Year 5 - Sawubona!

It is wonderful that Year 5 children have established good routines during the course of their first half- term in Year 5. They are arriving promptly to lessons and have used their wallets effectively to organise their belongings.

Whilst they are taught in their distinct subject areas, the children have made links with different curriculum areas. Their Humanities work is an opportunity to research texts of varying difficulty and to utilise their digital skills to evaluate, analyse and present their findings. They have made links with their English work, exploring the context of the White Giraffe and understanding the geography of Africa where the story is set.

Year 5 children have been transported from Great Missenden to South Africa this term as we have shared ‘The White Giraffe’ by Lauren St John. The book focuses on Martine who finds herself suddenly orphaned and off to a game reserve named ‘Sawubona’. A visit from Mrs Jay taught us that this is a Zulu greeting and means ‘I see you’ or ‘Hello’. We loved listening to Mrs Jay telling us about the animals, Zulu traditions and her life in South Africa. We have really enjoyed learning some traditional African folk tales and found they had some common themes. Animals often talk and behave as humans, (we learnt this is called ‘anthropomorphism), baddies seldom prosper and every tale is an opportunity to teach children how to behave! Year 5 are now crafting their own African tales and they promise to be a riveting read. We hope to share these tales with some of the younger children at Gateway after half term.

In Maths. Year 5 have enjoyed representing Roman Numerals and considered why they might be useful even in the modern day. Experience with Roman numerals increases our number sense and helps us better understand how numbers work. Thinking about numbers in different ways can also help to form connections or see patterns.They can also reinforce the Idea of Place Value; where a number (or letter) falls has meaning. Continuous reinforcement of key skills is also helping to support children with their mental arithmetic; from numbers to fractions to time and word problems, the children have had a range of experiences

In Humanities, the children have been studying Ancient Egypt. The pupils have enjoyed finding out where Egypt is and comparing Ancient Egypt with Modern Egypt. We have finished this half term with presentations. Pupils were given a topic to research and presented their findings to the class. It was great to see the pupils take ownership of their learning and display some fantastic presentation skills! We will continue our study of the Ancient Egyptians after half term.