Welcome to Year 4/5
Key Information
Welcome to our class! There are 26 children in the class with Mrs Colman and Miss Dinsdale. Mrs Burgess also works with the children on a Wednesday afternoon.
Our P.E days are Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon. Can you please ensure that children have full P.E kit on these days. This term as part of our P.E the children go swimming, so please ensure they also bring in their swimming kit on a Tuesday.
All Children will choose their own reading book once a week. If your child is a confident reader and they enjoy reading more than one book in a week then they are welcome to return their reading book and choose another one. Please sign their reading record so we know your child has read that week.
Spellings are given out on a Monday, ready for a test the following Monday. Please practise these at home with your child.
Autumn Term
In Literacy this term we have been reading “Mr Stink” by David Walliams. We had great fun trying to find the most gruesome descriptive language to create smelly vocabulary! This has helped us when creating a character description of Mr Stink. We have also been developing our inference skills whilst exploring Chloe’s family dynamics. We even drew on Mrs Crumb’s interesting political speech to create our own manifestos as to why we should be Prime minister. The children have used the book as an opportunity to explore homelessness in the UK, and charities that support the homeless. Many of the children feel passionate about helping those in need, and treating everyone as equal.
In Maths this term we looked at place value, addition and subtraction. Throughout these topics we have been learning how to be supportive partners, challenging each other to explain our learning. We have had opportunities to problem solve when completing Mastery Maths challenges, and through our Daily Math Meeting. We have been recapping our 2s, 5s and 10 times tables and are currently reviewing our 3s and 6s. The children love competing on times table rockstar to see who is at the top of our class leader board each Friday. I have to say it is always pretty close up at the top!
Please take a look at our Curriculum Map to view what we have been learning about across the curriculum this term.
Science- the Solar System
In Science this term we have been learning all about our amazing Solar System! The children have really enjoyed the topic, and have become budding astronauts! We debated whether the Earth was flat or spherical, and what was at the centre of our Solar System (there were some very interesting ideas!). We learned about the planets in our Solar System, and even created our own! We wrote diary entries as astronauts arriving on our new planets, and created 3D effect art work of our planet using shaving foam and food colouring! We also learned how night and day occur, and made video demonstrations. We also looked at what orbits our planet, creating stop frame animations of the moon orbiting the Earth. The children also got the chance to investigate a real life astronaut when we researched Tim Peakes and his latest mission in space.
Geography- The River Wear
As part of our Geography topic we have been studying rivers. We used atlases to discover famous rivers of the world, and then in groups created an information poster about a certain, which we presented to the class. We used maps to find out about Rivers closer to home. We then took a closer look at the River Wear. We explored the River Wear’s journey, and looked at why it was important the Sunderland. The children really enjoyed learning about Sunderland’s Shipyard past, and the Weardale railway. We also took the opportunity to learn about river pollution and what we can do to help clean up our local environment.
School Parliament
This half term we have had our very own school election, to decide who our School Prime minister and class constituencies are this year. In our class the children created speeches and presented to the whole class. We then had a class vote to decide who would be our constituency member. After that we listened to the prime minister speeches, and completed a ballot box vote to decide on our Prime minister. Year 4/5 constituency member is Jack Fox, who is confident he can represent us in school parliament.
