Crabtree Juniors - Year 5

500 Words

2012-02-20T15:54:00.001Z

Year 5 Homework for Teak (Optional in Redwood)
Chris Evans, Radio BBC2, has just launched the 500 Word writing competition for the second year.
As a school we are using this as our way to celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 1st March. Year 5 are being challenged to write a dazzling story to be entered into the competition.
A winning entry from each class will be read out in assembly on Thursday 1st March!
You can find out more details at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/500words/2012/ We have added the homework to the learning platform so you can upload your entries there or hand write them and bring them in to school. Please can you make sure that they are in school no later than Wednesday 29th February.

Good Luck to you all and remember all of the literacy skills that we have been looking at in class to grab the reader!

The Year 5 Team

Spring Term 2012, Week 6

2012-02-20T15:23:00.000Z

Friday 10th February 2012

What a cold week! Smiles continued in Year 5 even though there were assessments taking place. We have all been really impressed with the effort that everyone has been putting in to their work. Well done Year 5!

We were really impressed with the homework that came in this week. There were obviously some very proud parents and children bringing in their completed space rockets, space shuttles and even a space buggy! We think that you all deserve your Blue Peter badges for great creativity!

We hope that you all have a lovely half term break and we look forward to seeing you all for an exciting Art Day on Monday 20th February.

The Year 5 Team

Spring Term 2012, Week 5

2012-02-03T12:06:00.000Z

Friday 3rd January 2012

Year 5 have been working really hard this week. Looking at Persuasion in Literacy and all sorts of techniques in Maths to build new knowledge from what we already know.

We were really impressed with the research that they completed at home to do with space exploration: should England continue to support this? The whole of year 5 now have some very strong opinions on this and through their presentations were able to explain their reasons and back these up with data. What do you think about this topic? Would our money be better spent elsewhere or are the gains from this research helping society? Food for thought.

Next week we will be trying our best with our assessments. All of the children know what is happening but just so you know here is our timetable of events next week:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Writing (45 minutes including up to 10 minutes recommended planning time)	Maths Paper A (45 minutes)	Maths Paper B (45 minutes)	Target lesson on Sentence Structure and Punctuation	Going through Reading Paper
B	R	E	A	K
Reading Paper (15 minutes reading time plus 45 minutes to answer questions) Redwood: Drumming	Mental Maths (20 minutes)	Topic Redwood: Reading Paper (15 minutes reading time plus 45 minutes to answer questions)	Problem Solving	Going through Specific Maths Questions
L	U	N	C	H

We hope that you will find this useful. Just remember it's nothing to worry about! All we ask is that you try your best!!

We are looking forward to seeing your rocket creations next week! Remember that this is due in on Wednesday with your instructions on how it is made. Think back to our SFS for the past 2 weeks!

Crazy hair day next Friday! We look forward to seeing some wacky creations as well as supporting Jupiter's House Charity: Keeche Hospice.

Have a lovely weekend and, for those who are coming, enjoy the disco tonight!

The Year 5 Team

Spring Term 2012, Week 4

2012-02-01T16:37:00.000Z

Friday 27th January

We have had a busy week in Year 5 this week with the children completing thier aliens (come see them in the hall - they are fantastic!) We have also had a visit from Mrs Van der Welle from St Georges who came in on Thursday and completed a fantiastic workshop on Earth, Moon and Sun.

The children have also been given some exciting homework this week of creating their own space rocket with a set of instructions on how they have made it! This is a two week piece of homework. We look forward to seeing some creative, imaginative results! Blue Peter presenters here we come.

Have a lovely week.

The Year 5 Team

Chess Club

2012-01-24T10:12:00.000Z

Chess Club

Miss Thomas and I were very pleased and excited about the number of children interested in chess club We had a whopping 48 children ask to take part. Fantastic! Whilst I am sorting out a rota for all year groups; building towards choosing a chess squad, you might be interested to check out the following website:

http://www.chesskid.com/

This website is fantastic for any level player of chess! It gives you online tutorials and even has a section for parents and coaches (I'll be sure to check this part out!)

Just please remember our esafety rules: zip it, block it, flag it!

I hope you find this website fun and I look forward to seeing you at Chess Club Soon.

Miss Wilson

Spring Term 2012, Week 3

2012-01-20T12:36:00.001Z

Star Gazing!

What a busy week we have had in Year 5 this week. We have had a visit from Astrodome - amazing, been making planet bicuits - yummy, as well as sewing aliens and learning about planets.

And it seemed like even the BBC were getting in on our "To Infinity and Beyond" topic with a great programme on BBC2 this week: Star Gazing Live. If any of you managed to catch it, I'm sure that you are doing the same as the Year 5 team and looking up into the night sky to see what you can find. If you did miss it then there is a fantastic website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00mlr20 From here you can watch all three episodes as well as explore events and learn how to star gaze at home.

In literacy this week we have been looking at instructions and what a great chance for us to use the cookery room. Year 5 were given the recipe and had to following it carefully their own planet cookies. By doing this we learnt that:

instructions need to be clear and easy to follow
accurate (and we needed to be precise) with measurements
give us a description or diagram so that we know that we are heading in the right direction.

Year 5 are now fabulous at imperative verbs in literacy as well as using them on the playground!

Our Toy Story aliens are looking fantastic and will be going up on display very soon. Keep an eye out for them in the hall soon!

Yesterday we all really enjoyed and learnt alot from our visit from the Astrodome. We were all enthralled by the images that we saw inside the dome. If only you could all have been in there with us!

We all learnt that this is a Nebula. See if someone in Year 5 can tell you what that is Latin for!

Not a great picture but it gives you a good idea of what the dome looked like in our hall. If you want to visit the site (it has great pictures of the moon to help you with your phases homework) then visit:

http://www.astrodome.tv/

Year 5 have planet homework this weekend to complete. We look forward to learning lots about the 8 planets on Monday. Just remember that this needs to be done on paper and not in learning logs as some will be going on display and the rest will be going in to topic books.

See how you get on with the following game with the knowledge that you have gathered so far:

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Have a lovely Weekend.
The Year 5 Team

Spring Term 2012, Week 2

2012-01-13T17:12:00.000Z

Friday 13th January 2012

We can't believe in Year 5 that we have already come to the end of our second week. Welcome back to Toby after his lovely holiday!

