Living and Learning
This term, year 5 and 6 complete their relationship and sex education lessons. These allow the children to learn about growing up and puberty. We ensure that the classroom continues to be a safe, respectful environment in which the children can ask appropriate questions. We will be discussing how their bodies change – using the correct biological vocabulary. We will also be discussing how puberty can affect their emotions and how to deal with this. We make sure the children are clear of where to get help if needed.
Help at home: Talk to your child about what has been discussed each week. Do they know the correct vocabulary and do they have a good understanding of what has been discussed in class?
Science: we are biologists
Our new science unit is about animals and humans. This means we are being biologists as we are studying living things. Our first lesson was looking at our new vocabulary. We then focused on gestation periods – the length of time a baby is in the womb. We particularly looked at babies developing in a woman’s womb. We used secondary sources of information to research this.
Here is our new vocabulary.
Help at home: Can you help your child learn our new vocabulary. Have some fun with it and play some games. What about Pictionary!
Living and learning: I know the importance of 60 active minutes
Our PE lessons have had a specific focus on being active for the whole of the 60 minutes. This week, we have played some fast-moving warm-up games that have got our hearts racing and made us out of breath straight away. We played games using the skills of basketball in which we had to score points, defend and attack. The children improved their communication within their team to make them more efficient.
Help at home: How active are you at home? Could you do more exercise? Now the weather has improved, could you be more active? Go for a walk in the evening, a bike ride or even visit a local playground. Enjoy the fresh air!
Pyramids and Prisms
Year 6 have been exploring the properties of pyramids and prisms.
At home, can you find some everyday items that are made from pyramids and prisms? Discuss patterns and relationships between the number of faces, vertices and edges.
Author visit: Emma Carroll
Year 5/6 across Sphere Federation enjoyed a Zoom call from author Emma Carroll this week. We chose two of her books for our class novels this year: Secrets of a Sun King and Letters from a Lighthouse.
We were treated to a tour of her writing room learned about her daily schedule. We asked questions about her process and found out about some of the earlier drafts of her books.
Writing: expanded noun phrases
This week, we’ve been thinking about how to make our writing more interesting for the reader – really thinking about the audience for our writing. The children will be writing a recount from the perspective of a child evacuee from World War II. They had pictures of evacuees, their journey and their new lives and they had to work in teams to generate expanded noun phrases. These are made up of a determiner, adjective and noun. They had to include some adventurous vocabulary to try and impress me.
Help at home: Ask your child what an expanded noun phrase is. Can they create some for you to read?
Living and learning: I know the importance of a healthy diet
We have been discussing the importance of a healthy diet. We looked at which food groups make up a balanced diet and how this helps us to maintain a healthy body. We understand that different foods can give us different vitamins and minerals, whilst others give us energy.
We also talked about what a healthy lunch box looks like when we are at school. We know that it should contain lots of fruit and vegetables and no sugary snacks. This also counts for drinks – water is best!
Help at home: What does your child’s packed lunch for school look like? Could you make some healthier choices? Maybe make one healthy swap this week.
Coronation celebrations!
We have had a great day in school celebrating the King’s Coronation. The non-uniform day saw everyone turn up in some great outfits. The afternoon was spent playing games and having fun with different classes.
Imagining life as an evacuee
This half term, children in 5/6 have been learning about what life was like in Britain during World War II. After carrying out some research, watching some interviews and reading our class novel (Letters From a Lighthouse) we acted out what it would have been like for evacuees meeting their host family for the first time.
A home: discuss how it might feel having to move away from your home due to war. Link the experience of life in World War II to the experiences of refugees today.
Reproduction of flowers
In science children have been desecting flowers and conducting secondary research into finding out about how flowers reproduce. They have learned about how some flowers and plants, such as tulips, use pollinators to help reproduce while others (potatoes and strawberries) are asexual.
At home: grow some potatoes in a large tub or conduct a pollinator count as the weather improves. Take a walk in a wild meadow and count how many bees you see over a certain time. Watch as they visit flowers can carry pollen from one flower to another.
