and others are practising skimming and scanning the text for key words to find the information they need to answer the question. They have also been focussing on quoting straight from the text to use as evidence to support their answers.
Maths: The children have been concentrating on mastering the accuracy of the four operations with a particular focus on long multiplication and short division - we have definitely had some penny drop moments with this for some of the children!
Kidsgrove Curriculum - History
The children have enjoyed a carousel lesson to give them a quick look into the sub topics and key questions we will be covering through out our Maya topic. They have rotated around activities involving fact finding, counting in the Maya number system using rocks and sticks, plotting the countries that the Maya lived in on a map and structuring a timeline using the knowledge of AD and BC - all whilst listening to traditional Mayan music! As a treat at the end, we looked at the Maya ruins on the VR headsets.
'We learnt how to do Maya Maths - a stone is equal to a 1 and a stick is 5' - Leon
'We learnt the timeline of the Maya, it goes from 2000 BC and finished at 1570 AD' - Mya, Ashley and Logan
'We looked at where Chichen Itza is and figured out that it is on the very edge' - Lucas and Leon
'We also learnt where the seven countries that make up central America' - Nevaeh
'They built everything by hand and didn't use tools' - Mika
'They made their own music' - Daniel
'They sacrificed people to the Gods, such as the feathered serpent who they believed created the world' - Logan
'They had a sport where you couldn't use your hands or your feet' - Josh
'The temples had the amount of days that there were in the year for the steps' - Leon
WC 4th April,
With assessment out of the way, the children have had a brilliant last week of Spring 2! They have continued to focus in all of their lessons and have enjoyed some Easter crafts.
In Kidsgrove Curriculum, the children finished off their Geography topic on North America by comparing London and Anchorage - looking at the physical and human features.
WC 28th March 2022
It has been a busy week with our assessments but we are so proud of the progress all of the children are making. Their attitude to their assessments overall has improved and they seem a lot more confident with a test paper!
Afternoon lessons:
On Monday, we continued our 'light' topic in science by finding out about the 'law of reflection' - which proved true after we tested it ourselves! We now know that the angle of reflection is always the same as the angle of incidence.
On Tuesday, we have had another amazing trip to the high school where the children played a form of netball in their teams - showing brilliant teamwork, resilience and friendship.
On Wednesday, we completed our Computing lesson, where we looked at different forms of data in databases on different types of charts. We finished the lesson with an exciting animation activity, where the children turned their drawings into animated characters! We also did a PSHE lesson on healthy eating and created a class recipe book full of healthy meals you can make!
On Thursday and Friday afternoon, we continued our North America Geography topic and compared the city of London with the city of Anchorage - the children have done lots of research and categorised it into physical and human geography before converting their new knowledge onto Venn Diagrams to present their comparisons!
My Movie.mov
WC 21st March
What a wonderful week with this beautiful sunshine finally appearing! Hopefully we can have lots more fun outside now.
English: In writing this week, the children have worked incredibly hard with Mrs Johnson to produce some amazing published writes of character descriptions from the point of view of Stanley Yelnats from 'Holes' meeting a scary yellow-spotted lizard. We can't wait to put these on display to showcase the children's writing! They have worked together to peer assess each other's work, edited and improved on what they had already written and produced some beautiful pieces of writing to go into their publish books and on display. They have focused on expanded noun phrases and figurative language devices such as similes, metaphors and alliteration.
In reading, the children have used their retrieval, inference and explain skills in lesson, in their homework and in their reading into the curriculum lessons to extend and deepen their reading answers. Their fluency is getting better and better with the help of reading plus - which we have noticed the children have been using a lot more this week, so well done! Our focus text this week has been a non-fiction chronological report about King Henry II, King Richard and Bad King John.
Maths: The children have finished their Area and Perimeter topic but have been revisiting this in their roots of learning as a starter to each maths lesson. They have moved on to interpreting line graphs and we have begun drawing some of our own - the children have amazed me with their statistic skills and the accuracy of reading the scales of the graphs. They have been practising remembering the horizontal x axis and the vertical y axis to know where to put the changeable and measurable data! In arithmetic, we have covered rounding decimals, short division, adding and subtracting fractions to keep our knowledge of these skills fresh!
Science, this week - the children conducted an experiment to measure the height of a shadow in relation to the distance the light source is away from the opaque object. They then showed their results on a line graph - which fitted in perfectly with their statistics topic focus in maths!
