Friday 16th May 2025

Year 5 have been writing their version of The Arrival this week, thinking about how we could describe the emotions and images in the story. The children have continued to explore shape, looking at how to calculate missing angles and the properties of two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. 

In Art, the children began to explore perspective in preparation for creating their own worlds after half-term. The caterpillars have arrived in the classroom and the children have been excited to see how quickly they are growing. 

Friday 9th May 2025

Year 5 have been creating an alien creature based upon The Arrival. They enjoyed writing descriptions and thinking about different aspects of the story. 

We have been investigating shape and direction in Maths, exploring how to read protractors and knowing degrees as a measurement of turn. 

                                                                        

Friday 2nd May 2025

Year 5 have been continuing their work on The Arrival in English and have used drama and images to help create emotive paragraphs. In art, we explored the drawings of Sean Tan, using a collection of different pencils from B to 8B. The explorations have resulted in some brilliant ideas and will build towards their own fantasy land. Meanwhile, in Maths, the children have been exploring the bus timetables, getting them from Aylesbury to Stoke Mandeville hospital!

Friday 25th April 2025

Year 5 have started exploring The Arrival by Shaun Tan in English and have been looking at Statistics in Maths. The children have been exploring rivers in geography in the UK and the wider world, looking at the source, mouth and were amazed by the discharge of the Amazon. In Science, we have been investigating insulators so that Mrs Reed's coffee can stay hot for longer!

Friday 4th April 2025 

This week, Year 5 have written some great setting descriptions of a beach. They spent Thursday creating their own vegetarian chilli.  The children used the claw grip to chop onions, peppers and garlic for the base of their chillies. They were grouped by how spicy they wanted their chilli. The children worked very well together and achieved a healthy meal. In Maths, the children finished their zoo plans by thinking about the area and perimeter of each enclosure. 

Friday 28th March 2025

This week year 5 have been working on sentence construction and the differences between simple, compound and complex sentences. In Maths, the children have been investigating perimeter and area, understanding the differences between them. 

During BSL, the children took part in speed signing, where they had to ask questions and answer within the time limit. They enjoyed it thoroughly. The Samba steps in Dance are developing brilliantly, and the children are enjoying the fast beat of the music. We have looked at the seasonality of food in Design and Technology, in readiness to make vegetarian chilli next week. 

Friday 21st March 2025

STEM week has been full of exciting activities in year 5. We have made roller-coasters, designed a zoo and re-planned the school year.  Many children seem in favour of the four-day week and taking the whole of December and most of January off! We have written short biographies of famous scientists and turned them into cubes or cuboids. On Thursday, we spent time with Year 6 taking part in several STEM-related Taskmaster tasks, including making the second-longest snake out of toilet roll and throwing a teabag into the cup from the furthest distance. 

Friday 14th March 2025

This week Year 5 have been exploring the style of report writing, including the 5Ws and fronted adverbials. The children have begun to see the relationship between decimals, fractions and percentages. In Skills for Life they reflected upon how they lead a healthy life, sharing the clubs, activities and food that contribute to this. In dance this week, the children continued to work in their Samba schools to develop their dance further. 

Friday 7th March 2025

Year 5 enjoyed World Book Day reading to the year ones and creating their own comic books. They have also enjoyed PE this week, exploring salsa and learning to pass in tag rugby. 

In maths, we have continued looking at decimals and fractions, converting between the two, ready for percentages next week. 

Last week, in Science, we were checking the hardness of different materials and the children wore safety goggles to protect their eyes. They felt like 'real scientists.'

                          

                                                                                

Friday 28th February 2025

This week we have been studying the book Tuesday, looking at the conversations between the characters. In Skills 4 Life, we tried out some new playground games as part of a healthy lifestyle. The children have been exploring thousandths as decimals and fractions in Maths. 

Geography became an exploration of Brazil, looking at the ecosystems, key cities, rivers and mountains. The children had to work in groups to feed back information to other children. 

Friday 14th February  2025

Year 5 have been writing a piece of mystery and tension in English this week, looking at how to pay close attention to detail. The children have been finishing their Fractions module and solving problems by working backwards. 

They have had fun gum-stripping their Maya-inspired masks and have begun to paint them in the style of Dan Fenelon. 

     

Friday 7th February 2025

Year 5 have been exploring their mental wellbeing this week for mental health week. They have identified what they are good at, created a mood PowerPoint, identifying strategies to get back to the green zone and activities that they like to do when they are calm. 

