Panthers Class Blog

PE days are Tuesday and Friday

If your child wears earrings, please ensure they can take them out independently and have a safe place to store them during PE.

Autumn 2 - Week 4 Review (21/11 - 24/11)

Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

First of all, thank you for all your engagement this week with our Class Assembly and Grandparents afternoon! We had great fun doing both and the children loved showing off what they've learnt to you. 

Maths: In Maths this week the children have been continuing their work on fractions by looking at adding fractions and mixed numbers. The Year 4s have been continuing their learning of multiplication, looking at the times tables.

RE: In RE we looked at the work of chaplains. Specifically, hospital chaplains, prison chaplains and armed forces chaplains. Some great discussion was had about how people in all these situations are in need of guidance and support.

Shared Reading: In Shared Reading, we have been focusing on finding evidence in the text to back up statements. As well as adding an explanation.

Science: In Science we looked at burning. I lit a tealight candle and the children observed what the flame looked like and the reaction when the wick was burning and wax was melting.

Topic: In Topic we looked at Mayan kings and the activities they would partake in to portray themselves as gods.

As Friday was a training day, our spelling test will take place next Friday. Therefore, the spellings are the same as last week and the children get an extra week to learn them!

Autumn 2 - Week 3 Review (14/11 - 18/11)

Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

Thank you to all children who wore odd socks on Monday to help promote anti-bullying week! We had some fabulous ones in Panthers class, see below:

The children have also been working very hard this week preparing for our class assembly. The children have been preparing their presentations independently and we are so excited to welcome you to watch it on Wednesday afternoon.

Maths: In Maths this week the children have continued their learning of fractions by looking at comparing and ordering fractions and beginning to add and subtract fractions.

RE: In RE, we looked at the charity Christian Aid and spoke about how they helped to combat poverty around the world and the importance of this.

DT: In DT the children began making their 3D model of a Mayan city! We had a group doing papier mache to create the rough ground and causeways, and other children using clays to begin constructing their buildings.

PSHE: In PSHE this week, the children wrote a positive letter to a child in another school. This was in honour of anti-bullying week, and the importance of spreading kindness.

Shared Reading: In Shared Reading, we researched what tenements were and what it was like to live there. This was to help us understand the context of our focus story more. The children used this to come up with interesting adjectives to describe the tenements.

Science: In Science, the children performed another experiment, this time to test the effects of rust. The Years 4s tested the effect of different liquids on metal, and the Years 5s tested the effects of different protectants that help prevent rust.

Topic: In Topic this week we looked at the Mayan creation myth. After studying different creation stories in RE, the children found this really interesting! They then created their own storyboards using their own images and captions.

 This week's spellings:

Y4      Y5 

Autumn 2 - Week 2 Review (07/11 - 11/11)

Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

Maths: In Maths this week we have looked at equivalent fractions and converting fractions from mixed numbers to improper fractions and vice versa. The Year 4s started their learning of area.

RE: In RE we spoke about the difference between a Catholic baptism (often known as a Christening) and baptisms performed by other denominations.

PE: In PE on Tuesday, the children got another visit from the Saints to learn about Rugby and enjoyed playing Tag Rugby.

Shared Reading: This week we continued looking at our Scottish short story and focused on discovering the meaning to Scottish words. We practised reading around the word to find clues about the context. The children now know the meaning of the words tenements, pulley and midden.

Science: In Science the children investigated irreversible changes. They know the difference between a physical change and a chemical reaction. They completed an experiment that involved mixing baking soda and bicarbonate of soda with water and vinegar and comparing the reactions by observing how inflated a glove becomes (to show the gas reaction).

Topic: This week the children learnt about the Mayan calendars; Haab, Tzolk'in, Calendar Round and Long Count. We learnt about how many days/months they all entail and what their purpose was for having different calendars. The Year 4s even made their own Mayan Tzolk'in calendars!

Music: In Music we watched an animation called Abstract Albert. We discussed the difference between the effect of background music, added sound effects and 'Mickey Mousing'. The children used body percussion to create sound effects to go along with the animation, and then used percussion instruments to do the same. We also looked at graphic representations and were able to match them up to the part of the animation they represented.

This week's spellings:

Y4      Y5 

Autumn 2 - Week 1 Review (31/10 - 04/11)

These children didn't have their reading records this week: Owen, George. Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

Maths: In Maths this week, we finished off our learning of multiplication and division by looking at multiples of 10, 100 and 1000. We then started our learning of fractions, looking at equivalent fractions.

RE: In RE, we looked at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 and spoke about what different lessons Jesus was trying to teach people.

DT: In DT this term, we are going to be designing, creating and forming our own 3D Mayan city. The children have already designed their part of the city, including thinking about material, colour and size. We then mapped out the structure of our city, thinking about what would be in the centre, and ensuring we think about proportions (e.g., the houses must be smaller than the temple!)

PSHE: In PSHE, we discussed the different qualities of a friend and the children acted them out. They then ranked them in importance and we collated a class survey to find that offering to help is what the children value in a friend the most!

Science: In Science, we started our new topic of Materials by talking about states of matter, and reversible and irreversible changes. We spoke about the difference between something that just changes state (melting chocolate - it's changes form from a solid to a liquid, but it's still chocolate! [A physical change]) compared to something that changes the substance entirely (burning wood into ash). The children also now know why a fizzy drink bubbles when it is opened.

Computing: In Computing, we learnt about digital recording and how technology and different devices can be used to record, edit and upload audio.

Music: In Music this week we looked at sound effects (to link to our Computing topic!). The children watched some stop-motion videos from the 1920s and 30s about how sound effects were used to enhance the viewing. The children then used their own storyboard of graphic representations to depict different sound effects and then used a range of percussion instruments in groups to perform their sequence.

