Highlights of the day

Monty - hitting the bullseye in archery

Oliver - getting to the top of the climbing wall 

Eva - all the activities

Aaron - teamwork activities as we played a fun game at the end of the day

Zoe - playing the team games and we got to do the one we liked best a lot of times

Sadie - the teamwork and the archery game, I liked it when people were chanting for each other

Tami - backwoods cooking was fun tasting all the foods we cooked 

We have reached the end of a successful term in year 5. We hope you all have a good rest and recharge your batteries for the Summer Term. There is no homework for over the break but please continue to read. Also if you are able to, please purchase a copy of ‘The Viking Boy’ by Tony Bradman for our new English topic (picture below) - but no peaking!! Please bring it in for the first day of term. 

Thank you for your continued support, Chag Sameach, 

Mrs Berger, Mrs Lax and Mrs Woolstone 

We are furiously writing persuasive letters or articles about how disgusted we are with what giants have done to Shenley and our local areas. Watch this space for some of our writing.

Wow! What a term! We are so proud of how the children have developed across the term. We had a great plays we and have finished the topics we have been studying this term. We are delighted with how the children have embraced their learning and enjoyed their cross-curricular work on the Anglo-Saxons. 

Have a fabulous rest and come back ready for learning - there's lots more to be done! 

Mrs Berger has hidden our ‘Freedom for Bron’ books!!!

The children were most annoyed today when I took away their books at the most exciting part in the story so far! We had just read chapter 18 where Bron had just discovered that Beograd had been attacked and left for dead! All will be revealed on Thursday when their books are returned but in the meantime they are going to have a go at writing the next chapter themselves. They worked in groups to devise their plans and will be writing their chapters tomorrow - so watch this space! 

Week beginning 3/12/18

We have had a great week again in Year 5. The Chanukah play was phenomenal and we couldn't have been prouder of each and every one of our children. They all rose to the challenge, were word perfect, knew their cues and covered up any tiny mistakes like such pros we didn't even notice them. What made it even better was seeing how they all worked as a team and were so supportive towards each other. 

As well as this, we have still continued our learning on division in maths and on Freedom for Bron in English. The story has taken an exciting turn and we can't wait to find out next week what happens to Bron who has just bought his freedom from being a slave. We have discussed how the setting of Anglo-Saxon times has affected the way in which the characters act, behave and interact with each other. 

We finished making our chanukiahs in DT. The idea wasn't for them to be a masterpiece but to practise developing our skills and particularly knowing how to make changes and deal with it when it didn't go well or to plan. We were proud of how the children used their growth mindsets to make improvements as they went along. 

Thank you to you all for your support throughout and your kind words after the play.

Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach,

Mrs Lax and Mrs Berger

Week 19/11/18

This week has been a combination of focusing on our play rehearsals and still continuing with our learning. We have continued our work on formal methods for multiplication and looked at the long and short methods for doing so. In English, we have completed our work on legends and explored incorporating many of the language and text type features into our own ones. See below for some of our legends. Oliver asked an intriguing high level question: "Is the BFG a legend?" We explored this in class and the majority felt that based on what we knew of legends and the BFG that it was a modern legend as it had evidence of the features of a legend within it. 

Our play rehearsals have been going well and we have been working hard. Our next step is to learn the lines and all children should be off script by Monday, including knowing the words of the songs. Therefore, there is no requirement to complete home learning this week, however, spellings, reading and times tables should still be done. 

If anyone is still in need of a Freedom for Bron book, please let Mrs Lax know as she accidentally ordered 2! 

Shabbat Shalom and have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Lax and Mrs Berger

Dear Parents, 

Huge apologies but I forgot to give the new homework grids out today. I am attaching a photo of the new grid here. This week the children have the choice of either completing one more from the old grid or lookinf at the grid here and choosing an activity from

this grid here. Thank you for understanding!

Mrs Lax

End of Half Term 1!

WOW! What a full half term it has been. We are so proud of the work the children have done and the progress they have made. It has been a huge journey but the children have shifted their expectations of themselves to be in line with our expectations and are seeing the benefits for themselves, both academically and behaviourally. There is no formal home learning this half term, the spelling words are on the blog a little further down (-tious), we also expect that they continue to read and practise their times tables. Please also see below the Chanukah play audition pieces, which we are really excited about. More details to follow next half term.