We have been really starting to get into our "To Infinity and Beyond" topic this week with the children starting to sew their own little space alien from Toy Story. Look out for these on display soon in the hall. They will be continuing to sew these next Friday afternoon so if there are any parents who are available to help we would it would be much appreciated.
We have had a great time with the phases of the moon this week. I'm sure that you heard all about it. Here are photos of the finished products:

We have also been learning a song to help us with how the different phases are created. Have a go at home:

http://havefunteaching.com/songs/science-songs/moon-song/

To Infinity and Beyond has also been transferred into our Literacy topic. We have been looking at Performance poetry and this week have been completing the unit by performing them. Have a look at some of the finished videos:

The children also wrote poems as part of their BIG writing today to show all that they had learnt. Mrs Morris really liked this one by Faye U:

My Lucky Green Pants

I woke up in the morning

Tired but ok,

I ate my breakfast

Ready to start eh day

I tidied my bed

Put on my clothes

Opened the draw...

Where were my pantyhose?

My lucky green pants,

Where on Earth could they be?

I left them in my draw!

They're very special to me!

I searched i my bed,

There were no pants,

I searched in the garden,

All I found were ants!

I need to go to school!

Not without knickers!

I had to get packed,

Pencil, paper, scissors.

I had to go to school

I felt so sad!

I had no pants

And I wasn't very glad!

I came home depressed

Still no sign of them

No green pants,

I felt like a flower without a stem.

I felt like a butterfly

With no wing,

I felt like a bird

Who couldn't sing.

I had a vision of pants

In my head,

I went to get dressed,

Ready for bed.

I took off my trousers

I took off my shirt

I took off my shoes

Covered in dirt

I lay on the bed

Then I looked down

The first time today

I no longer frowned!

"My pants!" I yelled

"There where on me all day

They're on my bottom

and they're there to stay!"

Wet Play Request from the School Council:

Mrs Chesher met with the School Council representatives yesterday and they have requested more board games for wet play. We were wondering if you had any old, unwanted board games at home, if so they would be greatly loved in school if you would like to donate them to your class. We are sure that after Christmas you are getting to the stage of clearing out your unwanted games to make room for the new!

Wow what a long blog today!

We hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and don't forget to keep checking the moon each night!

The Year 5 Team

Earth and Space

2012-01-09T14:43:00.000Z

Helping Your Child with Earth and Space

This term our creative curriculum topic is Earth and Space. Year 5 have decided that we'd like to make it more exciting and have named it "To Infinity and Beyond".

We have so many exciting lessons and activites planned in class and I'm sure a few homework activities too!

To support any parents with our topic we have found a great pamplet from the University of Southampton. Please use the link below and we hope that you find this useful.

http://www.hep.phys.soton.ac.uk/hycs/earthinspace.pdf

The Year 5 Team

Spring Term 2012, Week 1

2012-01-06T16:18:00.001Z

Friday 7th January

Welcome back and Happy New Year. We hope that you have all had a lovely Christmas and a merry New Year.

This week we have started our new creative curriculum topic of Earth and Space. Year 5 have decided to call this topic "To Infinity and Beyond" and being a Disney fan I am loving this! Watch out for any Toy Story links being made.

We have been looking at poetry in Literacy this week and trying, where possible, to link it into Earth and Space. We did however, love the performance of Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen. Have a look at the link below:

The Chocolate Cake

We are going to be starting to write our own performance poetry next week and hope that they will be good enough to think about adding to the website http://performapoem.lgfl.org.uk/default.aspx . If this is the case, and we are sure it will be, we will send letters home to ask for permission. BIG writing will also be linked to this next week so get your creative hats on!

In maths this week there has been a lot of practical, hands on activities taking place. Here we are looking at place value to decimal places and then using the greater than and less than symbols to compare them.

Mrs Morris had her first day in Teak today and when asked at 3:15 how the class were, her words were lovely! She has been doing some sewing with them this afternoon and said that she has never been able to use the words "calm" and "sewing" with a class before which was so nice to hear. Well done Teak!

We are aiming to do quite a bit of sewing this term, building on our Tudor purses from last term, so if we have any parents who are around on a Friday afternoon please do see your class teacher and pop in to thread a few needles!

Have a good weekend and we'll see you on Monday (remember you need to have your homework ready on Monday as this will be used in your topic lesson!)

The Year 5 Team

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T22:37:00.000Z

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday. You should all find lots of presents under your tree tomorrow as we think that you are all great.

Happy Christmas

The Year 5 Team

Frosty the Snowman

2011-12-12T12:21:00.000Z

PLEASE make sure that you know all of the words!! (especially the second verse!)

Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul,
With a corncob pipe and a button nose
And two eyes made out of coal.
Frosty the snowman is a fairy tale, they say,
He was made of snow but the children
Know how he came to life one day.
There must have been some magic in that
Old silk hat they found.
For when they placed it on his head
He began to dance around.
O, Frosty the snowman
Was alive as he could be,
And the children say he could laugh
And play just the same as you and me.

Frosty the snowman knew
The sun was hot that day,
So he said, "Let's run and
We'll have some fun
Now before I melt away."
Down to the village,
With a broomstick in his hand,
Running here and there all
Around the square saying,
Catch me if you can.
He led them down the streets of town
Right to the traffic cop.
And he only paused a moment when
He heard him holler "Stop!"
For Frosty the snow man
Had to hurry on his way,
But he waved goodbye saying,
"Don't you cry,
I'll be back again some day."

Autumn Term 2011, Week 13

2011-12-09T16:33:00.000Z

Friday 9th December 2011

Where has this week gone? This week has seen the Year 5's take part in the rotary carol service, where they represented the school to a really high standard. Mrs Gaines was really pleased with all of the work that they put into this.

We have also been practising hard for our Christmas celebration, if you haven't got your tickets today (a coloured programme) please make sure that you get one before the day. There is limited space at the church so unfortunately we won't be able to fit you in without your programme!

Today has really kick started our Christmas celebrations with our "in school gymnastics competition." Every class put on their own gymnastics display and they were all absolutely amazing. What a lovely morning! There was also a surprise entry with the teachers......the Year 5 team will be aching tomorrow!

We took lots of photos of the year 5 performances. It's just shame that our school isn't 4 times larger so that we could have squeezed you all in to watch as well.

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday at the church and Year 5, don't remember your persusasive homework on Monday, especially if you don't want to have any more homework over the Christmas holidays.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Year 5 Team

Autumn Term 2011, Week 12

2011-12-04T17:06:00.000Z

Friday 2nd December 2011

December is finally here and we are all feeling very festive already after a wonderful woodwind assembly on Tuesday. Year 5 pupils were fantastic in it. Have a listen....

Here are the Year 5 and 6 band (easily secondary school standard!)

We have also been creating our Christmas hall displays ready for the Christmas Fair tomorrow so do have a look while you are there. See if you can guess our year group song for the Christmas Concert at the Church!

