Year 5/6 News

Welcome

Congratulations and thank you to all the 5/6 families for your exceptional efforts in coming through this round of remote learning. As a team we can't wait to welcome the students back into the school on Wednesday, but in doing so are mindful of the fact that they have all spent an extraordinary amount of time away from the classroom and each other. The aim early on will be to strike a balance between restoring connection with the school and each other, as well as continuing learning.

Thank you again for your ongoing support and please don't hesitate to reach out to any of us, particularly through this time of transition back into the classroom. As is always the case, our contact details are at the bottom of the page if you would like to have a chat.

Statement Of Intent

(T4 Wk 1&2) 3_4 Statement of Intent 2020.pdf

Timetable

Week 2.pdf

Reading

In Reading this term the students are learning about different language features within a text such as similes, metaphors and personification. In particular they are learning this through different forms of poetry. Last week the students became more familiar with similes and metaphors through a couple of different activities. One such task was where the students were asked to draw a picture based on a list of similes describing a creature. The activity relied on the student’s imagination however, as the name of the creature was never explicitly mentioned. It was interesting to see the range of different pictures presented as a result of the student's perspectives. Most importantly though, many students were able to include all the similes used for the description in their picture.

Writing

So far this Term the students are beginning to prepare and present debates via the digital platform of Podcasts. You may be familiar with Podcasts, you may even listen to them yourself. Did you know, that there are some fun and educational Podcasts for our kids enjoyment and education too?

Before we go back to face to face teaching, the students were learning all about the different Podcasts that are available, the different formats they are presented in and where we can listen to them. We looked at the importance of sound and getting a message across without visuals.

This week we are looking at the format and structure at the critically acclaimed Debating Podcast 'Smash Boom Best'. We want the students to become familiar with the structure of different episodes, as this is the inspiration behind the 5/6 Debating Podcast. You can check it out by using the link below.

At the end of last week the students completed a Post-Assessment on what they had learned about Podcasts and Podcasting. In this assessment the students also submitted their ideas for topics and participated in a competition to 'Name our Podcast'.

Here are some of the wonderful ideas - 'Battle of the Best', 'Ready Steady Debate!!', 'Seeing the World From Down Here', 'Agree to Disagree', '5/6's Great Debates', 'What's the Debate?', '5/6 Explosion' 'KDP - Kids Debating Podcast', 'Let’s Get This Straight', 'Convince Me!', 'Take De Bait!', 'The Bash of Raphs', 'Pick One', 'School of Debates', 'Raphie Kids', 'The Craziest Debates' and so many more! How will we decide?

Maths

In the first two weeks of Term 4, the Year 5/6 students studied Patterns & Algebra. Students participated in a range of clinics from creating sequences involving whole numbers, fractions and decimals to exploring the use of brackets and order of operations to write number sentences. Some students delved into the Year 7 curriculum and were introduced to the concept of variables as a way of representing numbers using letters. They then created algebraic expressions and evaluated them by substituting a given value for each variable.

Claire Pace

Find the next number in the pattern and identify the rule