This week's spellings:

Y4      Y5 

Autumn 1 - Week 7 Review (17/10 - 21/10)

These children didn't have their reading records this week: Owen, Gilbert, Reuben and Tyler. Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

Maths: In Maths this week we looked at common factors, prime numbers, square numbers and cube numbers.

RE: In RE we looked at the Scripture 1 Corinthians 13 and studied what it tells us about love, and the importance of love to Christians.

PSHE: In PSHE, we discussed the difference between being assertive, passive and aggressive. We spoke about how to appropriately respond when people are trying to get us to do something we don't want to do.

Computing: We looked at websites and what features websites have. We also spoke about how some websites allow people to add content, and what the advantages and disadvantages to this are. The children love the example of Chrome Music Lab - where you can turn a drawing into music, have a go at home if you wish!

Topic: We studied Mayan arithmetic and learnt that they used Base 20 (as opposed to our Base 10!). The children then imitated the Dresden Codex and drew their own serpents, along with the Mayan numbers representing their birth date around it.

Autumn 1 - Week 6 Review (10/10 - 14/10)

Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

Maths: In Maths this week the children have looked at finding missing numbers using fact families and inverse operations, multiples, factors and common multiples/factors.

RE: In RE we looked at the Fruits of the Spirit. We spoke about what this means, what Christians believe about the Holy Spirit and how Christians apply it to their lives.

PSHE: In PSHE we looked at the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships. The children created a list of 'ingredients' needed for a healthy relationship.

Science: The children looked at the history of astronomy in science this week.

Computing: In Computing, the children learnt how information is shared on the internet and how we can access it.

Topic: To continue our learning of the Mayans, we looked at Mayan food and clothing. The children even got to taste test some of the foods the Mayans ate - tortilla, avocado and cacao! 

This week's spellings:

Y4      Y5 

Autumn 1 - Week 5 Review (03/10 - 07/10)

These children didn't have their reading records this week: Dylan, Gilbert, Faith, Charley, Owen. Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

Harvest: First of all, thank you to all the parents who came along to our Harvest celebration! I was so proud of all the children for the poem they came up with themselves, and for their creative minds for putting props and actions alongside it. In case you couldn't quite hear them clearly in the church, here is the poem below:

Book & Biscuit: Also want to say a big thank you to everyone who turned up for Book & Biscuit! I was so pleased with the amount of you that turned up (and squeezed into our squishy room!!) and I know the children absolutely loved their parents being inside their classroom and reading with them. What an invaluable experience - looking forward to next time!

Futsal Tournament: Also a big well done to all the Year 4s who were involved in the futsal tournament on Wednesday! We had a lot of fun and the children did absolutely amazing!! 3rd out of 10 teams overall! Well done everyone!

Maths: This week we continued our learning of addition and subtraction, and looked at inverse operations, fact families and multi-step problems.

PSHE: In PSHE, we discussed the importance of feeling safe in school, and discussed the difference between teasing, banter and bullying. We recapped the acronym STOP which reminds us of what bullying is - Several Times On Purpose.

Science: In Science this week we looked at what the Universe is, and what it's made of. We discussed galaxies and learnt that we live in the Milky Way galaxy. We also looked at how some scientists use space to theorize how the universe was formed. We particularly focused on the idea that the universe is constantly expanding, and we blew up balloons to demonstrate this.

RE: This week in RE we looked at how Christians care for the environment and climate justice. We read Scriptures in the Bible that tell us God gave humans responsibility to steward the Earth, and we even looked at examples of Christian organisations that actively encourage and promote climate justice e.g. Operation Noah and A Rocha.

Topic: In our learning about the Mayan civilisation, we looked at what children's lives would have looked like and the roles within a family unit e.g. women would weave clothes and cook food and men would go hunting. We looked at Ancient Mayan murals that have been discovered that show us these examples of Mayan living and the children drew their own murals to represent something about their life!

This week's spellings:

Y4      Y5 

Autumn 1 - Week 4 Review (26/09 - 30/09)

These children didn't have their reading records this week: Dylan, Gilbert, Tyler. Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

Maths: The children completed their Maths PiXL Assessments this week. I am pleased with the results so early on in the year, especially considering the children haven't learned some of the content yet!

RE: In RE this week, we looked at how the Bible is still relevant to our lives today, despite being written a long time ago. The children practised how to find scripture; using the contents page to help them find the book, then chapter, then verse. We read the verses and thought about how we can apply them to our lives today and what lessons we can learn.

Art: In Art this week, children developed their Futuristic art skills by designing their own piece of art. The children got to choose their own vehicle that they will shade to make it look like it's in motion.

Science: The children learnt about the Sun, stars and constellations in this weeks science lesson. They drew a storyboard to represent the life cycle of a star, and then they used descriptions to help them match up constellations to their name.

Computing: We had previously learnt what a network is, and how a network can link together multiple devices. This week we built on that knowledge by talking about routers and how they link different networks together. We also discussed the difference between the internet and the World Wide Web. This video provides a good analogy to help us understand this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47523993 

Topic: In Topic this week, the children built on their knowledge of the Mayan civilisation by looking at different aspects of a city. The children used the notes they had made to help them design a part of the city. We are hoping to collate all of our creations and build our own 3D Maya city next term in our DT lessons!

This week's spellings:

Y4      Y5 

Autumn 1 - Week 3 Review (19/09 - 23/09)

These children didn't have their reading records this week: Tobey, Dylan, Gilbert, Megan, Owen, Tyler. Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

First of all, thank you to those of you who came to the Meet the Teacher evening on Tuesday! It was lovely to talk with you. For those of you who couldn't make it, I have attached the PowerPoint below:

Panthers-Meet-the-Teacher-PPT.pptx

Maths: In Maths we continued our learning of Place Value by looking at comparing, ordering and rounding numbers up to 100,000.

