Wow! What a Knight!

Wow! Well done Year 5 (and Year 6) for all your fab performances! 'What a Knight!' was fantastic and we can't wait to see you taking the lead roles in next year's production!

Hands On Science!

On Tuesday 10th July Year 5 had a very engaging and practical Science lesson on 'Acids and Alkalis' with Mrs Madgwick, a Science teacher from the Cotswold School. Using indicator paper and a pH scale we investigated if 15 everyday household products (eg. shampoo, vinegar, milk) were acids or alkalis. It was a very enjoyable lesson and we learnt so much! 

Musication Workshop

We had a fantastic music workshop this afternoon with Nick and Ben from Musication. We learned so much about the saxophone and tuba. After some fun warm up exercises we explored pulse and tempo and learned about base lines and melodies in music. We then split into 2 groups, with one group composing the base line and the other the melody, and created our own version of 'Bare Necessities'.  All in less than an hour! Amazing!

What a Knight Costumes

What a Knight is full of traditional medieval, Arthurian characters, and there are countless films and books to draw upon. Chain mail, tunics, tights and dresses and you can’t go far wrong!

Roles	Suggested costume
Lester Lugabout	Tunic, tights, long boots, belt, lute or fiddle (if possible) hat
Earl Axminster Knights Watt Cobblers Squires Bernie Blackhead Ernie Blackhead Lord Dorking King Arthur Scratch the guard Guards Lords	Chain mail, tunic, tights, long boots, belt, sword Crown (King Arthur) *Black knight to wear a black tunic.
Queen Guinevere Princesses	Long dress with draping sleeves, material belt/tie for waist
Kitty Cobblers	Plain dull-coloured shirt, long dark skirt, long white apron, white maid’s hat
Maid Molly	Long-sleeved, long dress, dark in colour with white apron, white maid’s hat
Jolly Jake the Jester	Colourful jester tunic, jester hat with bells
Colin Calvin Keith Klein	Tunic, tights, long boots, belt – all with a ‘modern twist’ to show they are trend-setters, brightly coloured wig
Merlin the Magician	Long magician’s cape, magicians hat, wand, long white hair/beard
Dusty Dragon	Red Dragon suit/onesie

Gardening!

What gorgeous sunshine we had this afternoon as we helped to rebuild the Malvern Show garden! Come and see it on the grass beside the top playground.

Visit to Ortho D

Three children from Year 5 were very lucky to be invited to Ortho-D in Bourton-on-the-Water for a STEM workshop day. Ortho-D gave them a tour of the production and design areas as well as giving the children the opportunity to make bone cement which they used to perform a knee replacement! It was a superb morning which inspired them all. Are we looking at the next engineers or orthopaedic surgeons among our Year 5 children? We’ll have to wait and see!

Anglo-Saxon Day at Compton Verney

Year 5 had an amazing day outside in the Anglo Saxon settlement at Compton Verney. Everyone enjoyed making bread dough, lighting fires, playing checkers and building shelters. Many were surprised by the wattle and daub involving sticks and horse manure! We are so proud of the enthusiasm shown throughout the day, even though we all got very wet and muddy. A fun day had by all!

Bikeability

What a super start to our busy term! Well done to everyone who complete the Bikeability Level 2 course this week!

Communication Letter Summer Term 2018

Friday 27^th April 2018

Dear Parents/ Carers of Year 5 Pupils,

Welcome back! We hope you are well rested and ready for an action-packed term! We have already started this busy term with a fantastic week of ‘Bikeability Training’.

Summer Term Curriculum

Here is an outline of some of the areas of learning that we will be covering in class this term. 

Maths	Measure (time, volume, distance, perimeter and area) Geometry (angles, reflections and translations, 3D shapes) Roman Numerals Problem solving
English	Biographies and Autobiographies Play scripts Narrative Poetry SPaG
Science	Living things and their habitats Life Cycles
R.E.	Why is the Torah so important to Jewish people? What matters most to Humanists and Christians?
Computing	Spreadsheets
P.E.	Gymnastics Rounders and Cricket Swimming (after half term)
Topic (History, geog, art, D.T.)	Mysterious Remains Enterprise

How you can help at home

Homework – Please note change of day

Year 5 children will continue to have one Current Affairs homework weekly. However, as a change from last term, we will ask for it to be handed in on Tuesdays. The children will also receive a set of maths facts to learn every week. These will be tested on Fridays. In addition, the children will continue to learn a spelling rule each week. They will receive a list of spellings that follow this rule every Monday and will need to learn these for a weekly spelling test on a Friday.

Please find attached to this letter the half termly spellings the children need to learn at home (and what they scored when tested on these spellings recently). These will not be taught in lessons and will be tested at the end of the half term. Thank you for your support with this – it makes a big difference. If your child has any trouble with homework, all they need do is come and ask us (where possible before the due date).  It is also appreciated if you could help encourage children to take responsibility for their own homework.

Reading

Please continue to read regularly with your child. It is so important as children become more fluent with their reading that they understand what they have read. Please ask them questions about the characters and plot to check their understanding and encourage them to express their own opinions about a story/book. Please also encourage them to read aloud with appropriate intonation and expression, paying careful attention to punctuation marks used by the author.

