Year 5 - Poetry, prime numbers and pencil skills

This week, Year 5 have been working hard to prepare for their poetry competition and have practised at every opportunity. They have shown great collaboration, working closely with others to build fluency and confidence. Two pupils from each class will go on to perform them to Mrs Ashmore and members of the Senior Leadership Team. We have been really impressed by their performances so far.

In Maths, children are reinforcing their grasp of multiplication by exploring factor pairs. They have explored factor trees, which has led to discussion around prime numbers. They have represented a number as a product of its prime factors and reinforced their use of powers of numbers as a challenge. Some key questions will centre around whether 1 is a prime number. What is the only even prime number? Children are sure to enjoy exploring the ‘Sieve of Eratosthenes’, an ancient algorithm for finding all prime numbers up to any given limit.

In Music, the children have been learning to play challenging drum patterns from Ghana and Mali. They have learnt about the traditions of Western African music and how the djembe drum was originally played for the King of Mali to announce his arrival. The children explored the three sounds made by the djembe drum - the bass, the tone and the slap, and the techniques needed to play them. They memorised four repeated patterns which make up a traditional piece called ‘Fanga’, which they managed to perform extremely well.

It’s all about mark making in Year 5! There are so many ways an artist can use a pencil: on its side, held at the end or exerting varied amounts of pressure. A pencil can show the fluffy texture of soft feathers or the grainy texture of a gnarled branch; this is what pupils in Year 5 have been learning in Art, along with how to use a range of tones. These skills will be put into practice next week when they make still life drawings of mackerel.