Year 5

Welcome to Year 5,

Dates for your diary: 

* Creative home-learning is uploaded (below). The showcase is December 12th - this is open for parents and carers to attend - 245pm -3:20pm

* In Science on Tuesday 17th December, as part of our Health and Wellbeing unit in PSHE, we will be using disclosing tablets. These stain the teeth (temporarily) to show plaque. YOUR CHILD WILL NEED THEIR TOOTHBRUSH. Here is a link. Do let your class teacher know if your child cannot participate. If they forget their toothbrush, they will not be able to take part.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Halewood-Health-Disclosing-Tablets-30/dp/B0759SXJXZ 

* Weeks beg: 9th and 16th Dec - can you use wire and clay to make jewellery? Want to come in and help before Christmas? Please let your class teacher know. 

After Christmas: Parent volunteers for assemblies or in class discussion.

*  'Why is trade so important to Dubai?' do you work in trade? have you ever been located in Dubai? 

* Are you a vet? our Science unit is life cycles, we would love to hear from you. 

Please let your class teacher know. 

Sustainable Development Goals:  

We have begun to discuss the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We will be discussing how the children can mold the future for people and the planet. We have uploaded the goals below. Please discuss with your child and perhaps start them working towards some of these as part of their Values Baccalaureate

Cooking and Gardening 

We are very proud to provide a fantastic opportunity for our pupils to attend class cooking sessions during school hours. Sessions commenced in September and an annual voluntary contribution of £12.00 to cover the cost of ingredients has been uploaded to your Laser school cashbook. Your prompt payment is really appreciated. Our next sessions are the week beginning January 13th 2020. 

CGP homework books:

These have proved very popular with parents and children alike. To cover costs, a voluntary contribution of £6 can be paid on Laser. 

Thank you for your continued support,

The Year 5 team  

Learning until Christmas:

Maths: Children are going to be working out the area and perimeter of compound shapes. Also the area of irregular shapes. 

English: Children will be finishing off their amazing stories based on our Viking and Anglo Saxon unit. Subordinate clauses, maintaining tense and figurative language are the focus. 

Art: Children will be making a piece of Anglo Saxon or Viking inspired jewellery using wire, clay and beads.

Learning Spring 1: 

Maths: After Christmas the children will be learning how to use formal, written methods including short multiplication and the bus stop method for division. The week of the 13th January 2020 they will sit NFER Arithmetic and Reasoning papers. So that week will see much more explorative activities for maths. 

We have uploaded all of the assessments children have sat so far in maths. These are helpful to use to help with your child's understanding and gaps. These will be good revision too. 

English: After Christmas we will be reading 'Varmints'  by Helen Ward and illustrated by Marc Craste. Children will be writing a balanced argument about cities v countryside linked with habitats. 

Science: After Christmas the children will learning about the life cycles of animals and asking 'Do all animals come from an egg?'

Challenge: We will be discussing 'Why is Dubai so important to trade?' we will be looking at the climate and architecture of Dubai. We will also be locating it on a world map and discussing trade, ethics and environmental issues.   

Spellings to learn:

Each fortnight we will be working through the units from the Year 5 Read Write Inc spelling programme. Six words will follow a spelling pattern from the programme and six words will come from the Year 5/6 statutory words list (which can be found in your child's reading record). There will be a short assessment of 20 words each half term in order for the children to recap on the words learnt in the spelling units.

As well as on this page, the fortnightly spelling words can also be found in your child's Read Write Inc green log book.

The words this fortnight are:

criticise          intelligent

curiosity         ancient

define             magnificent

desperate       confident

determined     frequent

Dictation for these words will be taking place on Tuesday 7th January so children have an extra length of time to practise these words.

Homework 

English and Maths CGP workbooks go home on Thursdays, they are due back into school on Tuesdays. It is important to get into a routine with your homework. Think about when the best time is for you to carry out the tasks in the CGP books.

Please complete the following pages for homework:

Thursday 5th December 2019, due in on Tuesday 10th December 2019:

English, P48 and 49 

Maths, P21

Thursday 12th December 2019, due in on Tuesday 17th December 2019:

English, P96 and 97 

Maths, P48 and 50 

There is not homework over the Christmas holidays. Have a lovely rest! 

