Weekly Update 13.07.20

Hello Year 5,

It was so lovely to see so many of you on Friday and it was wonderful to hear about some of the things you have been doing from home. We hope you will have great fun decorating your bird house during the holidays and look forward to seeing photos of your creations! Many thanks for the lovely comments, messages and gifts we have received. We are very touched by your kindness and generosity.

We can’t believe that we are here at the last week of the Summer Term! We are so proud of all the effort and dedication you have shown in this very strange time. We are so sad that we weren’t able to spend the whole year with you in the usual way but we hope that this time with your families has given you some memories that you can cherish and that managing your learning from home has taught you skills and routines that will be useful going forward into Year 6 and then, of course, to secondary school.

For the last week of English, we would like you to complete and edit your ‘Fox and a mouse’ story. We have seen some great examples so far from people who are really trying to create the detail needed to set the scene and describe character feelings and behaviour for their reader. For your second task, you will be creating a poster about Water Safety. This connects to the ‘Water Safety’ task in the Year 5 General ’Just for Fun’ section so you will need to complete that activity first to gather the information you will need for your poster.

In Maths, we will be moving on to a week on 2D and 3D shape. You will cover a range of skills this week including recognising regular and irregular polygons, working with nets, coordinates, reflection and translation.

In Science, we will complete our learning on ‘Animals – including Humans’ and in Geography, we will think about ways to prepare for an earthquake.

Thank you so much for all the hard work you have put into your learning over the year both in school and at home. Your Year 6 teachers are very excited to welcome you back in September and we really look forward to seeing after the holidays as our new Year 6!

We wish you all a healthy and happy summer.

From

Mrs Baker, Mrs Hall, Mrs Withers and Mrs Williams

Home Learning Ideas From March 2020

Please click here

https://www.bernardsheathjnr.herts.sch.uk/home-learning-ideas-march-2020/

for more ideas of things to do for distance learning.

Weekly Update 06.07.20

Hello Year 5,

We hope that you have had a lovely weekend and are ready for another week of home learning.

We are looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible on the visit day on Friday and are very excited to see you face-to-face and hear about some of the things you have been doing in your distance learning, how much you have grown and, no doubt, seeing a wonderful range of ‘lockdown’ haircuts! To help the visits to run smoothly, please refer back to the details of the visit times and instructions in Mrs Kilpatrick’s letter and look out for an update letter from her this Monday (6.7.20). Please remember to bring a carrier bag folded up in your pocket to take your belongings home in.

We continue to be delighted with the work that we are receiving by e-mail and we are so pleased to hear that some of you are using this time at home to really focus in on a target area of your learning. For example, working through the year group spelling lists to make fantastic improvements, boosting your levels in 144, working really hard on improving handwriting and choosing challenging books to read. This shows great dedication and we are very proud of you.

For distance learning this week, we will be continuing our stories based on the ‘A short story of a fox and a mouse’ film. It is time for the dilemma and events this week so really build the tension using all the features suggested. In the second task, you will also be using your research and knowledge about deserts and the Arctic to persuade people to choose one of them as a holiday destination.

In Maths we will be learning how to multiply fractions. This is a new skill for most of you so look at the videos carefully and remember, you can pause and replay the video again if you need to. Do your best to get a good start with your understanding of this skill but please also be assured that you will come back to these fractions skills in Year 6 if you find it challenging.

In Geography, we have completed our topic about rivers and are going to use the final two weeks of this term to study earthquakes which we hope you will find interesting. In Science, we move on to a new topic called ‘Animals – including humans’ and you will be learning about the human life cycle.

In the ‘Just for Fun’ section, if you are feeling arty, there is a link to a tutorial on how to draw a dragon.

There is also another assembly to watch on the class pages so please have a look at that if you can.

Thank you again for all the wonderful work you are doing at home. We can’t wait to see lots of you on Friday!

Have a lovely week,

From

The Year 5 teachers

Weekly Update 29.06.20

Hello Year 5,

We hope that you all enjoyed the hot weather that we had last week and have been able to see some family and friends as we slowly ease out of ‘lockdown’. We can’t believe we are already starting the 5^th week of this half term!

