Candlemas…
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Well done Year 5, you’ve continued to amaze me with your hard work this week. In maths the multiplication methods got quite tricky but you’ve all worked so hard to understand them. We came to the end of the first Talk for Writing booklet in English this week and I’ve really enjoyed reading your ‘’wishing” stories that you’ve written and have been quite impressed with the language and description used to create an atmosphere. In RE we have explored what Jesus meant by love, using St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, and you were able to show how St Damien showed his love for the lepers on the island of Molokai and how his decisions were informed by his beliefs. In addition to this you’ve learnt about the most important cultural contributions of the Ancient Greeks, different methods of asexual reproduction in plants (including bulbs, runner plants and tubers) and you’ve coded a Scratch program so that the sprite can be moved around the maze avoiding the maze walls. You have all worked so hard and many of you have also managed to keep up with your two lessons of Bedrock, spelling, TTRS and Education City. This is fantastic and you, and your parents, well and truly deserve a good rest and some family time over the weekend. Thank you all, and your parents, for your continued support at this very difficult time. Together we will get through it.
Thank you to those of you who shared their resilient moves with us this week. It’s really important, more so at this time, to make sure you are making time to look after yourself and do things you enjoy to keep positive and be resilient. Have a look at what our class has been up to this week…
What resilient moves will you make this week? It would be lovely if everyone could email me at least one photo of you making a resilient move so we can share them here. Please email me photos of your resilient moves you make this week to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk I look forward to receiving them.
Next week’s home learning can now be accessed from this link .This will be available each week by the end of school on a Friday . Please note that it is a government expectation that work is sent in to teachers to be evidenced and feedback given where necessary. Thank you so much for all the work you are sending, I know how difficult this is whilst also trying to do your own jobs too - it’s really appreciated! Please email any outstanding work to me by 1pm on a Friday so that I am able to feedback to the children before the end of the school day. If work is not sent to me, I will need to follow this up so please keep in contact with me.
Have a lovely weekend!
Take care, miss you all!
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
For your information:
Making Changes This is a free family healthy lifestyle programme for families in Blackpool.
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Thank you Year 5 for another week of great work. I’ve enjoyed seeing all the wonderful work that you have been completing, both on paper and using our online websites (Bedrock, IXL, TTRS), and I’m so proud of each one of you. It’s been lovely to see how you’re all progressing with your maths, there’s certainly been some tricky concepts this week to get your heads around. In English, you’ve worked hard using dictionaries and thesauruses to explain meanings of words and have found some wonderful synonyms and antonyms for those tricky target words. I’ve also enjoyed the sentences you’ve written to create a mood by describing the atmosphere of the inside and outside. Thank you also for the membership cards you’ve made to be a follower of Jesus, I’ve added some photos of these below. You wrote some lovely rules for us, as followers of Jesus, to live by. I’ve also been really impressed with the engagement and quality of your work in history, science and computing too - I can really tell you’ve listened and understood well. Well done Year 5!
Here’s some of the children’s RE work and some photos of the children working hard at home…
Thank you to those who shared their resilient moves this week, I’ve really enjoyed seeing what you have been getting up to. What resilient moves will you make this week? It would be lovely if everyone could email me at least one photo of you making a resilient move so we can share them here. Please email me photos of your resilient moves you make this week to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk I look forward to receiving them.
Next week’s home learning can now be accessed from this link https://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/yr5-home-learning
Thanks again for all your hard work Year 5 (and parents). Hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Mrs McVey
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Well, it’s been a long, unexpected, week and I’m really sad that we’re not all going to be together for some time. However, I’d like to start by saying a big thank you and well done to all of you for the work that you have sent me this week. I’ve been really impressed with how hard you’ve all worked and how resilient you’ve shown yourselves to be by quickly settling into this new, but not so unfamiliar, routine. I’ve enjoyed reading your poems and I can see that you’re all striving to be your best. I am so proud of every single one of you! Thank you parents for all your support this week, it has been very much appreciated.
Please see Year 5’s Home Learning page for next week’s work. https://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/yr5-home-learning
Thank you, I hope you all have a great week!
Mrs McVey
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Well what a wonderful end to a great term! I am so proud of Year 5, it has been an unusual time for everyone but they’ve worked so hard, shown great resilience and have really shone their lights this Advent. Thank you parents for your continued support with your child’s learning.
This time of year we would normally hold our annual KS2 Christmas Carol Concert. Although we couldn’t do this in church this year, Year’s 4, 5 and 6 got together to celebrate this special time and share this with you. We hope you enjoy it as much as the children enjoyed taking part. A special thank you goes to Father Jim who very kindly put all our videos together for us - Thank you Father Jim!
Thursday afternoon the children were treated to a virtual pantomime of Cinderella and they absolutely loved it! Thank you to our wonderful PTFA for organising it and for the lovely treats that the children had whilst watching.
Year 5 Achievements
Our Reading Champions…
Well done to our reading champions this half term who all completed bookmarks (some completed 2!) for reading regularly at home. Reading is so important and I ask parents to continue to encourage your child to read regularly at home (at least 20 minutes per day) and get their diary signed.
When the children read regularly, golden tickets are given out and then we do a draw at the end of each half term. Well done to Evie and Adam who are our golden ticket winners and have won a prize.
