5RC BLOG
PE DAYS: WEDNESDAYS AND THURSDAYS
A polite reminder: all pupils are to wear the school uniform with correct footwear and PE kit. No trainers allowed except for PE and no kit with logos. Thank you!
https://www.oldfield-brow.com/info/uniform/
Week Commencing 15/5/23
It's the Oldfield Brow Coronation Week this week. We'll be celebrating the coronation of Charles III with the theme : “A new chapter for our country and a new chapter for our school.” During the week, each class will learn about life in Britain during a specific decade, covering the period of time (70 years) since the last coronation. Year 5 will be learning about the 1960s. We'll learn about fashion, music and research what life was like growing up in the swinging 60s. In DT, we'll be creating an up to date version of 'coronation chicken' (with or without the chicken depending on taste) for our special coronation party on Friday 19th May. We would like to encourage the children to come into school on party day (19/5), dressed in a 60ss ensemble. From your mini skirts to your flares- get into the 60s spirit!
In Maths, after finishing our unit on Shape, we'll move onto Position and Direction. In reading for the last few weeks, we'll take a look at The Last WIld by Piers Torday and in English, we are starting our last Writing Unit of the Term linked to Malala's Magic Pencil which will support our understanding of diversity.
Week Commencing 7/5/23
PLEASE SEE NOTES FOR TYPING UP YOUR 500 WORD STORY (SET FOR HOMEWORK THIS WEEK) IN THE DOWNLOADS SECTION! OTHERWISE, WRITE FOR 15 MINUTES ABOUT THE FOLLOWING PICTURE:
Week Commencing 1/5/23
On our return to school on Wednesday we were greeted, as expected, by chrysalides!
It's a bit of a short week this week Y5, but there will be much to enjoy. On Wednesday, Vera and Emma are planning to give us a sneak preview of the speeches they will be delivering on behalf of Oldfield Brow at the Green Summit Event in Sale on Thursday. As our very own caterpillars metamorphose, we will take a close look at the life cycles of insects and amphibians, learning about metamorphosis. As historians, we continue to develop our skills in piecing together the past from artefacts and how to use modal verbs to explain our thinking. In Maths, we continue to learn about angles and in English we are learning how to inject fear into our writing in preparation for the creation of our own stories for the 500 word competition. We're going to be busy.
Week Commencing 24/4/23
Please see the downloads for the 15 minute writing activities this week.
Don't forget the TT Rockstars Battle of the Bands with 5FB!
You've got to be in it to win it. Every game counts!!
Congratulations to all the children who were awarded Silver Trackit certificates in Friday's assembly. Keep working hard to earn the green trackits Y5! Well done to Max, for being awarded the 5RC Certificate or Achievement, to Mira for earning our Certificate of Appreciation and to Tyler for being our Reading Champion this week!
Rather excitingly, the caterpillars began to hang upside down in a J shape on Friday - well spotted Emma. Let the metamorphosis begin!
I think our catterpillars are soon to metamorphose. Once catterpillars have stored enough energy they hang in a 'j' shape, moult one last time and harden into chrysalides. I'm hoping you will get a chance to see this happen, but just in case they've already transformed before you see them next, I took another photo. Within a week and a half they have grown significantly - just like the story of the Hungry Caterpillar.
On Wednesday, we continued our study of living things, looking at the asexual reproduction of plants. We looked at Mrs Chetwyn's spider plant and have removed plantlets to grow in our recycled containers on the windowsill.
What an exciting week we have planned for you Year 5. In Music, we'll be practising our songs again (The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and also Make You Feel My Love) - please see the downloads for a copy of the lyrics as we need to learn them off by heart to perform. More details to follow as soon as we have them.
In history this week, we'll be learning more about the Ancient Greek Agora, and using pictures of artefacts to build our understanding of the Ancient Athenians. As readers, we will continue with our text 'Odysseus' which is complementing our study of Ancient Greece. In science, our study of Living things will focus on how plants can reproduce by themselves and we'll try this out for ourselves by growing plants in the classroom. Don't forget to bring in a recycled container to put your plant in!
Last week in maths, we completed our unit on statistics and are moving onto Shape and Direction. In English we'll finish our unit on poetry, celebrating Earth Day this weekend and of course National Poetry Month! We'll be writing our own Earth Poem to share. After that, we'll be thinking about the Manchester 500 word Story Writing Competition (discussed in my assembly) which begins with this picture:
Week Commencing 17/4/23
We had a lot of fun dissecting flowers this week, and learning in detail about how some flowering plants reproduce. We ended our week learning about botanical drawing, focusing carefully on the detail of the remaining flowers left over from our science lesson.
In our writing lessons this week, we are celebrating National Poetry Month and Earth Day by exploring poems about nature. This has included looking at figurative language, exploring interesting vocabulary and creating a visual image to create a special poem. We'll be publishing our creations next week, so keep your eyes peeled for some examples of our writing on the blog.
We are loving our new book this week in our morning reading lessons. The original version of this tale is credited with be a reason we know as much as we do about the Ancient Greeks. We've been predicting what we think the character Odysseus will be like as well as exploring how the author uses language. We've also used visualisation to help us understand the benefits of trying to see a scene in our mind's eye to improve our reading comprehension.
We hope you are all having a wonderful half term holiday and can't wait to welcome you back on Monday 17th. Please be ready to share everything you've been reading ready for our first Book Buzz session. It's officially the start of the Summer Term, which brings a change of topic and science. In science, we're moving on to study Living Things, and will kickstart our learning with flower dissection as we explore how flowering plants reproduce. Maths will be all about statistics, as we develop our skills with graphs and data. As historians, we'll dedicate our learning to Ancient Greece throughout the summer, looking at everything from Greek Mythology to the Olympics. On Monday, we'll have a Topic Ignition Morning, dedicated to igniting our excitement for history with a focus on whether the Minotaur was real!
Week Commencing 27/3/23
WISHING YOU A WONDERFUL HALF TERM HOLIDAY!!!
Congratulations to all Year 5 football players who were part of the tournament leading to our dual winning streak!