We continue to be so impressed with all the effort and enthusiasm you are putting into your learning and really appreciate that it is really challenging for everyone to be away from school for so long. We are loving hearing about your achievements not only with school work but with your hobbies and interests too. Alongside wonderful examples of the learning we have set, we also have members of Year 5 attending virtual dancing lessons, passing online music exams, creating amazing art work, sewing, learning to touch type, developing their photography skills and growing their own fruit and vegetables.  There is also lots of baking still going on- which might explain the continuing shortage of self-raising flour!

Thank you for all your great work based on the ‘Catch it’ film. We have loved reading some examples of really good quality writing in your completed stories and reports and were pleased with the variety of sentence starters that were used. This week, we move on to a unit called ‘A short story of a fox and a mouse‘. This unit is also based on a short film for inspiration and for this week’s activities, you will be starting a story and doing some research on the Arctic where it is set. In your story, your focus should be on creating quality descriptive detail to show your characters’ behaviour and feelings.

For Maths, we are revising how to add and subtract fractions. Again, knowing how to find the common denominator is crucial so remember the vital rule - ‘whatever you do to the top, you do to the bottom’. The work you did last week on converting mixed numbers to improper fractions will also be a key skill for success.

In Science, we will be looking at how some plants reproduce and for Geography, we will bring our work on rivers to a close by learning about river pollution. There is also a really striking self-portrait task in the ‘Just for Fun’ section based on the work of contemporary abstract artist Sandra Silberzweig which produces really great results.

Please do have a look at the latest assembly on the class pages if you haven’t already done so and have a wonderful week of learning.

Keep up the great work,

From

The Year 5 teachers

Weekly Update 22.06.20

Hello Year 5,

We hope you had a great week of learning last week and, despite the rain storms, managed to spend some time outdoors. We are really impressed with the work that we are receiving by email and want you to really keep pushing yourselves to do the best job that you can on the work that you are completing. We hope that you have found a routine that works for you and your family and thank you all for continuing to work through your home learning in the best way that you can.

You will be completing your ‘Catch it’ inspired stories this week for English so remember to keep editing your grammar and punctuation. Try to include as many Year 5 level features as you can- relative clauses, parentheses, non-finite clauses etc. We would advise you to complete the GAPS task about using different sentence starters first, as you will find this useful when creating the events and resolution sections of your story. By the time you have completed all three tasks for English, you could be in a position to create your own ‘Catch it’ story book with a copied up or typed up story text, including your front cover design and back cover blurb from this week’s second task. You could then use your artistic skills to create your own illustrations.

In Maths, most of the week will be spent looking at fractions. Finding the common denominator will be a key skill so get your times table knowledge ready for action! The connected White Rose Maths worksheets and answers are to be found on BHJS web pages this week rather than directly from the White Rose Maths site so please check the instructions carefully to find them.

In Geography you will be researching two great rivers- the Thames and the Mississippi and identifying similarities and differences between them. For Science, you will be drawing the life cycle of a plant.

If you have seen Mrs Kilpatrick’s letter from last week, you will know that we are really looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible in your visit session in July. Please see her letter for more details.

There is also another assembly on the class pages for you to see.

Try to create something that you are really proud of this week! Keep sharing your work with your family, friends, relatives and by email to us too.

Stay safe and have fun,

From

The Year 5 teachers

Weekly Update 15.06.20

Hello Year 5,

Welcome back to the third week of this half term. We know it really does feel like a long time since we were at school and want you to know that we are missing you very much. You will have heard in the news that Year 5 will not return to school before the summer holidays begin and we are extremely sad about this.  We will continue to post work on this site for you so keep trying your best with as many of the activities as you can and also to take time to develop a hobby or interest. It has been lovely to see the baking, art, DT, fitness and music projects some of you have been up to in your e-mails.

This week, Mrs Kilpatrick did her first ‘virtual’ assembly. She spoke from her office to the children in each classroom in the school. The recording of this assembly is now on the website under ‘Class Pages’ and you will be able to watch it there.

In English this week, we will continue with our ‘Catch it’ inspired stories. Keep editing them to improve your punctuation, grammar and vocabulary choices! The non-fiction activity is about researching deserts. Can you find an interesting way to present your research? Keep up with your reading daily. Mrs Parry is collecting book reviews for a display in September so please keep your recommendations coming in.

For Maths, we conclude our work on decimals this week with White Rose Maths lessons on using formal written methods for addition and subtraction of decimals. Also, some people are telling us they are making great progress with their 144 skills because they are doing regular practise at home. Try to find a few occasions each week where you try to beat your previous time.

