English
This week, we have been writing our extended narratives. The children have been creating their own chapter of Running on Empty, where AJ competes in an inter-school tournament — but, of course, a problem arises which puts his chances of victory into doubt.

We have drawn on a range of writing skills to ensure our readers are fully engaged, but our main focus has been on developing strong characterisation through speech. This means using dialogue to reveal who a character really is. We discussed how people speak differently depending on who they are — an eight-year-old would sound very different from a king — and how vocabulary choices can subtly weave description into dialogue.

For example, we explored how:
"I don't think you will do very well, AJ," Aisha said.

could become:
"You don't stand a chance, AJ. They don’t let ugly teenagers win gold medals!" Aisha teased, cartwheeling away.

The second example not only shows us what is said, but tells us something about Aisha’s personality and her relationship with AJ. It has been wonderful to see the children experimenting with this technique in their own writing.

Maths
This week, we have continued our work on fractions. We focused on the difference between improper fractions and mixed numbers and how to convert between them (for example, 11/5 = 2 1/5).

We then learnt how to multiply fractions by a whole number, which proved to be much more straightforward than adding fractions with different denominators! However, now that we know how to both add and multiply fractions, we must be careful not to muddle the methods.

Thematic / RE
In RE this week, we have been learning about Judaism. We discussed how Judaism, Islam and Christianity all believe in and worship the same God, but differ in some of the details and in how they practise their faith.

We learnt about synagogues, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and how Jewish people worship. The children asked thoughtful questions and approached the topic with respect and curiosity.

Next term, we will begin our new thematic topic, Gods and Mortals, where we will be learning about Ancient Greece.

Love to Learn

The Viking Speaker Competition

It is that time of year again that we will be holding the Viking Speaker Competition. The Speaker competition is an annual competition across the Viking Academy Trust that helps to develop children's Oracy skills. The children are invited to create and present a speech on a given theme. Four children will be chosen to represent the school, competing against children from Ramsgate Arts and Upton to become the Viking Speaker winner for 2026.

This year the children are invited to ‘Pitch their passion’. The idea is the children choose something they are passionate about. This could be anything from Climate Change to Capybaras; it may be a hobby they have or just something they find interesting. They need to write a speech that inspires the audience to take an interest in their chosen passion. The speech can be no longer that 2 minutes and the children cannot use any props or slides to help them during their speech.

To help the children with this competition, please could you support your child across half term to decide which passion they have that they might wish to ‘pitch’ in their speech. They need to consider what makes their passion so intriguing and why others should also take an interest in it. They can begin to make some notes or even create a first draft of their speech. They will then continue to work on their speech during the first week back in school after half term.

Those children that wish to enter the competition will perform their speech to their class during the week beginning 2nd March. Each class will choose one representative. We will then hold the Chilton Speaker Final on Friday 13th March, where our four Chilton representatives will be chosen. These four children will take part in the Viking Speaker Final on Friday 27th March.

We look forward to learning all about what our children are passionate about.

Dates to remember:

Monday 23rd February – All children back into school at the normal time

Monday 23rd February – Friday 27th February – Bring in any unwanted world book day costumes

Friday 27th February – Second hand world book day costume sale from 3pm by school gates

Thursday 5th March – World Book day, children to dress as their favourite book character

Monday 9th March – Book fair in school this week

Friday 13th March – Chilton Speaker Final

Friday 20th March – Red Nose Day (Wear something funny for money)

Monday 23rd March – Rock your socks for Downs Syndrome Awareness (Wear bright or mismatching socks to school)

Monday 23rd March – Year 3 Roman Dress up day

Friday 27th March – Viking Speaker Final at Royal Harbour

Friday 27th March – Parents come into school to look at children’s books prior to Parent Teacher Consultations

Week Beginning 30th March – Parent Teacher consultation week

Thursday 2nd April – Chilton Fundraisers Sponsored Eggscellent Event - Non-Uniform to be worn with further details to follow next term.

Thursday 2nd April - Last day of term. School to finish at 3.15pm

English
This week in English, we have been planning an extended narrative. This will involve writing a chapter of our own version of Running on Empty, where AJ, our protagonist, competes in an inter-school running competition. We discussed what makes a good story and what could realistically go wrong during such an event.

Before writing, we carefully planned this section so that we knew what we were building towards from the very start of the narrative. We focused on how authors “plant seeds” early on to justify problems later in the story.

To really get ourselves into the mindset of a competitive race, we laced up our running shoes, persuaded Mr McAuley to join us, and headed out for a run over Chalk Hill. Many of us — including Mr Oxley — were exhausted by the end, but we noticed that even when we were physically tired, we were mentally very alert. This experience will certainly help bring authenticity to our writing.

Next week, we will begin writing up our extended narratives.

Maths
In Maths this week, we have been working on adding and subtracting fractions. Before attempting these calculations, we revisited the importance of checking that the denominators are the same. When they are not, we need to find equivalent fractions so that the fractions can be combined correctly.

