What a great week we’ve had! Year 5 have made a great start to this year and it has been lovely to spend time getting to know them a little better. We’ve been impressed with how quickly they have settled into the new routines and we are excited to be working with them this year.
Your child will have come home with their reading book (with a new ZPD) and diary. Bookmarks and diaries will be checked daily so please encourage your child to read regularly and they must have their book and diary in every day. Your child’s new water bottle will also come home with them each evening to ensure that it can be washed and filled ready for the next day. Unfortunately we don’t have spares in school, or cups they can use, so it is important that they bring it in each day. Please also ensure your child brings a coat each day just in case the weather changes over the course of the day - we will still want to get outside for some fresh air even if it is a bit cold or just a bit of rain.
On Tuesday the children began their swimming sessions and we were delighted with the way they conducted themselves and represented our school. They made a fabulous start to their lessons and this enabled their swimming teachers to get them sorted into swimming groups quickly and begin working on their new swimming techniques. Well done Year 5!
On Thursday the whole school went across to Church to take part in mass to celebrate "The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary”. Again I am so proud of the behaviour of the children - they all showed great reverence, listened well and took part in the responses.
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Joshua
Writing Award - Emelia
Maths Award - William
Year 5 Star Winner - William
Our learning this week…
This year, Year 5 will continue working with the Knotted project and the Grand Theatre on the Tales Retold resilience and storytelling project. On Monday, the children had their first session working with Natalie and Helen, who worked with the children in Year 4. It was lovely to see the children’s enthusiasm for the workshop and I was impressed with how engaged the children were in the activities.
In English we have begun looking at stories by the author Jeremy Strong. This week the children have read “This is not a fairy tale” and they have begun identifying the key features of his style of writing and have compared this to other extracts of his stories.
In Maths the focus has been on place value.and the children have been reading and writing 5-digit numbers and recognising the value of each digit.
In RE we have been discussing how the world began and have compared their own views against those of their learning partner.
In Science we will be learning about aspects of Earth and Space. This week the children have shared their existing knowledge of this topic and they took part in a Space quiz to see how much they know already. We have also considered different types of evidence, both direct and indirect evidence, for the shape of our Earth.
Our Computing topic this half term is all about the Mars Rover and this week the children have learnt about the automated motor vehicle and have explored how and why the Mars Rover transfers data. To get an idea of the distance that the Mars Rover had to travel, the children also researched the distance to Mars based on the length of other objects, such as Big Ben, the length of a blue whale, the length of a double decker bus, and the length of a football pitch.
In our art lesson we have begun to look at the work of Hundertwasser and have used viewfinders to select and draw a section of his images into their sketchbooks.
PE days
Full PE kit will need to be worn on Tuesdays (swimming) and Wednesdays.
Homework
Year 5 will use online learning for their homework this year and on a Tuesday afternoon I will post the details of Year 5’s homework on the homework tab. Homework should be completed by the following Monday ready for spelling and times tables tests on a Tuesday. I will add more details next week.
Well done Year 5, you’ve made a great start! We hope you all have a lovely weekend with your families.
Parents, if you need to talk to me, please catch me at the gate at the end of the day or alternatively please email me at year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans, Mrs McCooey and Mrs Hodgkiss
