Admirals (Year 5)

Welcome to Year 5!

Welcome to Year 5

Our class is called Admirals and we are taught by Mrs Gibbs.

Mrs Walters teaches us on Fridays.

Admirals are supported by Miss Gregory and Mrs Harvey.

Things to remember:

Swimming Kit - every Friday

Trainers ever day for the daily mile

Library Books for Library visit on Fridays

Weeks 7 and 8

English

We are reading Boy in the Tower and enjoying it so much! It is a very interesting read and all of the class have loved discussing it. We have looked at using inverted commas, writing letters from Ade to Mum and much, much more. We have also used drama to help understand the character of Ade and his reaction to a variety of situations. Everyone is looking forward to writing the next part of the story using the techniques for suspense writing.

Maths

We have started thinking about area using squares and lengths of sides to calculate. We have also looked at compound shapes and working out the area of these using a variety of strategies. We are also loving using TT Rockstars to help us with our times tables. Year 5 are doing particularly well and there are many of our class in the top ten within the whole school.

In other news...

We are loving our new topic - The Titanic. Who knew that so many people died on its maiden voyage? Also, we had an AMAZING time during World Book Day. We dressed up brilliantly. We completed activities with the Year Two Class. We tasted food from Japan and we wrote haiku poems.

What a wonderful couple of weeks.

If you would like to help at home, please encourage your children to read at least ten minutes a day and practise on TT Rockstars EVERY DAY!

Good luck!

Weeks 4 and 5

What a fun filled couple of weeks we have had!

In English, we have begun reading The Boy in the Tower and although it is a thought-provoking read, the children have really enjoyed our discussions and come up with some great ideas about the events and the characters. We are currently writing the main character’s diary and every day we are desperate to read more as we just can’t wait to hear what happens.

In Maths, we have been continuing with our topic of fractions and have started to learn about multiplying fractions by whole numbers and mixed numbers. We have shown resilience when tackling this as many of us found it quite tricky. We also enjoyed Number Day. Mrs Walters helped us to create some amazing mathematical art. We filled the number 5 on the playground with all our coins. We watched a drone fly past our window and we loved watching the video to launch TT Rockstars!

Year 5 have done incredibly well at using TT Rockstars so far. Please encourage your child to do this every day as it is a very motivating programme and it will improve their times table knowledge. We also want to beat ALL the local schools with our speed and accuracy! Come on Margaret Wix!

In other news, we have been enjoying our topic about rivers and will be writing our very own poems about rivers very soon. Our new topic is The Titanic. If the children would like to research this over half term, we would be delighted.

Weeks Two and Three

What an exciting few weeks we have had in English. We have been looking at persuasive writing. We tried to persuade Mr Johnston that we needed a school cat. We did our best to use persuasive language and techniques and then shared our speeches with Mr Johnston. Do you think we managed to convince him? We also had the opportunity to create cat and dog pictures. Please see the photographs of our display below.

In Maths, we have been working on our understanding of fractions and we have done so well. We now know how to compare fractions, to find equivalent fractions and even how to add and subtract fractions. We have played fraction games and even created our own games to play. Look at the photographs below.

In other news, we have found out all about the water cycle and the journey of river from source to mouth. We have also enjoyed finding out about the life cycle of plants and animals in science.

Please enjoy looking at the photographs of our learning.

Welcome back.

It's Spring Term and we are raring to go. Please see the newsletter in the relevant star. You should have all had it as a paper copy.

Welcome back! The children have come back ready and eager to learn and it has been lovely to see them.

In Literacy, we have been looking at persuasive writing and the different features within a persuasive text. The children have read a whole variety of texts and analysed them according to their structure, the techniques used as well as the choice of sentences and words. If you would like to help your child at home with this, then listen to and watch advertisements at home and chat about why they are persuasive.

