Year 5/6 Weekly Update

Week Beginning 13th July 2009

2009-07-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to a very emotional blogspot, our last of this academic year!

Reports will be going out this week along with the children's end of year results, the children should feel very proud of the hard work that they have put in this year- Well Done Everyone!!
There are a number of things happening this week so here we go.

Musical Magic!

This week will see Year 5/6 transform into your favourite musical stars! Our production times this week will be Monday evening, starting at 6.45pm and then Tuesday afternoon at 1.30pm.
You should have received your tickets for both productions. If they have not made their way home please see one of the team as soon as possible. We cannot allow admission without a ticket due to health and safety.We would like to thank parents for their effort with the children's costumes, they are fantastic!

Laptops

Can all Year 6s return their laptops along with their cases and chargers before Thursday please.

Friday
On Friday we have our leavers mass. It will take place in the school hall at 9am, you are very welcome to join us but as usual space is limited.
On Friday we say a final goodbye to out Year 6 children.
This is a very said time for us as we have watched them grow into the young people they are today. We hope that they will come back and visit us from time to time and make us feel really old!

We wish them all the luck in the world with lives, in high school and further.We will see our Year 5 children next year and they now know which teacher they will be having.

We look forward to welcoming our Year 4 children into Year 5/6.Finally thank you for your support this year, it has been very busy but happy and we have had a great time along the way!!See you in September.
Year 5/6 Team.

Week beginning 6th July 2009

2009-07-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

We really can't believe that we are nearly at the end of another very busy and eventful school year! Our Year 6 children are looking forward to moving on to the High School and we are looking forward to our Year 5's becoming Year 6's and our Year 4's moving up to Year 5.

last week saw a spectacular Sports Day!! Well done to the red team! All children tried so hard and it was great to see every child participating in all of the activities!! Well done everyone.

Our end of year production is starting to take shape now. Hopefully your child will have told you if they need a costume, if not you can pop in and see one of the Year 5/6 team and we will be happy to point you in the right direction.
We will be spending a lot of the week practicing for the production.There will be no homework this week as we feel the time is needed to get costumes ready and learn song lyrics.
You should have received your tickets on Friday. As usual we cannot allow entrance without a ticket due to health and safety regulations.

On Thursday will be our school trip to Chester Zoo. We will be leaving school at approximately 9.15 and hopefully be back by 3.45pm traffic depending. We hope that the weather will be kind to us but just on case we would recommend taking a waterproof coat or umbrella. All children will need a packed lunch and a few drinks as we are out for the whole day.
When we return to school please collect your child from the playground as usual, it is very difficult to keep track of where the children are if parents collect them from the coaches.
Thank you to all those parents who have offered to help out, we really appreciate it.

This week we will spend our time in class preparing for next year. We will be completing a piece of writing to pass up to the next teacher. We will also be completing some teacher and self assessments in maths and science to pass on to the next teacher.

That brings us to end of this weeks very short blog, although it is short we have lots to fit in, so much to do so little time!
Have a great week.
Year 5/6 Team.

Week beginning 29th June 2009

2009-06-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Hope you have been enjoying the sunshine :)
last week saw some of our children taken part in a performance at the Parr Hall. The performance was fantastic and behaviour, as always was excellent considering it is such a long day. Thank you children.

Sports Day
This Wednesday is Sports Day things have changed this year. Instead of singular races going on after each other, there is a carousel of activities going on at the same time. We are sure the children have told you all about it! We have had lots of positive feedback about the different activities that have been organised this year and hope the children will really enjoy it. We have 3 teams, red, blue and yellow. All children have been assigned to a team. We have suggested that whatever colour team your child is in that if possible they wear a t-shirt of the same colour:

With the weather being as it is we are advising that children bring in a cap and sun cream daily as we have been spending a lot more time outside practicing for sports day and our end of year production.

What are we doing this week?

Most of this week will be spent putting together our production. The dates for the end of year production are as follows:

Monday 13th July - 6.45 pm
Tuesday 14th July-1.45pm

We have been so busy over the last few weeks we have hardly had any time to practice, therefore most of this week will be spent on preparations.What with Sports Day practice and Production practice you will be wondering if we can fit in any curriculum this week but as always the answer is yes!

We will be continuing with our Kensuke's Kingdom project. We will continue with the story and children will be using a variety of drama techniques to enhance understanding of the story.

Year 6 will be continuing with their Numeracy transition unit with Mr Tilling.

Year 5 will be putting their data handling skills to the test, when we start to look at different types of line/ bar graphs, tally charts and pie charts. See previous weeks for websites.

Thanks.
Year 5/6 Team

week beginning 22nd June 2009

2009-06-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the blogspot this week,

The week's seem to be flying by, we have so much to do and so little time!

Penketh and Sankey District Schools Challenge Cup. June 2009
Congratulations to the A and B teams who were both successful in their first round qualifiers of the District Schools Challenge Cup held at Penketh Community Primary School, Stocks Lane, earlier this week. The A team beat Barrowhall Lane (A) 5 – 0 (with Edward Shaw scoring a hatrick) whilst the B team beat Barrowhall Lane (B) 3-1 in a closely contested game. Well done to all players who demonstrated great effort, maturity and determination.

Thank you to Mrs Walker, to all the parents who transported the children to and from the event and a special thanks to Theo Phocou for his continued coaching efforts, time and support to the school.

Challenge Trophies Round 1 Challenge Cup. The next round has been drawn as follows:

St Vincent’s A vs St Joseph’s
Tuesday 23.06.09. Kick off 4.30pm
Penketh Community Primary School, Stocks Lane, Penketh.

Penketh South Primary vs St Vincent’s B
Tuesday 23.06.09. Kick off 3.30pm
Penketh Community Primary School, Stocks Lane, Penketh.

Please note that the fixtures and kick-off times are arranged by the Cup Organisers and not by St. Vincent’s. All fixture details are correct at time of going to press (19.06.09) but if there are any amendments to the fixtures, we will let you know as soon as possible.

If you require further information, please follow the link below.
https://www.ourkidssports.com/Cups/matches/id/939

For those boys who were unfortunate not to take part in the tournament, we have spoken to Penketh South who have agreed to a match. We are trying to arrange a mutually convenient date and I will let all concerned know as soon as possible.

PAN Performance
On Monday evening we have the Primary Arts Network Performance at the Pyramid Parr Hall. Children will need to bring a packed tea as we will be leaving school at 3.15pm and going straight to the Hall. We will then be practicing our performance along with the other schools involved. The performance starts at 7.00pm and the doors open at 6.15pm. Tickets can be purchased from the Pyramid Parr Hall ticket office.

Costumes: children will need to bring in a black top and black leggings or trousers.

This weekend our year 3 children will be receiving their First Holy Communion. We wish them lots of good luck and are sure it will be a very happy and enjoyable time.

This Week's Curriculum:

We will be starting our Generation Green Campaign.

Generation Green:

Help us sow the seeds for a greener tomorrow
I’m happy to tell you that St Vincent’s has joined Generation Green, a new programme from Scottish Gas to help our children do their bit to make the planet greener.

Greener at school

During the year, we will be undertaking green tasks to encourage us to save energy and cut our carbon emissions. Tasks can be as simple as appointing a lights monitor for each classroom or as complex as measuring our carbon footprint (this tells us just how green St Vincent’s is today).

Greener at home
Any support you can give us will be very welcome. For example, going along with your children when they ask you to do green things at home – like switching off the lights to save energy. You could also help us earn Leaves by completing a quick and simple Energy Savers Report. You’ll find this at generationgreen.co.uk on the friends and family page.

Numeracy

The Year 6 children will be continuing with their transition project this week.

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's group have raced through the maths curriculum this year, we have spent some time reviewing subjects that the children found difficult when completing their tests and now feel that it is time to start preparing them for next year's curriculum. We will therefore be starting some of the Year 6 topics.

This week we will be looking at expressing a quotient as a fraction, or a decimal rounded to one decimal place. This means that we will be doing sums that don't divide into a whole number exactly e.g. 46 divided by 7 and finding out the answer is 6 and 4/7. It sounds difficult but if the children have good knowledge of their tables they will find it much easier, so keep working on those tables.

Literacy

In Literacy we will continue our Kensuke's Kingdom scheme of work. We will be following Michael and his family on their journey around the world. We will be using Kensuke's Kingdom as inspiration for our big write this week too :)

End of Year Production

We have so much to do! Children are in their groups for the performance now and we are all very impressed at to what songs and dances the children have decided on. It is an absolute pleasure to be helping the children with the performance. All Year 5/6 are so enthusiastic about the songs that they have chosen to work to! We will be having lots of practice this week so children can start to think about costumes and props that they might need for their act.

Have a great week.

Year 5/6 Team

Week beginning 15th June 2009

2009-06-11T03:08:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone and Welcome to the blog this week.

END OF YEAR PRODUCTION
We still have a lot of work to fit in as well as a year 5/6 end of year PRODUCTION. We really enjoyed the singing element of last year’s end of year performance and so this is the route we felt it would be good to go down this year. We felt we would like a slight twist though, so we have decided that we are going to showcase songs from the Musicals. We feel that this is a broad area so children have a rich choice of what they would like to dance, perform and sing to.

As always, we need to make sure that the year 6 take priority for the parts in the production, however we will need year 5’s as well. Remember year 5’s that your time will come next year! We are hoping that during this next week children will have a good idea of children’s roles within the production, and you can therefore start practicing at home, and thinking about costume ideas. We realise that some costumes will be more complicated to put together than others and so want to let parents know ASAP. We will not be giving out specific costume letters as we feel that it is much easier for you to look at the artist your child is impersonating and choose a look you feel is easiest to replicate. As soon as we know details of performance dates we will send them home.

Year 6, Wednesday 17th June- Transition day at St Gregory's.
Year 6 should have brought home a letter tonight outlining the details for next Wednesday. Children will need to be at St Gregory's for 8.30am and will need to be collected at 2.30pm.

Numeracy
Year 5The curriculum continues as usual and the children in both Mrs Morgan’s and Miss Wright’s group will be learning the following…

To subtract integers of up to 10,000 using formal and informal methods.
To subtract numbers to 2 decimal places.
As usual lots of games and interactive learning will take place to make these topic as fun as possible.By the end of the week children,

MUST use an informal method to subtract integers up to 10,000.

SHOULD use both formal and informal methods to subtract integers up to 10,000.

COULD begin to subtract numbers to 2 decimal places.

Try logging on to http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/ and following the Maths links for some excellent speed subtraction games to help you with these objectives.

Year 6
We will be embarking on some transition work to ease the year 6’s into the Mathematics required for the High School. Much of this knowledge is what we have already acquired, but just requires the children to think in a more sophisticated manner. The DFES provide a pack of material for children to further develop their understanding, and we will build on this in school. We will be consolidating lots of learning, but also favouring a more problem solving route where children are encouraged to think for themselves more, and see patterns in number and data. This sounds really hard going, but lots of fun will be had, and children will feel more confident about what will be expected of them in September.

Literacy
Last week saw us starting to read Kensuke's Kingdom, by Michael Morpurgo. We were intoduced to the main characters, setting and and the story began to unfold. This week we will be concentrating on the characters and producing in depth character webs to get to understand them better. We will also be focusing at the point where Michael meets Kensuke for the first time. We will be putting on our Red Thinking Hats and starting to write a journal entry.

Creative Topic / Science - Water Worlds
This week we will be:
* Researching living things in coral reefs classifying and identifying common life processes
* Using the internet, non fiction texts and encyclopedias to answer scientific questions about sharks.
Have a look at the following websites to help:

http://www.coralfilm.com/

http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Coral/home.html

http://www.coral.org/

http://www.reefbase.org/main.aspx

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/ocean/Coralreef.shtml

http://www.kidzone.ws/sharks/

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/sharks/

http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/sharks/home/index.shtml

http://dsc.discovery.com/sharks/types-of-sharks.html

http://new-brunswick.net/new-brunswick/sharks/types.html

Have a great week.
Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 8th June 2009

2009-06-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Hope you had a super half term! Although this half term is short, it is the last one before the Summer. We have lots of fun things to fit into it, so let us make a start.

On Wednesday after school Year 6 parents have the chance to watch the 'All About Me' video before children watch it on Friday, a letter went out before the end of last half term with a slip to confirm whether you will be attending or not. If you would like to attend please send back the slip or write a note in our home- school diary.

Curriculum

Literacy

This week for Literacy we will be in our own classes

Kensuke's Kingdom
We will be starting a transition scheme of work that will be over a period of weeks. We will begin by familiarising ourselves with the story and starting to understand the setting and characters. We will also be focusing on drama using Conscience Alley, Freeze Framing and Thought Tracking to help us understand the story much better.

http://www.michaelmorpurgo.org/books_kensukes_kingdom.html
http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/book.php?id=57

Numeracy:

Year 5
Mr Slavin and Miss Wright's groups will this week be reviewing Fractions. We will be looking again to:
* Understand Mixed Numbers
* Change Mixed Numbers into Improper Fractions
* Find fractions of quantities and amounts involving money.

Please look at the following websites for help in using and applying fractions:

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/ngfl-flash/fractions/index.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/fractiondecimalpercentage/fractions/fractionsofquantities/
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/Phase2delivery/Wales/Numeracy/Keystage2/Number/Findafractionof/Introduction/default.htm
http://www.seatonsluice.northumberland.sch.uk/test/mentalmaths/O&Mcontents.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/fractiondecimalpercentage/fractions/simplifyingfractions/
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_106_g_2_t_1.html
http://www.aaamath.com/fra57c1-mixed2fractld.html
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/pdfs/propinpropfrac.pdf
http://www.mathsisfun.com/improper-fractions.html

Year 6
Mr Tilling's group will spend this week reviewing areas that were covered last term. Mr Tilling will also be going through the answers to the SATs paper completed in May.

Science:
This term will see us starting a new Science topic 'Interdependence and Adaptation'

Children Must- Be able to recognise that plants need light and water to grow well.
Children should- Be able to recognise that a green plant needs light and water to grow well and that different animals and plants live in different habitats.
Children Could- Be able to Recognise that green plants are the source of food for all animals and they produce material for new growth from air and water in the presence of light.

Also remember to bring in your Sunflowers we are eager to see how much they have grown :)

Have a look at the following websites:
http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/foodchains01.shtml
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/interdependence
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/living_things.shtml

R.E
This half term we are starting a new topic of 'Choices' This week we will be looking at the choices that we make on a day to day basis and the consequences of the choices that we make.

Topic: Waterworlds

We have incorporated our Music, Art, Design Technology and Geography into our topic of 'Waterworlds'.
This week we will be researching Weather Patterns across the world. We will be focusing on deserts this week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/whatisweather/teachers/worksheets.shtml
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/ontheline/explore/nature/deserts/deserts.htm
http://www.mbgnet.net/sets/desert/index.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/desert/desert.shtml

Have a great first week back.

Year 5/6 Team

Week beginning 18th May 2009

2009-05-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

Wow!

What a week! Well done to all of Year 6 who have finally finished their SATs. (Hurray!) We are all very proud of their determination to produce their best efforts and we couldn't have asked for anything more from the children. We would also like to thank all members of staff who have supported the children during this week. All the tests have been posted to the external markers and the school will receive the results in early July.

Well done to Y5s, too, who have also completed a week of testing. Once these have been marked, it will enable us to see what level the children are at.

Anfield - Y6 - Wednesday

Just a reminder to let you know the trip to Anfield is on Wednesday; we wonder what the atmosphere will be like as the title hangs in the balance. Please note that school uniform must be worn and that we will be back in school in time for lunch. Children will only be allowed to bring a maximum of £5.00 to spend in the shop and the club have confirmed that cameras are allowed. If there are any monies outstanding, can you please forward it as soon as possible.

Pottery - Y6 - Thursday and Friday

We are very lucky next week to have a local potter, Mick McWilliams from "Wonderful World of Clay." Mr McWilliams will be demonstrating techniques to the children and will them help them to design and throwing (not literally) their own pots.

Here is next week's curriculum:

Classes will return to normal next week but we do have a very exciting week planned for the children.

This week we are focusing all our efforts on nature and the world around us. To celebrate 200 years of Charles Darwin's birth, we will be following his footsteps on our Darwin inspired thinking walks around school. We will be exploring wildlife, flora and fauna in the school environment. We will be finding out more about plants and in the process learning key mathematical and scientific skills.

Literacy

As you know, we have a very successful Gardening Club (run by Mrs Fox in school) and we will be creating an informative booklet, aimed at Year 1 and Year 2, helping them to understand and classify the natural world around them.

Poetry

We will be focusing on a variety of poets and poems, based on plants, in which the children will be evaluating and creating some of their own masterpieces.

Instructional Writing

We will be examining the features of instructional texts and this will culminate in the children writing their own instructions on how to help seeds germinate. All the children will plant their own sunflower seed (which we have in school) taking into account the factors that affect germination. Children will be bringing their seeds home over the holidays and we will be having a competition to measure the tallest sunflower at the end of term. Children will need to bring them back into school where they can be measured and prizes awarded!

Maths

We will be collecting, measuring and recording data of the flora and fauna from our nature walk around the school environment. We will also recap parallel and perpendicular lines by identifying them outside and taking photographs.

Design

We will be designing and making our own insect chalets which will be housed in trees and bushes around school. (David Attenborough would be impressed!) Children will research, using their laptops, different types of insect homes and the attributes of their particular habitat.

We would be grateful if the children could bring in some old newspapers to help us with their construction.

Laptops

As we will be using these a lot during the week, can you please ensure that laptops are charged each night ready for the next day.

Football and rugby will resume the first week back. Can you please ensure that footballers have shin pads and rugby players have gum shields. Thanks.

That's all for now. Enjoy your weekend and have a well-earned rest. (Parents as well!)

Year5/6 Team

Week beginning 11th May 2009

2009-05-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!
Finally, the week we have been working so hard for has arrived! Next week is the week we get to show off everything we have learned when we complete our SATs. Over the past year the children have been working really hard in preparation for the forthcoming tests and we are overwhelmed by the progress they have made.