This week Evie received her Bronze award for clarinet. Miss Benson was very proud of her and so were we. Well done Evie!
Year 5 Stars
This week’s Year 5 Star is Brodie .
Our overall Year 5 star winner for Autumn term was Elliot. Elliot regularly tops our weekly leader board for the most dojo points received and over the term has collected an amazing 727 points. Well done Elliot!
Thank you to those of you who shared your resilient moves with us this week…
This week’s resilient moves challenge, from the Resilience framework, are:
1 - Find time for your interests. (Coping)
2- When times are tough, remember tomorrow is a new day. (Coping)
Please email me any photos of resilient moves you make over the Christmas holidays (for the two above or any others!). We look forward to seeing them and sharing them in the new year.
On Wednesday was Christmas dinner day and the children were treated to festive music and Christmas crackers…
Online Safety
Access to new technology over the winter period can provide new opportunities for children and young people but also present risks. Thinkuknow have published a Parent guide which looks at how you can support your child to be safer online this season by focusing on 3 key areas: viewing, sharing, chatting and friending. Please click on the link to take a look at how you can keep your child safe online.
Christmas is a time for giving and thinking of others and I just wanted to share this photograph of Evie and her sister Charlotte who have organised a collection for the Streetlife homeless charity in Blackpool. It is the third year the girls have made hampers and this year they managed to beat last year’s target and made 22 hampers! What a fantastic example of helping and showing loving concern for others this Christmas. Congratulations girls, this is amazing!
We wish you all a wonderful happy and Holy Christmas 🎄and we hope you all stay safe and well and have a great start to the New Year. See you all in the new year!
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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We’ve had a fantastic week in Year 5, the children have really amazed me! They were set a number of challenges this week in our DT/Science lessons. In the first of these sessions, the children were split into three groups and given a different challenge. One group had to make a simple frame from wood, using tools safely. The second group had to make a a moving vehicle using tech card and their knowledge of circuits and the third group had to make a vehicle shell for a chosen planet and design it using their knowledge of that planet. Elliot and Laciee were also challenged to making their own moving chassis using a lego set that school have borrowed. All the children worked extremely well and completed their challenges successfully…
The children were then put into small groups and together as a team they were set the challenge of designing and making a moon buggy model. The children designed their buggy, deciding on the materials that they would need and set off making it. By the end of the morning the children finished their moon buggies. I am so impressed with how hard they all worked and more impressed with the maturity they all showed, working in their teams supporting each other and with good cooperation and collaboration. Their work is now on display in the entrance hall for other Year groups to have a look at. Take a look at what they achieved…
Our other learning this week:
English - This week the children have been reading non-chronological reports and have been identifying the features.
Maths - This week the children have identified and named the parts of a circle including diameter, radius and circumference. They’ve drawn circles to a given radius using a pair of compasses and have also used angle facts to solve problems related to turns.
RE - The children read the story of Exodus when Moses was chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and they have explored the challenges they faced and how they responded when tested.
Art - The children have continued to experiment with the work of Hundertwasser and have begun to enlarge their own work based on his.
PE - The children have been perfecting their hand ball skills and have enjoyed some really quick and fast paced games.
Yoga - This week was our last yoga session this year. We’ve all really enjoyed these sessions each week and it’s been good to see how much the children have improved in their balance and achieving mindful body and mindful listening.
PSHE - The children have made their own strength badges this week. They named one of their strengths and how that strength can make them more resilient.
Thank you to those of you who shared their resilient moves with us this week…
This week’s resilient moves challenge, from the Resilience framework, are:
1 - Develop life skills (Learning)
2- Calming down and making yourself feel better (Coping)
Please email me any photos of resilient moves you make this week (for the two above or any others!). We look forward to seeing them and sharing them.
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Mia
Writing Award - Isabella
Maths Award - Lila
Year 5 Star Winner - To be done on Monday
Thank you all for taking part in Christmas jumper day, the children looked great! We hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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It’s feeling like Christmas in Year 5 this week and it has really lifted everyone’s spirits. We have our Christmas trees up (including one on the window made out of the children’s handprints), twinkly fairy lights are lit and our advent wreath candles and Nativity set are in place. It has been a really lovely week starting each day opening our interactive advent calendar from Cafod, sharing the Scripture of the day (read by the children) and saying our special advent prayer…
Our learning this week:
English - This week the children have been writing their adventure stories and have also been editing their work to make it better.
Maths - The focus this week has been using a protractor to measure angles accurately and they have been identifying the different angles: acute, right angles, obtuse and reflex.
RE - This week the children have explored the covenant that God made with Moses and have looked at the trust and faith that he had in God, which influenced his decision. The children used the Bible to record the key points of the conversation between God and Moses.
Science - The children have been identifying the effects of friction on different surfaces and have investigated those which have high friction and those with low friction.
