Sunday, 19 October 2008

Week Beginning 20th October 2008

Hi everyone, welcome to the last week of this half, where has the time gone?!

This week we will be holding our first parent's evenings of the year, this year they will take place on:-
Monday - 1.30pm - 3.30pm
Tuesday - 3.30pm - 5pm
Thursday - 3.30pm - 5pm

You should have received your appointment time on Friday. Appointments are 10 minutes long and we do try to stick to this time limit.

As this is the last week of the half term we will be assessing and reviewing a lot of the work we have done so far.

Literacy

This week in literacy we will be joining together what we have learned during our topic on journalistic writing and we have learned in our history topic of the Greeks.
We will be reading some Greek myths and we will then turn the story into a news paper report.
After spending Monday reading the myths, the children will then be allowed to choose their favourite one and write a newspaper article on the main event in the myth.
This writing will then be entered into the Primary Art Network book which travels around all the schools in the network so that all the other children and teachers can have a look at the work we have done.
The children are already quite familiar with a lot of the Greek Myths so Monday will be spent reading and reviewing the ones they know in order for the children to make their choice.

Have a look at these websites to refresh your memories on the Greek Myths:-

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/carolrb/greek/greek1.html
http://www.mythweb.com/
http://www.museumnetworkuk.org/myths/
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/englishC2.htm


Numeracy

In numeracy this week all the groups will be assessed on what they have learned so far. The assessment will be done in the first part of the week so that we can revisit anything that we feel we need to in the rest of the week.
Please see previous blogspots for what we have done so far and websites to help.

Science

We reviewed our topic on reversible and irreversible change last week, this week we will be starting a new topic of micro organisms. The children have already had an insight into this topic from their homework last week.
This week the children should learn that there are very small organisms called micro-organisms which can be harmful and that scientific ideas about diseases are based on evidence.
Try these websites:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/activities/micro_organisms.shtml
http://www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk/curriculum/Science.htm
http://www.mikecurtis.org.uk/ks2_micro_organisms.htm

Here I Am

This week in Here I Am we are on the relate section of the topic and we will be learning what is
required of a candidate for Confirmation.


Topic

This week in our Greek topic we will be using it to work on our newspaper reports and to do some artwork on Greek Myths to include in the Primary Art Network book.

There will be no homework this week as it is parent's evening and it is also the last week of the half term.

Thanks for visiting the blogspot.

Year 5/6 Team.

Sunday, 12 October 2008

Week Beginning 13th October 2008

Hola amigos!

Welcome to Spanish week.

This week we will be learning a lot about the Spanish language and culture.

On Monday this week it is our annual open day. The school will be open to visitors between 9.30am and 2.30pm, feel free to come in and have a look around.

This week in literacy we will become language detectives. We will use our knowledge of language and familiar stories to learn more about the Spanish language. We will read some well know fairy tales in Spanish and then try and translate them into Spanish.
If you want a preview of the stories have a look at this website:-
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/languages/default.htm

In numeracy this week Mrs Morgan’s and Mr Barker’s group will be looking at handling date.
We will learn to group discrete data in equal intervals, construct a grouped frequency table, and draw and interpret bar graphs.

Miss Wright’s and Mr Slavin’s groups will be looking at fractions and then also learning about handling data.
They will order fractions on a numbers line and learn to interpret bar graphs.

In our topic time this week we will be studying Spain. We will study Spanish language, art, culture, food and dance.
We will be learning how to talk about the weather in Spanish and also review talking about our families.
We will use the laptops to research Spain and it’s culture and find out about Spanish dancing.
We will discover what food is popular in Spain and do some food tasting towards the end of the week.
We will also look at some Spanish artists, Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.
Take a look at these websites:-
http://www.paintingiant.com/
http://www.paintingiant.com/artists/francisco-goya.html
http://www.villaspeople.com/spain/stories/villas-in-spain---pablo-picasso--salvador-dali.html
http://www.top-tour-of-spain.com/francisco-goya-biography.html


Hasta luego

Year 5/6 Team

Saturday, 4 October 2008

Week Beginning 6th October 2008

Hello and welcome to this week's blogspot.



We have been hearing all week about the fantastic time the Year 6's had a Conway and we are glad that they were not too tired to work hard last week!