Our final week of term brings the exciting chance to show off our newly practised formal letter writing skills, with an opportunity to write a letter of application to join the next expedition to Mars. On Friday, we discussed whether, like the men who joined Shackleton's brave journey to the unknown continent of Antarctica, we would venture to the far reaches of Mars; potentially this would be a one way trip. We will attempt to adapt our letter writing learning to a very different letter of application, but linked to our wornderful space topic from last term. What skills do you think you would need to voyage into space and be part of a new colony on Mars? What transferable and unique skills would you have to offer?
We have a lesson remaining of our exciting topic about the polar regions, where science and geography combine, and we will learn about the impact of ice melt - a consequence of global warming (revisited from our geography studies last term). In PSHE, we will discuss our strengths, changing care needs of people throughout their lives and about how we can help others.
Week Commencing 20/3/23
What a busy week! We completed our Maths unit, learning about perimeter and area, as well as our letters to Ernest Shackleton to join his very special crew, but in role as the actual men who successfully applied. As well as learning about the features of formal letter writing, we also revisted how to be persuasive, considering the subjunctive mood, flattery, rhetorical questions and persuasive openers. We thought about the skills needed for a variety of jobs as well as transferable skills and unique attributes to make us stand out from the crowd. Our Yoga skills have also been improving, as the children move more swifly between poses, with greater balance and as always with an abundance of enthusiasm.
Week Commencing 13/3/23
Congratulations to 5RC's new MPPs - Cane and Hammad!
Thanks for all the money raised for Comic Relief on Friday- we had lots of outfits that made us all smile and we learned a little about where our money was going and who it could help. Well done everyone, working as a team to help others.
Don't forget: Friday is Comic Relief day and the children are invited to come to school wearing something that makes them smile
On Tuesday, we worked in pairs during our reading lessons to research the lives of the different members of Shackleton's crew to the Antarctic and created posters to show interesting information we had retrieved from biographies about their lives. We will be writing in role, using our research next week, to apply to join Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica upon the Endurance.
It's British Science Week ’23 and with its theme of making connections with others, Year 5 has been collaborating in teams to explore Forces. We’ve looked at friction, and compared the amount of force needed to pull a trainer across different surfaces and investigated air resistance comparing different kinds of parachutes created by the teams in class...
This week we'll vote for our MPPs, find out more about Shackleton's crew in English, begin to look at perimeter in maths, study Antarctica with Mr Smith, have lots of fun celebrating Science week whilst continuing to learn about Forces and write sentences about our favourite sports in French. It's also Neurodiversity Week, and in our assemblies we'll be learning to celebrate the different ways we learn. Mr Cash has challenged children at home to create a neurodiverse superhero or character with neurodiverse traits which are strengths, like the new autistic character in Thomas the Tank Engine.
Week Commencing 6/3/23
CONGRATULATIONS!! - Exciting news awaited us on Friday as we discovered that two pupils from 5RC were Green Project winners and invited to deliver their speeches about recycling at the Green Summit at Sale Water Park in May as part of COP 27. Congratulations to Vera and Emma for being selected from entries from schools all over Trafford. We're really proud of you! Well done too to all of our wonderful entrants who were selected to represent our school in this exciting competition.
The exciting day arrived this week in DT when puils in 5RC began the excitig process of making their Lunar Rover designs. Under close supervision, children learnt how to use saws, glue guns, make pulleys work and connect electronic circuits with real purpose. This will be a true highlight of our term!!
This week we launch into the life of Ernst Shacklton, deciding whether we would have been brave enough to join him on his expedition to Antartica and applying to join a very special ship, recently discovered in the Weddel Sea. Our focus will be Shackleton's Journey by WIlliam Grill. As geographers, we'll discuss what it is like to live in Antarctica.
Maths this week moves on to rounding with decimals and we are still excited about making Lunar Rovers with Mr Smith in DT. Meanwhile, hustings continue in our PSHE lessons.
Week Commencing 27.2.23
It's OLDFIELD BROW BOOK WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dressing up Day linked to fairy tales THURSDAY 2ND MARCH.
Thank you so much to the parents and carers of 5RC pupils who joined us today (1/3/23) to make our 5RC Book Buzz special for pupils in our class, not only sharing a love of reading with their own children, but also with other children in the class!!
We love reading at Oldfield Brow, and whilst books are not just for Book Week, we are not going to miss the opportunity to shout about the importance of reading for pleasure from the roof tops. We like to celebrate our own book week at the same time as World Book Day where people all over the world celebrate books by dressing up and sharing stories.
Due to the Covid Pandemic, we've not had the opportunity to share our Book Week with parents and carers as much as we'd have liked to, so, we're hosting a 30 minute Book Buzz session this Wednesday for parents and carers to pop in to the classrooms at drop off time to share a book with their child/children for pleasure. Please see the letter emailed on Friday with sign up details as only those who register will be permitted entrance on the day for safety reasons. We'd love to see you and feel free to bring along a favourite book or fairy tale.
This year, amongst a number of other fun activities to promote reading, we are sharing fairy tales. Do you have a favourite fairy tale? Many classes are also sharing a modern classic by award winning author Carol Ann Duffy: 'Lost Happy Endings' steeped in old folklore and fairy tales. Your children's English and Reading lessons will link to this during our special week.
Also this week:
Maths - we'll continue with our latest focus on decimals, looking at decimals as thousandths and also ordering and comparing their size.
PE - We are really enjoying our new unit on Yoga.
Geography - We'll be locating Antarctica and learning about lattitude/longitude as well as time zones.
Science - We have begun to look at forces and have already learnt about how we can describe them as pushes or pulls. This week we'll take a closer look at gravity.
PSHE- We're continuing to focus on democracy this week as excitment builds for OFB's new Pupil Parliament. Many children in class have put themselves forwards to stand for the 5RC MPP. Campaigns and hustings begin this week!
Week Commencing 20.2.23
We're racing into a new term and have lots of exciting learning planned. We'll begin term diving into the realm of fairy tales, linked to this year's Oldfield Brow Book Week. We're beginning to use decimals in maths this week and in science our new area of learning will be 'Forces'. This term's goegraphy will be a close exploration of the Earth's polar regions, which we'll link to learning about Ernest Shackleton and some icy poetry. There's lots to look forward to and we cannot wait to get started.
