Year 5 Team: Mr J McCabe (Class Teacher) & Miss H Moran & Mrs B Siddiqui : Blog items
Date: 29th Nov 2023 @ 8:30pm
December is here and things have already turned very Christmassy within the Year 5 classroom! On the 1st December, the Year 5 children turned into Christmas elves as they were responsible for decorating our classroom (both inside and out) with an array of decorations whilst accompanied by, of course, Christmas music. They certainly brought the festive spirit in abundance and we ho-ho-hope this same spirit continues throughout the month. In fact, we’re absolutely sure that it will!
After an exciting start to Advent, this was followed by an amazing day at the Team TSP Christmas Extravaganza on Friday! There were so many festive activities for the children to try and thank you to all at Team TSP for organising such a brilliant day for the children.
The start of December also signalled the beginning of our new monthly value focus in our Collective Worship work. It seemed very fitting to use a Christmas advert as the stimulus for our first discussions. The children were introduced to the animated film, ‘#Justino’, which features a security guard at a mannequin factory. Since Justino works the night shift, he has very few chances to interact with his coworkers. With a little bit of creativity, Justino devises ways to connect with his colleagues by using the factory’s mannequins to create situations both amusing and moving. His coworkers appreciate his playfulness each morning, and find a way to repay his generous spirit in kind. This advert incorporated so many of our school SHINE values due to Justino’s optimism, creativity, kindness and serving of others. The gratitude and appreciation that he receives in return is what makes this advert so powerful and made for such great discussions in our classroom.
In Maths, we have been working on calculating the area of rectilinear shapes. Next week’s Maths will continue to focus on area as well as problem solving with a festive twist!
Our English work involved completing our story, ‘The Lost Happy Endings’, which has been the focus within our writing lessons throughout the half term to date. There were shocks and gasps across the classroom as we brought this story to a close due to the shocking (and quite gruesome) twist at the end of the story. This led to an excellent class discussion where the children explored the critical question: ‘Is Jub the villain?’ There were impassioned responses from the children as they justified their views and applied reasoning to back up their thinking. We are already looking forward to next week where we can write our own fairytales…with a twist!
Another really fantastic week with an equally fantastic class. Well done for all of your efforts and an extra special well done for reaching the top of the ‘Secret Student’ ladder! Enjoy a well-deserved weekend and the ‘Secret Student’ reward afternoon awaits. See you all on Monday!
Reminders:
-Year 5 will continue swimming lessons each Wednesday.
Date: 23rd Nov 2023 @ 9:34pm
.jpg)
What another fantastic week we have had with December fast approaching!
In Maths, we have continued our grand, class times table battle with this current tournament approaching a very dramatic conclusion. With just two rounds left and one point between the two teams, we have a very tense wait to find our eventual winner in the coming weeks. Both teams have given their all…but there can only be ONE winning team. Good luck to all involved!
We have also been busy completing some Maths assessments to check our understanding of our learning throughout this term so far.
In our RE work, we continued our focus on the birth of Jesus as told in the gospels of Luke and Matthew. We analysed how these two versions of the nativity have some key differences and we compared each story using a double bubble thinking map. We then sorted a variety of pictures according to their appearance in each particular bible story.
Following a very successful Book World Cup competition last week, we have started reading our winning book: ‘Millions’ by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. There has already been plenty of laughter in the opening pages and we’re already very keen to read more.
Thank you, Year 5 for a brilliant week and enjoy the weekend!
Reminders:
- Year 5 school trip to British Music Experience on Thursday 7th December.
-Year 5 Swimming lessons will begin on Wednesday 29th November. Please ensure that children wear PE kits on Wednesdays and Fridays going forward.
Date: 14th Nov 2023 @ 2:09pm
.
We have had the most amazing week following the release of our ‘Celebration of Kindness Week Video’ for 2023. This jam-packed week tied together Kindness Week, Anti-bullying Week and Children in Need, which we have LOVED being part of!
To mark Celebration of Kindness Week, our main project was to spread kindness across our local community. To achieve this, we each designed an inspirational poster in class that contained a message of kindness. The aim for our posters was to impact positively upon whoever read it by motivating; lifting spirits or even just bringing a smile. When the posters were designed, we headed into Formby Village to display them. So many local businesses were so accommodating and were more than happy to display the posters when the children had described their aims for the project. We have received a few tweets already about our posters and we would absolutely love it if you could all keep an eye out for our posters and tweet us too when you find one.
A particular highlight this week came in the form of the ‘Book World Cup’. This involved 32 different books which all had the opportunity to be voted in as the next class novel for Year 5. The decision was entirely in the hands of the class! Before the voting could commence, the children had to familiarise themselves with the various books in the competition. This involved the children spending time exploring the different books, reading the blurbs and extracts to each other, looking at the covers and chatting generally about how they felt about them. Next, it was time to vote. After some close battles as each book went head-to-head, we were able to narrow down the 32 books to just one winner. As chosen by the children, our new class novel was crowned!
In Maths, we focused on finding the perimeter of rectangles and rectilinear shapes. Next week, we will be continuing to focus on the perimeter of compound shapes and will extend to problem-solving activities relating to real-life scenarios and the visualising of shapes. As it was also assessment week, we recapped all of our learning so far this term.
So our Celebration of Kindness week reaches an end but we are sure the messages from this week of positivity and kindness will be carried forward both within our school community and beyond.
Have an amazing weekend and see you on Monday!
Reminders:
-Year 5 school trip to British Music Experience on Thursday 7th December.
-Year 5 Swimming lessons will begin on Wednesday 29th November. Please ensure that children wear PE kits on Thursday and Friday next week (w.c. 20/11/23) as normal.
