Science: Calling All Young Biologists!
This week in Year 5/6, we have kicked off our new Biology unit, Living Things and Their Habitats.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be getting stuck into the wonderful world of living things. We’ll be looking at how scientists group and classify organisms, having a go at using classification keys and even exploring the weird and wonderful world of microorganisms.
There’s lots of new scientific language to get our heads around too. Our key vocabulary includes:
Help at Home: Test your child on their new vocabulary.
Handwriting
Since coming back to school, we have been working hard on improving our handwriting. This will help the presentation of learning and help to speed up the writing process.
Each handwriting session, we make sure we are ready. This involves us remembering the for Ps.
The children make sure they are sat up straight with their feet flat on the floor. The grip their pencil using the ‘tripod’ grip and tilt their paper so that it’s in a good position. They need to make sure they apply enough pressure when they write.
Here is an example of the tripod grip.
Help at home: Can you help your child at home to achieve fluent, joined handwriting? Are they able to confidently use the tripod grip?
Year 5,6 Reading Records
This week, we have launched our Year 5,6 Reading Records for the new school year!
Each Friday, your child will be given a Reading Record activity to complete. This should be completed at home and returned by the following Friday.
Alongside the weekly activity, we would also like to see evidence of your child reading at home with an adult. This can be recorded in the ‘Comments from Home’ section underneath the activity area. A short, signed comment from an adult is perfect. We recommend that children read aloud with an adult five times each week, as regular reading at home is incredibly valuable for developing fluency, prosody and understanding.
This week’s activity: Story Map
This week, children have been asked to create a Story Map based on the book they are currently reading.
They should choose a scene or chapter from their book and recreate it in the form of a comic strip or story map. They should draw the important parts of the scene and can add dialogue to help retell what happened.
We’re looking forward to seeing the children’s first Reading Record activities next Friday!
Class Novel
In Year 5 and 6 this term, our class novel is…
Secrets of a Sun King by Emma Carroll
This novel links to our current History topic which includes learning about Ancient Egypt.
Help at home: Ask your child to summarise the key points of the story so far. Support them to be succinct by playing the ERM challenge! This is where they can’t say ERM or take long pauses when summarising! This will help develop their oracy skills.
Welcome back
Welcome back everyone after the summer break. We hope everyone had a lovely summer. It was fantastic to see all the children returning to school this morning with big smiles on their faces. Parents looked pretty happy too!
Here are a few reminders to help everyone through the first term.
PE days
5,6A – Mondays and Wednesdays
5,6 B – Wednesdays and Fridays
5,6 C – Wednesdays and Fridays
If your child has PE on a Friday, please wear PE kit on Friday this week.
Just a little reminder of uniform expectations. Here is a link to the uniform policy to make sure your child wears the correct uniform. This also includes PE kit.
The children will be bringing a library book and journal home this week. Please encourage your child to read aloud at home daily. We will be explaining how to use the journals but if you’re still unsure, please feel free to come and chat with us.
Remember to get your child logged onto Times Tables Rock Stars. Playing daily on this will massively help their mental maths skills and help them feel more confident in maths lessons. Homework will be handed out on a Friday and will contain spellings for the children to learn at home.
We hope your child has had a great first day and that they’ve settled back into school life well. Feel free to come and chat to us if you need any support or even just to say ‘hello’.
Science: wonderful bees
As part of our science topic, we have been looking at the job of pollinators.
Mr Campini visited school today with some bees from his hive. He talked about the roll of bees in nature and how many bees live in each hive. The classroom was abuzz with excitement as we enjoyed trying to spot the queen bee. Children (and teachers) were amazed by the extraordinary facts.
One student said, “This has BEEn the best visitor to school.”
Sports Day
The sun shone down on us last week as we took part in our annual sports day event. Thank you to all the parents that came along to support the children. The children had great fun taking part in races such as, bat and ball, obstacle race, sprint and the long distance. Everyone did a great job of cheering each other on and the resilience and determination that the children showed was fantastic.
Design and technology – food
5,6B have been chefs this week and have been making a pasta sauce recipe. The recipe included lots of different vegetables such as carrots, celery and courgettes. The children peeled and chopped the vegetables and fried them off in a pan. They were able to practise their cutting skills and stayed safe by using the claw and bridge method. They then added water and chopped tomatoes and cooked for a little longer. Once it was ready, it was blended. We cooked some pasta to pour the sauce over and then the children could enjoy the best part – the eating!
Help at home: here is the recipe if you fancy trying it out for yourselves.
Living and Learning: Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)
Over the past few weeks, our Year 5 and Year 6 pupils have been taking part in Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), with each year group covering age-appropriate topics as part of the curriculum.
Year 5 explored different types of relationships, what makes relationships healthy, and the importance of kindness, honesty, respect, boundaries and accepting differences. They also discussed the many forms that families can take and reflected on the love, care and support that families provide. The children approached these conversations with maturity and respect, contributing thoughtfully throughout.
Year 6 built on this learning by exploring topics including consent, conception and pregnancy. These lessons provided opportunities for pupils to ask questions, deepen their understanding and discuss sensitive topics in a safe, supportive and respectful environment. We were incredibly impressed by the maturity, sensitivity and respect shown by the children during every lesson.
We are very proud of how both year groups engaged with these important areas of learning and the thoughtful, respectful attitudes they demonstrated throughout the unit.
Amazing Applique Artists
Our design and technology project is well under way in Year 5/6.
Children have designed, make templates, cut fabric and are now starting to show off their applique skills.
Help at home: Talk about the skills needed to be a designer/ artist in textiles. How does it feel when you’re creating something? When did you have to be patient and resilient?