We would like to thank staff in school who have given up their free time to help with morning booster sessions and also after school tuition. We also realise the tremendous effort that parents have contributed over the past months. Children should be extremely proud of themselves as we really do believe that they could not of worked any harder, and have realised the importance of working hard to achieve your own goals.

The Year 5's will also be completing their optional SATs this week and wherever possible will follow the same timetable as the Year 6's.

Monday: 9.15- 10.00 Science Test A
10.50-11.35 Science Test B

Tuesday: 9.15-10.00 Long Writing Test
11.00-11.30 Short Writing Test and Spelling Test

Wednesday: 9.15-10.00 Reading Test

Thursday: 9.15-10.00 Maths Test A
10.50-11.10 Mental Maths Test

Friday: 9.15-10.00 Maths Test B

We have all the equipment in school that the children will need to complete their tests. If they want to bring their own stationary in must be in a clear pencil case or a clear plastic bag. We have told the children they are allowed a small mascot or lucky charm which they can keep on their table.
It would also be a good idea if they have a bottle of water with them to take in to the test.They can bring a small pack of sweets e.g. boiled sweets or mints, not chocolate or chewing gum.
Obviously we will not be following the normal curriculum this week and in between completing the tests we will be doing lots of Art, DT, and P.E activities.

There will be no homework this week for Year 6 and Year 5 children as they are all completing tests.
Year 6 should have received a letter regarding Breakfast Club next week. This is just for Year 6 children only it is not compulsory but seeing as there are no booster clubs at all next week, we thought that it would provide children with the opportunity to relax and socialise.
All staff would like to thank the children for all their effort and hard work and we wish them every success. We know you can do it :)

Until next time......

Have a great weekend

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 4th May 2009

2009-04-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the blogspot,

We have only got 4 days this week but we still have got a lot to do. This week will see the last of our daily revision groups, as next week is test week for our year 6s. Year 5s will also be completing their end of year assessments too. Things will get back to normal after the test week and children will be in their own classes. Year 6s should have brought home a SATs timetable for you to have a look at tonight.

All after school booster sessions will be as normal next week. If any children are feeling a little bit unsure about anything to do with their tests please come and ask, we are always here to help.
Year 5s have been given a letter concerning our annual residential to the Conway Centre. This is a great opportunity for children and teachers alike to have fun outside of the school environment and try different activities. If your child would like to attend the reply slip needs to be back to the office by Wednesday 6th May.

We would like to say a big congratulations to Mrs Morgan on the birth of her baby boy. We welcome James David Morgan into the world. Lots of love and best wishes to Mrs Morgan and her husband at this very special time.

Here is what we are learning this week:

Literacy:

Year 6- This week Mr Slavin and Miss Wright's groups will be focusing on exam technique and looking in depth at the way that their tests will be marked. Children have been encouraged this week to use a checklist when in the planning stage of their writing. We know that all of our year 6s know how to include the elements of VCOP, but it is making opportunities for them within their writing.

Year 5- Mr Tilling's group will be continuing with Myths and Legends. We will be comparing myths and looking at the features of well known myths and legends. See previous weeks for websites.

On Tuesday afternoon we will be having a Creative Writing afternoon in which children will be looking at a variety of ways to make their writing as descriptive as possible. We will be thinking about adverbs/adjectives, similes/metaphors and using all of our senses. Have a look at the following websites:

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/using_similes/eng/Introduction/default.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/interestsentences/adjectives/

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/english/monmouthshire/choose_adj_monmouthshire.html

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/adverbs/adverbs.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/interestsentences/adverbs/quiz.shtml

http://www.examples-help.org.uk/parts-of-speech/list-of-adjectives.htm

http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/literacy/wordclasses/adjectives.asp

http://www.learnanytime.co.uk/English/Similes%20and%20Metaphors%20(2).htm

Numeracy:

Year 6: Mr Barker and Mr Tilling's group have their last week of revision this week. Children have told us what areas they would like extra work on and we will be covering these areas during the week.

Year 5: Mr Slavin and Miss Wright's groups will be recognising the equivalence between fractions and decimals. We will also be going over percentages again, so have a look at previous blog weeks for website ideas.

Science:
Year 6- Children should have brought home some examples of test work we have been completing in school, just so you can see where they are upto. We realise that as far as homework goes children have finished their CGP books, so we have just asked the children to have a look at the tests they have brought home and brush up on anything they may be unsure of.

Year 5s will be continuing with their Science topic of Forces.

That is all for this week.

Have a great bank holiday weekend :)

Year 5/6 Team

Week beginning 27th April 2009

2009-04-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Welcome to another action packed week in the world of Year 5/6.

Our Year 6 children only have 2 weeks left until their SATs, this week we are going to have a practice using the hall for the tests. The children are used to the format of the papers but they have been mostly doing them in classrooms, in order to keep them as calm as possible on the actual week we need to get them used the way the SATs will be administered. We will complete some past papers in the hall throughout the week.

A big thank you to all of the children who attended Booster sessions last week - Well done for remembering!

Also it is lovely to see the amount of books that children have read over the Easter holiday we love hearing all about how much you have enjoyed reading a particular book. We are starting a 'Book Swap Shop' so if any of you have books that are sitting in a cupboard gathering dust, bring them in and maybe you could swap them for another book you might like to read.

We all send our best wishes to Mrs Morgan as she has started her maternity leave we hope to have more news soon.
Here is what is happening this week:

Curriculum:

Numeracy:

Y6 - Mr Barker and Mr Tilling's group will be continuing their revision schedule. We will be looking in particular at practicing different methods of division and multiplication, especially long multiplication. Towards the end of the week children will be using a chosen method to solve multiplication and division multi step word problems. Try some of the following websites, there are also examples that you can practice on here:

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/book7/bk7i6/bk7_6i2.htm

http://www.mathsonline.org/pages/longmult.html

http://www.numeracyworld.com/Multiplication%20Worksheets.html

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/tricks.html

http://www.sutton.lincs.sch.uk/pages/playground/zone/tablestests/penguin.html

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/dividermachine.html

http://resources.oswego.org/games/Mathmagician/mathsdiv.html

http://resources.oswego.org/games/mathmagician/maths1.html

Y5- Numeracy

Mr Slavin and Miss Wright's class will be looking at Classifying events based on degrees of likelihood. By the end of the week we all should be able to recognise the distinction between 'impossible', ' unlikely', 'likely' and 'certain'. We will also be focusing on handling data in relation to the week's theme of probability. As we are relatively new to this area have a look at the following websites to get some practice before we start!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/handlingdata/probability/factsheet.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/activities/probability.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/shockwave/games/fish.html

http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=1258

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/probability.htm

http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/47794

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/grapher.html

Literacy:

Y6 Mr Slavin and Miss Wright's revision groups will be completing Writing and Reading past test papers as a means of getting us familiar with how they will be administered on the day. As a means of revision this week it would be a good idea if all Year 6s looked in particular at the features of non-fiction texts, we have looked at these quite a lot and all children should already have revision notes within their revision books. These features are recipes for success for particular text types.

Y5- Mr Tilling's group will be looking at Evaluating myths and identifying key features to use as a model for writing. Children will be looking at a number of different myths and fantastic tales and seeing what the similarities and differences are. Children will then be using this as a basis for putting into action their own fantastic stories which we will be very excited to hear.

Look at the following websites for ideas and how myths are structured and written.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/index.htm

http://myths.e2bn.org/

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/how_to_write_a_legend

http://www.midlandit.co.uk/education/writingtips.htm

Science:

Year 5 will be carrying on with their new topic of 'Forces in Action' Children are becoming familiar with the different types of forces and how the are exerted upon different objects. What causes objects to move faster, slow down and stay still. We will all also be recapping on other scientific aspects throughout the week. We will be linking art to science on Wednesday. Working in our Co-Operative groups to create a collage based upon the Life Cycle of a Flowering Plant. To get a clear idea of this life cycle look at the following websites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/revision_bites/life_cycles1.shtml

http://www.blithfieldeducationcentre.co.uk/kp/environmentpages/flower_life_cycle.htm

http://www.berghuis.co.nz/abiator/patana/5t/science/lifecycles.swf

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/science/plants/index.htm

http://www.thekidsgarden.co.uk/

http://www.pollinator.com/kids/kids_index.htm

Have a great week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 20th April 2009

2009-04-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the Summer Term.

We have a very busy term ahead but we still have lots to look forward to. This half term is five weeks long and on our fourth week it is the SATs tests. The year 5s will also be completing their tests this week, the week beginning the 11th May.

All booster and tuition sessions will resume as from Monday 20th April.

Our Year 6's have been working really hard in preparation for their tests both at school and at home and we really appreciate your support in preparing the children.Here are some websites that may help you with your preparation.http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/children_sats.htm SATs questions, you can choose which subject you want to look at.http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/index.shtml our old favourite bbc revisewise.http://www.yourschoolsite.co.uk/tests/Introduction.html SATS question quiz.http://www.buzzin.net/revision_tips/revtips.htm revision tips.http://www.st-josephs-pickering.n-yorks.sch.uk/past_test_papers.htm download SATs papers.http://www.samlearning.co.uk/primary/index.html revision exercises and SATs questions.http://www.teachingtreasures.com.au/maths/year_6_maths_true_or_false.htm maths true or false quiz.http://www.counton.org/games/mathonaire/ who wants to be a mathonaire.http://www.subtangent.com/maths/games.php lots of maths games to help you revise, I love the Weakest Link.http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/engindex.html reading comprehension practise.http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/essentials/science/index.shtml choose a science area to revise.http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/millionscience.html who wants to be a Science Millionaire

Curriculum:

Year 6 Numeracy:

Year 6s will be continuing with their revision programme this week they will be consolidating knowledge gained throughout this year and will be focusing on :

* Reviewing conversions looking at grams/kilograms, cm/m etc.

* Reviewing capacity, weight and length.

* Area and Perimeter of shapes

* Measuring and creating angles within triangles.

Have a look at the following websites to help revise these areas:

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/protractor.html

http://www.lgfl.net/dbmaterial/web/learning%20objects/ls/Year%206%20Angles%20QCA%202243/home/?verb=view

http://www.innovationslearning.co.uk/subjects/maths/activities/year6/angles/game.asp

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/angleshapes.html

http://www.mystery-productions.info/hyper/Hypermedia_2003/Jobling/htt.swf

http://www.toonuniversity.com/6m_angle_d.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/keyskills/flash/kfa/kfa.shtml

http://www.ictgames.com/weight.html

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/measures/index.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/measuring/distance/

Year 5 Numeracy:

This week we will be looking at:

calculating angles on a straight line rehearsing the relationship between degrees and right angles.
Identifying, estimating and ordering acute, obtuse and reflex angles.

try some of the websites above to help to practice measuring and identifying angles. We are also continuing with our weekly multiplication and division facts tests so keep practicing!

Literacy:

Year 6- This week we will be focusing on how to write an effective and persuasive argument. We will be imagining that all Children's T.V is about to be cancelled! Children will be planning their own response trying to put forward their own arguments and then finally drafting a letter. We will also be reviewing the features of persuasive texts. Children also have the features of other non-fiction texts within their revision books. These are especially important to know before our writing test in May.

Year 5-Will be finishing off Writing to Persuade, children will be having a debate about whether school uniform should be replaced and sharing views for and against. By the end of the week children will have written a persuasive letter to Mr Barker outlining their reasons for or against.

Science:

Year 6 will be reviewing the following areas:

Light:

Children must know about the path of light into our eyes.

The scientific terms Opaque, Translucent, Transparent.

How a shadow is formed.

Sound:

How sound is produced.

The terms Vibration and Pitch.

The Earth and Beyond:

How we come to have day and night.

Key times and orbits of the Earth, Sun and Moon

Forces acting upon the Earth.

How seasons occur.

Year 5:
Will be continuing with their new area of 'Forces in Action' This week children will review that pushes and pulls are examples of forces, that forces are needed to start things and to change their speed and/ or direction, that friction, including air resistance is a measure of force.

R.E
We are starting our new theme of Good News. We will be recognising some of the effects of good news and reflecting on how good news can bring joy and happiness. Children will be working within their co-operative learning groups to explore and investigate good news given at home, in class, our neighbourhood and our country.

That is all for this week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 6th April 2009

2009-04-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to last week of the Spring Term, here comes the summer, and hopefully the weather along with it!!!

Even though it is the last week of term we are still very Year 5 and 6.

Firstly could we say a big thank you from Mrs Walker for all the money collected on the spots and stripes day last Friday, she was really amazed by the response and she would like us to pass on her thanks.

On Tuesday afternoon this week we will holding our annual fundraising event in aid of the Nugent Care Society. The children have lots of interesting events planned and they will also be able to take part in activities that other children have put on, so it may a good idea if they have a small amount of change for the afternoon.

On Wednesday we will be holding our Easter Garden competition in the morning. The children will need to bring the gardens in on the morning of the competition and take them home from school that night as we do not have the space to store them. Thank you.

On Thursday we will be having an Easter Service in school in the morning. We will have songs, prayers and the Easter Story. As always you are welcome to join us in the celebration but please remember that space is limited.

This weeks curriculum....

Literacy

Our children are working really hard in literacy at the moment and we have really seen an improvement in their reading and writing skills, well done children for all your effort.
This week Year 6's will be working on newspaper reports. We will be recapping the features and planning and writing our own newspaper report.
Try these websites in preparation:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/revision_bites/deduction1.shtml
http://www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk/curriculum/Literacy.htm#KS2%20On-line%20Activities%20NEW
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/big_news/eng/Introduct/default.htm
http://www.thenewspaper.org.uk/staffroom/using.php

Year 5's will be continuing with their theme of persuasive writing.

Numeray

Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be continuing with their revision programme.

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be looking at areas that we need to develop after assessing what we have learned this half term at the beginning of the week.

Science

This week in science we will be working on the water cycle in preparation for our new topic of Waterworlds which we will be starting after the half term.
We will be researching the water cycle and producing a power point presentation on what we have learned.

Try these websites to help:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/revision_bites/changing_state2.shtml
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2science.html
http://www.mikecurtis.org.uk/ks2_watercycle.htm
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/science/ks1-2/resources/index.shtml

Here I Am

We will be continuing with our topic of Growing as well as looking at the Easter Story.
The children will be expected to know how Christians try to grow during lent and how this is preparation for celebrating Easter.

Please remember we finish for the Easter holidays at 3pm and Thursday and return to school at 8.45am on Monday 20th April.

Boosters and one-to-one tuition will continue next week and will also take place on the first week back.

The Year 5/6 Team would like to thank all the staff for giving up their valuable time to help prepare the children for their SATs we really do appreciate it.

Finally, we would like to wish you a happy and holy Easter, and look forward to seeing the children in their summer uniforms and hope that they bring the weather with them!

Year 5/6 Team.

Week beginning 30th March 2009

2009-03-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's blogspot,

We only have a couple of weeks left but there is still so much to do!

Well done to all of the children who took part in the Cross Country Tournament last Thursday at Cinammon Brow Primary School, the children tried very hard especially keeping going through the wind and rain- A Big Well Done.

Just a reminder that on the Wednesday of next week we will be judging our Easter Gardens competition and we are very much looking forward to seeing the finished pieces of work as they are always fantastic.

Homework- Year 6: As from next week as we only have a few weeks left we have decided to change the format of the homework. Children will be sent home individual homework for Literacy, Maths and Science as we are aware that most children have now come to the end of working through their CGP revision books.

Curriculum:

Literacy:

Mrs Morgan's and Miss Wright's groups will be looking at Persuasive Writing this week in revision sessions. We will be studying the features of persuasive texts and planning and writing our own. here are some websites to have a look at:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/index.asp?topic=Persuasive
http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/dragonsville/poster.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/revision_bites/argument1.shtml

Mr Slavin's class will also be looking at persuasive writing, looking at different advertisements in the media, finally leading upto creating a new V.I.P product which the children will have to advertise and persuade people to buy.

Numeracy:

Year 6
Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be carrying on with their revision timetable. See previous blogs for websites.

Year 5
Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be looking at Co-Ordinates most of the week. Learning how to read and plot co0ordinates in the first quadrant. We will also be looking to rehearse names and properties of common 2 d shapes. here are some websites to try:
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/maths/coord_shapes/index.htm

http://www.counton.org/games/virtualmathfest/dinosaur.html

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/maths/coordinate_game/index.htm

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframeworks/downloads/SWF/coordinates.swf

Science:

Year 5

Mr Slavin's group will be starting the new topic of ' Forces in Motion' in which children will be understanding why objects float and sink and how the force of gravity keeps us on the ground.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/10_11/forces_action.shtml

http://wwwg.eng.cam.ac.uk/mmg/teaching/peterstidwill/interact/resources/parkworldplot/parkworldplotlink.htm

http://www.mystery-productions.info/hyper/Hypermedia_2001/lall/index.htm

http://www.mystery-productions.info/hyper/Hypermedia_2003/Johns/index.htm

Year 6

Mrs Morgan's and Miss Wright's groups will be reviewing work done on forces and moving onto how forces can be measured. We are also having our weekly Science quiz on Monday afternoon in which we are focusing on Plants.

Just a note to say how well the Year 6s are doing within their Booster sessions they are really working hard- Keep up the good work everyone!!

You may have got a letter this week informing you that your child has been selected for one-to-one tuition sessions. The sessions are aimed at children that we feel with this extra last minute boost they could make it into the next level. We really appreciate the fact that lots of the staff in school have given up their time and agreed to run these sessions. Staff are very busy after the school day keeping up with the paper work for their own classes and the fact that they have agreed to give up 2 of those busy nights to help our Year 6 children is fantastic of them. Thank you very much.

The children are planning a fundraising afternoon for next Tuesday. They may have come home and told you about the ideas their group have. We hold this event annually at this time of year and the children do raise a lot of money for CAFOD. We are always really impressed with their efforts and maturity when it comes to this event and we are sure this year will be no different.

That's all for this week.

Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 23rd March 2009

2009-03-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to this week's blogspot.

Wow, what a busy week last week was. The children did us proud on their first and second reconciliations and they are getting better at handing in their reply slips which saves a lot of hastle when we are taking them out of school, thank you very much for this.

