Class News: Year 5/6
Class News: Year 5/6
This term, the Year 5/6s have been extremely busy and have already learnt so much, and it's only Week 6!
In Religion, we looked at the story from the Bible when Jesus taught the crowd the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 3-12). They are blessings that remind us how to live good lives. We talked about what Jesus might say if He were speaking to a crowd today, and we wrote our own Modern Beatitudes to show the principles we believed should be followed.
Here is an example from Vivienne:
Blessed are they who are forgiving even when it’s hard.
Blessed are those who stand up for others when things aren’t right
Blessed are those who are helpful.
In Geography, we have been learning about ways to make our everyday lives more sustainable and better for the environment. We made posters that represented rules for a natural place.
In Writing, we looked at how we can use different sentence types to make our written work more interesting. We spent time looking at complex sentences. In small groups, we had to come up with an interesting way to teach others about them. We made some very exciting movies and raps, which we presented at last week’s Assembly.
Here is a rap that Esha and Lucas made :
One-two beat, let’s start the show, Building strong sentences as we go. An independent clause can stand alone, It’s a full idea, all on its own. A dependent clause needs some more, It can’t stand by itself for sure. “Because” and “although” help ideas connect, They’re subordinating conjunctions — show respect! If and when tell how or why, They join our thoughts and help them tie. Put them together, now that’s smart, Complex sentences — grammar art!
And here is Theresa, Nathan and Benjamin’s rap:
A complex sentence has two parts,One big idea, and one that startsWith words like because, when, or if,They give your writing a helpful lift.
Because I practised, I got better.
When it was sunny, we wrote a letter.
If you try hard, you will improve.
Although it’s tricky, you’ll find your groove!
Since I learned more, my writing grew,
While I was reading, I learned something new.
After the rain stopped, we went outside,
Before the bell rang, we finished with pride.
Complex sentences help explain,
Why, when, or how—nice and plain!
Whenever I write, I add detail,
So my story does not fail.
Though it seems hard, do not be afraid,
As you keep practising, progress is made.
Use joining words to make it strong,
Then your sentences won’t go wrong!
In Maths, we have learnt so much! We learnt how to make different types of graphs, such as line graphs, side-by-side bar graphs and dot plots. Then we looked at how to read and interpret them and explain whether the data is categorical or numerical.
We’ve also learnt about Highest Common Factors (HCF) and Lowest Common Multiples (LCM).
We are having great fun in Economics, working on a program called Banqer. We all have our own bank accounts, and so far we’ve learnt about saving, spending, transferring funds, interest, borrowing from the bank (Mrs Casey) and debt.
We all wrote resumes and applied for class jobs, which pay us a salary each week, BUT we also have to pay ‘rent’ for items like our table and chair, Wi-Fi, and electricity. We can earn Banqer Bucks for all sorts of things in class, like writing great sentences or using impressive vocab, but we can lose BB for different things too. One of the jobs is “Tub Monitor”, and they can fine us if our tub is not tidy and in order. There are also things we can save up for and buy from the ‘class shop’ like Homework Passes, Switching Seat Passes and Listening to Music While We Work Passes.
We are really enjoying Banqer and learning so much.
Take care,
Marie Casey & Linda Di Camillo
Year 5/6 Teachers