Croeso i Blwyddyn 5!
I would like to say welcome back after the summer holidays and well done on making a great start to Year 5.
P.E. is on a Monday this term. As we will be going swimming later in the term, we will only be doing P.E. once a week.
Homework will be given out on a Friday and should be returned to school by the following Tuesday unless otherwise stated.
Pupils will be given spelling words on a Friday, along with a task to complete. Pupils should bring their red spelling books back to school on the following Thursday ready for their test on a Friday. Please keep spelling books at home through the week to give pupils the opportunity to practice spellings everyday.
World in Union
Our first context for learning this year will be 'World in Union.' Pupils enjoyed several exciting experiences as part of their immersion day, including a Judo taster session, cooking Japanese noodles, creating Japanese art and locating some of the nations that are participating in the Rugby World Cup. Pupils have suggested a variety of exciting topics and activities that they would like to learn about this term.
Literacy
In literacy, we have started learning how to write newspaper articles and will be developing our journalistic skills within our context for learning. In addition, we will be writing diaries and letters. Pupils will have the opportunity to apply their writing skills through the activities suggested during our immersion day.
Maths
The focus of our Maths this term will be understanding place value, addition and subtraction. Pupils will use a variety of concrete and pictorial representations to support their understanding of these vital foundations of mathematics.
Please see the section below regarding times tables and single digit addition.
Maths
Single digit addition and multiplication facts
Having the ability to recall addition and multiplication facts is an important tool for children when working in maths. I would like all pupils to spend some time learning these facts to the point where they have instant recall.
There are 36 single digit + single digit facts and 36 single digit x single digit facts. Pupils will have a 'Learn Its' test each week where they have 100 seconds to answer all 72 of these questions. At the moment many pupils are relying on counting on methods which are inefficient and can hinder progress in maths. I would like pupils to learn these as facts e.g. learn that 5 + 7 = 12 or that 6 x 7 = 42.
If pupils know a fact they are then able to make connections to a whole host of other facts, e.g.
If I know that 5 + 7 = 12 then I also know
i) 7 + 5 = 12 ii) 12 - 7 = 5 iii) 12 - 5 = 7
iv) 500 + 700 = 1200 v) 1200 - 700 = 500 vi) 0.7 + 0.5 = 1.2
Learning facts can be done through repetition or playing games. The aim in the 'Learn Its' test is for pupils to answer the questions that they 'know' the answer to and to answer a few more questions each week. It doesn't matter what a pupil's score is in the beginning as long as they try to improve that score each week.
The best way to learn these facts is by spending a few minutes every day working on the facts that pupils need to learn. Little and often is more effective than a longer session once a week. 5 minutes a day should be plenty.
I have added links to some websites below that can be used to work on learning addition and tables facts.