Date: 9th Nov 2023 @ 9:27pm
Time certainly does fly but what a week we have had in the Year 5 classroom!
A particular highlight was our visit from Callum from The Hammond, a renowned institution for performing arts education. We were treated to an engaging and interactive theatre workshop which explored storytelling, drama and some key elements of acting and adopting the role of different characters. The workshop included various games and activities to achieve these aims and there was plenty of laughter throughout.
In our RE learning, we completed our focus on the Bible by linking it to other holy books in different faiths, such as the Torah in Judaism and the Guru Granth Sahib in Sikhism. We recorded these connections within a circle thinking map before then answering a range of 4C questions to demonstrate our understanding of our learning to date. Next week, we will begin our new RE focus…Christmas and the gospels of Matthew and Luke.
In Maths, our focus has been square numbers, cube numbers and prime factors. Next week we will move onto perimeter, including finding the perimeter of rectilinear shapes. It is also assessment week where we will recap all of our learning so far this term!
Take a breath now that a brilliantly busy week has reached an end. Though we wouldn’t have it any other way! Enjoy your weekend and see you all on Monday!
Reminders
-From Wednesday 29th November, the children will commence swimming lessons at Formby Pool. A letter with further information has been sent via School Spider.
Date: 3rd Nov 2023 @ 12:30pm
.jpeg)
.
What a brilliant week we have had! As our Year 5 children returned from a well-deserved week’s rest, we really enjoyed welcoming them back and hearing about all of their family time and activities during the time off. As we commence this brand-new half term, we are very much looking forward to the many exciting opportunities and learning that awaits!
Could there be a better (and more fun) start to a new half term than filming for our Celebration of Kindness video? Without giving too much away ahead of the big reveal, many laughs were had between the Year 5 children as we were reminded to ‘Laugh More and Worry Less’. We are very much looking forward to watching the final version at the end of next week!
In English, we are reading a traditional tale…with a twist. ‘The Lost Happy Endings’ has stimulated some fantastic discussion from the children so far and we can’t wait to see what next week brings, especially as the story will soon take a dark and sinister turn. Wait and see…
In our Maths learning this week, we have focused on understanding and applying the Maths terminology of prime numbers. A lot of this learning relied on our times table and division facts knowledge and fluency! Next week, we will move onto square numbers, cube numbers and prime factors.
Our artwork focused on ‘retrofuturism’ where we explored how the “future” was depicted in earlier eras through various artwork. We then had to imagine our own predictions about what the future could hold before using collagraph painting in our final pieces. See the picture above!
A really enjoyable first week of this half term has been had. Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy any firework displays or bonfires that you may be attending. Stay safe!
Reminders:
Homework will also resume from this week and has been set on Mirodo for Maths and English on Friday (3rd) and is due to be completed on or before the following Wednesday (8th). Weekly spellings have also been set which will be tested next Friday (10th).
Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 9:09pm
The end of the first half term already! Time has absolutely raced by and it is more than fair to say that Year 5 have worked extremely hard and have already achieved so much. It has been a pleasure to get to know each of the children and it genuinely feels like we have been a class team for longer than just these seven weeks. So this bodes well for the remaining five half terms to come!
In English, we completed our first Author Book work of this year based on our focus text, ‘Queen of the Falls’. The children completed their final pieces with such focus, care and pride and each was a pleasure to read. These diary entries have made an excellent opening page to our Year 5 writing journey. Well done, Year 5!
In Maths, we have focused on factors. We also had a particularly enjoyable session from the HMRC outreach programme which taught us all about tax. We learned about how taxation works, where taxes are spent and even the chance to become Chancellor too. After the half term break, we will be focusing upon prime numbers and prime factors.
In our Collective Worship work, we focused on our monthly value of ‘Thankfulness’. We took the opportunity to further relate this to our school value of ‘Enjoy’, considering how thankfulness, gratitude and appreciating our opportunities is central to this. Now that our first half term has drawn to a close, we reflected on all that we are thankful for, whether at home, in school or elsewhere.
Thank you, Year 5, for a great first half term where I have loved getting to know each and every one of you. There are plenty more highlights to come throughout the rest of the year but, in the meantime, go and enjoy the half term break!
Some reminders for after half term:
- Spellings have been set as usual via Google Classroom and will be tested at the end of the first week back at school after half term.
- There is no set homework for next week, however the Year 5 ‘Virtual Classroom’ has been updated and attached to this blog, which includes links to a variety of websites and resources. All pupils' individual passwords can all be found on Google Classroom. Don't forget, there is also the ‘Practice’ section on Mirodo where the children can choose any topic they wish to practise for Maths, Reading, SpaG or Science.
- PE for Year 5 will remain on Thursdays and Fridays.
Date: 11th Oct 2023 @ 9:27pm
Yet another brilliant week with so much learning and lots of highlights throughout! Here are just a few…
On Thursday, it was La Fiesta Nacional de España (Spanish National Day)! We marked the day by focusing on the many and varied areas of Spanish lifestyle and culture. ¡Muy bien!
In RE, we continued our focus on the Bible as we used this lesson to explore Christianity as a living faith through the inspiring story of Desmond Doss. Desmond Doss was a Christian combat medic who was awarded the congressional medal of honour for saving the lives of 75 men. He was a conscientious objector who never carried a gun. He is also the subject of the film, ‘Hacksaw Ridge’. First, we completed a circle thinking map using only picture clues to infer what we could about Desmond. Then we further learned about his life and his honourable actions that all came about because he fervently stood by his beliefs. This helped us to really explore Christianity as a “living faith” and to unpick our key question, ‘how can belief affect people’s actions?’.