This week we have focused our learning around Black History. We have learnt about Rosa Parks and a little about Martin Luther King too. We have produced newspaper recounts (which I will upload some of here in a few days). We have also looked at Kente Cloth and had a go at designing some of our own, making portraits of influential people from black origin, as well as participated in the amazing African drumming workshop. In maths, we have begun looking at mental strategies for + and -. Although the children are keen to rely on formal written methods (which will come after half term) we are teaching them that there can be more efficient methods for certain numbers e.g. using rounding for estimation and using knowledge of place value. 

Thank you for your support throughout this half term. 

Have a fantastic half term,

Mrs Lax and Mrs Berger 

Spellings: If your child is finding some of the harder Year 5 spellings difficult, please focus on the mild and encourage them to learn these, rather than focusing on all levels of ability. If they are working on medium/hot spellings, they should be learning the challenges leading up to this level too. This is also a chance for vocabulary extension work - the children should be finding out the definitions of any words they do not understand. It is our recommendation that the children practise these regularly, rather than once a week (and to be revised in the weeks following the test week) as it is showing when they are not retaining these for the test or beyond. 

Times tables: Each week the children will continue to be tested on either their times table or the multiples group. Children should continue to practise these - the aim is to be able to recall the answers within 5-10 seconds. They are doing really well with these and should continue to practise these so they can make progress with their speed and efficiency. 

Week 15/10/18

Another fab week in the world of Year 5. In maths, we have been exploring mental strategies for multiplication and division: regrouping, use of place value, doubling and halving and the rules of divisibility. We have been thinking about which strategy is most appropriate based on the numbers we have. 

We have turned ourselves into rappers this week in English and have rapped along to various raps including Gran Can you Rap (see below for some of our versions of Mr Conway Can You Rap) and even The Fresh Prince of Bel Air rap which we had a go at turning into Anglo-Saxon raps. 

In PSHE we have been thinking about encouraging the children to think how they could be considerate to each other. We have considered what we would like to take from our school if we were creating an ideal school, what we would leave behind and what we could maybe create. We have begun story writing as a final element to this topic, where we have explored how a child might feel starting something new, what might be difficult for them and what strategies we could use to support. 

We look forward to celebrating Black History Week next week in school. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Lax and Mrs Berger

Week 1/10/18

Another hardworking week in Year 5 showed the children what the levels of expectation are again. The children have been trying to improve the quantity of their writing to ensure they are writing enough to contain good quality writing. They have been writing their recounts. Watch this space for some of them to be put up here in due course. In maths we have continued looking at the place value of numbers and have been working on multiples and factors. They learnt to identify prime and square numbers by drawing factor beetles. In Computing, we have continued our work on coding and have enjoyed predicting what may happen from looking at codes and then exploring for ourselves when we input and run the codes. 

Shabbat Shalom

Mrs Lax and Mrs Berger

Week 25/9/18

It has been another great week; the children have worked incredibly hard. In maths, we have been multiplying and dividing whole numbers and decimals by 10, 100 and 1000. We have used a fun way of remembering how to do this. Ask the children about Moody Multiplication and Delightful Division. In English, we have been working hard on identifying the features of recounts and looking at the use of precise vocabulary within these.

We have continued our work on coding in Computing and also practised some mindfulness during PSHE. Many children really liked the grounding technique which can be found here: https://copingskillsforkids.com/blog/2016/4/27/coping-skill-spotlight-5-4-3-2-1-grounding-technique.

See photos below of us doing our daily exercise today - we have improved our ability to run laps around the field and have now worked out that if we sprint initially, we will burn out! 

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,

Mrs Lax and Mrs Berger.

