Welcome to a short, but extremely exciting year 5/6 blog this week!
Our Year 6 will be spending this week having loads of fun in Conway. They will arrive home on Friday absolutely exhausted, but bursting to tell you about all their activities. Staff accompanying year 6 will be Mr Barker, Miss Wright, Mr McGreal, Mrs Walker and Mrs Hemmings. Mrs Millington will be staying in school with the year 5’s.
Mrs Morgan isn’t well at the moment, so will not be going to Conway. We are all thinking of her, and wish her a speedy recovery!
Why should Year 6 have all the fun at Conway?
While they are away, Year 5 are having a PIRATE week.
During the week we will be finding out everything there is to know about Pirates, and while doing so, reviewing our learning in Literacy, Maths and Science. We thought that a ‘rich task’ such as this, would be the ideal opportunity to kick-start our new ‘creative curriculum’.
Listed here are just a few of the activities we will complete during the week.
Making sloops and Galleons.
Learning about Famous Pirates. Who should be the Captain?
Researching Famous Pirate flags, and making some of our own.
Creative writing, where we imagine what it would feel like to be a slave on a pirate ship.
What happened to pirates if they were captured?
Making our own Treasure Maps, and having fun working out the co-ordinates of buried treasure.
Learning about the different parts of a ship.
Making Treasure chests, and our very own ‘clay’ pirate coins.
Studying a fictitious inventory of a pirate’s chest.
Discussing how ships can be powered by the wind, and sailing ships of different sizes to see how quickly they move.
Reordering events in a Pirate timeline.
At some point during the week we would like to show the children the film ‘Hook’. We thought that this would be a perfect treat for our Pirate week, particularly as our creative topic is ‘Lights, camera and action.
On Friday morning all children will be presenting something they have found out about Pirates for their homework.
All children will bring home a copy of what they need to do for homework on Monday; however just in case a letter never makes it home, here is the task….
Year 5 Pirates Homework
Your homework this week is to get involved in some pirate research. This needs to be completed for this FRIDAY.
We will be exploring the world of a Pirate all this week in school, so you will get to learn lots of interesting Pirate facts.
At home I would like you to research a ‘Pirate’ area you find particularly interesting. For example, a possible area to research could be, Where in the World did Pirate’s sail?
Other possible research ideas could be focussing on…
How to speak like a Pirate.
Pirates of the Caribbean brief history, pirate laws, biographies.
Sunken Pirate Ships See what has been discovered on sunken pirate ships.
Famous Pirates.
The Women Pirates Mary Read & Anne Bonney.
Pirates! Facts and Legends history, biographies.
Treasure Island – The famous novel.
General Information about Pirates.
There are lots of other areas you could investigate, and we may even study some of them in school this week.
Once you have decided what you would like to research, you need to decide how to present it. You could decide to make a poster of facts or…
A powerpoint presentation
A song or a poem
A piece of writing. Story/Newspaper Report.
A drawing/diagram.
There are loads of other ideas for how to present your research, and any way you choose is fine by me.
Please make your presentation simple!
There will be no more than a couple of minutes for each person on Friday morning to present their research to the rest of year 5.
We do not need extra long essays or 10 page power points. Parents, I realise you are really busy, and a week is not a long time to complete this task, so a few key facts are fine!
Work needs to be in school for Friday morning at the latest in time for the presentations.
If you would like to work with other children and present together, this is fine.
Any questions, do not hesitate to come and see me.
I cannot wait to watch your fantastic presentations and hopefully learn some new facts!
Ahoy me hearties
Mrs Millington
Please note that there will be no Year 5 spelling test this week.
Here are a few links to some suitable pirate websites, that will support your child’s learning in school, and to help them research for homework.
http://www.piratehaven.org/~beej/pirates/ - Go to PORTS O’ CALL for good links & great pirate images!
http://www.inkyfingers.com/pyrates/ - pirates’ providence
http://www.inkyfingers.com/pyrates/ - some New England pirate biographies
http://www.piratemuseum.com/edwhoswh.htm - Who’s Who Aboard a Pirate Ship
http://www.inkyfingers.com/pyrates/ - History of Piracy
http://www.piratemuseum.com/edwhoswh.htm - Go to links on pirates, etc.
http://legends.dm.net/pirates/grainne.html - Grace O’Malley
http://legends.dm.net/pirates/blackbeard.html - Another great Blackbeard site!
http://www.redflag.co.uk/thomtew.htm - Thomas Tew
http://www.piratesinfo.com/ - pirate biographies
http://www.rochedalss.qld.edu.au/pirates/ - pirate site by kids!