In Science we will study plant reproduction and in Geography we will learn how meanders and ox bow lakes are formed.

If you would like an Art challenge this week, and you haven’t looked at the Nature Journals activity in ‘Just for Fun’, you could try to draw one of the pictures from the links. The peacock butterfly is definitely worth a try!

We have also added a new activity called ‘Museum of Me’ in the ‘Just for Fun’ section which you may enjoy.

We miss you lots,

Thank you for all your fantastic efforts,

Keep up the good work,

From the Year 5 Teachers

Weekly Update 08.06.20

Hello Year 5,

We hope you have had a lovely week and are back in the routine of home learning after the half term break. The teachers have been welcoming Year 6 children back to school in addition to the children of key workers and working in small groups or ‘bubbles’. We have all been getting used to new ways of teaching and learning with the social distancing rules.

We have seen some lovely examples of work on the e-mail and it looks as if lots of you have enjoyed the Lighthouse story writing. This week you will be starting a new story inspired by a short film and doing some research on meerkats related to it. In Maths, we will be looking at decimals again- this week focusing on mental addition and subtraction strategies. Geography looks at how the action of rivers form waterfalls and in Science you will look at the parts of a flower. Keep using Emmylou’s art activities- there is a nice demonstration of how to draw a hedgehog from last week if you like the sound of that!

Keep working hard and doing your best in all your learning,

Keep safe,

From the Year 5 Teachers

Weekly Update 01.06.20

Hello Year 5!

We hope you all had a lovely half term and enjoyed the fantastic weather we had.  Wasn’t it lovely?

This week is going to bring some quite significant changes for us all.  Nearly all teachers and teaching assistants will be in school teaching Year 6 and the Keyworker children every day. 

We will still be uploading work for you onto this Year 5 page, as we have done every week, but it may look slightly different.  We will continue to upload units of work that we ask you to work on weekly, as well as using some of the online learning resources provided by BBC Bitesize, The White Rose Hub and The Oak National Academy.

We will also still be on the other end of the email address that many of you have been using, year5@bernardsheathjnr.herts.sch.uk, but our responses may not be as quick as they have been up until now.  Please do not hesitate to email and ask us if you are stuck on one of the tasks we have set – we will get back to you and support you with it as quickly as we can. 

We have been so proud of you all for continuing to work hard in these challenging circumstances.

From

Year 5 Teachers

Weekly Update 18.05.20

Good morning everyone, we hope you are well.  

As you may have heard, there are some changes ahead for some children - Year 6 at our school and some younger year groups at the infant school - this may be some of your older or younger siblings.  At the moment, Year 5 are not yet coming back to school.  We are sad that we will not be seeing you quite as soon as Year 6, but look forward to when it is safe enough for everyone to be back at school together.  We know you are missing your friends and we are missing you, as well as the other teachers.  So, for now, we carry on as we were.  Carry on working from the blog, carry on using and exploring Purple Mash, carry on sending in examples of your work, carry on having fun and being with family and carry on being safe.

This week in English we are continuing with our Lighthouse story.  We saw some lovely examples of story openings last week.  Remember to vary your sentence openers and to use a green pen to edit and check your work - especially check for homophone spelling errors, as these are your spelling words this week.  There is no Purple Mash spelling activity this week. 

In maths we are looking at decimals.  We are using a website called White Rose Hub - please email if you have any problems accessing this.  We have also set lots of puzzles and quizzes this week.  You have another science and geography lesson in the general section and some 'Just fun Fun' games too.

Have a good week

From

Year 5 Teachers

Weekly Update 11.05.20

Welcome to another week of distance learning.  Are you getting used to it yet?  We aren’t – we’d much rather be at school!

This week in English we are moving on to our next unit which is story writing.  There is a clip for you to watch which you will base your story on.  In maths we are looking at statistics – graphs, charts, tables and data.  There is another geography activity and some science for you to look at too.  Don’t forget to look at the ‘Just for Fun’ activities if you find yourself with some spare time.  There is an update on the caterpillars too!

Mrs Hall has recovered from her astonishing efforts last Tuesday when she ran her first ever marathon. We are all very proud of her for raising an incredible amount of money for 'Up On Downs'. Thank you for all the support, emails, well wishes, photos and donations from the children and families of Year 5 and the rest of the school.  A huge well done to all the children who ran 'alongside' Mrs Hall from home.   