Next week we will be starting our Tudor purses in Year 5. In preparation, if you have any wallets or purses for the children to investigate and evaluate on Monday that would be greatly appreciated. We will be aiming to start making them next week too. The children may want to bring in their own material (we do have a limited collection in school) and any decorations that they may want to add to them. If there are any willing parents, who are good with a needle and thread and are CRB checked, who would like to join us for a session of sewing then please see class teachers with your available times!!!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.

The Year 5 Team

Autumn Term 2011, Week 11

2011-11-23T14:17:00.000Z

Wednesday 22nd November 2011

This week in literacy we have been continuing our Tudor theme of looking at Shakespeare and focussing on Macbeth. Using our fantastic Team Work skills the children have been storyboarding the main events in the story and then acting out the play in their own ways. The children were responsible for all aspects including the filming. Enjoy!

We hope that you all enjoy the long weekend and look forward to seeing you all on Monday with your literacy, book review, homework.

Young Shakespeare Company Visit Year 5

2011-11-21T13:20:00.000Z

Last Wednesday Year 5 came in to a really exciting visit from The Young Shakespeare Company and a performance of Macbeth.

Year 5 were captivated from the moment that it started and understood the whole, complicated plot thanks to the narrator who paused the performance at relative intervals. We were also involved! An integral part of the performance. Without Year 5 the show would not have been able to go on...

................have a look at the photos and video clips to get a sense of the performance.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our morning and are continuing to work on Macbeth in class. We would definitely recommend The Young Shakespeare Company!

The Year 5 Team

Shakespearian Insults

2011-11-15T12:24:00.000Z

Tuesday 15th November 2011

We are looking at Shakespeare this week as part of our Older Literature unit. Have a listen to these Shakespearian insults...

If you would like to hear the rest of them then please look on the Teak Gallery to find them all!

Autumn Term 2011, Week 10

2011-11-14T15:17:00.000Z

Monday 14th November

Drumming today in Teak.....

....their skills are improving rapidly with their understanding of pulse and rhythm. Well done Teak! Although no one is able to beat the pulse champion; Oliver S is getting close!

Autumn Term 2011, Week 9

2011-11-12T18:24:00.001Z

Friday 11th November

It was really nice to see everyone at parent consultations this week. Thank you for coming in and we hope that you enjoyed looking at the books and found the meetings useful. Please remember that the next consultations are a while away so if you do have any questions pop in any time. Our doors are always open.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years codemn

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Today in school we all got together for a special Rememberance Assembly and along with the rest of the country, observed the 2 minute silence. We have been looking at poetry in school for the past two weeks and on Monday looked at the poem above.

Following on with our poetry news this week, we were all amazed with the high standard of poems that were handed in for homework. What a talented Year 5! We have also been looking at performance poetry in class and saw some excellent performances in class.

In maths this week we have been looking at data handling and how to put together our own enquiries, collect the data; represent the information and then analyse it to find out what it tells us. The questions that the children came up with were great and their reflective thinking on how to improve their work was fantastic. You can see here the choas in the classroom as we were all collecting data:

In our topic this week we have been looking at Tudor houses and Tudor Portraits. Watch this space to see what we do with them!

We are also in the process of building our Tudor villages. Do pop in and see how the construction is progressing....

We have the Young Shakespeare Company coming in on Wednesday. We are all very excited about this and will be sure to post lots about it on the blog next week.

Have a lovely weekend and we looking forward to seeing you all on Monday.

The Year 5 Team

Year 5 Reading List

2011-11-07T17:23:00.000Z

Year 5 Love Reading!

Please find below a recommended reading list. This has been taken from http://www.lovereading4schools.co.uk We hope that you find this useful as it has a mixture of old and new as well as a great range of genres. Enjoy!

Year 5 (age 9-10)

A selection of books especially selected for children in Year 5 (9 - 10 year olds) of average reading ability.

If your child is a competent reader or has read all these titles then try the books from the Year 6 list. Alternatively if these books are a little challenging try books from the Year 4 list.

A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens

A Wizard of Earthsea
Ursula Le Guin

The first book of Earthsea is a tale of wizards, dragons and terrifying shadows. The island of Gont is a land famous for wizards. Of these, some say the greatest - and surely the greatest voyager - is the man called Sparrowhawk. As a reckless, awkward boy, he discovered the great power that was in him - with terrifying consequences. Tempted by pride to try spells beyond his means, Sparrowhawk lets loose an evil shadow-beast in his land. Only he can destroy it, and the quest leads him to the farthest corner of Earthsea.

Blood Fever
Charlie Higson

File Note: Strictly Confidential - Authorised Personnel Only. Subject: James Bond. Description: Age 13. Dark hair; blue eyes; tall for age; surprisingly strong; fluent French, good German. Essential components: A Mediterranean mystery. One kidnapped girl - feisty, blond, superfit Amy Goodenough, sister of James' best friend Mark. One villainous pirate - Zoltan Magyr. Mysterious Latin-speaking men lurking near Eton. One fast car.

Connor's Eco Den
Pippa Goodhart

The Hogg family are bursting out of their small house so Mr. Hogg challenges his three sons to build an extra bedroom themselves. Who will come up with the best design? Barrington Stoke specialises in books for reluctant, struggling and dyslexic readers.

Cosmic
Frank Cottrell Boyce

Liam is too big for his boots. And his football strip. And his school blazer. But being super-sized height-wise has its advantages: he's the only eleven-year-old to ever ride the G-force defying Cosmic rollercoaster or be offered the chance to drive a Porsche. Long-legged Liam makes a giant leap for boy-kind by competing with a group of adults for the chance to go into space. Is Liam the best boy for the job? Sometimes being big isn't all about being a grown-up.

Dragon Rider
Cornelia Funke

A dragon. A boy. A journey. Firedrake, a brave young dragon, his loyal brownie friend Sorrel and a lonely boy called Ben are united as if by destiny. Together, they embark on a magical journey to find the legendary place where silver dragons can live in peace for ever. With only a curious map and the whispered memories of an old dragon to guide them, they fly across moonlit lands and seas to reach the highest mountains in the world. Along the way, they discover extraordinary new friends in unlikely places and a courage they never knew they had. Just as well, for the greatest enemy of all is never far behind them - a heartless monster from the past who's been waiting a very long time to destroy the last dragons on earth.

Eagle of The Ninth
Rosemary Sutcliff

The Ninth Legion marched into the mists of northern Britain - and they were never seen again. Four thousand men disappeared and their eagle standard was lost. It's a mystery that's never been solved, until now ...Marcus has to find out what happened to his father, who led the legion. So he sets out into the unknown, on a quest so dangerous that nobody expects him to return. The Eagle of the Ninth is heralded as one of the most outstanding children's books of the twentieth century and has sold over a million copies worldwide. Rosemary Sutcliff writes with such passion and attention to detail that Roman Britain is instantly brought to life and stays with the reader long after the last page has been turned. The book is also now the subject of a major film.

