English

In English this week, we have been planning a piece of poetry based on the witches prophesy in Macbeth. We have looked at similes, metaphors and personification, and the children looked at a range of poetry and spotted as many poetic features as they could. They then created their own mind map of ideas that would create strong imagery for the reader, ready to start drafting their poems next week.

We also began looking at colons, semi-colons and dashes, and when to use which in our writing. We found this quite challenging, and will continue practising this next week.

Maths

We have had another good week learning about fractions in maths. We started the week adding fractions with the same denominator (Year 5), and adding fractions with denominators that are multiples of each other (Year 6). The children are getting good at giving fractions a common denominator in order to compare them, add or subtract them. We then moved on to adding mixed numbers and showing our calculations as bar models, and then as jumps on a number line. The children have done really well with this and most feel confident in this area.

Science

In Science, we are reaching the end of evolution and inheritance unit, and the children began planning their own ‘Just so’ story, based on the stories by Rudyard Kipling. They each chose an animal, and then had to research a physical characteristic of that animal and create a fictional story explaining how the animal got that physical characteristic. They are in the midst of writing their final versions, and we hope to finish these off next week.

D.T

In D.T this week the children evaluated the bread rolls that they made before half term. They described the appearance, taste and texture of their rolls, what they liked and disliked, and what they would do differently if they were making them again.

R.E

In R.E this week, we have continued our topic of Incarnation. The children have been discussing how important Jesus is to Christians. They discussed all the different names that Jesus is known by, and recorded these names and all the different qualities that support these names.

P.E

In P.E this week, the children continued their football sessions with Mr Steed on the field.  As part of the NSPCC ‘Buddy’s Big Work Out’, the children have decided to have a sponsored dodgeball tournament . We will be doing this in next week’s PE session.

English

We began this week in English with an exciting invitation to a feast held by Lady Macbeth in the Great Hall. We all sat down to enjoy food and drink when Macbeth (Mrs J), began to act very strangely… We discussed what was happening to Macbeth and decided that all of his crimes were causing him to become insane. We then planned, drafted and published an essay based on how the insanity of Macbeth becomes more and more apparent as the story goes on. The children worked extremely hard on these and should be very proud of the fantastic writing they produced.

We also learned about the active and passive voice in our GPS session, and the children converted sentences from active to passive.

Maths

We began a new unit on fractions this week. The children began the week by using bar models to simplify fractions, and show equivalent fractions using bar models. Year 6 then moved on to converting mixed numbers and improper fractions, and creating addition and subtraction number sentences showing these. Year 5 compared fractions by converting them so that they have a common denominator.

Science

We have continued with our topic of Evolution and Inheritance this week. We looked at human evolution, and where Scientists discovered what they know about human evolution. We looked at an image of the earliest fossil that showed Bipedal walking, and talked about the advantages of humans evolving to walk on two feet. The children then investigated the evolution of flight, and how Cladograms can be used to show evolutionary relationships. They then created their own cladograms showing the relationships between different living organisms by considering their shared characteristics.

R.E

In R.E this week, we introduced our new topic which is ‘The Big Story’ in Christianity. This week, we looked at what the Old Testament said about Jesus. The children wrote their own section of the Old Testament and the class created an amazing mind map of words and phrases to describe Jesus.

P.E

In P.E this week, the children began the unit of football with Mr Steed. Next week, please can all children bring in footwear suitable for wearing on the school field. The children have also been asked as part of next week’s PE session to consider different types of dancing ready for our dance unit with Mrs J.