There may be some changes ahead and we are trying to be prepared for all eventualities.  Until then, keep doing what you’re doing, keep working hard and keep safe.

From

Year 5 Teachers

A note from Mrs Hall:

Thank you to everyone for sending messages of support for the marathon run on Tuesday. I can confirm that 104 laps of the running track is a very, very long way but I was so pleased to have managed it. It took me just over five hours and together we have raised over £2000 for "Up On Downs" which is a fantastic amount. Well done to Cara who was sponsored for running  20 laps of her huge garden and then donated all the money to "Up On Downs". 
Well done to Oliver for his film of a very clever D.T project. I do look at everything that is sent in and I have been very impressed by all of your projects and posters.

Weekly Update 04.05.20

It’s May!  We can’t quite believe how quickly the time is going, and yet it feels like ages ago that we were at school with you all.  We miss you all very, very much and really hope to get back to school – and some sort of routine – soon!

‘April showers bring May flowers’

What a wet week it has been!  Mrs Williams is pleased as this has meant the grass seeds have finally started to grow.  It has also attracted lots of pigeons to the garden and Harry is loving banging on the door to try and play with them!  Mrs Withers has spent a wet week helping her own children with their home learning (wrapping her head around work for Year 2, Year 4 and Year 5 is no easy task!).  Mrs Hall has not enjoyed running in the rain this week but the marathon is getting ever closer so training must continue.  She will be running the 104 laps on Tuesday – so let’s hope for perfect running weather.  Good luck Mrs Hall!  Mrs Baker has enjoyed a week at home after a busy week at school and has enjoyed watching The Great British Sewing Bee.

We are all busy preparing work to upload here, finding activities to use on Purple Mash, preparing activities for the children who are still coming to school and… writing your reports!

This week is the last week of work on The Highwayman poem.  We have seen some lovely examples of the work you have been doing and really hope you have enjoyed this unit of work.  In maths we are looking at telling the time and reading timetables.  Hopefully you brushed up on your Roman numerals last week, as lots of clocks still use Roman numerals today.  There is the next science lesson and we have also added some geography work on rivers, some more science tasks and some ‘Just for Fun’ activities.

Take care and keep working hard.

We are immensely proud of every single one of you.

From

Year 5 Teachers

Weekly Update - 27.04.20

We now enter week two of the summer term.  We hope you have all had another good week in the sunshine.  Next week is meant to bring some rain - and much needed relief for our gardens!  We have been busy this week preparing the work to upload for you on here, setting some new Purple Mash English activities and Mrs Baker has been kept very busy preparing activities for the children that have been in school. 

Our English work continues to be based around the narrative poem ‘The Highwayman’.  We saw some lovely examples of your posters last week.  We hope you are enjoying this unit of work.  This week's maths work is all on Roman Numerals.  There are some fun games to play this week, including 'Four in a row' and some Sudoku puzzles.  We have also created a new 'Science' page with this term's science topic work - 'Living things and their habitats'.  There is also a 'Just for fun!' page with some games and activities for you and your family if you are looking for something to do.

Let us remind you that the Purple Mash activities are supplementary to the work we post.  Please explore Purple Mash in your own time and play some of the games available to you on there.  We have been asked by some parents to upload more work to the class pages and so we have endeavoured to do so.  However, we are also aware that this may be very daunting for some families.  As always, do not feel you have to complete everything - just do your best and do what you can.

Remember to keep going with your tables and to read every day.

Please use the email address, or ‘contact us’ box below if you have any comments or questions.

Have a good week, stay safe.

From

Year 5 Teachers

Weekly Update - 20.04.20

Welcome to the Summer Term!

We hope you all had a really lovely Easter break and managed to enjoy some time in the sun, and maybe a chocolate egg or two!  We are lucky to have had some good weather, even if it has been very windy.  We loved seeing the work from the winners of the Easter Egg competition above.  Aren't they lovely?  Well done to the winners and everyone who entered.

From this week, we will continue to upload three maths activities, three English activities and some general activities which includes this term's science topic, 'Living things and their habitats'.  For the next few weeks our English tasks will be based on the narrative poem ‘The Highwayman’.  We will also set some things to do on Purple Mash.  These activities will be supplementary to the work we post on this class page.  Feel free to also explore Purple Mash and play some of the games available to you on there.  We have had some examples of work sent in to us and have also had some lovely update emails from you.  Please use the email address, or ‘contact us’ box below if you have any comments or questions.

