Week 1

English - This week we completed our persuasive letters to the Sunny Vale Hospital demanding the release of aunt Lucinda from their care. This piece of writing was inspired by the The Spiderwick Chronicles. We then created a "posh copy" using 2Publish on Purple Mash. This really helped us to work on our typing skills.

Maths - This week we have look at algebra. We all thought on Monday algebra was something rather daunting! However, we quickly realised it is something we have always done throughout out school; using "?" or __ when solving problems instead of letters from the alphabet.

Example:

2 + __ = 5 is the same as 2 + ? = 5 is the same as 2 + a = 5 

A rule to remember: We never use multiplication symbols when writing an algebraic expression as this can be mistaken for an x! 

Example: 3xb=12 (incorrect)          3b = 12 (correct)

Other areas of the curriculum

In science we investigated whether or not the earth was flat or spherical. By the end of the lesson we all agreed that it was spherical. In 2020 we may laugh at the theorists from long ago about the world being flat, but we all understood that technology has changed over time helping us to learn more about ourselves and the world. 

In History we discovered by Baghdad in 900AD was known as the perfect circular city. We use secondary evidence to help build a whole class lego model of what it looked like. Did you know that the Four gates leading out of the city led to roads to North, East, South and West?

Week 2

English - This week we have investigated how authors create narrative story endings that grab the reader's attention. We experimented ourselves with writing endings that have "twists" or "cliffhangers."  We loved using the 500 word stories from the BBC Radio 2 competitions for stimulus' of our lessons. 

Maths - This week we embarked an adventure into the wonderful world of fractions! Have a watch of the videos below for a flavour of what we have covered so far. 

The wider curriculum - In this half term's PE lessons we will focus on gymnastics. We thoroughly enjoyed balancing, creating balances on 1,2,3 and even four points of contact.

OnThursday, it was Remembrance Day. During the afternoon, we discussed the importance of remembering those who are members (past and present) who are prepared to give up their life for others. We then created a piece of artwork with Mrs Thompson. 

Week 3

English - This week brought an end to our work exploring narrative endings. We all created an alternative ending to the Spiderwick Estate Field Guide using a cliffhanger, suspense or a twist. We are all excited to read the sequel to this book, The Seeing Stone over the final four weeks of this half term! 

Maths - We continued to discover how to compare fractions by making them equivalent. We quickly found out how important it is to have an excellent times table knowledge when investigating common factors of denominators. Next week will bring us to the end of the topic fractions, before we move onto angles and shape. 

Wider Curriculum - We unearthed information about the Siege of Baghdad in 1058AD by investigating secondary resources. We looked at a tapestry painted 200 years later that re-told the story of the invasion of the Mongolian's. We used historians accounts to help build up a picture of what really happened. Did you know that evidence suggests that the river running through the city was turned black during the siege by the books from the House of Wisdom that were thrown in the river. The ink from the books washed into the water turning it black!

Week 4

Writing - We began the week by reading the first chapter in the second book of the Spiderwick series - the Seeing Stone. The chapter left us intrigued to find out more about the powers of the special stone! In this unit of work we will discover how authors write non-chronological reports. We started off studying reports created by web authors related to wonderful creatures! We found out the a non-chronological report generally has the following features: fronted adverbials, third person, past tense, complex sentences and paragraphs. In the next lesson practiced using compound-adjectives to describe Thimbletack and experimented writing informal sentences using a dash. 

Maths - We kicked off this week by concluding our lessons on fractions; applying our knowledge of adding and subtracting fractions. We found out, finding the lowest common factor/multiple is the most efficient method of solving problems. Then we moved onto applying our knowledge of angles. We reviewed our knowledge that:

- a right angle = 90 degrees

- a straight line = 180 degrees 

- a full turn = 360 degrees

- Vertically opposite angles are always equal

Wider curriculum

This week we have explored formulae's on spreadsheets to work out how many days we are and other family members. We created a tourist information guide for Baghdad 900AD and began our topic of Expectations leading up to Christmas!

Most exciting of all, we met Mr Redfern on Thursday! We had a fantastic time meeting our new teacher who will be with us full time from the new year!

Week 5

This week was for assessments. 

Writing - We planned and created our very own non-chronological report on Timbletack from the Spiderwick Field Guide. We look forward to sharing with you our "polished copies" with you next week. 

Maths - We investigated types of triangle and misconceptions related to shapes with three sides! 

Wider curriculum - This week we have focused on housing from ancient civilisastions. Did you know that the Egyptians had a lip at the bottom of the doorway into the house? This design feature was created to stop the wind blowing sand into the house. The earliest form of refrigeration came from the Egyptians. They dug a hole in the ground in the shade to keep items cool! On Friday afternoon, we used Minecraft to demonstrate our understanding of what a stereotypical house may have looked like. Please see Max's example below. 

Week 6

Writing - We continued to read the adventures of the Grace children and found out the importance of the seeing stone! Once we had finished our independent non-chronological report on Thimbletack, we investigated the skills required to debate! We carried out a debate in class related to, "Are fairies real?" We had great fun - Mr Flanagan said we would make great MPs in the House of Commons!

Maths - We continued to investigate missing angles and properties of quadrilaterals. 

Wider curriculum - This week we have discovered how the moon orbits the earth and the impact this has on day and night around the world. We all enjoyed using the atlas' to discover countries around the globe.

In RE we investigated and reflected upon the life of John the Baptist. Despite people being unhappy with John, he continued to tell others the good news of Jesus. 

This week brought us to the end of our topic about ancient civilisations. We used our session this week to gather our notes and new-found knowledge ready to create a magazine article about our findings next week. We look forward to sharing these on our class page. 

Finally, this week we recorded our Christingle Service and made our very own Christingle to take home. The Christingle will remind us of the importance of Jesus and Christmas around the world. 

Week 7

Writing - This week we have wrote a balanced argument about the the 1969, US landing on the moon! For some, there is no doubt that the landing on the moon happened. However, many other people believe strongly that this was just a hoax. We debated the evidence before writing out own reports. We focused on using using connectives to balance the argument. This included:

- consequently

- therefore

- on the contrary

- on the other hand

- it could be argued that

- supporters argue that

- no one can deny that

Maths - This week we have consolidated our understanding of angles. We are now experts at using a protractor!

The wider curriculum -

We completed our history topic by creating a magazine article demonstrating our new found knowledge of ancient civilisations. 

We have re-told the advent story using passages from the bible. We enjoyed using scripture and our artistic flair to show our understanding. 

Finally, I would like to thank Class 5 for such an enjoyable final term in teaching. Continue to work hard being the best that you can be. Laugh lots, learn from your mistakes, think you can; but most of all, simply be you! Mr Flanagan

Hello class 5! This is Mr Redfern. I have enjoyed getting to know you over the last few weeks and I look forward  to working with you after Christmas. 

I hope you all have  a relaxing Christmas break and feel recharged and ready to work and play hard in January 2021!

Mr Redfern