Year five are enjoying their studies on South America and this week we were learning about volcanoes (South America boasts the tallest volcano in the World!)
We made our own volcanoes using plastic bottles, papier mache and a few crossed fingers!
We erupted them using a mix of bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and red food colouring…take a look at the gallery to see the results!
Mrs N Faulkner
We all remember Sing Up day on 3rd February – how much fun everyone had and how fantastic the children were at our ‘flashmob’ at the end of the day! Our visitors from the Sing Up website have written a lovely article about the day, as well as adding a video of us singing the Sing Up Day anthem ‘One and a Million’ and a clip of our infamous flash mob! Please take a look; it is guaranteed to make you smile!
Well, done everyone.
Mrs N Faulkner
We have been exploring different countries around the world and with it being Chinese New Year we thought it would be a good idea to learn a little more about it.
We made Chinese Dragons and copied the Chinese dancers dancing with their dragons.. Strictly Come Dancing watch out!!
The majority of Year 6 returned yesterday from an action-packed week at Thurston on Coniston Water in the Lake District. The children took part in a variety of activities including ghyll-scrambling, mountain climbing, canoeing, rock climbing and walking through disused slate mines. All pushed themselves out of their comfort zone and new challenges were met with enthusiasm and a touch of bravery from some.
All thoroughly enjoyed themselves and did not stop for a single moment from the second their eyes opened at 7.15 until they fell asleep around 10.30 pm. As well as the physical activities, the children loved socialising with old friends from Bede Burn and new friends from Hedworthfield. Barn time where the children could play pool, table football and Connect 4 and generally socialise was a big hit. Meal times were a popular part of the day and the children wolfed down bangers and mash, chicken curry, pasta bolognese and a roast dinner.
A fantastic trip was had by all and all children were a credit to you. I took hundreds of photographs and will upload them to the website as soon as possible – watch this space!
Mrs Todd
Look what we received this morning!
Today was our first lesson learning about Around the World. We found out we have a special book that helps us locate the countries and oceans of the world, it is called an Atlas.We used the atlases to find the 7 continents and 5 oceans and labelled them on a map of the world.
To help us remember the seven continents we made up our own fun mnemonic:
Never
Sing
Anything
Annoying
Ever
Again
Amy!
Spring synopsis for Year 5
Dear All,
Welcome back!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and best wishes for the New Year. Below is a summary of what we’ll be learning about this term. If you have any questions or concerns that are not answered below, please feel free to come along and ask me. I will be at the Key Stage 2 door most days at hometime.
Homework and Reading
Just a reminder…Homework will usually be provided on a Wednesday, to be completed by the following Monday. This may be in our homework books, on a separate sheet or online. This term spelling and times tables will be different. We will not be completing weekly spelling and times tables tests on a Monday. Instead, children will bring home 6 spellings in their reading journal each week that they find tricky (usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday), from the unit we’re studying in school. The expectation is that the children will work on these spellings at home with an adult and then the adult will put their initials next to each word when it is spelled correctly at home. This may be through writing it down or saying it aloud. Times tables tests will happen within maths lessons as and when it is appropriate. It is still very important to practise tables regularly to sharpen those maths skills. It is expected that your child will read for at least 15 minutes every night. The books chosen can be school books or books from home. If your child comes across unfamiliar words they should be encouraged to use a dictionary to find the meaning. Children are responsible for bringing their reading record to school each day and for changing books.
English
In class, we will be building upon what the children learned last term and extending their skills of reading comprehension, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, spelling, handwriting and writing composition. Our first English unit this term will be based on the classic poem ‘The Highwayman’. We will decipher the text, then use drama to explore it before finally writing narrative and a persuasive piece of writing based on the text. It is a difficult text but I’m sure the children will love the storyline and will produce some excellent writing! Later in the term we will write tourism brochures linked to our topic before moving on to study Macbeth. I know the class will enjoy this tale of intrigue, with perfect timing for the 400th anniversary of the bard’s death.
Maths
This term we will begin by completing some maths investigations. After this we will cover angles, fractions, decimals, percentages, area, perimeter, negative numbers, roman numerals, time, reflection, translation, length and mass. It would be helpful if you could discuss any real life examples you come across showing fractions, decimals and percentages, for example in shop sales, recipes, and so on, to give this tricky topic a context.
Topic
Our topic for this term is ‘South America’. Having spent time in this amazing continent, it is a topic close to my heart and I look forward to sharing some of my experiences with the class. Our studies will include drama, written work, art, design technology and music (Samba music and traditional songs). We will learn about the physical and human geography of South America and then focus in on one of the countries, Peru. We will explore landmarks, culture, customs (including music, food, clothing etc) as well as the rich history of the area. After that, we will move on to study rainforests and deforestation. Finally we will study one of the products of the rainforest – chocolate! Yum.
Science
Our first two science units of year 5 are called ‘Materials’ and ‘Earth and Space’. Both units allow lots of practical exploration as well as improving our written investigation skills and promise to be lots of fun.
Other Subjects
We will also find time to enjoy lots of Art and Design work, music, RE, PSHE, British Values, Computing and French!
PE
Our PE lessons have changed this term and will take place on a Monday and a Friday. Please provide your child with a water bottle, indoor kit and outdoor kit in a suitable bag. PE bags can be left on your child’s peg all week and washed at weekends, ensuring that your child has their kit if any changes in schedule need to be made.
Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs N Faulkner
Welcome back to school in a brand new year – 2016! Thank you very much for all presents and cards that I received from the children for Christmas and I hope you all had a fun and restful break.
The Spring term looks like it is going to be very busy. Most of the class and I are off to Thurston Outdoor Education Centre on February 1st – I hope the rain stops by then! We are also going to be working towards the ever-looming SATs. This term will require a lot of hard work and dedication from all children and I am sure that they will work to the best of their ability.
In English our studies will be focused on the book ‘Stormbreaker’ by Anthony Horowitz about the adventures of Alex Rider who is recruited to join MI6 while only a teenager. Through our study of this text we will hone our inference and deduction skills as well as showing of our writing talents in many genres e.g. explanation and persuasion. In maths, the first half of this term will be focused on fractions, ratio and proportion and measures.
Our topic this half term is ‘Scandinavia’ a geography based unit that is focused on the human and physical geography of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. We will research a Scandinavian country and write non-chronological reports about them before going on to write persuasively to encourage others to visit this unspoilt part of the world. Hopefully we will create some beautiful pastel art work of the Northern Lights and be able to write an explanation text to explain this natural phenomena.
In ICT we will be programming using Kodu and we will be studying Bon Jovi’s ‘Living On A Prayer’ in our music lessons.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
From Year 2, Mrs Franchi and Mrs Kiely 🙂