We have now reached the end of the gripping tale that we have been reading over the last few weeks in our English sessions: ‘The Queen of the Falls’. This picturebook is based on the fascinating tale of Annie Edson Taylor, a “daredevil” from the 1900s who dreamed of fame and fortune and became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls…whilst inside a barrel! You could hear a pin drop whenever we read this story in class and the children were hanging onto every word. Although many predicted that Annie would be successful in her plight, this made what followed all the more shocking. The tumultuous ending in the aftermath of Annie’s feat led to many dropped jaws and shocked faces. Following this, we took part in a debate where the children considered the critical question: ‘Was Annie’s barrel feat a success?’ This led to a most impassioned and enthusiastic debate that was an absolute pleasure to be a part of. Next week, the children will write their final pieces within their author books, which is a diary entry based upon Annie’s incredible journey.
In our Maths lessons, we have focused on multiplying and dividing decimals by 10, 100 and 1000. Next week, we will move onto inverse operations and solving addition and subtraction word problems.
Wishing you all an enjoyable weekend before the final school week of this half term next week!
Reminders:
-Spellings continue to be uploaded onto Google Classroom each Friday and are tested the following Friday in class.
-Homework is also set for English and Maths via ‘Mirodo’ and is set each Friday and should be returned the following Wednesday.
Date: 5th Oct 2023 @ 8:07pm
A fantastic week races by in Year 5!
In RE, we continued to explore the Christian Bible with its many books and stories. We considered the word ‘sacred’ and its meaning and what it takes for an object to be thought of in this way. To do this, we thought of items that we hold dear and that are treasured within our own lives. We then connected our items to the sacred nature of the Bible by making comparisons and establishing differences.
In Art, we have explored space imagery and experimented with line drawing to achieve our desired effects. This required both creativity and patience in equal measure and the children were proud of their creations and enjoyed looking at each other’s work too.
In Maths, a particularly fun lesson challenged us as we learned how to count like a Mayan. We learned how the Maya numeral system was base-20 and made up of three symbols: zero (a shell), one (a dot) and five (a bar). We enjoyed applying our arithmetic skills to such questions and many of the Year 5 children certainly would not have been “counted out” of Mayan Civilisation culture!
In other Maths lessons, we have focused on multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000. Next week, we will extend this to include decimals as well as dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 too.
Following our discovery of the bonus chapters of ‘Wonder’ by RJ Palacio, we enjoyed reading this as a class and uncovering even more about Julian’s character and motive. As these chapters were not included in the original release of both the book and film, the children were desperate to find out what happened next…and it was worth the wait! Now it’s time to choose a new class novel, however we will most definitely take the lessons that Wonder has taught us forward into the rest of the school year. Most notably, ‘Choose Kind’ and ‘Choose Wisely’.
Wishing you all a brilliant weekend and see you on Monday!
Reminders:
-Spellings continue to be uploaded onto Google Classroom each Friday and are tested the following Friday in class.
-Homework is also set for English and Maths via ‘Mirodo’ and is set each Friday and should be returned the following Wednesday.
Date: 28th Sep 2023 @ 9:10pm
Another busy week which also included a Harvest Service and a circus!
In our RE work, we continued to explore the Bible. Using the 66 books that make up the greatest story ever told, we created some Bible word art. Our “wordles” demonstrated our ever-growing knowledge of the Bible in a creative and eye-catching format.
One of the main highlights of the week was the experience of the Big Top Circus Tent on the school field. We enjoyed watching the set up of the circus throughout the school day on Tuesday, and of course the incredible stalls, fire show and main circus event after school. Thank you to Team TSP for organising it all.
In this week’s Maths lessons, we have focused on negative numbers. Next week’s lessons will move onto multiplying and dividing whole numbers and decimals by 10, 100 and 1000.
It was a particularly proud moment to end our school week as Year 5 led the Harvest Service at St. Peter’s Church. We were blown away by the children’s courage and confidence through beautiful readings, prayers and a dramatic retelling of a well-known Bible story, ‘Feeding the 5000’. Through this service, we thanked God for the creation of the world and reminded our school community about the importance of helping others in need, particularly through such vital causes as Southport Foodbank. Well done, Year 5!
Reminders:
-The School Spider booking system for the Parent-Teacher Meetings on Tuesday 17th October and Wednesday 18th October will go live on Monday 9th October at 6pm and close on Friday 13th October at 6pm.
-Maths and English homework tasks can be found on 'Mirodo'.
- Weekly spellings can be found on Google Classroom.
Date: 21st Sep 2023 @ 8:16pm
Another week races by in the Year 5 classroom!
Our Science work took us on a journey into the great unknown…outer space! We are already fascinated by this topic and have been adding so much to our knowledge in just the first few lessons. In one particular lesson, we took ourselves to the school field as we needed a large, open area for what we were going to do. Here, we created a human, scale model of our Solar System…using toilet roll! With our Sun at the centre of the field, the children (each responsible for a certain planet) had to place themselves a specific number of squares of toilet paper away from the sun in order to represent their scaled distance in outer space. So, our Mercury and inner planet teams didn’t need to take all that many steps to represent their 48 million+ kilometres from the sun. However, our Uranus and Neptune teams certainly raised their step count and ended up near the outskirts of our school field. We hope this fun activity helped to create a bit more understanding of just how vast our solar system actually is.
In our Collective Worship work, we explored our monthly value focus on ‘Creation’. We started by watching a short video that represented how God created the world in seven days (as per the Bible story in Genesis). The children then applied their creativity by creating a “Creation Cube” in which each face of the cube represented a different day of the world’s creation. Of course, the seventh day wasn’t included because this is the day that God rested and made holy. It was great to observe the children’s careful creation of their cubes during an excellent Collective Worship session.