Art - The children have been introduced to the work of Hundertwasser this week and have used a viewfinder to select and draw a section of one of his images. Take a look at their initial drawings…
DT - We started our DT work this week and the children were set a challenge to make a simple chassis using just card, dowling, 4 wheels and masking tape. Take a look at their efforts…
Thank you to those of you who shared their resilient moves with us this week…
This week’s resilient moves challenge, from the Resilience framework, are:
1 - Get some fresh air and exercise (Basics)
2- Eat a healthy diet (Basics)
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Nevaeh
Writing Award - Grace
Maths Award - Jacob
Year 5 Star Winner - Isabella
Well done to some of our instrumentalists who have achieved their bronze medal during the last couple of weeks. Miss Benson was very proud of them and so are we…
Another great week Year 5! We hope you have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing your photos of the resilient moves you make this week.
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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We’ve had another lovely week in Year 5 and I continue to be so proud of how hard the children continue to work. This week the children have thought carefully about how they are going to prepare themselves to meet Jesus this Christmas. They have made their advent promises and they have linked their promise to Jesus’ teachings. Please ask your child what they have promised to do this advent.
Our learning this week:
In English this week the children have begun planning their own adventure story for Mai-ling who has to defeat an ogre that is rampaging around the village of Yishan and they have been experimenting with language to build suspense and atmosphere.
In maths the children have used written methods to multiply and divide 3-digit and 4-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers.
In RE the children have listened to the story of Abraham and Sarah, learnt about the Covenant God made with Abraham and have reflected on Abraham’s trust in God.
In Science this week the children have explored the effects of water resistance. They have discovered that objects with greater surface area move through water much slower than objects with a streamlined smaller surface area.
PSHE - During this week’s Bounce Forward lesson the children have continued to think about their strengths and have identified three of their key strengths and shared how these strengths make them more resilient.
Thank you to those of you who shared their resilient moves with us this week…
Today is Lancashire day and we were set the challenge of running the daily mile so we combined this with our resilient move of getting fresh and exercise…
This week our resilient moves, from the Resilience framework, picked out randomly from our resilience box are:
1 - Organise yourself (learning)
2- Find time for your talents (Core self)
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Brodie
Writing Award - Eliza
Maths Award - Onalee
Year 5 Star Winner - Elliot
Great work this week Year 5! Have a lovely weekend and enjoy some family time.
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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Our learning this week:
In English this week the children have read and discussed how the author of the Dragon Slayer has used incredibly precise description to give an atmospheric description of the dragon asleep. They have then composed their own descriptive paragraph of an ogre who will be a character in a new episode that the children are going to write.
In maths the children have continued to focus on simplifying fractions and they are all getting really good at this. They have also used mental strategies to multiply and divide multiples of 10 and 100 and used the inverses of each other to find relationships.
In RE the children have listened to the story of Noah from the Bible and have learnt about the Covenant that God made with Noah (and us) and the significance of the rainbow.
In Science this week the children have explored the effect of air resistance and have looked at the discoveries of Galileo Galilei. The children planned and carried out an investigation into the effects of air resistance on three different parachutes.
In geography the children have created a travel itinerary based on the places in America that we have been investigating this term. For each destination they had to record: its absolute location using latitude and longitude, time zone, possible activities that the travellers could do in each area based on the travellers interests and its climate.
In Yoga, one of our favourite sessions of the week, the children have continued to work on mindful body, mindful breathing and mindful listening. This week the children have also been working on Vinyasa yoga. Vinyasa is a style of yoga where poses are strung together to form one fluid sequence of movement, using breath. Take a look at how well the children are doing…
PSHE - This week’s Bounce Forward lesson concentrated on getting the children thinking about what their strengths are. The children shared their own personal strengths and also thought about strengths they think their friends have too.
In class we now have a resilient moves box and each child has chosen a resilient move from the Resilience framework to put into the box. Each week we will choose a couple of resilient moves at random from the box and we will be challenged to make that resilient move over the course of the week. This week’s resilient moves are:
1 - To get fresh air and exercise. (Basics potion)
2- To find time for your talents. (Core self potion)
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Jensen
Writing Award - Evie
Maths Award - Theo
Year 5 Star Winner - Kayden
Notice:
In line with the Covid-19 health and safety guidance in school, we are required to keep windows open in the classroom, to ensure the room is ventilated. As the weather is getting colder, this does result in the classroom being colder that usual. With this in mind, I have mentioned to the class, on Miss Haggerty’s authority, that they may wear an extra layer of clothing (like a T shirt) under their white polo shirts, as extra insulation. Can I also advise that boys wear full length trousers and girls wear tights, when possible. Thank you.
Coming up…
Next Friday (27th November) is Silly Sock day. Children will need to bring £1 donation for the PTFA
Christmas jumper day 11 the December. More details to follow.
Well done Year 5, you’ve worked hard this week. We hope you have a wonderful weekend. Remember to record the resilient moves you make over the week and if you have any photographs to share, then please email them to me and we can share these resilient moves here.
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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This week Year 5 have reflected on why we have Remembrance day and have read all about Armistice day and why we wear red poppies and have two minutes silence. It also gave them the opportunity to share personal stories of brave family members who fought during the First World War and subsequent wars. To show their respect, Year 5 made their own poppies and wrote a special prayer dedicated to their own family members and all of those who have fought and died through war. On the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, we, like the rest of the nation, stopped and observed the two minutes silence and we remembered them.