Week Commencing 6.2.23
We cannot believe it's the last week of term! It's flown by, taking us from the outer reaches of Tau Ceti and the wonderful moon of Pandora, space travelling with the Doctor and her formidable enemies, whistling around our solar system in science lessons and exploring biomes here on Earth. Our wonderful portraits will this week be put up in the main school corridor for everyone to see as we await the exciting results from the Stockport Grammar School Art Exhibition on Thursday.
On Tuesday, it's Safer Internet Day and we'll be discussing in class how to stay safe online. Internet Safety is so important at home as well as at school. You may wish to take the opportunity to chat about it at home too. Click on the icon below to visit the Safer Internet Day '23 website for a range of useful material:
Additionally, during this final week, we will be assessing whether our fitnss has improved during our PE lessons, completing our persuasive speech writing for the Green Summit, consolidating our learning of the multiplication of fractions in Maths, continuing with our class novel - the Jamie Drake Equation in reading, and learning about the phases of the Moon in our last science lesson before heading off to Jodrell Bank on Thursday. Phew! Nearly time for a rest!
It's also Children's Mental Health Week this week, and our assemblies will focus on the importance of connecting with others to support our own mental well being. In PSHE, we will learn strategies to support our emotional health when we feel stressed or anxious. The week is organised by Place 2 Be and its website has lots of useful information for parents and carers. Why not take a look together by clicking the icon below?:
27.1.23
Please find your 15 minute writing homework in the downloads section - we have a focus on biomes and climate change this week!
We've had a fabulous week in Year 5. From building our fitness in PE with a wide range of exercises including tricep dips and around the clock press ups to mutliplying fractions by integers, everyone has worked really hard and should be very proud.
Immersed in science-fiction, we took a close look at 80s rockstar Granddad in the Jamie Drake Equation, inferring how Jamie felt about him and why, and researched the Cybermen in English classes, then writing our final balanced argument to answer the question: 'Would a cyberman make a good school teacher?' We've had lots of fun considering everything alien this term through Pandora and Doctor Who. All of the children's writing has been fabulous, but here's just an example of one wonderful balanced argument from Vera:
Recently, reports have shown a 40% decrease in teachers. No one knows why they aren't showing up for work and Mr Cash at Oldfield Brow Primary School has come up with a solutions: he has decided to replace them with Cybermen. He has told us that they will be ideal teachers but many parents do not agree and argue that Cybermen are dangerous killers and cnnot feel love or happiness.
Some parents suggest that these metallic aliens are perfect teachers. First of all, they will be strict enough to keep children in line but they don't have emotions, so will not yell or get angry if someone makes a mistake, making children more confident and, at the the same time, their lack of emotion also means that they will be able to resist the temptation to pick favourites. Additionally, Cybermen will be good with technology as they are partly robots tmeselves. Furthermore, because they are cyborgs and are not fully human, they cannot fall ill, so they will never need a substitute.
On the other hand, most parents do not think that Cybermen would make good teachers. First of all, they point to the fact that thtese killer machines would be too violent, which is an uneccessary risk and they may kill or intimidate children. Moreover, nine in ten parents state that lack of emotions means that they will have no compassion for hurt children and would not undertand their needs. Also, they would teach everyone the same, meaning that they might teach children to be the same and parents bellieve that it is very important that children have unique personalities and feel free to express their feelings. Furthermore, they point out that they do not have good Earth knowledge and would not be fun, making children tempted not to listen.
There is much to be said for both viewpoints, but I personally think that Cybermen should not be allowed to teach, because we have investigated and found out that these part-humanoid creatures have a secret plan: they are behind the teachers disappearing. Apparently, the teachers have been turned into Cybermen, who then applied for the jobs to get closer to children, because children are easier targets to transform, and there are lots of them in schools, giving cybermen an opportunity to expand their army!
In Geography, the children have been locating where on planet Earth various biomes are located and studied the greenhouse effect. Next week, we'll take a look at how Earth's biomes are being destroyed and link our writing lessons to the same topic. We're still moving on with our exciting space topic, this week learning about night and day and why we have seasons. Next week, we'll take a closer look at the moon. We're still excited about drawing all our learning together with our trip to Jodrell bank on 9th February. If you are still to book your child's place on this exciting trip, please contact the school office.
We finally completed our self-portraits in soft pastels for the Stockport Grammar Arts Competition in the style of Modigliani (see our earlier blog) - the winners being submitted for inclusion in the exhibition, and a chance to win, will be announced on Monday. Children in 5FB selected the four they think should represent us today. 5RC have worked really hard and I hope you agree, the results are absolutely amazing. All of the artwork will be displayed along the arts corridor in school to celebrate the artistic talents of Year 5. Here many of the children are pictured with their portraits:
13.1.23
Congratulations to our Y5 team who went to represent Oldfield Brow and won at a friendly dodgeball match at Navigation Primary today. All of the children enjoyed some friendly dodgeball games as a class in PE too. They demonstrated excellent team spirit. The class is also really enjoying health related fitness lessons, with a focus on building stamina this week.
We've had another great five days here in 5RC, culminating today in the completion of our non-chronological reports about our new alien species. Keep an eye out on the blog next week for some examples of our fabulous Y5 writing. Elsewhere in English, we are getting into the Jamie Drake Equation and learning more about his dad's mission on the ISS. We also did some connected reading, finding out more about the ISS itself.
In maths, we have been working hard on long multiplication. The children have become familiar with the steps and we'll keep practising. Look out for more examples to try with this week's homework. Next week, there will be more of a focus on short division.
As geographers, the children began researching biomes and have presented their work beautifully. We're really looking forward to displaying them in the classroom. The children also used their learning to create an imaginary biome/habitat for their alien creatures on Pandora. In DT, Mr Smith kick-started an exciting new project to create model lunar rovers. As scientists, the children have almost finished their information posters, to show their learning so far about the Solar System and everything in it. I promised to share some excellent online links so you can learn more together at home:
https://www.theplanetstoday.com/
https://www.solarsystemscope.com/#plans
Have a fabulous weekend!