Science: In Science, we looked at the order of the planets and learnt in detail about each one. The children came up with a mnemonic to help them remember the order, and wrote down a size description, the temperature and other descriptions for each planet.

RE: Following on from learning about religious creation stories, this week we looked at the scientific theories of The Big Bang Theory and the Theory of Evolution. We discussed how some religious people believe science and religion can go hand in hand, whereas others argue that the theories contradict each other.

Topic: In Topic we looked at the structure of a Maya city; including Plazas, Ball Courts, Palaces, Temples and Pyramids, Roads and Houses.

Art: In Art we practised how to create a piece of futuristic art and how to make a motorbike look like it's in motion. The children had to use different lines to amplify and extend the edges and then use shading.

This week's spellings:

Y4      Y5 

Autumn 1 - Week 2 Review (12/09 - 16/09)

These children didn't have their reading records this week: Oliver, Dylan, Gilbert, Megan, Olivia, Tyler. Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

Shared Reading: In Shared Reading we have continued reading the story Varjak Paw. The children have done fantastic so far at answering a range of different questions. They have practised questions on grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, retrieval, inference, predicting and explaining.

Maths: In Maths we have continued our learning on Place Value. This week, the children have looked at reading and writing numbers to 1,000,000, powers of 10, more or less and partitioning.

RE: This week we looked at different religious creation stories; including Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism and Buddhism and we compared them to the Biblical creation story we learnt last week.

Art: In Art, we looked at the life of a famous futurist artist, Fortunato Depero.

PSHE: In PSHE we looked at the idea of "give and take". The children were able to define what negotiation and compromise is and discussed how there's not always a clear "right" decision in every situation.

Science: The children learnt lots about Space this week! We discussed lunar phases, lunar and solar eclipses and the children worked very hard at remembering the difference between asteroids, comets, meteoroids, meteors and meteorites.

History: Whereas last week we learnt where the Mayans lived, this week we learnt when the Mayans lived. The children were fascinated that although the Mayans date all the way back to 2000BC, some Mayans still exist to this day! Despite having to adapt through modern world changes (including their country being invaded and disbanded into different modern countries!), they still follow some ancient Mayan traditions, including believing in the same gods, farming and weaving their own clothes.

This week's spellings:

Y4      Y5 

Autumn 1 - Week 1 Review (05/09 - 09/09)

Please ensure children always bring their reading records into school as I check them weekly.

Welcome to the FIRST weekly blog post of the year!! I hope you all had a lovely Summer. The children have settled in nicely and we have excitedly begun all our new topics! I'm looking forward to the year ahead.

Shared Reading: In Shared Reading we have started reading the story Varjak Paw. The children have done fantastic so far at answering a range of different questions based on the first few chapters. They have practised questions on grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, retrieval, inference, predicting and explaining.

Maths: In Maths we have started our learning on Place Value. So far, the children have looked at Roman numerals and numbers up to 1,000,000.

RE: In RE we are going to be looking at, and comparing, a plethora of different creation stories over the coming weeks. This week we started by looking at the Biblical creation story and the children created a sequence of pictures to represent what Christians believe God created on each day.

Art: In Art, we began looking at Futurism. The children learnt that Futuristic art is all about capturing things in their blur of movement, rather than a standstill snapshot.

PSHE: In PSHE we discussed what collaboration means and the children had to work in groups to build the tallest tower using newspaper and tape. One particular group worked extremely well as a team and their tower reached 42cm high!

Science: In Science we have started our topic of Earth and Space. The children now know these key terms: celestial body, natural satellite, artificial satellite.

Computing: In Computing we learnt that computers are linked by networks and how these keep us safe. We also explored how messages can be transferred through networks through routers.

Geography: In Geography the children have started learning about the ancient Mayan civilisation. We looked at where the Mayans lived and what modern day countries their territory covered. The children did amazingly at completing their maps of the Maya area to show where the mountainous regions were compared to the forest and grasslands. They also plotted the rivers and cities and created a key.

Music: In music, we listened to a composition called 'Music of the Starry Night' and imagined we were in space. The composition involved sounds to represent 'explosions' in space and we discussed that the sounds were left to fade to mirror ripples and debris left behind. As well as listening to contrasting sounds to represent a calm and tranquil universe and the darkness of space.

 This week's spellings:

Y4:      Y5: 

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***PANTHERS PE days are Wednesday and Fridays***

Don't forget you have Times Table Rockstars and Spelling Shed you can log into from home to practice your spellings and times tables.

Passwords can be found in front of your reading record books.

Please note the change in PE days for Panthers who will now be doing PE on Wednesdays

Friday 17th June 2022

It has been a busy week full of assessments this week! 

We are finally back in our own classroom following the flooding with a lovely new carpet! 

Friday 10th June 2022

This week in Maths we have been learning about 2d and 3d shape and their nets. We then moved onto looking at co-ordinates on a grid and how to translate and move shapes on a grid in the first quadrant.

In Art we have continued with our Victorian printing topic and worked collaboratively to create a piece of artwork inspired by Victorian wallpaper designs. 

In IT we have continued to use Scratch to program, creating variables and command keys. In PE, Mr Roberts from Wollaston will be working with us over the next few weeks which is why our PE time has changed to Wednesday.

                  Year 4                                                                    Year 5

Friday 27th May 2022

This week in Maths we have found out all about angles and the internal angles of shapes. We learnt about polygons and the properties of regular and irregular shapes.

In music we have looked at music in films and have had a go at creating our own sounds to accompany video.

We also had a Jubilee Party to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

Have a fantastic half term!

               Year 4                                                                             Year 5

Friday 13th May 2022

This week in Maths we have  carried on with the  the topic of statistics. We interpreted data and looked at line graphs to see what information we could learn from them We also had a go a drawing some of our own.

