English 

Our English for this half term has been based around the story How To Find Gold by Viviane Schwarz. We started by learning some of the new vocabulary from the story. 

Whilst we were reading the introduction, we created a role on the wall character description for a main character. 

Next, we focussed in on the map illustration, doing some drama and used this to plan and write our own set of instructions for how to find the gold. 

We recognised that there is a lot of spoken dialogue throughout the story, so we looked at characterisation for our 2 main characters, did some roleplay drama, and wrote our own speech bubbles. The children were also introduced to inverted commas and how they are used in a sentence.  

After rereading the story, we have worked on retelling the story verbally, and focussed on the main events and inferred how the characters would be feeling at each point. We are now using this to write a diary entry from a character’s perspective. 

Reading Hour 

During the reading hour, we have had a big push on phonics using Bug Club. We have been learning to read, write and spell words from the first half of phase 5. We have also used the story While I Am Sleeping to help develop our comprehension skills.  

Maths 

In Maths, we have worked extremely hard to ensure a good understanding of number and place value. We started off using dienes to develop our understanding of ones, tens and hundreds, and represent numbers to 1000. Once children were confident with partitioning, we worked on being able to order and compare numbers to 1000.  

Next, we looked at being able to count forwards and backwards in ones, tens and hundreds with numbers to 1000, thinking carefully about which place value column will change and being able to explain why. We also learnt how to count in 50’s to 1000. 

We are currently working on flexible partitioning of numbers to 1000; learning that numbers can be partitioned in different ways. This will help us when we move on to formal addition and subtraction. We have also started to look at how numbers are related in addition and subtraction fact families. 

Furthermore, we revised counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s, and applied this when trying to improve our times table speed on Times Table Rockstars.  

Science 

This half term, we have been studying rocks. We learnt that there are 3 different types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic, and have looked at how each type of rock is formed. We looked closely at different rocks to classify them based on their appearance, and later enjoyed carrying out investigations to test their durability and permeability. 

We then moved onto looking at different types of fossils and how they are formed.  

In our last week, we are looking at the formation of soil, and will be looking through microscopes and carrying out an investigation into the composition of soil. 

History 

In History, we started by looking at photos of people from the 1900’s, and using our inference skills to decide whether the people were rich or poor. We looked at different jobs that people did in the 1900’s. We then began our learning about the Titanic, learning about the different class systems aboard the ship, and ordering pictures to create a timeline of events. 

Computing 

In computing, we have been working on developing our typing speed by learning which keys are on which row on the computer keyboard, and learning to type using the different fingers on both hands.  

Art 

In art, we revised the colour wheel and learnt how to mix primary colour paint to make secondary and tertiary colours. We have also started to look at sketching using a pencil, and also using a pencil to do some directional shading. 

P.E. 

In P.E, we have been building upon our fundamental ball skills from year 2. We have practised bouncing, throwing and catching a ball on our own, with a partner and in a small group. We have then applied this when learning to play different old school playground games such as piggy in the middle. 

Spanish 

In Spanish, the children have shown a keen interest in learning how to greet one another in different ways. We have also learnt how to ask somebody how they are feeling and different ways to respond to this question.  

R.E. 

In R.E, the children have been introduced to Sikhism. We have looked at the story of the first Guru and how the religion was formed, and learnt what the holy book and place of worship are called. We then enjoyed watching an animation of the story about the formation of the Khalsa, and learnt about the Amrit ceremony that a Sikh may choose to partake in to become a part of the Khalsa today.  

PSHE 

In PSHE, we have been looking at the Jigsaw topic – me in my world. We have discussed positives about ourselves and things that we are good at. We have done a lot of work on emotional literacy – learning about the different emotions that we may feel at times and beginning to understand how to express these, and strategies to deal with our emotions.  

Music

Avengers have played our classroom glockenspiels and followed the Glockenspiel Stage 1 on the Charanga website. The children played along to the tunes Play Your Music, Drive and Strictly D. They have studied formal notation and learnt the notes C, D and E, how to locate these on their glockenspiel and try to play them at the correct time. The Avengers have learnt the mnemonic ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Football’ to try to remember the stave lines. We have practiced how to hold the beater gently and to bounce it off the metal bars.  C = red, D = orange and E = yellow.

For our Harvest Celebration at St. Catherine’s with Father Roger Parker, we have been hard at work learning two harvest songs: – Cauliflowers Fluffy and Harvest Samba. We had the pleasure of hearing our Year 5 class performing the hymn We Plough the Fields and Scatter.

Singing

In singing lessons with Mr Garrett, the pupils have been taught the importance of warming up their voice and the importance of good posture. Areas covered in the warm ups included breathing, diction, vowel shape, intonation, dynamics, phrasing, and expression. The pupils enjoyed the warm ups and were keen to engage in practical work.

As well as singing, pupils were taught to listen actively and use appropriate subject specific language when they discussed music that they had listened to in lessons. They were gradually introduced to the elements of music and through the activities of listening and performing were able to develop a deeper knowledge of how music is put together.

 Singing:

This term pupils have learned the following songs for the harvest festival:

Harvest Samba and Cauliflowers fluffy.

In addition, pupils worked through the Charanga original scheme with their singing and this term the song they worked on and performed was: Let your spirit fly

 Keyboards:

After a lot of initial singing this term, we started with a refresher keyboard course. All pupils also had an initial assessment.

Keyboard piece: Trance D