Year 5 Weekly Update – 18/11/22

Dear Parents,

What a fun start to our week, celebrating our uniqueness and differences by wearing odd socks. To celebrate ‘Friendship Week,’ we have focussed on the importance of friendship and the qualities that we value in our friendships. This year, the theme of the week is ‘Reach Out,’ we have discussed the trusted adults we can talk to if we are worried about our friendships or other people in our school.

This week Year 5 and Year 6 began rehearsing the songs that we will be singing in the Christmas Carol service at St Gregory’s.  Each child has been given the lyrics to all songs and we would like all children to learn these songs.

At the beginning of the week in English, we looked at the features of a diary entry. Then we worked in groups to act out scenarios between plague doctors and patients. We tried to include as many historical words and phrases relating to our topic.  Towards the end of the week we focussed on writing inside and outside sentences. The first sentence tells the reader the character’s outward actions. The second (placed in brackets) shows the characters true inner feelings. E.g. Moments later, I triumphantly retrieved a jar of leeches from my bag and held them aloft, as if this would be the magic cure. (I hoped that the leeches would be hungry, even though I had used them on another plague victim only yesterday.)

In Maths, we have finished our unit on ‘Multiplication and Division’ and have started our new unit on ‘Fractions,’ starting with looking at equivalent fractions.

In Guided Reading, we have started to read ‘Children of Winter’ by Berlie Doherty. This book is on the recommended book list that was sent out last week. If your child would like to bring in their own copy of the book they are welcome to. Please make sure their name is written in it. This week we have focussed on our retrieval and inference skills

Next week:

Maths: We will continue to find equivalent fractions of unit (1/5) and non-unit fractions (2/5). We will also be learning to recognise when fractions are equivalent.

English: We will be planning a diary entry as if we are a doctor visiting people who have the plague. E.g. who will we visit, what treatments we will give the patients and how the day went.

Guided Reading: We will continue reading ‘Children of Winter,’ we will be focussing on our prediction skills and looking at how the author used vocabulary for effect. We will also be learning how to improve our fluency and use of expression when we read aloud.

PSHE: We will be learning to explain what constitutes a healthy friendship, including online.

Support at home

Spellings: This week in our Spelling lessons we have been looking at how to use apostrophes for contraction and possession. In the spelling test, your child will be tested on the following spellings on Friday 25th November:

should have- should’ve

will not– won’t

you are-  you’re

would not-  wouldn’t

She has -She’s

could not- couldn’t

would have-    he’d

they had- they’d

they are-  they’re

you will-  You’ll

Your child will be tested on the contraction spelling (e.g. We will read out should have and they will write should’ve)

 

Times Table Rock Stars

Well done to all the children who participated in the TTRS England Rocks tournament this week. Please encourage your child to use TTRS for at least 10 minutes every day at home. If you need your child’s login details again, please speak to your child’s class teacher who will be more than happy to give you their login in details.

Reading

Please keep encouraging your child to read for twenty minutes daily, this can be independently or to an adult. The Reading Challenge has started and we are pleased to hear and see children are reading at home. Remember the first stop in the reading challenge is from London to New York!

Reminders:

Forest school:  5MG Tuesday, 5G: Wednesday

25th November – St Catherine’s Day Mass

We hope you have an enjoyable weekend,

Mrs Georgiou, Ms Groom and Mrs McDonagh