Weekly Update - 03.04.20

Well here we are, end of week two,

We’ve seen some excellent work from some of you.

Working from home can’t be done with ease,

Remember to be kind to your parents please!

We’ve enjoyed your poems, stories and reports too,

Such lovely writing has stopped us feeling blue.

We’ve been working hard from school and home,

Thank goodness we’ve all got WhatsApp on our phones!

Today should have been the end of Spring Term,

Finishing at lunchtime with energy to burn.

House points to count and certificates to write,

We never get it all finished, try as we might!

Just because these times are strange,

It doesn’t mean everything has to change.

We wouldn’t normally set Easter home learning,

And that is still the case – we are confirming.

As always keep going with your times tables,

And read lots of books, if you are able.

We won’t be setting work as we did before,

But only for two weeks – and no more!

Enjoy the holiday, do something daft,

Create an Easter hunt, or maybe Easter craft.

We will be back again in a fortnight,

Remember to come back then and check the website!

Happy Easter, have fun and enjoy the break!

From the Year 5 Team

Weekly Update - 27.03.20

Good morning everyone,

Well, here we are, end of week one!  We hope you have all had a safe and happy week.

We have had a few questions sent to us via the contact form below, as well as many parents 'phoning school with questions about the work being put online

The work we are uploading is to give you all some ideas of what you could be doing at home.  It is suitable for Year 5 and will cover things we would have done at school.  We are aiming to give you a breadth of activities and ideas.  This work is not compulsory.  You may dip in and out of it as you see fit.  Some families will choose to complete all of the work set and others will create their own activities.  Some families will need a strict daily timetable, for others, it will be much better to go with the flow.  At this point, everyone should do what works for them.  Please do not feel pressure to complete everything and to keep up.    Remember - everyone is in the same boat.  The mental health of our children and families is far more important to us.

We have also had a few questions about sending work into us.  If your child is particularly proud of a piece of work, please feel free to use this page (or email directly on year5@bernardsheathjnr.herts.sch.uk) with photos of work that they have completed.  We will always aim to provide answers for work where we can so that you can go through the work together.  If you are unsure on how to complete a task, or whether your child has done a task correctly, please do email to ask!

Stay well, stay safe and stay inside 

_______________________________________

As you can imagine, we are in a very challenging situation where we are trying our best to find the most efficient way to share work for you all, whilst maintaining communication as best we can and providing work and activities for those children still in school.

Work, set by the Year 5 teachers, to be completed at home

We will provide three pieces of Maths and English a week, along with some other topic based work.

Please note:

• Pace yourselves!  These activities should last one week.  Don’t complete everything in one day.
• The work we set should be completed independently, with support from parents where necessary. 
• We will endeavour to provide answers for work (where possible) for you to check through with your child.
• Times tables practice, reading, spelling and handwriting can be done at any time, any day and as much as possible, throughout the week.
• Please also check the links under the ‘Parents’ tab on the website for additional websites and activities for things to do.

Communication

On our Year 5 page, you will have the ability to contact us for the purposes of asking questions about work we have set.

Any email contact will be checked daily (Monday-Friday) before 10am.  All school staff are working on a rotation, so Year 5 staff will not be in school together at any point.  Therefore, please don’t expect an instant response to an email, as we may need to discuss things with each other before we can reply.  We will endeavour to be as clear and concise as possible, so that email communication can be kept for urgent queries.

Having said all of this, we are in an ever changing situation, and we will keep you updated as and when we need to.

Wishing you well,

Year 5 Team

----------------------------------

Welcome to Year 5!

Check the blog regularly for updates from all of the classes and for home work.

A plea for restocking of personal equipment!!

It has come to our attention that many children are not equipped for the school day, and it is becoming quite a big problem.  A long time is being wasted in lessons looking for spare pens, borrowing pens, losing equipment and worksheets are getting lost because they are not being stuck in, etc.

A glue stick is 50p

A blue pen is 30p

A green pen is 30p

A whiteboard pen is 30p

Every child really MUST be equipped with these basic items.

Thank you for sending the children in with a pack of tissues, please continue to do so.  Personal bottles of hand sanitisers are also welcomed.  If you are able to contribute a box of tissues to the class, they would be very much appreciated.

Thanks again for your ongoing support.