Our learning this week:
In English this week the children have explored further the story of The Dragon Slayer through activities including drama. They have looked at powerful vocabulary that create clear images in the reader’s mind and they have used inference and deduction to gather information about a character from the text.
The children have also begun reading Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo for our class guided reading sessions.
In maths our focus has been on fractions. The children have been using fraction strips and fraction walls to compare them. They have also been finding equivalent fractions and have been learning to simplify fractions into their lowest terms using their knowledge of factors.
In Science this week the children have explored the effect that gravity has on objects and how the first theory of gravity was developed. They have learnt about Sir Isaac Newton’s discovery and have completed an experiment to measure the force of gravity pulling on objects.
In geography the children have explored the link between longitude and time. They have used a map of time zones to work out what time it would be in different destinations across North and South America if it was midday in the UK.
In Computing the children have learnt that computers use binary to carry out calculations and they have performed their own binary addition calculations.
In PE this week the children built on the learning from last week and were introduced to a new skill - to intercept the ball- and a new rule - to hold the ball for a maximum of 3 seconds before passing to your team mate. They played games of 3 on 3 and had to remember to abide by all 3 rules.
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Jack
Writing Award - Sienna
Maths Award - Molly
Year 5 Star Winner - Lila
Before I go, I want to draw your attention to Miss Haggerty’s post regarding self isolation. It is really important that we work together to keep each other safe and help bring down the rate of infection by following government guidance. If anyone in your household/bubble experiences any COVID-like symptoms then EVERYONE IN THAT HOUSEHOLD MUST ISOLATE and therefore your child would need to stay at home during this period.
If your child has to self isolate, then please visit our new Y5 Home Learning page here on the website to find the work that your child should complete at home. Unless there are already other members of the class self isolating, on the first day you will find a list of tasks that your child should complete during that school day. After that, I will post a daily timetable alongside lessons and resources that your child should complete whilst at home for the remaining period of the self isolation (week by week). Once the work has been completed, photos or scanned images of the work should be emailed to me at year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk to evidence the work they have completed.
Lastly, apologies for the mix up at home time today - a message was sent out to the whole school in error. I can confirm that hometime for Year 5 on a Friday is still 1.05pm.
Another great week Year 5! We hope you have a wonderful restful weekend.
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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It has been a lovely week all back together again and once again the children have settled back into their work routine nicely. We began the week taking part in Father’s virtual mass celebrating All Saints Day and this lead us nicely into our RE lesson where we learnt all about Saint Martin de Porres and considered what Teresa of Avila meant by, “Jesus has no body now on Earth but yours.” The children recognised how St Martin de Porres lived his life by doing the work of Jesus and they thought of ways in which they could carry on Jesus’ mission in the same way that Saint Martin de Porres did too. One of the ideas the children came up with is to help others by contributing to the Samaritan’s shoebox appeal that school is currently collecting for (press link for more information). Year 5 have been asked to donate school supplies such as pens, pencils, notepad or solar powered calculators. Thank you so much to those children who have donated already, it’s very much appreciated. Last year school were able to send off 30 shoeboxes filled with gifts for children in need around the world, and we hope to be able to do the same again this Christmas. If you’d like to donate some items for the appeal, then please send them in on Monday - thank you.
Year 5 donations for the Samaritan’s shoebox appeal.
In English we began our new unit of work on stories from other cultures and we are focusing on stories from China. The children read three stories, The origin of the kitchen god, The Dragon King’s daughter and Dragon Slayer, and investigated what they could find out about the culture, customs and features of Chinese stories.
In maths this week the children have been looking at multiples of numbers and have used division rules of numbers to work out whether a number is a multiple or not. They have also investigated factors of numbers and discovered that numbers with two factors are prime numbers and numbers with an odd number of factors are square numbers.
This week in Science we started our new Forces topic and the children have identified and explained the different forces acting on objects.
In geography the children have been reading the climate graphs of several destinations within North and South America and have identified the different climates using what they learnt from our last geography lesson.
During our Bounce Forward session we focused on the Basics potion of the Resilience framework (click on link to see the framework) and considered which of the ‘ingredients’ we can take responsibility for. We then focused in on getting enough sleep and thought about what helps us get to sleep and what prevents us getting to sleep at night. Year 5 all agreed that when they don’t get enough sleep it makes them less resilient and they aren’t as happy. It is recommended that children of their age should be getting between 9 and 10 hours sleep at night.
On Tuesday Year 5 resumed their yoga lessons - we all look forward to these as it gives us all the chance to feel calm and relaxed. Year 5 are certainly getting better at balancing!
Our PE lessons this half term will focus on communication and teamwork. This week, the focus of the lesson was working together to move and throw whilst also obeying two new rules.
More reading champions
Last half term some children were missing when we took the last photograph of our reading champions who had finished completing their first bookmark for reading at home. Well done, keep up the great work!
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Lennon
Writing Award - Isabelle
Maths Award - Nathaniel
Year 5 Star Winner - Adam
Great work this week Year 5, keep it up! We hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Keep safe
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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Here we are at the end of our first half term, I can barely believe it! This half term has been really enjoyable getting to know all of your wonderful children and I’m so proud of all of them. It’s such a difficult time at the moment for everyone but the children have really shown just how resilient they all are and have just taken it all in their stride. They have all worked so incredibly hard and I’d also just like to say thank you to parents for supporting your child with their reading at home and with their online homework.