Week 17/9/18

We have had another great week in Year 5. Our story planning and writing is already improving and we have been using our targets that have now been set to focus our personal development with our writing too. Spelling is an area of focus at the moment. You will notice that this week the children are coming home with 3 spelling sheets for learning as opposed to 1. This is because it is revision of previously learnt rules that need to be applied to writing. If your child is already secure on one or two of these rules, please spend the time focussing on the ones they are not secure with. All children should be learning mild and at least attempting some of medium each week. Children will be tested on some of the spellings (although this week we are aware we are giving a lot so will be more of a revision check than a test!) and for the Hot level challenge, the children are expected to fill in the blanks with either the exceptions to the rule or alternative words as directed to by the sheet. Spelling sheets can be found here on the blog and have also been stuck into home learning books. The grid has been given out and home learning is expected to be in by Wednesday from next week onwards. Reading records have also been given out and are also expected to be signed 3 times by an adult (the child may write what they have read) and these will also be collected in on Wednesdays. Your child will have a times table to be learning (tested Fridays) and if they are in the multiples group, they should practice all times tables with a view to being able to applying this to questions such as 300 x 40 or how many 6s in 2400?

In maths, we have continued our work on place value, extending this to comparing and ordering numbers with up to 3 decimal places. This was challenging for some children so would be worth getting them to practise this by identifying which is greatest out of numbers such as 0.4 and 0.7 or 0.298 and 0.5 and getting them to explain how they know.

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,

Mrs Lax and Mrs Berger

Thank you to all those of you who attended the Curriculum Evening last night. It was lovely to see you and talk to you about the expectations of Year 5. For those of you who couldn't make it, you will have been emailed the slides we showed. If you have any questions please let us know. 

We have continued our work on The BFG and have begun to write our own stories based on our own BFG's. We are concentrating on the language we use and have focused on our precise use of this to evoke feelings in a reader. In maths we have continued our work on place value and extended this to negative numbers. We have had a big focus on explaining how we know the answer, rather than simply what it is. We are also putting the manipulatives to good use. We enjoyed playing the hot/cold game you can see in the pictures. This would be very easy to reconstruct at home with a numberline from -10 to 10 and a counter and a dice. 

In PSHE we have been thinking about our rights in school. I have asked the children to consider what rules would need to be made to ensure everyone is able to have their rights fulfilled of: the right to keep safe, enjoy, learn, be treated fairly, be respected, be included. 

It would be wonderful if children could bring some ideas around this to the lesson on Thursday.

Although no official homelearning will be set until next week, we have revised the spelling rule of adding a sufix beginning with a vowel (e.g. er, ing) to words of more than one syllable. We know that if the word ends with a vowel and a consonant and the last syllable is stressed we double the last consonant e.g. forgetting.

Mazel tov to Alfie and Ruby who are our new Tzedakah Councillors and to Josh and Billie who are our School Council Representatives. 

We wish you Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Lax and Mrs Berger

Year 5 have worked hard this week and have settled in beautifully. They now have a taster of the sort of level and amount of work that is required. We have focused on place value in Maths and have enjoyed working in numbers up to millions, comparing and ordering these. We enjoyed the challenge of considering their place on an empty numberline and what the possibilities could be for the numbers at either ends, reasoning our thinking as we did this. In English we have been working on the BFG. We have done a whistle stop tour through the book to get to know the story and it would be helpful if those children who have not yet read the book could read at least some of their favourite chapters to get a better idea of the story as we continue to work on it next week. We have started our topic of Coding in Computing and Christianity in RE. 

It has been a fabulous first week and we look forward to many more together!

If the children are interested in running for School Council or Tzedakah Council, they should prepare a short presentation to do to the class. The presentations will either take place on Friday next week or Monday the week after.

Home learning will be set after Yom Kippur. In the meantime, please ensure the children are reading regularly, practising times tables and spellings. 

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova,

Mrs Lax and Mrs Berger

A warm welcome to Year 5! We are looking forward to an exciting year ahead of hard work and fun ! 

Please remember to bring in your PE kits for our first day back as PE will always be on a Wednesday. Please also remember to bring : a water bottle; a reading book and a copy of the BFG if you have. 

Please find below our weekly timetable. There will be slight adjustments this week as we are getting to know the children.

We will let you know as soon as we have a grasp on the needs of the class regarding any interventions required and have timetabled these.