Shipton Bellinger Primary School

Autumn 2 - Week 2

It has been a lovely week in year 5. The children have been working incredibly hard in maths. We have been looking at equivalent fractions and how to write fractions in its simplest form. It has been tricky but the children have persevered and made great progress. 

In Geography, we have been building on our atlas skills to find out about India. This included finding main cities, rivers, oceans and describe the landscape. 

Friday was international science Day, in year 5 we were working to answer the 'How can recycling help combat climate change?'. We looked at the recycling process for tin cans and did our own 'recycling acting.' We then thought about reuse, repair and recycle and what objects in our homes would fit into these categories. It was great to hear just how much the children know and can talk about recycling. We then looked at some statistics and linked them to some maths problems. 

Our week ended with our school community gathered for our Remembrance service where we held a two-minute silence, year 5 & 6 children read Flanders Fields and a beautiful rendition of children singing 'I vow to Thee My Country.' Thank you to parents who came along. 

Next week we will be celebrating Interfaith week with a particular focus on sharing Fijian cultures and also taking part in anti-bullying week. Please remember swimming kits on Tuesday and PE kit on Wednesday.

Also, homework is on google classroom, any problems logging in please let me know. 

Autumn 2 - Week 1

Welcome back, I hope you had a lovely half term.

We started the week off with Heroes of History theme week. Our hero was linked to last term's learning - Mae Jemison. We researched lots about her life and how she overcome discrimination and became the first African black woman to go into space. She then went on to do wonderful things and paved the way for more woman astronauts. We wrote a biography about the information we discovered. Also, as part of our history week, we looked at our personal heroes. Another important part of this week was looking at chronology of key time periods and events. 

We were lucky enough to take part in a VR workshop where we were able to explore key figures in black history which included Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks. This was very exciting for the children as well as me! 

This week, we had a visit from Hampshire Fire Brigade who came and talked about the wonderful work they do. It was interesting to discover all the roles and possible career routes that come under the fire brigade. The children also were taught about fire safety in the home and were given a booklet where as a family you can devise a fire plan. 

In Science, we started our new unit of learning - Living things. This week was looking at how plants reproduce and then how seeds are disperse. I was very impressed with the knowledge the children already had about pollination. 

Please remember PE kits on Wednesday for our outdoor team games unit. Swimming will continue on Tuesdays.  

Autumn Term - Week 7

I can't believe we have already reached half term. We have had a lovely week finishing our learning journeys. The children wrote fantastic letters to NASA persuading them to choose them for the  Mars expedition. We finished our first aid training and  the children used the dummies and defibrillator machines to follow the instructions in different scenarios. 

We had a lovely Harvest Service where the children explained Chinese traditions of Harvest and the history of the moon festival. Talking of moons, in science we looked at the moon phases and made it extra special by using oreos to demonstrate the different phrases. The best bit was, we got to eat them at the end. 

I hope you all have a lovely half term. Don't forget next term, swimming continues on Tuesdays. 

Autumn Term - Week 5

This week we celebrated National Poetry Day with the theme Refuge. We thought about refuge and what our 'safe places' were. We then constructed our own collum lune  poem and share them in out Friday assembly. I was very impressed with the children's creativity. 

In first aid we were practising how to put someone in the recovery position and when we might do this.  In our other PE session, we have been working hard in team games. It has been lovely to see how the children are collaborating more successfully and showing sportsmanship. 

In history, our focus was woman in space and how this has affected the development of Space. We then analysed  the key points in the Space between USSR and USA. 

In our RE learning , we looked at the 5 pillars of Islam and using the evidence thought about what each pillar represents. 

In maths, we are using numberlink boards to help children use known facts to derive other facts. This is part of the homework. Please ask your child how it works, it really is a useful tool to help children with learning the multiplication facts. 

Autumn Term - Week 4

The results are in and I would like to say a big congratulations to Nellie and Vitu who have been voted in as our class school council representatives. 

This week, we have been working hard with our writing. In particular thinking about the structure and grammar we need to include. We have been writing non-chronological reports on a newly discovered planet. 

During our PSHE lesson, the children were set a challenge of building the biggest tower with only a few items. The had to collaborate in order to be successful. We had some very interesting structures!

This week in out first aid learning we practised bandaging our friends and also learnt what to do if someone burnt or scolded themselves. In our space race journey it was time to look at the first human in space, Yuri Gargarin. The children researched information and presented their finding in a fact file. 

We ended the week playing team games in PE. We started the process for collagraphy in Art which is a  printing process in which a textured plate is created. Next we, we will use this plate to create a print for our background. Finally, our science learning was focusing on the planets and how they orbit around the sun and then our class challenge was to represent the planets using fruit and making sure we were in the correct position in relation to the sun.  What a busy week we've had!

Autumn Term - Week 3

Wow, we are already at Friday! Our week began, with our school council candidates giving their speeches. I'm so proud of each and everyone who had the confidence to put themselves forward. Today the children voted for who they would like to represent our class. Results will be announced on Monday... watch this space! In English, we have been learning about parenthesis and using brackets and dashes to add our extra information. The children created their own sentences using parenthesis about a planet. We have also generated lots of ideas for own planets and thought carefully about what grammatical structures we would need in our writing to make it interesting to the reader. 

We have continued our work on place value and rounding numbers to the nearest, 10, 100, 100 and 10,000. We are now starting to look at mental strategies we can use to add and subtract large numbers. 

In Art, we have created fantastic space pictures using a range of skills and tools. The final result was brilliant and are proudly on display. 

We used the instruments this week to learn and play chords, the children showed collaboration when learning to do the chords on the glockenspiels with a partner. Our History learning as been focused on the launch of Sputnik 1 and how this was one of the first events of 'the Space Race'.  We were also fascinated by the live footage of the international space station that we watched during our science lesson. 

Well done for another great week Owls!

Autumn Term - Week 2

This week, we were very excited to start our swimming lessons. 

We all had fun tested our skills during astronaut training. Activities varied from building lego with gloves, to testing out speed and even launching a rocket!

We have started a new English Learning journey using a short film 'Pandora' about a new planet. The children were given a research task to find the meaning of the tier 3 vocabulary. It was fantastic to see this tier 3 vocabulary then being used to explain the planet. We also had a go at presenting, by recording voice overs for a film about the new planet. 

Our learning in maths continues with place value. We got the opportunity to do our maths learning outside and even made a human number line. Our enrichment PE session this week was tri-golf. The children had fun working together to complete the course. 

Next week, the children who wish to be considered for School council will be presenting the children with their speech. Voting will take place on Friday 22nd September. 

Autumn Term - Week 1

What a fantastic week we've had. It has been lovely to hear what the children have been up to over the summer.

Our topic for this term is Space and this has inspired our English learning journey. We have read the story, 'The planet in a Pickle jar'. The children generated their own ideas for an imaginary planet and used prepositions and expanded noun phrases in our writing about them. We even created our own sensory jars using the ideas from our creative writing. 

In maths, we have got back into our routine of daily timestable practise and begun our unit on place value which now involves larger numbers. The children have used concrete resources to explore larger numbers and partitioned the numbers in different ways. 

As part of our PE learning, we have started a first aid course. It was great to hear the knowledge that we already have in regards to first aid. Our  Friday enrichment PE lessons are ran by Active 360 and we are working on team games. 

Don't forget swimming starts on Tuesday. We will be back at school at approximately 3:20pm.

Have a lovely weekend Year 5!