We would like to express our sympathy to Mrs Cain and her family on the sad loss of her husband John. We hope that you will keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers.
We also ask that under the circumstances you only contact the office if it is something of extreme importance, thank you.

Thank you to parents and children who have been involved in before and after school booster sessions. We have never run the booster session before school and were not sure if they would work but we felt that it was unfair that the children should be asked to stop going their clubs after school to attend booster sessions while they have the opportunity of so many sports clubs. (Thank you Mr Slavin!) These sessions have worked really well and we thank you for getting up that extra bit early so that the children can attend.
The booster sessions will run right up until the week before SATs, they will also take place on the week before and the week after the Easter holidays.

On Thursday this week their is a cross country race at Cinnamon Brow Primary School. We were allowed to enter a team of 4 boys and 4 girls. If your child has been chosen to represent the school then you will have received a letter asking for permission. We would really appreciated help in transporting the children to the event, thank you.

This week's curriculum..........

Literacy
This week the Year 6 children will be working on improving their vocabulary, they will do this through description. They will be describing settings and characters using wow language.

The Year 5 children will be continuing their work on non-chronological reports. We were really impressed with the quality of the children's homework last week, they wrote some excellent reports using all the features that they need to include. Well done.
On the down side of this there were 13 children who did not complete the homework that was set. We would ask you to please encourage your child to complete their homework.

Numeracy

After doing a past paper last week Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be working through the paper and seeing how we can improve our scores.
We were really shocked to see how many of the children struggled with telling the time. This could be a focus at home for the coming week.

Science

After the fabulous science show last week we will be doing some work on materials and in particular separating materials. The children will be working on how to separate different kinds on solids and also how to separate a solid that has dissolved into a liquid.

Fundraising

The children are doing some fantastic fund raising at play times. On the last week of this term will be holding our annual fundraising afternoon. We will use some of our time this week to plan the events we will be running on that afternoon.

That's all for this short blogspot, Happy Mother's Day.

Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 16th March 2009

2009-03-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's blog.

We have a really busy week in store so let's get started.

Thank you to all the children who dressed in RED on Friday to support comic relief, you all looked fantastic and your donations were greatly appreciated.

Many of our Year 5 and 6 children are also doing daily fundraising for our adopted charity CAFOD. They have stalls on the yard each playtime and making lots of money for the charity.
Further on in this term we will be organising a fundraising afternoon for the rest of the school were we will all run stalls and activities to raise money for CAFOD as part of our Lent preparation for Easter.

A big thank you to all the children who attended the netball and football tournament at St Gregs. Both teams did very well and their behaviour was very good indeed. Can we also say thank you to parents who gave their time to help with transport.

On Wednesday this week our Year 5 children will be making their First Reconciliation. They will spend the whole day at Church. In the morning they will do lots of different activities based on stories from the bible and in the afternoon they will make their First Reconciliation. Afterwards their will be a service in Church to celebrate. There will be a creche at school for younger children in case parents do not make it back from Church until after 3pm. We send the children our love and prayers in this important Sacrament.

On Thursday this week we will have mass in the school hall. As usual parents are welcome to join us but please be aware that space is limited.

On Friday morning we will have a science specialist in school to perform a science show. This is always a very interesting and enjoyable activity for the children and it comes at a great time as it will be revision for the up and coming SATs.

On Friday afternoon our Year 6 children will spend the afternoon in Church where they will also participate in Reconciliation with Father Richard.

We are also starting booster session this week. We have booster going on for maths, literacy and science. There are 2 boosters for each of the subjects as we have split the children into ability groups.
If your child has been selected to take part in the booster activities then you should have received a letter on Friday informing you of which booster it is and when it will take place.
Booster will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday morning and Wednesday after school. If your children is coming to the morning session they will begin at 8.15am, we will provide the children with some fruit or toast in the morning as they will have to have their breakfast a lot earlier than usual. If your child has not been selected to take part in the booster sessions and you feel that it will be of benefit for them then please see a member of the Year 5/6 Team.

Curriculum......

Literacy

Miss Wright and Mrs Morgan's group will completing a reading past sat at the beginning of the week to see if our reading has moved on.
For the rest of the week we will be focusing on non-chronological reports.
Mr Slavin's group will also be starting a new topic of non-chronological reports.

Try these websites to help....
http://www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk/Curriculum/Literacy.htm#KS2%20On-line%20Activities%20NEW
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/englishD8.htm

Maths

Mr Barker and Mrs Morgan's group will be completing a SAT paper at the beginning of the week and then using the results to inform our planning for the rest of week.

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be rehearsing mental and subtraction strategies and strategies for adding strings of 1 digit numbers and multiples of 10. Have a look at the following websites:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/addsubtract/mental/flash7.shtml
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/additiontest.html
www.nrich.maths.org
http://www.ictgames.com/technowithflock.html
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/pyramid.html
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/subtractiontest.html
http://www.ictgames.com/countonconvict.html
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/big%20sums/big%20sums%20subtract.html

Science:

Year 5- Will be finishing off the current topic of Dissolving and aiming to plan their own investigation into the variables that affect dissolving. Children will need to consider what they will change and what they will keep the same and how to plan a fair test.
Year 6- We will be having a 10 minute quiz on Monday looking at the areas 'Forces in Motion' and 'Looking at Life' for the rest of the week we will be going over past SATs papers in order to test their current knowledge, and from this what they need to work on.

P.E Kits- There are still children who are forgetting to bring the correct kit for in school P.E. Can we urge children to remember to bring in their kits and if any items are lost in school children will spend their break looking for them. Please be aware that P.E is a compulsory part of the curriculum as well as encouraging your child to have a healthy lifestyle.

That is all for this week.
Have a good weekend
Year 5/6 team.

2009-03-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

Week Beginning 9th March 2009

Hi everyone and welcome to Science Week. This week we will be taking part in lots of activities to celebrate Science as a subject. We will be involved in a number of competitions and activities which the children will really enjoy.

A big thank you to all the Year 6 children who showed excellent behaviour at our away day at The Foundry on Friday, the children had a great day and were a credit to the school.

Monday 9th March
We will be going to The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic to take part in the 'Going Global' concert. The children have worked very hard in the lead up to the concert learning about different musical instruments and the families that they belong to and the structure of the orchestra.
We are aiming to be back at school for approximately 3.45pm traffic depending.

Curriculum.

Numeracy.

Y6- Numeracy - Mrs Morgan and Mr Barker's classes will be continuing with their revision programme. See previous blogs for revision web sites.

Y5- Numeracy- Mr Slavin and Miss Wright's groups will be revisiting fractions and how to relate fractions to division and to use division to find fractions, including tenths, and hundredths of numbers and quantities.
Try these websites to help:
http://www.ngflcymru.org.uk/vtc/Phase2delivery/Wales/Numeracy/Keystage2/Number/Findafractionof/Introduction/default.htm
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/fractotron.html
http://www.sums.co.uk/playground/n6a/playground.htm
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
http://www.arcytech.org/java/fractions/fractions.html
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/bingo/index.html

Literacy

Y6- Mrs Morgan and Miss Wright's group will be focusing on narrative writing this week. We will be looking at how we can improve our narrative skills in a number of ways such as using powerful vocabulary,similes/metaphors, complex sentences, a variety of connectives and the important use of punctuation. try some of the following websites to help with your revision this week:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/planning.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/beginnings_endings.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/sentencebasics/whatisasentence/flash7.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/punctuation.shtml
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/english/bgfl/dont_use_said/
http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/lit_sites/speech_marks/index.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/tenses/getting_the_right_tense/
http://www.learnatglobal.com/assets/applets/grammar.swf
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/english/monmouthshire/choose_adj_monmouthshire.html

Y5- This week Mr Slavin's class will be publishing their myths using their mini laptops. These will then be printed off and displayed around the junior area. The children have worked very hard and have produced some great myths. Well done.

Science:

As it is Science Week we will be enjoying a variety of investigations and activities linking into art and literacy. To celebrate this year as the International Year of Astronomy we will be taking part in an imaginative competition in which the children will create a new planet and create new habitats in which new creatures could live in. Credit will be given to children who show a good understanding of how certain characteristics help creatures survive in particular environments and how their alien creature compares to those in similar environments on our planet.

We will also be looking at the plight of the Honey Bee in the 'Save our Bees Campaign' Across the world honey bee numbers are declining and fast. Billions of the UK’s bees are dying from unknown causes and one in three honey bee colonies in the UK were lost last winter alone!

Honey bees are very important for everyone. They pollinate more than 100 crops – including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds – and these foods then go on to feed us and many other animals, including farm animals. Everyone can get involved in the campaign please see the following website for more information:
http://www.saveourbees.org.uk/

Here are some more events that are taking off during the National Week for Science:
http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/uniqueness- For NSEW 2009, the 'Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics' at the University of Oxford is inviting you to explore just how unique you are.
http://www.astronomy2009.co.uk/

Have a great week

Year 5/6 Team

Week beginning March 2nd 2009

2009-02-27T08:02:00.001-08:00

It's our first week back and it's been very hectic and the children are beginning to settle in back to their normal routines.

Thank you to all parents who contributed to the Mothers' Day Craft Fair - it was very generous. Thank you also to those who attended our Ash Wednesday Service it was nice to see you.

Bike Training
The children have started bike training this week and this is due to continue over the next few weeks. Can we remind parents to sign the appropriate slips and return them to school as soon as possible as the children will not be allowed off school premises.

Tuesday
Football training commences - 3.00 - 4.00pm
We are still trying to arrange Girls Football Training and Rugby Training - Watch this space!

Friday
Y6 Retreat to The Foundry with the staff of St Gregory's.
The children will leave at 9.30am and return to school by approximately 3.00pm. Children will need a packed lunch and are allowed to wear their own clothes. Girls, however, are advised to wear trousers.

Philharmonic Hall Trip
Letters have been sent home tonight (Friday) regarding our trip to the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, on Monday 9th. Could you please make sure that all slips are returned by Wednesday 4th March.

Curriculum

Y6 - Numeracy
Numeracy - Mrs Morgan and Mr Barker's classes will be continuing with their revision programme. See previous blogs for revision web sites.

Y5 - Numeracy.
Mr Slavin and Miss Wright's classes will be looking at rounding 1 and 2 decimal places to the nearest whole number; starting to find percentages of whole number quantities. Y5s will also complete Test B - Calculator paper.

It is also World Maths Day on the Wednesday the 4th March. We are involved in a number of competitions which the children will take part in during the day.
http://www.worldmathsday.com/

See the following websites to help you this week:

www.primarygames.co.uk
www.mathszone.co.uk
www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk (select Numeracy, scroll dawn to Percentages and choose any of the sites listed. We recommend any BBC site and Ngfl.

Literacy

Y6 - Mrs Morgan's and Miss Wright's class will be continuing their revision programme.
This week we are focusing on writing and we will be completing our Short Writing Test and Spelling Test. The children are working very hard in their revision groups - keep up the good work!

Y5 - Mr Slavin's class will be continuing with writing their myths. This week will be editing and redrafting stories. Look at the sites below for ideas and structure.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/index.htm
http://myths.e2bn.org/

Topic
We are very excited to be invloved with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and we will be starting a rich task week "Going Global" which links in with our current topic of the environment. During the week children will be introduced to the structure of an orchestra; investigating and designing their own ecological forms of transport; environmental concerns in the Arctic; the threat to our world rain forests. All are based on a particular piece of music which the children will be involved in on our trip to the Philharmonic Hall on March 9th.

R.E

We are carrying on with our new topic of 'Communion' and Year 5s will continue to prepare for their sacrament of Reconcilation.

Just a reminder there are still some children who haven't been able to take part in P.E due to forgetting their kits. Can you please make sure that children have them in school at all times.

That is all for now. Have a good week.
Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 23rd February 2009

2009-02-22T02:51:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the second half of the Spring Term, hopefully this half term we will see a lot more of Spring like weather!!

This is a very busy and important half term in Year 5/6 as this is the final run up to our tests.

On Tuesday this week we will be having a assembly in school about recycling. Someone from Warrington Council will come into school to talk to the children about this important matter and they will also bring with them a rapping robot to get the message across to the children.

Ash Wednesday

This week sees the start of Lent. We will be holding a short service in the hall to mark Ash Wednesday and the children will receive their ashes in the classrooms afterwards. Should you wish to receive ashes in school, please join us at 9am in the hall.
To read about the traditions and customs of Ash Wednesday, go to http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/easter/ashwednesday.htm

Wednesday this week sees the start of cycling training for some of our Year 6 children. Your child will know if they have been chosen to take part in the training as they will have received a letter last half term. Please remember that the children will need to bring their own bike in on this day. They will also need so old warm clothes and a coat in order to take part in the training.

This weeks curriculum:-

The Year 6's this week will be carrying on with their revision of reading and writing tests. This weeks we are back on reading and will be looking at how to tackling inference and deduction questions. Remember children to keep reading for 15 minutes each night and try and beat how much you have read the previous night.

Here are some websites to help the Year 6 children with all the areas they need to revise:-
http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/children_sats.htm SATs questions, you can choose which subject you want to look at.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/index.shtml our old favourite bbc revisewise.
http://www.yourschoolsite.co.uk/tests/Introduction.html SATS question quiz.
http://www.buzzin.net/revision_tips/revtips.htm revision tips.
http://www.st-josephs-pickering.n-yorks.sch.uk/past_test_papers.htm download SATs papers.
http://www.samlearning.co.uk/primary/index.html revision exercises and SATs questions.
http://www.teachingtreasures.com.au/maths/year_6_maths_true_or_false.htm maths true or false quiz.
http://www.counton.org/games/mathonaire/ who wants to be a mathonaire.
http://www.subtangent.com/maths/games.php lots of maths games to help you revise, I love the Weakest Link.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/engindex.html reading comprehension practise.
http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/essentials/science/index.shtml choose a science area to revise.
http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/millionscience.html who wants to be a Science Millionaire.

The Year 5's will be finishing their final pieces of work on persuasion this week, they have really worked hard and enjoyed this topic.
This week the Year 5's will be completing and improving their argument and re-writing it as a letter written to persuade. We look forward to reading their finished pieces of writing.
Try these websites to review your learning:-http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/dragonsville/poster.htm design your own persuasive poster.
http://www.little-g.com/shockwave/hotel.html answer some simple questions and design your own travel advert.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/index.asp?topic=Persuasive persuasive writing workshop.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/revision_bites/argument1.shtml revision of persuasive writing.
http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/nationalstrategy/literacy/index.php?category_id=248&page_no=&preview=1&s=!B121cf29d70ec8a3d54a33343010cc2 points for persuasive writing and other genres.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc-home/vtc-ks2-home/vtc-ks2-eng/vtc-ks2-eng-writing/vtc-ks2-eng-writing-genres/vtc-ks2-eng-writing-newspapers.htm understanding persuasive writing.

I know there are lots of websites here but now that the children have their own laptops they do not need to be hogging the home computer!!

Numeracy

Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be carrying on with their revision. After completing a past paper before the half term, we now have a really clear idea of what each individual child needs to help them improve their levels.

Science

Again, our Year 6's will be continuing with their revision.

Our Year 5's will be moving onto the topic of Changing Sounds. This week the children should learn:
that sounds are made when objects or materials vibrate
to make careful observations
to draw conclusions about sounds from their observations

Topic

After our assembly on Tuesday we will be using our topic of the environment to create our own recycling raps using the inspiration of the rapping robot. This, I am sure will prove to be a very interesting and fun activity!!

That's all for this week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 9th February 2009

2009-02-08T03:04:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the last week of the half term.

First of all we would like to thank everyone for supporting out book fair last week, it was a great success and we were so pleased with the amount of Year 5 and 6 children who entered into the spirit of book week and got dressed up on Friday. You all looked fantastic, well done.
We would also like to thank Miss Knight for organising the week.

This week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we will be holding out parent consultations. You will have received your time slot by now. The appointment times are 10 minutes long and we do try to stick to these times. If you feel you need longer then pleased arrange another convenient time with your child's teacher.

There will be a mass held in the school hall at 9.15am on Friday, on the theme of Communion. This is to tie in with our current Here I Am theme and will be led by staff and children from Key Stage 2. All primary schools in the Parish are following the program and each term, a mass will be held on school, on the theme of the Here I Am topic. You are warmly invited to attend, but please remember that space is at a premium in the school hall. If you have prams or buggies, then please feel free to leave them in the infant area if needed.

On Friday afternoon Mr Slavin has arranged a football match with Penketh South Primary School which will take place on the school field at 2pm. The children already know whether they are in the team or not. We would like to thank Mr Slavin for giving up his time to arrange football training each week and also for arranging the game. We would also like to thank Mr Phocou and other parents who have been involved in helping with the football.

Assessment and Review Week

As you know the last week of each half term is assessment and review week. We will be reviewing and assessing all the objectives that the children have covered in this half term which will help to inform our planning next half term.

Literacy

The children have really enjoyed making their electronic books for reception and year 1. We may need to put some finishing touches to them at the beginning of the week but then we will be ready to share them with the younger members of our school. The children cannot wait to do this and we really feel that we have some budding authors and illustrators in the making.

We also be completing an assessed piece of writing this week which we will mark and give the children targets for the next half term.

Maths

Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups completed a past paper last week. The children will be getting their results this week and we will spend some time working on the subject they found difficult.

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be looking at subtraction next Monday and Tuesday. We will look quickly at counting on and move to column subtraction using the exchange method for subtracting 2 and 3 digit numbers.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we are going to give the children the Y5 paper they took last term to see what progress they have made. The children will complete the paper and then we will go over the answers with them.

Here are some websites to help with subtraction:-

Subtraction Web Sites
Easyhttp://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/big%20sums/big20sums%20subtract.html
Medium/Hardhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/addsubtract/mental/flash11.shtml http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/subtractiontest.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/tests/subtraction.shtml
Challenging Puzzles/Gameshttp://nrich.maths.org/public/index.php

Science

We now have a program on the big laptops which helps us assess the children's learning in each area of the science curriculum.
The children complete a short test on the computer and we can then go into their results and see what they have and haven't understood.
This week they will complete the test on our topic 'more about dissolving' and we will then address an areas that need revisiting.

