Yr5 Weekly Update – 02/10/17
Central Idea:
Matter exists in different forms which can be changed and used for different purposes.
UOI
There are definitely some budding scientists amongst us! What a wonderful week of observing and interpreting our ‘Scientist of the day’ experiments. Our curiosity is growing and we can see the confidence within our students growing too as more sign up to be ‘Scientist of the day.’ We also have had an informative trip to the science museum where we focussed again on the skills of observation and interpreting whilst being curious and inquirers. We have continued developing our curiosity through learning engagements such as ‘Talk to the picture,’ where without talking we must write our thoughts about each picture whilst focusing on our three lines of inquiry. We have also had some interesting discussions around some thought provoking ‘True or false’ statements. What a large amount of questions we are starting to collect!
English
Our English this week has closely followed our Unit of Inquiry. We have already analysed the features of instructional texts and created success criteria. With the help of this checklist we have practised writing up the method of some of our favourite science experiments, making sure we use scientific vocabulary, a ‘bossy’ (imperative) verb, numbered steps and clear concise instructions amongst other features. We have read each other’s instructions to make sure they are clear and understandable. Our reading this week has again focussed on vocabulary. Students have been finding new scientific words and exploring them in further detail. We have been practising the reading skill of summarising during guided reading sessions to help us determine what information to take notes on, another key skill. We do this by separating out the important and interesting information, helping us to identify the key events and information.
Maths
Fractions are everywhere, even in science! We have identified fractions in several science experiments and they will definitely be apparent when we interpret the data we collect from some science experiments. This week has found us inquiring further into simplifying fractions and why this is useful. We found out that it helps us to recognise equivalent fractions and will definitely be useful when we begin converting fractions to decimals and percentages. We have experimented with changing fractions so they all have the same (common) denominator. We found out that this helps us to be able to order fractions according to their size. We have also inquired into what an improper fraction looks like and how to rewrite it as a mixed number. All these inquiries are viewed through the concepts of form, function and connection, helping us understand our central idea for this unit: Fractions, decimal fractions and percentages are ways of representing whole-part.
Home learning:
- Twenty minutes daily reading;
- Try some of the online maths activities to reinforce learning of fractions using MyMaths or Teachingfractions.