In English, we continued to delve further into our focus text, ‘Queen of the Falls’. We also read some biographies from the inspirational book, ‘Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls’ as we learned about computer scientist, Margaret Hamilton, who played a pivotal role in the Apollo 11 moon landing. There will be plenty more tales of courage, bravery and creativity to follow as we continue to explore this book! Not only that, following our work on Wonder, we found out that RJ Palacio had written a bonus chapter from the viewpoint of the character of Julian, which was not featured in the original release nor the film. We look forward to reading even more next week!
In Maths, we have been focusing upon rounding. Next week’s lessons will continue our focus on rounding and extend to negative numbers. We’re sure there will be plenty more Maths games thrown in there too!
Another highlight was our visit from the ‘Bring the Fire’ project who taught us some circus skills ahead of the arrival of the Big Top circus next week. We had a try at juggling, plate spinning and more. Great fun!
A fantastic week and we are already looking forward to all that next week will bring. In the meantime, enjoy your weekend and I will see you all on Monday!
Date: 13th Sep 2023 @ 2:50pm
What a fantastic second week in the Year 5 classroom!
In RE, we started our new unit which is centred around the Bible. We learned the history of the Bible in our first lesson and how it is made up of up to 66 different books with many different writers. We then were tasked with navigating the Bible itself using the book, chapter and verse to find the scripture that was required. After a few quick practises, the children then completed a problem-solving task in which they were given a specific Bible book, chapter and verse and they had to find the animal mentioned in that section.
In our English work, we began our writing focus for this half term which is centred around the incredible (and somewhat bizarre) tale of Annie Edson Taylor in 1901. All that we know so far is that Annie is a school teacher who performed a daredevil stunt involving a barrel and Niagara Falls. We enjoyed using our inference skills to investigate a picture of Annie to attempt to predict what the story is all about. There were also some jaw-dropping moments as we explored some different daredevils, including Danny Macaskill and his BMX skills in the short film, ‘The Ridge’.
Our Maths lessons have involved lots of place value games to help improve and develop our knowledge and understanding. This has included place value bingo and some tense games of ‘Nice or Nasty’ where the Year 5 children were pitted against their teacher. The scores are tied at 1-1 with a Year 5 victory in game one which was met with many, MANY cheers! Next week, we will continue our focus on place value, extending to rounding.
Ahead of the arrival of the Team TSP Big Top Circus on Tuesday 26th September, we were treated to an art workshop from Jenny from ‘Outline Arts’. Each class in the school was given an art task that will come together to form a whole school display. Year 5 designed some circus animals and we’re already excited to see how the finished piece looks!
A poster containing 100 recommended reads for Year 5 children has been attached to this blog. By providing 100 quality texts at an age-appropriate level, this list may be useful when choosing your child's next book. We hope it inspires the children to continue on in their reading journeys whilst further encouraging a lifelong love of books and stories.
Weekly Maths and English homework tasks will be uploaded on Mirodo (https://app.mirodoeducation.com/login) from next Friday (22nd September). Login details have been sent home with the children and we recommend that each family spends some time with their child before this date to ensure that login details work and to familiarise with the website. The children will also have the opportunity to try the website next week in class to ensure that they are confident navigating to the homework section. Going forward, homework will continue to be set in this way each Friday to be returned the following Wednesday. To confirm, login details have been sent home with your child and can also be found on Google Classroom.
Have a fantastic weekend everyone and see you Monday!
Date: 7th Sep 2023 @ 9:54pm
What a fantastic first week spent with the brand-new Year 5 class team! The journey starts right here with plenty of learning, laughs and memory making to come. Bring it on!
Our school motto for this year is ‘Choose Wisely’ which encourages us to be the very best that we can be throughout this new school year. To explore this further, we used the book (and film), Wonder, as our stimulus. This led to a whole host of activities throughout the week, each of which were connected to this thought-provoking, heart-warming and inspiring story!
This has included delving into the mindset of different characters and considering how demonstrating our school values throughout different parts of the story really could have supported the main characters of Auggie, Via and Jack Will. Our discussions centred around Via and her challenge to remember to be kind to herself as well as to appreciate her opportunities; Auggie striving to show positivity and resilience to school life and Jack Will maintaining integrity and kindness to others.
Other activities have included some stunning Wonder based artwork, including a personalised piece bespoke to each child as well as a collaborative art activity where each child contributed a section to the overall piece. We also enjoyed lots of teambuilding activities within PE too. We really have achieved so much in our first week with plenty more learning to come.
Homework will begin for Year 5 children at the end of the following week. This will include a short Maths and English task. Spellings will also be set next Friday for the children to practise.
A further reminder that the PE days for Year 5 are on Thursday and Friday each week.
I hope the children have enjoyed this week as much as I have and well done to them all for working so hard and embracing their new classroom and year group. Have an enjoyable weekend and see you Monday!
Date: 18th Jul 2023 @ 6:04pm
That time has come. The end of our Year 5 learning journey. What a time we have had and it has truly been a pleasure to have taught this class throughout this academic year! They have brought so much laughter, creativity, hard-work and kindness, with so many moments that will live long in the memory. Thank you, Year 5! While the summer holidays soon await, there are just a few more things to first say…
Firstly, thank you for being such excellent babysitters when Myla visited. She loved her time in the class and this is because you were all so nurturing and lovely to her. This led to lots of smiles on her part (and mine) and it was a really proud moment to have introduced you all.
A sincere and heartfelt thank you to all families for the extremely kind messages, cards and gifts received this week. They are never expected but really do mean an awful lot. Thank you so much.