Topic

Last week the children began to make power points on an area they were concerned about in the environment. This week we will be finishing the power points and then sharing them with the rest of the class.
A lot of thought and research has gone into these presentations and we can't wait to see the results.

That's all for this half term. We hope to see you at the parent consultation meetings and wish you a very happy and restful half term.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 2nd February 2009

2009-02-01T03:05:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone and welcome to book week.

First of all we would like to thank the Year 6 children for their excellent behaviour while attending Young Citizen 2009 at the Peace Centre on Friday. The Year 5 children were also extremely well behaved while in school.
Thank you children we are really proud of you when we take you out of school.

On Wednesday evening there will be a meeting held in school for the parents of Year 5 children who will make their first Reconciliation this year. Please send the reply slip back so we know how many people will be attending this meeting.

We have the book fair in school this week and as usual on book week we base a lot of our curriculum work on books to tie in with this event.

Please do come in and have a look at the book fair this week after school. The children will have the opportunity to browse the book fair on Monday and choose a wish list of books for their class which parents can donate to school. These books will have a sticker inside telling everyone that your child has donated the book.
The friends of St. Vincent's are also holding a cake sale on Friday afternoon to tie in with the book fair.
Please remember that for each book you buy school will receive commission to buy resources. Thank you.

We have been monitoring the children's diaries and have noticed that the number of comments made about children's reading is dwindling. Please make sure that you hear your child read each week and make a comment in their reading diary.
We have asked the children to read for 15 minutes each night and then try to speed
up the next night to beat the amount of pages the read the night before. This is because 15 minutes is the amount of time they get to read the booklet in the reading SAT so they do need to fully concentrate for this amount of time on reading and be able to take all the information they have read in.
We will be monitoring the children's diaries again this week and will let you know the percentage of children who have been heard read that week.

Curriculum...

In literacy this week we will be concentrating on the theme of book week and basing our work on our favourite books and authors. Please take the time this week to let your children look through their book collection and decide which their favourite books and authors are.

We will be using the laptops to research our favourite author and then write a biographies of the author.
We will also be writing reviews of our favourite book, looking at illustrators and doing art work based on illustrators work and sharing our favourite books with each other.

On Friday the children will be allowed to come to school dressed as their favourite character from a book. Please ensure that if your child is taking part in this they do come dressed as a character from a book and not from a movie. There will be a prize for the best costume in each class.

Numeracy

Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be continuing with their revision this week. The children are working really hard on this and we can see the benefits in their class work from the revision they have been doing at home. We feel that having the mini laptops is making a big difference with this. We would love to hear how you feel about this , if you have any comments about how the mini laptops our helping your child at home please let us know through the diaries.
We think that we are raising a generation of computer technicians as the vastness of the children's knowledge in sorting them out never ceases to amaze us!!
Keep it up guys we are really pleased with you!!

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be looking at strategies for adding strings of 1, 2 and 3 digit numbers and multiples of 10.
The will be looking at all the possible strategies and then choosing the one they feel the most comfortable using.

Try these websites to help:-
http://www.ictgames.com/technowithflock.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/addsubtract/mental/flash9.shtml
http://www.10ticks.co.uk/s_showGames.aspx?gameID=5#gamesContent

Topic

Our topic this week will involve us becoming authors and illustrators ourselves. We will spend the time designing and writing our own books aimed our foundation stage and Year 1 children. We will then make them into electronic books using software on our school computers and scanning in the illustrations that the children have prepared to go with their books.
After the books are completed we will invite the younger children to book readings from the authors.
We will then hope to put the finished books on our school website.

This promises to be a really interesting and exciting week!

Hope to see you at the book fair.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 25th January 2009

2009-01-25T02:34:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the last week of January, we just don't know where the time goes!!

First of all we would like to say thank you to the 6 children who attended the athletics competition at St. Gregory's on Friday. The children really did us proud with their behaviour and they mixed really well with both the other primary school children and the Year 10 sports leaders from St. Greg's. We did really well in the competition coming 2nd out of all the other feeder school. Great work children, you were fantastic.
Thank you also to the parents and grandparents that helped with transporting the children to the high school, we couldn't take part in these events without you.

Friends of St Vincent’s

The friends held a meeting in school this Friday at 3pm, in response to a dwindling turnout at their evening meetings. There were a few new faces, but they would love to have many more! They have helped to provide many of the new equipment and resources that we have in school, and the greater their numbers, the easier the workload! They have offered to make some drawstring bags for us, in order to store some of the new playground equipment. To help with this, they have asked that if anyone has any material which they wish to donate, then please send it into school. Maybe you have some old duvet covers that you no longer need, or some material that you promised you make something from! Many thanks in anticipation of your generosity.

On Friday this week our Year 6 children will be visiting the Peace Centre to attend Young Citizen 2009. They will be attending lots of different workshops including road safety, bicycle safety, fire safety etc. This is a valuable experience for the children and also an enjoyable one. We still have a few permission slips outstanding. This is becoming a real problem now, please encourage your child to give you any letters that have come home from school straight away and get them to put them straight back in their bags ready for school the next day. Previously we have rang parents on the morning of the trip and asked for their permission. We will no longer do this, so if your child does not have a slip then they cannot go out of school.

On the last week of term we will be holding our Spring Term parent's evenings. You should have a received a letter about this last week. We still have lots of slips outstanding, please ensure that you have sent beck your letter so we can avoid sending you out an appointment time that you cannot make. Thank you.

This week's curriculum...

Literacy

Our Year 5's will be continuing with their unit of work on persuasion. This week they will read and spell words through: identifying phonemes in speech and writing; blending phonemes
for reading; segmenting words into phonemes for spelling. Use independent spelling strategies, including: sounding out and spelling using phonemes. Identify how and why paragraphs are used to organise and sequence information. From examples of persuasive writing, investigate how style and vocabulary are used to convince the intended reader. To assemble and sequence points in order to plan the presentation of a point of view.

They will do this by reading different arguments and identifying the features and then moving on to planning their won persuasive argument.

Our Year 6's will be concentrating on writing this week as we will alternate between reading and writing each week.
We will be looking at examples of writing and which levels the writing had been given and we will also be looking at mark schemes to see where we can pick up marks in our writing.
We will be working on our VCOP (vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation) and trying to see how we can improve some of these areas. We will also be levelling some writing ourselves to see where extra marks can be picked up.

If you would like to have a go at some writing at home this week try some of these ideas (both for Year 5 and 6).

Writing an argument

You read a quote in the newspaper which says: ‘All children are mindless hooligans who watch too much television and have no idea of the way they should behave. If I had my way, they would all be put in the army, as it didn’t do me any harm.’ (Mr D. Green) Write a reply to the editor, arguing against the views in the letter.

Recounting events

Something happened on your way home from school last night. Recount the event to your friend.

Newletters

Your school is organising a sponsored 12 hour dance-athon for charity. Write a newsletter to encourage people to take part in the event.

Science fiction stories

The year is 2134 and the Intergalactic Space Police are on the trail of a master criminal, who has stolen the Life Diamond (the diamond at the centre of the earth, that controls the planet’s temperature.) Write a science fiction story based on this idea.

Stories with a dilemma

Jenny and her friends face a problem. The Lard Street Gang have called them soft because they won’t smoke cigarettes. Jenny doesn’t want to lose face with her friends but she doesn’t want to start smoking either. Write a story about what Jenny decides to do.

Stories with a twist

Ben could hear a noise. It was coming from his cellar. He decides to investigate. What does Ben find in the cellar? Tell the story to the end of his investigation, but try to include a twist at the end.

Fantasy adventures

Blakely has been captured by the evil high lords and put to work as a slave in the salt mine. He escapes and starts a journey back home to Little Hamlet. On his way home, Blakely meets a friendly creature and is nearly captured. Write a fantasy adventure based on this idea.

Numeracy

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be concentrating this week on area and perimeter.
They will be calculating the area and perimeter of regular/irregular polygons and using a formula to calculate the area of a rectangle.

Try these websites to get a head start:-

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/measures.htm#Area
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/perimeter_and_area/index.html
http://www.mathplayground.com/area_perimeter.html

Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's group will be continuing their work with percentages and decimals as we spent more time than we thought last week on ordering fractions.

Topic

Last week in our environment topic we did some art work based on the Tin Forest. We did the colourful aspect of the forest. This week we will be doing contrasting art work using tin foil to create out pictures.
If you have any spare tin foil at home please send it into school for your child to use. Thank you.

Drama

Ms Chapel could not make it school for the Year 6's drama session last week, we are expecting her this week so hopefully the drama will continue.

Finally, you should have received a letter informing you of the website Mr Worrall has set up to help combat the problems some people are having connecting their mini laptops to the internet. The website address is www.stvincentstech.co.uk there is lots of useful information on the site and if you are still having problems you can ask questions. Once again we would like to thank Mr Worrall for giving up his time and expertise to help us, we really appreciate it.

Have a great week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 19th January 2009

2009-01-20T03:33:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone.

First of all can I apologise for the blogspot not being updated at the weekend this week. I have been decorating and my internet connection was stood on by a workman!! I have been waiting for a new one to be delivered and have finally received it. It is really surprising how useless you feel without the internet.

Due to this happening to me I do realise how frustrating it is for the children to be given their brand new laptops and then not being able to connect to the internet at home.
From the sounds of things the majority or children are now up and running with their home connections, which it great, thank you for persevering with this and trying everything you can think of at home and also offering advise to each other.
For those of you who are still not managing to get on line, Mr Worrall has kindly offered to set up a technical support website to help with any problems that we cannot deal with. You will receive a letter with this web address on and will be able to look at the information that is already on and if you cannot find the answer to your query you can post a question to be answered.
Mr Worrall is doing this out of the goodness of his heart and we are very, very grateful for his time and efforts.

On Friday this week 6 of our Year 6 children will be taking part in an indoor athletics tournament at St Gregory's High School. If your child has been chosen you will have received a letter giving you information about this event. We will let you know how the children get on next week.

This week's curriculum......

Literacy

Year 5 will be continuing with their unit of work on Persuasive Writing. They really enjoyed beginning this topic last week.
This week they will be learning to identify the use of powerful verbs, identifying different
types of text, e.g. their content, structure, vocabulary, style, layout and purpose. Make short
notes, e.g. by abbreviating ideas, selecting key words, listing … .
Fill out brief notes into connected prose. From examples of persuasive writing, investigate how
style and vocabulary are used to convince the intended reader.

This week they will move to designing their own persuasive advert. We look forward to seeing some fantastic results. If you have magazines at home it would be helpful for the children to have a look at some adverts to see how they are presented.

Year 6 will be continuing with their revision. We have been very impressed with how hard the children are working at home as well as in school and we hope that they continue to keep up the good work throughout their revision programme.
This week we are looking at tackling longer questions in the reading test. These are 3 mark questions that children usually find difficult to answer. We will be starting off the week answering them in pairs and then go onto answering them ourselves. We will then look at the mark schemes for the tests to check what the expected answers are.
Have a look at last week's blogspots for websites to help with the reading test.

Numeracy

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be continuing their work on fractions but this week extending their work to include decimals and percentages.
There are loads of websites to help with this subject some our favourites are:-
http://www.mathszone.co.uk/
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/maths/contents08fracdecperratprop.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/activities/percentages.shtml

Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be continuing with their revision programme. We have noticed this week that the children are struggling with ordering fractions we have worked on this in class but it may form a good focus for your child's maths revision this week. The children have been on websites this week to help with this subject so they are aware of what can help, their revision books will also come in handy.

Science

We are continuing our dissolving topic and also continuing with revision for our Year 6's. This week the children will be focusing on living things.
Practical science this week will focus on the Earth, Sun and Moon.

Try these websites:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/living_things.shtml
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/Science/living.htm
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/science/ks1-2/resources/index.shtml
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2science.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/activities/earth_sun_moon.shtml
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/science/ks1-2/resources/index.shtml
http://www.engineeringinteract.org/teachers5.htm

Topic

This week in our Environment Topic we will be looking at Pollution. We will first look at our local area and then focus on Pollution around the world.
This could be a good opportunity to talk to your child about the need to recycle.
We will also be taking part in this year's Yellow Woods Challenge. The challenge this year will be slightly different. In previous years the children have brought old Yellow Pages into school. This year as Warrington now have blue bins you can recycle the Yellow Pages in the blue bin and the children just need to bring the front page into school.

Have a look at these websites:-

http://www.recyclezone.org.uk/tz_curriculum.aspx
http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/Resources/Fact_Sheets/Key_Stage_3/Air_Pollution/pdf/glossary.pdf
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/geography/ks1-2/resources/

Thanks for visiting the blogspot, see you next week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 12th January 2009

2009-01-11T04:16:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the second week of the Spring Term.

The children came back after Christmas ready and eager to learn.

We had a great time at the Panto on Friday and as usual when we take the children out of school their behaviour was fantastic, thank you.

Last week we had at least 10 people from each class without PE kits, please ensure that PE kits are in school this week, our PE lessons will be indoor although it is a good a idea to have an outdoor PE kit in school as well just for any unexpected times that we cannot use the hall.

Year 6 started their drama unit with Ms Chapel this week, the children really enjoyed it and Ms Chapel informed me that they were fantastic at it, we always knew we had a lot of drama queens in our midst!!

On Tuesday this week after school football will continue, Mr Slavin is running the club with help from some college students. Mr Slavin is also trying to arrange games with other local schools for the children. Thank you to Mr Slavin for giving up his time for this.

On Monday at 7pm we will be holding a meeting about the mini laptops. As explained on the letter you will be able to take your child's laptop home after the meeting providing that you have signed the relevant paper work and paid the insurance. Unfortunately we cannot let the laptops go home without the insurance payment as they will not be covered by the insurance.
If you cannot attend the meeting please arrange another time to come into school to sign the paper work and pay the insurance otherwise your child will not be able to take the laptop home.

This week's curriculum...

Literacy

This week will be splitting into 4 groups for literacy, 2 groups of Year 5 and 2 groups of Year 6.
The Year 5 children will be starting a unit of work on persuasive writing.
Their objectives this week will be:-

To evaluate advertisements for their impact, appeal and honesty, focusing
in particular on how information about the product is presented: exaggerated claims, tactics
for grabbing attention, linguistic devices, e.g. puns, jingles, alliteration, invented words.

To use alternative words and expressions which are more
accurate or interesting than the common choice.
To identify adverbs and understand their functions in
sentences.
To revise and extend work on adjectives.

Here are some websites to get you started:-
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/contents06writingnonfiction.htm
http://www.teachit.co.uk/index.asp?CurrMenu=searchresults&tag=580

Our Year 6 children will be starting to prepare themselves for the SAT's this week by working on how to tackle the reading test.
We will be working on our speed reading, skimming and scanning and reading for information.
We will also be looking at how to tackle the questions and understanding what the question actually wants us to find out.
You can help your child with this by ensuring that they are reading at home every night and they are doing quality reading and actually understanding what they are reading.
You could do this by reading a few chapters ahead of them and then questioning them on what they have read.

Here are some SAT's websites:-
http://www.brightminds.co.uk/sats-englishks2.htm
http://www.parentsintouch.co.uk/waystohelpyourchild/howicanhelpmy7-11yearold.htm
http://www.sats-past-papers.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=83

Numeracy

Mrs Morgan and Mr Barker's groups will also be preparing for their SAT's in their numeracy lessons. After completing a past paper before Christmas we know have a clearer idea of which children need to review which subjects and therefore there will be lots of different activities going on in the classroom to work on different subjects.
This week we will be reviewing decimals, fractions and percentages. We will be using the mini laptops as well as other games and workbooks to complete activities based on these subjects.
We will also be compiling a list of useful websites that will help with revision at home as well as in school.
Look out for the children's list of websites which will make it's way to you as soon as it is compiled.

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's group will be continuing their work on fractions this week but will be moving onto looking at equivalent fractions.
Take a look at these fraction worksheets.

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/book7/bk7i10/bk7_10i2.htm
http://www.mathsisfun.com/equivalent_fractions.html
http://www.learningplanet.com/sam/ff/index.asp
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/revision_bites/fractions2.shtml

Science

Our Science lessons this week will consist of continuing with our topic on more about dissolving. We will also have a practical science lesson on the effects of exercise on heart rate.
Each week our science lessons will consist of completing our topic for that half term and also having a practical lesson where the children will have a question that they will need to design an experiment to test it out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/revision_bites/reversible_irreversible3.shtml
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/science/ks1-2/resources/index.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/keeping_healthy_fs.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/keeping_healthy_fs.shtml

Topic

This week we will starting our new topic on the environment. We will be basing our topic on a book called 'The Tin Forest' by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson.
This week we will be using the mini laptops to do some research endangered species, we will then be completing a report on our chosen animal and thinking of solutions to try and stop these species being extinct.

Our topic will be the basis for a lot of our foundation subjects this half term. We will be incorperating drama, music, geogrpahy, history, PHSE and ICT into the our environment topic.

That's all for this week.

Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 5th January 2009

2009-01-04T04:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone an d welcome to 2009!

We hope you all had a happy and relaxing Christmas break and are reading to get down to some serious learning this half term.

We would like to start off by thanking you for all the fantastic Christmas cards and present the staff received at Christmas, it is very thoughtful of you and we really do appreciate it. Thank you.

Now let's see what's happening this week.

Monday
Monday this week is an INSET, the children do not return until Tuesday at 8.45am.

Wednesday
On Wednesday afternoon our Year 6 children we will starting drama sessions with Ms Chapel, who is a drama teacher at St Gregory's High School. The children really enjoy these sessions and also get a lot out of them.

We had also arranged a meeting for Wednesday evening about the new mini laptops. You will not have received a letter about this yet as we have been waiting for the insurance company to get back to us. As that has not happened yet we will have to delay the meeting until next week. Keep an eye out for the letter this week.
Even though the laptops are not going to go home this week we will get them out in school to get the children used to using them.

Friday
On Friday the whole school will be attending the Pantomime at the Parr Hall. We will be leaving school after the register and will return back around lunch time.
If you have not returned the permission slip yet please do so as soon as possible as we will not be able to take your child out of school without the slip.