Just in case the children haven’t had enough fun for the week, they will be watching and taking part in the ‘Circusology’ workshop on Friday afternoon. This workshop teaches children about circus skills, and also gives them a chance to get involved in circus life. Circusology will have some circus tricks/merchandise to sell, so your child may ask you for a couple of pounds on the morning of the show. (I know, more money!!!)
Our little Pirates will hopefully have an extremely fun, productive and swashbuckling week.
Until next week…..
The Year 5/6 Team.
Friday 21 September 2007
Saturday 15 September 2007
Monday 17th September
Now that we have finished our induction and assessment time we can really begin to get stuck into this years curriculum and start to have some fun (as well as learn an awful lot!).
Thank you to all those parents who attended the Conway meeting on Thursday, hopefully it will have answered any questions you had and put to bed any fears and worries.
We are really pleased this year that every single child in year 6 is attending the Conway Centre and we would like to thank you for your support in letting your child have this fantastic experience. I promise you will have sore ears after they have been home an hour as they will have so much to tell you. It really is an unmissable experience and we are thrilled that nobody is going to miss out this year.
If you could not attend the meeting please get your child to ask for the information that was given out on Thurday if it has not already been sent home.
I also know that the year 5's will be having a fantastic time while they are in school that week and have heard a rumour that pirates might be involved!
Your child may have come home last week and mentioned that they had a new teacher for ICT, this is Mrs Jackson and she will be carring out the ICT curriculum for year 5/6 this year.
She is stepping in to cover when Mrs Millington is out of school on a Wednesday completing her duties as Advanced Skills Teacher for the Local Authority.
Mrs Jackson will teach Mrs Millington's maths group in the first session of the morning and will then take each class in turn for ICT. Miss Wright and Mrs Morgan will teaching Mrs Millington's class when their classes are doing ICT. Very confunsing I know but we will get used to it!
If your child participated in the cycle training last week you should have received a consent form. This needs to be filled in and sent into school as the cycle teachers are taking the children out of school on Monday. If they do not have a consent form then they will not be able to go.
Now for the curriculum!
In literacy this week we will be concentrating all our work on the novel 'Goodnight Mr Tom'. We have been listening to the audio book and will start off the week by watching the DVD.
We will be covering lots of genres through the book such as news paper reports, diary writing, comparing books and films, narrative, non-chronlogical reports, film review and many many more.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/revision_bites/deduction1.shtml
http://www.kirklees-ednet.org.uk/subjects/english/resources/texttypes/nonchronreport.pdf
Maths
Your children have now been put into their maths groups, there are 4 groups taken by the 5/6 teachers and Mr Barker.
This year we have grouped the children according to the levels they achieved in the summer rather than in year groups.
All the groups will be starting the first topic of place value.
http://edhelper.com/place_value.htm
http://www.active-maths.co.uk/worksheets/2place/
http://tlfe.org.uk/numeracy/units/placevalue.htm
Science
Our science topic is 'How We See Things', we have put stickers in your child's diary asking for colourful sweet wrappers and tourches, please send in any you might have at home on Monday, thank you.
http://www.scienceyear.com/sciteach/index.html?page=/sciteach/bstl/ks2sc4/KS2sc4.html
http://www.bootslearningstore.com/ks2/eyesight.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/activities/see_things.shtml
Topic - Lights, Camera, Action
We will starting our topic this week which will include a lot of cross curriculur links and will incorporate lots of areas of the curriculum.
Your child may have told you that we have role play areas in each classroom which will help us include a lot of drama into the classroom.
We will be looking at movies and how they are made and also setting up our own businesses in teams for example production companies, cinemas, casting agencies etc.
The children have already started art work on this topic and we would appreciate any movies posters and adverts to be sent into school.
PE
As was mentioned last week the children will have 2 sessions of PE per week, gymnastics with Mr McGreal on Thursday and dance based on 'Goodnight Mr Tom' on Friday with their class teacher. Please ensure your child's PE is in school for both these sessions.
ICT
The children will be carrying on with the powerpoint presentations they started last week with Mrs Jackson.
Homework
We know you will be busy organising things for Conway this week so homework will only be sent out on Monday. You will get spellings to be tested on Friday and some science which involves you making a pin hole camera so if you have any emply pringles tubes please keep them.
Finally, the year 5/6 induction meeting will take place on Tuesday at 3.15pm, it will probably be in Mrs Millington's or Mrs Morgan's room, we hope to see you there.
Have a good week!
