Highlights from Year 5

This half term has been busy with lots of exciting things going on both inside and outside of school. We had our residence at Ufton Court and all the children had an amazing time and discovered some new skills and overcame some fears to help prepare them for being successful within school and the wider world.

We have been studying the book Wonder and discussing kindness and what this should look like and why it is important to be respectful of everyone, despite their differences or disabilities. I have been extremely impressed with the children’s ideas and understanding of this book.

In mathematics, we have been learning to use protractors to measure and draw angles, there was a lot of concentration going on to decide which scale to use. All the children were successful with this skill and enjoyed the experience.

In English, we started with adventure stories linked to a jungle adventure and from this the children have produced some engaging and purposeful writing, focusing on improving sentences and presentation. Also, we have finished writing a description about Grendel, who linked into our topic about Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. The children drew what they thought he would look like and then re-wrote their own description of Grendel using powerful adjectives and conjunctions to extend their sentences. They have created some extremely scary descriptions using fantastic vocabulary.

History looked at Vikings and established that they were not all vicious and dangerous, some came and lived happily as farmers and left behind some interesting artefacts that the children researched. We also discovered that the horns on a Vikings helmet are a myth! They did not actually have these. The children who were not at Ufton Court created some lovely work about the Gods and Goddesses that the Vikings believed in and created some of their weapons and symbols. For Black History Month we looked at The Hidden Figures that were behind the beginnings of NASA, the children found this extremely interesting and worked with partners to create a fact file or poster with the main details about these four incredible women.

We were very proud to receive the attendance trophy last week as we have come so close on many occasions and the whole class were extremely proud of this achievement. We had fun designing Christmas Cards for an Art competition and followed a step-by-step guide on how to create snowflakes out of paper. Some were more successful than others!

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas filled with happiness, fun and laughter. Stay warm and safe during this festive period.

See you in the New Year.