Term 4

Indian Tigers have had another great term and continue to expand their skills and improve upon their knowledge of the world around them.  The children have made impressive progress in their learning and in their desire to absorb information.

English:

In English, the class have been putting themselves into the shoes of farmers and writing diaries about how they would cope with a situation in which their herd of milking cows got caught up in a national heatwave.  Paying particular attention to past and present tenses (as well as the expression of personal emotion), they wrote diary entries that showed a high level of innovation and understanding.

Guided Reading:

Our guided reading sessions moved on to the class reading book (The Secret Garden) and we discussed various aspects of the text.  For instance, we explored how the main character’s previous life in India differed from the life she was living in England and how the people around her treated her differently in each setting.  We also looked at how her personality started to change and develop as she began enjoying the freedoms and independence that her new life had pushed upon her.

Maths:

We’ve continued to learn about fractions in our Maths lessons and have covered areas including converting improper fractions to mixed numbers (and vice versa), adding fractions with the same denominator as well as comparing and ordering fractions. 

Science:

Our science lessons have involved looking at human reproduction and ageing.  This learning journey has involved examining and understanding the processes and stages of the human life cycle and comparing them to those of other mammals.  During the term, the class has shown an active interest in the subject area and responded to the information in a mature and thoughtful way.

Art:

Our art lessons have involved looking at Land Art and how easy it is to access and create artwork using nature as a resource.  The children brought in sticks and twigs from home before getting into two groups to create art installations.  Using simple shapes and a loose ‘weaving’ technique to build their pieces, the groups made some very visually interesting constructs.

PE:

In PE this term we have been learning gymnastics and have worked in small groups to put together a sequence that has actions that are matched and mirrored. We have also been learning basketball and have enjoyed learning how to attack and defend as a team as well as developing our passing, dribbling and shooting skills.

Other News:

As part of our topic work exploring the Frozen Kingdoms, we had a guest speaker – Al Sylvester - visit the class. The class was enthralled to hear his stories of his polar expeditions and all the incidental details – particularly how to go to the toilet when in Antarctica! Al was a very inspirational and motivational speaker and the class enjoyed taking part in his dressing up activity trying on all of the polar gear he used to survive in the extreme climate of Antarctica. They got the chance to ask him lots of interesting questions and gained insights into the challenges and wonders of life in the frozen kingdoms. Al's first-hand accounts not only brought the topic to life but also instilled a sense of curiosity and respect for the natural world. The pupils left the session with a deeper understanding of polar environments and a newfound appreciation for the adaptability of the human spirit in such harsh conditions.

Swimming:

Indian Tigers have done remarkably well with their swimming this term and a good number of pupils have managed to move up into more advanced groups.  The larger swimming pool can be quite intimidating for learners, but those who have moved up from the small pool have shown great confidence and strength of character as they use their skills to swim in deeper water.

Term 3

Indian Tigers started term 3 with a brand new topic called ‘Sow, Grow and Farm’. This topic saw the class looking at a wide variety of areas including land use across the United Kingdom, food chains and animal life cycles (including how living things are dependent on one another within a habitat).

English:

In English, we used the internet to research all aspects of allotment use across the country. Following that initial investigation, we visited the allotments in Glebe Lane and the children gathered so much information there that their final (edited and improved) reports were packed with amazing details.

Handwriting and presentation has been an additional focus across the class and I’m incredibly happy with how some of the children have reached new levels of care and consideration with the way they show off their abilities on the page.

Maths:

Our Maths sessions this term have covered several different areas including prime numbers, square numbers, multiples and factors.  Knowledge of times tables has been the key to success in this section of our work and those children who have been practising their times tables at home have definitely felt the benefit of their extra effort. 

Science:

In our science lessons we’ve been able to classify animals into different groups. We’ve then concentrated on mammals as a specific classification and explored what traits animals need to be considered ‘a mammal’.

Moving on from that, we’ve looked at the life cycles of various mammals and how they differ from one another (in terms of stages of development and the processes they go through as they advance in age). 

As we progress through this area of study, we’ll be looking at the stages of human development and how we change as we grow older.