6.1.23
5RC has had a brilliant start to the New Year and especially enjoyed creating new reading river posters to celebrate all their holiday reading. We have begun researching the Solar System and what is in it and next week will be creating posters to show our understanding. Everyone is really engaged in this exciting space topic and cannot wait to go to Jodrell Bank just before we break for half term. If you've not given permission for your child to attend yet, please log in to Parent Pay, or contact me via email.
Our spring planning is very cross-curricular with DT, science, geography and English all closely linked, deepening our learning and providing lots of opportunities for rich vocabulary development. Next week, we will begin our geography topic. The class was really excited to find out that we are beginning to learn about biomes and we discussed what biomes are as part of our English lesson today.
Our English writing lessons are being inspired by a fabulous sci-fi movie clip called 'Pandora' from the stunning film Avatar. Next week, the class will come to life with the design of Pandorian hexapods and non-fiction reports about them. If you want to watch this movie clip together at home, it can be found both on Youtube and on the Literacy Shed https://www.literacyshed.com/the-sci---fi-shed.html
In Friday's lesson, we explored a wide range of topic related vocabulary and nouns using 'Vocabulary Ninja' resources, that will add formality and depth to our forthcoming writing. We explored the etymology (origin/ history) of some of our favourite new words used in the movie clip such as 'behemoth' and 'cornucopia'. Our working wall is expanding rapidly with the inclusion of exciting vocabulary.
This week, we also made predictions about our new class book, The Jamie Drake Equation. Our prediction skills are becoming more accurate, as we not only use clues from illustrations and the text, but also activate our prior knowledge to justify our predictions and opinions. Everyone enjoyed listening to Chapter 1 where we discover that the main character's Dad is an astronaut on the ISS.
The Stockport Grammar School Art Competition has invited entries from Oldfield Brow Primary's Year 5 pupils again. We begun our study this week of the artist we are using this year (Modigliani) to inspire our artwork.
Having discussed how Modigliani used elongated faces and necks and blank eyes, in the coming weeks, we will create self-portaits in this style using pastels. We can't wait! Pupils in Year 5 will decide on the eight entries to be submitted from the year group and those children will have their work exhibited amongst those from other primary schools from across the North West. Here are a selection of Modigliani's portraits you might like to discuss together:
This term's maths focus is a very important one - multiplication and division. We have begun by developing the children's use of the area model to enable them to muliply by larger numbers (sometime referred to as the gird method) and are showing the links with the formal method of long multiplication. Obvoiusly, using formal methods is much easier if you have already learnt and retained your times tables fluently. So we are encouraging everyone to keep practising using TT Rockstars at home too!
Last but by no means least, PE this term has kicked off with football with Mr Smith on Tuesdays and Fitness with Mrs Chetwyn on Fridays. Two very popular sessions it seems:)
Have a great weekend and enjoy the homework about Mars!
2.1.23
Happy New Year!!!
We're looking forward to seeing you all again this week. We hope you've had a brilliant holiday, a good rest and are looking forward to the new term.
PLEASE NOTE THAT PE DAYS HAVE CHANGED NOW THAT OUR HANDBALL COACHING HAS COME TO AN END.
PE IS NOW ON TUESDAYS WITH MR SMITH, AND FRIDAYS WITH MRS CHETWYN.
This week will be making Reading River Displays once more, to share our love of reading (a wonderful return to school activity) and to show a visual representation of just how much we read collectively at home. You will contribute to a display (which can include drawings, photos, labels, etc) of all the text types that you 'flowed through' during the Christmas vacation.
To help you get started, why not bring in a list of everything you've read in to class - it does not have to be long, but you will have read more than you would at first think. If you wish (not essential) you can bring in a small printout or two of key books like the fabulous example below from an older pupil. Many of you have made these posters/ displays before and have an idea of what is involved; your class teachers may choose to make them slightly differently this time. No two posters will be the same. Examples of different text types can be picture books, Phonics Shed, recipes, food packets, emails, messages, texts, book recommendations on Padlet, books, comics, magazines, webpages, Bug Club, Read Theory etc and many more.
16.12.22
Mrs Flute, Mrs Whitehead and I wanted to say a huge thank you to the many kind gifts, cards and Christmas wishes given to us by families in Year 5RC over the last week or so. We are very touched. May we take the opportunity to wish you all a wonderful holiday and a Happy 2023!
There is no homework set for the holidays, except for reading for pleasure and practising multiplication and division facts (don't forget TT Rockstars!) in readiness for our next Maths Unit on multiplication and division when we get back to school. As for reading, in the New Year on our return, we will be creating new posters for our Oldfield Brow Reading Rivers, to celebrate all reading and to encourage children to pick up a book or two over the festive break. Perhaps they can tick off one or two from the OFB 100 Books to Enjoy! Spelling Shed will go live again on the last Friday of the holiday in in good time for thes first spelling check of the new year.
Next term in science, we will be learning all about the solar system and have a school trip booked to Jodrell Bank in February. We can't wait. Jodrell Bank has been closed to school visits for a couple of years, so it's wonderful to be able to take the children to this amazing venue. (Please check your email or parent pay for details.) As geographers, we'll be learning about Biomes. We are connecting our English curriculum to Science and Geography by using a wonderful short (age appropriate) movie clip about an inhabited moon called Pandora. The children will use this as a stimulus to create their own alien hexapod and then write a non-chronological report about it. We will be reading a fantastic and popular novel by Christopher Edge in class called the Jamie Drake Equation which the children will love.
15.12.22
We have been having a wonderful final week of term. So far, we have finished our Potter Chapters and the children are currently enjoying their movie treat. We have eaten our festive Rocky Road (very delicious if I say so myself) that we made together yesterday and created Festive Bags to bring home with all our Christmas artwork.
We have had a big focus on art and have learned to weave both using paper and using wool and beads. 5RC have discovered salt and wax resist techniques with watercolours to create the background paper for our paper trees and used acrylics to create snow scenes on paper plates for our Christmas tree weaving, creating beautiful presents to bring home.
Making a calendar for the new year has also helped us practise French and painting techniques. These lovely creations are making their way home this week too.