All that is left to say now is have a fantastic summer break – make the most of it! I wish you all the success in the world in Year 6 where I have no doubt that you will continue to flourish and shine even brighter. I’ll be sure to check in regularly too with Year 5 only being next door!
Have an amazing time and speak soon!
Date: 13th Jul 2023 @ 8:52pm
We hope you enjoyed reading the children’s end of year reports last week!
I can’t quite believe we’re here but the final full school week of Year 5 is complete. Just two and a half more school days left of this academic year to go…we’ll be sure to make the most of them. For now, here are some highlights from this week.
Our Maths learning was focused on games, games and more games. We played some previous favourites, ‘Capture the Flag’ and the ‘Pirate Game’. Then we also had a try at a ‘Million Pound Drop’ game for those that remember this great gameshow. Great fun and we're sure that we’ll squeeze in a few more games before we finish too!
In English, the children proudly completed their buddy letters! Their letters were so thoughtfully written and contained a wealth of information that covered the role of a buddy; information about our amazing school and also some more information about themselves too. We hope that the families of our buddies enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed writing them. We certainly enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time in Nursery this week with some of our buddies too.
It was also time for the much-anticipated Year 5 ‘Spelling Bee’, which was a competitive event. So many children had clearly put the effort into practising and, regardless of the final winners, each child should be incredibly proud of their resilience and effort here too.
This week, the children enjoyed a visit from Rob from Formby Library who informed the children about this year's Summer Reading Challenge. Very exciting! There are two ways you can take part in the Summer Reading Challenge:
- You can join at Formby Library and take part in person. The librarian will give you a collector folder, stickers, and other special rewards, and help you find books to read.
- Or, take part online by signing up here. Set a reading goal and log your books on your profile. When you reach your goal, you will unlock a virtual badge and certificate.
Please note, the in-person and online challenges are separate. Medals and certificates are only available via the library, for those taking part in the in-person challenge. We hope the children enjoy completing the reading challenge and this will be celebrated when we return to school in September.
A week of so many other highlights included the children having a glimpse into their futures as they had the chance to watch the Year 6 leaver’s performance before they soon take the step into their final year of primary school too!
In preparation for the next academic year, please see the Year 6 Successful Start PowerPoint attached at the end of this blog.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Reminders:
-Homework set via Mirodo has finished for this academic year. Though, feel free to extend your learning and complete some extra activities on the virtual classroom to further improve your skills.
-School finishes for this academic year at 1pm on Wednesday 19th July.
Date: 5th Jul 2023 @ 8:04pm
Incredibly, we have just completed the penultimate full week of Year 5! What an amazing journey we have been on and, as always, this week has been packed full of learning highlights and achievements aplenty.
Our Maths work was a great source of entertainment as it was packed full of different games, quizzes and problem-solving tasks. The different activities included a ‘Capture the Flag’ game; a ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ style game and a tennis themed problem-solving task to mark the start of Wimbledon. More of the same to follow next week! Great fun and, often, the children were practising Maths without really realising it.
Our Reading lessons have involved exploring various songs and applying our retrieval and inference skills to the lyrics. Songs from this week have included the Greatest Showman, Oasis, Bastille and the ‘Friends’ theme tune.
The week concluded with an exciting Friday involving the school talent show. We were so proud of all children who auditioned in class, simply for having the courage to stand up and showcase their skills in front of others. Well done to each of them! Congratulations also to our two acts who performed beautifully in front of the school on Friday. Great entertainment all round!
Friday also brought some time spent in Year 6, as the children were given the opportunity to visit their new classroom and spend some time with their new teacher from September, Mr King.
Following his final week with the class, we say goodbye to Mr Burke who has been part of our Year 5 team for the last term. We wish him all the very best on the next stage of his teaching journey and thank him for all of the hard work put into the learning and opportunities provided for our Year 5 class. Thank you and good luck!
As the final full week of Year 5 awaits, we aim to make it just as enjoyable as this week was. Until then, enjoy reading your child’s end of year report and have a great weekend!
Date: 29th Jun 2023 @ 9:36pm
Well done to Year 5 for really giving your absolute all throughout this week! It has been as busy as ever and the time really is flying by with now just two and a half weeks of this school year remaining. Here are some highlights from the many different things that we have managed to fit into this week…
Our school week started in the best way…with another school trip! This time our adventures took us not too far down the road to ‘Go Outside’ in Formby. We had an absolutely fantastic time in a range of survival, adventure and orienteering style activities. A particular highlight was the Slip 'N Slide where the change of clothes definitely became a necessity! What a time we had and a really fantastic final Year 5 outdoors adventure.
A firm favourite moment was our Maths related, ‘Pirate Game’ that was introduced to the children this week. There are so many rules that it would be difficult to outline just how it works here. However, the words lively, fast-paced and chaotic do spring quickly to mind. Such fun was had throughout and it was a joy to be part of a whole class game that was played with the right competitive spirit but also with plenty of humour, resilience and kindness. Well done for making it such a success! Next week’s Maths lessons will be game-based but will also incorporate some problem-solving tasks across a range of Maths topics too.
In Collective Worship, being the end of the month, we rounded up all of our learning on June’s monthly value of Koinonia. To support this, the children watched Lewis Capaldi’s Glastonbury performance from the previous weekend where, unfortunately, Lewis was unable to finish the set due to difficulties brought on by his Tourette’s. In an extremely powerful and moving moment, the watching crowd came together and took over the singing for Lewis to complete his final song. The children were even clapping (and singing) themselves in the classroom too! We connected this to our monthly value of Koinonia as it represented how the Glastonbury festival goers came together as one community and one voice for a shared reason.