Fire, Bed and Bone
Henrietta Branford

Stylish reissue of a multi-award-winning, dramatic tale of the Peasants' Revolt. The narrator of this unforgettable tale is an old hunting dog. Living with the lowly Rufus and Comfort and their children, she has all a dog could ask for - fire, bed and bone. But this is 1381 and unrest is spreading like plague among the peasants of southern England, who are tired of the hardship and injustice they suffer at the hands of oppressive landlords. Rebellion is in the air, stirred up by men like John Ball and Wat Tyler, and life for man - and dog - is about to change dramatically...

Gideon the Cutpurse
Linda Buckley-Archer

An encounter with an anti-gravity machine catapults Peter Schock and Kate Dyer back to the 18th century and sets in motion a calamitous chain of events. While a massive police hunt gets underway to find the missing children in the 21st century - in 1763 a hardened criminal, the Tar Man, steals the anti-gravity machine and disappears into the London underworld. Stranded in another time and forced to chase the Tar Man to his lair, Peter and Kate find a friend and guide in reformed cutpurse, Gideon Seymour. Gideon does every thing he can to help them, but will his dark past catch up with him before the machine is recovered?

Journey to the River Sea
Eva Ibbotson

It is 1910 and Maia, tragically orphaned at 13, has been sent from England to start a new life with distant relatives in Manaus, hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She is accompanied by an eccentric and mysterious governess who has secret reasons of her own for making the journey. Both soon discover an exotic world bursting with new experiences in this highly colourful, joyous and award-winning adventure.

Krindlekrax
Philip Ridley

Ruskin Splinter is small and thin, with knock-knees, thick glasses and a squeaky voice, and the idea of him taming a dragon makes the whole class laugh. Big, strong Elvis is stupid but he looks like a hero. So who is more likely to get the big part in the school play? But when the mysterious beast, Krindlekrax, threatens Lizard Street and everyone who lives there, it is Ruskin who saves the day and proves he is the stuff that heros are made of after all.

Matilda
Roald Dahl, Julia Eccleshare

Matilda is a brilliant and sensitive child, but her parents think of her only as a nuisance. Even before she is five years old, she has read Dickens and Hemingway and still her parents think of her as a pest. So she decides to get back at them. Her platinum-haired mother and car salesman father are no match for her sharp genius, and neither is the cruel headmistress Miss Trunchbull. And then she child prodigy discovers she has an extraordinary psychic power that can save her school and especially the lovely kindergarten teacher, Miss Honey.

Pig Heart Boy
Malorie Blackman

You're thirteen. All you want is a normal life. But most normal kids don't need heart transplants. So there's this doctor. He says there's a chance for you. But he also says it's experimental, controversial and risky. And it's never been done before. Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, this is a powerful, thought-provoking story from the award-winning Malorie Blackman.

Redwall
Brian Jacques

Redwall Abbey, tranquil home to a community of peace-loving mice is threatened by Cluny, the Scourge - the evil-one-eyed rat warlord - and his battle-hardened horde of predators. Cluny is certain that Redwall will fall easily to his fearsome army, but he hasn't bargained for the courage and strength of the combined forces of the Redwall mice and their loyal woodland friends...

Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire
Derek Landy

Just when you think you've saved the world! You will kill her? the Torment asked. Skulduggery sagged. Yes. He hesitated, then took his gun from his jacket. I'm sorry, Valkyrie, he said softly. Don't talk to me, Valkyrie said. Just do what you have to do. Valkyrie parted her tunic, and Skulduggery pointed the gun at the vest beneath. Please forgive me, Skulduggery said, then aimed the gun at the girl and pulled the trigger. With Serpine dead, the world is safe once more. At least, that's what Valkyrie and Skulduggery think, until the notorious Baron Vengeous makes a bloody escape from prison, and dead bodies and vampires start showing up all over Ireland. With Baron Vengeous after the deadly armour of Lord Vile, and pretty much everyone out to kill Valkyrie, the daring detective duo face their biggest challenge yet. But what if the greatest threat to Valkyrie is just a little closer to home!?

Stormbreaker
Anthony Horowitz

When his guardian dies in suspicious circumstances, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider finds his world turned upside down. Forcibly recruited into MI6, Alex has to take part in gruelling SAS training exercises. Then, armed with his own special set of secret gadgets, he's off on his first mission to Cornwall, where Middle-Eastern multi-billionaire Herod Sayle is producing his state-of-the-art Stormbreaker computers. Sayle has offered to give one free to every school in the country - but there's more to the gift than meets the eye.

The Bursting Balloons Mystery
Alexander McCall Smith

Max and Maddy are on the trail of a criminal who'll stop at nothing to sabotage Mr Helium's trans-American hot-air balloon race. The prize is a gold balloon worth one million and one dollars, and all the money raised by the race is to go towards the Home for Children Whose Parents Have Disappeared in Balloons - so there's a lot at stake! They take to the skies on board Mr Helium's very own balloon in order to catch the cheat. But will the detectives become victim to the dastardly villain's dangerous schemes and dirty tricks, or will they blow his plot sky-high?

The Dark is Rising
Susan Cooper

This night will be bad and tomorrow will be beyond imagining. It's Midwinter's Eve, the day before Will's eleventh birthday. But there is an atmosphere of fear in the familiar countryside around him. This will be a birthday like no other. Will discovers that he has the power of the Old Ones, and that he must embark on a quest to vanquish the terrifyingly evil magic of the Dark.

The Eighteenth Emergency
Betsy Byars

The Mouse and His Child
Russell Hoban

The Owl Service
Alan Garner

Winner of both the Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal, this is an all-time classic, combining mystery, adventure, history and a complex set of human relationships. It all begins with the scratching in the ceiling. From the moment Alison discovers the dinner service in the attic, with its curious pattern of floral owls, a chain of events is set in progress that is to effect everybody's lives. Relentlessly, Alison, her step-brother Roger and Welsh boy Gwyn are drawn into the replay of a tragic Welsh legend -- a modern drama played out against a background of ancient jealousies. As the tension mounts, it becomes apparent that only by accepting and facing the situation can it be resolved.