A very exciting part of our week was having the pleasure of visiting the high school again to do Camp Craft with the wonderful Geography department! We learnt some essential survival skills and even ate some creepy crawlies for their protein!
WC 14th March:
English: Another fun packed week! The children have drafted their first two paragraphs of a first person narrative, using lots of figurative language and expanded noun phrases. We have enjoyed spending the week practising these skills by analysing WAGOLLS (what a good one looks like), using description orally in a game of guess who (but with lizards!) and using drama to add tension to our writing.
Reading: This week, we continued widening our knowledge of different types of texts by looking at a picture book called 'The Wolves in The Walls' from the same author as Coraline. The children loved this and really enjoyed the ending. They are producing some beautiful answers as we have been practising our Explain VIPER in addition to maintaining our retrieval, inference, prediction and vocabulary skills.
Maths: We have introduced the new topic of Area and Perimeter, which the children have worked really hard at understanding. We have measured perimeter of rectangles, rectilinear and compound shapes and we moved on to finding the area of rectangles and compound or rectilinear shapes by breaking them up - with and without grid paper to challenge some of the pupils! Next week, we will deepen our understanding and ensure our measuring skills are up to scratch! In Connected Arithmetic, the children have covered their written addition skills and been quickly retrieving their timestables to support their maths! In recall arithmetic, they have remembered and used their knowledge of prime numbers and factors from the Autumn term and have practising adding and subtracting fractions, which we learnt last term.
Geography: This week we have looked at all the different rivers in North America and considered why they are important. The children came up with some amazing ideas including for river cruises, religious rituals and trade transportation - which we linked to the canals for the pot banks in historic Stoke on Trent. They absolutely loved using the VR headsets for the first time this week to capture some of the beautiful North American landscapes and to connect their learning of different states and physical landmarks in North America! We have covered some technical vocabulary including v-shaped valleys, water sources, tribituries and hard/soft rock. We also had the amazing opportunity to attend a Geology session at Kidsgrove Secondary School where we looked at Kidsgrove in the Jurassic period! Mr Smith also let us feel a crocodile's skin - ew!
We also had great fun celebrating Red Nose Day with lots of activities to take home, telling jokes and talking about the stories of the children who are helped out by the money that Comic Relief raises. We were also blown away by the generous contributions for Ukraine Day – and the children were brilliant and connecting how these two causes are important for us to help.
Some of our writers love time lapsing themselves doing their edits and publishes!
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WC 7th March 2022
English: The children have loved practising their figurative language skills such as similes, metaphors, expanded by writing a short setting description based around the first 8 chapters of our class book 'Holes'. This will link perfectly with next weeks write where we will be composing a first person narrative from the point of view of Stanley Yelnats.
Reading: Reading has linked beautifully with our writing this week as we have been diving deep into the first 8 chapters
of the book using our retrieval and inference skills, whilst introducing and practising our explain skills.
Maths: The children have been finding equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages to finish off their fractions topic from last term before we move onto measurement next week! The children have worked so hard at understanding fractions and will continue to recall this lesson in daily recall arithmetic and in the roots of learning starters.
Science: This week we introduced our new Science topic of Light by looking at the jobs of lighting technicians, lighting designers and lighting engineers. This helped to build of life skills in line with the 'skillsbuilders' curriculum we now follow. We then moved on to look at how light helps us to see, by creating some presentations and videos where we explain using the vocab travel, waves, straight lines, light source and shadow.
Kidsgrove Curriculum: We have continued our new North America topic by looking at biomes and thinking about which biomes we would like to live in and why. The children are already loving this topic and we have some amazing, fun practicals to explore with our new knowledge!
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Extra curricular: The children really did us proud by writing scripts for an assembly to tell everybody about our incredible Standon Bowers trip! Some children also enjoyed their first week of clubs - I really enjoyed hosting board games club in our Year 5/6 classroom - it's lovely to see siblings enjoying themselves.
WC 28th February - As well as a fabulous time at Standon Bowers, the children enjoyed World Book Day on Thursday by dressing in their pyjamas and bringing in and sharing their favourite books. It was a lovely day full of stories, adventures and imagination!
WC 28th February - WOW what a week! I hope you all enjoyed the pictures we put onto dojo however here are some of the best bits from our trip to Standon Bowers.