In Topic we have looked at the Victorians: The coronation of Queen Victoria.

In ICT we have continued to code using Scratch and introduced operations into our programming to create a quiz program with variable answers.

In music we looked at the effect that music has on films and movement and the effect that tempo has on how it makes the audience feel.

   Year 4                                                      Year 5

Friday 6th May 2022

Another week has flown by!

This week in Maths we have covered the topic of statistics. We interpreted data and looked at bar graphs to see what information we could learn from them.

In Topic we have looked at the Victorians and placed key events on a timeline. We have continued with our William Morris art work and printing.

In ICT we have continued to code using Scratch and introduced variables and conditions into our programming.    

In Science we found out about light and how it travels in straight lines, we then bounced light round corners using mirrors before looking at what happens when mirrors reflect and used this to predict what would happen to words and shapes when they were reflected.

           Year 4                                                                      Year 5

Friday 29th April 2022

It has been a busy but productive week in Panthers!

In Maths we have been solving problems involving time- have a go at home making sure you can tell the time on analogue and digital clocks and working out what time it would be 10 minutes after and ten minutes before.

We have been investigating light answering the question 'What is light and what does it do?- we looked at lots of the language involved such as  bright, dark, dim, dull, eye, light, mirror, opaque, reflect, shadow, shiny, translucent, transparent.

In ICT we have continued with coding using the program 'Scratch'.

Enjoy the Bank Holidays!

                   Year 4                                                                  Year 5                                                                             

Friday 22nd April 2022

Great to see everyone back after what was hopefully a restful Easter break.

We have been investigating separating materials this week in science - There was lots of good hands on investigating how we can sieve and sort different collections of materials and the real life application of this.   We have continued with decimals in maths and have looked at money and problems involving the 4 rule and decimals. In ICT we have begun coding.

Spellings for this week:       

                   Year 4                                                     Year 5              

***PANTHERS PE days are Thursdays and Fridays***

 Don't forget you have Times Table Rockstars and Spelling Shed you can log into from home to practice your spellings and times tables.

Passwords can be found in front of your reading record books.

Please can Reading Record books be signed by parents, these will be checked weekly - usually on a Friday

Friday 25th March 2022

Another week has flown by and its been a busy one!

Panthers went to the church on Thursday for the Easter experience and had the opportunity to enjoy the Easter story whilst having lots of fun art and craft activities to choose from. In the afternoon, our Year 4 pupils had their strings concert in which they done an amazing performance showcasing the strings skills they had learnt this term - Well done!

We have been investigating change in materials this week in science - which are reversible and which are not? There was lots of good hands on investigating with ice, chocolate, shaving foam and lemonade and some brilliant conversation around what they were observing! In maths Year 4 have been continuing with decimals and how they can make a whole with tenths and hundredths. Year 5 have been solving problems involving numbers up to 3 decimal places.  Our database project in ICT encompassed different search methods this week with 'And / Or'. The children were using a database of the Titanic passengers for part of the lesson and this in itself generated some great information sharing about what had happened on that fateful night.

We are looking forward to our Indus WOW day net week for history. This week we had a great brainstorming session of all the different things they had learnt in preparation for a diary recount from the perspective or either a child or adult to tie in with what they have been learning in English. We filled up 2 whiteboards with all our learning and looked at so many aspects of the Indus civilisation - I cannot wait to see what they can produce for their diaries!

Spellings for this week:

YEAR 4                YEAR 5

Friday 18th March 2022

Happy Red Nose Day!

We have had science week this week and were lucky enough to have a visit from the science workshop teaching the children all about the human body, growth and healthy eating which the children really enjoyed. We also watched a live broadcast from the NFU about climate change and how cows and food waste contribute. After learning about methane and feeding cows seaweed it was interesting to hear all the questions other schools were asking the experts. In our class lesson. we concluded our 'viscosity' lesson and writing up our conclusions from our experiment.

In maths this week Year 4 have been dividing numbers by 10 and 100 and expressing answers as a decimal. Year 5 have continued with percentages and decimal equivalents and also recognising thousandths in a decimal.

In PSHE we looked at what voluntary and community groups are and who they help. They also learnt about pressure groups and why they may be set up. The children then had a turn at role playing a character of Mo who had decided to tidy up his local area of rubbish and pollution and Bill who was the founder of a community group.  

We continued our database learning this week in ICT with the countries of the world. The children explored the database, creating their own questions and answers and familiarising themselves with different fields. We then concluded by comparing our original paper database with the one we had been working with in lesson which highlighted the effectiveness of computer databases!

I have been very impressed this week by the classes attitude to sport this week. As well as our weekly PE lessons we have also had a tennis session, swimming for year 5's, Year 4's learnt bench ball and we have been participating in the schools sports challenge by going outside each day and running or walking laps for 5 mins. Its been great to hear of all the other activities children are involved in out of school too!

Spellings this week:

Year 4                 Year 5

Friday 11th March 2022

Maths this week has all been about percentages, decimals and fractions and how they relate to each other. Year 4 have been working on decimals and fractions with denominators of 100 and year 5 have gone onto percentage values.

To carry on with our materials topic, we investigated liquids and their 'viscosity in science this week'. Children explored and tested the different viscosities of BBQ sauce, oil, water, toffee sauce and hand sanitizer by seeing how quickly they travelled down a ramp!

We continued our database learning in ICT where we investigated different ways of sorting 'records' and what different 'fields' were. the children sorted through bugs depending on their physical attributes and learnt how to sort them alphabetically.

This weeks Buddhism learning had us comparing our typical daily lives to those of Buddhist monks and nuns. The children were very surprised to see how early monks get up and the amount of chores they do.

