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Year 5 – Forest and Sage

Welcome to Year 5.

Our Teachers are Mrs Bland and Mrs Poole and our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Yiu and Miss Felgueiras.

  • A week of learning and football!

    What a fantastic week we have had in year 5.

    In Maths, we have been working on our calculation skills by mastering the bus stop method for division. It has been great to see everyone becoming more confident with multiplying and remainders. Alongside this, we have been brushing up on our division and even traveling back in time to tackle Roman numerals.

    Our English and History lessons have taken us on a journey to West Africa. Using our class book, The Children of the Benin Kingdom, as inspiration,we have started drafting official notes about this fascinating civilisation. We have been exploring the culture and history of the kingdom, learning how to organise our facts clearly and professionally to show just how much we have discovered about the past.

    Of course, a huge highlight of the week was our special football session. We were lucky enough to have professional trainers from Spurs come in to work with us. The energy was high as we practiced our dribbling, passing, and teamwork under the sun. It was an inspiring experience to learn from the pros.

  • Flowers and first week back!

    This week in year 5, we have been reading the book ‘The Children in the Benin Kingdom’ we have been using this text to dive deeper into the culture and heritage of the Edo people. The story’s twists and turns have captivated the students attention and we look forward to reading more next week.

    In Maths, we have been looking at perimeter. The children have been calculating the distance around both squares and compound shapes.  They have done a fabulous job applying their prior knowledge around multiplication and addition to perimeter. We have addressed common misconceptions about area and perimeter and the overlap.

    Science was hands-on  this week, as we brought nature directly into the classroom.  The children dissected real flowers, to identify and label the different parts. They carefully investigated the stamen and carpel, gaining a better understanding of how pollination works by seeing the anthers and stigmas up close. It was a great way to take on our plant studies.

  • Happy Easter!

    What a week! I can’t believe we’ve finally reached the end of the term. We have been working so hard in Year 5, and it was great to finish on such a high note.

    In Maths, we spent the week working with grids. We practiced plotting shapes using coordinates and learned how to reflect them across a mirror line. It was a bit of a challenge to make sure every point was in the right place, but we got the hang of it in the end!

    We also finished our Mediterranean leaflets this week, and they look great. It took a lot of work to get all the facts and pictures ready, but seeing them all finished and polished today was brilliant.

    To celebrate the end of term, we have done some Easter colouring to brighten up the classroom. We are all so excited for the two-week Easter holidays and can’t wait for a rest. See you next term!

  • Exploring Earth and Beyond

    We have had a creative and very hands-on week in year 5.

    In our Maths lessons this week, we have been exploring the relationship between 3D shapes and their 2D nets. The children have been cutting, folding, and sticking to see how flat shapes can be transformed into solid objects. It has been a very practical week, and it was wonderful to see that moment of realisation when a net finally folded up into a perfect cube. We even discussed different ways to draw the same net and how important it is to make sure the faces are in the right positions so that the shape actually works when it is built.

    We also took advantage of the weather to head outside and experiment with sundials. It was a great way to see science in action as we tracked how shadows change position and length throughout the day. The children were fascinated to see how the movement of the sun can be used to tell the time, and it really helped bring our understanding of light and shadows to life as we watched the gnomon cast its path across our dials.

    During our English sessions, we have been developing our research and note-taking skills. We have been looking at the Mediterranean and learned about its unique geography, climate, and culture. The children have practised picking out key information from different texts and organising their thoughts into clear,  notes.

    The highlight of the week has been finishing our Mars dioramas. These were inspired by the Curiosity rover, and I must say they look absolutely brilliant. The classroom has been a hive of activity as we used card, paint, glue, and tissue to recreate the rocky Martian surface. We also used foil to represent the rocks, which really brought the models to life.

  • From popping percentages to martian missions!

    We have had a busy and productive week in Year 5.

    In our maths lessons, we have been using the bubble method to help us get to grips with percentages. This is a fantastic way to visualise how numbers can be broken down into smaller pieces. We start with our main 100% bubble and then branch out to find 10% and 5% by dividing and halving.

    Our English sessions have taken us all the way to outer space. We have started designing our very own Mars rovers, thinking carefully about what a robot would actually need to survive on a dusty, freezing planet. The children have been coming up with brilliant ideas for specialised cameras, solar panels, and sturdy wheels.

    To bring our space designs to life, we have been getting messy in art. We are building  dioramas out of boxes to show our rovers on the surface of Mars. So far, the children have painted the inside of their boxes to dry ready for next week.

    Finally, a huge well done to everyone involved in winning the galactic challenge. Standing up to speak in front of a crowd is a massive achievement that requires a lot of confidence. We are all incredibly proud of how you represented the school.