WC 14th December
We've had a very busy last week of term with the children completing their topics and units as well as completing their Spring 1 assessments! They have all done amazing and their attitudes towards their learning and their resilience with the tests has shown a huge improvement - the children need to give themselves a pat on the back!
In Reading sessions this week we have been completing Reading Plus - please remember to push this at home as we have seen amazing progressions in all of the children!
In English, we have been completing our newspaper article with a concentration on parenthesis skills to add extra information into sentences to aid the cohesion of how a newsletter is written.
In Maths, we have been using our arithmetic skills of short/long multiplication and short division to answer problem solving and reasoning questions in preparation for our assessments - the children love these activities as they work together in pairs to help one another understand what maths skills they need to use to answer the questio
ns.
In their topic this week, the children have sadly finished their World War Big Question. They have created some outstanding work during this and have taken a huge interest in what life was like during war time. Their work has all been displayed around the outside of the classrooms so that we are reading to move onto our next topic 'North America' in the Spring 2 term!
WC 7th February
English and Reading: What an amazing week of reading, we have been reading 'Leon and the place between' which has been making us want to get to the circus! With a focus on Inference and Retrieval skills, the pupils have once again blown me away with their super reading and comprehension of this story. In English, we have started planning and drafting our newspaper article by coming up with our headlines, byline, orientation and the first part of our main body of the article! The pupil's are loving the evacuation theme!
In Maths, the children have been transferring their knowledge of fractions into decimals as they have been converting and using the thousandths column! In arithmetic, we have been focusing on our place value knowledge to connect to our understanding of decimals.
The children have started their skills builders journey by learning about 'teamwork' with Miss Mayer. They loved this lesson and we can't wait to start using our team skills at Standon Bowers in a few weeks! children were allowed to take with them.
In History, the children have loved researching about evacuation in WW2 and have written some amazing diary entries and letters home from the POV of an evacuee child in WW2. They really understood the thoughts and feelings that the children would have had and made sure to use key words such as 'gas mask', 'blitz', 'air raid shelters', 'name tags', 'ration books'. They have also made some amazing mini suitcases to show the small amount of items the evacuated
We had a special visitor this week too! A local policeman came to speak to us about online safety, and the children were shocked to learn about which games/apps they shouldn't be using. They had lots of questions to ask the policeman and were really engaged with the safety message he as telling us about. 
WC 31st January 2022.
In English this week, we have edited and published our character descriptions of William Beech. The children have used lots of relative clauses and adverbial phrases to expand their descriptive writing. I LOVE the use of vocabulary too, as well as the imaginative similes and metaphors they have come up with independently. This links in beautifully with next weeks history lesson, which will be based around evacuation. 
In Maths, the children have continued working on fractions and have done amazing at remembering how to convert or simplify fractions to find a common denominator before subtracting. They have also been subtracting mixed numbers and a few of them have mastered breaking the whole!
In the afternoons, the children have been working incredibly hard at their Geography skills by looking at populations, terrains, weather, biomes and locational vocabulary to describe countries which contributed to WW2. Watch the video to see them describe the timeline of WW2!
In Science, we have looked at how we age and the effects it has on our bodies! The children created pamphlets to put in the doctors surgery for anyone who wants to learn about how aging effects the body! 
WC 24th January 2022,
English: This week, we continued work with our class story 'Good Night Mister Tom' by planning a character description using SPaG skills such as relative clauses, fronted adverbials, parenthesis and using Alan Peaty's sentence types. In reading, we have read all about one of the earliest black mayors 'John Archer' and dove deep into conversations about how the level of racial inequality at the time impacted how he was treated, why there is little information about him and what the newspapers were saying about him. We have continued to use our retrieval and inference skills to help us with this after looking at different vocab such as prestige, dominated, malice and reparations.
Maths: In our fractions topic, children have been converting fractions to find common denominators to add more than three fractions and convert improper fraction answers to mixed numbers. I have been so impressed with how much they have taken on board! We've definitely got some budding mathematicians in our midst! In connected arithmetic, the children have been practising the fluency of adding fractions before moving onto problem solving and reasoning questions in their branching out maths lessons.
Afternoons: We have continued with the topic of puberty by thinking about why we have eyebrows and how we can relate it to puberty! The children then used different shower gels, soaps and deoderants to wash smelly socks - to help with their understanding how to get rid of the BO smell that can come with puberty!