Topic:

We started our new topic lessons by examining and understanding the vocabulary that we’ll be using across terms 3 and 4.  Working in groups, the children matched a series of words with definitions, before then discussing their findings as a class.  Some of the words were a little trickier than others so it gave us an opportunity to use our dictionaries effectively.

With allotments and the countryside as a backdrop to our discussions, we have also explored the idea of habitats and how small changes to those habitats (such as the increase or decrease of a producer or consumer in a food chain) can have a big impact on the wildlife that lives there.

Term 2

Indian Tigers have worked very hard this term and the pupils’ knowledge and skills are expanding quickly.  As a class, our standards of presentation have advanced significantly and we are beginning to do some excellent work independently.

Maths:

In Maths, we started out by reviewing and improving our addition and subtraction abilities.  After that, we explored the idea of rounding and how we can use rounding to help us make estimates before working out more detailed calculations.  Lastly, we’ve been looking at how we can use inverse calculations to check those calculations.  We’ve used number lines, part-whole models and bar models to help us progress through these areas.

English:

This term, we have been looking at the idea of time-travel and writing stories about being transported back to the Shang Dynasty in Ancient China!  We let our imaginations run wild and came up with some absolutely incredible ideas.  In terms of writing skills, we have done our best to create some really atmospheric and detailed pieces of work, which have included the use of fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases and modal verbs.  Our handwriting (as a class) has made great strides this term and everyone is improving day upon day.

Science:

The class has shown real interest in our Earth and Space theme this term.  We started by finding out what we already knew about our solar system, before linking that knowledge back to scientists like Isaac Newton and his work on gravity (which we studied last term).  We’ve discussed the various sizes of the planets that we know of and have even gone outside in the playground to recreate our own version of the solar system.  Using a simple ‘stepped measurement’ technique, we were able to see the distances between the planets and their positions in relation to our sun.

Topic:

In our topic work, we carried on looking at ancient China and the various dynasties that were involved in the development of the country.  Concentrating on the Shang Dynasty, we read about how the Chinese people were influenced by religion and how this was reflected in their everyday life.  For example, we looked again at Oracle Bones and how shamen used them to communicate with (and seek guidance from) their ancestors.

P.E:

We have, of course, continued our swimming lessons at Larkfield Leisure Centre this term. The children have met the vast majority of targets set by the instructors at the pool and a good number of them will be advancing to the next ability-group when we return in January.  In addition to swimming, our PE lessons have (when the weather has allowed) seen us learning various skills and tactics that can be used when both attacking and defending in football.

Term 1

This term, Indian Tigers have worked very hard and made a great start to Year 5. Our new topic of ‘Dynamic Dynasties’ has focused on the civilisations of Ancient China.

English: In English, we have focused on narrative poetry. We started by reading through a Chinese Folktale and then also looking at a poem that had been adapted from that tale. After that, we read another Chinese folktale before using our skills to change it into a poem of our own. We focused on including figurative language such as metaphors and similes, to ensure our poems were the best they could be. We have also started reading our class text ‘Bronzes and Sunflower’ by Cao Wenxuan.

Maths: This term, we have been focusing on place value of numbers up to 5-digits. We have been looking at the place value of digits within a number, rounding to nearest 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, and Roman numerals up to 1,000. As we move into Term 2, we’ll be looking at addition and subtraction of numbers up to 5 digits.

History: In History, we have been learning about Ancient China and, in particular, the Shang Dynasty.  We’ve looked at the location of China on the world map, we’ve placed the Shang Dynasty onto a timeline of world events, talked about artefacts and archaeology, explored the purpose and use of oracle bones and will next study how religion was viewed by the people of the Shang Dynasty.  Our Design and Technology work will tie in with this theme, as we are going to be making ‘Taotie’ designs out of clay.

P.E: This term we’ve had swimming lessons at Larkfield Leisure Centre. All the children have been showing perseverance in their sessions and it has been great to watch their confidence grow. Members of the public have commented on how well-behaved the children have been and, as representatives of the school, they should be very proud of themselves. Alongside this, we have been practising tag-rugby and learning how to pass to one another and evade members of the opposing team.