In Maths, we have been looking at fractions. I have been so impressed with the children’s understanding of everything we have tackled so far. They have understood equivalent fractions, simplifying fractions, improper fractions and mixed numbers. Well done Year 5! Your maths is awesome. If you would like to help at home and then discuss the fractions you have when dividing up food. Who is going to get the biggest fraction? Who is going to get the smallest fraction? Can I find equivalent fractions for each of these?

Across the wider curriculum, we have started our new topic of Life Cycles in Science, embarked on our new area in Topic which is Rivers and started look at Skylines in Art, which will link really nicely with The River Thames and London.

Please have a look at some of our photographs to give you a taste of what we have been up to!

Week One.

What an amazing week we had. It was lovely getting to know all of the children who have come back with an enthusiasm for learning and a wonderful attitude to school. What a busy week we had!

In English, we talked about our dream holiday destinations and created mood boards to capture them. We then used our senses to describe our dream holidays, which we developed into our best piece of writing. Have a look at the photographs below of some wonderfully written and beautifully presented pieces. We tried hard to use ambitious vocabulary and start our sentences in interesting ways. Some of us challenged ourselves to use relative clauses. Well done Admirals!

If you would like to help your child at home, please chat to them whilst sharing a book with them. Encourage them to look up words they are not sure of the meaning and challenge them to make a note of these words to use in their own writing. Please share books with your children as much as possible. Not only will this engender a love of reading, but it will also have a positive impact on their writing.

In Maths we have started our unit of work on Place Value and we enjoyed reading a book called "How Big is a Million!" It is about a little penguin who is desperate to know what a million looks like. Admirals were desperate to know too. They were set the challenge of producing a piece of paper with 10,000 objects on that we would then photocopy to make 1,000,000. We had great fun.

If you would like to help your child at home, talk about big numbers with them and count up and down in ones, tens and one hundreds. Also continue to practise times tables whenever possible.

Week Three

English

What another wonderful week we have had. We have been continuing to read the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. We have thought about how other people might view Theseus and we looked closely at Ariadne's view of Theseus and how this changed. We are working towards writing Ariadne's diary and then writing the story from her point of view.

In Reciprocal Reading, we have begun our book, Journey to the River Sea. We have discussed the characters of Maia and Miss Minton and about how our opinions of them might change as we carry on reading. We have nominated children to be in dictionary corner to help us to understand different words. 

We have been taught our first spelling rule by Mrs Walters - don't forget to learn the words for Friday's test.

You could help by reading with your children at home and discussing how you feel about the characters in the book. Talk about how the characters develop as you read the book and decide whether your opinion of them has changed.

Don't forget to bring Reading Records in every day. They will be checked often but on a Wednesday they will be checked ready for Celebration Assembly.

Maths

We have been continuing looking at number in maths. We have talked about rules for rounding numbers and played games to help us. We showed our confidence in this area by completing many sums competently before we tried the challenge! We then began to look at negative numbers. We played a great game called Hot and Cold, which showed how we use negative numbers in real life. We have completed another Terrific Times Table challenge and some of us are almost ready to move on to the next level.

You could help at home by looking at temperatures in different countries across the world and comparing where is hot and where is cold. 

In other news, we have become scientists. At first we thought all scientists would be dressed in lab coats and wear goggles. We quickly realised, when we met Brian Cox (sort of!) and he looked just like us, that we were wrong! We then devised our own questions for our topic of Earth and Space and tried to prove the answers to them. We used the internet for research. In Computing we had great fun designing emojis and chatting about how they could have two different messages - good and bad!

Week Four and Five 

English

We have continued to work on our re-telling of Theseus and the Minotaur from Ariadne's point of view. We have looked at using ambitious vocabulary, ambitious punctuation, weather to create atmosphere and a variety of sentence openers. Many of us have written brilliantly. Read a couple of our wonderful pieces below.

I stood close to the waves as they broke on the sandy - but deserted - beach. Sad, but still angry, I surveyed the ocean like a lion searching for its prey. Feeling shocked, I heard the deepest and the loudest scream that was whipped by the billowing wind. The echoing sound filled the air as I thought it was orbiting the earth. Immediately I knew that Theseus was suffering from a terrible loss. And then I saw it - the coal black sail was still up! By Eleanor.

