Summer Term 1 - Week 1 - Signs of Summer! 

English

In English this week we began a new learning journey on emotive writing. The children are exploring the video from literacy shed ‘The Piano’. Throughout the learning journey, the children will have the opportunity to write in different genres as well as investigating and using a variety of grammatical skills.

To begin the week, the children used their VIPERS skills to explore video and look at symbolism. They were presented with a range of ideas and discussed what this could symbolise and how it enhances the image in our heads. Next, the children learnt how to extend sentences using relative clauses, adjectival phrases etc. and wrote character descriptions for the old man in the clip.

Towards the end of the week, the children learnt about amplifications and how to use a range of literary devices to create them. So far, we have seen some lovely, descriptive language. We will continue to develop our writing over the next few weeks where we will end the journey by writing a recount in the form of a letter.

Maths

Maths varied this week, we had to complete our statistics learning journey before we moved onto angles. On the Monday and Tuesday, the children looked at two-way tables and reading time tables. They then finalised the journey by completing their end of unit assessments.

Mid-week, the children then began their angles and shapes learning journey. To begin their explored degrees, lots of this learning was recalling prior knowledge from Year 4. The children were confident in their recall and made notes of the declarative knowledge for the journey in their books.

To end the week, the children were involved in their weekly carousel, for these activities the children have the opportunity to look back at their arithmetic and reasoning papers and work on areas they find tricky. Teachers and TA’s are on hand to support, show methods etc.

Well done to those children who are continuing to access TTRS at home, keep up the fab work!

Wider Curriculum

We were scientists this week…

On Monday, the children learnt all about life cycles of humans. They learnt about the different stages and recorded key facts and information. During the lesson, the children were also introduced to different animals and their cycles, where we then made comparisons, noting the similarities and differences.

On Thursday, we then moved on to ‘Living things and their habitats’, where we explored the life cycles of common plants. Here the children looked at parts of a plant, how seeds disperse, what asexual reproduction in plants is, before embarking on an experiment. For the experiment, the children would be taking cuttings of a plant and replanting them to see if their grow. In their books they made predictions on what would happen to the plant based on the knowledge they had learnt from the lesson.

Please see this week’s home learning for further information!!

What a great start to a new term,

Have a wonderful weekend as always,

Best Wishes,

Spring 2 - Week 5- Recounts, Resistance and Rhythms!

English

This week in English, we are coming to the end of our learning journey. At the start of the week, the children began to plan their recounts. The recounts were written from Xok the shark’s perspective. In the recount, they had to capture what it would have been like for him captivity and give a detailed recall of the key events. In the plan, the children noted phrases and vocabulary that they could later use in their writing. The children got out thesauruses to upskill their phrases and enhance the emotions they had selected.

For the rest of the week, the children wrote their recounts. They used all of their skills and knowledge from across the journey to write their final piece. The children were able to write descriptively and used stylistic devices to enhance their descriptions. Towards the end of the week, the children then had the opportunity to edit, redraft and improve their work. They then filled out their toolkits, assessing themselves against their success criteria.

Maths

In Maths, we also came to the end of our area and perimeter learning journey. The children showed off their learning in their end of unit assessments. However, some of the children found these quite tricky and this is where Mrs Callister and I decided we would need some consolidation.

With Mrs C and her fantastic art skills, a double page spread of area and perimeter questions was created. The children at their own pace worked through the questions. Here they were able to ask of support in addressing misconceptions. We will also continue to embed this content in their morning work.

At the end of the week, the children then completed their PUMA maths assessment. This is an opportunity for the children to demonstrate what they have learnt across the term. The children enjoy looking at their progress from autumn term and from this information set themselves targets.

Wider Curriculum

In Wider Curriculum we got wet and wild investigating water resistance. In the lesson, the children carried out an experiment, exploring how different shapes/surface areas can have didn’t levels of water resistance. The children were given balls of clay, where they formed a variety of shapes. They then checked their controlled variables before dropping the clay into water. With an iPad they timed which shape sank to the bottom the quickest, therefore having the least amount of water resistance. The children wrote out their methods, made predictions, recorded their results and wrote conclusions on their findings.

Music Performance

On Wednesday 20^th March 2024, the children performed their Brass Performance to all of the parents. We were so proud of our children, who got up there and until the lessons, had never played a brass instrument before. We would also like to say a huge thank you to Tony, our music teacher, who guided the children through their lessons and their wonderful performance!

