Owls, Year 5, 2021/22

A Great Big Welcome to Owl Class

Year 5

A very big welcome to you.  I am Mrs Balchin - Owl Class teacher and I look forward to working with your wonderful children this year in what we hope will be a 'normal' but very exciting year!  

Working alongside me will be Miss Mills - who will be supporting the children, working 1:1 or taking smaller intervention groups.  

Our class page will give you daily updates about what we've been up to and there will be photographs and examples of work on there too. 

We are very much looking forward to our year ahead.

Key Information

P.E.

The children will have P.E. every Tuesday.  Please make sure kits are in school for this day.  Ear rings must be removed for all PE activities.

Reading Diaries

We will be using reading diaries as normal this year.  Our school target is reading 5 times a week and the children in Year 5 are able to fill in their own diaries if they wish.  In class we will also be having time for quiet reading, guided reading and reading in the curriculum daily.  Please feel free to write any messages in diaries and I will get back to you as soon as possible.  

Spellings

Spellings are stuck into diaries for the whole half term and will be practised weekly alongside the Year 5 spelling rules and patterns.  They will usually be tested on the following Monday.  The children will also be working on the Year 5/6 statutory spelling lists which they will practise throughout the year.  If more practise is needed some children may have lists to consolidate from previous year groups and these will be sent home in the next few days. 

Homework

Homework throughout the school will be reading 5 times a week and learning spellings and times tables.  The children will also be able to use any of our learning platforms including Mathletics and TT Rock Stars. 

Thursday 23rd June

Today was our Sports day and we had a wonderful day. We started with a morning of potted sports which was great fun. In the afternoon we had our traditional sports day races. The behaviour of the children was absolutely superb and it was so lovely to see them cheering on their friends. Only a few photos of them chilling on the grass as most of the photos I took had lots of children on. I hope you managed to come and watch your child take part. 

_{Friday 10th June}

_{Wear ‘Yellow for Winnie’ Day.}

We raised some money today for Baby Winnie who is in need of lifesaving treatment.  As a school we raised over £500.  Some of Owl class made Winnie a duck which we will laminate and send to her ( we’ve heard ducks are her favourite animals) and some of the children wrote some lovely notes too. We were really touched by Winnie’s story.

Thursday 9th June

Using a protractor to measure angles.

Wednesday 8th June

Today we started our art topic for this half term. We are looking at Nottingham architecture. We studied the buildings…. Some of them we could name, others were new to us. We practised observational drawing focussing on the lines and details that we could see. We recreated the pictures.

Wednesday 8th June

Friday 27th May

Holly Hill’s Biggest Party Ever! Platinum Jubilee

Today has been such a lovely day and the children have loved every minute. Today we had games, some fair rides, a magician, face painting, a disco, picnic and a band!  Not forgetting a whole  school sing and an ice cream.  I’m pleased it’s half term 😂😂 I need a week to put all the photos on. The children ( and adults) will definitely sleep well tonight 😴😴

Happy half term everyone and enjoy your jubilee weekend.

Thursday 26th May

Year 5 and 6 Viking Day

Wednesday 25th May

Wednesday 18th May

Monday 16th May

Year 5s Performing Poetry

For the next two weeks we are reading and performing poetry as Year 5 need to be able to recite some poems off by heart.  To start this unit, today we have watched and listened to some famous, children’s poets ‘performing’ their work.  We’ve looked at poems by MIchael Rosen, Paul Cookson, John Agard, Rachel Rooney and Steve Attewell.  We have identified poetic features, language and vocabulary and looked for strategies used to perform a poem.  Hopefully by the end of the week we will be able to share some of poems with you.

Friday 13th May

_{Tuesday 10th May}

Monday 9th May

We’ve been working on fractions, decimals and percentages for quite a few weeks now and I am so pleased with how Owl class have worked on these areas. I think they’re loving their Maths work and are becoming experts in the field! 😁😁😁

Friday 29th April

Thursday 28th April

Monday 25th April

Tuesday 19th April

Summer Term

We will be continuing the 'Fight for the Crown' topic this half term.  Our English text is Viking Boy by Tony Bradman.  In History we look at The Dark Ages.  The children loved their learning about the Anglo Saxons so I know they'll love the invasion of the Vikings too.  In Music we're making music and will be developing our composing skills including work on tempo and pitch.  In Science 'Forces' will still be our focus but we now look at air and water resistance - finishing with the forces used in simple mechanisms.  In PE we are working in teams to improve Athletics skills this half term.  Please see our knowledge organiser at the top of the page for our detailed learning.

Friday 1st April
 

Wednesday 30th March

Monday 28th March

A very happy Mother’s Day for yesterday to all our mums, grans, mamas, aunties and even sisters. We hope everyone had a lovely day.  We made some beautiful cards. The children said I was not allowed to post these on Friday so here they are today

😁❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😁

Friday 18th March.

Taking part in British Science week 2022

We started by looking at The Dreamachine. An artwork exploring the power of our minds and exploring how we see and experience the world around us differently. We then went on to explore the world of illusions for ourselves. It was great fun looking at all the different ones.

Thursday 17th March

Wednesday 16th March

Thursday 10th March

Our Anglo-Saxon style artwork and clay Brooches. Some fabulous-looking creations Owl class- Well Done! Next week we’ll be spraying these and making them look even better.

