8 Dec 2017

Yr5 Curriculum Update – 15/12/17

Working together to achieve success for every child

 

 

Our  Transdisciplinary Unit of Inquiry: How the World Works

“Matter exists in different forms which can be changed and used for different purposes”

 

 

WOW! What a term…

We all had such a great week on camp – the students demonstrated so much independence, resilience, teamwork and responsibility. There were lots of great activities and challenges and the groups got stuck into everything. A very proud group of teachers we were on our return to school. Did I mention the students really enjoyed it too?

Lots of students talked about how much they’d like to do the hiking again – the weather is perfect at the moment for a trip to the country park of your choice.

Sports Day was another chance for the children to celebrate the hard work they have put into their PE and sports lessons this term. There was definitely lots of Full Value to be had as  we all played hard, safe and fair.

Our unit on changing matter will continue after the holidays and we have begun to look at how scientific investigations are designed so that the results are ‘accurate, valid and reliable’. Writing explanations of the processes we have learned about as well as summarising and synthesising the information we are reading have been important skills to learn in this unit.

Congratulations to 5S who took action for UNICEF this week with their bakesale. They worked hard to raise $1920 – a great effort!

 

Another Plug for… the chance to be “scientists of the day.” This involves the child coming into school and demonstrating an experiment or a science  phenomenon to the rest of the class.

If your child would like to participate, they should research at home the experiment they would like to demonstrate and practice it at home. Your child should then come into school with all the materials they will need to carry out the experiment. They will then be asked to carry out the experiment in front of the class and be able to explain the science behind it. Please note that this is not mandatory home learning, and therefore, student participation should be voluntary.

The scientist of the day will run throughout the unit and a schedule will be created in the class so they will know which day they will be required to demonstrate the experiment.

Note the experiment doesn’t have to be complicated, the idea is to get the children to see themselves as scientists. Last year we had experiments ranging from making oobleck, floating a pin on water, creating a vacuum, and layering liquids. The experiment can be as simple or as complicated as your child wishes.

 

 

Maths

Our unit on Measure has come to an end for the time being. We have focused on measuring mass and capacity this time as we felt that this was where the students needed more opportunity to develop their conceptual understanding. We have also worked hard on unpacking word problems, and selecting different problem solving strategies.

Home cooking and baking is a brilliant way for students to apply their understanding of measuring and comparing. Choose a favourite recipe and have a go at home as a way of bring the classroom onto the dinner table.

Estimation is also a very valuable skill in lots of areas on maths and it can be a fun game to guess the weight of household objects and then weight them to see how close you are!

 

Happy Holidays

Finally a chance for us to say have a great holiday to all of our Year 5 families. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

 

Upcoming dates for your diary:

HAVE A GREAT BREAK !