Our Reading champions this half term…
All these children have completed their first bookmark for reading at home. There are also more children who were not in school and we will be sure to take a photograph of them with their certificates on their return. Well done to all our reading champions and I hope to see many more children receiving their reading awards next half term.
Well done to Elliot and Kayden who were our golden ticket winners for reading this half term. Unfortunately Kayden wasn’t in school to receive his prize but it’ll be here waiting for him when he returns to school. Golden tickets are given to children in Year 5 every time they read three times in a week at home and get their diary signed. I’m so pleased to see so many children trying to collect their golden tickets. Let’s see if we can challenge ourselves to collect more golden tickets next half term.
Our learning this week:
In English the children have worked really hard on writing their biography on the famous British author of the Alex Rider series, Anthony Horowitz. They’ve worked really hard on the content and have thought about the presentation of their writing for their reader.
In maths the children have been focusing on the subtraction method using formal calculations.
In RE the children have written a letter to Pope Francis to tell him how they are going to use their gifts as he requested in the Inauguration mass. He said, “Let us be protectors of creation, protectors of one another and of the environment. Let us show loving concern for every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about.”
In Science the children did an end of topic quiz and have made posters this week to show all they had learnt during our Space topic.
In geography the focus was on how latitude affects climate. The children looked at various places in North and South America and identified the rainfall and temperature patterns to identify the different types of climate.
Thank you to parents who have sent me evidence of the work for those children who have been self isolating this week. If you haven’t yet sent me photographs of your child’s work, then please can you do so to my email year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Cianna
Writing Award - Laciee
Maths Award - Kourtney
Year 5 Star Winner -Cianna
PTFA quiz afternoon
Yesterday the PTFA held a virtual quiz in school, which was a little bit of fun for the children at the end of half term. Many thanks to the PTFA for all their hard work, Year 5 thoroughly enjoyed it! The PTFA wanted us to share this here so that all the children working from home this week could join in too. Please click on the link - hope you enjoy it!
I hope you all have a wonderful half term holiday together, the children certainly deserve a good rest and some fun time with their families.
Take care and keep safe
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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For those children who are isolating this week, below is the timetable of activities that the children should complete including links to websites the children will need to access. The resources link contains a folder of additional resources that are needed to support their home learning.
A ‘Home Learning’ tab is being developed for each year group page on the website, but until then I will put any home learning resources on this ‘Year 5 News’ area.
Please email any questions or photos of completed work to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk Take care and I hope you all remain well and safe.
Mrs McVey
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I can hardly believe that we are only a week away from half term. We’ve had another great week in Year 5 and I continue to be impressed with the efforts of the children both at home and at school. Yesterday we were able to give out more golden tickets to our reading champions who read regularly and get their diaries signed. Next week will be giving out the reading certificates for those who have already completed their first bookmarks for reading in Year 5 and we will also be picking out our Golden ticket winner to celebrate who our overall reading champion for this half term is.
I also want to applaud those children who are using Bedrock regularly at home, it’s great to see their enthusiasm - the scores show the children are making great progress with their vocabulary! In addition to Bedrock and the other sites Year 5 have access to, school has now subscribed to IXL for the whole of KS2. At the moment we only have access to IXL maths but hopefully we should have access to IXL English soon. This afternoon Year 5 have come home with a letter about the website and they have copies of their log in details attached to the letter and stuck into their reading diaries. As always the Year 5 homework page here on the website details the homework for this week and you will notice that this week’s maths homework is to be completed on IXL (the skill they need to complete is detailed there). English homework will be on Education City as usual. Please see homework page for full details of homework..
Learning this week…
In English this week the focus has been on biographies. They have read and analysed the features of biographies based on Jeremy Strong and Year 5 are now planning their own biography on the author Anthony Horowitz.
In maths Year 5 have been working on a few different skills. They have been measuring to the nearest millimetre using a ruler and have also converted units of measure (mm to cm and cm to m) and they have also been working out the perimeters of shapes. Towards the end of this week our focus has been on formal subtraction methods and using the inverse to check our answers.
In RE the children have been thinking about how we can be good stewards of Creation by looking after the World that God created just like he wanted us too. They have thought about the things they can do to protect the environment and also how they can care and show love for each other and for vulnerable groups.
In science the children have learnt all about the movement of all the planets relative to the Sun and have named and ordered them. Ask them about the planets and remind them of their mnemonics they wrote to help them remember the order of the planets. Here’s one: My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming PLANETS. Can they remember some facts about the planets?
In geography the children had to find the latitude and longitude of our seven destinations through North and South America using an atlas.
In Spanish Year 5 we have played games to recap the names of 2D shapes and colours and they learnt some new vocabulary to do with position and direction.
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Evie
Writing Award - Kourtney
Maths Award - Nevaeh
Year 5 Star Winner -
Next week, we would normally have our teacher parent meetings but due to restrictions we are unable to do so face to face. Instead, next Friday you will receive a mid-term report for your child by email. If you need to contact me regarding your child’s report, I will be available that day. My class email address is : year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk
Another great week Year 5, we hope you have a lovely weekend with your families.