Planners

Please could you check your child’s planner at the end of each week and sign the bottom of the page. Your child should take responsibility for asking you to check and sign it. The children will record their weekly spelling, times tables and maths facts tests scores in their planners. We will collect the homework planners each Friday.

P.E

The children will have a P.E. session on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Sometimes our timetable has to change so P.E. kit should be in school each day please. It would be useful for the children to have both outdoor trainers and plimsolls (or clean trainers) as part of their kit so that we can use both the hall and outdoors.

Planners and reading books

Please have these in school each day. Thank you.

Enterprise Project

We are hoping to run an enterprise project later this term. More details to follow.

Trip to Compton Verney

We are looking forward to our rescheduled trip to Compton Verney on Wednesday 2^nd May.

Please don’t hesitate to come and see us if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Michelle Parkin and Mrs Marika Hortop

British Science Week 2018

To celebrate British Science Week 2018 we spent the day doing a selection of fun Science activities. Our day started investigating if what’s inside a can affects how far it rolls. Working in groups, in the new school house, we had to plan and carry out a fair test to find out the contents of unlabelled cans.

We then carried out a polar explorer planning activity where we had to plan what food to take
on an overnight field research trip in the Antarctic. We had to ensure each member of our team got 3,350 calories over the 24 hours. We only had a budget of £60!

We finished the day using Scratch to debug (fix) and improve a programme to move the Autosub6000, a type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), around the ocean floor, while photographing the samples found.

Class Assembly

Thank you to everyone who joined us today for our class assembly. We hope you enjoyed the  carousel of activities, designed to demonstrate how much we have learned throughout our topic 'Lasting Legacies'.

Some of the activities included: drawing Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns, taking a democracy quiz, hearing facts about Greek theatre and having a go at reading Greek writing. Also on display were plates that had been made, designed and decorated by the children with an Olympic theme.

Well done Year 5!

Spring Term Communication Letter

Dear Parents/ Carers of Year 5 Pupils,

Welcome back and happy new year! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are ready for another busy term. Thank you very much for your kind messages, cards and gifts.

Spring Term Curriculum

Here is an outline of some of the areas of learning that we will be covering in class this term. 

Maths	Long multiplication Division (whole numbers) Different types of numbers Decimal numbers (reading, writing, ordering, rounding) Calculations involving decimal numbers (+ - x ÷) Percentages and fractions Word problems
English	Greek Myths Performance Poetry Stories from a different point of view SPaG Reading- our class text is ‘Journey to the River Sea’
Science	Properties of Materials and Changes of Materials
R.E.	What does it mean for Christians to believe that God is holy and loving? Christians and how to live: ‘What would Jesus do?’
Computing	Using the internet with discernment
P.E.	Dance and Gymnastics (Tuesdays) Invasion game skills (Thursdays)
Topic (History, Geog, Art, D.T.)	‘Lasting Legacies’ – learning about Ancient Greece DT – designing and making clay cups Anglo-Saxons

How you can help at home

Homework

Year 5 children will continue to complete a current affairs homework weekly. This needs to be handed in every Wednesday. They will also continue to receive a list of Maths facts to learn at home (every Wednesday) and these will be tested the following Wednesday. Your child will learn a spelling rule each week and will receive a list of spellings that follow this rule (every Monday) which they will need to learn for a weekly spelling test on a Friday.

If your child has any trouble with homework, all they need do is come and ask us (where possible before the due date).  It is also appreciated if you could help encourage children to take responsibility for their own homework. It is really helpful if you can encourage your child to complete their homework in a quiet place where they can fully focus.

The children will also be tested on a list of 15 half termly spellings at the beginning and end of each half term. We would appreciate your help in supporting your child in learning these tricky words. Please find attached to this letter the half termly spellings the children need to learn at home (and what they scored when tested on these spellings last week). These will not be taught in lessons and will be tested at the end of the half term. Thank you for your support with this – it makes a big difference.

Reading

Please continue to read regularly with your child. It is so important as children become more fluent with their reading that they understand what they have read. Please ask them questions about the characters and plot to check their understanding and encourage them to express their own opinions about a story/book. Please also encourage them to read aloud with appropriate intonation and expression, paying careful attention to punctuation marks used by the author.

Planners

The children need to use their planners to record their daily reading and their homework tasks. They will also record in their planners their spelling test score, their times tables club score and their maths facts score every week. Please could you check your child’s planner at the end of each week and sign the bottom of the page. Your child should take responsibility for asking you to check and sign it. We will collect the homework planners each Friday.

P.E

The children will continue to have their Thursday P.E. session with Jon and will also have an indoor P.E. session on Tuesday afternoons. Sometimes our timetable has to change so P.E kit should be in school each day please. As the weather is unpredictable it would be useful for the children to have both outdoor trainers and plimsolls (or clean trainers) as part of their kit so that we can use both the hall and outdoors. Joggers and jumpers may also be needed.

Planners, reading books

Please have all of these in school each day. Thank you.

Dates for your diary

Parents evenings – Tuesday 6^th February and Thursday 8^th February.

Poetry Performance – Friday 9^th February (2.45pm)

Class assembly – Friday 23^rd February (2.30pm)

Trip to Compton Verney – Friday 2^nd March

Please don’t hesitate to come and see us if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Michelle Parkin and Mrs Marika Hortop