The Red Necklace
Sally Gardner

The story of a remarkable boy called Yann Margoza; Tetu the dwarf, his friend and mentor; Sido, unloved daughter of a foolish Marquis; and Count Kalliovski, Grand Master of a secret society, who has half the aristocracy in thrall to him, and wants Yann dead. Yann is spirited away to London but three years later, when Paris is gripped by the bloody horrors of the Revolution, he returns, charged with two missions: to find out Kalliovski's darkest deeds and to save Sido from the guillotine. With a tangle of secrets, a thread of magic and a touch of humour, the follies of the aristocracy and the sufferings of ordinary people are unfolded as their lives move relentlessly towards the tragic and horrific days of the Terror. THE RED NECKLACE is not only a tremendous adventure story but a vibrant and passionate picture of Paris in turmoil and of a large cast of memorable characters.

The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler
Gene Kemp

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Joan Aiken

1832 - a period of English History that never happened. Good King James III is on the throne and the country is ravaged by wolves which have migrated through the newly-opened Channel Tunnel. When Sylvia and Bonnie (both orphans) fall into the hands of evil Miss Slighcarp, they must use all their wits to escape unscathed - for the governess is more cruel and merciless than the wolves that surround the great house of Willoughby Chase.

Toby Alone
Timothee de Fombelle

Toby Lolness is just one and a half millimetres tall, and he's the most wanted person in his world, the great oak Tree. When Toby's father makes a ground-breaking discovery, tapping into the very heart of the Tree's energy, he also realises that exploiting it could do permanent damage to their world. Refusing to reveal the secret of his invention to an enraged community, the family is exiled. But one man is determined to get hold of the forbidden knowledge...and his plan is to destroy the Tree. Now Toby's parents have been imprisoned and sentenced to death. Only Toby has managed to escape, but for how long?

Two Weeks with the Queen
Morris Gleitzman

When Colin's brother Luke becomes seriously ill with leukemia, he is determined to get the best help possible. He's sent to stay with relatives in London and works to go to the very top - the Queen first and, failing her, the best cancer doctor in the world. He is helped by a young man whose partner is dying of Aids - the ending cannot be happy, but is joyous in a way because it offers comfort and truth. The story is told with a wonderfully humorous touch.

Watership Down
Richard Adams

Fiver could sense danger. Something terrible was going to happen to the warren - he felt sure of it. So did his brother Hazel, for Fiver's sixth sense was never wrong. They had to leave immediately, and they had to persuade the other rabbits to join them. And so begins a long and perilous journey of a small band of rabbits in search of a safe home. Fiver's vision finally leads them to Watership Down, but here they face their most difficult challenge of all...Published in 1972, Watership Down is an epic journey, a stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival against the odds.

Autumn Term 2011, Week 8

2011-11-07T12:21:00.000Z

Friday 4th November

Another lovely week in Year 5 with the weather continuing to shine on us. We have been working hard this week in all subject areas but we wanted to share with you what we have been doing in literacy and maths this week.

In literacy this week we have been looking at poetry. We have been focussing on the most amazing poems about a range of different topics from "My mother saw a dancing bear" to "Hair Raiser". All of the poems have really inspired the children and they have managed to complete the most amazing poems in lessons this week. We are positive that you will enjoy them when you read them at Parent Consultations next week.

One poem really stood out from BIG writing and that was by Oliver L. Have a read:

Why do we have eyes daddy?
Why can we see?
We have eys to look at things my son,
for example a buzzing bee.

Why do we have mouths daddy?
How can we eat?
If we didn't eat my child we would die
And anyway is your favourite food meat?

Why do we have ears daddy?
Why do we hear?
If we didn't have ears son we would not be able to hear
Now please let me got on with my beer

Why do we have hands daddy?
Why can we feel?
If we didn't have hands we couldn't touch
Now get on with your meal.

Why do we have brains daddy?
Why do we have heads?
Son if we did not have a brain we'd be stupid
Now go straight to bed!

In Maths we have been looking at Handling Data. We have looked at collecting data, representing the data and then analysing the data.

Have a go at this activity that we tried in class:

We hope that you all enjoy the firework displays this weekend and we look forward to seeing you all at parent consultations.

The Year 5 Team

PS please don't forget to keep bringing in the small boxes for our Tudor houses and the children also need to remember to bring in their favourite poems to perform in Wednesdays literacy lesson next week.

Autumn Term 2011, Week 7

2011-10-24T12:17:00.000+01:00

Friday 21st October 2011

Happy Holidays!

This week has seemed much calmer giving us much more time to focus on our Topic, The Tudors. The class have all been working hard and we are impressed with all that they have achieved this half term.

Today we have been doing some firework pictures. A little early you may think but these will be going on display after half term at The Harpenden Building Society. Keep an eye out for our fantastic artwork!

Mrs Mercer and Miss Wilson have also had the fortunate opportunity to watch the gymnastics assessments today -what a talented year group we have! We always enjoy seeing what they have been able to produce and always wonder what magic goes on in the PE lessons for them to be able to do so much. The gymnastics display in the Spring term is already looking like it will be one not to miss!

Half term is now here! We hope that you have all got something wonderful planned. The children have got literacy homework to complete: a diary entry of one day in their holiday plus they need to remember to keep reading.

From everyone in the Year 5 team: have a wonderful week!

PS: if anyone has any little cereal boxes, or boxes of a similar size, we would be grateful if you could start collecting them in preparation for making Tudor houses next half term. Thank you in advance for your support.

Autumn Term 2011, Week 6

2011-10-14T14:25:00.000+01:00

rebotcO ht41 yadirF

ALICE IN WONDERLAND DAY!

What a week we have had in Year 5. It's been Assessment week, our Class Assembly and then to end with a fancy dress day for National Children's Book Week.

It was so nice to see so many parents and family members at our assembly yesterday. We hope that you enjoyed watching it. The children were all fantastic! We definitely have a few buddy actors in our midst.

We used our Tudor Topic this week to continue with some group work activities. Year 5 were a huge puzzle of King Henry VIII to complete. The did fantastically well and this will be going on display in the hall very soon....watch this space. Have a look of the great group work below:

Assessments this week have all gone well and now the marking commences! We will be feeding back during parent consultations after half term but we just wanted to say how proud we are of everyone. They all tried so hard!

Wonderland today has been great fun. All 64 children have made fairy cakes and have been acting too. What a creative, green hat thinking, day! The costumes in class have been amazing; some fantastic green hat thinking at home too! We hope that you enjoy the cakes going home today.

Have a look at the photos from our Mad Hatters Tea Party day....

We hope that you all have a lovely weekend. We're off to de-bunny and recouperate after a chaotic but extremely enjoyable day.

See you on Monday.

The Year 5 Team.

Autumn Term 2011, Week 4

2011-09-30T10:04:00.000+01:00

Friday 30th September.

A month has gone already! Time is Year 5 is flying by. Both classes have now completely settled in and are working hard. We can't believe that we are already thinking about our class assembly!