Homework

Just to clear up a few issues with homework. At the Year 5 induction meeting some parents thought that the children writing sentences to go with their spellings was too much to do as well as their literacy homework. It was decided that if parents felt their children learned their spellings easier by putting them in context then to do the sentences if they didn't feel the need to do that then to leave the sentences and learn the spellings.

We do feel that it helps the children understand the words they are learning better by putting them in a sentence but realise that the children have lots of homework throughout the week.



Curriculum.



Literacy

We have now finished our unit on poetry and the children ended the unit by writing some fantastic poems of their own, we were amazed at the quality of some of their writing.



This week we will be starting a unit of work on journalist writing. If you have any suitable newspapers at home from the weekend then please do send them into school.

We will start the week by looking at fact and faction, the children will be recognising techniques used to argue, persuade, mislead and sway the reader. Use techniques of dialogue to explore issues. Explore fact and fiction and the fact that things written in some newspapers are not always face.



Try these websites:-

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/englishD9.htm have a look at the features of newspapers.

http://www.headliners.org/?gclid=CNums_C0jZYCFRg1Zwodqw68Fg children's news site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/revision_bites/non_fiction1.shtml





Numeracy



This week Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's group will be looking at 2-shapes. We will be using the terms 'parallelogram', 'rhombus' and 'trapezium' and begin to know their properties. We will be classifying quadrilaterals, using criteria such as parallel sides, equal sides and equal angles.
By the end of the week the children:-
MUST be able to recognise parallelograms, rhombus and trapeziums.
SHOULD be able to discuss the properties of these shapes.
COULD be able to draw these shapes by listen to their descriptions.

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be using fraction notation, including mixed numbers, and the vocabulary 'numerator' and 'denominator', changing improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa, recognising when two simple fractions are equivalent.

Science

This week we come to the end of our topic on reversible and irreversible changes. We will be completing an end of unit assessment and review all the work we have done in this topic.

Here I Am

We are also coming to the end of the topic Myself. We will be completing assessments on what we have learned during this topic and linking all our learning together.

PE

The children did PE outside this Thursday even though the weather was so bad. It would be a good idea if the children could bring outdoor PE kits into school in case we have to do PE outside in future. Thank you.

Topic

This week we will be looking at Spartans. We will be looking at the life of a young Spartan solider and how that compares to our life today. See previous blogspots for Greek websites.

On Wednesday Mrs Morgan will be taking 11 of our year 6 children to Evelyn Street Primary School to work with some of their children. Evelyn Street have had the mini laptops in their school for a while now so they are going to train our children to use them and then the children will pass that knowledge on to the rest of year 6.

We also have someone coming in from MGL this week to work with some of the children making podcasts and radio shows.

We would also like to say congratulations to Mrs Millington and her husband Mark on the birth of their new baby boy Oliver. We send them all our love and best wishes.

Thanks for visiting the blogspot.

Year 5/6 Team.

Sunday, 28 September 2008

Week Beginning 29th September 2008

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's blogspot.

We welcomed our Year 6's back from the Conway Centre on Friday, very tired and suntanned! They had a fantastic time and I'm sure they have been very tired this weekend. Their behaviour was fantastic and the staff at the Conway Centre always comment on how well the children from St. Vincent's behave, this year was no exception and again the staff were really impressed. Well done children you were a credit to yourselves, our school and your parents.

Our 5's had a great time in school learning about space and all that it entails, they were really interested in this topic and directed their own learning around what they wanted to know. Thank you to the children for completed their homework presentations in such a professional way. We really enjoyed them and learned a lot, we were very impressed with the effort that had gone into to them. Thank you.

We would also like to thank you for all the generous donations for our Harvest Festival. We will be holding Harvest Festival Mass in school on Tuesday morning at 9.10am. Feel free to join us but please remember as always space is limited.

This week we all get back together and continue with our curriculum for this half term.

Literacy

We are continuing with our poetry theme this week. The children have read and responded to lots of different poems by Pie Corbett and Valerie Bloom.
This week they will be learning to:-

Understand different ways to take the lead and support others in groups.
Make notes on and use evidence from across a text to explain ideas. Compare different types of poems and identify how they are structured.

Compare different types of poems and identify how they are structured.
Experiment with different poetry forms and styles to write their own poems. Adapt non-narrative forms and styles to write poetry.
Adapt sentence construction to achieve different effects.
Use ICT programs to present texts.
Perform a poem making use of dramatic conventions.


