Friday 13th September 2024

On Monday we finished our hot air balloons, and the children were excited to see them hanging over the stairs on Tuesday morning as part of our whole school display for the book Flotsam, which all classes across the school are working on. Each class produced a different craft relating to the book.

This week we also enjoyed doing our art assessments, which the children do every year, and you can see some photos of the children hard at work below. These will be displayed around the school next week.

In maths the children learned about Roman numerals up to 1000, and began to embed the understanding of when numerals are added together and when they are subtracted. The children then learned about some new place value columns- tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions. Reading and writing these numbers correctly and the placement of the comma are challenges that we worked on this week, as well as deep understanding of the huge value of these numbers, for example that 1,000,000 (one million) is equal to 1000 thousands.

In English we explored the storyline of Flotsam, using sequencing language including adverbs and adverbials to write clear and simple sentences for each stage of the story to go with the illustrations.

In spelling this week we learned about words ending with the ‘shus’ sound, when this is spelled ‘cious’. Below is a list of example words that follow this spelling pattern- can the children spot them or any others in their reading or the word around them?

• conscious 
• precious
• suspicious  
• delicious  
• vicious  
• spacious  
• gracious 
• ferocious 
• luscious  
• atrocious

The common exception words we learned this week in class were: achieve, aggressive and amateur. We have discussed the meanings of these words in detail, please continue to go over them at home to reinforce this as well as their spellings.

The children and I created a display in our classroom illustrating each stage of the water cycle. They worked in small groups to research their given stage and presented it to the class. 

In Forest School, the children were taken on an earth walk. They looked at a range of different leaves and at ‘magical’ lands on the forest floor. Emma encouraged the children to look more closely at nature and they were amazed at what they observed. They then enjoyed time to explore. Some children used clay to create objects or to add to the ‘lands’ they found in the forest, others spent time in the forest digging and building.

This year, a second Google Classroom has been created especially for homework. We hope that you will find this clear and easy to use. Please make sure your child has joined the Homework Google classroom. A small change has been made to the homework schedule, topic homework will be set on Fridays as this is when the lesson takes place. 

You can find information including our timetable, homework schedule and reading and spelling lists in the Useful Information section at the top of the blog.

Next week:

• We look forward to seeing you at the meet the teacher on Tuesday evening at 6.45pm.
• Our outing to Rock Up will take place on Wednesday. The start and end times of the day will be unchanged, children need to make sure that they bring a water bottle and wear their PE uniform and trainers. They should also wear a school cap.

Shabbat shalom, have a great weekend!

Mrs Collins, Ms Rose and the Year 5 team

Friday 6th September 2024

It has been a joy seeing the children and having them back at school this week! They have grown so much over the summer and I have enjoyed catching up with them, and Ms Rose and Mrs Goldman have enjoyed getting to know them. Despite some nervous faces on the first day of school, the children settled in well and have made a brilliant start to Year 5.

This week, lessons have involved settling in and helping the children understand expectations for behaviour and presentation. The children have enjoyed meeting their new teachers and getting to know our new classroom, which is already beginning to feel like home. In addition to this, the children have recapped their prior learning about Roman Numerals, visited the library and began  making their own hot air balloons, the purpose of which will become clear next week! 

At Forest School the children discussed sustainability, enjoyed a story about an oak tree, and spent some time exploring the forest area. Some children chose to do some felting and printing, others built hammocks, opened ‘shops’ and started ‘businesses’. 

Reminders and Notices

• Please ensure that all items, including water bottles, snack boxes and school sweatshirts/ cardigans, are labelled. This makes it possible for staff and pupils to return any lost items to children.
• Upcoming dates to note: Tuesday 17th September, Meet the Teacher, 18:45.

Wednesday 18th September, Outing to Rockup (during the school day).

We are looking forward to next week and wish you all a fantastic weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Collins, Ms Rose and the Year 5 team