We have sent a letter out on Thursday about the Shakespeare company who are coming in to work with us. We are extremely excited about this visit as the Year 5's raved about this workshop last year. This group are so hard to get hold of that we are very lucky to be able to secure them coming in again!

This week we have completed our work on recounts. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this unit as we have been focusing on Henry VIII and his wives. Both classes have produced wonderful PowerPoints about one of his wives from their own research. We look forward to sharing these with you at our class assembly.

In Science this week we have been investigating "the effect of exercise on our pulse rate" this was a really interesting lesson with some interesting results! We look forward to analysing these next week.

Before we sign off we just wanted to remind everyone of our upcoming Book Day. The Year 5 team have been thinking hard about who we are going to dress up as from Alice in Wonderland and look forward to seeing all of your creations.

Enjoy the glorious weather this weekend and we'll see you on Monday.

The Year 5 Team.

Autumn Term 2011, Week 3

2011-09-23T15:44:00.000+01:00

Friday 23rd September

What a lovely week we have had in Year 5 with our trip to Hampton Court. Thank you so much to the parents who came with us and to all that volunteered to help - your support is much appreciated.

Hampton Court has started our Tudor Topic with an explosion. We all learnt a lot while we were there about Henry VIII and his six wives as well as how the Tudors lived. We thoroughly enjoyed the drama activity and dressing up in the Tudor costumes. It was amazing how it really suited some of the children. Have a look at the photos below to see what you think:

It was most exciting seeing people from the Tudor period wandering around the palace as well as doing reenactments of things that happened during this time. We were very flattered when King Henry VIII sent his "best regards to Harpenden." How exciting! He knows of Crabtree Junior School.

We have been continuing to think about how to keep healthy and the importance of our Heart and what its functions are. Have a look at the Deadly 60 below and think about what would happen to your heart rate as you run...

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Redwood had their first drumming session with Benj this week, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

Phew! What a busy week!

Don't forget that there is literacy homework due in on Monday; a recount of our trip. Remember that we will be reading 32 versions of the same day so try to make yours stand out by making it interesting, even humorous!

Have a lovely weekend

The Year 5 Team

Hampton Court Palace Trip

2011-09-19T16:17:00.000+01:00

We are all getting very excited now about our trip to Hampton Court Palace tomorrow. We had a meeting this afternoon to go through everything that Year5 need to remember but just in case, here is a very brief check list:

we will be leaving as close to 9 as possible to make the most of our day; please make sure that you are on time
EVERYONE will need to bring packed lunches with them in a bag that they will be carrying around with them all day.
make sure that you are wearing school uniform and comfortable shoes for the day.
Year 5 are allowed to bring spending money, up to £3, but have been warned about how expensive it is! We have recommended that they look on the website to see what they will be able to buy
We should be back by 3:15 but if for any reason that we aren't, Mrs Coxon will update you through the school's text message service.

We hope that this answers any last minute questions that you may have.

See you tomorrow and we look forward to an enjoyable day!

The Year 5 Team

Autumn Term 2011, Week 2

2011-09-16T15:15:00.001+01:00

Friday 16th September

It was lovely to meet all of the parents this week. We hope that you found the meeting yesterday useful. If you find that you have any further questions then please don't hesitate to come and ask. Our doors are always open, no matter how large or small the question!

This has been a lovely week in Year 5. Their organisation has been fantastic with homework and reading records coming in on time as well as their work being fabulous! We all learnt a new word this week: laboriously from Kensuke's Kingdom and we've even been able to work it into our own writing. Do you know what it means?

Our literacy targets in Year 5 are all based around punctuation. Have a go at this punctuation game and see how you get on:

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This week also saw the beginning of drumming! Teak started the sessions with Benj and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We were focusing on PULSE and RHYTHM this week and can't wait to get the drums out soon.
Have a look at the video clip. We're taking it in turns to be the rhythm (My pet is ....) whilst the rest of us keep the pulse. It's a lot harder than it looks!

We have also completed our art contributions for the school calendar. What an artistic bunch Year 5 are - we hope you like our month, April, when it goes on sale later this term.

Can you believe that we have already finished two weeks at school? Time flies when you are having fun! This weekend Year 5 have Science homework to complete for Monday as well as bringing in their reading records for our weekly check on Monday morning.

Have a lovely weekend, from the Year 5 team.

Autumn Term 2011, Week 1

2011-09-09T16:19:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Year 5 blog!

We have all had a lovely week this week, settling into our new class rooms and setting up our routines and classroom codes. It has been a long first week but we have managed to get lots done!

In Literacy we have started the year with a unit based on Significant Authors. We have been using Michael Morpurgo as our author and Kensuke's Kingdom as our class reader. We have been enjoying the story so far and have been stealing ideas for our own writing. I wonder if the children in Year 5 would prefer to go sailing around the world for a year rather than coming into school?

In Maths this week we have been focusing on the basics on place value. We have looked at what each digit in a number represents as well as rounding to the nearest 10 and multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000.

Have a go together at playing this place value game...

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In Science we have started our "Keeping Healthy" topic. Give us a few weeks and we'll have them all eating their fruit and vegetables and saying no to chocolate and sweets. (Maybe we are being a little adventurous with our targets!)

Today, to end our first week, we have been looking at group work and set the classes the challenge of making the tallest, free standing tower using only spaghetti and marshmallows. The children worked together really well and had varying degrees of success with their towers although all of the classes were smiling throughout (and I'm sure there were a few missing marshmallows too!) Have a look at the successes below:

We hope that all of the children have enjoyed their first week in Year 5 and that they all have a nice weekend. We look forward to meeting you all at the Year 5 Meet the Teacher on Thursday!

The Year 5 Team.

Last Blog of the Academic Year!!

2011-07-20T10:40:00.000+01:00

We can't believe how quickly the end of term / year has come round. The children have covered so much this term in all areas of the curriculum and have produced some fantastic work. We are very proud of their efforts.

Yesterday, at sports day, we witnessed some excellent achievements. The children's sportsmanship was evident when playing the fielding game - well done to all of them.

We still have some work to send home so please can the children bring in a named large plastic bag to take all their creations home. We hope to have the classrooms clear by Friday ready for their 'deep' clean!

Next Tuesday, the last day of term, the children may bring in some games to play, preferably these will be group / team games so they make the most of being with their friends! Electronic games will not be allowed this term. Anything brought into school must be named.

Don't forget that we finish school on Tuesday at 2pm.

All that's left to say is thank you for your support this year. We have had a fabulous year with some truly amazing children. Hope you all have an enjoyable and relaxing summer break and the children are ready for their new challenges in year 6!