Calendar

Learning at home

Top education researchers tell us that homework has minimal impact for primary age pupils, unless it requires children to rehearse and practise.  We have therefore adapted our routines to reflect this. The routines for children in this year group are as follows:

• Reading and/or talking about their reading to an adult for at least 20 minutes, 5 times a week. This will be evidenced through reading being recorded in reading records. Reading records and reading books should be coming into school daily. Reading records will be signed by teachers to check regular reading is occurring. Pupils are expected to write a short comment about what they have read and an adult should sign the record book once this comment has been written. The diary and organisation of this resource will prepare the child for further independence. Encourage your child to select age appropriate books both fiction and non-fiction. Newspapers, magazines and pamphlets are also great materials to read. 

• Learning spelling patterns linked to age-related expectations ready for use in dictation towards the end of every week. These spellings will be on year group notice boards and should be practised at home. Dictation (recorded on sheets) will now be sent home weekly in reading folders so you can see achievement and progress.

• Reciting multiplication tables to increase their fluency so that they can be applied in other areas of maths and problem solving. These will be  tested in our weekly times tables challenge and will be sent home.

• Half-termly creative home learning will be set at the start of each half term and will celebrated and fed back on during our creative home learning showcases

• In order to prepare pupils for high school, our older pupils will continue to have homework set for Maths and Grammar from the CPG skills workbooks. These CGP books will be sent home on a Thursday and should be returned to school the following Tuesday. Tasks will be set by the teacher and checked and assessed (using the back of the book) by you, the parent. This gives you an opportunity to see how well your child is progressing and what they are very confident with and what they sometimes may need extra support with. While class teachers do not mark the CGP books, if you would like to share how your child found the activity with the class teacher there is a section which allows for this in the reading record and planner under "Messages for my child's teacher." This will make us aware of how your child found the activity - especially if they required a lot of support. 

You will be able to see achievement and progress through the dictation and times tables challenge sheets going home weekly. You will also be able to witness progress through class exercise books for English and maths being sent home at least once during every term as well as at parent consultation meetings.

Year 5 40 recommended reading list

The English team in school have worked hard to identify 40 appropriately challenging books for the children in year 5. The recommended reading lists contain 40 age-appropriate books for children in Year 5 which will capture the children's imagination. The lists contain colour-bands and a description of the books so that the children are able to 'cherry-pick' their favourites according to their book-band level and their personal interests.

While it is not compulsory for the children to read these books, it is highly recommended as it will deepen your child's inference, retrieval and vocabulary skills while also strengthening their love for reading. 

While it is NOT compulsory there are school wide incentives - At the end of each half-term, teachers will award bronze, silver and gold certificates in reward assembly to pupils who have read a set number of books from their year group list AND completed a short reading response activity in their reading records (where possible). 

Ideas for these short reading responses might be any one of the following; 

- Describing settings and characters from the story

- Identifying possible alternative endings

- Predicting what might be in a sequel (the next book if the story was carried on)

- Summarising the story in 6 bullet points 

- Writing a book review

If you have any queries or questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher.

Many thanks,

The Year Five Team

Maths

Times Tables Rockstars!

Times Tables Rockstars is a online programme we have introduced to encourage children to have fun with multiplication facts while improving fluency, recall and speed. Children can access it in their own time on any IOS, Android or Windows device.

What is it?

Times Tables Rock Stars is a carefully sequenced programme of  times tables practice. This programme has very successfully boosted times tables recall speed for hundreds of thousands of pupils over the last 7 years in over 4500 schools - both primary and secondary - worldwide.

How does it work?

Incorrect answers are always immediately corrected in front of your child so that they start to associate the correct answer to every question. The clever code behind the scenes works out which times tables facts each child is consistently taking longer to answer and then it gradually starts to present these facts more frequently until they have mastered them. It will also ask related division questions 20% of the time in order to reinforce division facts.

Is this instead of the times table challenge completed in class?

No, this is to supplement the times tables challenge, giving children a fun way to practise and challenge themselves.

Where does this fit with National Curriculum expectations?

From June 2020, all pupils at the end of year 4 in England will take an online multiplication tables check .The national curriculum specifies that pupils at this stage should be able to recall the multiplication tables up to and including 12x12.

The check aims to support pupils to master multiplication skills, which are essential for future success in mathematics. It will help to identify pupils who have not yet mastered this mathematical concept, so additional support can be provided.

How do I log in?

Log in here: https://ttrockstars.com/login, use your child'd details that came home at the end of the Summer Term, lost them? Speak to your child's class teacher.

Multiplication Tables

Children should know all times tables by the end of Year 4. Please encourage children to practice with games, songs and play. Many resources can be found online.   

Year 5 cooking fun:

Our next Cooking and Gardening session is the week of 4th November. 

If you would like to help as a volunteer as a helper in our kitchen, please speak to your child's class teacher. 

Specialist Subjects