In history we 'wondered' this week about Indus farming life! We looked at different artefact images and used our skills to see what we knew, what we didn't know and 'what we wondered' - what questions did we have based on what we could see. They all did really well getting to grips with these new skills and sharing their ideas as a class.

Spellings:

Year 5         Year 4

Friday 4th March 2022

Another week has flown past! It was lovely to see parents and family at our 'Book and Biscuit' session this afternoon.

It was great to see everyone in the class supporting World Book Day yesterday. In support of this special celebration, Panthers have had a focused task on Non Fiction books with each child exploring a book of choice, identifying the main features of 'Non Fiction' and learning lots of new, and sometime gruesome, facts!

In Maths we have moved onto decimals and understanding the place value. Year 5 went onto partitioning.

In Science our materials lesson focused on Solids - what makes a material a solid and different properties they can have. They all investigated around the school noting what materials were used within the schools structure and why they were chosen.

In ICT we have started looking at databases and we kicked this off by looking at what a database was and how different records could be sorted if we did it by hand by creating our own animal information cards.

Artefacts were our focus in history and looking at different discoveries historians have made about the life of the Indus civilisation. We looked at pottery, iron work, weapons and the designs they had used before designing our own piece of pottery in a similar style.

In art, our graphic design project progressed to look at the 'Bauhaus' design influence and how we could incorporate our typography designs. The panthers have produced some fantastic posters!

'Fact or Opinion?' was the question in PSHE this week. What purpose does the news have, what does it tell us, do we always know the full story and does it matter who is reporting? The Panthers had some really valid points to make in how news is reported and when information can or cant be trusted.

Spellings for this week:

Year 5        Year 4

Friday 25th February 2022

Thank you for the great homework that has started to come in this week, please can we remind you that all homework is to be either brought in or uploaded to the Panthers teams page by 4th March.

For maths this week we are continuing our fractions focus. Year 4 looked at subtracting fractions from a whole number and Year 5. have been multiplying proper fractions by mixed numbers.

For our art lessons this term we will be looking at graphic design and kicked off our first lesson looking at typography, different letter styles and the use of colours using our name. In RE we learnt about the importance of meditation to Buddhists and had a go within the class room too! In PSHE we followed up on the importance of looking after our own mental health and went through the A-Z of ways they can help themselves if they are feeling a bit low - maybe ask them how many they can remember! We had a great range of ideas on where their happy places maybe or activities that make them feel their best.

Science this term is about materials. Children had to sort different items into solids, liquids and gases before then thinking of their own ways of sorting a collection of items of their choice. There were lots of different ideas including if they were magnetic, waterproof or translucent, Great start!

Its been time to try editing our videos in ICT this week using software on the tablets. They have had the opportunity to add sound, edit the videos together and experiment with a whole range of different effects. Next week we will definitely look to share these with the class.

Year 5 kicked off their swimming lessons this week and it sounds like they all enjoyed going, im sure they will go from strength to strength over the coming weeks. 

Spellings for this week are below, they are also uploaded to spelling shed.

 YEAR 5                         YEAR 4

Friday 11th February 2022

In maths this week we have been completing our end of term assessments and continuing to subtract and add fractions - they all worked really hard, well done Panthers!

We have continued to look at the Indus valley this week in history, re-visiting and adapting our house designs and completing our clay sculptures of the Indus people with some really good features incorporated.

We have discovered some budding film makers this week in ICT with everyone filming their short films they had planned. They are all very different and it will be great to see the end results when they are edited and audio is added when we come back after the holidays! To coincide with this, year 5 had a go at sound effects in music whilst the year 4's have continued their strings lesson.

Have a great half term everyone.

Spellings for over the holidays are below:

YEAR 4                          YEAR 5

Friday 4th February 2022 

In maths this week we have continued on our fractions journey - learning how to add and subtract fractions with the same and different denominators.

In reading we have been reading 'Floodland' by Marcus Sedgwick. This is a dystopian story about a girl called Zoe who lives in the near future in an England that is flooded due to rising sea levels. The children have shown a keen interest in the story and characters and are really looking forward to carrying on and finishing the story to find out what happens next!

In science the children have completed some really fantastic posters and presentations this week on different insects and their life cycles and in RE we learnt about the Buddhism celebration of Wesak and meditation.

The children have designed their own Indus house floorplan in history this week, looking at the features of the Indus housing and designing homes that they would have liked in the times of the Indus Civilisation. In preparation for our final clay sculpt this term, the children have designed their native Indus person in Art incorporating the skills they have been learning this term - we should now all be ready to create our own Indus settlement next week.

In PSHE we spoke about the term 'drugs' and their understanding of what that term defines. We spoke about medicines, what makes those safe, why we need them, legal ages for alcohol and cigarettes, what dangers they carry and then why illegal drugs are dangerous. Year 4 are continuing with their strings lesson and have used their bows for the first time this week which was exciting for them all.

Spellings for this week are just below, don't forget these are also on Spelling Shed too.

   Year 4                            Year 5

Friday 28th January 2022

In maths this week we have been finding out all about Fractions-We all learnt about equivalent fractions,  Year 4 learnt that fractions can total more than 1 and Year 5 have been converting from improper fractions to mixed number fractions and back again!

Science has had us studying the life cycles of the masters of metamorphosis - Insects! We are also pleased to report that our potatoes from the first term have indeed reproduced a baby potato asexually!

The children have enjoyed some free modelling with the clay n art and produced their very own mini people or aliens! This is all working up to our final piece at the end of term where we will use all the skills we have learnt.

Our history topic took us to find out how the Indus Valley was originally discovered and surprisingly, how recently that happened! In RE we have learnt more about the 'eightfold path' of Buddhism and in PSHE we questioned how to evaluate risk to keep safe and what risks we take in our everyday lives without even realising it.

Here are the spellings for this week:

YEAR 4                 YEAR 5

Friday 21st January 2022

We have reached the end of another week already!