Important Dates:

·      Parents evening - Tuesday 26^th/Wednesday 27^th March 2024

·      Easter Extravaganza – Own clothes! - Thursday 28^th March 2024 

Have a wonderful weekend, 
Best Wishes, 
The Year Five Team 

Spring 2 - Week 4 - Year 5 are keeping S.M.A.R.T! 

English

This week in English, the children performed an oral discussion. They gathered research based on the theme ‘Should exotic animals be kept as pets’, in pairs they looked closely at the positive and negative impacts. Next, they picked a side and navigated an oral debate. They were given sentence stems to support with how they could lead into their arguments. Finally, in pairs, they performed to the class. The purpose of this lesson was to allow the children the opportunity to gather information for their persuasive writing.

In the follow-on lesson; the children wrote persuasive texts arguing their side of the argument. They broke it down into 3 main arguments and used evidence and statistic to support. We then came back together at the class, where we modelled a conclusion for the children discussing the success criteria and its contents. Towards the end of the week, we moved onto setting descriptions, the children used the map from the story ‘Shark Caller’ as inspiration to write about their settings. Their aim was use to a range of stylistic devices to enhance their descriptions. As a result, they were then able to write a detailed recount of their own arrival on the Papua New Guinea island, detailing all they could see, hear, taste, touch and smell.

Maths

In Maths, the children continue with their perimeter and area learning journey. This week, we started to look at the perimeter of polygons and rectilinear shapes before moving onto the area. The children now know that the perimeter is the outside of the shape and the area is the inside.

The children were also able to articulate that for working out the area they needed to know their times tables! EEEEK. Please do continue to encourage your children to access TTRS at home, it is such a great tool in building your child’s fluency in recalling multiplication facts. Another great resources which myself and Mrs. Callister advocate is flash cards. They removed the pressures of speed and allow the children to really pinpoint to the facts that they do not know.   

Towards the end of the week, the children completed this term PUMA assessments which has a mixture of arithmetic and reasoning questions. This is where the children have the opportunity to show off all they have learnt across Spring Term.

Wider Curriculum

In Wider Curriculum this week we have been Scientists exploring FORCES. The children completed an investigation, answering the question ‘Does the mass of an object affect the force of gravity?’ – The children were given a range of balls all of a different mass, they dropped the balls from the same height, recording the speed in which they fell. “The heavier and bigger the object the bigger it’s gravitational pull” – Lochy 5B. During the lesson, the children also learnt lots of interesting information about gravity and its founder Sir Isaac Newton.

Next, the children explored Air resistance, completing another investigation with a parachute drop. The focus within these lessons was the children’s ability to observe, record and explain their findings in a conclusion.

Online Safety Visit

On Wednesday the children were lucky enough to have a visit from the local police who came to talk to them all about online safety! During the session, the children discussed the different kinds of apps and games that can accessed online, along with their age limits. It was interesting to see how many children access games that are above their age bracket. However, one of the key messages from the police was understanding that these games and apps will be used but it’s how to use them safely that’s important. The children were presented with the acronym  -

S – Stay safe

M – Don’t MEET up with strangers you have talked to online.

A – Think before ACCEPTING anyone online.

R – Not everyone is RELIABLE. They may not be who they seem to be.

T – TELL a responsible adult if you feel uncomfortable or worried.

This acronym is now displayed in the classroom for all to see!

It was also wonderful having these important messages presented by people from our local services with stories that link to our community. The children were then allowed to ask questions about online safety and their jobs as the police. The session was extremely informative and opened our eyes as teachers to the importance of keeping our children safe online.

As a whole, it was an exciting morning, especially when the children saw Mrs. Callister and Miss Beckett locked up in handcuffs! EEK!

Important Dates:

·      Parent’s evening – Tuesday 26^th March / Wednesday 27^th March 2024, please book your appointment on arbor.

·      Wednesday 20^th March 2024 – Year 5 children will be performing their music piece to parents lead by our music man Tony at 2:40pm

Spring 2 - Week 3 - Reading is a passport to countless adventures... 