There is a lot to get through this week but basically the children will be using what they have learned in the previous week to write, improve and inform their own poetry.

Numeracy

This week in numeracy Mr Barker and Mrs Morgan's group will be consolidating knowing by heart the division facts up to 10 x 10., using the relationship between multiplication and division to multiply and divide mentally.
Express a number as a fraction or a decimal rounded to one decimal place and consolidate rounding up and down after division.

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's group will be concentrating on similar objectives but will be looking at at having a remainder after dividing instead of expressing it as a fraction or decimal.

The children will also have some numeracy word lists stuck into their diaries this week. The lists look similar to the High Frequency Words lists. The words are to be used to help the children understand the language of mathematics. The children will be focusing on 3 words a week and will have to be able to read and understand them.
A good website to help with this is:-
http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/

Science

We will be continuing our topic of reversible and irreversible change. This week we shall be baking some bread to help us understand how a new material is formed after an irreversible change.
Why not try baking some cakes or pancakes at home to help demonstrate this?

Topic

Our Ancient Greek topic this week will focus on looking at understanding how the physical geography of Greece affected how the Ancient Greeks settled.
Find out about the past from a range of sources of info. Ask &d answer questions about the past, selecting relevant info.

We will be looking at the physical geography of Ancient Greece and modern Greece.
Try these websites to help:-
http://www.ancientgreece.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ancientgreece/main_menu.shtml

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/greece/athens.htm

PE

Last week the Warrington Wolves coaches had to cancel the Year 5's first sessions of Tag Rugby training.
We are assured that they will be in school this week to start the children's training on Wednesday afternoon.
On Thursday the children will be continuing with their Ancient Olympics theme.

That's it for another busy week in Year 5/6.

Until next week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Saturday, 20 September 2008

Week Beginning 22nd September 2008

Hi everyone,

Well this week is the week our Year 6s head off for a fantastic week at the Conway Centre! If you are reading this children please do not drive your parents up the wall this weekend with your excitement, I'm sure they are already very jealous of all the fun you are going to have at the centre and there is no need to rub it in, I know I am really envious of all the fantastic activities you will do while there. Please make sure you get loads of sleep over the weekend you will definitely need it.

Mr Barker, Miss Wright, Mr Slavin and Mrs Walker will be accompanying the children to the centre and we thank them for giving up their own time and families to make the trip possible.

Mrs Morgan will be staying at school this week with the Year 5's, just because we are not going to the Conway centre this week doesn't mean that we can't have just as much fun back at school, we are going to have an out of this world time!!

This week we are going to take on theme of SPACE. There are lots of activities planned for the children around this theme and we will have a great time while also learning at lot.

We will be making are very own 3d planets, designing our own imaginary planets, making leaflets for aliens and writing our very own planet poetry.

Homework this week will take the form of a presentation to be completed by Friday. They can choose any of the planets in the solar system to complete their presentation on. They should look at the size of the planet, it's landscape, distance from the sun, climate, moons etc.
They can choose how to display their work, whether it be a powerpoint presentation, some art work or a model, it's up to them to decide.
Try these websites:-
http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/cyberhunts/solar_system/sosystem.htm Key Stage 2 –5E – Earth, Sun and Moon – A cyberhunt for children.
www.scienceyear.com/parents/school_pack/ks2.html
www.engineeringinteract.org/teachers5.htm
www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/teacher/science.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/activities/earth_sun_moon.shtml
http://www.engineeringinteract.org/teachers5.htm

This week in maths we will be focusing on Area and Perimeter. We will be learning to understand area measured in square centimetres. Understand and use the formula in words 'length x breadth' for the area of a rectangle. Understand, measure and calculate perimeters of rectangles.
Try these websites to get you started:-
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/perimeter_and_area/index.html
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/mathsE4.htm
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/mathsE4.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaU1eX_DPkY&feature=related Perimeter and area songs on teacher tube, please supervise your child if they are going to use this link at not all the videos on youtube should be accessed by children.

In PE this week the children will be doing some dance work on the planets.
Warrington Wolves will be coming into school to work with the children playing tag rugby. They will start this week on Wednesday and will come in for the rest of the half term every Wednesday afternoon. Please ensure that your child has their PE kit in school at all times.