Although the children first encountered this learning in Year 4, it has been fantastic to see Year 5 confidently applying knowledge from different areas to tackle these problems successfully.

We ended the week by celebrating Number Day. The children took part in the annual Countdown assembly before using a wide range of recent maths learning to design their own maths board games. Creativity was encouraged, but every game had to include maths questions to secure victory! These covered areas such as fractions, statistics, the four operations, shape and geometry, angles, time and Roman numerals.

Next week, we will extend this learning by converting between improper fractions and mixed numbers.

Thematic (Science)
This week’s thematic learning has focused on science and the states of matter. We began by recapping our Year 4 learning, revisiting the processes that cause materials to change state, such as evaporation, condensation, melting and freezing.

We then explored the idea that some changes are reversible — for example, melted ice can be frozen again, and sugar dissolved in water can be recovered by evaporating the liquid. In contrast, we also learnt about irreversible changes, such as cooking an egg or burning wood.

Next week, we will be moving into RE, where we will begin learning about Judaism.

Love to Learn

For our love to learn this week we are going to make you the teachers again.
Teach your adults how to add and subtract fractions and then see if they can solve these problems. Mark there work and write a WWW (what went well) and EBI (even better if) for them.

Dates to remember:

Tuesday 10th February - Safer internet day

Friday 13th February – Non-school uniform day

Friday 13th February - Chilton Fundraisers Winter Disco

Friday 13th February – Last day of term. School finishes at usual time

We discussed how grief can show itself in many different ways and explored examples of free verse poetry that convey these varied manifestations of grief. This work culminated in the children writing poems of their own. We have been incredibly impressed by how seriously the children have taken this topic and how thoughtfully and respectfully they have engaged with such sensitive subject matter.

Next week, we will begin writing an extended narrative.

Maths
In Maths this week, our focus has been division. We began by learning how our well-practised times table facts can help us quickly calculate division problems that may initially seem tricky. For example, if we know that 4 × 3 = 12, we also know that 12 ÷ 4 = 3. We then extended this understanding to decimals, recognising that if we make a number ten times smaller, the answer must also be ten times smaller.

Learning to recognise times table facts in different contexts can really help save time and effort. We then practised dividing larger numbers using the bus stop method — a key skill that we revisit throughout primary school.

We also tackled problems that tested our understanding of what division actually tells us. For example:
A farmer has 54 bales of hay and his tractor can carry 5 at a time. How many trips will he need to deliver all the hay?
Although 54 ÷ 5 = 10 r 4, those remaining bales still need to be transported, meaning the farmer must make 11 trips in total.

Next week, we will be working with fractions.

Thematic
This week marked the end of the history section of our thematic topic, culminating in our learning about the Anglo-Saxon burial site at Sutton Hoo. We explored ancient Anglo-Saxon artefacts such as weapons and jewellery, and discussed what these finds tell us about Anglo-Saxon life and beliefs.

We then designed our own full-sized Saxon shields (thank you very much for all the donations of cardboard and newspaper!) and created Saxon brooches. We learnt why shields and brooches were designed the way they were, and what different patterns and colours may have signified.

Next week, we will move into the science part of our thematic learning, where we will be exploring how different states of matter behave and the processes that cause changes between these states.

Love to Learn

For this week’s love to learn we would like you to imagine yourself or your teacher as an anglo saxon. What would the design on their shield be? What clothes would they wear? What type of brooch would they sport? Feel free to draw a picture, write a description, write a fact file; anything you like.
 

Messages

TTRS Battle

Several weeks ago we had a battle between Year 5 and Year 6 in TTRS which saw a tight race with Team Indigo taking a well earned victory. Well that was just the warm-up. Starting Monday there will be a battle between all classes from Year 3 to Year 6. Can Team Indigo retain their title? Can Team Royal make a comeback or will we all be demolished by Year 3 or 4???

Number Day

On Friday (6^th) it is number. Please come to school dressed up as TTRS Rock stars! We will be starting the day with our countdown assembly too so get practising your mental maths and spelling!

Friday 6th February – NSPCC number day (Reception and KS1 children to come in dressed in number themed clothes/KS2 to come in dressed as a Times Table Rock Star)

Friday 6th February – KS2 Countdown assembly at 9am (parents of year group house winners to be invited)

Tuesday 10th February - Safer internet day

Friday 13th February – Non-school uniform day

Friday 13th February - Chilton Fundraisers Winter Disco

Friday 13th February – Last day of term. School finishes at usual time

English

This week in English, we finished writing our news reports by focusing on writing in the future tense. While this may sound simple, the children learnt how important consistency is and discovered that when writing about the future, we sometimes still need to use the present tense. For example: “Although the event is now over, people will remember this for the rest of their lives.”

