Year 5

Year 5 has been filled with mathematical reasoning, artistic creativity, geographical discovery, and much more this week. In geography, we embarked on a fascinating journey exploring El Salvador, delving into its unique culture and comparing its trade dynamics with the imports and exports of the United Kingdom. We found that the climate has a significant impact on the country’s trade. In English, we delved into the captivating world of poetry with the discovery of a new piece called "The Listeners." As we began to dissect its narrative, we also laid the foundation for an upcoming project - crafting a newspaper report that will encapsulate the essence of the poem. In art, creativity flourished as our students constructed willow-framed looms for their final art piece. They cannot wait to bring their vibrant plans to life using yarn next week. Meanwhile, in science, we explored the properties of materials, pondering over which ones might serve as effective sound conductors or insulators. The children put their scientific minds to work by designing a test for suitable materials to make ear defenders for Camp Bestival visitors. Finally, in mathematics, the week culminated in a thorough exploration of multiplying fractions, including mixed numbers, by integers. We used partitioning as a useful method for challenging calculations such as three and five-sixths multiplied by seven.

  

Key Messages

• Key vocab: senses, newspaper report, improper fraction, mixed number, willow, El Salvador, sound insulator.

• KIRFS: Recall of all factors of any given number up to 50

• Spellings: Homophones and near homophones

• Homework: Please ensure children complete their maths homework, spelling practice and reading each week, ready to be checked on Mondays. 

• Here are the slides for the Hooke Court meeting earlier this week.

Year 6

We can’t believe we have completed four weeks of this half term and only have a week to go. We have learnt so much and worked so hard. This week our setting descriptions have focused on us using effective verbs, powerful adjectives and a range of sentence structures. We included ‘adjective pair’ sentences and here are some of our examples: 

The sand - warm and golden - warmed my feet. 

The island - welcoming and exotic - stood alone in the middle of the ocean. 

The forest - dense and mysterious - held onto the secrets of many. 

Next week, we will be writing character descriptions about a character we have yet to meet in Kensuke’s Kingdom! In our reading lessons we have been focusing on interpreting poems and looking in detail at the language choices made my poets. We have read, enjoyed and picked apart a poem by Thomas Hardy called Throwing a Tree, 

Our science topic has continued to make us go ‘wow’! During our latest lesson, we used prisms and torches to help us see how white light is made up of the seven colours of the visible spectrum. We drew scientific diagrams and wrote detailed explanations of how we see things of different colours. We had interesting discussions about the science behind how rainbows are formed and why the sky looks blue (most of time). Thanks to those of you who came along to our open classrooms on Wednesday. It was lovely to see so many of you and we hope you enjoyed looking at your child’s work and achievements. We will send the recent set of completed SATs papers home next week for you to take a look at with your child. Just a reminder that we break up for half term on Thursday 8th February.

  

Key Messages

• Key vocab: shadows, characters, descriptions, printing, evaluation, integers, compliments, exchanging 

• KIRFs: square and cube numbers 

• Spelling rule: plural nouns

• Please make sure the children bring healthy snacks for breaktime

• Reading diaries and homework will be checked on Monday

• The next instalment of £150 for PGL is due February 28th