12.12.22
Don't forget to keep posting weekly on our 5RC Book Buzz Padlet Reading Record. It's not only a great and interactive way to share your independent reading with me, but also with your friends. It's been wonderful to hear about you sharing excellent books with one another. There are quite a few Potter fans on there at the moment!
9.12.22
More scientific fun has been experienced this week, as the class explored the irreversible change rust and its causes. As geographers, 5RC has researched how mountains are made and in English the children have begun to plan their own independent writing to conclude their work with Harry Potter to be set in the Hogwarts dungeon. We have made significant progress with our guided-reading book Viking Boy, exploring the theme of slavery in Viking times as well as enjoying a drama lesson to help us understand the characters feelings at some key turning points in the narrative.
We also had a fantastic PE lesson with our coach, putting together the skills we have learnt in handball into a competitive game or two!
2.12.22
With the arrival of December, we excitedly completed our DT Pop-up Christmas Card Project this busy week. The cards are truly beautiful and we are really proud of every one. In response to the Santa to a Senior scheme by Home Instead, 5RC investigated pop up card designs and designed/created with a real purpose.
Here are just a couple:
We've spent a lot of time this week creating a new scene in Chapter 7 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and everyone has produced some wonderfully descriptive writing. In geography this week, we improved our locting skills using an Atlas to find British mountain ranges. As scientists, we had fun making new materials as part of our learning about irreversible changes and in maths we continue to develop our understanding of fractions.
25.11.22
**Don't miss the Fifteen minute writing activities in the downloads**
Please don't forget to populate your new padlet this week!!
What a jam-packed week we've had. After finishing off our Vikings topic, we've moved to a unit about mountains. We enjoyed using atlases to locate mountain ranges and highest peaks around the world. In science, we focussed on scientific drawings whilst investigating methods for separating materials. As mathematicians, we've learnt about how to order and compare fractions and have begun adding fractions in class too. In our English lessons, we have been learning about a wide range of grammar and punctuation which we will begin to incorporate into our writing next week.
18.11.22
*** Don't miss the new Book Buzz Padlet - the new link has been emailed to you***
It was Children In Need Day today and as the theme was spots, and as the World Cup also looms, Oldfield Brow ran a shoot out from the penalty 'spot'. Mr Smith went in goals, and the children who managed to get a ball past him won a sweet. Thanks to everyone who made donations to Children in Need!! And thanks to Mr Smith who went in goal for both Year 5 classes!
Everyone is enjoying learning to play handball on Wednesdays with our expert coach Tom. He is teaching us the importance of using space well, of dribbling to find a partner to throw to and to move fast to avoid defenders.
As historians this week, we worked in teams to consider the high and low points of the Vikings quest to take over Britain. We created Living Graphs to show that they did not always pose a threat to the Anglo-Saxons who ruled before they arrived.
We were excited to have a double science lesson this week as we began to investigate changes of materials - in particular, solubility. First, we carefully observed a range of different materials to see whether they would dissolve in water and then we took our investigations further with one particular solute - sugar. Groups independently investigated whether the type of sugar used would affect the speed at which it dissolved, ensuring fair testing and clear variables. Well done Year 5!
12.11.22
Writing homework has now been made available in the downloads this week and reflects all things magical with a touch of Potter, just like our classroom at the moment. The children have written new chapters for JK Rowling this week and have loved developing characters through dialogue and animal based imagery! You will have to ask them about Mr Dursley's malfunctioning typewriter!
On Friday, for Remembrance, there was a special assembly led by GForce. This week the children each created Poppies in art and their poppies have been incorporated into a piece of shared commemorative art. In Design Technology, work has begun on the design process for a pop up Christmas Card to send to the elderly, later in the term.
In history, pupils in 5RC learnt about how place names around Britain actually show us that Vikings did settle and trade here in the UK and where. As scientists, we helped Mr Nutter select the best material for new cleaning cloths for the school. The children are developing their scientific investigative skills and applying them to real life problems.
In maths, we have been looking at multiplication and division, learning about factors, multiples, primes, square numbers, cube numbers as well as multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000.
We will be tweaking our reading Padlet very soon to hopefully make some improvements so for now, so look out for more updates on this over the coming few days.
6.10.22
***Reading Challenge Sponsorship Deadline
extended to Friday 11.11.22 by popular demand!***
It was wonderful to meet so many parents last week during our Parents' Evenings. Thanks so much for joining me. I hope you found them useful. I'm so proud of all the members of 5RC. They have been working so hard!
We've started an exciting second Autumn Term in the run up to our festive holidays. In reading and history, we'll continue our exciting Viking topic working with 'Viking Boy' and other connected texts. Last week, we took a look at why Vikings had such a sterotypical, fearsome reputation and at range of artefacts which could be used to show they were more than just raiders. This coming week, we'll dip into the origins of many Viking place names and take a look at the highs and lows of the long Viking occupation. In Maths, we've been leaping ahead looking at multiples, factors and prime numbers and next week will consider square and cube numbers. There's never been a better time for practising your TTRockstar skills to support learning in class. If you haven't practised for a while, we recommend challenging a friend to a game!!
In our writing lessons, we are being inspired by the magical world of Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone. We've already taken a look at JK Rowling's wonderful vocabulary and practised relative clauses and speech punctuation using the book for inspiration; we've even expanded noun phrases for new sweet creations for Bertie Bott's sweet shop! Next week, we begin work on a new chapter for JK. We've linked reading homework this week looking at a different wizard - Merlin!
Year 5 has been delighted to begin PE lessons with our coach in Handball this term. In our first lesson, in addition to practising throwing and catching, we learnt about how we should move about the space bouncing the ball and how fast we have to move. As scientists during our first week back, we looked at some different properties of materials - electrical conductivity and insulation - testing a variety of materials to identify the best for electrical cablings and insulation outdoors and next week will be faced with a real science problem to solve. Meanwhile, Year 5 continue to work hard on their coding skills with Mr Smith. Well done everyone!
21.10.22 - Half-Term Sponsored Read
To celebrate and encourage a lifelong love of reading at home and school, we are running a sponsored read over half term 22/10/22-30/10/22.
