Literacy
Christmas recount
At the start of the half term all the children in class 5 received a letter from Santa. The children were so excited as he had remembered exactly what they had received for Christmas! Santa had a problem though as he didn’t know know what a traditional Christmas day looked like. He always drops off the presents and then leaves and didn’t know what happened after. He asked the children to write a recount of their Christmas day so that he could find out more.
Before the children wrote their recounts they practiced writing sentences with subordination (because, when, if and that) to add more detail and also time words to create flow in our writing.
Instructions
After completing our bunting the children wrote some instructions for others to follow. During this unit of work the children gathered new vocabulary for verbs to up level their writing, continued to work on subordination to add detail to their sentences and sentence openers to create flow.
Maths
Number and place value
At the start of the term we looked at representing numbers in different ways. This includes using different models such as the part-part whole model, a place value chart and a tens frame to draw numbers in different ways. The children also started to write numbers in words up to 100 but we need to continue practise this skills next half term.
The children then moved onto representing numbers onto a partially numbered and a blank number line. The children has to work out if the scale was counting up in 1s, 2s, 5s or 10s before they could work out the missing numbers.
Addition and subtraction
The children have worked extremely hard on their addition and subtraction skills this half term. We have been building up our skills to be able to use the column method efficiently. The children have explored this method by using equipment and drawing pictures to ensure that the skills are fully embedded and that they can explain how to use the column method for addition and subtraction.
Addition pictorial method and column
Subtraction pictorial method and column method
Multiplication and Division
In multiplication and division we have been recapping our methods to solve calculations. The method we use for multiplication is drawing arrays this for division is drawing sharing circles. After we had practised these skills we used them to answer word problems.
The next time we visit multiplication and division we the some children will be moving away from these methods and concentrating on using their multiplication facts to help them solve both multiplication and division calculations. In preparation for this it is really important that the children go on Times Tables Rockstars on a regular basis so that they can practise these skills.
Arrays
Sharing circles
2D and 3D shapes
To start our unit of work on shape we looked at vertical line of symmetry in 2D shapes and we also found right angles in both regular and irregular shapes. The children this vocabulary along with straight and curved sides and vertices to describe 2D shapes. The children then moved onto describing 3D shapes using the vocabulary faces (these are flat), curved surfaces, vertices and edges. Some children also began to compare shapes identifying their similarities and differences.
The children found describing 2D and 3D shapes using the correct vocabulary challenging so any addition practise at home would be greatly appreciated.
Telling the time
In class we looked at reading the times to the nearest 15 minutes and drawing the minute and the hours hands on clocks to present these times. Some children also started to investigate times to the nearest five minutes. We then moved onto duration of time. We looked at how many seconds in a minute, how many minutes in an hour, how many hours in a day and how many days in a week. We then used this information to order intervals of time. For example which is longer 75 minutes or 1 hour? Once the children were confident with this skill they used their problem solving skills to answer scenarios such as If Mrs Short left home at 3 o’clock and her journey took 1 hour, what time would she arrive at her destination?
Topic
Our topic this half term has been called ‘The Terrific Tea Party’. The children discussed their feelings about receiving presents at Christmas and wanted to make someone else feel the same way. They discussed who they wanted to make feel special and what they were going to do to treat them. They decided that Mrs Payne helped them in multiple ways at school and chose her as their special guest. They then discussed their ideas and decided that they were going to make bunting, cake stands and sweet treats for a tea party on world kindness day.
Before making our bunting we needed to investigate which materials would be the easiest to cut, wouldn’t fray and would be aesthetically pleasing. We also needed to investigate which materials would be strong enough to hold our bunting flags once they were completed.
Once we had decided upon the fabrics we were going to use it was time to cut out our templates. We has to use a ruler to accurately measure a triangle that was 15cm on each side. We all showed great resilience as we didn’t give up even when we found it challenging. We also had to cut out a template for the design we had chosen to put on the bunting.
We then needed to attach our designs to the bunting flag. We could choose either gluing, stapling or sewing.
Here is our finished bunting that we used to decorate the tea party!
Our next task was to design and make some cake stands for the tea party. First we gathered lots of cake stand designs and decided upon our favourites. We then discussed our designs as a group and then joined our ideas together to create a group design. We then add these designs to our cake stands.
We then had to investigate different techniques to join our cake stand pieces together. We tested flange, slots, stacking and L bends discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each technique. It was a unanimous decision and all groups decided to use the slot technique to join their cake stands.
Here are our finished cup cake stands. The children showed excellent team work skills by working through their problems without asking for any adult intervention.
The children worked extremely hard over several weeks to create this tea party. Mrs Payne was delighted and enjoyed every moment.
Science
In science this half term we have been looking at animals including humans. As part of this topic we have matched animals to their offspring, sorted animals that lay eggs and those that have live young and looked at the importance of exercise. We finished this half term off my completing four experiments to investigate the importance of staying clean. The children were all really engaged in these experiments and had lots of fun testing their hypotheses!
Religious Education
The main question for this half term was ‘Why are these times special?’ During this topic we looked at Easter and the different events during Holy Week, the Jewish festival of Passover, the Buddhist festival of Wesak and compared it to Christmas, Muslim weddings and how they differ from Christmas weddings and finally we looked at the Hindu festival of Rakhi where they exchange brackets as a symbol of love.
Physical Education
This half term in PE we have been taking part in dance lessons. The children have been really focusing on dancing in time to the music and choregraphing their own dances.
Next half term we will be learning about …
Credits:
Created with images by sunflair - "spring snowdrop flower" • TheoCrazzolara - "christmas christmas tree christmas ball" • Skitterphoto - "high tea food coffee" • _Alicja_ - "numbers counting numbers education" • Julia_S - "chalk chalkboard blackboard" • Ramdlon - "math number school" • geralt - "hexagons honeycomb hexagon" • geralt - "time clock alarm clock"