We then moved on to poetry. In our class novel, Running on Empty, the main character AJ is dealing with — or avoiding dealing with — the death of his grandfather, which turns his world upside down. This led us to begin exploring poetry that addresses themes of grief. This can be a particularly challenging and sensitive subject, and it can bring up some big feelings. Year 5 have shown extraordinary empathy, thoughtfulness and respect for both the subject matter and one another.

Next week, we will begin writing some poetry of our own.

Maths

In Maths this week, we have been finding the factors of numbers. We then explored common factors of two numbers and learnt how to identify the highest and lowest common factors. After that, we revisited prime numbers and how to identify them. Did you know that 1 is not a prime number? A prime number must have exactly two factors — and 1 only has one!

We ended the week by learning how to cube numbers.

Next week, we will be working on developing our division skills.

Thematic

In Thematic learning, we have really got stuck into learning about the Anglo-Saxons. We learnt how the Scots and Picts were fighting in the north of Britain while the Romans invaded the Britons in England. When the Romans were called back to defend Rome, the Anglo-Saxons took the opportunity to settle in England, initially to help the Britons fend off the Scots in the north. Thankfully, the Romans had built Hadrian’s Wall, which made this much more difficult.

We also learnt that while the Romans were Christian, the Anglo-Saxons were pagan, meaning they believed in many gods. We ended the week by learning about well-known Anglo-Saxon stories, including Beowulf.

Love to Learn

Since we’ve been learning about prime numbers this week, we’d like you to try to find as many prime numbers out and about as you can. You could take pictures of any you see, keep a list of where you’ve seen which numbers or you could make a poster all about prime numbers.

Messages

Cardboard and newspaper

Thank you to everyone who brought in cardboard for us to make Saxon shields next week. We now have more than enough. We could, however, still use lots of newspaper so if you have any lying around we would make great use of it!

Birdwatch

Hello Chilton families,

This week, the whole school is took part in the Big Schools' BirdWatch to collect data for the RSPB. We are inviting you to take part at home too. Here's what you need to do:

1. ‎Choose an hour between 23 and 25 January 2026

2, Only record the birds that land in your garden

3. Record the highest number of each bird species you see at any one time

4. Sign up online and submit your results to the RSPB. Here's the link: Big Garden Birdwatch

Miss Isaac, who is Chilton's science leader, would love to see any photos of you doing this and also know any particularly interesting birds you saw. Feel free to send her an email: carol.isaac@chiltonprimary.co.uk

If you are fan of being out in nature and would like to show off your photography skills, you might be interested in the competition outlined below:

Bird Wise East Kent and Thanet Coast Project have teamed up to host a photography competition. There is a category for under 18s with the winner and runner up having their work displayed in Margate, Whitstable and Ramsgate. The deadline is midnight on Sunday 15^th February. Please go to their website for more information: Photography Competition | Bird Wise East Kent

Have fun twitching!

Miss Isaac

Dates to remember:

Friday 6th February – NSPCC number day (Reception and KS1 children to come in dressed in number themed clothes/KS2 to come in dressed as a Times Table Rock Star)

Friday 6th February – KS2 Countdown assembly at 9am (parents of year group house winners to be invited)

Tuesday 10th February - Safer internet day

Friday 13th February – Non-school uniform day

Friday 13th February - Chilton Fundraisers Winter Disco

Friday 13th February – Last day of term. School finishes at usual time

English
This week, we have been writing online news reports about Usain Bolt setting the Olympic record at the London 2012 Olympics. The children explored how news reports can be biased in a particular direction and learnt how journalists make deliberate language choices to influence the reader. A key focus was ensuring consistency in tone and viewpoint across their writing, just like real news articles.

Next week, we will be finishing our news reports before beginning to explore poetry.

Maths
In Maths this week, we revisited rounding numbers and then used our knowledge of rounding to help us estimate the answers to calculations. We discussed why rounding is such a useful skill and how, in real life, we often only need a rough estimate rather than an exact answer.

Alongside this, we have been locked in an incredibly heated Times Table Rock Stars battle! It was a very tight race between Team Indigo and Team Royal, but a huge well done to Team Indigo for coming out on top!

Next week, we will be using our times table knowledge to identify the factors of larger numbers. We will also revisit prime and composite numbers, as well as learning about squaring and cubing numbers.

Thematic
This week, we began our new thematic topic, Marvels of Matter, where we are learning about how the Angles, Saxons and Jutes took advantage of the Romans vacating Britain to settle here themselves. We found out where these tribes came from, how they brought their language with them (which would slowly develop into Modern English), and explored what other historical events and civilisations were happening around the world at the same time, such as the Golden Age of Islam and the end of the Roman Empire.

Spelling
Please continue to practise this term’s ‘red words’ each week, as these are tricky or impossible to sound out using phonics.

