After a well-earned rest, Year 5 have returned with a fantastic attitude to learning. Children have been focussed, engaged and have asked lots of questions about our new learning in different subjects. Below is a snapshot of our current learning journey. This way, you can chat to your child about their learning in school (and maybe continue this learning at home, too).
Writing
For the first three weeks, the children will be learning all about the features of a persuasive letter, ready to write their own. Our letters will be inspired by our class novel – Viking Boy (by Tony Bradman). Gunnar has sadly lost his father, who was unfairly taken from him by the evil Skuli. Gunnar needs to plea to the gods for his father to return, but will his (our) letters be successful?
Reading
We’ve been using the first chapter of our class novel as our focus text this week. The children have used retrieval and inference skills so far. These have helped us learn more about the characters and the parts they may play later on in the story.
Help at home: Please continue reading regularly at home. The children have regular opportunities to read aloud in class, so reading at home will only boost confidence further!
Maths
The children are currently learning short multiplication. So far, we’ve looked at different strategies to help calculate tricky multiplications: partitioning and column multiplication. Here is an example of partitioning:
17 x 3
10 x 3 = 30
7 x 3 = 21
30 + 21 = 51
Help at home: Please keep practising times tables regularly at home. This learning can be really slowed children if children can’t recall their times tables facts quickly. Times Table Rockstars is a great platform for some quick, effective practice.
Topic
This half-term, we’re comparing two periods of history that happened at the same time, but in different parts of the world.
The Vikings (their impact on the UK) and the Ancient Islamic Civilisation
So far, we’ve looked at who the Vikings were. Here’s some points from class research:
Viking was an old Norse word, meaning pirate raid – Emily M
The Vikings were farmers, explorers and fierce warriors – Elara
They originated from Scandinavia, which is made up of Norway, Denmark and Sweden. – Kiara
Science
This half term, we’re studying chemistry (properties of materials). Today, the children tested a variety of materials to see if they were electrical conductors or electrical insulators. The results were surprising to say the least!