Like an angel sent down from above, the mighty man Theseus stood before me. How could I let such a handsome man be in the same room as a menacing Minotaur. Even with the daring young man's skill and talent, he didn't stand a chance! I had to help - secretly and cautiously. I called him over and gave him a deadly, sharp dagger and a ball of yarn. For the people's sake, I let him past me. Off he went. He had confidently entered the labyrinth and I was confident that he would exit the labyrinth in one piece! By Shane.

If you would like to help at home, please read to your child. When you are reading, notice how the author uses weather to create atmosphere; a variety of sentence structures to add interest; interesting vocabulary and a range of punctuation. You could even use a note pad to pop words you love to use in your own writing. Remember, you can find a recommended book list on our class page.

Maths

In Maths, we have been busy looking at negative numbers and multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000. We have also continued with out terrific times table challenges and looked at 3-d shapes and their nets with Mrs Walters. Wow! That's a lot of work. We are also having three extra maths sessions  a week to help with our fluency skills. Please also look at our class page as we will be adding ideas for practising our maths into the fluency section that you can try at home.

If you would like to help at home, please visit our fluency section that will be updated with great ideas to help with your child. Remember to rehearse times tables as much as possible too!

In other news...

The only Maya archaeologist in the United Kingdom came to Margaret Wix! She was truly amazing. In History, we tried to decide which evidence would be the most useful for drawing conclusions about the past. In Science,we used fruit to create the solar system thinking about the relative sizes of the planets. In P.E., we have continued to love our swimming lessons. 

Weeks Six and Seven.

English

We have been thinking about recounts and biographies combined. We have read a book about Mary Anning called, “Stone Girl, Bone Girl.” We then wrote part of a recount biography about her life. We then read the poem, "The Spider and the Fly,” which we found a little strange but enjoyed nonetheless! After looking at the poem in quite a lot of detail, we wrote a recount biography about the fly who sadly lost her life to the cunning spider. Please look below for some of our writing. Whilst writing, we have tried to use a variety of sentence openers and noun phrases. Some of us have even become experts at using relative clauses.

In our sessions reading, “Journey to the River Sea,” we have been concentrating on characters. We have compared a nice and nasty character from the book. We have also really enjoyed studying the character of Maia, looking for any signs that she might have changed. Look at our life size Maia in our classroom – we will keep adding to this as we read the book.

If you would like to help at home please read with your child every night and discuss the characters in the book. Ask questions such as: Do you like the character and why? Do other characters in the book like the main character? How do you know this? Has the character changed in the book? Why do you think these changes have occurred?

A famous person once said, “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” Please read with your child.

Maths

In Maths we have been looking at multiples, factors, common factors and prime numbers. We have used factor beetles to help us work out the factors of a number. Please see the photographs below. The children have worked really hard to understand these concepts especially prime numbers and they have shown their resilience when finding a concept tricky. The children have also tried to find all of the prime numbers below 100 – this was a challenge!

We have carried on with our terrific times tables with lots of people moving onto the next level. Well done!

If you would like to help at home, you could encourage your child to learn all the prime and square numbers under 100. I would love to hear them recite them at school. Also don’t forget to look at our maths fluency page for fun games to play!

In other news, we have created E-safety posters, made our very own mobiles displaying the solar system and recommended books to our class mates. What fun we have had!

Weeks Eight and Nine

English

In English we have been looking at poetry and our focus has been World War One to coincide with Remembrance Day. We have been looking at the poetry structure called cinquain. This follows a particular syllable amount on each line. We clapped to help us write the set amount of syllables. Some of us shared our poems in assembly. Please see below for some examples of our poems.

We are now reading in small groups in our guided reading sessions. This week we have looked at the poems The Listeners and From a Railway Carriage. Next week we are looking forward to starting our new books, Thief by Malorie Blackman and Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. Mrs Gibbs is almost more excited than us!