English

To begin the week, the children continued writing their discussion texts. They continued to develop their unbiased arguments, using research on the positive and negative points to help them. The children at the end of the lesson shared their arguments and ‘magpied’ ideas when returning to edit and improve. In the following lessons, the children were presented with a SPaG focus of commas, colons and semi-colons. They explored what they were, where they would be used and how to use them effectively. In their books, the children then outlined the definition before using the punctuation accurately in sentences that contained themes from the text. For the rest of the week, the children had wonderful activities to complete with links to World Book Day – We look forward to continuing our English learning journey next week, where we will be exploring oral discussions for arguments and persuasive writing! WATCH THIS SPACE…

Maths

In Maths this week, the children begun their new learning journey of perimeter beginning with looking at the perimeter of a rectangle. The children attacked this with confidence and were able to access the problem-solving and reasoning questions quickly. We also completed another arithmetic paper; we went through it as a class notifying any misconceptions and making notes on how to approach the question next time. We recorded the scores in our whole class tracker, the children can then see their progress and record it in their books. The children then set themselves targets based on the test they completed.

Wider Curriculum

In Wider Curriculum we continued with our Art learning journey. This week it was all about our backgrounds. The children had four activities they completed as part of a carousel. They were given 4 small pieces of paper to create 4 different backgrounds using a mixture of media in the form of printing. We had brusho, water colours, foil and felt tips etc. The children then popped their testers into their sketch books where they made annotations, discussing their process, what they like, what worked well and what didn’t. From here, they selected their favourite background to recreate on a larger scale. Once their background was created, the children then began to select their favourite patterns from their journey so far to overlay. Again, this was using mixed media. They had to think carefully about the patterns, colours, media they selected and continue to refer to Kandinsky’s work for inspiration.

World Book Day

What a wonderful day we had for world book day, it was so lovely to see the mixture of costumes and pj’s. In the morning, the children took part in the nationwide quiz from the national literacy trust. The children answered a variety of questions and were introduced to the author and teacher Kit Brown who promoted his brand-new book! We were great quizzers, scoring 20/20!! In the afternoon, the children then went down to EYFS where they shared books with each other, drank hot chocolate and had a biscuit. The children had a wonderful time and were so lovely with the little ones.

Important Dates:

·         Parent’s evening – Tuesday 26^th March / Wednesday 27^th March 2024, please book your appointment on arbor.

·         Wednesday 20^th March 2024 – Year 5 children will be performing their music piece to parents lead by our music man Tony at 2:40pm

·        WPA Bake off – Monday 11^th March 2024 – Cakes to be sold all week

·         Comic relief – Friday 15^th March 2024 – Own clothes or something ‘Funny’  

Have a wonderful weekend,

Best Wishes,

The Year 5 Team

Spring 2 - Week 2 - They've really put their 'Arts' into it... 

English

In English this week, we continued with our learning journey of recounts, based on the text ‘Shark Caller’ by Zellah Bethell. To begin the week, the children had to examine, justify and provide evidence for a character. They looked at the character ‘Blue Wing’ and focused on her characteristics. They then demonstrated their understanding of her by creating a Top Trumps card. Next, the children took their learning deeper by writing a character description. In the description, the children were looking particularly at the way Blue Wing tackles a challenge. Not only did they have to think about her personality but also her thoughts, opinions, actions and appearance. To end the week, the children then looked at discussion texts… They were presented with the statement: ‘Islands should be encouraged to keep their traditions and should not be changed by visitors or newcomers’ They had to then consider the positives and negatives of visitors coming to the island and write an unbiased discussion. The children were encouraged to use formal language and were provided with sentence stems to support.

Maths

In Maths, the children were coming to the end of their Fractions, Percentages and Decimals learning journey. With the children covering a range of new knowledge and skills in their Morning Work of converting fractions, percentages and decimals in such depth, Mrs. Callister combined some of our small steps in White Rose together. This meant the children were able to confidently demonstrate their knowledge and have more time to grapple with problem solving and reasoning questions. The children were then able to demonstrate their knowledge of key instant recall facts for this topic within their end of unit assessments. Our next learning journey we will be exploring perimeter and area!

We would also like to say a huge well done to those children that are accessing TTRS at home. It is incredibly important to maintain fluency in times tables and it’s wonderful to see that the children are still challenging themselves, both at home and in school.