Year 5/6 Team.
Thank you to all those parents who attended the Conway meeting on Thursday, hopefully it will have answered any questions you had and put to bed any fears and worries.
We are really pleased this year that every single child in year 6 is attending the Conway Centre and we would like to thank you for your support in letting your child have this fantastic experience. I promise you will have sore ears after they have been home an hour as they will have so much to tell you. It really is an unmissable experience and we are thrilled that nobody is going to miss out this year.
If you could not attend the meeting please get your child to ask for the information that was given out on Thurday if it has not already been sent home.
I also know that the year 5's will be having a fantastic time while they are in school that week and have heard a rumour that pirates might be involved!
Your child may have come home last week and mentioned that they had a new teacher for ICT, this is Mrs Jackson and she will be carring out the ICT curriculum for year 5/6 this year.
She is stepping in to cover when Mrs Millington is out of school on a Wednesday completing her duties as Advanced Skills Teacher for the Local Authority.
Mrs Jackson will teach Mrs Millington's maths group in the first session of the morning and will then take each class in turn for ICT. Miss Wright and Mrs Morgan will teaching Mrs Millington's class when their classes are doing ICT. Very confunsing I know but we will get used to it!
If your child participated in the cycle training last week you should have received a consent form. This needs to be filled in and sent into school as the cycle teachers are taking the children out of school on Monday. If they do not have a consent form then they will not be able to go.
Now for the curriculum!
In literacy this week we will be concentrating all our work on the novel 'Goodnight Mr Tom'. We have been listening to the audio book and will start off the week by watching the DVD.
We will be covering lots of genres through the book such as news paper reports, diary writing, comparing books and films, narrative, non-chronlogical reports, film review and many many more.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/revision_bites/deduction1.shtml
http://www.kirklees-ednet.org.uk/subjects/english/resources/texttypes/nonchronreport.pdf
Maths
Your children have now been put into their maths groups, there are 4 groups taken by the 5/6 teachers and Mr Barker.
This year we have grouped the children according to the levels they achieved in the summer rather than in year groups.
All the groups will be starting the first topic of place value.
http://edhelper.com/place_value.htm
http://www.active-maths.co.uk/worksheets/2place/
http://tlfe.org.uk/numeracy/units/placevalue.htm
Science
Our science topic is 'How We See Things', we have put stickers in your child's diary asking for colourful sweet wrappers and tourches, please send in any you might have at home on Monday, thank you.
http://www.scienceyear.com/sciteach/index.html?page=/sciteach/bstl/ks2sc4/KS2sc4.html
http://www.bootslearningstore.com/ks2/eyesight.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/activities/see_things.shtml
Topic - Lights, Camera, Action
We will starting our topic this week which will include a lot of cross curriculur links and will incorporate lots of areas of the curriculum.
Your child may have told you that we have role play areas in each classroom which will help us include a lot of drama into the classroom.
We will be looking at movies and how they are made and also setting up our own businesses in teams for example production companies, cinemas, casting agencies etc.
The children have already started art work on this topic and we would appreciate any movies posters and adverts to be sent into school.
PE
As was mentioned last week the children will have 2 sessions of PE per week, gymnastics with Mr McGreal on Thursday and dance based on 'Goodnight Mr Tom' on Friday with their class teacher. Please ensure your child's PE is in school for both these sessions.
ICT
The children will be carrying on with the powerpoint presentations they started last week with Mrs Jackson.
Homework
We know you will be busy organising things for Conway this week so homework will only be sent out on Monday. You will get spellings to be tested on Friday and some science which involves you making a pin hole camera so if you have any emply pringles tubes please keep them.
Finally, the year 5/6 induction meeting will take place on Tuesday at 3.15pm, it will probably be in Mrs Millington's or Mrs Morgan's room, we hope to see you there.
Have a good week!
Year 5/6 Team.
Saturday 8 September 2007
10th September 2007
We would like to start this week by thanking all the children for coming back to school looking so smart and with with fantastic attitudes and behaviour.
We spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday getting used to school routines and getting to know each other.
This week will be spent assessing the children so that we have a clearer idea of what each child's targets are and how we can plan work so that the children achieve their full potential.
There will also be a lot of other activities going on this week.
Housekeeping!
This blogspot will be updated every weekend in preparation for the week ahead. We will include details of everything your child will be learning, ideas of how you can support your child and websites which can you can access at home to continue what has been learned at school. If there is anything which we haven't included and you feel would be useful, then please do let us know!