  • World book day!

    What an action-planned week it has been in year 5! It has been wonderful to see the children so engaged with world-book-day.

    We had some fantastic costumes, from dork diaries and  minecraft characters to a very convincing Professor Umbridge. It was brilliant to see everyone getting into the spirit of celebrating their favorite stories.

    On the day, we spent time being creative by designing our own book covers and even crafting our own themed word searches to challenge our friends. One of the most rewarding parts of the day was heading over to spend some quiet time reading with the Year 1 children. Our Year 5s were such kind and patient reading buddies, and it was lovely to see them sharing the magic of books with the younger members of the school.

    In our math lessons, we have been working hard on some tricky conversions. We have been looking at how to move between fractions, decimals, and percentages.  The children are showing great resilience as they master these concepts.

    It has been a week full of discovery and hard work. I am so proud of how everyone has balanced the fun of World Book Day with their work.

  • Welcome Back!

    I hope everyone managed to have a restful half-term break!

    It has been a fantastic first week back, Year 5 have jumped straight into some new, exciting topics!

    This week, we started our brand-new class book, Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover. We have been learning all about how this amazing robot was built to explore the “Red Planet.” We even practiced using scientific labels to describe the rover’s parts. Instead of just saying “a camera,” we learned about the Descent Camera and the Hazcams that help the rover avoid dangerous rocks. It is fascinating to see how something the size of a car can travel so far for science!

    In Art, we have launched a new unit all about dioramas. We are learning how to build up drawings of space and how to use different materials to make a scene. We can’t wait to start building our own miniature Mars scenes.

    Science has been ‘uplifting’ this week. We have been experimenting with pulleys to see how they make moving heavier objects easier. It was so much fun setting up the equipment to see how much of a difference a pulley made when lifting objects.

    We are very proud of how the children have settled back into routine and look forward to another fully-packed half-term!

  • Have a lovely half-term!

    I can’t believe we are already at the end of the half-term—where has the time gone?  We’ve had such a busy, week in Year 5.

    In English, we have officially finished our robot stories. Following on from our work on Malorie Blackman’s Robot Girl, the children have worked so hard to bring their own characters to life. We’ve had some very creative story lines and plot twists. In maths, we have continued to look at area. The kids are becoming real experts at measuring and calculating the space inside different shapes. It’s been great to see them applying what they learned from our prior lessons to more complex questions.

    As it is children’s mental health week, we have also spent some time thinking about ourselves and our wellbeing. We’ve been making ‘where I belong maps’, creating islands that represent our lives. The children added all sorts of things that are important to them, like family, pets, sports, and their favourite interests. It was a lovely, calm way to reflect on what makes us who we are and celebrate everything that makes each student unique.

     We am so impressed with how hard the year fives have worked this half- term. We hope you all have a lovely, relaxing half-term break, and we look forward to seeing everyone back for another great half-term in a week’s time!

  • Robots, resilience and radiant windows!

    Happy Friday everyone! I can’t believe we are already at the end of Week 5. Just one more week to go until half-term. We’ve had a really busy, hands-on week in Year 5 and the kids have been absolute stars. In English, we’ve been reading Robot Girl by Malorie Blackman and if you haven’t heard about the big twist yet, definitely ask your children because it totally blew their minds! Inspired by the book, the class has started writing their own stories about robots facing problems.

    Maths was a bit of a workout this week too, as we got interactive with area. We turned the classroom into a giant measuring zone, where the kids were hunting for objects all over the room, measuring them up, and calculating the area. It was great to see them realise that math isn’t just on a page, but is actually found on our tables and around the classroom.

    We also had a splash of colour in RE while we talked about light and symbols. We decided to make our own stained glass windows using tracing paper and bits of coloured tissue paper to create some really vibrant designs. I’m so impressed with how hard year 5 is working.

  • We are scone crazy for week 4!

    This week we have been baking scones. However, unlike last week, this week’s scones have a mediterranean theme. We have used a variety of olives, feta and herbs to create different scones that reflect the fresh produce grown  in the Mediterranean.

    After researching the impact of air miles on  food consumption we have explored the seasonal produce we can responsibly access in different countries. Miss Felguieras has been taking children – in groups that reflect their food choices – into the cooking rooms to bake delicious scones! This activity has been thoroughly enjoyed by the children;  they have enjoyed comparing their original scones to the scones with the mediterranean produce included.

    In English, we have been doing the fabulous ‘Robot Girl’ by Malorie Blackman. The children were astounded by the big reveal in the penultimate chapter. The book has been thoroughly enjoyed!