Monday 1st October

Year 6’s had a wonderful (if not tiring) time at Conway. I’m sure that when you mange to get them out of bed, you will find out about all the fun.

Year 5’s have had a fantastic time, and are now fully fledged pirate experts. Their presentations were absolutely brilliant, and of an incredible standard for children of this age. We would like to say a big thank you to all the year 5 parents for all your obvious time, support and commitment in helping your children with this project.

Circusology was amazing! We all wanted to run away and join the circus, but then we forgot we wouldn’t be able to come to school, and decided to stay!!

Now to this coming week!

Mrs Morgan continues to be away from school this coming week as she is recovering from an operation. Mrs Woodcock will take Mrs Morgan’s class and the usual class routines will continue to be in place. Please be assured that all members of the 5/6 team plan, evaluate and even sometimes deliver lessons together. Your child will always continue to receive a quality learning experience.

In Literacy this week, we will be starting a new narrative unit where we focus on comparing and contrasting work by significant children’s authors.
It would benefit your child in school if you could spend some time reviewing books by the same author and searching for similarities and differences. For example, How does Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’ differ from his classic ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’?
By the end of the week your child would have had the opportunity to…
Read stories by a significant children's author including a serialised class novel.
express their response with reference to other books they have read by the same author.
visualise a setting.
make predictions about plot and note story structure.
compare story openings and experiment with different types of opening.
As part of our weekly formative assessment all children will be assessed on the following…

Must be able to visualise a setting and make predictions about events that might happen there (discussion, questioning).

Should begin to write alternative openings for a familiar story using, for example, dialogue, description or an event (marking and feedback).

Could write alternative openings for a familiar story using, for example, dialogue, description or an event (marking and feedback).


In Maths we are moving on to general multiplication and division strategies. This is an area where we feel both year 5 and 6 children need practice. The government are now recommending that all children should know all of their times tables by the end of Year 4. We are finding that we have many children in year 5/6 who are still not confident with their table knowledge. This lack of confidence holds the children back in many other areas of their Mathematics, in particular their ability to be successful in answering mental maths questions.

Please, please, please spend any spare time you have working with your child on their times tables.

Here are some exciting websites you can use at home to practice and review their table knowledge. Some of these we use in school so your child will be familiar with them…
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/testtest.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/multiplication/mental/flash2.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/multiplication/mental/flash4.shtmlhttp://www.deltamicro.co.uk/primary_online/tablechant.html http://www.crick.northants.sch.uk/assets/Flash%20Studio/cfsmaths/Toolkit/Toolkit.htmhttp://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/index.html http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/interactive.htm These are the games that we play on the interactive whiteboard as warm-ups to our Math’s lessons.

Our topic work focuses on Lights, Camera and Action. This cross-curricular creative unit ensures that we get to teach/review English, Maths and Science learning as well as exploring Art, Dance, DT and Drama.

Last time we studied this unit, before Conway, the children made brilliant shadow puppets. We discussed Javanese shadow puppets, wrote our own mini plays, and performed these on the overhead projector. It also gave us the perfect opportunity to review our Science vocabulary for Transparent, Translucent, and Opaque.
How’s that for teaching Science, English and Design Technology in just one hour!!

This week the wonderful Pinhole Cameras (made for homework a few weeks ago) become a valuable resource. We will be analysing our Pinhole cameras (Camera Obscura) to find out exactly how they work and why. Then we will combine our Science topic on Lights and shadows by using our shadow puppets for a shadow investigation. Children will then construct a graph to show the results of their investigation.
Please can you get your children used to using comparative language for Science? For example, ‘The FURTHER from the light source the SMALLER the shadow. The CLOSER the light source to an object the LARGER the shadow.
Questions like this come up in the Science tests frequently so Practice makes perfect.

We are sending out another cry for help to ask for any torches you may have hiding at home. The study of light means that torches are needed, however they are a little thin on the ground in school.

Below is a list of websites relating to the Lights, Camera, Action topic that may help you support your child over the coming weeks.

Shadow Puppets

http://www.centres.ex.ac.uk/bill.douglas/Schools/shadows/shadows1.htm
Samples of shadow puppets from Java & the Far East

http://discover-indo.tierranet.com/wayang.html
Find out more about Javanese Shadow Puppets and picture the scene as you read the commentary of a show in action!

The Moving Image – General
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/10_11/see_things.shtml
http://www.centres.ex.ac.uk/bill.douglas/Schools/youth.htm
http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere_bio.html
http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/MAGIC_MACHINES_1.html
Many websites listed have ‘moving pictures’ & working models of early inventions

Camera Obscura
http://brightbytes.com/cosite/maplist.html
Do you have a camera obscura close to you that you could visit? Check here!
http://brightbytes.com/cosite/cohome.html
http://www.discoverypark.com/cameraob.html

http://www.precinemahistory.net/1400.htm
This is the ideal website for children to find out about key stages in the development of the Camera Obscura.

How to make a “Pinhole Camera”
http://users.rcn.com/stewoody/
http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/pringles_pinhole.html
Best site! Very clear instructions using a Pringles® can!

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/education/lessonPlans/pinholeCamera/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question131.htm


The children really enjoyed our introductory unit on Goodnight Mr Tom, and as we feel this has made such a positive impact, Dance sessions in PE for at least this half term will continue to be based on the book. We hope to create some interesting (if not emotional) sequences.

Have a great week! Until next time,

The Year 5/6 Team.