Many year 5 children took part in the Young Voices choir at the O2 on Tuesday night, representing the school brilliantly and singing their hearts out! Other year 5 children took part in the year 5 and 6 swimming gala held at the Guttman stadium on Wednesday. 

In English, we are continuing to explore Kensuke's Kingdom and discovering more about the character of Kensuke. In maths, we have spent Number Day playing Yahtzee to improve our mental maths skills. In our 'normal' lessons we are multiplying fractions and finding fractions of amounts. 

Friday 31st January 2025

Year 5 has been solving multiplication problems in Maths and are now moving onto multiplying fractions. It was lovely to see so many parents come and have a go at the Maths problems on Tuesday morning. 

In English, the children have been carrying on with their exploration of Kensuke's kingdom, writing a letter to Eddie Dodds. 

Over the year, Mrs Walker has been teaching the children (and teachers) BSL (British Sign Language). This week the children explored the names of places and locations on a map. They also explored the signs for language about time, e.g. Before, tomorrow etc. The children really enjoy this lesson and Mrs Walker's enthusiasm. 

Last Friday afternoon, the children explored levers in Science. They all had a go at creating and improving their catapults so that it would catapult the pompom the furthest. The children showed expert STEM skills in adapting their levers and effort. 

     

     

             

  

Friday 24th January 2025

It has been a busy week in Year 5 with Bikeability taking two groups of children to safely traverse the roads around the school. Wycombe Wanderers have inspired the children's dart throwing skills in PE, and we tested the raft we made in English last week to see if it would float and stay together. It was very successful, and no fish were harmed in the testing of the raft. In English, we have been exploring Kensuke's kingdom and identifying different perspectives within the story. In Maths, we have continued with short division. 

                    

Friday 17th January 2025

This week, we have continued to read Kensuke's Kingdom and have explored how the tone of the chapter changes because of events in the story. In English, we have written instructions and have followed instructions to create a class raft (just in case of a flood). 

Within Maths, the class has continued to work hard on multiplying numbers using the formal written method. 

The children are enjoying learning about the Maya and have begun to explore Dan Fenelon's work, which will inspire their final art piece. 

                      

Friday 10th January 2025

In English, year 5 have been exploring instructions.  They have looked at prepositions and adverbs. They made campfire dough which Mr Lack enjoyed cooking for them on the barbecue. The children had to use adverbs to describe each stage of the process. 

In maths, we have looked at the formal method of multiplication and are looking forward to short division next week. 

The children have begun the Maya topic, looking at how the Maya civilisation overlapped with other periods of history, and where the Maya lived in the world. 

             

Friday 20th December 2024

What a lovely week! Year 5 had their Design and Technology day on Tuesday, where they worked in teams to create their Viking Longhouses using hacksaws and glue guns.  The children have been writing up their non-chronological reports on Winter and have solved the problem of the missing Christmas jumper in Maths. 

                      

Friday 13th December 2024

This week, year 5 wrote non-chronological reports about winter. They have been investigating a plethora of winter foods, sports and activities. In Maths, we spent the week consolidating our understanding of fractions and using our multiplication knowledge to find the equivalent fractions so that we can subtract or add them. 

The children were put into their groups for Design and Technology and have worked well together to arrive at a design which they will make and evaluate in our DT day on Tuesday.  In PE, the children were pleased to see that their scores had improved during the 6 weeks of Health Related Exercise. 

Last Friday, in Science, the children created and dropped parachutes, looking at the effect of air resistance. They are enjoying the practical nature of physics through the fair tests. I am sure they will enjoy water resistance this week. 

Friday 6th December 2024

This week, year 5 have explored formal language and had a noun hunt in English, using magazines to find one of the six different types of nouns. 

In Maths, we are continuing to develop and master fractions and the children are understanding how their timetable knowledge can be applied. 

The children used hacksaws in DT on Thursday, showing clear understanding of the safety needed, and have been successful in sawing similar sized pieces of wood. 

Friday 29th November 2024

Year 5 has begun to understand the importance of redrafting and have been introduced to the Ernest Hemingway quote: 'The only kind of writing is rewriting'.  In Maths, the children have been adding fractions, changing denominators where they needed to. 

We had an exciting afternoon of Design and Technology, where the children explored structures and how to strengthen them using triangles. We are hopeful that this will lead to stronger longhouses in the future. 

        

Friday 22nd November 2024

Year 5 have written their explanation texts this week, exploring how a Viking really works. They are busy editing them, looking for ways to improve their sentence construction and their vocabulary. 

In Maths, we continued to explore fractions and have begun to add fractions together successfully. 