This week in maths we have moved our attention onto division and moving onto the formal method for year 5 (bus stop) and for year 4, we have looked at ways of chunking 2 digit numbers before dividing them using our times table knowledge.

In science we have continued to look at life cycles, this time the Amphibian classification. We have compared them to the mammals we studied last week and then year 5 jigsawed their knowledge together of a salamander and year 4 produced a poster of a toad! We are becoming experts on metamorphosis!

We enjoyed designing seals in clay using the Indus language that we may have used in those times. Seals were used by the Indus people when they would trade their goods almost as a currency or stamp of quality from their family.

In music the year 4 pupils continued with their strings lesson this week too, learning more about technique and how to play different notes. As the same time, year 5's had fun making up sounds to represent each lesson with a variety of instruments and then playing a section of a timetable to see if we could guess what lessons they had. It was a great opportunity for the pupils to have free choice over the instruments and try out how different sounds work together.

In PSHE we worked as a class this week sharing ideas on what a 'habit' was and how that compares to an 'addiction'. Do we have good and bad habits? When is a habit different from an addiction? In RE we have looked at the 4 main teachings of Buddhism - the 4 Noble Truths - and how these are used within the Buddhist religion.

Spellings for this week are below.

Year 5                         Year 4 - 'ous' suffix

Friday 14th January 2022

Our first full week back has been packed with the beginnings of our new learning journeys!

This week in maths we continued with multiplication and becoming secure and confident in our method - Year 4 have been looking at 3 digit numbers multiplied by one digit - Year 5 have been looking at multiplying by two digit numbers.

In science our focus was on mammals and we researched and compared different mammals life cycles - how long they live, what they eat, reproduction, how they defend themselves and much more - great research Panthers!

We moved onto practical skills in art working on our 'pinching', 'coiling' and 'imprinting' techniques in clay. Like our focus artist Philippe Faraut, we are looking to get better at sculpting in clay and learning new techniques in preparation for our final make!

Our new history topic for this term is the Indus Valley and we have begun by looking at a historical timeline of when the Indus valley settlements began and how that compares to other historical periods we have learnt about. 

In RE we have moved on to Buddhism and begun by looking at who Buddha, their religious leader, was and a time line of Siddhartha Gautama's life.

Spellings this week are shown below for both years

YEAR 4               YEAR 5

Friday 7th January 2022

Welcome Back  Happy New Year

- It was fantastic to welcome you all back this week! 

We have started our new history topic all about the Indus Valley!

In Maths we have begun looking at methods of Multiplication.

Our science topic is living things and their habitats and our art focus will be clay this term.

 Year 4                                          Year 5

Have a great weekend! 

Friday 17th December 

The final week of term is complete and we have lots of very excited children all ready for the Christmas holidays!

This week we have been finishing off lots of our work and its been great to see the hard work the children have been putting in all term come to fruition.

They have made their own rainforest biodome, completed their tree house survival shelters in DT, created some fantastic vector pictures and learnt more about fossils and animals that have long been extinct!

There will be no spellings or any homework over the holidays - we hope you have a merry Christmas spending time with your families and playing games. 

Stay safe and have fun. See you next year!

Friday 10th December

Another busy but fun week has come to an end with a fantastic collection of Christmas jumpers on show today!

Yesterdays Christmas experience at the church was enjoyed by all and it was lovely to see all the children enjoying the crafts that were available to try. The telling of the advent story around the church really helped the children to imagine what it would have been like when Jesus was born and was a lovely way to celebrate the nativity.

In maths we concluded our unit on perimeter and area this week and in science we reviewed how our cress seeds were growing.  For our topic this week the children were using the skills they had been learning in English about non-chronological report writing to create their own report on the Yanonami Tribe people and they look fantastic! Its great to see how they have carried those skills across from their English lessons to create some great, informative writing with lots of the non-chronological report features included - Super job Panthers.

In DT we have continued with our emergency rainforest shelter models and we now have all the panels and features ready to complete the final construction stage next week.

Well done to everyone for the 100 x table challenge today - you all continue to try really hard and are really improving.

The final spellings of 2021 are ....

YEAR 4                                                  YEAR 5

Friday 3rd December

December has arrived already! The lovely tree is up in the hall and the children around the have started decorating it with some of the decorations that were made when grandparents joined us for the craft afternoon.

In maths this week both Year 4 & 5 we have been polishing up on their perimeter skills from last week and moved on to finding the area of shapes. Maybe see if you can challenge your child at home to draw a rectilinear shape of a certain perimeter - can they remember to identify and add all the sides? 

In science we have looked at extinction, in particular the sabre toothed tiger, mammoth and the dodo. Children have been finding our more about the environments they lived in, their adaptations and what factors caused their eventual extinction.

ICT this week challenged the children to pull all the skills together they had already learnt about over the past few weeks and create a picture with multiple images. They looked at rotating, mirroring, enlarging, changing colours, layering and really looking to make their pictures come to life and tell a story.

For RE the children were to think about what Jesus may have looked like based on many different artist impressions of him and what is said in the bible about him. It was interesting to see how varied the range of images were and to understand the thinking behind each one. 

The spellings and times tables this week have been really great - they all tried really hard so well done Panthers! Next week we will be going back to our 100 challenge for times tables - will you be able to beat your score from last time?

This weeks spellings are below: 

Year 4                             Year 5

Friday 26th November

It was great to see so many parents at the Panthers class assembly this week, the children had worked really hard putting all the content together and I know they really enjoyed sharing their learning with you. Thank you also for all the chocolate and treats that were brought in this week for our mufti day.

The children also really enjoyed having their family members come and join us for the Christmas creative afternoon, there were some brilliant reindeers, Santas and angels made! We will make sure the decorations go onto the tree next week when it arrives.