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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It has been another lovely week in Year 5 and we continue to be so proud of how hard the children are working. I’d also like to say thank you and a big well done to those children who have sent their story telling videos in for their Reception buddies, they are going to love them! I also want to say thank you to Lila, who treated us this week to sharing her talents by playing her guitar for us. Well done Lila!
At the moment we are unable to have our whole school assemblies and so at the start of this week Miss Haggerty sent the children a special video message. She reminded the children that the month of October is a very special month for Mary, Jesus’ mother. She then challenged the children to pray the Rosary every day this week in honour of Our Lady and also to offer it for the Pope’s intention. The Pope has asked that we say a special prayer this month for our environment. So, each day this week we’ve had a different prayer leader to lead us all in saying ten Hail Marys.
Our Learning this week…
In English this week the children completed their stories in the style of Jeremy Strong and have worked hard to edit and improve them to ensure they contain the features of his writing.
In maths the focus has been on time. The children have been converting times between digital, 12 hour digital clock and 24 hour digital clock and also finding a time a given number of minutes or hours and minutes later. Some children still struggle to tell the time so please challenge your child to tell the time using analogue and digital times.
In RE the children have read the story of ‘The Fall’, about Adam and Eve, and have discussed Original sin and how this has affected all of us in our lives.
In science the children have been learning all about the movement of the moon relative to the Earth and have looked at the phases of the moon. They also made their own moon dial so that they can record the shape of the moon each night through October and record it on their lunar calendar.
In geography the children have been practising to find the latitude and longitude of places on a World map.
In computing the children found out about the Rovers that have been sent to Mars and have been learning about the difference between inputs and outputs and have explored how the size of RAM affects the processing of data. The children then played a game from NASA which allowed the children to explore a simulation of what it is like to programme a Mars Rover.
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Eliza
Writing Award - Lila
Maths Award - Kayden
Year 5 Star Winner - Kayden
Well done Year 5, keep up the great work and we hope you have a lovely weekend with your families.
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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This week Year 5 got the chance to meet their Reception buddies for the first time. They welcomed the children to school by writing them a lovely welcome letter and sharing with them a little bit about themselves. Although the children are only able to meet their buddies from a distance at the moment, already I can see what trusted friends and great role models they are going to be for them. It was so lovely to see how excited both sets of children were to meet each other - I hope to share some photos of their meeting soon.
As the “Buddy” role is a little different right now, we have been thinking of ways that the children can still be a good buddy without bursting our class bubbles. One idea is for Year 5 to be filmed reading a favourite story, one that perhaps they enjoyed when they were in Reception, which can then be played for Reception at story time. Many of Year 5 have already expressed how they would like to do this and so I have suggested that they should film this at home and then the video can be sent to me at our Year 5 email address (year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk) and I will pass them on to Miss Dixon.
Our Learning this week…
In English the children have begun to write their stories in the style of Jeremy Strong.
In maths the children have been focusing on mental strategies in multiplication and division. The children have been using doubling and halving to multiply and divide by 4 and they’ve been looking at mental strategies for multiplying by 20, 25 and 9.
In RE the children have answered questions on how the World began. In their responses they have considered the theological truths as written in the story of Creation from Genesis 1, but also they have looked at the Scientific Truths and have shown their understanding that one does not contradict the other.
In geography we have been learning about latitude and longitude and how this gives us the absolute location of places in the World. Ask your child to tell you what this is to see if they can remember. Next we will be using latitude and longitude to locate places on a map.
In science this week we have learnt about Earth’s orbit around the sun and have discovered how long it takes for the Earth to do this. The also discovered how it is the Earth’s tilt which gives us our Seasons.
Year 5 continue to do Yoga on a Tuesday with our visiting instructor Mrs Ward. This is such a lovely highlight of the week and allows for some much needed down time and an opportunity for us all to be calm and relax. Mrs Ward encourages the children to share how the mindful breathing and listening makes them feel and it’s so lovely to hear that many of them are using these techniques at home.
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Adam
Writing Award - Mia
Maths Award - Hallie
Year 5 Star Winner - Elliot
Just a quick note about the homework… Well done Year 5 for all the effort you are putting into completing your homework and reading and getting your diaries signed at home. The children have enjoyed seeing their points mount up for all their extra efforts and I thank parents for your support in this.
For your information, Bedrock now allow children to complete lessons daily and I can already see that many of Year 5 are logging in and completing more than the expected one lesson for homework, which is absolutely wonderful! Today Miss Evans and I were really impressed with the really high scores that the children were achieving in their lesson today and I know the children were extremely proud too!
Also, a reminder that each week we will have spelling and times tables tests. It’s really important that the children spend some time each week learning these. Unfortunately only a small handful of children are getting full marks in these.
Lastly, just a reminder that if there are problems accessing the home learning then please let me know as soon as possible by emailing me at year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk Thanks to those parents who have been in touch about this already.
Another great week Year 5, you all work so hard and get on so well that it’s such a pleasure coming into school and teaching you all! We hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly
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I can hardly believe we’ve been in school for four weeks already! It has been lovely and the children are all working hard and showing what good learners they all are. They’ve been collecting points for their great behaviour and hard work, both at home and at school, and Miss Evans and I continue to be impressed. Please do ask your child how many points they have managed to obtain this week, and in future weeks, to encourage them to strive for more.
