Today, we had a Remembrance Pilgrimage, whereby the whole school journeyed from the Reception classroom all the way up to Year 6 to remember loved ones who have died, whose names were written on our prayer tables or whose photos were displayed on our RE boards. It was a beautifully moving event which allowed all the children to pray for their eternal rest.

Also today, we welcomed Mya’s mum and sister into the classroom to conclude our One World Week learning on Zimbabwe from before half term. They told us about games that children play in Zimbabwe, their favourite songs and their favourite food. They also taught us about Danai Gurira – a Zimbabwean actress who they find particularly inspirational for the work that she has done in highlighting the issues and challenges that affect women throughout the world. The class were very excited when Mya’s mum and sister served us some traditional Zimbabwean food: Sadza (a cornmeal food that is a staple in all Zimbabwean meals) served with a delicious spinach stew. We thank the two of them for taking the time to enrich our learning about their country.

In PE, we continued with our netball unit, building up our throwing repertoire by practising the shoulder pass, bounce pass and overhead pass, along with the chest pass from last week.

Frankie, Aanay and Andreas led us in prayer yesterday morning by delivering a collective worship that they had planned on the theme of the Good Samaritan – thank you boys.

In Maths this week, we have been looking at formal methods for addition and subtracting, as well as using rounding to estimate and check answers. In RE this week, we started learning about a prayer form called Lectio Divina, which allows us to hear a Bible passage 4 times in order to firstly listen to it, then meditate on what it means to you personally, then speak to God about it, and finally contemplate on what action you should be taking from the passage into your daily life. The children shared at the end of our session today about how it enabled them to really get meaning from the passage and interpret it in a way that’s personal to them.

In Art, we experimented with using ink on watercolour wash for landscape painting. Once again, the class produced some really fantastic pieces.

Home learning for this week:

Maths	Mathletics assignments – revision of this half term’s place value concepts: ·        Add 3-Digit Numbers: Regroup ·        Add Multi-Digit Numbers ·        3-Digit Differences: 1 Regrouping (Subtraction) ·        3-Digit Differences with Zeros (Subtraction) ·        Rounding to check answers (Quest)
Reading	5 tests on Readtheory or 20 minutes of reading per day
SPaG	Assignment on spag.com: ·        Direct speech punctuation (B)
Spelling	Log on to Spelling Shed using your EdShed login, and play a variety of games to practise this week’s spelling rule: Words from the Year 5 & 6 Statutory Spelling List ·        appreciate ·        immediately ·        cemetery ·        language ·        conscious ·        sufficient ·        convenience ·        thorough ·        environment ·        vegetable

See you on Monday.

Miss D

What a week we have had in Year 5! For One World Week, we have immersed ourselves in Zimbabwean culture, and have learnt so much about the southern African country. Here’s a summary of what we have done this week. Please enjoy the video at the end.

Monday

• Learning about the geography and history of Zimbabwe
• Learning basic greetings in Shona (the most widely spoken language in Zimbabwe)
• Learning the symbolism within the Zimbabwean flag

Tuesday

• Cooking chimodho (Zimbabwean cornbread)
• Researching and presenting in groups about famous sites in Zimbabwe, including Victoria Falls, Nyanga National Park, Hwange National Park, Matopo Hills and Great Zimbabwe

Wednesday

• Having a go at Mbakumba dancing
• Making rock art to replicate the paintings found on granite boulders in the Matopo Hills dating back 13,000 years ago
• Hearing Mya talk about Zimbabwe and telling us about her favourite Zimbabwean foods (and giving us a taster too!) – thank you Mya!

Thursday

• Learning about Great Zimbabwe and creating paper replica models of the stone ruins there
• Hearing Mrs Heymoz talk about when she lived in Zimbabwe for a few years
• Doing some more Zimbabwean dancing
• Learning a Zimbabwean song – Our Zimbabwe

Friday

• Recreating the famous soapstone bird sculptures out of clay
• Tasting some more Zimbabwean food
• Presenting our week’s learning to the other classes

Well done for this week and indeed the whole half term. Have a wonderful break, and I’ll see you on Monday 30th.

Miss D 🎃

Here are the 2 songs to learn for Friday’s assembly:

Backing track:

PE: Keeping possession of the ball

Music: Percussive cup accompaniment to What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor

Here is the link to the video so that you can practise at home:

Next Wednesday, we have our class Mass, in the Year 5 classroom, to celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. Please do join us.

Children, please practise the following hymns for the Mass:

Home learning for this week:

Maths	Mathletics assignments: ·         Converting to Roman Numerals to 1000 ·         Converting from Roman Numerals to 1000 ·         Roman numerals to 1,000 (Quest)
Reading	5 tests on Readtheory or 20 minutes of reading per day
Spelling	Log on to Spelling Shed using your EdShed login, and play a variety of games to practise this week’s spelling rule: Words ending in ‘-cial’ ·         artificial ·         beneficial ·         crucial ·         especially ·         facial ·         glacial ·         judicial ·         multiracial ·         official ·         special

See some of you at the St Vincent Mass on Sunday, and the rest of you on Monday.

Miss Donatantonio

It’s the end of another week, and once again it has been busy busy!

We have cracked on with our English, exploring and discussing the theme of refugees, which is central to our novel The Boy at the Back of the Class. Maths has seen a continuation of place value, including ordering and comparing numbers, and counting in steps of powers of 10 (10, 100, 1000 etc.). We began our Science topic about human growth and development, in which we had a brilliant discussion about the question ‘What if the average lifespan of a human was 200?’. We talked about how this would effect quality of life, overpopulation, climate change, poverty and crime, to name but a few points that were made. We also began our RE unit about the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation).

PE started this week too, with swimming on Wednesday and fundamental invasion game skills on Thursday.

Geography and French also began with Mrs McDonald on Tuesday afternoon, as did RSHE, which focuses initially on the understanding that if we are made in the image and likeness of God, then we should value ourselves first and foremost.

Music continued with the theme of sea shanties and in their groups the children practised and performed What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor, focusing on a steady beat and articulation. I was so impressed with the musicality within the class!

The children also completed their visual notes in Art, in which we looked at two landscape/cityscape artists: Vanessa Gardner and the Shoreditch Sketcher.

Home learning, which is due next Wednesday, is as follows:

Maths	Mathletics assignments: ·         Place Value to Millions ·         Numbers from Words to Digits ·         Numbers to 10,000 (Quest)
Reading	5 tests on Readtheory or 20 minutes of reading per day
Spelling	Log on to Spelling Shed using your EdShed login, and play a variety of games to practise this week’s spelling rule: Words ending in ‘-tious’ and ‘-ious’   ambitious infectious fictitious nutritious repetitious amphibious curious devious notorious obvious

Children were given their login details this afternoon (unless you received it at the Meet the Teacher meeting on Tuesday).

Have a great weekend!

Miss Donatantonio