Yr5 Weekly Update – 02/9/16
It was lovely to meet so many parents on Monday and the insights you gave us on your children were extremely useful. Thank you for taking the time to come along!
Unit of Inquiry
Central Idea: Children have rights and responsibilities that can look different
We started our Unit of Inquiry with an interesting provocation. Some children in the class were given a blue dot to wear and a set of rules they had to follow which meant their school day (well, the morning) was quite different to the rest of the class. The purpose of this was to highlight how rights can be accessed differently so whilst the students still were learning they were not able to do it in the way they would usually. Ask your child to tell you more about what happened and what they noticed or felt about it.
Continuing on from the provocation we have explored in greater depth what children’s rights are and have discussed the articles contained in the convention on the rights of the child which identify the rights all children should have. In order to make a more personal connection to the rights, the students had to choose the nine they considered most important and put them in a diamond ranking to order them from most to least important. Many students were able to justify their choices and gave good reasons for the positions in their ranking.
Literacy
In Literacy we have been focusing on making personal connections in reading, identifying events in texts that remind us of something that has happened to us. We are also working on our comprehension developing our skills to ensure we have a good understanding of the text. In writing we are beginning to set our writing targets using the hexagons. These will help the students focus on what they need to improve in their writing as they are doing it. A key target for many is to add appropriate and interesting detail to their writing so that it will engage the reader. We have also continued to work on our Writer’s Notebooks. These are books in which the students can record anything that captures their imagination. The purpose of them is to build a bank of possible ideas for their writing which will inspire the students to develop their personal voice and engage their audience through writing about what they are passionate about.
Maths
In Maths we have continued to explore place value and after completing a pre-assessment that showed us what students already understood, we have looked at the aspects of place value that our students find challenging. For many this has been partitioning and renaming large numbers. Students are becoming more confident in recognising and working with numbers up to and even beyond millions! Students have also used the Base Ten materials to show their understanding, these materials are an excellent way for the students to explore place value practically. The next step will be to inquire into decimal places and how tenths and hundredths are used.
Home Learning
- Twenty minutes daily reading;
- Try some of the online maths activities to reinforce learning in place value – students have been given their login and passwords for MyMaths.
- Share and discuss with your parents what you have learnt about children’s rights. Talk about the rights that interest you and the ones you are not clear about.
Reminder
It is the Lantern Festival Family picnic next Friday 9th September at 5:30. We are looking forward to seeing the lanterns you have made!
Kind regards,
The Year Five Team