PE
PE in year 5/6 this year will take place on a Thursday and Friday, please ensure that your child's PE kit is in school this week as we will be starting.
Thursday's PE session will be taken by Mr McGreal and Friday's PE session will be taken by your child's class teacher.
Conway
There are still some outstanding medical forms for the Conway trip. We really can't stress how important it is for these to be sent in, we need to send them off to the centre as soon as possible so they can prepare themselves for our arrival.
On Thursday at 6.30pm somebody from the Conway Centre will be holding a meeting in school about your child's trip. This is your opportunity to find out what they will be doing while there and also to ask any questions about the centre.
Mrs Morgan will also be at the meeting, so if you need to ask any questions or are worried about anything then please do not hesitate to speak to her.
Cycle Training
We have been offered the opportunity for some children have cycle training, unfortunately there were only 12 places available.
To make the selection process fair we drew name from a hat.
If your child was selected you should have recieved a letter on Friday about it.
Your child will need their bike and helmet on Monday, for training which will commence at 1.15pm.
Obviously training on the Conway week will be cancelled but you should have all the other dates for the training on your letter.
Homework
Homework will begin next week for Year 5/6, although spellings will be sent out this week. Each week, your child will receive a set of spellings, which they need to learn for a spelling test on Fridays. We would also like them to use these spellings, to create a series of sentences, to develop their vocabulary, punctuation and sentence structure. They will also bring home a piece of numeracy and literacy to be completed on a weekly basis. Literacy and Numeracy will be given out on MONDAYS to be returned on THURSDAYS.
Science homework will be given out on WEDNESDAYS to be returned on TUESDAYS. We would ask that you sign and date your child's homework before they hand it in.
Year 5/6 Team.
We spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday getting used to school routines and getting to know each other.
This week will be spent assessing the children so that we have a clearer idea of what each child's targets are and how we can plan work so that the children achieve their full potential.
There will also be a lot of other activities going on this week.
Housekeeping!
This blogspot will be updated every weekend in preparation for the week ahead. We will include details of everything your child will be learning, ideas of how you can support your child and websites which can you can access at home to continue what has been learned at school. If there is anything which we haven't included and you feel would be useful, then please do let us know!
PE
PE in year 5/6 this year will take place on a Thursday and Friday, please ensure that your child's PE kit is in school this week as we will be starting.
Thursday's PE session will be taken by Mr McGreal and Friday's PE session will be taken by your child's class teacher.
Conway
There are still some outstanding medical forms for the Conway trip. We really can't stress how important it is for these to be sent in, we need to send them off to the centre as soon as possible so they can prepare themselves for our arrival.
On Thursday at 6.30pm somebody from the Conway Centre will be holding a meeting in school about your child's trip. This is your opportunity to find out what they will be doing while there and also to ask any questions about the centre.
Mrs Morgan will also be at the meeting, so if you need to ask any questions or are worried about anything then please do not hesitate to speak to her.
Cycle Training
We have been offered the opportunity for some children have cycle training, unfortunately there were only 12 places available.
To make the selection process fair we drew name from a hat.
If your child was selected you should have recieved a letter on Friday about it.
Your child will need their bike and helmet on Monday, for training which will commence at 1.15pm.
Obviously training on the Conway week will be cancelled but you should have all the other dates for the training on your letter.
Homework
Homework will begin next week for Year 5/6, although spellings will be sent out this week. Each week, your child will receive a set of spellings, which they need to learn for a spelling test on Fridays. We would also like them to use these spellings, to create a series of sentences, to develop their vocabulary, punctuation and sentence structure. They will also bring home a piece of numeracy and literacy to be completed on a weekly basis. Literacy and Numeracy will be given out on MONDAYS to be returned on THURSDAYS.
Science homework will be given out on WEDNESDAYS to be returned on TUESDAYS. We would ask that you sign and date your child's homework before they hand it in.
Induction meeting
We will be holding our annual induction meeting on Tuesday 18th at 3.15pm for parents of children in Years 5 and 6. We will be discussing all the issues that are important throughout the year, as well as giving you the opportunity to ask us anything that can help to support your child's learning. We look forward to seeing you there
Finally, your child should bring home their diary EVERY day for you to read and sign. This blogspot is a means of communicating activities and news for all of year 5/6, but the diary is an individual way we can inform you of your child's progress. It can be difficult to get your child to read aloud at this age, but you can still check their understanding of the text, by asking them questions about what they have read. We love reading your comments in the diaries and it gives your child a real boost to know that you are helping them in their learning.
Here's to happy week!Year 5/6 Team.
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