Monday 7th March

Today we had a visit from Ed from Anchor Education. We LOVE LOVE LOVE Anchor education and watch the clips every week in school to help with our SPaG learning. Well today Anchor Education came to us and it was fab. The children sang along to songs all about our SPaG topics. Fab work Owl class 🤣

Thursday 3rd March

World Book Day

A few photographs from World Book Day today. Our morning focussed around our Beowulf text with lots of reading and book activities. In the afternoon we created a school reading diary front cover in the hope of winning first prize- our design being on the front cover of our Holly Hill Reading Diary next year.  We had some wonderful costumes in Owl class and well done to the 4 children who created a book character potato head.

Tuesday 8th February

 Thumbs Up to Internet Safety Day

We worked in pairs to complete the Safer Internet Day Quiz. Lots of sharing ideas and discussion about the main issues using online gaming and forums.

Wednesday 2nd February.               Gymnastics

A lot of fun was had in gymnastics today. Children continued to work on shapes and balancing. Last week we were exploring movement and balance using small apparatus and this week our work focussed on working with partners to create balances…… using each others bodies to strengthen and support. We finished the lesson with some human pyramids. Well done Owls…. You had a lovely P.E. lesson with Miss Bateman.

Tuesday 1st February
In maths last week we were learning about area and perimeter. A few photographs today of our last lesson- estimating area and problem solving.

Thursday 20th January

A fabulous computing session this morning. We started to learn about programming using the micro- bits. It was so lovely to watch Owl class discussing what they were doing and helping each other. 

Wednesday 19th January

Securing learning on Multiples, Factors, Squared and Cubed numbers this morning before a spot of P.E.

Monday 16th January.

Today in Science we did our presentations. We presented our observations about Day and Night and about Shadows. Half of the class were Day and Night experts and the other half were Shadow experts. 

Wednesday 12th January

We have been exploring Day and Night and Shadow movement and change throughout a day.  We have used models to help with scientific explanations.

Thursday 6th January.

A normal day in Owl Class - Spellings, Grammar, English, Timetables Practise and Maths in the morning followed by RE this afternoon.  Well done Owls - you are working so hard.

Wednesday 5th January

A really active start to the year for Owl Class. Yesterday we did hockey outside with the P.E. coach and today we’ve had our first gymnastics lesson on the apparatus. Well done Owls.

Please make sure P.E. kits are in school on a Tuesday and Wednesday this half term. Please remove earrings prior to the lesson if possible and if your child is not doing P.E. that day please provide a note. Thank you. 

Owl Class would like to wish you all a...

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and we wish you all the best for the New Year.  The children came in brilliantly this morning and had a really good start to the term as we resumed normal lessons. This half term our topic is:-

How to Save the Human Race

Our core book this term is Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho Yen. We will be reading this text daily and it will be the key driver for the majority of our English work.  In science our topic Earth and Space focusses on the Earth and Moon in our Solar system.  This half term as well as Jigsaw and PE our focus subjects will be Computing and Religious Education.  Please see our knowledge organiser for more information regarding what we'll be learning this term.  

If your child is off school isolating but is well enough to work please look in the Remote Learning section at the top of this page for a weekly timetable of activities for the week that they are off school. 

Tuesday 14th December
 

Our photos say it all. Owl class LOVED laser tag!

Monday 13th December
Nothing says Christmas like a good old panto. Thank you Mrs Watson for arranging this year’s Christmas themed show 🎄🎄🎄🎄

As we begin our Christmas week, we'd like to share our Christmas video with you all...

ENJOY!

Friday 3rd December

Our Science topic this half term is Evolution and Inheritance and we’re engrossed in the topic after having some in-depth discussions about it. We seem to have a couple of experts in the class who have amazed us with their knowledge. Well done Shay and Jack! Through lots of guided reading we’ve plotted a timeline showing some of the main theories of evolution. We have been finding out all about Charles Darwin and learning about how his work influenced the idea of evolution. 

Tuesday 30th November
We often use songs to help with our SPaG learning. Today we’re learning use of apostrophe for contraction. Ask the children all about it.

(Theo, Ivy and Harry always like to get moving!) 😂🎶

Wednesday 24th November

School is closed today for all children.  Please see the timetable below for Remote Learning.

Tuesday 23rd November

TT Rockstars 

Friday 19th November
Friday fun with Joe Wicks this morning for Children in Need. Thank you for all donations and apologies for the blurry action shots. Everyone was shattered after their workout this morning 😂😂😂

Thursday 18th November

Should Guy Fawkes be executed or not?

In history we had a class debate.  The children took their places at different ends of the room. The children were brilliant at giving their viewpoint along with their reasons to try and persuade the opposition. 
 

Tuesday 16th November

Trying our hands at a spot of Ukulele playing this afternoon. Our first lesson-learning how to hold it and beginning to learn a few chords.

We have some very serious faces in these photographs……I think the concentration was on!

We had a fabulous lesson. How lucky are we to have a Ukulele each to play!

Thursday 11th

This morning we took part in a webinar with many other school. We listened to how World War 1 started….. how it started with just one incident and how over a small period of time other countries got involved which then went on to cause a huge, devastating World War.

We talked about Remembrance Day in class and we took part in a one minutes silence at 11 o’clock.

We’ve been investigating dissolving and separating in Science this week.

Monday 8th November

Developing Dictionary skills, Spellings and Grammar this morning.