Week beginning 20th May 2024

Maths

We have been continuing our decimals unit this week, we have been looking at decimal sequences and multiplying decimals by 10, 100 and 1000.

After half term, we will be finishing our decimals unit and beginning our new topic of negative numbers!

English

We have started our new unit in English, with the end goal of writing a newspaper report about a sighting of a rare black fox in Didcot. This is inspired by the events in the book ‘The Midnight Fox’. We have been looking at the WAGOLL and identifying the key features of a newspaper report. We have also been practicing using commas to avoid ambiguity in our writing.

After half term, we will be planning, writing and editing our newspaper reports.

Wider Curriculum

It has been DT week in Year 5! We have been thinking about what seasonality means and how we can create recipes using ingredients that are fresh and in season. We then planned recipes for soup using a range of seasonal ingredients. The children then practiced dicing, chopping, grating and peeling to prepare the vegetables for the soup. We then took it in turns to help sauté and simmer the soup in the kitchen. The children loved trying the soup!

Week beginning 13th May 2024

Maths

In maths this week, we have started our new unit of decimals. We have been learning how to partition decimals in order to add and subtract them. We have practiced with a variety of different numbers, including those with the same and different numbers of decimal places.

Next week, we will continue our unit of decimals, but we will begin to look at multiplying and dividing with decimals.

English

In English this week, we have been practicing how to use a wide range of sentence openers to make our story more engaging for the reader. We have also been practicing ‘show don’t tell’ to really show the reader what we are describing. To finish the week, we have been planning our continuation of ‘Varmints’ and have begun to write, using all of our skills to make it a fantastic story.

Next week, we will be starting our new unit, in which we will be writing newspaper reports.

Wider Curriculum

In geography this week, we have been looking at different climate zones, specifically North and South America. We have been using our knowledge of farming, and the conditions that different crops and animals need, and how this affects the types of farming that can take place.

In science, we have been looking at mammalian life cycles. We have been using our knowledge of the stages and processes within a life cycle to compare those of different mammals. We have begun to look at the human life cycle, and thinking about how this varies from other mammals.

Week beginning 6th May 2024

Maths

In maths this week, we have been continuing our topic of position and direction. We have been consolidating our knowledge of translating shapes and coordinates on a graph, ensuring that we move all the vertices of the shape accurately. We finished the week by practicing lines of symmetry and reflecting shapes.

Next week, we will be starting our new topic of decimals.

English

In English this week, we have started our new topic of writing a continuation of the story ‘Varmints’. The children have been recapping the story and thinking about some alternative endings and possible next events if the story was continued. We have been learning to add a metaphor into our writing at the start of a sentence, so add variation and detail. We have also been learning how to show a change of atmosphere in our writing as the story develops and challenges arise.

Next week, we will be practicing different sentence openers and using ‘show don’t tell’ before planning and writing our narratives.

Wider Curriculum

In geography this week, we have been thinking about seasonality and how local, seasonal produce can have positive effects of both our health, and the environment. We have been planning what we would grow in an allotment, ensuring that we could harvest something every month! We have also been learning about different farming practices and how these may have positive or negative impacts on the environment, the farmer and habitats.

In science, we have been learning how to classify mammals, and the specific stages in their lives that make them unique. Next week, we will be thinking about the life cycles of mammals and how this compares to the life cycles of other types of animals.

Week beginning 29th April 2024

Maths

In maths this week, we have started our new topic of ‘position and direction’. We began the week by reading and plotting coordinates, then using these skills to solve problems involving coordinates. To finish the week, we have been learning how to translate a shape on a grid, which is when we move a shape vertically or horizontally on a grid.

English

We have been practicing lots of skills to write a diary entry based on the book, ‘Varmints’. We began the week by exploring the book and making predictions and discussing the range of messages that the author and illustrator have portrayed within the text. Next, we learned how to write parenthesis as an aside or opinion within our writing, using dashes to demarcate this. Towards the end of the writing process, we have been planning, writing and editing our diary entries as a Varmint, ensuring we include rich description, a range of sentence openers and a variety of sentence types.

Wider Curriculum

In geography, we have been continuing our topic of Sow, Grow and Farm, and learning how to find six-figure grid references on an ordinance survey map. This allows us to find precise locations using a map. Next week, we will be thinking about the impacts of modern farming and how we can reduce this impact by eating seasonally and locally.

In science, we have been dissecting flowers to explore the different parts of a plant to allow us to label them! Next week in science, we will be learning how to classify mammals and the different features that they have, such as being warm blooded and having fur or hair.

Week beginning 22^nd April 2024

Maths

In maths this week, we have been continuing our topic of angles and have been learning how to calculate angles around a point, on a straight line and within a range of shapes. We have been using lots of our problem-solving skills to work out the dimensions of a range of compound shapes, using our knowledge of polygons and their properties.

Next week, we will be finishing our topic on shapes, and beginning our new topic on position and direction.

English

In English this week, we have been continuing to learn writing skills to help us create our recounts of our trip to the Earth Trust. On Monday, we practiced the different elements of a cohesive piece of writing, including a range of sentence types, ISPACE, and linking adverbials to ensure our writing flows. Following our trip on Tuesday, we have been planning, writing and editing our recount, making sure we encapsulate all our fantastic memories from our trip to the Earth Trust!

Next week, we will be using the book ‘Varmints’ to help us write our own narrative.

Wider Curriculum

We have had a very busy week this week during our wider curriculum sessions. We have been learning all about the life cycles of plants, including sexual and asexual reproduction of plants (through pollination and seed dispersal). We have been building our knowledge of types of farming in the UK, which was greatly helped by our trip to the Earth Trust as they have a working arable farm on site!

Our trip to the Earth Trust

During our trip, we had a walk up the Wittenham Clumps while we listened to our guides, Stuart and Fiona, as they told us all about the different types of farming in the area, and the adaptations farmers can make in order to support the biodiversity in the area.

Following this, we had the opportunity to visit the field that the sheep were currently grazing in, and some children had a go at feeding the sheep!

In the afternoon, each group took part in various workshops which included; wool spinning, a visit to the kitchen garden, roman animal bone identification and milking the ‘cow’, Bessie.

Week beginning 15^th April 2024

Maths

Year 5 have been learning all about angles this week. We started off by revisiting our angle facts (a half turn= 180 degrees; a full turn= 360 degrees; a right angle= 90 degrees) and practiced spotting these in various contexts. We then applied this knowledge to estimate the size of different angles before learning how to use a protractor to accurately measure a range of different angles.

English

We have started our new unit this week with the aim to write a recount of our upcoming trip to the Earth Trust. We have been learning the skills to help us write this, such as past perfect tense, reported speech and relative clauses (restrictive and non-restrictive). Following our trip, we will use these skills to help us plan and write our recounts!

Wider Curriculum

Year 5 have continued to enjoy ukelele lessons this week, and are becoming much more confident in playing our songs (Johnny B Goode, The Wellerman, Shotgun) and changing chords.

We have started our new unit of Sow, Grow, Farm in wider curriculum this week, so we have been learning all about the different types of farms and their purposes. We have begun to learn about animal life cycles in science, and will continue to develop this knowledge in the coming weeks!