On Friday this week it will be non-uniform day for the Harvest Festival. The children can come into school wearing non-uniform clothes and we ask that they bring an item for the Harvest Festival. Thank you.

That's the end of this weeks short blogspot, we hope are Year 6 have a great time at Conway.

Year 5/6 Team.

Sunday, 14 September 2008

Week Beginning 15th September 2008

Hi and welcome to this week's blog.

We have now finished our induction and assessment period in school and this week will embark on the Year 5/6 curriculum.

Dates
This week we will be holding our annual induction meetings. This year we have decided to do two different meetings for Year 5 and 6 as the issues in each year group is different.
Our Year 5 induction meeting will take place on Tuesday 16th September at 3.15pm and our Year 6 induction meeting will take place on Wednesday 17th September at 3.15pm, we look forward to seeing you there.

On Thursday 18th September at 3.30pm somebody from the Conway Centre will be coming into school to give a presentation on to the parents of our Year 6 children about their visit to the centre. Staff will also be at the meeting and there will be the chance for you to ask any questions you may have.

Curriculum

Literacy
In Literacy this week we will be looking at Poetry and in particular to the power of imagery in poetry.
We will learn to understand what personification means.
Compare how writers from different times and places present experiences and use language. Understand how writers use different structures to create coherence and impact.
Select words and language drawing on their knowledge of literary features.

Try these websites to remind you of the different features of poems.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/poetry.shtml revision on poetry features.
http://www.poetryteachers.com/ a selection of poems.
http://www.gigglepoetry.com/ a collection on humorous poems.

Numeracy
The children will be put into their numeracy groups this week. There will be four groups taught by Mr Barker, Mr Slavin, Miss Wright and Mrs Morgan.
This week as it's the first week all the children will be starting the week with a times tables test.
They will then go onto looking at place value.
Mr Barker and Mrs Morgan's groups will be multiplying and dividing whole numbers and decimals by 10, 100, 1000
By the end of the week they..
MUST be able to multiply and divide whole numbers by 10, 100, and 1000.
SHOULD be able to multiply and divide decimal numbers by 10, 100 and 1000.
COULD multiply and divide whole numbers and decimal numbers by 10000 and 100000.

Miss Wright and Mr Slavin's groups will be learning to read and write whole numbers in figures and words and know what each digit represents. They will use the vocabulary of ordering numbers including the symbols < > and =.

Try these websites for some practice.
http://edhelper.com/place_value.htm
http://www.active-maths.co.uk/worksheets/2place/ ordering whole numbers.

Here I Am
Our Here I Am topic is Myself. At the beginning of this topic we will be looking at the qualities the children have or would like to have and what God is like.

Topic
Our topic this term will be the Ancient Greeks, we thought this would be a fitting topic having watched the Olympic games over the summer.
The children have already completed some research at home to get them started with the topic and this week we will be correctly sequencing periods in history including Ancient Greece.
Placing events people and changes into periods of time. Using dates and vocabulary relating to the passing of time, including ancient, modern, BC AD century and decade.


Here are some Ancient Greek websites to arose your interest.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ancientgreece/timeline/index.shtml
http://www.ancientgreece.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ancientgreece/main_menu.shtml
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/greece/athens.htm

PE
The children started their PE lessons last week. They are completing work on Ancient Greek Olympics and a unit of work on Greek dance.
Could you please ensure that your child has their PE kit in school at all times, there were 8 children in one class without PE kits this week! If children do not have their PE kits this week they will miss golden time. PE is a required part if the curriculum and it's also crucial to children's physical development.

That's all for this week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Friday, 5 September 2008

Week Beginning 8th September 2008

Hi everyone and welcome to a new school year!

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!

Please ensure your child brings a coat to school, we have had a number of children with no coats last week and with the weather being so bad they really do need one. Thank you.

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 Mrs Morgan 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 18th September at 3.30pm 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.
Teachers 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 them.

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.
A research homework sheet did go home this week. We sent this home in preparation for starting our topic of the Greeks. This is not a formal, assessed piece of homework we just though it would be better if the children have a bit of background information before we start the topic. There are suggested websites on the sheet for you to have a look at this week.

Induction meeting
We will be holding our annual induction meetings on Tuesday 16th at 3.15pm for Year 5 parents and Wednesday 17th at 3.15pm for Year 6 parents. We have decided to spilt the induction meetings this year as we need to address different issues in Year 5 and Year 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.