Perimeter was our maths focus this week for the class. We looked at working out the perimeter of various shapes and how we can calculate the perimeter of areas even when some measurements are not shown.

In science this week we set up and experiment to grow cress looking at what plants need in order to grow and survive. The children have chosen one of these variables to change and wait to see what difference this may have - we have some seeds in the dark, others watered more and some more tightly packed together on the cotton wool. We will be recording our results next week!

Our vector drawing continued to develop in ICT by us looking at layering and how images can build up, be changed and backgrounds added.

We kicked off our DT project his week too in which the children have begun thinking about how they would make a shelter if they were abandoned in the rainforest! They have come up with a variety of ideas and have really had to think about what materials they would be able to use in that environment and what they would need to include in order to remain protected from the wildlife and the elements. 

In PSHE we started looking at how we can tell if someone is telling the truth by a circle time in which we all had to make a statement about 'what we did yesterday' and seeing if we could identify the 7 children who had been chosen to try and catch us out. This was good fun and it was great to get us all sharing our ideas on how we can tell if someone may not be telling the truth by their body language or how they spoke. This will then go on to be linked to online communication and how we cannot see who we are talking to so how do we know what we read is true!

Spellings will be tested next week along with times tables as we were not in today.

Friday 19th November

This week we have been preparing for our class assembly next week and the children have been working so hard to get things ready and making props. They are so excited and we can't wait to see you there on Wednesday!

This week has been Anti-Bullying week and we have been participating in activities that cover the theme of 'One kind Word'.

In maths we have continued multiplying and dividing by 10,100 and 1000 have related this to measure by converting metres into Kilometres and vice versa.

In ICT this week we furthered our learning with vector images - firstly to create a penguin with given shapes and to then design a parrot using different colour techniques, line designs, shape rotations and placement. They had great fun and the characters they produced were great!

In topic this week we have focused on the threats to the rainforest in our lesson where the students independently worked in pairs to research what they could find.... what a success! Once all our findings were shared as a class, our whiteboard was full of different challenges facing the rainforest! We then reviewed if the threats were from us as mankind or nature itself - sadly mankind are certainly to blame for the majority of the rainforests demise.

Year 4                 Year 5

Friday 12th November

What a busy week! 

This week in Maths: In Year 4 we have covered Multiplying by 10 and 100 and Dividing by 10 and 100.  We have learnt that when you multiply a number by 10 it moves one place value column to the Left and when you divide by 10 it moves one place value column to the right.- Ask your child to show you how this works!

In year 5 we have been refining our knowledge of Multiplying and Dividing by 10 and 100 and extending this to 1000 up to 6 digit numbers  

On Thursday we ventured to St Marys Church for a special assembly all about Remembrance and the two minute silence. It was fantastic being in this amazing building to mark such an important occasion.

For our topic this week we have looked at why the rainforest is so important and why we need to preserve it. We have been presenting our fantastic homework to the rest of the class- our quizzes about the Rainforest are really enjoyable and helping us to recall and teach many amazing facts.

We have been learning what miracles are in RE and focused on one of the bible stores where Jesus healed a blind man. In science we have progressed our learning onto selective breeding and why this may be useful. Our task was to look at various dog breeds and how breed characteristics can be used to identify which dog would be ideal for different families and lifestyles. For our ICT lessons on Vector images, we used publisher this week and tried to create new characters using shapes - this was great fun and a good way to encourage the students to experiment with different commands.

We are currently starting our preparation for our class assembly which will be in two weeks time- we look forward to seeing you there!

YEAR 4                                           YEAR 5

Friday 5th November

Wow what an amazing selection of rainforest home work we have had returned into school this week!

The children have clearly worked really hard on creating some fantastic rainforest habitats, poetry, fact files, posters, quizzes and much more!  Thank you for all your support in helping at home, we are gong to be sharing them all with the class over the coming week.

In maths this week year 4 have been investigating multiplication facts and relationships of the 6, 7 and 9 times tables. Year 5's have been learning about squared and cubed numbers.

Our art collage is now complete with our proud tiger peeking through all the fantastic jungle plants the children have painted. In our topic work this week the children looked at the Amazonian tribes and how their life differs from ours. It created some interesting conversations on how they live and hunt and their reluctance to integrate with the modern world.

For our new ICT module we will be looking at Vector images. This week we looked at vector images and logos and started to create our own pictures using shapes and seeing how their appearance could be manipulated. 

Our new science topic this term has started with us looking at the characteristics of human beings such as eye colour. We then looked at sorting them into categories of if they are inherited or environmental (influenced by people and places around us).

Our PE has now moved to Thursday afternoon from Tuesday and this will take place in the hall. Please can all children have their pe kits with them this day including appropriate footwear. PE still remains on Friday as well.

Spellings this week were great so well done for all those pupils that had been practicing. We also re-visited the times table 100 challenge this week to kick off the new term.

YEAR 4                YEAR 5

Friday 22nd October

We have made it to the end of a very busy half term!

In maths this week Year 4 have been multiplying and dividing by 1 and zero and Year 5 have been learning about what multiples and factors of numbers are and how to work them out.

Our art has taken us to the point where we have been individually painting flowers and plants to create a Rainforest collage in the style of our focus artist Henri Rousseau with good results, we even have the beginnings of a tiger ready to be peering out.

Our science topic of reproduction in plants and animals concluded this week with us looking at the lifecycle of a human and the different stages of growth we go through. We also considered how that compared to the other animals we had been looking at over the past 6 weeks.

For our Amazon topic the class wrote up their fantastic animal fact files that they had independently researched and they were awesome! A great range of animals were reported on with some very scary facts too! The class worked brilliantly on these and tie in with the artwork they did last week.

