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Elizabeth Class

Autumn

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English

This term, we linked our writing to the Victorians and read the Usborne children’s version of ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. Using the book’s fantastic range of vocabulary, we described settings and created atmosphere in our writing. We also developed our skills of ‘showing not telling’ the reader how characters were thinking and then applied this to write detailed diary entries from the perspective of Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde. Later on in the term, we studied ‘Street Child’ by Berlie Doherty. Using adverbials, questions and modal verbs, we created persuasive advertisements from different perspectives. In the second half of the term, we read extracts from the brilliant ‘Boy: Tales of Childhood’ by Roald Dahl. We were able to apply the features and language style of an autobiography to our own autobiographies about our lives, which we really enjoyed!

Maths

At the beginning of this year, we began by developing our understanding of place value up to one million. By using concrete resources, as well as reasoning activities, we became more confident with larger quantities. After this, we were able to apply this knowledge to round numbers to the nearest 10,100, 1000 and even 10,000! We also became experts at using the column method for addition and subtraction, even when exchanging was involved. Then, we used these skills to solve complex multi-step problems, which really stretched our brains! As well as practising quicker methods for multiplying and dividing, including using multiples of ten and partitioning in our heads, we learned how to calculate the perimeter and area of composite shapes. We had fun putting these problems into practical contexts and discussing their real life purpose e.g. perimeter fencing for gardens.

Science

‘Materials’ was a well-enjoyed topic in Elizabeth class! We conducted several investigations such as how to keep a cup of tea warm for the longest. We discussed variables and which things should be kept the same to ensure fair testing. Furthermore, we calculated averages from the data that we collected. A highlight of this topic was trying to separate an alien mixture of counters, sand, water and a secret ingredient of salt. We soon realised that the sequencing was very important for this investigation and that the salt could actually be recovered by boiling and evaporating the water it had dissolved in, which surprised us! Our second topic, ‘Animals including Humans’ was also great fun as we created lifecycles of humans and investigated gestation periods amongst different mammals. We were interested to find out that the gestation period of animals doesn’t necessarily correlate with their life span.

Creative Curriculum

Elizabeth became immersed in our ‘Victorians’ topic this term by studying different sources and artefacts from the era. We were particularly intrigued by the accounts of children’s living and working conditions during this time in history (especially the punishments in the Victorian school log books). We compared rich and poor lifestyles and studied famous people who assisted the poor during this time e.g. Lord Shaftesbury. Our favourite day was our school trip to Horton Kirby and stepping back in time to become a Victorian child! The real case studies enriched our knowledge of people, places and events during this period. We also discovered that writing on slates in silence (in a re-enacted Victorian lesson) definitely isn’t as fun as the lessons 

Spring

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English

At the beginning of the Spring term, Elizabeth were shocked to discover that the corridor had been taken over by lily pads and mischievous flying frogs! The thought-provoking book ‘Tuesday’ by David Weisner gave us plenty of inspiration for our own newspaper report writing using direct and indirect speech. In addition, we created our own narratives called ‘Wednesday’ using cohesive devices including adverbials.

In the second half of the term, Elizabeth’s writing took a more tragic turn… in the form of ‘The Highwayman’ poem! We were blown away by the similes, metaphors and personification in ‘The Highwayman’. The rhyme and repetition moved us to write our own detailed version of this poem of love and sadness.

Lastly, during Danson’s Book Week, we thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘James and the Giant Peach’ by Roald Dahl. Our dramatic performances were second to none in role as James, the Centipede or even Aunt Sponge and Spiker! We have had such a lot of excellent work going on in English this term!

Maths

This term, we’ve been learning some new and quicker written methods for calculations, particularly focusing on multiplying and dividing. We have become masters of the short and long multiplication methods and have applied our skills to solve multi step problems. Also, we’ve consolidated our understanding of short division including looking at the context of remainders. Throughout our activities we have develop our reasoning skills by proving answers in many different ways, using different representations.

Next, we moved on to some complex work with fractions. After using concrete resources to build up our understanding of mixed numbers and improper fractions, we went on to adding, subtracting and multiplying fraction amounts. We have developed methods to do this where denominators are different and through the context of problem solving puzzles. Year 5 have really put the effort in this term to tackle these challenging maths concepts!

Science

‘Forces’ was our topic for the whole term and we conducted many investigations to test things such as gravity, air resistance, water resistance and friction. One of our favourites was carried out during Science week, whereby we accurately created winged ‘insects’ and timed the speed at which they fell to the ground. Our results gave use important information about air resistance which we were able to record, present and write a detailed conclusion about. Science week also saw us dressing up as strange and different insects and learning why a lunch bag explodes when you mix baking soda and vinegar! We’ve had great fun in Science this term!

Creative Curriculum

Elizabeth became geographers this term, and enjoyed gathering research and information about natural disasters. We were able to offer advice about flood defences according to a budget and plan on a map where they should be situated. Stories about tsunamis affected us, as we thought about the negative effects on the human population and environment. In addition, we offered arguments for and against fire by studying the positive and negative impacts of bush fires around the world. Our expert knowledge and understanding was showcased in our class assembly. Elizabeth presented their facts with clarity and detail, which was a credit to their hard work and fantastic learning this term.