WC 17th January 2022,
English: This week, we continued work with our class story 'Good Night Mister Tom' as we edited and published our descriptive narratives. The children have really got the hand of fronted adverbials and finding synonyms to improve their vocabulary choices. In spelling, we have had a focus on adding prefixes to root words where we need to drop the e (e.g. captive -> captivate or diverse -> diversify). In reading, the children have been reading the first chapter of 'Floodland' by Marcus Sedgwick with a continued focus on retrieval and inference skills.
Maths: In our fractions topic, we have been answering lots of different questions using the skill of comparing and sequencing fractions. To do this, we have had to find common denominators and use our knowledge of equivalent fractions. They have blown me away with how quickly they have understood the skills of converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa.
Afternoons: We have kickstarted our WW2 topic by learning about Adolf Hitler using our research skills. We have read all about his early childhood, the part he played in WW1, his part in the cause of WW2 and how it ended. They have been really engaged with this topic and have began to create a two page spread biography for him with lots of details and interesting facts. In science, the children learned about changes to our bodies through puberty and will continue to learn about the changes that our bodies make as we age. In With Mrs Dryden in Spanish this week, the children learned how to ask each other questions as greetings and responses. In music, they used body percussion to create beats. In PSHE, we spoke about jobs and different salaries, starting with a game of cherades based on different jobs (as you can see in the video). In computing, the children have been creating videos by using different techniques such as close ups, talking head and panning. In RE we created posters which showed how peace is shown in different religions.
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WC 10th January - This week the children have been doing a brilliant job of CONVERTING FRACTIONS - in the pictures they are working together in groups to work out word problems with their own team names and point scoring systems! In History, we have begun our WW2 topic, which they are loving so far and have done some beautiful writing on based around the TREATY OF VERSAILLES to support their understanding of why the war began. In English, they have blown me away with their beautiful VOCABULARY choices when structuring a DESCRIPTIVE NARRATIVE with a focus on SPEECH DIALOGUE and FRONTED ADVERBIAL PHRASES.
WC 3rd Jan - HAPPY NEW YEAR! Year 5 have kicked off the new term by learning all about what fractions are and finding equivalent ones. I am so impressed with how much they have remembered from last year! This term we are reading 'Good Night Mr Tom', which will support our learning of WW2.
WC 13th December - well, what a fantastic term! The children blew us away with their performance and their confidence to get up on that stage and sing and sign. It was amazing to see all the parents there getting involved also. They have also enjoyed their Christmas dinners made by our amazing kitchen team. In maths, some children have progressed to using CONCRETE materials to support their own INDEPENDENT learning, whilst others have been polishing their division, long and short multiplication skills. WELL DONE OWLS!
WC 6th December - during this week we have been reading the first chapter of 'Street Child' by Berlie Doherty, which the children have really enjoyed. I have given them all links to a copy of the text on their iPads for them to read in their own times to see how the story turns out! They picked out some very interesting language and vocabulary from the text this week!
WC 6th December - the pupils have been using their KNOWN MULTIPLICATION FACTS to tackle short division questions and, I have to say, have been smashing it! As a class, their times tables knowledge is brilliant and has supported their fluency and accuracy of using the BUS STOP METHOD.
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In Maths, the children have been working incredibly hard at achieving fluency in short and long multiplication. Their resilience with this has been admirable as they have been trying over and over again until they are getting their answers accurately - I am so proud of them!
In writing, the children have been creating their published pieces of writing which have been brilliant - they have really enjoyed the topic around WW1, especially when horses and animals are involved. Once a bit of art work has been added, I can't wait to show you more of their accomplishments.
In writing, the children have been creating their published pieces of writing which have been brilliant - they have really enjoyed the topic around WW1, especially when horses and animals are involved. Once a bit of art work has been added, I can't wait to show you more of their accomplishments.
WC 22nd November - In Science, the children have learnt about materials which DISSOLVE. To test this, we put different MATERIALS into water to see what kind of SOLUTION was made. In our writing lesson we have been continuing to EDIT our discursive arguments where we are presenting a BALANCED debate to the question 'SHOULD ANIMALS BE USED IN WAR?' - there is a time lapse of Lucas' amazing writing, which he had great fun in researching the reasons FOR and AGAINST.