Curriculum

Literacy

This week in Literacy we will be starting a revision unit on narrative writing.
We will be identifying narrative writing including past tense.
Understanding underlying themes & points of view. Expressing distinctions of meaning through the use of verb tense, Identifying story structure then creating a plan.
Using the techniques of dialog talk to explore ideas and issues.
Understanding how writers use different structures to create coherence/impact. Using different structures to shape & organise text. Write story following a plan.
Setting challenges to extend experience in writing.
Using a range of strategies to spell unfamiliar words.
Using paragraphs for pace, using punctuation to clarify meaning. Evaluating narrative. Appraising texts quickly, deciding on its value & quality. Reading extensively & discussing personal reading with others.
Understanding & using a variety of ways to criticise constructively. Participating in small group debate. Writing diary entries.
Using different narrative techniques to engage and entertain the reader.

This may seem like a lot to get through but it is a revision unit and therefore it is a review of objectives we have already visited in this academic year.

Numeracy

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be reviewing mixed numbers and improper fractions.
Try these websites:-
http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/book7/bk7i10/bk7_10i4.htm
http://www.visualfractions.com/MixtoFrCircle.html
http://www.themathpage.com/Arith/fractions.htm
http://www.mathplayground.com/fractions_mixed.html
http://www.aaamath.com/fra57c1-mixed2fractld.html

Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be using the exam papers we did before Christmas to decide which topics we need to review this week. We will go through them on Tuesday picking out what each individual child needs and set up work shops in the maths lessons for the rest of the week on the topics we need to do review.
This is a great time to start some revision yourself at home to get an idea of what you need to revise.
Try these websites:-
http://www.atschool.co.uk/subject/subject.asp?AreaSel=16
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/
http://www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk/Curriculum/Numeracy.htm
www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/

Science

As this week is a short week we will be completing a short topic called more about dissolving.
This week we will be setting the children a challenge, to obtain some clear water from some dirty water eg 'collected' from a puddle which has clearly visible particles eg gravel in it and solids dissolved in it. Then asking them to give a step-by-step description of what they did so that another class or group could follow it.

Here I Am

This week in Here I Am we will start the new topic of Journeys. We will start by looking at the journey of the three wise men as they went to visit baby Jesus.
We will also link this to Spanish this week as Epiphany is a big celebration in Spain and we will use the laptops to research we traditions the Spanish culture follow at this time of year.
Have a look at these websites:-
http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0310500/epiphany.html
http://www.annieshomepage.com/epiphany.html
http://gospain.about.com/od/christmasinspain/f/three_kings_day.htm

Finally we would like to congratulate Mr and Mrs Narraway and Faith on the birth of their new baby girl, Ellen Rose over the Christmas holidays. We are extremely pleased for them and hope to see Mrs Narraway and Ellen Rose soon.

That's all for this week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 15th December 2008

2008-12-13T03:47:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the last week of 2008!!

I'm sure by now the children are getting really excited for the arrival of Christmas day, we still have a whole week to get through before though and it's a busy one!

On Tuesday afternoon the children will be having their Christmas party. They have put themselves into friendship groups and decided what food each of them is bringing in. Your child should have brought you a letter home informing you of what they will need. If they have not done this please ask them what they have agreed to bring. The children are allowed to wear their own clothes on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning we will be walking to Church to practice for the carol service. We will be back for lunch but please be aware that the children will not be able to buy toast and therefore will need a snack to take to Church.

On Friday morning the whole school will be heading to Church for the Carol Service. The service will begin at 10am. You are welcome to join us for this event but please remember that space is limited

On Friday afternoon we will be attending one of our favourite events, the parents panto, we look forward to finding out what treat are in store for us this year.

Our curriculum for the rest of the week will involve practicing for the Carol Service and going through the remainder of the tests we did last week.

Due to problems with insurance the mini laptops will not be able to go home until the first week back in January. We will be holding a parents meeting about them in the first week so look out for the letter.

That's all for this very short blog.

Have a happy and holy Christmas and a great new year.

See you in 2009!

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 8th December 2008

2008-12-07T03:37:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's blogspot.

We have a busy week ahead this week so let start with a few dates for your diaries.

On Monday the children will have their Christmas Lunch. They should have pre-ordered their lunch through the letter that went out a few weeks ago. If they did not do this then they can order a lunch on Monday. Please remember that their will be no toast on sale at break time and therefore they will need to bring one with them.

On Tuesday afternoon our Year 6 and our Foundation Stage children will be attending the annual Carol Service at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool. The children will leave school after lunch and will return at approximately 4pm. Please ensure that all outstanding permission slips are sent into school by Monday. Thank you.

The Year 5's will remain in school on Tuesday afternoon and will continue with their playground leader games taught by Mr Wilby from St. Gregory's.

The after-school football club will also start this Tuesday, the Year 6's will miss the first week as they will not return from the Cathedral in time.

Our assessment week last week went well and we only have a few assessments to finish off this week.

Literacy

The children completed an assessed piece of writing last week, this week we will be looking at the writing they did and giving them targets to improve their writing. They will also be able to look through their assessed writing with the marking criteria and see where they could have picked up more marks and the things they could have improved on.

They will then re-draft their writing and re-assess it to see of they can improve on their level.

Numeracy

The Year 5's still have one of their tests to complete, which they will do on Monday.
Our Year 6 groups will be going through the tests that they completed last week and addressing any subjects that they found difficult.

ICT

You may remember a few weeks ago we informed the Year 6 children that they would have their own mini laptop to use in school and they would be able to take them home as well. We have now bought the laptops into school for all the Year 5 and 6 children.
We are hoping that the laptops will be set up and ready for the children to take home before Christmas but please bear in mind that it will take a long time to set up 90 of them and it will depend on how quick we can get this done.

Here I Am

This week in Here I Am we will be focusing on the Christmas Story. We will have had lots of input on this from watching the Key Stage 1 and Year 3/4 production and also attending the carol service at the Cathedral and of course preparing for our own carol service.

The children will be using the information they found out about improving their writing to write their own Christmas Story.

When we do have time this week we will be practising the readings and songs for our carol service. The service will take place at St. Joseph's Church on Friday 19th December at 10am.
Please feel free to join us in this celebration but be aware space will be limited as the whole school will be attending.
Year 5 and 6 will also be walking to Church on Wednesday of next week to practice for the service, please ensure your child has a permission slip so we can walk up to Church.

That's all for this week.

See you next week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 1st December 2008

2008-11-29T14:34:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, well it's finally here DECEMBER, and it's brought with it the Christmas weather!!

The friends of St. Vincent's annual Christmas Fayre took place this Saturday. It was a very festive occasion and was lovely to see so many of you there. The school council's bring and buy stall was a huge success as usual and we will let you know next week how much was raised. Thank you to everyone who helped out and to everyone for attending and making it such a successful event.

This week will be our assessment and review week.

Usually we would carry out our assessments in the last week of term but as Christmas is such an exciting time for the children, we felt it would only be fair to do this earlier, it will also help us to get the best out of the children.

The children will be assessed on Maths, English and Science which they have studied in this term. Please see this whole terms blogspots for the topics we have covered and for websites to help review your learning.

The children will also be reviewing the huge amount of ICT they have done this term by teaching Year 3 and 4 to use the new school laptops and teaching Year 1 to use the mini laptops.
Our Year 5 and 6 have become really skilled in this area and they will now be able to pass on their knowledge. They have planned their own lessons and will carry them out and then evaluate how their lessons went.

When we are not carrying out assessments the children will be writing their own biographies. They started this last week after hearing Roald Dahl's Boy for inspiration, they have produced some interesting work so far and we can't wait to see the finished result.

We did not have time to complete our bread experiment last week and therefore will be making our bread this week.

In Here I Am, the topic of birthdays now moves on to look at the season of advent. We will be looking at the advent wreath and it's meanings and discussing ways in which we prepare to celebrate Jesus' birth.

We also be deciding on reader and singers for our carol service this week and practising the songs and readings.

Finally, Mrs Narraway starts her maternity leave on Friday, we wish her well and hope to hear news of her new baby soon.

Thanks for visiting this weeks very short blogspot, see you next week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 24th November 2008

2008-11-23T07:35:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the last blog of November!!

We have a busy week this week. Here are some dates for your diary to begin with.

Non uniform day

This Friday is a non uniform day. We would be grateful if children could bring something for the Tombola stall for the Christmas Fayre.

Christmas Fayre
Saturday sees the Friends of St Vincent’s hold their annual Christmas Fayre, between 11am and 1pm. Please do come along to visit Santa’s grotto and lots of other fun activities and stalls.
The school council would also appreciate any toys and books that are in a good condition for their bring and buy stall.

Operation Christmas Child
If you would like to send a shoebox into school, filled with Christmas gifts, then please do so by WEDNESDAY of this week. You will have received a leaflet explaining the types of things which are suitable to include for each age range. The boxes need to be able to be opened by customs, so securing the lid on with an elastic band is the best way to do this. Please also ensure that you remember to include the correct amount for postage costs.

Christmas Lunch
The children will be having their Christmas lunch on 8th December, so if you would like your child to take part in this, and haven’t already done so, please send in the payment by Monday. Obviously, children will not need a packed lunch for that day, but please bear in mind, that there will be no toast available at morning break on that day.

This weeks curriculum...

Literacy

This week we will be working on arguments.
We have lots of objectives to cover by the end of the week.
We need to be able to read and talk about discussion texts and arguments.
Write discussion text or argument.
Summarise texts and make notes. Identify passive verbs and change them to active.
Build up a bank of words and phrases for discussion and argument.
Take part in discussions, debates or planning inquiries.

By the end of this week the children:-
Must be able to construct a verbal argument.
Should be able to construct a written argument.
Could be able to construct a written argument that can be presented.

Try this website to help:-
http://www.globalfootprints.org/pdf/deserveswater_waterlit56.pdf

Numeracy

This week Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be moving on to multiplying Th H T U x T U and using a fraction as an 'operator' to find fractions of amounts.
The children were very good at multiplying last week and now need to extend this knowledge it's really important to work on your times tables.
Have a look at these websites:-
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/index.html
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/fractions/index.htm

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be working on length and weight.
The children will be suggesting suitable units and equipment to estimate and measure length and weight, measure and draw lines to the nearest millimetre and record estimates and recordings from weighing scales.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/measures.htm#Measure
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/measures.htm#Weight

Science

In science we will be looking at the micro-organism Yeast. The children will be investigating the difference in making bread with, and without yeast.
The will also observe the conditions needed in order to help yeast become active.

Why not try making some bread of your own at home.

Try the recipe on this website:-
http://www.foodiesite.com/recipes/2000-07:f4funbread

PE

In PE this week we will be carrying on with orienteering and Mr Wilby from St Greg's will be coming back into school on Tuesday to work with the children on their playground leadership games which they are really enjoying.

That's all for this week.

Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 17th November 2008

2008-11-16T06:18:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, hope you are having a good weekend.

On Thursday this week it is the Key Stage 2 disco, so get ready to boogie!!

The school council would like to make a plea for toys and books for their bring and buy stall at the Christmas Fair. Please make sure if you do send stuff into school that it is in good working order. Thank you.

This week's curriculum:-

Literacy

This week is our last week on quests. The children have really enjoyed this topic and some of their ideas are fantastic.
We will be working on drama this week. We will be doing some hot seating using the characters from the Lord of the Rings and the children will also be doing some drama on their own quests as well.
We will also finish writing our quests and recording them in different ways using the laptops.

Numeracy

The children did some fantastic work last week on averages using the mean, median, mode and range. They really got to grips with this topic and understood it really well.
This week Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be working on multiplying HTU by TU using standard written methods and multiplying U.th by U.

Try these websites:-
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=Toolkit%20index2a http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/multiplication/written/flash2.shtml multiply by larger numbers by partitioning. http://www.multiplication.com/interactive/quickflash/flash/index.html

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's group will be working on symmetry. They will be learning to understand the terms 'reflective symmetry' and 'axis of symmetry' , recognise reflective symmetry in regular polygons, recognise where a shape will after reflection in a mirror line parallel to one side.

Try these websites:-
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2numeracy.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/revision_bites/shapes6.shtml
http://www.educationict.org.uk/bpt/symmetry.htm

Science

This week we will be looking at how micro-organisms effect food. We will also be having a look a what micro-organisms look like and them making our 3-d models of them.
If you have any scrap materials at home, for example egg boxes etc please send them into school to help with our model making.
Please see previous blogspots for websites on micro-organisms.

Here I Am.

This week we will be starting our new topic of birthdays. This week we will be recognising reasons for celebrating birthdays.

PE

The children enjoyed doing orienteering last week but got very muddy due to the weather. Please make sure that they have an outdoor PE kit in school at all times.

Music

This week we will be starting to learn some Carols for the Christmas Carol Concert which we are leading this year. It may feel a bit early to be singing Carols but we really haven't got that long left till Christmas so need to make a start.

Thanks for visiting the blogspot.

Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 10th November 2008

2008-11-09T02:27:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, we are all settled back in now and ready for some hard work this half term.

Let get straight to it.

Literacy

We will continue our work on Quests this week. Most of the learning objectives will be the same as last week but we will also be moving on to planning and writing our own quest stories.
Your child should have a sticker in their diary this week about extracts of movies that we will be watching in school this week.
All of the extracts are from children's movies e.g. The Golden Compass, The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Lord of the Rings etc but some of these movies are rated PG. If you do not wish your child to watch these then please put a note in their diaries to make us aware of this, we will check all the diaries before we watch any of the movies. Thank you.
The children will have to make notes when watching the movies to help them when they come to plan their own.

Numeracy

This week Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be working on averages and looking at mean, median, mode and range. We will find the mode and range of a set of data, begin to find the mean and median of a set of data and calculate different types of averages of a set of data.
Try these websites:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/activities/modemedianmean.shtml
http://revisionworld.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/mean-median-mode-and-range-rhyme/

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be working on frequency tables and pictograms.
They will be collecting their own data and constructing their own pictograms. They will also study other pictograms and interpret the data.
Try this website to help:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/activities/interpretingdata.shtml
You could also try making your own pictograms at home.

Science

We will continue our work on micro-organisms. We will be looking at food hygiene this week and what it needs to survive. We will be going on a visit to the kitchen and having a look round at the hygiene and also looking at posters and rules that have to be followed when cooking.
You could help at home by discussing with your child how you ensure that your kitchen and food preparation is hygienic.

Topic

We will get back to our Greek topic this week. We will look at the Spartan Army and be designing our own shields and swords for a battle. If you have any cardboard boxes at home that you do not need could you please send them into school so we can use them to make our props.
Please send them in flat so that we can store them in classroom.
Have a look at these websites for information on the Spartan Army:-
http://www.sikyon.com/sparta/history_eg.html
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/government/spartans2.htm

PE

The children have designed their orienteering courses this week and will be using them in the next few weeks in their PE lessons. They will need an outdoor PE kit for these activities. They need old clothes and old trainers as they will be going on the field and will get muddy. Thank you.

That's all for this week, until next time.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 3rd October 2008

2008-11-02T04:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to a very hectic but fun half term. The half term leading up to Christmas is always an enjoyable one as we can all get into the Christmas spirit.

Thank you to all the parents who attended parents evening during the last week of half term.

We hope you all had a good rest over the holidays and are ready to work your socks off in the run up to Christmas (we have to do something to keep ourselves warm!!).

Literacy

This week we will be looking at a unit of work based on the novels 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' by JR Tolkin , many of the children will have read this book but we will also be reading some of it in school too.
The children will begin to understand what a Quest adventure is.
Understand underlying themes, causes and points of view. /Appraise a text quickly.
Read extensively and discuss personal reading with others including in reading groups.
Use a range of oral techniques to present persuasive arguments.
Explore the setting of a famous quest.
Make notes when listening for a sustained period.
Appraise a text quickly deciding on its value, quality or usefulness.
Summarise a passage, chapter or texts.
Understand how writers use different structures to create coherence and impact.
If you have these books at home why not try sharing them with your child this week?

Numeracy
This week Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be learning to read and plot coordinates in all four quadrants and we will also be looking at the properties of 3d shapes.
Bonfire night is a great time for looking at 3d shapes, if you have fireworks at home you will seen that they come in all manner of 3d shapes, get your child to describe the properties of these shapes, before they are set off of course!!

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be looking at parallel and perpendicular lines, they will learn to recognise parallel and perpendicular lines and to classify triangles using criteria such as equal sides, equal angles and lines of symmetry.

Science
We will continue our topic of micro-organisms this week. We will combine science with history this week and will investigate Edward Jenner, who was a pioneer in discovering vaccinations.
Try these websites to find out information about him:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/jenner_edward.shtml
http://www.zephyrus.co.uk/edwardjenner.html

Topic
We will use our topic time this week to discover what bonfire night is all about. We will research Guy Fawkes and investigate the 'Gun Powder Plot'.
There are many websites about this subject but the children will be using the laptops to research their own information and therefore will find their own websites.
Each group will then give a presentation at the end of the week using the information they have found out on this subject.

Here I Am
We will be focusing on Confirmation this week in our invitation topic. We will discuss how this cements our path into the Church community.

Have a sparkling week and be safe on Wednesday!!

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 20th October 2008

2008-10-19T01:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Week Beginning 13th October 2008

2008-10-12T03:06:00.000-07:00

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

Week Beginning 6th October 2008

2008-10-04T03:46:00.000-07:00

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.

Week Beginning 29th September 2008

2008-09-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Week Beginning 22nd September 2008

2008-09-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

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.

Week Beginning 15th September 2008

2008-09-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Week Beginning 8th September 2008

2008-09-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

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.

Week Beginning 14th July 2008

2008-07-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to a very emotional blogspot, our last of this academic year!

As of yet we have still not received our Year 6 SATs results in school. We are hoping they will arrive this week but as you are probably aware there have been a number of problems with new systems introduced this year. We aim to get the results out as soon as we receive them. Thank you for your patience.

There are a number of things happening in school this week so here we go.