Mr Oxley and Mrs Mirza’s group have been learning:
ancient, temperature, develop, foreign, language, pronunciation, sacrifice, soldier, symbol, identity

Miss Isaac’s group have been learning:
people, great, old, because, century, important, island, separate, women, woman

Love to Learn

Since we’re writing newspaper reports this week, we’d like you to write one of your own. Think of something interesting that has happened to you or someone in your life recently and tell us all about it. Also think about whether the report is going to be positively or negatively biased towards the events and people involved.

Make sure you include:
Introduction with 5 Ws
Direct and indirect speech
Maintain the correct tone for a newspaper report; this isn’t a diary entry so keep it formal.
Pictures and captions

RSPB Big Garden BirdWatch

This term, the whole school is taking part in the Big Schools' BirdWatch to collect data for the RSPB. We are inviting you to take part at home too. Here's what you need to do:

1. ‎Choose an hour between 23 and 25 January

2, Only record the birds that land in your garden

3. Record the highest number of each bird species you see at any one time

4. Sign up online and submit your results to the RSPB. Here's the link: Big Garden Birdwatch

Miss Isaac, who is Chilton's science leader, would love to see any photos of you doing this and also know any particularly interesting birds you saw. Feel free to send her an email: carol.isaac@chiltonprimary.co.uk

Have fun twitching!

Important Dates:

Thursday 15th January – Reception September 2026 application closes

Friday 6th February – NSPCC number day (Reception and KS1 children to come in dressed in number themed clothes/KS2 to come in dressed as a Times Table Rock Star)

Friday 6th February – KS2 Countdown assembly at 9am (parents of year group house winners to be invited)

Tuesday 10th February - Safer internet day

Friday 13th February – Non-school uniform day

Friday 13th February - Chilton Fundraisers Winter Disco

Friday 13th February – Last day of term. School finishes at usual time

English
This week, we began reading Running on Empty by S. E. Durrant. As the book is inspired by Usain Bolt setting his world record, we started by watching a video of that incredible moment. The children then spent the week writing vivid descriptions of the event, with a particular focus on the atmosphere inside the stadium.

The challenge was to avoid getting lost in simply describing what the stadium or athletes looked like, and instead to write for effect — conveying the tension, excitement and emotion of the moment to the reader. The children worked hard to think carefully about word choice and how atmosphere can be created through language.

Maths
This week, we have been learning about negative numbers. We already knew that the number line does not end at zero, but we practised counting through zero and calculating simple equations involving negative numbers. We also discussed why negative numbers are needed and where we might see them in real life, such as in car parks, lifts and temperatures.

We then moved on to working with six-digit numbers by learning about the hundred thousands column. The children practised reading and writing these numbers, comparing them, and using accurate mathematical vocabulary to explain their thinking.

Next week, we will be revisiting rounding numbers and learning how rounding can help us to quickly estimate answers.

Thematic (PSHE)
This week in PSHE, we have been exploring what fair really means. We discussed whether fair always means treating everybody exactly the same and discovered that, often, it does not. Different people have different strengths and needs, and treating everyone identically can sometimes be unfair.

We then learned about our Champion of Courage, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The children found out about her unfair imprisonment and how much courage it took for her and her family to remain hopeful during the six years she was held captive. We ended the week by creating our own quotes to inspire others to stay hopeful and be courageous. These will soon be on display in the school hall — keep an eye out if you are in the building.

Next week, we will begin our new thematic topic, Marvels of Matter, where we will be learning about the Anglo-Saxons.

Spelling
This week, we have been practising this term’s ‘red words’ — tricky words that are difficult or impossible to sound out using phonics.

Mr Oxley and Mrs Mirza’s group have been learning:
ancient, temperature, develop, foreign, language, pronunciation, sacrifice, soldier, symbol, identity

Miss Isaac’s group have been learning:
people, great, old, because, century, important, island, separate, women, woman

These spellings can also be found on the children’s reading records, with the ones they found tricky circled to remind them to practise those ones in particular. At the end of term, they will be tested again to see the results of their practise.

Love to learn

Inspired by our champion of courage, could you tell us about someone in your life who is courageous. It could be a sibling or an adult (or an animal) you know, or it could be someone famous that inspires you with their courage. You can write a paragraph about them, draw a picture and mindmap some reasons they are courageous, write a song, etc.

TTRS battle

Starting Monday, a TTRS battle begins between the Year 5 and Year 6 classes so make sure to play as much as possible to ensure your class comes out on top. The battle will end on Friday.

Important Dates:

Thursday 15th January – Reception September 2026 application closes

Friday 6th February – NSPCC number day (Reception and KS1 children to come in dressed in number themed clothes/KS2 to come in dressed as a Times Table Rock Star)

Friday 6th February – KS2 Countdown assembly at 9am (parents of year group house winners to be invited)

Tuesday 10th February -  Safer internet day

Friday 13th February – Non-school uniform day

Friday 13th February - Chilton Fundraisers Winter Disco

Friday 13th February – Last day of term. School finishes at usual time

English 

This week, we put our final version of our books together; they are going on display in our shared area between our classrooms! We then planned and began to write our own space-themed extended narrative about an alien and an astronaut. We revisited our skills of describing characters and setting whilst writing our beginnings of our 5-part story. 

