Friday 25th February, 2022

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Welcome back!

I hope that you all had a lovely half-term break.

It has been lovely to chat with many parents during the Year 5 Consultations.  For those parents who had technical problems etc…please get in touch via the school office.

It has been a busy week in Year 5 this week.  The children have come into school ready for learning and their hard work and efforts have not gone unnoticed.  We spent some days this week revisiting multiplication in Maths and started work on division.  The children have worked extremely hard on developing their understanding of multiple strategies in multiplication and this week’s homework is revisiting those.  In English, using a picture to prompt our writing, the children worked hard on developing a story start to their ‘Mysterious Door’ narratives.  Alongside selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, they edited their work to ensure their choices enhanced meaning and these wonderful pieces have been added to their portfolios.

In our daily worship the children have been examining the prayer of St Teresa Avila and how they can use their bodies to be Christ like people on earth.  They have been very prayerful and reflective and I want to thank those children who have added their thoughts that have enriched our daily discussions.  We examined a painting by Peter Brueghel (1617,) called the Seven Acts of Mercy and the children made observations and reflected upon it. We chatted about our Lenten focus question: How can we build a better world?

In RE we have started  preparing for our topic from Lent to Easter and examined the three practices of Lent – prayer, fasting and giving.  In their RE lessons the children have recalled the importance of Lent in the liturgical year, the practises within the church and the purpose and history of the Traditional Stations of the Cross.

Yesterday, alongside the cold weather, Ti discovered some ice in the KS2 Playground during morning break and made a mini snowman.

Remember, we have a Mardi Gras celebration next week on Tuesday 1st March!
Please could your child wear the Mardi Gras colours of yellow, gold, purple or green to school on
Tuesday 1st March to add to the celebration.

Wishing you and your families a wonderful weekend.

Mrs McNamara

 

Home Learning this week:  Logins have been sent home with your child today

  1. Spellings: words from the Year5/6 Statutory Word List        Please log onto Spelling Frame

and complete the spelling activities assigned to help you learn the spellings below.

awkward, bargain, category, cemetery, committee, communicate, communication, competition, competitive, conscience, conscious, consciousness

2.  Research:  Find out about the Stations of the Cross and present your findings in written and picture form. Click here about the research.

3.  Maths:  Following on from the work we have been doing in class, complete at least four of the following calculations using the multiple-strategies-sheet attached.

27 x 46          64 x 56        75 x 35     345 x 28      546 x 18     667 x .23

Timetables:  Log onto your Times tables Rockstar account and try to beat your personal best!  This week, we are also battling against Year 6!!     RockStars.com    Let’s work together to win!

4.  Read daily and update your reading record.

5.  Log onto SPAG. com

Complete the tasks that have been set on apostrophes and plurals.

Friday 11th February 2022

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In the last week before half-term, year 5 have been working hard in all their subjects. The focus in Maths has been multiplication, which will continue after half-term. This has also included lots of practice with times tables and family facts. In English, they have continued reading The London Eye Mystery, and developing their knowledge of the features of successful mystery and suspense writing.  In Science, they are continuing to look at the properties of materials.

Today, the children had a workshop on internet safety. They joined in enthusiastically, and showed a good knowledge of how to stay safe online. Please see the photos below.

Best wishes to you all for the half-term holiday and for the future.

Mr. Holmes

Friday 4th February 2022

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The children in year 5 have been working hard on their learning. In maths this week, they  continued their learning and practice with column addition and subtraction. In English, they have just started reading a new book: The London Eye Mystery; this is continuing their learning about mystery and suspense writing. They also learnt how to write a kenning poem, which was Viking in origin, in which something or someone is described using a sequence of two-word phrases.  The poem, which should be spoken out loud, is a riddle, the listener has to guess the subject of the poem. In History, their learning about The Vikings continued.