On Friday, it was time for the Summer Fair! We had lots of fun using up our tokens across a range of different stalls and activities, even if the British summer weather did let us down. We also had the added bonus of meeting some of our soon-to-be Reception buddies as we accompanied our Nursery class around the Summer Fair. The children were very excited and proud to have this opportunity and they were excellent role models and a great support for some of our youngest children in the school. It is fair to say that we are already more than looking forward to becoming a full-time Year 6 and Reception buddy partnership from September!
Even with less than three weeks of the school year remaining, there really still is so much more to cram in. We will be sure to make the most of it. Enjoy your weekends and see you on Monday!
Reminders:
-As mentioned in last week’s blog and on Google Classroom, for the remaining weeks of Year 5, the children have been set a spelling challenge. The aim is to learn as many words as they can from a list of common exception words. The list is available on Google Classroom and the children should pick a list that they feel best challenges them. A Spelling Bee will take place during the week of Monday 10th July and the children will be quizzed only on words from the list that they have selected.
Date: 22nd Jun 2023 @ 7:55pm
Another week complete in the Year 5 classroom!
We completed our Design Technology project centred around ‘Building Bridges’. As always in DT, we worked through each of the crucial stages: Research --> Design --> Make --> Evaluate. Following our learning about various famous bridges from around the world and their differing structures and features, the children were tasked with researching a bridge that most interested them. Then came the design phase before the actual construction commenced! There was plenty of innovation and creativity on display in the bridges that were constructed and, crucially, most met the design criteria. Following our constructions, it was time for the all-important necessary safety tests. Some bridges were not so fortunate here and crumbled (literally) under the pressure of these tests! We enjoyed this project and it was great to observe the teamwork between pairs and the imagination put into the final bridge designs and constructions.
We have also continued our Geography focus related to Japan, which included learning more about the capital city of Tokyo. We also focused on the human geography of Japan in one lesson before moving onto physical geography aspects in another.
This week was also National School Sports Week! To mark this event, our Sports Ambassadors helped to ensure that there was a different sport available for the children to play at breaktime and lunchtime. The sports included dodgeball, tennis, badminton and more. Great fun was had as many children got involved with a different sporting activity during their free time.
In Maths, we have focused on converting measures, including kilograms to grams, centimetres to metres and millilitres to litres. Next week’s lessons will involve problem solving using the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Reminders:
-KS1 & KS2 Sports Day on 28.6.23 (pm).
-Scholastic Book Fair (after school) on 28.6.23 to 4.7.23.
-Team TSP Summer Fair on 30.6.23 (pm and after school).
Date: 15th Jun 2023 @ 8:22pm
We’re not quite sure we really believe that it is Friday already; this week has passed by in a flash!
In another week of glorious sunshine, our PE lessons involved Tri-Golf and Kinball. In Tri-Golf, the children honed their technique and skills before progressing onto designing their own golf course. Using a variety of obstacles (and their own creativity), the children were tasked with designing a golf course hole for their friends to try. In Kinball, it was all aboard the Kinball train as the children had to work together to ensure that the train didn’t run out of track on its journey. The children loved this mini-game and also a further teamwork-based activity which involved working together to move the Kinball down the line both efficiently and whilst maintaining full control. Great fun was had in both PE lessons and bring on next week!
We had plenty of mindful moments throughout the week too as the children, in one activity, followed a calm script to notice more about how they were feeling. We also focused on mindfulness of sounds by first paying attention to the environment around us before focusing in on a specific sound and following it for as long as we could.
In Art, we carried on with our Cityscapes focus as we painted our own cityscape silhouettes which replicated photos of different cities, either at sunrise or sunset. The children’s creations were carefully made and stunning to look at.
Our Maths lessons this week involved recapping our mathematical learning so far this year through some assessments. We are delighted with the children’s positivity, resilience, maturity and overall effort in completing these assessments to the best of their ability. Well done, Year 5! Next week’s Maths lessons will focus on converting measurements (ml to L and g to kg).
Wishing you all an enjoyable weekend and thank you, Year 5, for all your hard work during a very warm week!
Reminders:
-Please read the guidance on Google Classroom for a ‘spelling challenge’ that the children have been set for the remainder of this academic year.
-English and Maths homework will continue as normal for the time being on Mirodo as usual.
-Should the warm weather and temperatures continue, please ensure that children apply suncream in preparation.
Date: 8th Jun 2023 @ 2:02pm
We can’t believe it is here already…the FINAL half term of Year 5! Time certainly has raced by up to this point but we are not taking anything for granted as there is still so much left to achieve and plenty more memories to be made. For now, here are some highlights from a week where the sun and children alike were shining brightly.
With the start of June, we commenced our new monthly value focus of Koinonia. We learned how Koinonia can be translated from Greek into the words, ‘fellowship’ and ‘communion’. We extended this further to the sense in which koinonia means community and working together for the common good of other people. We will continue to built upon our understanding throughout the rest of this month!
In Maths, we have continued our focus on 3D shapes and their properties and progressed onto recognising different shapes from their various nets. Next week’s lessons will recap all of our learning so far this year through some assessments.
In our reading work, we have been reading ‘The Hunter’ by Paul Geraghty, which is the story of a little girl called Jamina who goes out into the African bush with her grandfather. Her dream is to be a hunter when she is older but, when she is separated from her grandfather, she finds a baby elephant whimpering besides its dead mother. As Jamina bravely helps the little orphaned elephant, we are eager to find out where this journey takes her.
We had a great treat to end our week as we were visited by author, Simon Hunt who visited to share his love for storytelling, reading and writing with the children. We enjoyed listening to his story, ‘Delilah Rose the Bogey Princess’, and the opportunity to hear about how Simon's book came to be published as well as always remembering to dream big, inspired us even further. We will be sure to keep an eye out for any future books written by Simon!
