WC - 9.2.26

It is the final week before half-term and we are now officially halfway through the year! Can you believe it?

As always, it has been a busy one! We have been completing our writing assessment, which was a diary recount from the perspective of a child in the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The children were able to call upon all of their senses to create some vivid imagery in their writing. In maths, we have been learning about decimal sequences and rounding decimals to 1dp and whole numbers (which is a great life skill when working with money). In PE, we continue to develop our handball skills and teamwork skills. 

On Tuesday, we participated in a really exciting Zoom call. The purpose was to expose the children to different jobs, providing them with an understanding of the different jobs available to them when they grow up; the theme was 'planning'. During this call, the children opened a 'golden envelope' to reveal a fun charade-style game. They also had to guess the jobs of three different experts. Many schools participated and one of our questions was selected to ask the experts! 

Did you know that it was 'International Day of Women and Girls in Science' day on Wednesday? To celebrate this, we learnt about a variety of inspirational female scientists. We were also introduced to our new 'Space Diaries', which hold a range of fun activities and link perfectly with our book week theme 'Space'.

We noted that some of the children found the maths homework a challenge last week. We will go through this together in class.

It has been a swift half-term, but a much-needed break is always welcome! We wish you all a lovely, restful holiday!

All the best,

Mrs Hyett and Miss Dennis

WC - 26.1.26

We have had such a busy week in year 5, beginning with an incredible day with 'Rock Kidz'. Teaching us about themes of kindness and the important message of not leaving others out, we all left the sessions having had so much fun and with huge smiles on our faces! Year 5 were even selected as the best singers and, as a result, get an extended break time!

We continued our learning on fractions this week, extending this to include decimals. We played a great loop game and timed ourselves to get quicker each time! In geography, we learnt about the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010. We will use this knowledge in our assessment writing next week. The children were equally curious and saddened by this terrible natural disaster. 

We wrapped the week up with number day, which is always an enjoyable day for all! We were able to use fractions in different ways, creating fraction art. In science, we were able to choose our own animal to create an interactive life-cycle! We loved learning about hippos, whales, koalas and many other animals!

We have had a fantastic week and are looking forward to our final week, before we enjoy a little rest and reset before Spring 2! 

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Hyett and Miss Dennis

WC 26.1.26

Another busy week in year 5 is drawing to a close and, rather unbelievably, we are getting very close to the half-way point of the year! 

This week, we were lucky enough to have a PE lesson with Mrs Watkins from Debden Park, in which we learnt football skills and team work. We have been broadening our knowledge of fractions and subtracting with different denominators, as well as tackling word problems. Aspen were fortunate enough to have Mrs Holland join us for maths and she was blown away by their efforts! In geography, we have been learning all about 'earthquakes'. The children have been captivated by this fascinating natural disaster and have produced incredible explanation texts as a result. We managed to hold an in-class research lesson using our laptops. There was an incredible buzz throughout the room as we shared facts and ideas.

Wishing you a fabulous weekend.

Mrs Hyett and Miss Dennis.

WC - 20.1.26

First things first, a HUGE congratulations to the incredible Young Voices choir for an amazing night at the O2. The children sung their hearts out and could not have made the adults prouder. The arena was filled with joy! What an experience! 

In year 5 this week, we continued our fraction work in maths (and were lucky enough to play some maths games to consolidate our learning). We have started learning about earthquakes, we even replicated an earthquake drill! The children have demonstrated lots of interest in this topic and are showing themselves to be keen and curious geographers. In PE, we enjoyed a whole cohort session, in which we practised scoring goals in handball. When the weather improves, we look forward to taking our lessons outside. In art, we created some unique, abstract pieces that represent earthquakes. We used paint and string to create these unusual pieces of art.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Hyett and Miss Dennis.

 

WC - 12.1.26

This week we have continued to push ourselves in our learning. In maths, we have moved on to equivalent fractions and ordering fractions with different denominators. It has been a real challenge, but we have used our growth mindsets and, as a result, we have improved each day. In geography, we have finished our incredible climate zone fact files and, WOW, they truly are fabulous! We have attached some photos for you to enjoy. This topic has really engaged the children and sparked their curiosity about the world around us. Next week, we are learning all about earthquakes!

In music, we have continued developing our recorder skills in 'classroom jazz' and in PE we have enjoyed starting to play some handball matches (it has been great to see the development of teamwork). 

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Hyett and Miss Dennis

WC - 8.1.26

Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful break and enjoyed this lovely time of year with your family and friends.

We have really hit the ground running in year 5 and the children have shown great determination to be the best versions of themselves that they can be! 

In maths, we are learning about fractions, starting with finding fractions of an amount and fraction sequences. There is so much more to cover across this exciting topic. 

We have also become geographers this week, starting our new topic 'Earthquakes, Climate Zones and Volcanoes'. We kicked off by learning about different climate zones and biomes, for example, tropical, arid, mountainous and temperate. Next week, we will write fact files about a chosen biome and present them in creative ways. It really is a fascinating topic and the children have shown such curiosity already! This also links nicely with our new science topic 'Living Things and their Habitats', we spent this week's lesson learning about the life-cycle of a mammal (rabbit).

In PE, we have moved on to handball and look forward to playing games and improving our skills as the weeks progress. We are hoping to hold a staff v kids game later in the term. In music, we have moved onto our new topic 'Classroom Jazz', please see a picture below.

As we reach the end of the first week of Spring term, we would like to remind you all to continue to read as often as possible at home, as this really does benefit the children's fluency and comprehension skills. We would also like to remind you all that homework is sent out every Thursday and must be returned, completed, every Tuesday - this will commence again next week. Finally, we would like to remind you that as the temperature drops it is more important than ever to ensure the children have coats and any other suitable clothing to enable them to enjoy OPAL play and to ensure they stay warm and dry! 

We look forward to the term ahead, it's going to be a good one! 

Mrs Hyett and Miss Dennis