For RE, the class focus was on Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, which occurred on Wednesday this week. The children have created, using paper and watercolours, their own lovely images of candles. Please see the photo below. The children have also been working on a really large Rangoli artwork, as part of their study of Hinduism, following their visit to the temple last week. A photo of which is below. Each person in the class coloured in one section of the artwork, which is now proudly on display in the class.

 

 

 

 

 

For Science, we conducted a fair test to see which material: wood, plastic or metal, was the best thermal conductor.

Just to let you know, we were hoping to put up a link to a PDF of lots of lovely photos of the children on their Viking Day, but, at present, we are experiencing some technical difficulties.

Wishing you all a good weekend,

Mr. Holmes

For home learning this week: spelling words, homophones: aisle, isle, alter, altar, knew, new, steal, steel, lead, led, wait, weight.

Mathletics and Read Theory and Times Tables Rockstars.

In recognition of The Queen’s forthcoming Platinum Jubilee (1952 – 2022), we’d like the children to design a learning poster about The Queen, this should include a timeline.

 

 

Friday 28th January 2022

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Year 5 have had a really interesting and varied week. On Wednesday the children came in dressed as Vikings, which they have been studying in History with Mrs. McNamara.  During the day, the children made rune stones out of clay, played a Viking game called the Fox and the Geese. They baked Viking bread, which was delicious. They also read a poem about the first Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793AD.  They enacted a Viking raid as Berserkers, which they greatly enjoyed.  The children also joined a virtual visit to the British Museum to look at Viking artefacts and discuss what impact the Vikings had on the British Isles. May I say thank you to the parents for supporting the school with organising costumes for the children. There are a few photos on this blog, but there will be a separate post coming soon with many more photos from the day.

On Thursday the children went, along with year 6, to Bhaktivedanta Manor, a Hare Krishna temple near Watford, as part of our inter-faith week, in which the children have been studying Hinduism. The children already knew quite a lot about Hinduism, but during the day they found out even more. As part of the day, the children wore authentic dress as you can see from the photos. They also visited the shrine while a daily service was taking place. The children had a ride on a cart pulled by oxen, and fed the cows on the farm that is part of the Manor.  It was lovely to see the children so responsive to the temple volunteers who led the day, and served us with lunch, which everyone tried and many enjoyed, judging by their empty plates.

                             

 In Maths this week the children have been practicing addition and subtraction using column method, which they will be continuing next week. In English, they will be continuing their focus on mystery and suspense writing as we start to read a new book: The London Eye Mystery.

Lastly, well done to all the children in Year 5 this week, as the class achieved the best attendance in the school.

Wishing you all a good weekend,

Mr. Holmes

For your home learning this week: Spellings: (words ending ably or ibly), horrible, incredible, sensible, reliable, adorable, identifiable, respectable, enviable, incredibly, sensibly, reliably, respectably.

Mathletics and Read Theory.

Please complete your homework on Hinduism from last weekend if you have not done so already.

 

Year 5 Viking Day

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Year 5 had a very exciting day being Vikings   

 

Click this link to see what the children got up to: http://popepaul.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Viking-Day-.pdf

                                                           

 

 

Friday 21st January 2022

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The children have worked very hard this week on their learning. In Maths this week, the focus has been on working on mental strategies to support addition, before we begin our work on formal addition. The work has continued in English, on our mystery and suspense unit, with the focus on The Watertower. The children have really enjoyed looking into this book, they are now working on their own diary entry as if they are one of the main characters in the book.

 

For RE, the children have begun their learning  on Sacramental People, and how God is in their lives and the world around us. For PE, they have really enjoyed beginning their new focus on gym work in the hall with the focus on travelling (low and high) and planning a travelling sequence with their partner. Each group demonstrated their sequence to the class which was lovely to see.

Next Wednesday is Viking Day in Year 5 and there has been a buzz of excitement around this. We cannot wait to see the children in their outfits!  If you need any support with this, please ask your child to inform us on Monday.

Wishing you all a good weekend.

 

Mr. Holmes

 

Home Learning

Spelling words: accommodate,  accompany, according, achieve, aggressive, amateur, ancient, apparent, appreciate, attached, available, average.