Monday
The whole school are on their annual visit to Gulliver's World. We will be leaving school at 9.15am and returning at 3pm.
We hope that the weather will be kind to us but remembering last year's wash out please ensure your child has a waterproof coat.
All children will need a packed lunch with a few drinks as are out for the whole day.
They can bring a couple of pound to spend in the shop but as the children have visited Gulliver's World on a number of occasions we will not be spending a long time in the shop.
When we return to school please collect your child from the playground as usual, it is very difficult to keep track of where the children are if parents collect them from the coaches.
Thank you to all those parents who have offered to help out, we really appreciate it.

Tuesday
On Tuesday evening at 6.30pm we have a real treat in store. The children will be performing some songs in their production 'A Night with the Stars'.
You should have received your tickets for this production and some for Wednesday afternoon's production. If they have not made their way home please see one of the team as soon as possible. We cannot allow admission without a ticket due to health and safety.
We would like to thank parents for their effort with the children's costumes, they are fantastic and we had a real laugh on Friday when they tried them on. Thank you very much it really makes a big difference to the performance.

Wednesday
We will also be performing on Wednesday afternoon at 1.30pm.

Wednesday evening is the time for the leavers disco, very emotional and lots of fun.

Friday
On Friday we have our leavers mass. It will take place in the school hall at 9am, you are very welcome to join us but as usual space is limited.

On Friday we say a final goodbye to out Year 6 children. This is a very said time for us as we have watched them grow into the young people they are today. We hope that they will come back and visit us from time to time and make us feel really old!
We wish them all the luck in the world with lives, in high school and further.

We will see our Year 5 children next year and they now know which teacher they will be having. You should have received their reports on Friday.
We look forward to welcoming our Year 4 children into Year 5/6.

Finally thank you for your support this year, it has been very busy but happy and we have had a great time along the way!!

See you September.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 7th July 2008

2008-07-03T02:44:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

We really can't believe that we are nearly at the end of another very busy and eventful school year! Our Year 6 children are looking forward to moving on to the High School and we are looking forward to our Year 5's becoming Year 6's and our Year 4's moving up to Year 5.

Last week our Year 6 children started a transition unit in RE with Miss Conlon from St Gregory's High School. Miss Conlon will also be coming into school on Monday morning to work with the Year 6's.

We did get outside last week and do some practice for Sports Day, we are really hoping that it will go ahead and if the weather permits it will take place on Tuesday 8th July, if not it will take place on Thursday 10th July. We are keeping everything crossed!

Our end of year production is starting to take shape now. Hopefully your child will have told you if they need a costume, if not you can pop in and see one of the Year 5/6 team and we will be happy to point you in the right direction.
We will be spending a lot of the week practicing for the production.
There will be no homework this week as we feel the time is needed to get costumes ready and learn song lyrics.
We now have the dates for our production 'A Night with the Stars', it will take place on Tuesday 15th July in the evening and Wednesday 16th July in the afternoon. You should receive your tickets soon so keep an eye of for them this week.
As usual we cannot allow entrance without a ticket due to health and safety regulations.

We are hoping that reports will go out at the end of next week but up to now we have still not received our Year 6 SATs results back into school, so hopefully they will arrive this week and we can get the reports out.

This week we will spend our time in class preparing for next year. We will be completing a piece of writing to pass up to the next teacher. We will also be completing some teacher and self assessments in maths and science to pass on to the next teacher.

That brings us to end of this weeks very short blog, although it is short we have lots to fit in, so much to do so little time!

Have a great week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 30th June 2008

2008-06-29T06:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well rested after our busy week last week.

The children who took part in the dance at the Parr Hall were fantastic and the behaviour was exemplary considering it was such a long day, thank you children.

Mrs Clancy and Mrs Hemmings were extremely impressed with the children they took along to the Steel Pan Workshop last week. They were amazed at how much the children took in such a short amount of time and also congratulated the children on their excellent behaviour. Thank you to Mrs Clancy and Mrs Hemmings for taking the children to the event.

Most of the Year 5 and 6 children took part in 'The Kids of Steel Triathlon' on Friday morning. This was a great event which the children really enjoyed, we were really lucky to be able to take all of the children and we had a great time.

It was also Spanish week last week and the children did lots of work on Spain and the Spanish language. They came in with some fantastic homework on a famous Spanish person. They also enjoyed the Flamenco dancing on Thursday, even the boys, who weren't too keen at first. We even had children Flamenco dancing out of school on Friday afternoon!!

This week is also a busy one, so much for lazy summer days!

We will start our preparations for Sports Day this week. We are really hopeful that the weather will be kind to us as we love Sports Day, but as I am writing this the sky has just gone black and I have had to run outside and bring the washing in!!
Anyway we shall persevere and sort out which races the children are in tomorrow. We may have to go outside at a moments notice this week (whenever the weather allows) so it is important that the children have their PE kit in school at all times. They will need a white t-shirt and blue shorts and suitable footwear. It is also a good idea for them to have suncream, a cap and a water bottle in school each day.
If the weather permits Sports Day will take place in the 8th July, the 10th July is our reserve date in case it has to be cancelled, hopefully it will go ahead.

On Tuesday our Year 6 children have a teacher from St Gregory's RE department coming in to school to start a transition project with them. She will come in this Tuesday and next Monday.

Most of this week will be spent putting together our production. The date has still not been finalised yet and hopefully we should be able to do this tomorrow and let you know. Because we have been so busy over the last few weeks we have hardly had any time to practice, therefore most of this week will be spent on preparations.

What with Sports Day practice and Production practice you will be wondering if we can fit in any curriculum this week but as always the answer is yes!

We will be continuing with our work on Spanish artists and also making clay models with Mrs Fox.

We also have our modern day Shakespeare stories to write after we planned them a few weeks ago and we have myths to write which we also planned a few weeks ago.

In maths we will be reviewing our learning over the past few weeks as we have not had to the time to do the subjects we have looked at in enough detail.

Please see the last few weeks blogspots for information and websites.

Thanks.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 23rd June 2008

2008-06-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hola! (I don't have an upside down exclamation mark on my keyboard but there should be one at the beginning of Hola)

We had a bit of an emotional roller coster last week with the boys football team. They were beaten on penalties in the semi final of the Penketh Cup by Penketh South. The boys should be really proud of themselves as the they were fantastic and showed great sportsmanship throughout the entire tournament. Well done boys. Thank you also to the parents who came along to all the games and to Mr Buckley for preparing them.

Ten of our Year 6 children also went to St Gregory's to play in a rounders tournament, they played really well and came second, fantastic considering they had no practice sessions before hand. Thank you to Mrs Morgan for taking the children and to the parents who helped us with transporting the children to the High School.

We have another really busy week this week. On Monday evening 20 of our Year 5 and 6 children are taking part in the Primary Arts Network Performance Evening at the Parr Hall. The children will perform poems and a dance. Parents are welcome to attend and tickets can be bought at the box office. If your child is involved in this event they will need to be collected from the Parr Hall at 8.30pm.

On Tuesday our Year 6 children are going to St Gregory's for the day. This is a really exciting time for them as they will be put into the classes they will be in next year. The children have to wear their uniform, some of them have asked if school summer uniforms are ok and this will be fine, whatever you would wear if you were coming to school on a normal day.

On Wednesday, 16 of our Year 5 and 6 children will be taking part in a Steel Pan Drum Workshop at Sir Thomas Boalter High School. They will travel from school on a coach. If your child has been chosen for this event you will have received a letter. Some letters did go out to children by mistake as a supply teacher gave out the wrong ones. If your child received a letter with their name on then they have been chosen.

On Friday all of the Year 5 and 6 children and staff will be travelling to Lymm High School to take part in 'The Kids of Steel Triathlon'. You should have received a letter by now with the details on. All the children need to attend the event as there will be no staff in school to look after them.
They will need a swimming kit and towel and a PE kit preferably with trainers. The bike and bike helmet will be provided. The children will not return to school until 12.30pm and therefore will all need to have a packed lunch.

I told you it was another busy week! Running alongside all these activities it is also Spanish week and we will be exploring lots of things about Spain. We will look at Spanish culture, geography, history, art, music and language.
We already know a lot about the Spanish language, we will be reviewing our learning and also learning so new words.
We will be looking at 4 different Spanish Artists by using the following website:-
http://www.albany.edu/~jd7111/isp561/artistindex.html

On Thursday all the children will be taking part in a Spanish dance workshop.

The children have been informed that they can come dressed as the colours in the Spanish flag on Friday. As we are attending the triathlon in morning we feel that they should wear something that identifies them as a member of our school. For example they could wear their red and yellow clothes and then wear a school jumper or cardigan over the top while we are out of school. If they have a school cap or coat these would also be acceptable.

That's all for now, make sure you get some much needed sleep for a very busy week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 16th June 2008

2008-06-14T03:50:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's blog.
Some of our Year 5 and 6 boys are doing really well in the Penketh Cup Football Tournament. On Monday they played St. Joseph's and won 2-1 and on Wednesday they played Barrow Hall Lane and won 9-0, they also played a friendly against Barrow Hall Lane on Monday and won 3-1.
This is the group stage of the competition and they have another game on Monday at 3.30pm at Stocks Lane. The final will be played on the week beginning 23rd June.
They boys have worked really hard and their behaviour is fantastic, I can't believe they are so skill full at such a young age!!
During the game against St. Joespeh's, William Fazakerly was awarded 'man of the match' and during the Barrow Hall Lane game 'man of the match' went to Edward Shaw, well done boys.

We have lots of other events going on in the next few weeks as well. On Thursday this week St. Gregory's are holding a rounders tournament for all the feeder schools, unfortunately we can only take a team of 10, when the children were asked if they wanted to play they response was overwhelming so unfortunately we will have to pick names out of a hat. If your child is chosen you will get a letter on Monday, we would appreciate any help with transporting the children to the high school. Thanks.

On Monday 23rd June we are involved in The Primary Arts Network Performance Night.
The event is to take place at the Pyramid Arts Centre, we will be performing a poem and a dance to theme of 'Echos in Water'.
Again, if your child is chosen to be part of this event you will receive a letter with the details on Monday.
The performance will start at 7pm and tickets can be purchased from the box office.

Last week we had two Police Constables from Cheshire Police in School to talk about anti-bullying. It was very informative and the children really enjoyed it. They had lots of questions to ask, although so of them did stray from the subject! We are really pleased that our children have such inquisitive minds!

On Saturday 21st our Year 3 children will be receiving their First Holy Communion. We wish them good luck and are sure it will be a very happy and enjoyable time.

This weeks curriculum .....

Literacy
Our 5 children will continue on the theme of myths and legends. We had great fun last week listening to some myths and legends and picking out the features of them.
This week we will be picture cards to help us to plan our own myths and legends, this will eventually lead to us writing our own myth or legends. We are even planning to record the stories and we may publish them on the internet, if we feel they are good enough.
This week we
Must be able to identify features in stories.
Should be able to use the story mountain to plan our own stories.
Could start to think about and use different methods to build tension in our stories e.g. short sentences.

Here is a reminder of the website we are using and where will publish our finished stories.
http://myths.e2bn.org/

The Year 6 children will continue their work on William Shakespeare, this week they will begin to read one of his most famous stories 'Romeo and Juliet.' This is great preparation for high school.
Please see last week's blog for websites.

Numeracy
The Year 6 children will be continuing with their transition project this week.

Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's group have raced through the maths curriculum this year, we have spent some time reviewing subjects that the children found difficult when completing their tests and now feel that it is time to start preparing them for next year's curriculum. We will therefore be starting some of the Year 6 topics. This week we will be looking at expressing a quotient as a fraction, or a decimal rounded to one decimal place. This means that we will be doing sums that don't divide into a whole number exactly e.g. 46 divided by 7 and finding out the answer is 6 and 4/7.
It's sounds difficult but if the children have good knowledge of their tables they will find it much easier, so keep working on those tables.

Science
Because of our SATs preparation we have not have had the opportunity to prepare and teach anymore lessons to our Year 1 and 2 children. This week we will use the knowledge we have acquired in our topics of Gases Around Us and Changing State to start to plan a lesson for the younger children.
The children really do love doing this and it is an excellent way of consolidating their learning, we are always amazed with the lessons they come up with and will have to keep and eye on our own jobs as we are sure some children have their sights set on them!

Topic
Our Dragons Den topic is hotting up now and we got a lot of market research done last week. We now feel it is time to start to make prototypes and samples of our products, exciting times!!

Production
We have started to put together a running order for the production and hopefully this week we will be able to get some practice in.

With this much to fit in I think we all need to start sleeping at school just to get through it!!
We will do our best to get through it all but we may have some very tired children, and teachers, by the end of this week!

Have a great weekend, see you on Monday.

Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 9th June

2008-06-06T02:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!
Hope you had a fantastic half-term break and are raring to go for the last half term before the summer break. This is a really short term and we are hoping it will be fun (and sun) all the way!

END OF YEAR PRODUCTION
We still have a lot of work to fit in as well as a year 5/6 end of year PRODUCTION. We really enjoyed the singing element of last year’s end of year performance and so this is the route we felt it would be good to go down this year. We felt we would like a slight twist though, so we have decided that we are going to showcase music and artists throughout the decades, starting with the 1940’s right through to present day! This should make sure that there is something to tickle every musical taste bud. Dust off those Michael Jackson wigs, and blue suede shoes NOW!
No doubt you have already pestered your parents with ideas of who you would like to be and what song you will possibly be singing/performing/miming to.
As always, we need to make sure that the year 6 take priority for the parts in the production, however we will need year 5’s as well. Remember year 5’s that your time will come next year!
We are hoping that during this next week children will have a good idea of children’s roles within the production, and you can therefore start practicing at home, and thinking about costume ideas. We realise that some costumes will be more complicated to put together than others and so want to let parents know ASAP. We will not be giving out specific costume letters as we feel that it is much easier for you to look at the artist your child is impersonating and choose a look you feel is easiest to replicate. As soon as we know details of performance dates we will send them home.

LITERACY
Year 6
A few years ago we trialled teaching some Shakespeare to year 6! We were so impressed with the children’s enthusiasm and understanding we thought we would try it again this year! We will spend the start of the week finding out some information about the Bard himself. Later in the week we will begin to read and respond to a ‘child friendly’ version of Romeo and Juliet. Although this still has a lot of Shakespearian language included it is much more accessible for children. Whilst reading the play we will act out certain parts, create poetry, take part in quizzes and generally absorb ourselves in the play. This should take us up to the end of half-term and also be brilliant transition for key stage 3. We will keep you updated as to how we get on with this project. In the meantime web sites that may help with Shakespeare include the following…..
www.shakespeareforkidz.com
www.shakespeareforkids.co.uk
www.shakespeare.org.uk

Year 5
We will be starting on a new topic about Myths & Legends. We have covered aspects of Myths & Legends before, however this will give us the opportunity to delve deeper and gain a deeper understanding of this genre. Targets this week, will include the following….

Style: Language effects
Use powerful verbs to show character.
Use well-chosen phrases or vocabulary to engage the reader.

Interpretation and response
Identify and discuss issues locating evidence in the text.

Knowing how text works
Identify features of different fiction genre, i.e. myths and legends.
To identify the features of myths.
To investigate how characters are presented.
Write character sketches, focusing on small details to evoke sympathy or dislike.
To adapt writing for different readers and
purposes.
To understand how paragraphs or chapters are used to collect and order ideas.

MATHS
Year 5
The curriculum continues as usual and the children in both Mrs Morgan’s and Miss Wright’s group will be learning the following…
To subtract integers of up to 10,000 using formal and informal methods.
To subtract numbers to 2 decimal places.
As usual loads of games and interactive learning will take place to make these topic as fun as possible.
By the end of the week children,
MUST use an informal method to subtract integers up to 10,000.
SHOULD use both formal and informal methods to subtract integers up to 10,000.
COULD begin to subtract numbers to 2 decimal places.

Try logging on to www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk and following the Maths links for some excellent speed subtraction games to help you with these objectives.

Year 6
We will be embarking on some transition work to ease the year 6’s into the Mathematics required for the High School. Much of this knowledge is what we have already acquired, but just requires the children to think in a more sophisticated manner. The DFES provide a pack of material for children to further develop their understanding, and we will build on this in school. We will be consolidating lots of learning, but also favouring a more problem solving route where children are encouraged to think for themselves more, and see patterns in number and data. This sounds really hard going, but lots of fun will be had, and children will feel more confident about what will be expected of them in September.
The week before half-term the children worked in collaborative learning teams to produce lessons and lesson material to teach a mathematical concept, such as times tables to year 3 and 4. The children will get the opportunity to finish resources this week and hopefully teach their session to a group of the younger children. From the quality resources I have seen made, we teachers will soon all be out of a job!!!

SCIENCE
This week in Science we will be continuing with our topic on Changing State. The week’s theme is UPS and DOWNS and we will be Measuring water temperature from freezing point to boiling point. Our objectives for this week are to understand…
· that the boiling point of pure water is 100 ºC, and that beyond that point further heating does not result in any further rise in temperature;
· that the freezing point of pure water is 0 ºC;
and ………
· to obtain evidence by careful observation and measurement;
· to identify patterns in data and to use these to make predictions;
· to explain the patterns they observe in terms of scientific knowledge and understanding.

TOPIC – DRAGON’S DEN
As we explained before half-term we have invited the children, in groups, to come up with a new concept that they will make and market, if the 'Dragons' agree to give them the funding! The excitement generated by this project as been huge and the children are buzzing with ideas for their concept. This week children are still at the planning and design stage of their products and will continue to complete marking research on their product by completing questionnaires and surveys. We are still trying to get across to the children that although some of the ideas are amazing, they do need to be products that can actually be DESIGNED and CONSTRUCTED with minimal work. We have a wonderful new ice-cream design in production, but how easy this will be to make is debatable!! Any help from home in encouraging the children to design products that can be created would be really helpful!!
We hope that this topic will encompass the creative curriculum in a fun, engaging manner. A cross-curricular topic allows for Design Technology, Art, Science, English (Speaking and Listening) and Maths to be taught concurrently.

That’s all for this fun-filled, super-packed week. Have a great one!
The Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 19th May 2008

2008-05-17T03:20:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it and in a very professional and hard working manner!! We would like to firstly thank the children in both year groups for working so hard and being so sensible during test week. We also thank parents and everyone at home who have helped in the children's preparation for the tests and also all the staff at school who have been so supportive and flexible in helping us prepare for the tests.