Next week, we will begin by writing the next part of our 5-part story: the build-up. We will learn how to create tension and suspense. We will then write our problem, which will include lots of action. Our story will then include a resolution and an end. We will also learn how to weave speech into our story to develop our characters. We will also be having a spelling test for the 10 red words we have been learning this term. They can be found in the back of your child’s reading record. 

Maths 

This week,  we entered our final week of learning about units of measure by focusing on mass. We learned about everyday objects and which measurement (grams, kilograms and tonnes) would be most suitable to use to measure them. We then learnt how to convert between them and also how to find approximate conversions when learning about imperial units of measure for mass. We ended the week by learning how to be systematic when solving problems involving finding all the possibilities. 

Next week, we will take part in some Christmas-themed Maths activities, testing our retrieval skills of previous learning! 

Thematic 

This week, we completed our learning on space by taking part in a Big Fat Quiz! It helped us retrieve what we have learnt this term and also helped us to clarify anything we are unsure about. We prepared our Year 5 contributions to the Chilton Christmas fayre. We ended the week by making our Christmas hats for the church service. 

Next week, we will be learning about Islam in our RE lessons. We will be learning who Muhammad is and why he is important to the Muslims. We will learn about his life and also the importance of the Qur’an. 

Spelling 

In your child’s reading record, there is a sticker with the words they are learning. We call these ‘red words’ and they are tricky or impossible to sound out using phonics. Some children have been given some challenging space-themed words to also learn. Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

Love to Learn 

This week, please just use love to learn time to prepare for the busy week ahead: 

-get your party clothes ready for our party on Wednesday 

-prepare any donations of food for our Xmas party on Wednesday 

Vikings: savoury party food such as sausage rolls, cheese straws 

Saxons: fruit and vegetables 

Normans: crisps and nibbles  

Roman: sweet party foods, such as biscuits, sweets 

-find your Christmas jumper for Thursday 

Our scooter park is open daily at lunchtime.   Year 5 - Thursdays.   To take part, children will need to bring their scooter from home, along with a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. 

Important dates 

15th December – No PE this week 

16th December – Year 3 and 4 Church Performance at 10am and Year 5 and 6 Church Performance at 2pm, both at St Laurence Church 

17th December – Year 3, 4, 5, and 6 Christmas Party Day – children to wear Party Clothes to school 

17th December – Christmas Dinner Day 

18th December – Christmas Jumper Day 

18th December – Final day at school; school finishes at 2pm and there will be no after school club 

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Isaac and Mr Oxley

English 

This week, we have been continuing with our ‘How to live in space’ books. We have learnt how to use technical vocabulary to make us sound like experts, to control our formality of the text and also to use semi colons to link information together.   

Next week, we will put our final version of our books together; they are going on display in our shared area between our classrooms! We will then plan and begin to write our own space themed extended narrative about an alien and an astronaut. We will learn how to use characterisation to tell the reader more about our characters and also revisit our skills of describing characters and setting. 

Maths 

This week, we continued to learn to convert between units of measure, with a focus on volume and capacity. We learnt the difference between these and then talked about their uses in real life. After that, we learnt how to convert between different metric units of measure, with the challenge of finding approximate conversions for imperial and metric, for example litres to pints. We ended the week on solving problems involving volume and capacity.    

Next week, we will enter our final week of learning about units of measure by focusing on mass. We will be learning about everyday objects and which measurement (grams, kilograms and tonnes) would be most suitable to use to measure them. We will then learn how to convert between them and also how to find approximate conversions when learning about imperial units of measure for mass. We will end the week by solving problems involving mass.  

Thematic 

This week, we learnt about the Moon. We found out about its orbit around the Earth and how this affects our tides. We also learnt about how we know about the Moon by finding out about the Moon landings. We ended the week by giving our opinions on this big question: What else is out there? 

Next week, we will be completed our learning on space by taking part in a Big Fat Quiz! It will helps us retrieve what we have learnt this term and also help us to clarify anything we are unsure about. We will also prepare our Year 5 contributions to the Chilton Christmas fayre. We will end the week with a debate to thrash out if we really need to know about space or not! 

Spelling 

In your child’s reading record, there is a sticker with the words they are learning. We call these ‘red words’ and they are tricky or impossible to sound out using phonics. Some children have been given some challenging space themed words to also learn. Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

Love to Learn 

This week, we would like you to find examples of imperial units of measure at home or out and about. Take photos or draw what you find and we will share these with the class.  