Mathletics and Read Theory.

Design and Technology:

Task: as part of our introduction to our new unit on food in design and technology, choose one country in the world and identify a food that is grown there, then write a paragraph on why that particular food is grown in that country.

 

Friday 14th January 2022

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Friday 14th January 2022

Year five have had a busy week with their learning. The children started a new piece of work on mystery and suspense writing. They have been reading and analysing a book called The Watertower by Gary Crew. The children have greatly enjoyed reading the story alongside the visual images that accompany it.

For maths, the children have continued practising their times tables and have been revising the different methods they can use to help them with addition and subtraction.  In RE under our theme of Sacramental People, the children wrote lovely poems about where they find God in their world today.

As part of their History topic on the Vikings, there will be a Viking Day on Wednesday 26th January. The children are invited to come in Viking dress. A letter will be sent home with your child on Monday.

The PE days for Year 5 have been altered for this term – PE will be on Wednesdays and Thursdays this term. The focus will be on gym and dance and this will take place in the school hall.

As part of our ongoing work in RHE (Relationship, Health Education), the children have been looking at the unit on Me, My Body and My Health.

In class they have discussed how they are similar and different from one another and the importance of respecting their bodies.  Over the next two sessions, the focus will be on puberty.  Please use the log in details to Ten Ten’s Parent Portal to look at the resources Mrs McNamara and I will be using for these sessions in class. If you have any questions, please contact us via the school office.

Username: pope-paul-en6         password: lambswool

Once you have logged ono the Parent Portal, click on Years 3 and 4

Under Module One: Created and Loved by God, click on Unit 2: Me, My Body, My Health

Look though the information under session 3 and session 4.

 

I’d like to wish you all an enjoyable weekend.

 

Mr. Holmes

 

Homework Learning for this week:

1. Mathletics

2.Read Theory

3. The spelling words are: yacht, bruise, pacific, celebration, languages, cruise, vehicle, nougat, guarantee, queue, immediately, pneumonia.

4. Continue in the style of the author a paragraph of descriptive writing: The girl moved silently through the dark woods. She shivered, drawing her hood up further. It was winter now. Gathering her courage, she stepped through the cold, hard snow. Suddenly she heard a noise ……… ( write six or seven sentences adding connectives to enhance cohesion within the text).

Friday 7th January 2022

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Happy New Year to you all,

I hope you all enjoyed a good Christmas and New Year break.

Thank you once again for all the kind gifts. Yesterday afternoon the children attended Mass with Father Shaun in the Hall to celebrate the Feast of Epiphany. The

children have also been learning more about the three Epiphanies, and their significance. The children also took part in an act of worship in the class, in which they all thought very hard about what good personal qualities they could give to both their families and the school during this coming year. Here is a photo of a few of the children in the class with their gifts.

Wishing you all a good weekend.

Mr. Holmes

 

Homework for this weekend will be this week’s spellings: accident, actually, although, believe, bicycle, business, caught, centre, century, certain, circle, decide

Friday 17th December 2021

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This week in year 5 has been eventful. The children greatly enjoyed their Christmas lunch in the main hall on Wednesday.

The year 5 classroom has been a hive of activity this week, with multi-coloured paper chains, Christmas Angels and other decorations adorning the room. The children have all worked really hard and been very creative to bring the Christmas spirit into their learning environment.

This week the children have learnt how King Alfred defeated the Vikings and kept Wessex, and what a Viking settlement was. In RE the focus has been on Christmas customs  and how they reflect the incarnation. In Science we have developed our knowledge of the process of pollination in plants.  In RSE we looked at how we are created and loved by God, and the gifts and talents he has given us.

On behalf of myself, Ms. Hilton and Mrs. McNamara  thank you for your generous gifts and best wishes. We’d like to extend to you our very best wishes for Christmas and the forthcoming New Year.

I look forward to seeing the children in the New Year, on Thursday 6th January.

Mr. Holmes

 

Friday 10th December 2021

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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.