The project is being organised in conjunction with our local Usborne Partner, and all the money raised will go towards brand new books for our school. In addition to the sponsorship money, Usborne will also donate up to 60% of the total raised in EXTRA FREE BOOKS to the school. So, for every £600 raised, we will get an extra £360 in FREE Usborne books!
We always aim to beat our last year’s target which was £1000 in sponsor money with Usborne donating an additional £600 of books for free if our target is met. This will give us a total of £1600 to spend on new books and resources for our children.
Please help us to enhance our reading resources for pupils by encouraging your child to spend a small amount of time each day either reading to themselves, to others, or being read to. They can read books, comics, magazines, newspapers, menus, websites, recipes, poems, leaflets, instructions – anything with words! For younger children in EYFS they can listen to the adult read their books and that still counts.
The class who have the most recorded minutes will win an extra free book and a small treat! All children will receive a certificate for taking part.
If you are able to support our sponsored read, please find on the reverse a sponsorship form and an extra reading log for your child if they wish to use it to record their reading. Please send any money in a named envelope with the class name and the amount raised alongside the forms by Friday 4th November.
21.10.22
5RC you are amazing. Following on from our successful assembly last week, you have continued to work incredibly hard. We finished our new chapters for Tony Bradman's Viking Boy, worked hard to complete our latest work on addition and subtraction and ended the week on a 'spooktacular' high celebrating not only Halloween but also all things Viking in our Friday art lessons. We developed our drawing skills using black ink (creating Viking longboats) and learnt how to sketch Viking portraits in pencil. The class have also been developing their coding skills with Mr Smith during their computing lessons.
Have a well-earned rest and enjoy curling up with a good book, maybe raising money for our sponsored reading challenge at the same time. Spelling lists will go live next Friday. Happy holidays!
17.10.22
We're really proud of the new Year 5 Sports Leaders from 5RC - Lara and Oliver. Today, OFB's Mr Evans organised for our Sports Leaders to attend the first day of their Trafford Sports Leaders course. The event was hosted at Old Trafford cricket ground. Together with two children from 5FB, they met the talent manager of the women’s team; practised their cricket skills; and sat in the home team’s seats in the changing rooms. Our Sports Leaders then went on the home team’s balcony; found Jos Butler’s (England mens' captain) helmet; visited the media centre; and started work on their tasks for the year.
15.10.22
Don't miss this week's writing homework - we've included a fun video clip and challenged you to use all of the skills we've been developing in our writing lessons. Enjoy! Our padlet question has been updated. Please log your reading this week.
To consolidate this terms spelling patterns this term, I include them here for you to reflect on everything you have learnt:
Week 1
Homophones
Words ending in '-tious' and '-ious'
Week 2
Words with the prefix 'in' meaning not
Words ending in '-cious'
Week 3
Words with prefixes 'il', 'im', 'ir'
Words ending in '-cial'
Week 4
Words with the prefix 'sub'
Words ending in '-tial'
Week 5
Words with the prefix 'inter'
Words ending in '-tial' and '-cial'
Week 6
Challenge words
14.10.22
Congratulations Hive Five on an excellent performance this afternoon in our Celebration Assembly, including your a cappella version of Living on a Prayer. I'm really proud of everyone's contribution and all of your parents and carers seemed thrilled to learn about everything we have been doing this term.
Congratulations to our Reading Champion - Vera, our Citizen of the Week - Eddie and our Well Done certificate winner - Yutong. We were all thrilled to hear Oliver won the Head Teacher's award too - well done Oliver!
We had another busy week, finishing our self portraits and as scientists testing different properties of materials. We've begun to expand our knowledge of column addition and subtraction in maths and in English we have begun writing our own Chapter 2 for Tony Bradman's Viking Boy using figurative language.
7.10.22
This week we have been enjoying making festive designs for cards supported by the Friends of Oldfield Brow. We have been learning how to blend colours, design using bleeding tissue paper art and add finishing touches with fine black pen. Our festive designs are seasonal, but not religeous, so we hope everyone can enjoy them. Each one is unique, pretty special and made with love. Look out for them in your child's bag before they get crumpled :).
In Maths, we have continued our work on place value and have spent time learning about how to round numbers. Please practise this some more at home by completing this week's homework! Also, it would be great to see more children having a go on TT Rockstars and trying to improve their speed.
In English, we have been reading Viking Boy and Norse Myths and Legends, which have become very bloodthirsty and gory already. We have learned about subordinate and relative clauses and the pupils have written some fantastically descriptive sentences. As historians, we've learnt how the Vikings made longships and written explanation texts about them as well as finding out more about Viking runestones and writing our own names with these ancient symbols.
As material scientists, we've begun investigations into the suitability of different materials for a food preparation surface, getting to grips with the concept that materials have a range of properties that scientists and engineers can use to find the best material for a job.
This week's homework documents are saved in the downloads section on this page. The link to our padlet page is on the homework planner so please add your contribution 5RC! We're delighted with the reading community being created via our 5RC Padlet and in the classroom. If you've not posted this week, be sure to post before bedtime tonight.
Here are a couple of posts from this week:
Don't forget to watch out for next week's main question ready from Saturday morning: what does your book remind you of (could be another book, a movie, a memory or personal experience) and why?
6.10.22
HAPPY NATIONAL POETRY DAY!
https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/celebrate-national-poetry-day/
How have you celebrated National Poetry Day? Have you shared a favourite poem with a friend? There are lots of ideas on the National Poetry Day website if you want to explore ideas further at home or share a poem or two.
In year 5 today, we enjoyed creating poetry linked to our current topic Vikings; to be more precise, we created Viking Preposition Poems.
Here are a couple from Oliver and Jacob:
The Fearsome Warriors
Across the lands of Valhalla,
Through the magnificent North Sea,
Above the sacred mountains,
Behind the abandoned village,
Along the damp cave,
Inside the powerful longship,
The fearsome warriors arrived.
The Brave Young Viking
Within the deathly Ginnungagap,
Next to the rotting corpse of Hel,
Behind the savage dragon of Nidhog,
Over the sacred Mountain Range of Jotunheim,
Into the Fountain of Mimir,
Across the rainbow bridge of Bifrost,
Through the doors of Asgard,
After the tragic death of Balder,
To the end of the world,
The quest took the brave young Viking.