As mentioned, points are also awarded for completion of their weekly homework and for their daily reading and getting their diaries signed, and I thank you for your support in this. All diaries are checked daily, regardless of whether they have read or not and reading bookmarks are updated at this time. Please ensure your child has their diary and reading book in school everyday - most children do but there are a small number of Year 5 who are missing out on collecting their points for reading because their diary is not in school every day.
Thank you also for your support in online homework over the last few weeks, I’ve been impressed with the scores I’ve seen so far and I’ve already noticed the children using vocabulary learnt through Bedrock. Most children have successfully completed all their weekly homework but there are a small number of children who have yet to complete some of the activities on Bedrock and Education City. Now the children are in Upper KS2, it’s really important that they are learning to organise their time to complete their homework in preparation for Year 6 and for High School. Please see the Year 5 homework page for details of this week’s homework. last
If there are problems accessing the home learning then please let me know as soon as possible by emailing me at year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk so I can support where needed. With infection rates rising and more restrictions being put in place, if we were to be put into a position where learning needed to take place at home due to self isolation or lockdown, these sites (amongst others) would be used for home learning. If this were to happen, communication would be established by email. I do have most of your email addresses but I will request your email by text if I haven’t got it. One last thing, as we no longer have face to face contact at the moment, if I need to speak to you regarding your child, I will contact you by email or by phone.
Our Learning this week…
In English the children have been planning their own episode for Ramona’s escape down the mountain using ideas from Jeremy Strong’s own story. The children have had some great ideas and they are already looking forward to writing their own episode next week.
In Maths we have been looking at place value in numbers with two decimal places and have had a go at writing our own “Which decimal am I?” cards for others to solve using the clues written by the children. They’ve also been multiplying and dividing numbers with up to two decimal places by 10 and 100.
This week in our Space topic, the children have been looking at how the rotation of the Earth allows us to have day and night. Ask your child to explain it to you, to see how much they’ve remembered.
In RE the children have discussed the Scientific view of how the World began and also listened to the Creation story from Genesis 1 (Theological view) and have made their own Creation wheel as a reminder of the story.
We had a really successful Computing lesson this week where the children learnt all about Binary coding that computers use to communicate with each other. The children found out that the Curiosity Mars Rover communicated back and forth with Nasa using this code. They have learnt how to read binary up to eight characters and understand that each one or zero is referred to as a bit. They then played a game on the computer where they needed to calculate binary numbers, knowing each digit is worth double the one that precedes it. It’s quite a challenging concept so I was really impressed with how quickly they understood this and they managed some really high scores.
In Bounce Forward this week, we discussed tough times that people go through and the resilient things we can do to help us get through them. Some of the children chose to share their own personal stories and I really was impressed with their openess and honesty. We talked about how important it is to talk to someone we trust and share how we feel when we’re going through a tough time, as a problem shared is a problem halved.
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Declan
Writing Award -Brodie
Maths Award - Olivia
Year 5 Star Winner - Molly
Another great week Year 5, keep up the great work! We hope you all have a lovely weekend with your families. Keep safe!
Mrs McVey and Miss Evans
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Year 5 are continuing to work hard and we’ve had an enjoyable week. Despite being out of school for so many months, the children have quickly settled back into school life and I’m very impressed with their great behaviour and how focused they are on their work. It’s also a pleasure to see how well the children get on and play together at playtimes. Your children are a real credit to you and our school!
Our Learning this week…
This week in English the children have continued to look at the features of Jeremy Strong’s writing. They have had a go at creating their own sentences with parenthesis indicated by brackets, dashes and commas and they’ve recalled one of the episodes of the story and included dialogue in their writing.
In maths the children have been thinking about mental strategies for adding and subtracting methods and they have challenged themselves to use the most efficient methods to be quick and accurate. Keep practising these at home!
In RE we have been discussing how the world began and have compared their own views against those of their learning partner.
In science we have begun our Space topic and have been looking at the shape of the Earth, Sun and Moon and have considered both direct and indirect evidence which proves this. We did a pencil and water experiment which demonstrated that although our senses (direct evidence) can be useful in Science, we also need to consider other evidence too. Ask Year 5 what examples of evidence there are that the Earth is spherical.
Our Computing topic this half term is all about the Mars Rover and this week the children have learnt about the automated motor vehicle and have explored how and why the Mars Rover transfers data. To get an idea of the distance that the Mars Rover had to travel, the children also researched the distance to Mars based on the length of other objects, such as the Eiffel Tower, the length of a blue whale , a football pitch and the Great Wall of China.
Today Year 5 have started their weekly PE sessions with a coach from BFC. The children have been put into two groups and each group will get one hour of PE with them. This half term the focus of the sessions are athletics.
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Jacob
Writing Award - Elliot
Maths Award - Isabella
Year 5 Star Winner - Sam
Great work this week Year 5, we’re very proud of you all! Have a lovely weekend with your families.
Mrs McVey and Miss Evans
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It has been lovely this week with all the children back together and our little Year 5 family bubble has got off to a great start despite the many changes to our routine. The children have all settled down into this new routine extremely well and are working hard. Keep it up Year 5!