Christmas party: on 17th December, Year 5 will be having their Christmas party. On this day, they can wear their party clothes. Please remember, they will still be going outside for lunch and play time so clothes must be appropriate for chilly weather! For the party, we are asking for donations of food and drink. Mr Oxley and Miss Isaac will provide drinks. If possible, we would love donations of these items from each housepoint team:

Vikings: savoury party food such as sausage rolls, cheese straws

Saxons: fruit and vegetables

Normans: crisps and nibbles 

Roman: sweet party foods, such as biscuits, sweets

Our scooter park is open daily at lunchtime.   Year 5 - Thursdays.   To take part, children will need to bring their scooter from home, along with a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. 

Important dates 

10th December – No swimming this week. Year 5 will have PE as usual 

10th December – Christmas Fair 3.15pm-4.15pm 

15th December – No PE this week 

15th December – Year 1 Nativity at 9am in hall 

16th December – Year 3 and 4 Church Performance at 10am and Year 5 and 6 Church Performance at 2pm, both at St Laurence Church 

17th December – Year 3, 4, 5, and 6 Christmas Party Day – children to wear Party Clothes to school 

17th December – Christmas Dinner Day 

18th December – Christmas Jumper Day 

18th December – Final day at school; school finishes at 2pm and there will be no after school club 

English 

This week, we have been learning the features of an explanation text. We have researched how astronauts live in space and then organised this information into a plan. We then began writing our explanation texts, with the aim to complete our own ‘How to live in space’ book next week too. 

Next week, we will be continue with our ‘How to live in space’ books. We will be learning how to use technical vocabulary to make us sound like experts, to control our formality of the text and also to use semi colons to link information together.  

Maths 

This week, we finished off our learning about area at the beginning of the week. We then learned about how to convert units of measure, with a focus on length (mm, cm, m and km). We also learned how to find an approximate conversion of length between metric and imperial measures, with a focus on miles and kilometres.  We ended the week on solving problems involved converting units of measure. 

Next week, we will continue to learn to convert between units of measure, with a focus on volume and capacity. We will learn the difference between these and then talk about their uses in real life. After that, we will learn how to convert between different metric units of measure, with the challenge of finding approximate conversions for imperial volumes/capacities. We will end the week on solving problems involving volume and capacity.   

Thematic 

This week, we spent a week learning about what gravity and its effects on our lives. We conducted an experiment to find out if objects with different masses fall at the speed or not –they do regardless of their mass!  We then find out about Sir Isaac Newton and the story of how he investigated gravity. 

Next week, we will be learning about the Moon. We will find out about its orbit around the Earth and how this affects our tides. We will also be learning about how we know about the Moon by finding out about the Moon landings. We will end the week by giving our opinions on this big question: What else is out there? 

Spelling 

In your child’s reading record, there is a sticker with the words they are learning. We call these ‘red words’ and they are tricky or impossible to sound out using phonics. Some children have been given some challenging space themed words to also learn. Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

Love to Learn 

This week, we would like you to research an aspect of life in space. Please write an explanation for how to do this task. Remember, we have already learned about using the toilet, sleeping and eating. Pick a different task an astronaut would have to perform. If the children would like, there will be an opportunity to add this information to our ‘How to live in space’ books we are publishing in English. 

Our scooter park is open daily at lunchtime.   Year 5 - Thursdays.   To take part, children will need to bring their scooter from home, along with a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. 

Important dates 

4th December – Year 5 Pegwell Bay Trip 

10th December – No swimming this week. Year 5 will have PE as usual 

10th December – Christmas Fair 3.15pm-4.15pm 

15th December – No PE this week 

15th December – Year 1 Nativity at 9am in hall 

16th December – Year 3 and 4 Church Performance at 10am and Year 5 and 6 Church Performance at 2pm, both at St Laurence Church 

17th December – Year 3, 4, 5, and 6 Christmas Party Day – children to wear Party Clothes to school 

17th December – Christmas Dinner Day 

18th December – Christmas Jumper Day 

18th December – Final day at school; school finishes at 2pm and there will be no after school club 

English 

This week, we have continued to write in role as Jamie and then as his dad. We learned how to embed clauses to add information or interest. We also wrote a ‘show piece’ to show off our writing skills! 

Next week, we will be learning the features of an explanation text. We will have to research how astronauts live in space and then organise this information into a plan. We will begin writing our explanation texts, with the aim to make our own ‘How to live in Space’ book. 

Maths 

This week, we focused on how to find the perimeter of shapes, including compound shapes (shapes made from 2 or more rectangles). We then moved on to learn how to find the area of these compound shapes. 

Next week, we will finish off our learning about area at the beginning of the week. We will then learn about how to convert units of measure, with a focus on length (mm, cm, m and km). We will also learn how to find an approximate conversion of length between metric and imperial measures, with a focus on miles and kilometres.   

Thematic 

This week, we have spent time learning why we have day and night. By using torches to represent the Sun and tennis balls for the Earth, we verbally rehearsed explaining why day and night occurs. We then wrote these in a written explanation, using scientific vocabulary. 