In PSHE we have focused on communication and how non-verbal communication can also affect what we are saying. This was a great follow on from our ICT lesson over the last few weeks where the pupils had been learning about good communication methods in tasks where they had only been able to communicate through Teams and messages in order to complete the assignments they were set!

Spellings for the next two weeks are below (these will be tested on the 5th November)

Year 4                    Year 5

We hope you and your families enjoy a restful half term will see you back in school on Monday 1st November.

Friday 15th October 2021

This week we really enjoyed practicing and then presenting our thoughts about Harvest at the church on Tuesday - Many thanks to all the parents who came along!

This week in Maths we have been solving multi step problems, we have also been completing a number of assessments so we can find out areas we are secure on and the areas we need more work on. 

Our Amazon wall at school is beginning to come alive with the great artwork the children have produced this week! They were all looking closely at their chosen animal from last week and painted a small section of the animal that captured a striking feature or bright colouring. This took a little bit of practice to get the perspective but we now have some very interesting parts of animals including a tarantulas eye!

Birds were our focus in science this week, looking at how they reproduce and then comparing them to mammals. We watched some great wildlife clips of how different birds attract a mate in the wild and also looked at the lifecycle of chicken and the anatomy of their eggs.

Our Christianity topic in RE took us to hymns and music this week! The children listened to 3 different hymns, all in different music styles and recorded what they thought the song was about and if they enjoyed it. It was interesting to see the differences in music preferences and their really good music evaluation skills!

Following on from positive relationships, we looked at what being assertive means in PSHE. When should we be assertive, how can we do that respectfully and how does our body language influence a situation?

 Spellings for this week are shown below. These are also uploaded onto Spelling Shed for children to practice.

YEAR 4                YEAR 5

Friday 8th October 2021

This week many of our year 5 have taken part in Bikeability. Here they were taught the essential skills and rules needed to safely ride their bikes on the public highway and have been seen with big smiles on their faces as they have returned to school from riding around the village.

In maths this week we have been continuing with subtraction and using different methods to find the difference between two numbers and multi-step problems.

Our Amazon learning this week has been about learning how animals and plants have adapted to survive in the rainforest and beginning to create fact files on our favourite chosen animal... some quite scary ones!

Unfortunately some of our potatoes in our cloning experiment for science have come to a watery end. However we do still have 4 team's spuds hanging on so we have been documenting the changes that have been happening over the last couple of weeks and I can confirm there are roots!

We've been very creative this week. In art we moved onto drawing cat animals this week in preparation for putting our complete jungle picture together, in RE we made our own stained glass windows (that look fantastic!) and we have also been working on our own class harvest poem ready for the festival next week.

Spellings for this week are shown below. These are also uploaded onto Spelling Shed for children to practice on.

Year 4                      Year 5

We hope you an your families have a lovely weekend - Panthers

Friday 1st October 2021

We have enjoyed another busy week! 

Homework Grids have been issued which are due in on the 5th November- Children should choose 4 tasks from the 8 and present as imaginatively as they can!

Please click on the link to see the tasks:  AMAZON-HOMEWORK-GRID-t1.docx

Year 4 Spellings                                       Year 5 Spellings

In Maths this week both year 4 and 5 have been learning how to use the formal methods of subtraction. We had some pretty challenging missing number subtraction problems to solve! Ask your child to show you how they solve subtraction using the column method!

The class have been continuing with their great Art pieces and looked at the different layers of the rainforest this week in our topic. In science we looked at the classification of mammals and their gestation periods which created lots of great class discussion.

A big well done to the class this week for their times tables, a great improvement already from the first week back! Keep it up Panthers

Christmas card designs are coming home with children tonight which they had fun designing, please ask them to share these with you. 

Friday 24th September 2021

We have had a busy week here in the Panthers this week and been learning lots. Year 4 have had good fun learning about bike safety this week too and looked like they were really enjoying themselves on the playground.

In maths this week we have all been learning about negative numbers challenging ourselves to count forward and backwards through zero.

We have continued to look at the Amazon and have been looking at the climate and what it would feel like to visit. We also learnt about why it rains and how geographical features influence the weather systems!

In science we started looking at animal reproduction, metamorphosis and lifecycles of insects and amphibians this week which created lots of good class discussion and questions.  in art, our observational drawing skills have definitely improved this week and we began to add shading. Next week we will begin to look at putting our drawing skills to the ultimate test and create a jungle scene!

In IT Panthers were great at recalling our learning this term on the internet, networking and routers. We learnt about what an IP address was and how computers communicate to one another using special protocols. We even had a go at sending messages to one another in the same format computers do!

Well done to everyone for their spellings and times tables this week! A great result. The new words for this next week are all uploaded to spelling shed and spelling practice sheets have been sent home with everyone too.

Have a lovely weekend.

Friday 17th September 2021

This week in maths we have been looking at rounding numbers which they seem to have enjoyed. Maybe they can share this new skill with you at hone?

Year 4 have been rounding three digit numbers to the nearest 10

Year 5 have been rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.

In science we have been looking at reproduction in plants and are investigating if we can clone a potato! All of our potatoes are lined up on the windowsill ready for action and over the coming weeks the children will be monitoring their progress. Watch this space! 

We have begun looking at the Amazon in more detail and how vast the Amazon river is. We have been practicing our mapping skills, looking in more detail at the South American continent and which countries the Amazon rainforest actually covers.

Our artist for this term is Henry Rousseau and we have been looking in class at how he created his rainforest artwork even though he never visited nor did he have access to the internet in his day! Our observational drawing skills of leaves and plants have begun.

Don't forget spellings are uploaded to Spelling Shed for practice at home and TT Rockstars is a great programme to help children become quicker at their times tables too! We are currently assessing the children's reading ages and their reading scheme books will be allocated in due course.

Keep up the great work Panthers!  

Have a great weekend.