Now that they are behind us we embark on our final week of this half term and head towards the last half term of the school year and for our Year 6's, their last half term at St Vincent's!!

This week will be just as busy as any other in Year 5/6 so let's get down to what we will be learning.

Literacy

In literacy this week we will be looking at poetry. In the first part of the week we will be reading and responding to poetry and at the end of the week writing our own poetry and entering it into a national competition.

The competition is called The Big Green Poetry Machine.

Prizes include sponsoring a teacher in Kenya for a year . Sponsoring an acre of rainforest . Adopting an endangered animal . Sponsoring a child in the Third World . Free bookmark from sustainable paper source for everyone who takes part.

The themes for this year's poems are:-

What you can do to help the world and how you can make a difference.

Here is the website for the competition:-

http://www.youngwriters.co.uk/

Numeracy

This week Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's groups will be looking at different types of triangles. We will be naming and classifying different triangles and recognising properties of different triangles and recognising acute and obtuse angles in shapes.

By the end of the week the children:-

MUST be able to identify different types of triangles.

SHOULD be able to recognise properties of different triangles.

COULD recognise acute and obtuse angles in shapes.

Try these websites to help:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/revision_bites/shapes1.shtml

http://www.sparklebox2.co.uk/thumbs21-25/s2b25.html

Mrs Millington's group will be having some fun in Maths this week having worked so hard last week! We will be focusing on putting to good use all of the learning we have revised and reviewed over the year! Here is the Plan....
We are going to design and produce resources for children lower down the school to use for their learning. For example, if a year 3 was having trouble learning some of their times tables, a group could devise a board game/snap cards/lesson pack to support this topic, and make learning tables fun!
This activity will enable you to be the teacher, and consolidate your learning at the same time. By the end of the week we will hopefully have lots of good resources that the lower key stage 2 Teachers will be happy to use with their classes!

Science

This week in science we will be looking at condensation. We will be learning:-

That condensation is the changing of gas or vapour into a liquid;
That condensation can occur when vapour comes into contact with a cooler surface or material;
That condensation occurs in enclosed air spaces which contain a lot of vapour;

That explaining occurrences can help scientists to make predictions of future occurrences, and that this in turn can have practical uses.

Topic

You may have already heard that we will be spending a lot of topic time on our project 'Dragons Den.'

We have invited the children, in groups, to come up with a new concept that they will make and market, if the 'Dragons' agree to give them the funding!

They are still at the planning and design stage of their products but we have already seen some budding entrepreneurs in our midst!

This week they will complete marking research on their product by completing questionnaires and surveys on the potential customers.

The children are really engaged in this project so don't be surprised if you get roped into doing some free labour at home!!

Year 5/6 boys who are involved in Mr Buckley's Friday football club had a match on Friday after school. At the time of writing this we do not know the outcome of the game but I am sure the boys all had a great time. Thank you to Mr Buckly for organising the game and running the club each week and thank you to the parents who accompanied the children to the match.

On Friday afternoon 7 of Year 5 children will be going to a football tournement at Penketh Primary School. The tournement is aimed at children who are not involved in football outside school. If your child had been chosen you will recieve a letter on Monday.

That's all for this week, have a happy and safe half term, we return to school on Monday 9th June at 8.45am.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 12th May 2008.

2008-05-10T02:37:00.001-07:00

Finally, the week we have been working so hard for has arrived! Next week is the week we get to show off everything we have learned when we complete our SATs.
Over the past year the children have been working really hard in preparation for the forthcoming tests and we are overwhelmed by the progress they have made.
This was only possible because the children have taken charge of their learning and have also had tremendous support from home.
They should be extremely proud of themselves as we really do believe that they could not of worked any harder.
Thank you children for realising you get out of your learning what you put in. Thank you also to everyone at home who has supported the children through this time.

You should have received a timetable on Friday telling you when each test will be taken, just in case the letter did not make it home here is the timetable.

The Year 5's will also be completing their optional SATs this week and wherever possible will follow the same timetable as the Year 6's.

Monday

9.15am - 10am - Science Paper A

10.45am-11.30am - Science Paper B

Tuesday

9.15am-10am - Long Writing Paper

10.45-11.30 - Short Writing and Spelling

Wednesday

9.15am-10.15am - Reading

Thursday

9.15am-10am - Maths Paper A (non-calculator)

10.45-11.05am - Mental Maths

Friday

9.15-10am - Maths Paper B (calculator)

We have all the equipment in school that the children will need to complete their tests. If they want to bring their own stationary in must be in a clear pencil case or a clear plastic bag.
We have told the children they are allowed a small mascot or lucky charm which they can keep on their table.
It would also be a good idea if they have a bottle of water with them to take in to the test.
They can bring a small pack of sweets e.g. boiled sweets or mints, not chocolate or chewing gum.

Obviously we will not be following the normal curriculum this week and in between completing the tests we will be doing lots of Art, DT, PE and Music activities.

There will be no homework this week for Year 6 and Year 5 children as they are all completing tests.

The children have requested that they would like a party on Friday afternoon, so we will have some music and food to celebrate all their hard work.

Finally children, all we ask is that you get a good night's sleep, don't panic and do the best you can.

Everything is possible,
Nothing is too great,
Do not be afraid,
To make the choice you make.
Everything is possible,
And within your arms reach,
Listen to your heart,
And what it has to teach.
Everything is possible,
And waiting for you there,
Run and grasp your dreams,
Not one more moment spare.
Everything is possible,
Make it all come true,
You can do it,
We know you can,
Because, We believe in you.

Good luck and God Bless.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 5th May 2008

2008-05-03T00:25:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone and welcome to sunny May (hopefully!)

We only have 4 days to get through this week which will mean we will have to pack lots in!

We were very proud last week as we were assessed for the Basic Skills 3 award. We have already achieved the award twice and this was our third attempt. We were very successful and are even going to be put forward to the head office as an example of good practice for the use of our blogspots!!
The children were really well behaved and did us proud. Thank you to Mrs Harding for co-ordinating the event.

This will be our last week of revision groups as next week is test week for Year 6 and also Year 5. Things will get back to normal after the tests and the children will be in the own classes.

Here's what they will be learning this week:-

Literacy

The Year 5's are still working on non-chronological reports. We are looking at adapting writing for different purposes.
We are going to be studying Dr Xargles Book of Earthlets by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross.
We will be looking at the text, exploring the humour and language used. We will then be leading up to recognising the features of instructional texts so that on Friday we can write instructions for our encyclopedia Intergalactica enabling them to write instructions on 'How to Reach the School Nearest your Landing Site.'

As spellings were given out late last week, the spelling test will be completed on Tuesday.

Numeracy
Mrs Millington's and Mr Barker's group will be completing their last week of revision.

Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's group will be using this week as a review week as the Year 5's will have their tests next week.
Please see previous blogspots for the subjects we have covered and for websites to help review your learning.

Science

We hope you are enjoying your science experiment homework. We have been really pleased with the quality of work the children are bringing into school. This is great preparation where they will plan and design lots of their own experiments. Thank you for supporting this homework.

In science this week we will be continuing our topic of changing state. We will be identifying the process that takes place when water changes to a gas as evaporation
Identifying a range of contexts eg water left in an open dish, washing/drying, hair drying, wet hand prints disappearing in which water evaporates.
This weeks work will be very practical and will involve the children trying out all the different methods. It also links in with their homework question of 'Do all liquids evaporate?'

PE
The children are still enjoying their dance lesson with our dance teacher Carla Spears.
Rob Wilby (a PE teacher from St. Gregory's) was supposed to be starting last Friday, teaching the children athletics. Unfortunately he has hurt his back and was unable to come. All being well he will start this week and with the weather improving the children may even get the chance to go on the field!!

That's the end of the blogspot for this week, very short and sweet!

Have a great bank holiday weekend!

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 28th April 2008

2008-04-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, welcome to another action packed week in the world of Year 5/6.

Our Year 6 children only have 2 weeks left until their SATs, this week we are going to do a practice run of the tests in the hall. The children are used to the format of the papers but they have been mostly doing them in classrooms, in order to keep them as calm as possible on the actual week we need to get them used the way the SATs will be administered. We will complete some past papers in the hall at the beginning of the week. We would like to thank the other classes in school for doing their PE sessions outside during this time.

Here's what else will be happening this week:-

Literacy
We are looking at non- chronological reports. Last week we looked at the features and started to plan our 'Earth children at school' report. This week we will be concentrating on writing it up including all the features we have looked at last week. By the end of this week the children will have learned to:-

Select appropriate word order in sentences to create interest and to increase precision,
clarity and economy. Plan, compose, edit and refine short non-chronological reports … focusing on clarity, conciseness and impersonal style. Discuss, proofread and edit their own writing for clarity and correctness, e.g. by creating more complex sentences, using a range of connectives, simplifying clumsy constructions.

Literacy homework will be a bit different this as it will focus on talking. It is a proven fact the talking improves writing. The whole of Key Stage 2 will have talking homework this week. We would like your family to have a discussion and then make a note of it in their diaries to prove the homework has been completed.

Numeracy
This week Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's group will be learning to:-
Understand concepts of reflection.
Learn about the terms ‘reflective symmetry’ and ‘axis of symmetry’ and draw lines of symmetry in regular polygons.
Draw the reflection of shapes in a mirror line.

Here are some websites to get you started:-
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/rotation.swf
http://www.active-maths.co.uk/whiteboard/reflect_shapes.html
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/symmetry.swf use this website to give you some ideas to draw your own symmetrical pictures.
http://www.mathsonline.co.uk/nonmembers/gamesroom/transform/rotation.html make a pattern and see it reflected.

Mr Barker's and Mrs Millington's group will be doing some past papers and going through them.

Science
This week we are starting our new topic of changing state. We will be doing a mind map and then discussing the differences between solids liquids and gases. We also will be looking at 2 concept cartoons called 'Balloon' and 'lemonade' Children will have to look at the cartoon and identify the misconceptions within the speech bubbles.

Try these websites:-
http://www.fossweb.com/modulesK-2/SolidsandLiquids/index.html see what happens to objects when the are heated up and cooled down.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/podsmission/solidsandliquids/annie02.shtml Pod's mission on hot and cold.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/changing_state.shtml bbc science clips.
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=changingstate complete the diagram.
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/science/changing_matter/index.htm watch what happens to the particles when things change state.

Here I Am
This is the last week of Holidays and Holy Days and the children will review their learning and look at the Holy Spirit and Pentecost.

Have a great week.
Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 21st April 2008

2008-04-19T02:53:00.000-07:00

Hi welcome to this week's blog.

First all we would like to thank all the parents who attended parents evening, thank you for coming and trying to stick to your times we appreciate it.
Some of our children went to The Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool this week. They went to present the money we raised during out lent fundraising. They had a lovely time at the Cathedral and we would like to thank everyone in school contributed to the cause.

We have another busy week this week as usual so let's get down to it.

Literacy

The literacy homework for Year 5's this week will involved them coming home with a picture that has a titles and a sentence underneath it. They will have to use this sentence as a start for them to write a story. They can use the writing levelling system that they used to level their writing at home a few weeks ago to see what they need to include to take their writing up to the next level.

During their literacy lessons the Year 5 children will move from persuasive writing to looking at non-chronological reports. They will be focusing on identifying the features and planning their own report. They will plan a report to write to an alien about our school. They are going to be using the non chronological planning skeleton to plan their report under different headings.

The Year 6 children will be carrying on with their revision and looking at the different types of non-fiction writing this week.

Numeracy

This week Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's group will be moving on from written formal methods of addition to formal methods of subtraction. The children have visited these topics before but they need constant review in order for them to use them effectively and successfully.

They will be subtracting integers of less than 10000 using formal written methods and subtracting numbers with upto 2 decimal places.

They will be using the method that parents were more than likely taught at school, where a number borrows from the number next to it (decomposition).

Mr Barker and Mrs Millington's group are still working really hard with their revision, please look at previous blogspots for revision websites.

Science

The Year 5's are on their last week of gases around us and this week they will be looking at the water cycle, I can feel the water cycle boogie coming on!!

They will be looking at a day in the life of a raindrop.

Try these websites:-

http://www.kidzone.ws/water/ interesting facts about the water cycle.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Watercycle.shtml diagram and a water cycle quiz.

http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/droplet.html story of a water droplet.

This week it is St. Georges Day, The Patron Saint of England. We will be looking at St Georges in our RE lessons, have a look at this website for more information.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/stgeorge.html

Have a great week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 14th April 2008

2008-04-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

This week is parents evening, you should have already received your appointment day and time. Only 5 minutes per child is allocated, please stick to this time and if you find you need more time to discuss an issue please arrange it with your child's teacher.

The Year 6's are working really hard on their revision and we are really pleased with their attitudes. Including this week we only have 4 weeks left until the SATs. Why not use this time to look over any questions you have struggled with in the test we have done so far. If you take a look at previous blogspots you will find numerous websites to help you with your revision. Keep it up everyone we are nearly there!!

Mrs Millington was really pleased with the response from the family tree homework that was sent home last week. The children really loved tracing their families back and finding out new things, I'm sure you parents were really interested in doing this too.
This week the Year 5's will continue with their theme of Victorians for homework. They will need to use their research skills and then present the information they have found out. Here is what will be included in the sheet that will be sent home on Monday.

Year 5 Victorian Project Homework Week beginning 14th April 2008

Famous Victorians.

Thank you for the fantastic Family Tree information completed for last week’s homework. Hopefully you also learned some information about your family that you didn’t know already!
For your Homework this week we would like you to complete a small presentation to present to the rest of year 5 on Monday 21st April.
The title for your presentation is ‘Famous Victorians’, and each person will be given 5 minutes to present.
This is supposed to be a small piece of fact-finding homework to replace this week’s Literacy Homework. Research skills will be needed, so Literacy knowledge is very important.
You need to choose a person who contributed to Victorian society, and who we would now class as ‘Famous’. Examples of people are….
Queen Victoria
Florence Nightingale
Lewis Carroll (of particular interest to Warrington/Daresbury)
Charles Darwin
Joseph Lister
Robert Louis Stevenson
Alexander Graham Bell
Sir Robert Peel
Charles Dickens.
This is a very small list and we are sure that when you start to research you will find lots of other people.
We want you to choose one person (you can choose more, but remember you only have 5 minutes) and prepare information about their life to share with the rest of year 5. You can be as imaginative as you like with how you present the information. Possible ideas are…
A mind map of facts.
Drawing of the person with key facts.
Information poster.
Simple speech.
Power point presentation
Wordsearch/quiz
Construct simple artifacts that represent the person.
We are sure you can come up with even more ideas of your own!
You will have slightly longer to complete this homework, as it does not have to be in school until the Monday of the presentation. This gives you an extra weekend to work on material.
Please remember that this is only a small presentation and that we do not want you to make lots of resources, and spend lots of time on it. In fact, you should only spend a little longer than you would do normally.

Here are some websites to get you started with your research:-
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/victorians/famous.htm information on famous Victorians from another junior school.
http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/victorian/vpeople.html ideas for famous Victorians you could research.
http://www.st-nicholasvc.wilts.sch.uk/Learning/Victorians/FamousVictorians.htm links to websites on famous Victorians.
http://www.st-nicholasvc.wilts.sch.uk/Learning/Victorians/FamousVictorians.htm photo graphs and ideas to use in your presentation.

Literacy

Last week we asked the children to spend 15 minutes per night reading their reading book. This is to speed up their reading. They could have a little competition and try and beat the number of pages they read the night before. It is an important to skill to be able to read and understand and this will help them with every subject in the curriculum. Please encourage your child to do this. We know how busy modern life is but maybe you could make it a family activity where everyone in the house reads for 15 minutes at the same time each night.

Year 5's this week will be designing an advert to promote a new soft drink. Look out for soft drink adverts on t.v and on the radio.
They will use all the skills they have learned in previous weeks to persuade people to purchase their product.

Numeracy

This week Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's group will be learning to add two integers less than 10000 using written methods and add two place decimals using written methods.
The children will learn many different methods to do this, this is because some people find different ways easier, so we teach all the methods and then the children can choose the method they find easiest. If you want help your child at home you can show them the method you use but explain to them that there are different ways of doing things. If you want to help them to add numbers with two decimal places then the best way to do this is to use money. Why not try giving them some problems to work out. e.g. Matthew went to the shop and bought a coat for £35.99 and a pair of trousers for £24.49, how much did he spend altogether?

Mr Barker and Mrs Millington's group will be continuing with their revision.

Science

The children will go back to their topic of gases around us. They will learn that gases are different from solids and liquids in terms of how they do not maintain their shape and volume
that gases flow more easily than liquids and in all directions.
The children made volcanoes in a previous lesson and they are now going to take them on the playground and make them erupt, weather permitting!
This will help them see the differences between the states and the fact they you can have gases and liquids together at the same time.

Year 6 could try to answer some of these questions for revision. In this week's revision sessions they will be looking at the parts of a flower.