A brilliant week and wishing you all a fantastic weekend. See you all on Monday!
Further information:
-We enjoyed welcoming Miss Fitzpatrick to our class on Wednesday following Mrs Guyers’ last day with Year 5 to start maternity leave.
-Brass lessons will continue to take place every Friday throughout this half term.
-Year 5 PE lessons will still take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week for this half term. Please ensure that your child attends school in their full PE kit on these days.
-Please also note that homework has been uploaded as usual to Mirodo as it will be each Friday throughout this half term. As previously, the homework will be set each Friday and should be completed on or before the following Wednesday.
-Weekly spellings have also been uploaded to Google Classroom, which will be tested next Friday (16th).
Date: 25th May 2023 @ 7:39pm
How have we reached this point already? The end of the penultimate half term of Year 5 for this amazing class! Throughout this half term, we have achieved so much and you have hopefully gained a snapshot of our incredible learning either within this blog or via our class Twitter page. This week was no different in terms of memorable moments in learning with plenty to report…
In our Maths learning, we have been focusing on 2D and 3D shapes. A particularly fun lesson was our active Maths lesson which involved finding different shape challenges hidden around our classroom and the outside area. The children then had to apply their knowledge of regular and irregular shapes to successfully solve each challenge question. Other lessons have included identifying the properties of 3D shapes in a practical lesson involving building skeleton shapes using blu-tack and art straws.
In English, we completed our author book work which was the culmination of our writing from throughout the half term. The children were tasked with creating a hybrid persuasive-information piece using their knowledge gained from our lessons on environmental awareness alongside our focus picturebook, ‘The Paperbag Prince’. Their impressive writing was also accompanied by some equally impressive artwork.
We also completed our final AR (Augmented Reality) project in Computing which we started last week. This involved us using our creativity to create our own “scenes” and then bringing them to life through AR within our classroom. The children enjoyed seeing their creations come to life and projecting their scenes and images around the room.
Our Collective Worship work continued our focus on our monthly value of ‘Courage’. We explored two powerful videos; one showing physical courage (a bird learning to fly) and the second video representing moral courage (Desmond Tutu discussing the resistance to apartheid). The children discussed these poignant videos in such a deep, meaningful way and applied their understanding of courage brilliantly.
What a week and a fitting way to end this half term. See you all in a week’s time for the FINAL half term of Year 5. We’ll be sure to make it the best yet!
Reminders:
-PE lessons next half term will still take place every Wednesday and Thursday.
-There is no set Maths and English homework for next week, however the Year 5 ‘Virtual Classroom’ has been updated and attached to this blog, which includes links to a variety of websites and resources. All pupils' individual passwords can be found on Google Classroom. Don't forget, there is also the ‘Practice’ section on Mirodo where the children can choose any topic they wish to practise for Maths, Reading, SPaG or Science.
-School re-opens on Monday 5th June.
Date: 18th May 2023 @ 8:22am
A brilliantly busy week in the Year 5 classroom! Here are just some of our highlights…
Our Ancient Greece focus led to an exciting (and challenging) Art lesson in which we learned about how sculpture was very popular in ancient Greece and lots of sculptures and statues still survive today. These sculptures tell us a lot about life in ancient Greece and the people who lived there. After exploring lots of different examples, we then replicated one of the structures by carving into soap. Great care and attention was taken by the children as they knew that, rather than adding features such as noses and eyes, they had to consider how to carve away the soap to reveal them. Perhaps some future sculptors in the making!
In RE, we continued our focus on Women in the Old Testament as we delved into the life of Jochebed (Moses’ mother). The children considered the reasons why Moses’ mother put him in a basket to float down the river and the significance and the impact of her doing so. A great deal of deeper thinking was employed as the children used green thinking hats to empathise with Jochebed and relate to the decision that she felt she had to make given the circumstances.
In Maths, we have continued to work on our understanding of fractions and applying this to multiplying whole numbers, mixed numbers and improper fractions. Next week, we will begin our geometry/shape focus as we move onto identifying regular and irregular polygons and also exploring the properties of 3D shapes in lots of practical lessons!
Our week ended with our Computing day which was focused on the world of AR (Augmented Reality). Alongside this, we also explored how to read and create our own QR codes too which would be essential within our final projects. A fun QR code hunt around the school helped us to take this even further! Later, after exploring a variety of apps and websites that use AR, we were given the challenge of designing our own games that use AR. We look forward to creating the final versions of our games next week!
You may also have noticed the installation of our Community Book Swap Box here at Trinity St. Peter's. This has been installed in memory of Margaret Blake, a past Governor here at TSP, who loved coming in to school and hearing children read. It is located on the wall (near the defibrillator) and the idea is for the whole community (adults and children) to use this book swap box so we can share our love for reading with all!
An excellent week and we hope that the sun continues to shine long into the weekend. Enjoy and see you on Monday!
Reminders:
-Homework will continue to be set via Mirodo (as usual) for this week and spellings will continue to be set via Google Classroom.
-As per previous reminders via School Spider, next week is RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) week across the school.
Date: 10th May 2023 @ 12:23pm
Another shorter week but no less full of highlights and excellent learning taking place!
Our Ancient Greece focus led us to discovering more about a key part of their culture and leisure time – theatre! We focused on the two main types of plays that the Greeks performed: tragedies and comedies. We learned about how the Greek actors wore masks so that the audience could clearly see their expression and whether the character was happy, sad, angry or frightened. Also, how the masks had large mouth holes so that the actors voice could project well. After this learning, it was then time to make our own! This involved newspaper, Modroc casting plaster and a whole lot of fun (and just a bit of mess) putting them together. Take a look and see what you think!
