Year 5 - Exciting new Chromebooks

The children returned to school with great energy and enthusiasm this term, made all the more exciting by having their very own chromebooks readily at their disposal! They have agreed rules for their safe and productive use and have readily taken responsibility for looking after them. It has been wonderful to see that devices are charged and they are quick to log on. The children have used a variety of tools as appropriate to the task, from conducting research in Future Skills to find out about Democracy and the Rule of Law, to creating films in Computing lessons and writing and editing in English. The possibilities are endless and we look forward to discovering them!

In English, we have jumped straight into our class text this term ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ and have been gripped by the adventures of Michael and his family as they set sail aboard their boat (the Peggy Sue). Unfortunately, Michael ended up in the water before finding himself waking up on an unfamiliar island, unsure of what lies ahead. Inspired by this part of the story, we are now re-writing this moment for ourselves focusing on incorporating ambitious vocabulary and conveying the tense atmosphere to our reader. We can’t wait to find out what happens to Michael next…

In Maths, enquiry and self-discovery are so important in making learning relevant and laying good foundations for future learning. We encourage higher-order thinking in children through opportunities to explore concepts and formulas for themselves. Work on area and perimeter has enabled children to apply the formula for the area of a triangle and to derive the area of a parallelogram on their own. They have used practical resources and reasoned with triangles to form complex shapes. Reasoning tasks have required them to develop their two- dimensional non-verbal skills, discovering unknown lengths and using the correct units of measure.

This term, we are excited to explore the Maya civilisation, in Humanities, and develop our understanding of world history. In lessons, we have loved using our chromebooks to locate ancient Mayan sites on maps and delve into sources of evidence to make predictions. Over the next few weeks, we look forward to understanding further how the Aztecs and Mayans differ, recognising features of Mayan cities and understanding more about their daily life.

Have you ever wondered about space and our solar system? Well this is the term of space exploration when we are discovering orbits and rotation. Where do our years and days come from? Does the sun go anywhere at night? How long would it take to get to Pluto, a dwarf planet? To understand all this we have been using our Chromebooks every week as we use secondary sources of information. In addition we are learning how to check and test secondary sources for their accuracy. We have also been outside to realise just how big our own solar system is.