5a Keeping Healthy
Which exercise affects pulse rates the most?
Which becomes fatigued faster - dominant or non-dominant arm/leg?
What forms of relaxation can slow down our resting heart rate?
How should we store and prepare our rice crispies to get the best ‘snap, crackle and
pop?
Which type of biscuit is the best for dunking into a hot drink?
Are some makes of waterproof plaster more effective than others?
Are different makes of pan scourer equally effective?
Are some washing up liquids better at removing grease than others?
Are some makes of soap more effective at cleansing than others?
5b Life Cycles
What do seeds require in order to germinate?
How is seed germination affected by size/ soaking/ light/ temperature/ motion
/fertiliser/pollutants?
What is the best seed design for effective wind dispersal?
What are the possible factors which affect the rate at which frogspawn develops in
the classroom compared to the pond?
What are the possible factors which affect the rate at which maggots change into
pupae?
5c Gases Around Us
How do sugar/ yeast/ temperature affect fermentation rate of juice?
How does the brand of washing up liquid affect the size of bubbles?
Do different soils have different amounts of air in them?
Which brand of antacids/effervescent tablets produces bubbles for the longest?
Do all brands of sparkling water have the same amount of fizz?
What factors affect the time a candle burns for when placed under a glass jar?
What factors affect the rising time of yeast dough?
What factors affect the amount of gas produced when vinegar is added to baking
powder?
Does the colour of a balloon make a difference to how the air trapped inside is
affected by temperature?
How does the type of balloon which is used affect the performance of a jet propelled
straw – balloon rocket along a string course?
How does the type of lid used affect the performance of a balloon hovercraft?
How does the length of tubing between two syringes affect performance as a
pneumatic linkage?
5d Changing State
How is evaporation of a liquid affected by size of container/ viscosity/ moving air/
additives/ temperature?
What makes a good day for drying clothes?
What factors affect the process of evaporation?
Do all liquids evaporate completely?
How is boiling time of water affected by adding salt?
How is the freezing point of water affected by adding salt?
5e Earth, Sun and Moon
How is the size of shadow affected by the size of object/relative distances between
light source, object and shadow /brightness of light source?
How does the length of string alter the number of orbits the ball on the end makes?
How does the angle that light from the Sun (angle poise lamp) falls on the Earth
affect the temperature at the surface (sand tray)?
How does the size and mass of meteorites (balls) affect the size of the crater they
make on the planet surface (sand tray)?
If the Earth (globe) was further away from the Sun (lamp) would it make a difference
to the temperature on the Earth?
5f Changing Sounds
How is the volume of a bell affected by the surface it is on?
What material conducts sound the best?
What material is the most effective sound insulator?
How does pitch affect the volume/distance a sound can be heard from?
How does type of string on home made guitar affect pitch/volume?
How does the height a marble is dropped from affect the volume of sound it makes?
How does the size of a block of wood/amount of water in a bottle affect the volume of
sound produced when struck?
Which material is best for soundproofing?
What affects the note of a string or wind instrument?
What affects the loudness of the sound from a stringed or wind instrument?
6a Interdependence and Adaptation
What is the best seed shape for water or wind dispersal?
How does soil type effect root shape?
How does a lack of light affect plant growth?
How much fertilizer does a plant require for maximum growth?
What habitat conditions do woodlice prefer?
6b Micro-organisms
How does temperature affect rising time of dough/fermentation time of juice?
How does amount of yeast affect the rising time of dough?
How does the amount of sugar affect the fermentation time of juice?
What factors affect the speed or type of decay of food?
What factors affect the temperature inside a compost heap?
6c More about Dissolving
What makes a powder dissolve quickly?
What factors affect how much or how quickly sugar dissolves in water?
How does temperature affect dissolving time of salt/sugar in water/vinegar?
How does temperature affect the amount of salt that will dissolve in a liquid?
Which liquid dissolves antacid tablets quickest?
How does size of antacid tablet affect dissolving time?
6d Reversible and irreversible changes
What factors affect the time a candle burns for?
What factors cause iron to rust?
What effect will lubrication have on rust prevention?
How is size of baked biscuits affected by substituting butter for shortening?
How is crystal growth affected by light/ temperature/ acidity?
6e Forces in Action
How does type of material/weight added/shape/ making holes affect the falling time
of a parachute?
How does moving the fulcrum on a lever affect the force needed to move an object?
What factors affect the sag of a simple beam bridge?
What affects the time of the swing of a pendulum?
What affects the height bounced by a ball?
What features of a parachute affect the time it falls for?
How does the shape of a boat affect its speed through water?
What factors affect the time for a helicopter 'spinner' to fall?
What affects the time for different Plasticine shapes to sink in water?
What type of surface has more friction?
What makes objects move at different speeds?
How high does a tennis ball bounce on different surfaces?
How does the height of the drop affect the height of the bounce?
6f How we see things
Does the colour of writing affect how far away it can be seen?
What colour of writing can be seen best in the dark?
Does music affect how well we see?
How much more can a person see (peripheral vision) with two eyes than with one?
What effect does light have on us seeing objects and colour?
6g Changing Circuits
How does a knot in a wire affect amps/brightness?
How does the number of wires affect brightness?
How does thickness of wire affect brightness?
How does length of wire affect brightness?
What factors affect the strength of an electromagnet?
How does the number of batteries/bulbs affect bulb brightness?
What types or length of wire gives the best speed control for an electric motor?

These could form some mini investigations you could do at home, Year 5's you could also try some of these.

Have fun.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 7th April 2008

2008-04-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hi and welcome to this weeks blogspot.

We had a great time last week as it was science week. We did activities all week and finished off the week by having a science show which was really interactive and informative.

The children came back really smart last week, some braving the weather in their summer uniforms. There are a few pairs of trainers creeping in especially on the boys, therefore we ask if you could please ensure your child is wearing black school shoes and not trainers, thank you.

The Year 6 children are working their socks off with their revision and it is really showing when we assess them. Thank you for all your hard work in school and at home.

Curriculum....
Literacy
This week the Year 5's will be completing and improving their argument and re-writing it as a letter written to persuade. They have worked really hard on this topic and we look forward to reading their finished pieces of writing.

Try these websites to review your learning:-
http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/dragonsville/poster.htm design your own persuasive poster.
http://www.little-g.com/shockwave/hotel.html answer some simple questions and design your own travel advert.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/index.asp?topic=Persuasive persuasive writing workshop.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/revision_bites/argument1.shtml revision of persuasive writing.
http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/nationalstrategy/literacy/index.php?category_id=248&page_no=&preview=1&s=!B121cf29d70ec8a3d54a33343010cc2 points for persuasive writing and other genres.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc-home/vtc-ks2-home/vtc-ks2-eng/vtc-ks2-eng-writing/vtc-ks2-eng-writing-genres/vtc-ks2-eng-writing-newspapers.htm understanding persuasive writing.

Even though the Year 6's are revising this week, some of these websites may help them with revision on persuasive writing.

Numeracy
This week Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's group will be using standard units of capacity and converting from larger to smaller and estimating, measuring and drawing angles in degrees.
By the end of the week they
MUST be able to record estimates and readings from capacity scales.
SHOULD be able to estimate the size of an angle in degrees.
COULD use a protractor to measure and draw angles to the nearest 5 degrees.

Mr Barker and Mrs Millington's group will continue with their revision.

Science
This week in Science we will be continuing last week's Science theme of Electricity and Magnets.
The objectives for this are on last week's blogspot, here are some websites to help you on your way.
http://www.strettonhandley.derbyshire.sch.uk/electricity.html a selection of websites concentrating on circuits.
http://www.learningcircuits.co.uk/ a great website on circuits.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/ revisewise on electricity and magnets.
http://www.highlandschools-virtualib.org.uk/primary_curriculum/electricity.htm
http://www.highlandschools-virtualib.org.uk/primary_curriculum/forces.htm selection of websites on forces and magnetism.
http://www.brainpop.com/science/

PE
For the next half term the children will benefit from a dance teacher coming and teaching them during PE. We have worked with the dance teacher before and she is excellent and the children will enjoy their lessons. Please ensure your child has an indoor PE kit in school.

Topic
The Year 5's will continue working on their mantle of the expert in time travel. They have designed and advertised a time travelling devise which took them back to Victorian Times. Mrs Teeling then came and did a talk for the children on The Victorians which they all enjoyed. Thank you Mrs Teeling.
If we have any other parents who would like to come and talk about subjects we are learning in school just let one of the Year 5/6 Team know.

Here I Am
This week we will be starting a new topic of Holidays and Holy days. This week we will be working on the recognise section of the topic and will recognise what makes a day recreative, renewing, relaxing and restful.
The key words for this part of the topic will be holidays, recreative, renewing, relaxing, restful.

Thanks and have a good week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 31st March 2008

2008-03-29T09:48:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the summer!!

We love this term, coming to school in the day light and going home while it's still day light it's great!

Remember that the children can come to school in their summer uniforms from Monday.

This half term is 8 weeks long so we really do have a long time in school without a break but on the bright side it means we can get loads done.
On the seventh week of this half term it is SATs, the Year 5's will also be completing their tests this week, it is the week beginning 12th May.
Our Year 6's have been working really hard in preparation for their tests both at school and at home and we really appreciate your support in preparing the children.
Here are some websites that may help you with your preparation.
http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/children_sats.htm SATs questions, you can choose which subject you want to look at.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/index.shtml our old favourite bbc revisewise.
http://www.yourschoolsite.co.uk/tests/Introduction.html SATS question quiz.
http://www.buzzin.net/revision_tips/revtips.htm revision tips.
http://www.st-josephs-pickering.n-yorks.sch.uk/past_test_papers.htm download SATs papers.
http://www.samlearning.co.uk/primary/index.html revision exercises and SATs questions.
http://www.teachingtreasures.com.au/maths/year_6_maths_true_or_false.htm maths true or false quiz.
http://www.counton.org/games/mathonaire/ who wants to be a mathonaire.
http://www.subtangent.com/maths/games.php lots of maths games to help you revise, I love the Weakest Link.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/engindex.html reading comprehension practise.
http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/essentials/science/index.shtml choose a science area to revise.
http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/millionscience.html who wants to be a Science Millionaire.

This weeks curriculum...

Literacy

The Year 6's will continue with their final stretch of revision.

The Year 5 children will be moving their unit of work on persuasion to writing a persuasive argument.

This is something the children really love and are usually very good at!

The children will be using the techniques that they have been learning for
persuasive writing in a different context this week. They will be looking at examples of persuasive writing
to present an argument. They will plan and draft their own argument complaining about the cancellation
of children’s television programmes, using the same structure and techniques.

Here are some Key Points to help:-
As you write each point in support of your argument, you need to give some evidence or an
example to back it up and make it more convincing. For example, if you are writing to complain to
the council about some new parking arrangements that you think are dangerous, you could back
up your argument by telling them about any increase in the number of accidents in the area.

Numeracy

Mrs Millington's and Mr Barker's groups will continue with their revision.

Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's group will be using this week to go through assessments we completed at the end of last term and going over any subjects that need more teaching and practise.

Science

This week is Science week. In Key Stage 2 we will be concentrating on Electricity and Magnets.

On Friday we will have a Science show on these subjects.

By the end of this week the children should learn that the brightness of bulbs, or speed of motors, in a circuit can be changed, that care needs to be taken when components in a circuit are changed to ensure bulbs/motors do not burn out, that there are conventional symbols for components in circuits and these can be used to draw diagrams of circuits
that circuit diagrams, using these symbols, can be understood by anyone who knows the symbols and can be used for constructing and interpreting circuits, that the brightness of bulbs in a circuit can be changed by changing wires in a circuit, to suggest a question to investigate, to decide what to do and what equipment to use to test this, to make fair comparisons and draw conclusions.

There is a lot to get through in Science week but it is great revision for the Year 6 and for the Year 5 children. As there is so much to get through and it is Science week then topic time this week will also be spent working on these subjects.

Here I Am

These weeks sees the end of our self-giving topic and we will be reviewing out learning from the previous weeks.

That's all for now have a great week.

Year 5/6 Team

p.s remember to put your clocks forward on Sunday.

Week Beginning 17th March 2008

2008-03-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the end of the second term!!

There are lots of events happening in school this week to celebrate Easter, we are really looking forward to it.
Tuesday afternoon sees our turn for fundraising and the children have organised their own stalls and ideas to raise money for Nugent Care. They are running the event but I'm sure they would like to go round and join in with other people's stalls so they will need some change on Tuesday.

There will be no homework this week so the children can spend their time making Easter gardens, we have been overwhelmed this year with the amount of activities Year 5/6 still get involved in, so don't let us down let's see some fantastic gardens.

While we are on the subject of homework we would like to thank those children who complete their homework and hand it in on time every week, this applies to the majority of children so well done. There are a few children that consistently do not complete homework, school policy is that the children receive a 'sad face' when homework has not been completed. We realise that the are the odd exceptions to this when it has not been possible for homework to be completed and we will assess each case individually. Home learning is essential for maximising your child's potential and is also important preparation for them moving up to the high school. If you have a problem with homework and getting it completed on time please see your child's teacher to discuss the matter and we are sure we can come up with some alternative arrangements.

Thank you to all those parents who attended the Year 6 SATs meeting on Tuesday, it is important to us to hear your opinions and thoughts, we hope that this helped you with some ideas on helping your child get through their SATs. If you would like any other information or advise please pop in and see your child's teacher or any member of the 5/6 team.

Have a look at this website about preparing your child for high school, it has some good information and ideas.

http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/foragegroup/7to11years/movingtosecondaryschool

We would like to thank you also for having a go at the literacy homework this week. We really do think that it is important for you to see all the things your child needs to included to achieve certain levels in writing. It is also important that you and your child are aware of their targets.

Through the diaries and conversations with parents we have received some excellent feedback on this task, we hope to do this more often but realise that it is not practical to do it every week, we would like to do it once every half term, this will help you and your child see whether their writing is progressing.

This weeks curriculum.......
As it is the last week of term this will be our assessment and review week.

Literacy
The Year 5's had great fun last week designing a persuasive advert for a new chocolate bar.
This week they will be planning a radio advert for a competition. They will be advirtising a new film called 'Kung Fu Panda'. As you can imagine the children are really excited about this.

http://www.filmeducation.org/kungfupanda/index.htm Have a look at the website.

Year 6's will continue with their revision programme, they are absolutely working their socks off in school and we are really proud of them, well done guys not long to go now.

At the SATs meeting we said we would but some spelling websites on the blogspot for children to practise on, here you go..
http://www.funbrain.com/spell/ pick the word that is spelt wrong and spell it correctly.
http://www.gamequarium.com/spelling.html lots of different games e.g. hang man
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html games and activities provided by Woodlands Junior School.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/spellits/ad_menu_flash.shtml bbc schools spellits, solve mysteries while having spelling practise on the way.
We also have a list of all the spellings that have appeared on previous SATs test which we will print out and send home. It will not help to learn this list but will give you an idea of the types of spellings that come up on the test.

Numeracy
Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's groups will be reviewing what they have learned this term, this includes:-
Probability, line graphs, dividing HTU by U, finding percentages, multiplying u.ths x u.
See previous blogspots for websites and remind yourselves of all the things we have covered.

Mrs Millington's and Mr Barker's groups will be continuing with their revision programme.

Science
Year 5's will be continuing with their topic of gases around us, this week
Children should learn:
that soils have air trapped within them
to measure volumes of water carefully
to recognise whether measurements need to be repeated
to use their results to compare the air trapped in different soils

Year 6's will be continuing with their revision programme.

Here I Am
This week will be spent on the true meaning of Easter and looking at the different things that happen in mass which stem from this celebration.
The children will work on dramas and readings which they will perform at the Easter Service. It will take place at 9am on Thursday Morning.
You are welcome to join us but please remember, as always space is limited.

So once again we have reached the end of a very hardworking term and we thank you for your support and the hard work from the children in school and at home.

Have a Happy and Holy Easter and we would also like to wish you Happy St Patrick's Day.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 10th March 2008

2008-03-06T04:12:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone and welcome to this week’s bog.

We really enjoyed the Year 3/4’s fundraising afternoon on Thursday and we now have lots of ideas for our own event which will take place this Tuesday afternoon. Get thinking children, you have already told us some of your excellent ideas and we can’t wait until the event takes place.

On Tuesday, after school we will be holding a parent’s meeting for the parent’s of our Year 6 children. The meeting’s aim is to give you ideas on how to help your child through their Sates. If you wish to attend the meeting please return your reply slip so we know how many parents to expect, thank you.

This week’s curriculum….
Literacy
The Year 6 children have now started a revision programme in Literacy as well as Numeric and Science. The children have been put into two groups and will spend this time working on reading and writing skills in order to prepare them for their forthcoming Sates.

Our Year 5 children will start a new unit working on Persuasion. We all know how persuasive children can be so we are just really polishing skills that they already have. We will be moving on from ‘Mum can I have a Nintendo Wii because my friend has one?’ and working on the art of persuasion using our writing skills.

The children will be planning, writing and designing their own persuasive advert.
By the end of this unit of work the children will….
Use note making as a way of collecting and organizing their ideas before they write.
Choose words carefully, adding adjectives, adverbs and powerful verbs to help get their
message across.
Compose sentences carefully, choosing whether to use long or short sentences to
make a particular point.
Use paragraphs to organize their ideas in a longer piece of writing.
Check and correct their own spellings.
Edit and re-draft their own writing.
Reflect on their own writing, using a checklist to help them decide whether they have got better.

Literacy homework will take on a different format this week. The children have completed a piece of writing in school. They will bring this writing home on Monday along with some level descriptor sheets. They will use the sheets (with the help of an adult) to determine which level they feel their writing deserves.
They will then use the sheets to give themselves targets i.e. things from the descriptors that they have not used in their writing will become their targets.
The Year 5 children will then re-write the piece of writing using their targets to improve it. We are not going to ask the Year 6 children to re-write their work as they have a lot of other homework, but if they do want to do this it is a very worthwhile exercise.

Numeracy
This week Miss Wright’s and Mrs Morgan’s groups will be looking at Probability and Line Graphs.
They will classify events based on the degrees of likelihood and recognize the distinction between ‘impossible’, ‘unlikely’, ‘likely’, and ‘certain’. They will also draw and interpret line graphs using probability investigations.
Try these websites for a head start…
http://www.e-gfl.org/e-gfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/teacher/other/spark/playcards/gamelaunch.html play your cards right.
http://www.mathsonline.co.uk/nonmembers/resource/prob/spinners.html a spinner exercise where the results are recorded on a graph.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/maven/loudlou/index.htm become the detective in this mystery but you must use probability to help solve it.

Mrs Millington’s and Mr Barker’s groups will continue with their revision programme.

Science
The Year 6 children will continue their revision programme in Science.

The Year 5 children will continue with their topic of gases around us. This week the children should learn that powders and sponges are solid materials with air in the ‘gaps’ in between particles and to make careful observations of materials and to explain these using scientific knowledge and understanding.

Here I Am
This week in Here I Am we will be discussing the Easter Story and performing our own dramas. A selection of the dramas will be performed in the Easter Service which will take place in the last week of term.

Topic
Topic this week will used to plan the charity fund raising afternoon which will take place next Tuesday. The children will have time to plan and design their stalls in order for the fundraising to run smoothly.

That’s all for this week, until the next time,

take care

Year 5/6 Team.