We have begun our Design and Technology unit on structures, where we explored different types of structures thinking about the purpose and the design features of them. We are looking forward to designing and making small Viking longhouses in groups in the coming weeks. 

        

Friday 15th November 2024

This week, year 5 started fractions in maths, looking at equivalent fractions and understanding how useful their times table knowledge is. In English, the children have begun planning their explanation text about Vikings. 

Having been Anti-bullying week this week, the class have shown expert understanding of how to treat people and what they should do if they see people being bullied. They enjoyed looking at different scenarios and discussing ways to solve them. They even had a Skills for Life starter in PE exploring ways to treat people in sporting activities. 

Friday 8th November 2024

This week, Year 5 have begun investigating explanation texts, creating a short text based on a Wallace and Gromit cracking contraptions. They also completed a present tense treasure hunt around the playground, looking for auxiliary verbs and suffixes, as well as identifying the four different types of present tense. In Maths, the children have been multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 and spent Thursday's Maths lesson outdoors writing their workings in chalk on the playground. 

The children finished their clay pendants and brooches, taking time and care to produce Viking-inspired art. They should be really proud of them: they look great. 

                          

                      

Thursday 24th October 2024

Year 5 have been writing Kennings poems this week about a topic of their choice. We have had Viking-inspired poems about everything from beloved pets to their favourite food. In Maths, the children have been investigating square numbers and cube numbers, using their knowledge of factors and multiples to help them. The children have created their Viking pendant out of clay, which will dry over half-term, ready to be painted carefully in November. 

                      

                                         

Friday 18th October 2024

Year 5 have been working hard to finish and edit their own chapters of Viking boy this week. In Maths, we have explored multiples and factors. 

Of course, the highlight of the week was taking the class to Hazard Alley in Milton Keynes. The children were very well-behaved and some of the volunteers came to say how well they had done, which was lovely to hear. The children learnt how to put people into the recovery position, why it is important to wear a cycling helmet, as well as making a simulated 999 call. The children were very good at spotting the hazards and knowing the right thing to do in different situations. 

 Friday  11^th October

Year 5 have been authors this week, inspired by the visit of Matt Brown and the book Viking Boy. We have planned our own chapter, and we are working towards a finished story by the end of next week.

In maths, we have been exploring multistep questions in addition and subtraction. The children have begun to see the benefit of setting their workings out neatly and showing their workings.

We looked at the Viking Gods, making our own vocAPPulary sheet with the names and information about them. The children were extremely interested in the beliefs of the Vikings and shared information.

Friday 4th October 2024

This week we have been looking at vocabulary in English, exploring expanded noun phrases and writing diaries to demonstrate feelings. Year 5 have shown great enthusiasm for netball and have improved their passing and teamwork skills this week. 

In Maths, we have continued to add and subtract, culminating in multistep problems and the use of the RUCSAC acronym. 

We are continuing to explore Viking design through clay and the children enjoyed experimenting and learning how to use, mould and mark clay. 

 

Friday 27th September

This week we have been finishing our place value unit by rounding numbers up to one million. In Art, we have been drawing Viking-inspired dragons and concentrating on our line work and mark making ahead of the clay work in the next few weeks.

We managed to beat the rain and enjoyed netball outside on Wednesday. This was after the school photos, so no need to worry! The children’s understanding of the game has become much more focused and some of them are really learning to communicate with their teammates effectively.

Our English lessons involved writing a description of a setting and looking at characters. Having read some more of the book, we analysed the character of Rurik in Viking boy. 

Friday 20th September 2024

This week in English Year 5 have been working on punctuating speech accurately and thinking about how authors show character in their writing. In Maths, we have been continuing with Place Value, ordering numbers up to 1 million.

On Friday, we spent the day hoping for sunshine so that we could carry out our shadow experiment for Science, mapping the length and the rotation of shadows at different times of the day to show the rotation of the Earth.

Friday 13th September 2024

This week Year 5 have been continuing with their work on 'Viking boy' by Tony Bradman, looking at characters and how we could describe them using expanded noun phrases and relative clauses. 

In Maths, we have been exploring the value of digits up to one million and looking at the powers of 10. 

The children have been enjoying the Viking topic, creating Viking-inspired knots in their sketchbooks. They really showed resilience in creating their art, some preferring small intricate knots and others preferring larger knots, where they could experiment with colour and pattern. 

  

Friday 6th September 2024

Welcome back to school and welcome to Year 5!

We hope you had a lovely summer break, and we are looking forward to lots of exciting learning this year.

From the whole of the year 5 team.