30.9.22
Another busy day with lots of maths and spelling practice today. Well done everyone!
Please check out the homework guidelines in the Downloads along with the pictures for this week's 15 minute writes. We're sticking with our Viking theme this week.
We're learning Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi in music this term and hope to sing it to during our class assembly. Please practise at home - there are lyrics readily available online.
29.9.22
We're still buzzing with our visit to see Cressida Cowell. Our pupils have been inspired to draw and write for pleasure today, inspired by Cressida's childhood days of dragon hunting...
Well done Tallis and Lara for sharing great examples!
28.9.22
What an amazing visit we had to see Cressida Cowell (the famous author of the 'How to Train your Dragon' series) launch her new books at Stockport Plaza today. She told us lots about the characters in her new book as well as lots of tips for writing. We learnt about her childhood, with summers spent on an island off Scotland where she hunted for dragons in the cliffs. Her advice was to follow in her footsteps and enjoy writing and drawing for the sheer pleasure of it, right now in primary school - to keep our own notebooks for research and ideas. The creation of our own dragons was strongly recommended and so, utterly inspired, we changed our plans and that's exactly what we did this afternoon. We'll be adding the finishing touches to our dragons in the morning and look forward to writing about them. Perhaps we'll send her a copy or two! A few of us were lucky to be invited to meet her just before we caught the bus and managed to ask a few questions.
26.9.22
Happy European Languages Day! We enjoyed croissants and pain au chocolat after break in celebration of our European neighbours this morning and discovered some children regularly enjoy this French breakfast treat.
There were some fabulous costumes and Nihira from our class won a runner up prize - well done! As part of our languages lesson, we learnt how to say hello in several languages and talked about how many different languages we spoke as a class (all were surprised to discover that we know 15!) 5RC learnt the colours of the rainbow in French, Italian and Spanish.
Pupils looked at and discussed similarities and differences between them and talked about how the Romans had influenced certain parts of Europe with Latin resulting in similarities in the Romance languages. Then we learnt the rainbow song in French. Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARBKK0-sJGU
23.9.22
DON'T FORGET IT'S EUROPEAN LANGUAGES DAY ON MONDAY (THE CHILDREN WERE REMINDED TODAY). EVERYONE IS ENCOURAGED TO DRESS UP IN THE STYLE OF A EUROPEAN COUNTRY OF CHOICE FOR A £1 DONATION. PLEASE CHECK YOUR LETTER FROM LAST WEEK FROM MISS LIAKATA.
It was lovely to meet so many of you this week at our 'Meet the Teacher' event. If you were unable to attend, I have uploaded a copy of the presentation into our Downloads section for you to browse through. Please get in touch either via email or at home time. I hope to meet more of you during parents evenings later in the year.
If you've not already heard, we're going to Stockport Plaza on Wednesday to see Cressida Cowell, author of How To Train Your Dragon', at the launch of her new book - Which way to anyhwere. Years 4 and 5 are buzzing with excitement. Please ensure you update your photograph permissions with the school office, as we'll be taking lots of photographs during the visit. If you've not signed up yet, please purchase your child's ticket via parent pay. There is also an option to buy a signed book. If you have any difficulties with Parent Pay, please let the school office know as we will have to confirm numbers with the venue on Monday.
We've had a busy if shorter week. The children are working hard to meet expectations and have this week begun work with our new handwriting scheme - Letter-join. They have carefully practised letter formation and strived to use their learning to improve their handwriting during lessons. If you'd like more information about how we teach handwriting or about our presentation expectations, please take a look at our Handwriting and Presentation Policy in the Downloads on our Literacy Webpage: https://www.oldfield-brow.com/info/literacy/
This week, we used the book 'I'm perfectly Designed' to inspire writing. 5RC planned, drafted, edited and very neatly wrote up a set of instructions to write a recipe to create a version of themselves as part of our Identity Unit. Within just a week, we are seeing improvements to handwriting for many children and it would be great if when completing homework, you could encourage them to take pride in their presentation too (as many parents and carers clearly already are.) We have been just as busy in maths looking at Place Value including the Power of 10 and writing numbers in words.
The first week of our Book Buzz Reading Records on Padlet has proved extremely popular. Thanks to everyone who has posted, but if it is to replace our reading records as a measure of reading throughout the week, we need everyone to take part, even if you only record briefly once per week. I will email separately with the link. Instructions for use are in our Homework Planner in the Downloads which also includes an overview of homework for the coming week. Congratulations to everyone who has made an excellent start with our new homework format. New homework has been sent out this week including writing numbers in words for maths and an exciting VIPERS reading comprehension. Whilst English and Maths homework is essential, please don't forget the optional, more topic based, homework. It would be wonderful to adorn the classroom with some homemade Viking shields.
We enjoyed celebrating everyone's homework submissions this week with double homework dojos!! Several of our dojo eggs have been hatched and we ran out of time to hatch all, so there's much to look forward to next week.
20.9.22
It's 'Meet the Teacher' evening at 6pm today (Tuesday 20th September) at Oldfield Brow. We hope to see many of you there and will post the PPT from the evening afterwards.
16.9.22
Well done 5RC for an incredibly successful week. We've tackled some challenging reading skills when looking at the Name Jar this week, including considering authorial choices, prediction and inference skills. Following the wonderful homework that came after the weekend, we wrote the story of our names into our own name jar outlines and in art used optical illusion techniques to create really effective names to display with them. In Paths/RSE we have created our own Name Jar for Pupil of the Week and have continued to explore identity and our rights as individuals - to be who we want to be. We have expressed ourselves through poetry and begun a special piece of writing - creating a recipe to recreate ourselves. We'll share more in our class assembly in October. In PE, Mr Smith begun two units this week - Netball and Invasion Games. In Music he is also working on a song that we hope to share with you in our assembly. 5RC proved very quick to learn Roman Numerals and we have now begun Year 5 practice of Place Value, including rounding numbers.
Please update your photograph sharing preferences with the school office. We like to be able to show you learning in action as much as possible.