Year 5 Teachers.

Tuesday 12th July

2011-07-12T15:45:00.000+01:00

Well, today we had our last reading session with the infants and we wished them all a lovely summer break and said that we'd see them all in September in the Juniors!

Also today, four children from year 5 represented Crabtree at the St. Georges Technology Day - we are so proud of them, especially as they returned with yet another trophy - this one for the best team work! School extension for housing trophies to be announced soon!

Tomorrow is our year 5 consultations - these will be five minute follow ups on reports, if required. Sign up sheets have been available for the last week.

A gentle reminder to anyone who hasn't brought in a shoe box for the D&T work we will be completing this over three days next week.

Sports Day is Tuesday 19th (weather permitting) and all children need to have the appropriate colour clothing and appropriate footwear. Parents are welcome to join us for the afternoon - full details in the school newsletter.

Well that's it for this year - thanks to all parents / carers for all your support and enjoy your summer holidays!

Year 5 Team

Wednesday 6th July

2011-07-06T13:13:00.000+01:00

We have been really busy working on our topic - creating and labelling our river models - amongst other things. We really hope you'll be able to join us tonight from 7.00pm to take a look! We would encourage all the children to bring a named carrier bag (or two) to school this week to start to bring home all their art work and creations!

On Monday morning a very important letter arrived from 10 Downing Street, addressed to all the children in year 5, confirming the Prime Minsters commitment to the Millenium Development Goals and the 'Send our Sister to School' campaign. Mr Cameron suggested the children should be very proud to be associated with the campaign - I know we are and I'm sure you are too.

As we mentioned last week we are focusing on inclusion this week and how the school and our community is composed of many different people with different talents and needs. The children have been invited to compete in a quiz all about famous people with different needs - all sorts of famous people have been included from Einstein to Gareth Gates!

All the children should bring their school reports home this Friday 8th July - we'd really appreciate you and your child completing the reply slip and returning it to school as soon as possible, also if you would like to speak to your Year 5 teacher please sign up on the sheets on your child's classroom door - five minute appointments are avalable from 1.10pm on the afternoon of 13th July.

We would like to ask you to encourage your children to complete their homework online (SAM Learning) within the time limits set - as a reminder homework is set on Monday to be in on Wednesday (Literacy) and on Thursday to be in Monday (Maths). If there is a valid reason why this has not been completed please ensure you communicate this to the relevant class teacher.

Best wishes

Year 5 Teachers

Wednesday 29th June

2011-06-29T12:38:00.000+01:00

Another really busy week for all in year 5!

We had a fabulous end to Multicultural Week on Thursday displaying our fantastic creations and enjoying the picnic and conga on the field.

On Monday, we supported the Infant School on their Sports Day. We were incredibly proud of the year 5 children who helped, but didn't overpower, all the infants as they competed in their challenges and cheered the year 2's in their mini marathon! We were incredibly hot by the time we got back to class but knew we had a busy afternoon preparing for the trip the next day.

Tuesday brought the trip to the River Lea which was a really successful morning out. This would not have been possible without the support of all the parent helpers (and Mrs. Carter on her day off) we would like to thank all the ladies that joined us and managed their groups so efficiently. We did eventually dry out after being caught in the torrential rain and spent the afternoon writing up all our findings from the day.

We are looking forward to the next week - Thursday we are spending some more time being creative with a whole day of activities linked to our topic of Water and Lifecycles. all the children need to have an art shirt in order to be able to get involved in the papier mache activity.

Next week we will be thinking about inclusion and what this means to the children. We welcome your support in this area.

We also have the Open Evening on Wednesday 6th, this is a chance for you to come and see all the work we have been doing this year, classrooms will be open from 6.30pm.

That's all for now!

Year 5 Teachers

2011-06-22T14:53:00.000+01:00

      What a busy week we have had!
      We have had our Multicultural week where we have focussed on New Zealand and the Rugby World Cup. We have used the New Zealand Koru as a stimulus for clay and oil pastel work. We have designed and decorated T shirts using the countries participating in the World Cup and we were lucky enough to take part in a Willow workshop where we have produced some very impressive 3D fish. You will need to iron the T shirts in order to seal the fabric crayon prior to wearing. We look forward to sharing them with you after our picnic tomorrow.
     You are welcome to join us on the field (weather permitting!) for a picnic, followed by a visit to the classroom to see your child's work from this week. We will add some photos next week as today the computer said NO!

      The teachers made a preliminary visit to the River Lea in preparation for our visit next week so any reports of smartly dressed but welly clad women wading in the water are absolutely true! We are still missing one or two permission slips so please return them ASAP.

We have noticed that several children are not completing their SAM learning homework, if your child experiences a problem then please let us know so that we can rectify the difficulty, they must complete their homework. For the homework policy which will include when homework is set and due, please see the school website.

     Please remember that it is an inset day on Friday.

      From the Year 5 teachers.

15th June 2011

2011-06-15T13:29:00.001+01:00

     Year 5 have been looking at Stories from other cultures in Literacy and we have been focussing on traditional tales from New Zealand as we prepare for next week's Multicultural week. This Friday Year 5 are going to working with Willow as we have a guest who will be here to lead us into our work next week.
     Please remember that each child needs to bring in a plain white T shirt as we will be adding a design and decorating them next week with our rugby world cup theme. Nothing fancy please as we are going to be painting them and so on. Remember, you are invited to join us for a picnic on the Thursday and you will have the opportunity to look at all that we have been doing over the week.
     You should have received letters about our walk to Batford Springs on the 28th June, if you have not returned your permission slip yet, please do so as soon as possible. We have been hunting out our wellies in preparation!
     A message from the office; many of the Year 5 children have been arriving for school much too early, could you please make sure that no one arrives before 8.40am. Thank you!

DB Primary

2011-06-13T08:22:00.001+01:00

When I arrived back from school journey today some of the teachers mentioned that children have been having problems logging onto the learning platform. I have spoken to DB Primary and they have suggested that:

"With children who cannot access the platform at home can you check that they are using the right domain name http://crabtree.herts.dbprimary.com/service/util/login?path=/herts/primary/crabtree . If this is not working then perhaps check that the parents haven’t put any security settings in place that means they cannot access the platform. If this still does not work, please could you let me know what the message is that they are getting when they try to access the platform at home. I might then be able to decipher why it is that this is happening. Hopefully we can get it sorted ASAP."

When you get to the logging in page you should see that it says 'Log in to Crabtree Junior School" at the top of the page. I would recommend that this is saved in to your favourites to save finding it in future. If anyone is getting a message pop up when they try to access the learning platform, please can they write it down and send it in to me so that I can get this resolved as quickly as possible.