Maths

In Maths we have been looking at divisibility rules and solving problems by working backwards and prioritising the information we have been given. When studying the divisibility rules, we created “zig-zag” books to help younger children with their multiplication facts. Please see some pictures of these below.

We have carried on with our times table challenge. Two more people have been successful and have moved on to the next level. Well done!

In other news…

We have started our new topic in Science and it is Forces. We have already carried out an investigation trying to work out if an object falls to earth faster if it is heavier. The famous philosopher Aristotle thought this, but Galileo didn’t agree! Ask your child what we discovered.

We are carrying on our Maya topic. We even got to play pairs and snap with Maya alphabet cards.

Some of our children have read more than 50 times this term! We had some lovely new books delivered this week that they will be awarded in assembly for being super star readers. Please read with your child every day at home – it will really make the world of difference to them.

If you would like to help even more, please continue to read a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books at home, learn all the multiplication facts to 12 x 12 and beyond, visit our early morning library sessions and share a book with your family and carry out research on the Maya – we would love to see it!

Please enjoy the photographs of our learning below…

Weeks Ten and Eleven

What an exciting few weeks we have had in Year Five.

In English, we have carried on writing poems, but this time using free verse. We based this on a very exciting clip from Planet Earth, when an iguana narrowly escaped the clutches of a collection of nasty snakes! We then performed our poems and Mrs Gibbs gave us advice on our performance techniques. We made a lovely class book with our poems in. It is displayed in the library area of our classroom. 

This week we have started our unit on explanatory texts. We took a trip to the forest school and pretended we were visiting the jungles of Mexico. We used modal verbs to describe how we could survive. We have also created our own creatures out of play-doh and have worked hard to explain how they are adapted to their lives in the jungles of Mexico. This happens to be one of the countries the Maya come from! Look our amazing newly discovered species below.

If you wanted to develop this learning at home, you could read non-fiction texts with your children at home and discuss the differences between these and fiction texts. Look at our sunshine of book recommendations below!

In Maths we have been looking at a variety of ways to add and subtract numbers. We have learned about re-grouping, using place value, equal sum and equal difference. Ask the children if you are not sure! We were also lucky enough to have a visit from Explore Learning to further support our maths on coordinates that we have been doing with Mrs Walters. Please support your children at home by completing some of the ideas on the Maths Fluency star.

What fun we had on No Pens Day when we acted out the Christmas Truce from the trenches of World War One. We went from marching our way across France, settling in to the trenches, shaking hands with the enemy and playing football with the enemy. We are currently creating slide shows to depict our drama and the important story it tells. We have also made parachutes in Science as part of our Forces topic. We had great fun whilst thinking about gravity and air resistance. Please look at all our photographs below that capture our learning.

Weeks Twelve and Thirteen

In English we have carried on writing our Explanations based on our newly discovered species and begun our new unit based on diary writing. This particular unit is based on the John Lewis advert which is all about Edgar the dragon and his friend Ava. It tells a story about being different and eventually these differences being accepted and even celebrated. It is a heart-warming advert and the children have really loved watching it and thinking about the different characters.

If you would like to help at home, please borrow a diary from the library and read it with your child and look at the features.

In Maths we have been looking at formal methods for addition, subtraction and multiplication. We also enjoyed a visit from all of our parents and carers who came to find out about our maths. We have carried on trying to improve our multiplication tables and some of us are celebrating moving up onto the next level. Well done!

Keep practising times tables at home and ask your child to show you the formal methods that they have learnt at school. You will recognise them!

In other news, we have had our class assembly. The children did a really good job of speaking clearly and slowly. We were all very proud of how well they did. We have also tried to understand the Maya number system, designed submarines in Science and loved our Guided Reading Sessions. Another busy couple of weeks in Year Five!

The final couple of weeks...

We enjoyed Aspirations Day. We had great fun writing our diaries about Edgar the dragon. We tried really hard with long multiplication and division including remainders with decimals and fractions. 

We loved our Christmas Party. 

Have a lovely Christmas and a wonderful break everyone.

See our photographs below...