This week has been an exceptionally busy week in year 5. The children worked really hard in their preparations for the beautiful Advent Service on Wednesday evening. Everyone tried really hard and this was evident in their wonderful performance.

In Maths this week the children have been looking at Divisibility Rules and working on their mental strategies that they can use to help them with division. They have also been practising their times tables, especially the six and seven times tables. In English they have been focusing on their grammar as well as their guided reading skills.

Today the children had their class party. They made Christmas decorations in the morning for the classroom, then before lunch, they visited Santa in his Grotto, here at school. In the afternoon, the children put on a Talent Show, there are some photos of those who performed, on the blog this week. Everyone performed really well. It was an enjoyable afternoon.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

Mr. Holmes

Home Learning for this week

Work has been set for the children on their spelling frame accounts as well as Mathletics. In addition, I’d like the children to make a poster based on all the titles Luke gives to Jesus in Luke 2, verses 1-20. They can decorate this poster as well.

Another busy week this week in Year 5 !

The children have been busy writing up their World Explorer leaflets either on the Polar Region or The Jungle!  They have planned the content for their text and have worked hard to engage the reader using hooks.  Today, the class looked at each other’s leaflets and they were all so complimentary in their feedback:

Elle said that Gabriela’s leaflet was, “very interesting with lots of interesting words to hook me into reading on.”

Vihaan enjoyed reading Ti’s leaflet as , “he has explained lots about what to expect in the jungle.”

Ela-Maria also added that she enjoyed reading Arthur’s leaflet..”I like his introduction as he describes what I might face in the polar region!”

In Karate with Michael this week, we learnt punches, blocks and stances.  The children played “Sensei says” and unfortunately Michael tricked quite a lot of the class!!

In Maths the children have continued their learning about factors and multiples and created factor beetles to aid their understanding.

In RE the children have started to prepare  a Liturgy of the Word using the Advent Readings for this liturgical year.  These liturgies will be based on the second, third and fourth week of Advent.

As the Advent Service is approaching, the children have been given their words/actions etc.. and have been learning the new songs for the service during singing practise.  Please make sure that you have Wednesday 8th December set aside in your diary!  It will be a lovely, prayerful experience.

Wishing you and your family a lovely weekend.

Mrs McNamara

Home Learning: 

1.  Learning words and songs for the Advent Service.  Click here for the lyrics to the songs.
2.  Please also remember to hand in your Anglo-Saxon and Viking Research by next Wednesday
3.  A gentle reminder regarding the FOPPS Christmas Card Competition.  Please hand in entries next week.

The children have had an exciting week in year 5.  They have been working very hard towards their class assembly, that took place today. It was lovely to see so many parents this morning. The children were delighted to see you all, if a little nervous, but they performed magnificently. The theme of the assembly was Kindness, as it’s World Kindness Day on Saturday 13^th November.

In English, we have just started on our new topic of Explorers this week, in which the children will be developing a guide on how to survive in a chosen part of the world.

In Maths, the children have been focussing on multiplication, including what happens when decimals are multiplied by 10, 100 and 1000. Next week work on division will also begin.

In RE, the children have started to learn more about Advent and its significance. This week they made Advent wreaths using small pieces of coloured paper, and started to examine the symbolism of the wreath and the candles.

The children also attended a webinar this morning with other schools on the importance of kindness, so as well as the usual homework this weekend,  an additional task, suggested at the end of the webinar, will be for them to think about doing something kind for someone.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, please especially enjoy tomorrow as it’s World Kindness Day.

Mr Holmes

1. Mathletics – log in and complete the activities set.
2. Read Theory – log in and complete at least five exercises. The comprehension exercises are assigned Monday to Sunday. Well done to those children who have worked hard this week and made progress in their account.
3. Read for at least 15 minutes a day and remember to complete your reading record.
4. Spellings for this forthcoming week are apostrophes for contraction: didn’t, can’t, hadn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t, couldn’t, won’t, I’ll, we’ll, shan’t, don’t, haven’t
5. To think about an act of  kindness towards someone this weekend.

We have reached half-term; the weeks have flown by!

In English, the children have continued to work really hard on their research and planning for their biography about Mary Anning, a 19^th century self-taught pioneering palaeontologist. The children have spent the last few days composing their biographies based on all their hard work. We’ve looked at the structure and features of other biographies, and have been making sure their  final draft contains all these features that contribute towards writing in a way that makes the reader want to read more. This work will form part of their writing portfolios in class, the children can be very proud of all their hard work. Mary Anning was an inspirational figure.

In Maths the children have started learning about comparing numbers  up to three decimal places, understanding thousandths as well as tenths and hundredths within the place value system. In Religious Studies we’ve been focussing on biblical metaphors, considering and discussing how the children see God and what metaphors they might create for Him based on how he helps them in different situations.

Following on from our work on Mary Anning, Alfie and Kate, together with Mrs Hilton, constructed their own fossils. They were left a few days to harden, and today, the children in year 5 (with all appropriate precautions taken, including safety goggles) took it in turns to chip away at the hardened rocks to discover the fossil inside. Just as Mary Anning would have done, two hundred years ago. It was a very enjoyable experience, as you can see from the photo.

This has been One World Week at Pope Paul School, we’ve been considering the impact of climate change and the forthcoming important meeting, COP26, due to begin in Glasgow before the end of this month. Our Big Question to discuss has been: Who Does the World Belong To? and what positive steps they can take to reduce the threat of climate change. Yesterday, the class attended an online webinar run by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund)  to watch parts of the recent David Attenborough film ‘A Life on Our Planet’ covering our amazing oceans, the impacts of climate change, the problems of overfishing in our seas and solutions to these global issues.  The discussion that came from this was fantastic and as a class they took part in the Wild Wisdom Global Challenge learning more about climate change and sustainability as well as putting their wildlife knowledge to the test.

Today, Ela-Maria, Caroline and Johanna, armed with yummy cupcakes and with ‘Go Green’ as their motivation, sold their cakes to a captive audience.  Well done girls!

Home Learning:

If you are able to log onto Read Theory (complete the 5 activities set) and log onto Mathletics (complete the decimal activities).

There is a whole school RE Home Leaning which is attached below and also on this week’s newsletter.

Whole School RE Learning

I’d like to wish you all an enjoyable half-term break.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Holmes