5SB- Mr Southin and Mrs Ballinger
5J- Miss Jerman
LSA - Mrs Maling
LSA - Mrs Dawson
You can contact us on 01287 713284 or by emailing:
joseph.southin@racemeadow.org
julie.ballinger@racemeadow.org
holly.jerman@racemeadow.org
Key information:
PE Days are Wednesday for Year 5.
Homework will be given out on a Wednesday, marked in school with the children on the following Wednesday and new homework given. Homework should be handed in by Monday of each week please.
Spellings will be tested on a Friday and new spellings will be stuck in to the front of diaries to learn for the following week.
Please record reading at home a minimum of three times per week and sign your child's diary to acknowledge that this has taken place. Your child has a reading bingo card in the front of their diary. This is to encourage reading across a range of genres. When your child has read a book, comic or magazine from one of the bingo squares, please record this in the diary and it will be stamped when diaries are signed on a Friday. Once the children complete a line, they will receive a dip in the prize box from Mrs Collinson. When the whole card is completed they will receive a book of their choice from the vending machine and receive a certificate in assembly.
Sharing assembly will take place at 9am on a Friday in the Key Stage Two hall, you will be notified by Marvellous Me if your child will be receiving a certificate in sharing assembly. If you no longer have Marvellous Me installed, please contact school for a joining code as this is the main way for us to share messages, good news and reminders with you.
Your child should bring a named water bottle, a healthy snack, their diary and their pencil case (if they have one) to school with them each day. The tuck shop is open at breaktime for children to purchase toast, crumpets, teacakes, milkshakes or juice during their breaktime each morning.
Our first mini mission for the Autumn half term is based on the book 'Tuesday' by David Weisner. It is a picture book with amazing artwork. In this mini mission the children will use figurative language to write a narrative for the story. They will also use more formal language to create a crime report about the mysterious incident. In Science, the children will learn about lifecycles of different animals. They will compare one lifecycle to another and also investigate gestation periods of various mammals. In geography, pupils will explore maps, learn a variety of maths symbols and develop their understanding of grid references. To complete the mini mission, children will practise sketching and learn new brush techniques to create a watercolour of a scene from the story.
In this mini-mission, the children will carry out a thematic study of the crime of theft and the punishments you got from the Roman era up to the Early Modern era using the Horrible Histories series and the book Holes by Louis Sacher for research. Throughout their learning they will consider bias and opinion to create a balanced argument debating the issue of capital punishment (the death penalty). They will investigate how theft and its punishments have changed over time and consider the possible causes for this.
In Design and Technology, the children will use their knowledge of crimes and punishments to create an interactive book using pop-ups, levers, wheels and flaps to make the content interactive and interesting. The children will work in groups to produce two pages in each group for their era that use a variety of interactive devices. They also have to illustrate and explain the crimes and punishments that they made.
As part of this mini mission, we read the book 'Holes' by Louis Sachar. It is a wonderfully entertaining story of Stanley Yelnats and his 'unfortunate' bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a text with lots of connections revolving around the issues of right and wrong.
For this mini-mission Year 5 visited the Justice Museum in Nottingham to learn about Crime and Punishment throughout time. along with exploring the historical justice system and punishments.
To begin our mini mission, we recreated a volcanic eruption using water, bicarbonate of soda, food colouring and vinegar. When these two materials are mixed together they cause a chemical reaction and gas (in the form of bubbles) is forced out. We used plastic bottles to recreate this process.
This mini mission is all about the extremes in our world - earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, cyclones, tornados, hot and cold places and tropical ones too! We investigated natural disasters and their causes, discussing their impact on the environment. During this mini mission, we explained the processes involved in some of these natural disasters and did our own research, used diagrams, and digital imaging to find out about tectonic plates and where in the world they are found and their link with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Try this link to find out where in the world there are earthquakes right now!
http://ds.iris.edu/seismon/index.phtml
We explored how the Earth is split into layers, and how these layers form volcanoes over time. We looked at the function of volcanoes, what part they play in the world's ecosystem, and their impact they have on their surrounding area. We had a particular focus on the events of Pompeii, and used a storybook to understand the devastating effects volcanoes have!
What did the Mayans do for us? We do we study this civilisation? Where did they live, what did they do and why are they so marvellous?
In history, we will place the Mayan civilisation on a time line and consider questions that we would need to ask about this period in history. The children will consider how primary and secondary sources of information have been used to build knowledge of the past such as; What did the Maya people eat? What religion did they follow? What did they do in their leisure time? What dangers and hazards did they face?
To help with our learning, Simon from the Explorer Academy will be visiting school to share his vast knowledge of this ancient civilisation and answering some of the children's questions.
In science, children will compare and group materials based on their properties, they will investigate solutions, evaporating, filtering, dissolving, sieving mixing and separating materials and changes of state. Children will give reasons, based on evidence from comparative and fair tests for the uses of everyday materials. They will explain that some changes result in new materials resulting in irreversible changes, including burning and the action of acid on bicarbonate of soda.
Children will research structure of bridges for Design and Technology and will use their information to design a prototype suspension bridge that could cross a valley in the rainforest to enable the Maya people to cross easily from one temple to another.
When writing, the children will use the book 'Rainplayer' by David Wisniewski, to complete the story of Pik, a Mayan pok-a-tok player who choses to play against the rain god, Chac - but will he be successful?