Year 5 Weekly Blog wb. 17th November

We started the week with great excitement, but the weather had other ideas for our cross-country try-outs! To ensure the children run on the field safely, we're aiming to run them off this Thursday instead. Please ensure your child comes into school wearing their full PE kit on Thursday so we can run the session as planned!

This week, we sharpened our numeracy skills by focusing on division facts, using our strong times tables knowledge as a foundation. We also explored a variety of mental strategies to efficiently work out addition and subtraction problems—it's all about finding the quickest route to the correct answer!

We immersed ourselves in our class text, 'The Riddle of the Runes,' laying the groundwork for exciting writing. A major focus has been on enriching vocabulary by identifying Tier 1, 2, and 3 words to incorporate into our own narratives. We also drilled down on sentence structure, learning to correctly switch a verb from Simple Past to Present Perfect (e.g., I saw -> I have seen). The children have been flexing their descriptive muscles by using fronted adverbials (time, place, manner) to start sentences and separate them with a comma, and they are extending their sentences beautifully using subordinate clauses (for explanation and emotion, e.g., I ran, because I was terrified) and relative clauses (starting with who, which, that) to add specific details to nouns.

Our reading sessions have also centered on 'The Riddle of the Runes.' We've been working hard on answering a range of SATs-style questions to build comprehension, inference, and retrieval skills, preparing them for more challenging texts.

Following last week's introduction, we explored the cause and effect of climate change in the Arctic. We analysed real data to understand exactly what has happened to the Arctic and why it is happening, leading to important discussions about global impact.

In Forces, we moved on to investigate air resistance. We focused on identifying the effects of air resistance that acts between moving surfaces. This culminated in a hands-on paper spinner investigation where we tested: How does the length of the wings of a paper spinner affect the time it takes to fall from a set height?

¡Hola! We had a fantastic, high-talking lesson focusing on asking for a ticket to a specific location. The children were keen to practice their pronunciation and role-play different scenarios!

This week, we entered the digital world of images. We learned what pixels are in images and how they form the picture. We also discovered that image data can be compressed to reduce file size, which is essential for storing and sharing digital photos efficiently.

We focused on interpersonal skills, where the children learned how to use negotiation and compromise to find a fair solution and practice giving constructive feedback to others in a respectful manner.

For our upcoming project to make delicious pizzas, we began the design process. We learned how to use market research to create a purposeful, functional design and practised how to communicate ideas through a labelled diagram.

Reminders for next week:

Mon - PE: Please ensure your child has their full kit. Miss Jackson's class will be covered by Miss Goodliffe and Mr Towler as Miss Jackson will be visiting a SEN school for the day.

Weds - Parent-Teacher Consultations Day 1: Please ensure you have booked an appointment via Arbor to meet with your child's teacher.

Fri - DT: Please bring in a carrot for the children to practise their cooking skills, the children will be chopping, peeling and grating.

The spellings for next week are words ending in -ent and -ence:

intelligence, decent, innocence, transparent, eloquence, competence, emergent, frequent, violent, confidence

We've attached some spelling resources to support learning at home. Plus, if your child enjoys a little screen time with a purpose, there will be a new spelling assignment on Spelling Shed from Friday!

Have a great rest of the week and a truly restful weekend when it comes to it!