Wider Curriculum

In wider curriculum, we have continued our Art learning journey. This week, the children focused more on the artist Kandinsky and his style of art. The children worked with paint to create geometric and circular patterns. Next, they explored with layer/combing this medium with different materials to create texture within their sketch books. On Friday, they then revisited, working back into their work, making conscious choices and annotating. The development of their sketch books is coming along, and we are beginning to see more sophisticated annotations and feedback given to peers.

Boys Active!

Well, what a wonderful Wednesday!

The boys had the opportunity to head up to the Royal Cornwall Show Ground. Here, they participated in a range of military based activities lead by the coaches at DT sport as well as sports leaders/captains from Wadebridge Secondary School. The children had the opportunity to use their team building skills, unravelling themselves from a human chain and getting themselves in height order or order of their shoe size. They had the chance to play laser tag, using their strategy skills to defend themselves within the course and plan their defensive approach to protect their base. They even had the chance to build fire and make hot chocolate! To end the day, the children then all took part in a military obstacle course, where they had to hop, dodge, sprint and weave between obstacles, before diving under a net and army crawling through the mud. The race was on for this, competing against other schools, teams, adults and even some teachers! We are incredibly proud of our boys and felt they represented WPA well, we all had such a lovely day – Bring on next year when our five’s will be sixes and shall be invited back!

Girls day...

By the sounds of it, the girls also had a lovely day here back at school. In the morning, they buddied up with the year sixes to participate in an egg drop challenge. Mrs. Berridge was amazed that hardly any of the eggs broke, go girls! Next, they used their analytical skills, to measure the ‘ruler drop’ – This is where the children dropped a ruler from a height and had to catch it with one hand. Each time, the girls had to decide what height, speed, etc. and record it. I think it’s safe to say that some of the girls would’ve made Mr. Miyagi proud! The girls then had a wonderful afternoon completing some artwork/sketching in their books based on Year 6’s theme of evolution.

Important Dates:

·         St Piran’s day – Tuesday 5^th March 2024 – Children to wear Non-uniform black, white, gold

·         World Book Day – Thursday 7^th March 2024 - ‘Bedtime Stories’ theme. Children to wear Pjs and bring a teddy and their favourite book.

·        Parent’s evening – Tuesday 26^th March / Wednesday 27^th March 2024, please book your appointment on arbor.

·        Wednesday 20^th March 2024 – Year 5 children will be performing their music piece to parents lead by our music man Tony at 2:40pm. *Letter coming soon*

We hope you have a great weekend,

Best Wishes,

Spring Term 1 - Week 5 - Hear Ye, Hear Ye...

English

In English this week, the children planned their persuasive letters. They thought carefully about the devices, skills and knowledge they needed to include in order to be successful. Then using their plans, the children wrote to His Majesty, King Charles, persuading him to place Katherine Johnson on the honours list. The children drafted, edited and improved their letters, before checking their work against their success criteria. Once checked, the children ticked off their toolkits and shared/constructed feedback with their teacher. Next week, for the final week of term, the children will begin their performance poetry learning journey, they will discuss, learn and add actions to their poems and perform for their peers.

Maths

In Maths, the children finished their second fractions learning journey and completed their end of unit assessment. We then introduced the children to their new learning journey of decimals. The children looked at decimals up to 2 decimal places. With Mrs Callister once again, ahead of the game, the children had already been exposed to these and completed the questions with confidence. This allowed great opportunities to grapple with problem solving questions and explore decimals in different contexts. On Friday, we had a skills session where the children ‘Find their weakness and destroy it’ – The children looked at a range of arithmetic questions, selected their area of focus and engaged with the challenge. Mrs Callister took a group of children off to look at %’s of an amount and Miss Beckett supported addressing ‘silly mistakes’ – The session had great purpose and lots of children had their ‘Ah Ha’ moment.

Wider curriculum

In wider curriculum, we have come to the end of our Science learning journey. The children showed off their learning in an end of unit assessment. It was amazing to see all the wonderful learning from across the past weeks, come to the surface. The children were proud of their ‘Sticky Knowledge’. Next week we will begin our DT journey.

Music

Every Wednesday, the children have had an opportunity to place a range of brass instruments under the lead of Tony our music man. The children have been exposed to different instruments and have explored reading notes and playing. We looked forward to next week, where our journey will continue.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Best wishes,