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WC 15th November - we were so lucky to be invited to see the Zoo 2 U visit at Kidsgrove Secondary School where we were taught loads of interesting facts about tenrecs, skunks, owls, millipedes and bearded dragons! Did you know that even though a tenrec looks exactly like a hedgehog, it has a closer relation to an elephant!!
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WC 15th November - we had a great time in Science this week. The children compared the resistance of different materials on circuits to see which one would be the best conductor for the new flood lights at the local football stadium!
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WC 15th Nov - we started the week off by editing and publishing our war poems, which have turned out sensational. I'm so proud of the children for persevering with something they initially struggled with. We definitely have some bright imaginations amongst us! They've used their skills of onomatopoeia, personification, alliteration, rhetorical question and simile/metaphor to show emotional devices alongside their locked in writing skills.
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WC 8th November - we absolutely love concluding our week with a music lesson with Mrs Evans at Kidsgrove Secondary School! We have been using the BEATS of songs to get quicker and quicker when singing and have had so much fun practising different NOTES on the keyboard.
11th November 2021 - WE WILL REMEMBER THEM ❤️
WC 8th November - after our vocab lesson last week in science, we prepared and did our first scientific investigation into conductors and insulators using our new keywords variables, thermal insulators and conductors. We compared different materials based on how well they kept our hands warm from a tub of icy water!!
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WC 8th November - the children loved writing their own poems to help to prepare them for our first published write of this half term, which is based on the beautiful short film 'beyond the lines', keeping in line with our War Horse class novel and our recent WW1 topic.
WC 8th November - we've had a busy week full of lots of learning, the children have dome amazing in maths and are becoming secure in their knowledge of multiples, factors, prime numbers, composite numbers, squared and cubed numbers! We started the week off by putting ourselves into arrays of numbers and using ven diagrams to find our common factors and factor pairs!
WC 1st November - in maths this week, the children have really impressed us with their times tables knowledge! Keep it up on TTrockstars and use the maths slides on the learning support link for help with any homework! Multiples, factors, common factors, factor pairs, prime numbers ✖️➗
WC 1st November - kickstarting our science topic 'materials and their properties' today found us describing what we could feel in feely bags to help us to understand what properties are. The children learnt lots of new vocab which they will be quizzed on every week! permeable, magnetic, reflective, conductor, absorbant, insulator, waterproof, transparent, opaque, translucent, hard.
WC 1st November - in English this week we have been using different figurative language devices such as onomatopoeias, similes, metaphors, personification and alliteration. The children came up with some brilliant ideas for our senses bank, which they are going to use to help write their WW1 poems using some of these new skills, all in line with our class novel 'War Horse' (which you can find in learning support) and our recent WW1 topic. 🪖
WC 1st November - in PSHE this week with Miss Mayer, we have celebrated difference by making our own culture wheels using our keys words culture, conflict, belong, similarity and difference 🌎
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W/C 18th October - the children have created their own documentaries using their new digital knowledge to show their understanding of different species life cycles by comparing them 🦋🐥🐒🐠🐸
W/C 18th October - the children have created some brilliant anti bullying posters for our PSHE lesson with Mrs Dryden! They even got to do some acting out of bullying scenarios and discussed what they should do. 🙅♀️🙅♂️
W/C 18th October - We've kickstarted our week by learning about County Lines and what the signs are. The children did brilliantly on their quizes!
WC 11th October - back in our classroom science lesson, we looked at eggs to support our learning of bird lifecycles 🐣 watch this space for some documentaries about life cycles!
W/C 11th October - this week we had the privilege of joining Kidsgrove Secondary for an incredible Science lesson. We were solving a murder using lots of different lab equipment and chemicals! All of the children got so involved and let their curiosities run wild 🕵️♀️ You'll be happy to know they found the suspect! 🚨🥽👩🔬🥼
W/C 11th October - this week in PSHE with Miss Mayer we looked at the consequences and rewards of our behaviour as a class and the children created their own class charters to help take ownership of their own behaviour. They had some excellent discussions and understood how behaviour affects the class as a whole 🏅
W/C 11th October - today we spoke to Maisy from the BBC who told us how our learning could help towards some of the Live Lessons on TV! Some of our learning will get sent to her every week and may end up on the lessons! How exciting! 🥳