SCHOOL TRIP
Tonight, I emailed you with news of a wonderful trip to Stockport Plaza to see the wonderful Cressida Cowell (author of How To Train Your Dragon) launch her latest book: Which way to anywhere.
We apologise for the short notice, but seized this opportunity to enable children in Year 4 and 5 to meet someone very special, and potentially get their own signed copy hot off the press. Please check your email and get back in touch ASAP.
HOMEWORK UPDATE
As a school, we acknowledge the importance of homework in supporting and consolidating the work completed by children at school, whilst at the same time appreciating the demands of modern day living. Optional Chatterday activities have been extremely popular so we have retained these in Year 5. These activities are designed to provide you with some talking points, can be fun to complete together and offer an insight into the wider curriculum. However, to provide more structure and regular practice of essential English and maths skills, we are now introducing weekly tasks in Year 5. Children will be encouraged to complete the homework, but we appreciate that, for some children and families, it is not always compatible with the busy modern-day family. For this reason, children will not be penalised if the homework is not completed. Reading, multiplication and spellings are still expected to be focused on daily, so we would ask you to prioritise those if time is short. We hope that this gives parents the option to choose the amount of homework that suits their child and family situation. We are keen to work with you to keep raising standards and we hope that this will give some families the extra resources to do this. Full details of homework for each year groups will be discussed at the forthcoming Curriculum Evenings and we will be pleased to answer any questions then.
Today, we explained that a Year 5 Homework planner had been drawn up to support their homework organisation. We sent home a printed version of the planner just for the first week, and you can also find a copy in our downloads. To save paper, we'll include future planners just in the Downloads. They have a new orange homework book with passwords for various online resources inside. Please use these for Maths and English homework. This week, they have 2 fifteen minute writing activities to complete and a worksheet about Roman Numerals. We also looked at our new, shared online Book Buzz Reading Record. We are the first class in KS2 to begin using Padlet, but the plan is to introduce the new fun Reading Record across KS2. I demonstrated how to add a post to our shared Padlet in class. It is intended to be lots of fun. Children have instructions in their bags, but if you have any difficulties at all, please assure the children that we are all learning a new way of working together and that they will not be in trouble if things do not go to plan. Everyone in 5RC knows that I am a presentation pest. We have set very high expectations for presentation of homework, to work with you to improve standards. Don't forget to check the Downloads Section for specific homework.
9.9.22
What a fabulous first week back we've had. The children have settled quickly into new routines and are demonstrating excellent learning behaviour and respect. As mathematicians today, they quickly got to grips with Roman Numerals up to 100 and have been trying hard to ensure neat presentation in their books. This morning, we had lots of fun working in groups to sort different types of nouns as we began working on our year 5 grammar.
In PATHS this week, we spent time as a class deciding what rules were important to us, and respect and kindess and celebration of difference for all around us featured strongly.
Everyone has so far enjoyed our first book, the Name Jar. This afternoon, we developed our inference skills, using clues from the text and the illustrations, as well as what we know from are own experience, to write detailed responses to the story. I'm sure if you ask them, they will share their views on Unhei, and how she felt joining a new school after travelling from Korea. In our English lesson, we created Identity Maps following our reading, to explore what makes us who we are. Everyone thought deeply about the things they like and other elements of their identity. Next week, we'll write poems about ourselves using our identity maps, and write the story of our names using the homework research they have been asked to complete. It will be an important part of us all celebrating who we are and that it is good to be unique.
On our first day, the children were set the challenge of finding our more about the origin and the story of their names from family. Well done to everyone who has already done the research and brought it back to school. All homework earns 5 dojos on Fridays. If your child has not yet completed their homework, their sheet should be in their bag and I hope this helps them remember what we asked them to find out:
Your child has brought home a reminder of their Spelling Shed logins and their first week of spellings have now been posted. Please practise for a test next Friday. Reading books have also been selected by the class. For many children this term, we are going to trial a new system of recording weekly reading, which we will share with you very shortly. In the meantime, we would be grateful if you could encourage them to read a book of choice for at least 20 minutes every evening and bring in their copies of 100 Books distributed last term, to share their love of reading and summer reads.
5RC, have a wonderful weekend's rest (you have earned it) and we look forward to more learning next week.
Mrs Chetwyn, Mrs Whitehead and Mrs Flute
Currently reading Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargreave
Welcome to the brand new classes in year 5
The Year 5 team can't wait to invite you back to our classrooms. We are going to kick start our year, and get to know one another better, by exploring our own identities in RSE/PATHS lessons and in English and art - thinking about the origins of our names and what makes us unique. Learning will be supported by a beautiful book:
Soon after we'll charge ahead with an exciting cross-curricular topic all about Vikings where History, Art and English blur into one. It's one of my favourite topics and I cannot wait to start teaching you all about the young Viking - Gunnar - and his quest! Many of you saw the books we'll be using to support our learning during this topic at our open evening and when you visited the classroom at the end of the year:
Maths will begin with the fun unit of Roman Numerals followed by place value and as scientists we'll be learning all about the properties of materials.
Enjoy the rest of the summer holidays, and we look forward to welcoming you back on Wednesday 7th September!
Mrs Chetwyn, Mrs Bowes, Mrs Whitehead and Mrs Flute
For 6SB
5RC 21-22 had a fabulous year. Mrs Whitehead and I will miss them, and feel priviledged to have been a small part of their primary learning journey. Their performances in the Summer Show were fantastic and brought much enjoyment as we celebrated a successul final term in Year 5. They worked so hard throughout the year and deserve lots of credit for their many achievements, as I hope was evident from their pupil reports and the conversations many of us had at the end of the year.
Year 6SB, I hope that you have all had a wonderful and fun-packed summer holiday and are fresh and ready to begin your final year with Mr Butler. I hope you've read a book or two as well! May Mrs Whitehead and I say a huge heartfelt thanks to both you and your families for the kind wishes, cards and thoughtful gifts presented to us at the end of the year. Very best of luck in the new school year with Mr Butler, but I look forward to hearing all about your holidays when I see you next too.
Mrs C
Best wishes,
Mrs Chetwyn
Year5RC@oldfield-brow.com
Currently reading Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargreave
