Video killed the radio star

We have been doing plenty of recording in Class 5 this week!

In theme, we have started looking at the history of music in America, particularly the history of slave work songs and how they have influenced many of the music genres that we enjoy today. In Monday's lesson we learnt about African music, as this influenced the music of the slaves. We learnt this Ghanaian call-and-response song, 'Oleo' in a 3-part harmony.

On Tuesday we started learning about some of the genres that appeared due to slave songs, starting with gospel music. We learnt some gospel tunes to sing in groups, and performed them at the same time, as they have a counterpoint melody.

In English, we have started our unit on writing arguments. We had a great morning on Wednesday, creating an argument based on the TV show 'Room 101'. We decided on what we would like to get rid of and had to create a 3-part argument to persuade others. This concluded with a lucky few of us appearing in our own Class 5 Room 101 episode (which, unfortunately, are too long to be uploaded on the website - so here are some still images instead!)

In maths we have concluded our division work and we are now focusing on fraction calculations.

Creative homework has been set this week based on our music topic, which is due in on the last day before half term break.

Hope you enjoy watching our little stars in action!

Miss Vidler

An Experimental Week

We have had a week of experiments in Class 5 this week.

In English we have concluded our unit on formal and informal writing. We have been experimenting with using different language, relative clauses and making our writing personal and impersonal to show the differences in our writing styles. A few of us have also practised creating a link between the start and the end of our letters.

In Maths we have moved on from multiplication and we are revising the different strategies to help us with division. Soon we will be attempting a lot of reasoning and problem solving questions where all of these strategies will need to be put to good use!

We concluded the geography element of our theme work by further investigating some of the extreme weather that can be experience in the USA (although not snow storms - which would have been far more topical this week!). We conducted an experiment to show the funnel movements of tornadoes. We also looked at how architects in California have developed 'earthquake-proof' skyscrapers, and with cocktail sticks, mini-marshmallows and lots of jelly, had a chance to construct and test our own!

Our use of random ingredients moved on into year 6 science, where we learnt about the components of blood. We decorated biscuits using different tasty toppings to represent the plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, and were all able to describe the function of each.

We had some fantastic creative homework based on the USA this week, some of which we have been able to display in our classroom (and a lot of homework we have also enjoyed munching on this week too!)

Don't forget to log on to your active-learn accounts and complete the work assigned to you online too - I will be assigning more soon and you don't want to fall behind!

Finally next week we will start our blog with a link school in Florida that Mr Wainwright has organised for us. Start having a think about the type of questions that you would like to ask a class of American pupils about what life is like in their country!


Until next week,

Miss Vidler

Up, up and away!

We are flying in Class 5 this week! Well, only metaphorically, but if everyone seems a bit tired this weekend hopefully this blog will explain why!

In English we have been looking at how we need to change our writing when we are writing formally. We had great fun translating phrases into ‘posh’ synonyms, adding relative clauses, creating informal language, seeing how commas clarify meaning, and discovering 12 (that’s right 12) different tense forms!

Our focus in maths was multiplication this week. We had the opportunity to develop our times tables skills to be able to tackle problems involving the dreaded decimal numbers! Some of us also cracked (and then secured) how to use the short and long written methods in our arithmetic (and Miss Vidler’s bid to get children to rely less on the grid method in year 5/6).

In theme we carried on with our geography, first collecting up statistics about the UK and the USA in comparison. We then studied tectonic plates, to help us get a better understanding of why natural disasters occur in the USA – more on this next week!

Year 6 had great fun in science creating working models of the lungs, showing how our diaphragm plays a key role in getting air to go in and out of our lungs.

We have also got started on our independent projects this week – pupils have been enjoying exploring a part of the USA that interests them. We look forward to seeing some fantastic fact files about American holidays, dancers, animals and transport soon!

We have had a great response to our new homework books this week – and more homework has been set today. Also don’t forget to log in to your activelearn accounts and do the tasks set to you – I will be allocating more next week and you don’t want to be left behind!

Have a restful weekend,

Miss Vidler

2016 here we come!

Welcome back Class 5!

Well we have managed to start our Spring Term off with yet more amazing work.

Once we had got our heads around Miss Vidler changing the layout of the classroom again we got straight on with our learning!

In maths we have focused this week on handling negative numbers. We practiced what needs to happen when you add and subtract or multiply and divide with negatives, as well as finding the differences. Some of us have achieved this through a variety of activities, from magic squares to do-the-dots to snakes and ladders!

In English we have started our new focus on 'formal and informal writing'. So far we have looked at informal 'slang' words and their meanings, and deciphering popular idioms (which most of us found a piece of cake....). Next week we will be looking at devices to help us when we need to sound more formal in our writing. We also had a chance to explore hyphenated prefix spellings at the beginning of the week.

We have started our theme with a lot of enthusiasm! We started by looking at a map of the USA and trying to guess where famous landmarks were, before getting out the atlases and looking for ourselves! The next day we had a chance to research one or two of the fifty states in America to contribute to our whole class display (photos of the finished display will appear next week!). We have also started netball and dance in PE, and our value of 'friendship' is our focus in PSHE.

In Science we have all started a new focus too. Year 6s will be looking at the circulatory and respiratory systems (the heart and lungs). We started by studying the function of the heart, and by the end of the lesson had constructed and labelled our own toy train diagram demonstrating how the heart helps the blood transport and deliver oxygen and carbon dioxide around our bodies!

1. The blood collects oxygen from the lungs...

2. ...then travels through the pulmonary vein into the left atrium of the heart...

4. ...it is then delivers the oxygen and collects up carbon dioxide...

3. ...before it is pumped out of the left ventricle...

5. ...then it makes its way back to the heart by the vena cava... 

6. ...where it goes from right atrium to right ventricle...

7... it is then pumped out of the heart through the pulmonary artery to drop off carbon dioxide at the lungs, and start the process again! 

We have brand new homework books given out to us too this week for us to try and complete a few pages by next Thursday. Here is a reminder of what needs to be done: -
Year 5: GPS p.33 (Standard and Non-Standard English) p. 72-73 (Hyphenating Prefixes)
             Maths p.6 (Negative Numbers) p.7 (Place Value)
Year 6: GPS p.27-29 (Formal and Informal Writing) p. 72-73 (Hyphenating Prefixes)
             Maths p.6 (Place Value) p.8 (Calculating Negatives)  

Creative homework will also be set next week.

As a little extra note myself, Mrs Martin and Mrs Brown would like to say thank you to all pupils and parents who kindly sent in Christmas cards and gifts to us all. It really was overwhelmingly generous of you all and a lot of your gifts were enjoyed over the Christmas period! (Hence we are all starting January smelling lovely but on strict healthy eating regimes!!)

Miss Vidler