Next week, we will be spending a week learning about what gravity and its effects on our lives. We will be conducting an experiment to find out if objects with different masses fall at the speed or not. We will then find out about Sir Isaac Newton and the story of how he explored gravity. 

Spelling 

In your child’s reading record, there is a sticker with the words they are learning. We call these ‘red words’ and they are tricky or impossible to sound out using phonics. Some children have been given some challenging space themed words to also learn. Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

Love to Learn 

This week, we would like you to find the perimeter of a room in your house. You’ll need to measure the length of each wall and add them together. As a challenge, you could draw a floor plan of your house and find the perimeter of each room. As an extra challenge, you could find the area (length x width) of each room or the total floor area of your house! You could take photos of you doing this or maybe draw the map in your love to learn book. Have fun! 

Our scooter park is open daily at lunchtime.  Year 4 - Tuesdays, Year 5 - Thursdays, Year 6 - Wednesdays.   To take part, children will need to bring their scooter from home, along with a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. 

Important dates 

24th November – Book Fair on all week 

28th November – Year 3 and 5 Come Dine with me (Azure 11.30, Peacock 11.45, Royal 12.30 and Indigo 12.40) 

4th December – Year 5 Pegwell Bay Trip 

10th December – No swimming this week. Year 5 will have PE as usual 

10th December – Christmas Fair 3.15pm-4.15pm 

15th December – No PE this week 

15th December – Year 1 Nativity at 9am in hall 

16th December – Year 3 and 4 Church Performance at 10am and Year 5 and 6 Church Performance at 2pm, both at St Laurence Church 

17th December – Year 3, 4, 5, and 6 Christmas Party Day – children to wear Party Clothes to school 

17th December – Christmas Dinner Day 

18th December – Christmas Jumper Day 

18th December – Final day at school; school finishes at 2pm and there will be no after school club 

English 

This week, we have learned how to write in role. We have learned how to use information language by using contractions, chatty phrases and incomplete sentences. We then improved our writing even more by using emotive language in our diary entries.  

Next week, we will be continuing to write in role as Jamie (the main character in our class text) and then as other characters. We will be learning how to embed clauses to add information and also writing a show piece to ‘show off’ our new writing skills. 

Maths 

This week, we have learned to identify 2D and 3D shapes, using the correct vocabulary to describe these shapes. We learned how to describe the lines that make a 2D shape as parallel and perpendicular. We then moved on to learn how we can find out which 3D shape a net would make. 

Next week, we will be focusing on how to find the perimeter of shapes, including compound shapes (shapes make from 2 or more rectangles). We will then move on to learn how to find the area of a shape, using a formula when appropriate. 

Thematic 

This week, we have had a break from thematic and spent a week learning about kindness. This was the theme for the whole school week. We explored the difference between joking/banter, teasing and bullying. We have considered how our actions online should be positive and linked this to how one person in a group can make a change if something feels or is wrong. 

Next week, we will return to learning about Space. We will be learning about how the rotation of the Earth causes us to have day and night. We will also be using practical investigations to find out how shadows show us that the Earth is rotating.  

Spelling 

In your child’s reading record, there is a sticker with the words they are learning. We call these ‘red words’ and they are tricky or impossible to sound out using phonics. Some children have been given some challenging space themed words to also learn. Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

Love to Learn 

Last week, we set a 2 week project. Please make a model or detailed diagram of something linked to our solar system. It could be a model of the whole solar system or just one of the planets. Be creative! Models are due in on 19th November. 

Our scooter park is open daily at lunchtime.  Year 4 - Tuesdays, Year 5 - Thursdays, Year 6 - Wednesdays.   To take part, children will need to bring their scooter from home, along with a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. 

Important dates 

24th November – Book Fair on all week 

28th November – Year 3 and 5 Come Dine with me (Azure 11.30, Peacock 11.45, Royal 12.30 and Indigo 12.40) 

4th December – Year 5 Pegwell Bay Trip 

10th December – No swimming this week.Year 5 will have PE as usual 

10th December – Christmas Fair 3.15pm-4.15pm 

15th December – No PE this week 

15th December – Year 1 Nativity at 9am in hall 

16th December – Year 3 and 4 Church Performance at 10am and Year 5 and 6 Church Performance at 2pm, both at St Laurence Church 

17th December – Year 3, 4, 5, and 6 Christmas Party Day – children to wear Party Clothes to school 

17th December – Christmas Dinner Day 

18th December – Christmas Jumper Day 

18th December – Final day at school; school finishes at 2pm and there will be no after school club 

English

In English this week, we have been writing persuasive letters to Ernest Shackleton’s job advert seeking crew members for his expedition to Antarctica. We learnt how to structure a letter and an argument to ensure that, not only are we highlighting the skills we would bring to his crew, but also explaining how those skills are transferable to an Antarctic expedition. We have brought in skills like rhetorical questions, emotive language and even practiced a little flattery to butter Shackleton up!