In Maths, we have been focusing on multiplying fractions as well as converting between improper fractions and mixed numbers. Next week’s lessons will continue our fractions focus.
Our Collective Worship work has allowed us to consider the monthly value of Courage and the various associations of this word. We associated this with the courage of a lion in particular and enjoyed listening to some motivational speeches about how courage is within each of us and, although it can be difficult to find, it is part of us when we need it.
So that’s the end of another shorter school week. Just think of how much we will be able to achieve in five days rather than four next week! Until then…enjoy the weekend!
Date: 3rd May 2023 @ 11:56am
A shorter week but still equally full of highlights and achievements for our brilliant Year 5 class! Here are just a few of them…
In History, we explored Greek mythology and the various heroes, monsters and gods/goddesses in the many mythical tales. This involved us playing against our shoulder partners in an exciting board game where we had to “collect” as many mythical objects as we could, all to appease the gods. We also finished the lesson with a game of ‘God, Hero or Monster?’ which further added to our knowledge base as we had to demonstrate various actions to show our thinking.
We have also been busy exploring how artists through the ages have told stories visually – e.g. the Bayeux Tapestry. We then had the opportunity to tell a wordless story of our own using textiles. This involved lots of creativity as well as important skills such as layering fabrics to create a desired effect.
In PE, we have been playing different variations of cricket in order to practise our batting, bowling and fielding skills in abundance. Diamond cricket was a particular favourite where the batters had to be on guard at all times as the bowlers shifted between four sets of stumps selecting which was best to target. This was a frantic game that required a real team effort and concentration throughout.
Our Maths work has focused on plotting coordinates across four quadrants and we have extended this to translation using coordinate grids too. Next week, our focus will shift to multiplying fractions.
Friday brought a particularly fun day in which we celebrated King Charles’ Coronation. This included the opportunity to perform ‘New King’ – a song which looks at the qualities that children would want from a monarch. We have enjoyed learning this song alongside the rest of the school in our Sing & Praise sessions. The day also involved a Coronation picnic, a Year 5 ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ show, some collaborative artwork and more. This allowed us to mark the significance of the weekend ahead.
Speaking of which, have an enjoyable bank holiday weekend and I look forward to seeing you on Monday!
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 12:32pm
.jpg)
As another week races by, it is now chance to reflect on just how much we have managed to fit into this time! Once again, the Year 5 children have worked really hard and with excellent resilience, energy and enthusiasm. Well done to them all!
In Maths, we have focused on co-ordinates and finding the missing co-ordinates of shapes. This included a game of ‘Battleships’ against both the teacher and then our shoulder partners. Next week, we will extend our learning to finding coordinates in four quadrants and also translating (moving) shapes within coordinate grids.
Ahead of the upcoming King’s Coronation, we have also been learning an exciting coronation song, to mark King Charles III’s coronation on May 6th 2023. Written from a child’s perspective, ‘New King’ explores what one would do if they suddenly became king.
We are well underway with our brass instrument lessons with Mrs Hughes from Sefton Music Service. Our first few sessions have been familiarising with our new instruments, whether trumpet, baritone or trombone. We have also enjoyed some old favourites including the Forbidden Rhythm game where we all know, “Don’t play this one back!”
Enjoy the bank holiday weekend, Year 5! See you back in class on Tuesday 2nd May!
Reminders:
-Homework will continue to be set via Mirodo (as usual) for this week and spellings will continue to be set via Google Classroom.
Date: 20th Apr 2023 @ 9:05pm
Welcome to the Summer Term! It was great to welcome back the Year 5 children after very varied and exciting activities during the time off that were great to hear about. This week, we achieved so much and really did pick up where we left off. Here are just a few highlights…
We enjoyed our PE lessons in the sunshine that focused on both Hockey (on Wednesday) and Striking & Fielding with Formby High School (on Thursday). It will be great to see just how the children’s skills develop in these areas as the term progresses.
In English, we have commenced our new focus book for this half term. It is titled ‘The Paperbag Prince’ by Colin Thompson. Before reading even the first page, we did a lot of work exploring the upcoming themes and content of this picturebook. Much of this linked to the environment and the importance of reducing both pollution and waste on our planet. To unpick this further, we watched several videos, including David Attenborough’s Blue Planet, which showed the horrors of plastic waste in the ocean and the detrimental effects that this is having on marine life. This led to many passionate discussions and many thinking skills were used as we reflected using green thinking hats and also completed a Diamond 9 model to help further guide our reasoning. We look forward to getting stuck into this book from next week!
Our Maths work has focused on measuring angles with a protractor and a particularly fun lesson involved measuring and checking different sized angles that we had drawn onto our own tables alongside our shoulder partners. Accuracy was the key and this led to many dojo points being awarded too! Next week’s Maths will focus on coordinates and translation, including translating shapes and symbols within coordinate grids.
In RE, we began our new unit that focused upon ‘Women in the Old Testament’. The aim of this is to widen the children’s knowledge and understanding of the role and significance of women in the Bible and God’s big story. Our first lesson involved us completing some code breaking activities that provided us with the name of a significant female biblical figure and their role. This enabled us to expand our knowledge base.
Have a brilliant weekend, Year 5 - I look forward to seeing you on Monday!
Reminders:
-Brass lessons will take place every Friday throughout this term.
-Year 5 PE lessons will take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week for this half term. Please ensure that your child attends school in their full PE kit on these days.
-Please also note that homework has been uploaded as usual to Mirodo as it will be each Friday throughout this term. As previously, the homework will be set each Friday and should be completed on or before the following Wednesday.
-Weekly spellings have also been uploaded to Google Classroom, which will be tested next Friday (28th).