I hope that this will solve some of the problems, any others I will endeavor to fix when I get back into school on Tuesday.

Thank you. Miss Wilson

Wednesday 8th June 2011

2011-06-08T13:33:00.001+01:00

Welcome back, hope you all had a restful half term and the children have all recovered from our trip!

It was so nice to be able to come back from the trip and tell all the other staff about the fantastic behaviour whilst we were away! Year 5 were a real credit to us and to you!

Some good movers too!

A huge congratulations to our 14 children who represented the school in the local rounders tournament - we are really proud of them and of Miss Thomas for her excellent coaching.

This week the children have been introduced to the Learning Platform through which they will now access their homework twice weekly. This is the site they need to access (please do not just go through the generic DB primary site as you will not gain correct access):

http://crabtree.herts.dbprimary.com/

They will also be using SAM Learning via the Learning Platform for homework. The passwords they need are in their learning logs. They will need to change their SAM Learning password when they first access it but please do make sure you know what their new password is.

The children have been very excited, experimenting with the website. Any problems with accessing the website please don't hesitate to come in and let us know.

Multicultural week is coming up, don't forget the picnic on Thursday 23rd June with a chance to see the children's work. All the children will need a plain white T shirt (named please) to be decorated using fabric dyes (which we will provide) - these can be brought in anytime before Tuesday 21st. Our work will be linking to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand so please hunt out anything you may be able to share related to New Zealand.

Don't forget the INSET day on 24th!

That's it for now.

Year 5 teachers.

School Journey, Isle of Wight

2011-05-26T13:43:00.001+01:00

Thursday 26th May

Well, what a fantastic week we are having on the Isle of Wight. The weather has been very kind to us so far, warm and dry - let's hope it stays that way for our final day! We have had such fun - the children have been learning all about Queen Victoria, her family and her beautiful house, the marine life and archeology, the models at Godshill (including doing some maths converting scales and working out dates!!) and today we are hunting fossils on the beach.

Our evenings have been packed too, with trips to the beach, the waltzing waters, our own cinema experience and tonight the disco! (I have brought some music with us so there is something from this century!!) We have also had some great PE practise with rounders and an endless shuttle relay (we stopped the children running after about 15 minutes - there was no sign of them stopping otherwise!).

All the children have slept well, probably down to lots of fresh air and hearty food (which they have all eaten up and we have been complemented on!). The hotel is great and Leslie and Bernie fantastic hosts!

Well I'll just finish off with wishing you all a fantastic half term (made better for some by the news of the retreating ash cloud!) and look forward to seeing the children with regained energy in June!

All the best

Mrs Codling and Mrs Doran

18th May 2011

2011-05-18T15:12:00.000+01:00

Assessments last week went well and it was made so much easier as all the children came in every day. We are really proud of year 5 and all their achievements this year. (still half term to 'WOW' us even more!).

The excitement is building for our forthcoming visit to the Isle of Wight. We have been researching the places we will visit this week for background information. Please do remember no electrical equipment whether mains or battery powered. The children have been well briefed on what they need - the equipment list is on the website with other details of the trip - please can they all bring their very best behaviour!!

The children are beginning to enjoy the summer sports such as cricket, athletics and rounders. Miss Thomas would just like a little bit more sun! Please remember to provide a named water bottle for your child to have in case - these should be left at the back of the classroom for use throughout the day.

No blog next week, just postcards from the children via the Isle of Wight.

Please remind your children to take everything home from the classroom this week - all PE kit, books, pencil cases (please check their equipment ahead of next term) stray jumpers etc.

Have a lovely half term holiday!

Year 5 Team

PS we are looking for contributions to the blog from the children - book recommendations etc.

11th May 2011

2011-05-11T13:39:00.001+01:00

Well our assessments are nearly completed - for the children at least - just all that marking to do!!

Drumming started again this week for Teak - it was really good fun to start our own composition and enjoy the sunshine at the same time. Redwood will be drumming on Monday.

The count down to the Isle of Wight is continuing and with less than two weeks to go we are still happy to answer any questions you may have. The children learned all about hygiene with the school nurse, it was a very informative session. Please do help your children with any questions they may have as a result.
If your child would like to be involved with the World Cup Tag Rugby at the summer fair they will need to let Miss Thomas know and be available for practice and of course, on the day of the fair.

A gentle reminder that we would like every child to bring in a cardboard shoe box for use in our next DT project.

That's it for now.......

Year 5 Team

4th May 2011

2011-05-04T13:26:00.001+01:00

Hope you enjoyed the celebrations at the weekend - didn't her dress look lovely!

We are looking forward to reading your news reports - well done to all (parents included) for getting all the homework in on time.

Thanks to all the parents who came to the meeting about the Isle of Wight trip - please remember if you have any more questions do not hesitate to speak to one of us. Please do remember to hand all medication directly to Mrs. Chakraverty on the morning of the trip and any letters for the children to Mrs.Codling or Mrs. Doran. On the subject of the Isle of Wight, you should have received a message that the school nurse is coming in next Tuesday to talk to the children.

Next week is Assessment Week so it is really important for all the children to be in school on time and well rested so that they can do their very best! If for any reason any children miss an assessment they will need to complete it at a later date, it is worth mentioning however that the children generally prefer to complete their assessments together. They will need a sharp pencil and pen for each assessment, which will all take place in the mornings. If they can bring a named bottle of water in each day, we will allow them to keep them on their desks during the assessments.

Later in the term we are planning to make cam toys as part of our DT curriculum, so can you please find a small shoe box (only one per child) to use for this project. If you have any examples of robust cam toys these would also be useful to have in class - these should be very clearly labelled!

That's All for Now Folks!!

Year 5 Team

27th April 2011

2011-04-27T14:32:00.000+01:00

Welcome Back to all Year 5s and to Mrs. Gaines, we'll still be seeing Mrs.McGaw around school at the end of the week!

Hope you are all refreshed, having enjoyed the beautiful weather over Easter and now ready for the Challenges of the Summer Term.

This week we have started to look at the Send My Sister to School Campaign http://www.sendmyfriend.org/ and considering the benefits of education for all. This links to our curriculum for Citizenship, PSHE, Literacy and numeracy. We hope the children have enjoyed thinking about the challenges to education for other children across the World and tomorrow they will be showing their persuasive skills when writing to our Prime Minister to encourage him to get involved too.

A quick reminder to all parents of children coming on the Isle of Wight trip that there is a meeting on Tuesday after school in Teak. There will be a creche for children in Redwood.

Enjoy the long Bank Holiday weekend but remember you have homework to do! :)

Year 5 Teachers