November 2022
Despite the colder weather the class has been continuing full steam ahead with their learning.
Literacy
In Literacy, we have been learning how to compare and contrast. We have had our Venn diagram on our working wall and have been able to identify the similarities and differences between different creatures. The pupils loved adding their ideas.
In writing, we have been learning about character descriptions. The pupils have been able to create their characters and describe not only the characters' appearance but their personalities and how they move. "It was actually very fun. I liked creating my own characters" Adam
For Book week we worked in our school houses to create a myth or legend about the castle of our house. We have been able to submit these and they will be added to a Maidenhill myth and legend storybook.
The pupils are now confident with their daily comprehension and have continued to complete their TaskMats and explore the different question types. "I like the TaskMat because you do Read and Understand 1 and after that we have free choice to pick any other task boxes to organise and complete our comprehension." Finlay McE.
Numeracy
Some of our pupils have been working hard to follow DMAS which is the order we follow when solving different calculations starting with divide, multiply, add and subtract. They have been able to not only solve their calculations but create their own for their peers. "I liked DMAS because there was a specific way you had to work it out and the order of operations was fun to be able to use to work out the questions." Finlay McE
"I liked that DMAS had all the operations and sometimes I found the division hard so I liked that I got to practise this." Janvi and Cameron.
Some of our pupils have now moved on to learning about time and using this to follow schedules and plan for different activities. The pupils have been answering questions about different train times and bus schedules which as you can imagine is a very useful skill for real life. If you are wanting to help support this at home you can look at schedules such as TV timetables and ask how long until something is shown or how long an episode would last or how long until it will end.
We have had a lot of recent practise with our times' tables and division facts with one of our groups focusing on this a lot. They have been finding different ways to help support their recall of these facts. For any pupil frequent practise of this at home will continue to help their mental maths.
We have also been exploring 3D objects, identifying their properties and discussing where they can be found in our environment and why some objects are used over other types. The pupils have been making their models, identifying how many edges, vertices and faces the objects have. "I liked making the objects because we could make cubes and triangular pyramid." Ethan.
PE
This block has been focused on indoor athletics. The primary 5s have been improving their agility and stamina by engaging with the different stations. We have used this as an opportunity to work with people in the class we normally wouldn't work with along with helping and challenging each other.
"I liked that we got to do it with other people that weren't in our friend group because we got to interact with other people in the class." Murray.
"I liked that we had stations because we had a choice of what we could choose." Zander.
Roman Inventions
We have been learning about Roman inventions and how they have impacted and inspired our lives today. We were able to use what we have learned to try and make our Aqueducts out of cardboard, tinfoil and sellotape. We worked as a group and were judged on three categories: structure, teamwork and appearance. We got to test the Aqueducts and see which one managed to successfully transport the water. The team that won received three house points each!
"I liked that we got to make the model of the aqueducts and that we got to test them out." Noor.
"I liked that we got to learn about what the Romans invented." Fatima.
"I liked creating the posters because we got to learn a lot of facts about what they built and invented like tools, aqueducts, concrete, arches etc." Zander.
"I liked getting to see the water flow down our aqueducts." Adam.
