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. 

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.

I hope a good half term was had by all. The children had a fabulous week with Miss Hill and Miss Mills. We started our new topic- Crime and Punishment including our English text ‘Holes’. I think the highlight of the week may have been a visit from some hairy, creepy friends (I’m so sad I missed it!😂)

Thank you to FOHH for arranging this for us.

Friday 15th October

Break up Friday 😁😁😁…….Well done Owls for an absolutely fabulous half term. You have worked so hard this half term and I am really proud of you all.  Have a fabulous half term holiday, have a rest and recharge your batteries. See you in two weeks time.  Mrs B x

Thursday 14th October

Quiet Reading and Bagels this morning followed by a few pictures of

dodgeball this afternoon.

Wednesday 13th October

This half term we’ve been learning about different diets. We’ve looked at the diet of an arctic explorer who might be on expedition for months or years at a time. We’ve planned meals for these explorers taking into account calorie intake and also thinking about factors like….. carrying, storing, preparing and cooking the food items. To finish this unit of work today we made some Explorers ‘Sledging Biscuits’ which may have been taken on expedition with our explorers over 100 years ago.  On sampling their bakes most of Owl class were not too keen on these dry, hard and tasteless biscuits ( children’s words, not mine 😂 ) 

We’re all in the mood for baking now! 

Monday 11th October

A lovely afternoon developing art skills. We had some fantastic Robert Falcon Scott Huts produced in paints and sketching pencils. Not finished yet but we will show you our finished pieces. 

Friday 8th October

These were our volunteers today who read out their diary entries as Robert Falcon Scott. I was really impressed with all of these writers today. 👌👌

Thursday 7th October

Around the World in 72 Days

Today in Geography we were learning about time zones. We looked at a world map and worked out the times in other countries.  We read about the explorer Nellie Bly who travelled the world in 72 days. We found the cities and countries that she travelled through on a map and looked at the time differences in these places.

Tuesday 5th October

A special mention today for Georgia-Grace and for her Grandma. Last week when Grandma was reading a newspaper she came across an article about Captain Robert Falcon Scott. 
A grant is being given by The National Heritage fund to preserve the 120 year old Discovery from collapsing into the sea. 
The children were amazed to read this today after all of our work on the explorer over the last few weeks.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Friday 1st October

Our Robert Falcon Scott biographies are complete. We have worked hard to write each section. We think that they are just as good as Alistair Humphries entries in his Great Adventurers book. These will be going on display in our classroom for all to see.

Jack is our fabulous hero today. I am so impressed with his writing.

Well done Jack….your phrasing and use of amazing vocabulary make your pieces of writing great! Well done! 👍

Thursday 30th September

A practical lesson in Science today testing which materials dissolve in water. There was lots of chatter and excitement once there was water and mixing involved 😁😁.  We have also planned our next investigation about dissolving materials which we will carry out next week.  
Owls tell your adults all about the words ‘soluble’ ‘insoluble’ ‘solution’. Explain to them the difference between dissolving and melting. Can you remember? 

Friday 24th September

Well Done Isla

Isla is Owl class hero this week. She amazes me every single day with her attitude to her work. Her work is always beautifully presented and she tries her best always. Well done Isla…..what a great start you’ve made!

Thursday 23rd September

Some English photos today. This week we’ve been investigating words with silent letters in them, looking for any patterns or spelling rules. We’ve been working on improving our vocabulary by exploring synonyms and we have continued to work on our biography of Robert Falcon Scott. Today was the best bit…….The Tera Nova and the race to the Pole. 
Owl class…..tell your adult about Robert Falcon Scott and why he became a world famous explorer 😁😁

Tuesday 21st September

The Best BasketBall Team Ever!!!  

Monday 20th September

Today we’ve been working on our world map skills. We’ve learned about Lines of Latitude and Lines of Longitude.  We’ve used our knowledge to use the coordinates to locate continents on a world map. It was tricky at first but once we mastered it, it was a doddle. 😁

Some English from today too. Using relative clauses to add more detail and give the reader more information. 
I’m glad you’re looking busy Marley! 😁😁😁
 

Friday 17th September

After a morning full of SPaG, spelling practise, English and Maths it’s Movie time with our lunch. Happy Friday everyone.

Today’s Hero

Is Jimmy who has impressed me already with his amazing working attitude. This week Jimmy has been a little mathematician and I’ve been really happy to see him completing his maths activities independently. Well done Jimmy…….keep it up! 😁

Wednesday 15th September

The children have been reading about Apsley Cherry-Garrard…one of our explorers. 
Today we’ve been writing main clauses and relative clauses. Well done Owls…..great sentence writing!

Monday13th September

Owl class worked hard on our first Power Maths Lesson.

Our First Owl Class Hero

All of Owls have been heroes this week as they’ve all had a great first week but Marley has really caught my eye. He is a hero for his superb Year 5 attitude and for being focussed on his work already
What a great start Marley!  I’m really pleased that you’re an Owl.

Friday 10th September

WOW - What a Day!

Today was our Year 5 and 6 WOW Day to begin our Explorer's Topic.  The photos speak for themselves.  Lots of learning took place today while having lots of  fun too.  

Gloopy Glaciers

What floats your boat.

Making Blubber Gloves

Orienteering

Thursday 9th September.

Our topic this half term is GREAT EXPLORERS.  Our topic incorporates the areas of English, Geography, DT and Science. Our text will be Great Adventurers by Alistair Humphreys. In Geography we will begin by looking at map skills. In DT our unit entitled 'How to eat like an explorer' begins by looking at Diet - a healthy diet, a balanced diet but also all the other possible diets that people may have including vegan, gluten and lactose free diets.  In Science we will be exploring Properties of Materials, focussing on investigating how materials can change. 

Wednesday 8th September

Practical maths today using base 10 equipment and place value counters. By the end most of us could write and give the value of digits in a 6 digit number.

Friday 3rd September

A Successful Few Days

Owls have enjoyed their first few days and have been superstars. We have spent time talking about what makes them happy and they have created some lovely work around this. As part of our Y5 and 6 work on Ambition they have also thought about 

their future goals. This was lovely to hear and we have a baker, an artist, a footballer, a police person, a vet, teacher and bus driver in the making!

Activities and group work about our Holly Hill Way and our school rules and expectations followed by group presentations showing our ideas.