English

This week we began our final piece of writing linked to our novel ‘Macbeth’. We read to the end of the story, and have begun planning and drafting our own version of the final chapter. So far, we have written the introduction and build up to the final battle scene. We have been thinking about the types of words and phrases we can use to extend our writing such as prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases, and expanded noun phrases, and the children are using some fantastic examples in their writing.

The children also wrote a review of the story, giving a story summary, their own opinions on the text and recommendations for readers.

Next week we are going to have an increased focus on spelling and punctuation, to ensure that this matches the excellent content.

Maths

We have now started looking at the link between fractions and decimals. We began the week by counting in decimal steps, and some children were able to find equivalent fractions and decimals. We then looked at the place value of decimal numbers, and some children began to look at how to convert fractions to decimals when the denominator isn’t a multiple of 10. We have finished the week by working on decimal multiplication (Year 6), and by ordering and comparing decimals based on their place value (Year 5).

P.E

In P.E this week the children took part in outdoor athletics with Mr Steed.

We have spent a lot of time rehearsing for the Christmas Concert this week. The children are very excited and are looking forward to showing everyone the result of their hard work!

English

In English this week, we have been looking at persuasive writing. We looked at examples of persuasive letters and discussed the persuasive features we could see. We then ‘boxed up’ our own plan for a persuasive letter, before drafting and redrafting. We were writing in role as one of Macbeth’s supporters trying to persuade him to go into battle with Macduff’s army. We finished the week with a trip to the woods, where we re-enacted some of the battle scenes and camouflaged ourselves within the forest as Macduff’s soldiers do in the story.

We focused on our spelling of homophones and accurate punctuation this week. The children are getting really confident with using semi-colons and colons accurately in their writing.

Maths

We have continued our work on fractions this week. We have been finding fractions of numbers using bar modelling, and finding a starting number after being given what a fraction of the number is. Some children applied this to solving problems and reasoning. Year 5 have had a problem solving week, and have been trying different strategies to solve some really tricky problems.

Science

In Science, we have been looking at the classification of living things. We watched a short video about Carl Linnaeus, and how he invented the classification system. The children did a really challenging activity where they had to sort groups of organisms into their similar features, e.g. by kingdom, phylum, class etc. They really enjoyed this and have created some interesting classification diagrams.

R.E

In R.E this week we continued our topic on Incarnation. The children discussed why God sent Jesus to the world, which prompted some brilliant discussion about what Jesus has done for us and God’s plans for us.

P.E

In P.E this week the children took part in indoor athletics with Miss Hall.