Our award winners:
Golden Award - Isabelle
Maths Award - Jensen
Our learning this week…
In English we have begun looking at stories by the author Jeremy Strong. This week the children have read “This is not a fairy tale” and they have begun identifying the key features of his style of writing and have compared this to other extracts of his stories.
In Maths the children have been reading and writing 5-digit numbers and they have been ordering and comparing numbers using the < and > symbols.
In Science we will be learning about aspects of Earth and Space. This week the children have shared their existing knowledge of this topic and they took part in a Space quiz to to see how much they know already.
In Geography we have started our Latitude and Longitude topic and have begun by using atlases to locate countries in North and South America.
This week we have begun a resilience programme called Bounce Forward as part of our PSHE lessons. Bounce Forward, written by Lancashire Mind and Headstart, is a universal resilience programme, which has been designed to increase wellbeing and resilience in children across Blackpool. Bounce Forward will give the children the opportunity to improve and build up their resilience strategies and skills, in a practical and fun way. This week the focus was sharing information about themselves.
On Tuesday the children began Yoga sessions again with Mrs Ward who taught the children last year. The children have fully engaged themselves in this and it was a really enjoyable and relaxing way to end our afternoon. Mrs Ward was very impressed with how much the children had remembered about mindful bodies and mindful listening. This week she has challenged the children to spend some time each day collecting sounds from mindful listening. The children will be able to share these with her and the class next Tuesday.
Homework expectations
Reading
I’m really pleased to see that many children are reading regularly at home and getting their diaries signed. It is the expectation that Year 5 should read regularly (every night if possible) and parents please sign your child's reading diary each time they read so that they can collect their bookmark stickers. The children choose books from within their ZPD range and once these are finished they can quiz on their book and this helps us to assess their progress in reading. It’s so pleasing to see so many children completing their first few quizzes already. For each time your child reads three times in a week they will also receive a golden ticket which will be collected up and at the end of each half term we will draw out a reading champion. I want to see all of Year 5 receiving reading certificates and golden tickets in class!
Please note: To minimise risk, when a child brings back their reading book it is put to one side for at least 72 hours before they are put back onto the book shelf for another child to use.
Weekly homework
To keep us all safe, KS2 are now using online homework as we can no longer have English and Maths workbooks toing and froing between home and school. At the end of each week I will post the details of Year 5’s homework on the Year 5 homework page of this website and homework should be completed by the following Wednesday. The children have come home this afternoon with a reminder of their logins for Education City and TTRockstars and they also have a new login for a programme called Bedrock, which the children are now familiar with and have used in school (please see letter sent home today for details of the programme). Each week the children will be expected to complete at least one Bedrock lesson at home and another will be completed on a Thursday in school. The programme allows the children to complete a lesson every 48 hours so I would ask that they don’t do it on a Tuesday or Wednesday at home, otherwise they won’t be able to access it on a Thursday in school when it is timetabled. In addition to Bedrock, there will be tasks set on Education City and the children will need to prepare for a weekly times tables test (TTRockstars) and spelling tests. Laminated spelling lists have come home this afternoon so your child has a cleanable copy of the spellings to use at home and each week I will let you know, via the homework page which ones they need to learn for a weekly test. The tests will take place on either a Thursday or Friday. Please note that we are still assessing their spelling knowledge so once these assessments are complete, it may mean that some children will have different spellings to do.
Summary of this week’s homework can be found on the Year 5 homework page.
Well done Year 5, you’ve all worked hard this week. We hope you all have a lovely weekend and we’ll see you on Monday.
Mrs McVey and Miss Evans
If you need to contact me or have any questions/queries, please contact me on year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.
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Year 5 have made a great start to the year over these last three days and it has been lovely to see how well they have adapted to being back in school after such a long time. They really have worked hard over these last three days and I’m so impressed with their behaviour and how they’ve just taken it all in their stride. Miss Evans and I are so proud of them and are really excited to be working with them this year.
Your child will have come home with their reading book (with new ZPD) and diary. I’m so pleased to see so many have already read and got their diary signed last night. Well done Year 5, keep that up! Bookmarks and diaries will be updated next week and once we’re back in routine, these will be checked daily so please encourage your child to read regularly. Your child’s water bottle will also come home with them each evening to ensure that it can be washed and filled ready for the next day. Unfortunately we don’t have spares in school, or cups they can use, so it is important that they bring it in each day. The only other thing the children will need, unless they have a packed lunch, is their coat - school bags are not needed. Please ensure your child brings a coat each day just in case the weather changes over the course of the day - we will still want to get outside for some fresh air even if it is a bit cold or just a bit of rain.
PE days
Year 5 would usually start school swimming this half term but at the moment this is cancelled and will be up for review at half term depending on local advice. We will update you of any changes in due course.
Year 5 will need to wear their full PE kit on a TUESDAY and FRIDAY. On Tuesday we will have Yoga with a visiting Yoga teacher and on a Friday they will have Athletics with BFC coaches.
Homework
The only homework this weekend is reading. Weekly homework will be explained and set up from next week and I will let you know in my next blog what the expectation is.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend and we look forward to welcoming all the children back together on Monday.
Mrs McVey and Miss Evans
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