Y5 reading – Boudica or Boudica?
This week, in our Y5 reading sessions, we’ve been practising our reading skills using a semi-fictional text about Boudica the Iceni Queen and her battle against the Romans. This text links directly to our big topic: Time Travel. (We’ve also learnt about the Romans in our writing, maths and topic lessons.) There was quite a lot of text to read so to help us understand the text more clearly (learning about identifying significant events and characters) we made story maps.
The next day, we focused on using our inference skills to explore the dynamics of the relationships between the key characters. To help us organise our thoughts we used a relationship grid.
Help at home by encouraging your child to discuss the different relationships characters have in the book they’re reading or a programme they’re watching on TV.
Finally, we applied our inference skills again in a different context. This time, we used an emotions graph to explain how the characters felt at key points in the story.
Help at home by encouraging your child to think about the emotions a character may experience in different points of the book they’re reading or a programme they’re watching on TV.
We’ve loved our week of Roman reading and tomorrow we’ll enjoy our weekly love of reading session.
Roman chariots
This week in Year 5 and 6, we’ve been learning all about the Romans. This is part of our big topic: Time Travel. We’ve been busy learning lots but we’ve particularly enjoyed making our own miniature chariots. Now we’ve made them, we’re going to write a set of instructions in our writing lessons to help other people make them, too.
First, we did some research about what Roman chariots are.
Then, we sketched some ideas.
When we felt confident, we designed our miniature versions.
Then came the most exciting part – building!
Later in the week, we’ll add our axles and wheels and then review them against the design criteria we decided on.
Cross Country competition – resilience, determination and grit!
Some year 6 children took part in the area heat of the Leeds Cross Country competition today. They ran 1,800m and had to draw on their Living and Learning skills; being ready, determination and resilience. They all enjoyed the experience and finished the race. Well done!
Living & Learning – Remembering
As part of our weekly Living & Learning session, we focused on our final R of the 8Rs for learning: remembering.
To help us improve our memory skills, we were shown 12 items. After we had been shown all 12, we had to write down as many as we could. It was really tricky but some of us managed to remember all 12.
Once we’d revealed the answers, we discussed our methods for remembering the items. Some of us turned them into a song, others turned them into a silly story, a few of us just tried saying them over and over again (though we agreed this was probably the least effective method). Then, we discussed the Loci system for remembering information.
We spent time creating our route (that was familiar to us) and had another go at a similar memory test. It was interesting that most of improved our scores by 2 or 3 items.
Short-term memory is super important for us as learners and, luckily, it is something we can improve. Help at home by completing similar activities with your child – maybe on a rainy day!
Reading – Refugee by Brian Bilston
This week, Year 5 have been focusing on poetry during our reading sessions. We have been using the poem ‘Refugee‘ by Brian Bilston as our stimulus.
The poem is super interesting as you can read it forwards and backwards – this is called a palindrome poem.
First, we read it forwards and recorded our feelings. We were outraged by what we had read:
“We should let people into our country if theirs isn’t safe!” Emme
“I don’t like it because it’s offensive!” Molly
“It is offensive. It is rude. And, that’s not how people should be!” Spencer
“The poet obviously hasn’t read the poem No Problem by Benjamin Zephaniah [a poem we have also learnt about this year]!” Kieran
Then, we read it backwards and noticed that our views on the poem had completely changed.
In the next lesson, we compared this video of the poem against this video of the poem being performed. We picked out what we liked and created our own version.
Ask your child how reading the poem forwards and backwards was different.
The History of Britain
As part of our time travel topic, Hobgoblin theatre company performed a play (The History of Britain) and held a workshop.
Children enjoyed watching the play and learning about how British life has changed.
During the workshop, children acted out their favourite parts from the play. Can you guess the moment in history from each freeze frame?
Library visit
Year 5/6 took a trip to Scholes Library today. Children chose their own book. They are encouraged to take these home and enjoy them until the start of next half term (November).
We’ve included the library opening times as you may wish to make another visit before November.
Living & Learning
Last week, in our weekly Living & Learning session, we played a game that incorporated lots of the 8Rs for learning. We also noticed that playing the game was a form of entertainment – the theme for our current big topic (Time Travel).
The game was simple but effective. All you had to do was find pairs of the ‘Rs’. However, they were covered and we could only reveal two at a time. If a pair was not revealed the ‘Rs’ were re-covered.
After playing twice (the second time round we beat our previous score by 4 minutes!) we discussed which of the 8Rs we had practised:
- Resilience – we had to keep going.
- Remembering – we had to remember where on the grid the Rs were.
- Reflecting – we reflected on our tactics after our first game and adapted them to improve our performance in our second attempt.
- Risk-taking – we had to take a safe-risk by putting our hands up and having a go.
- Ready – we had to be ready to put our hand up if we knew where one the ‘Rs’ was.
- Resourceful – we worked as a team and used each other effectively (humans can be a resource, too).
- Responsive – we had to respond to the ‘R’ that was revealed by the person before us.
Help at home by discussing how your child uses the 8Rs for learning away from school. Also, ask them to identify which ‘R’ is missing from the list above.
Orienteering lesson
Year 5 and 6 thoroughly enjoyed their PE lesson this week. Mixing their skills in position and direction from maths lessons and endurance from PE, children followed detailed maps and used electronic ‘dippers’ to show where they had been.
You could continue the learning at home by creating a map of your house and making a ‘treasure map’ for your family to follow.
5/6M Creative Homework – design a game
5/6 M responded to our creative homework this week with great enthusiasm. Some children made their own board games while others decided to design their own computer game using Scratch or Kodu.
Ask your child which game they enjoyed the most. You might like to continue making more games throughout our time travel topic. Perhaps, you could research some games from throughout history.