When we return from half term, we will be beginning our book ‘The Jamie Drake Equation’ and writing character and setting descriptions.

Maths

In Maths this week, we have been practicing telling the time. We recapped the different types of clock: analogue, 12-hour and 24-hour and how we read them. We focused in on the times when we would read the time as minutes to the hour and minutes past and why we wouldn’t describe 07:40 as forty minutes past seven. We then practiced converting between all these forms of time.

When we come back, we will be learning statistics and practicing reading and recording graphs.

RE

For our RE this week, we have been looking at The Bible. We learnt that the Bible is not one book but many. It is split into the Old and New Testaments which themselves contain many books. It is called the Bible as it comes from the same word that ‘Bibliotheque’ comes from which is French for library. We looked at how the many stories of the Bible have different purposes. Some were written as an attempt to document history, some were proverbs meant to teach a lesson, some were Psalms meant to be sung and others were letters.

When we come back, we will begin our new thematic topic ‘Stargazers’ where we will be exploring space.

Spellings

Miss Isaac and Mr Oxley’s group:

Existence     vehicle     curiosity      explanation      interfere     communicate     environment       equipped      neighbour      physical

Mrs Mirza’s group:

Earth     famous      history      weight    centre    appear     believe      length     experiment      strange  

Love to learn

We had a lot of fun trying to persuade Shackleton to recruit us to his crew. For your Love to Learn we would like you to write another job application applying for one of the jobs below. Please address your applications to the name next to each job.

VACANCIES:

Magician’s Apprentice: Address your application to Mr Oxley

Science Lab Assistant: Address your application to Miss Isaac

New Chilton Headteacher: Address your application to Mrs Law

Prime Minister of Britain: Address your application to King Charles

England Football Team Coach: Address your application to Thomas Tuchel

Dates for Term 2:

27th October – Inset Day, children not in school

28th October – Parent/teacher consultation week

29th October – Year 5 to start swimming

31st October – Halloween disco

3rd November – Poppies on sale for following 2 weeks; children to bring in donations in named envelope and house captains to bring poppies round to classrooms

11th November – Service Uniform Day, children allowed to wear their service uniforms into school

12th November – Individual School Photos

14th November – Children in need – This year is a challenge yourself theme. We are challenging the children to come into school wearing as many spots as possible!

24th November – Book Fair on all week

28th November – Year 3 and 5 Come Dine with me (Azure 11.30, Peacock 11.45, Royal 12.30 and Indigo 12.40)

4th December – Year 5 Pegwell Bay Trip

10th December – No swimming this week, Year 5 will have PE as usual

10th December – Christmas Fair 3.15pm-4.15pm

15th December – No PE this week

15th December – Year 1 Nativity at 9am in hall

16th December –Year 5 and 6 Church Performance at 2pm at St Laurence Church

17th December – Year 3, 4, 5, and 6 Christmas Party Day – children to wear Party Clothes to school

17th December – Christmas Dinner Day

18th December – Christmas Jumper Day

18th December – Final day at school; school finishes at 2pm and there will be no after school club

English

In English this week, we have been finishing off our newspaper reports of Shackleton and his crew returning to Plymouth Harbour to much jubilation. We have focused on writing direct and indirect speech as well as maintaining past tense in our writing.

Next week, we will be practicing persuasive writing by writing job applications to join Shackleton’s crew.

Maths

In maths this week, we have been working on division. We have recapped old, reliable methods wherein we draw out counters to help us divide each digit but we also learnt a new method wherein we jot down our times tables to help us divide. This is really helpful if we are not confident with the times table we are using but is almost essential when we start trying to divide by numbers larger than 12. Year 5 are continuing to give it their all and are working to be the best mathematicians they can be.

Next week we will be looking at analogue and digital clocks.

Thematic

This week in thematic, we have finished off our ‘Across the Pond’ topic by learning about the different life cycles of birds, amphibians and reptiles. We then looked at the reproductive cycle of flowering plants. We learnt that the stamen is held up by the filament and produces pollen which needs to combined with the ovules in the plant to create a seed. The pollen makes it’s way to the ovules by landing on the sticky surface of the stigma and making its way down the style to the ovules which are protected by the ovary. It’s vital that living things have a way of reproducing, otherwise they would go extinct.

Next week, we will be learning about where the Christian Bible came from.

Spellings:

At the end of each term in Year 5, we will test the children on their year 5/6 red words. Next week, we will test them on these words on Thursday so please get practicing.

Mr Oxley and Miss Isaac’s group:

Accommodate    category    determined     foreign      lightning      profession     sincerely     accompany      cemetery       develop

Mrs Mirza’s group:

Accident     calendar     eight     guide    mention    possession     straight     accidentally         caught       eighth

Love to Learn:

For your love to learn this week, we would like to find out about the life cycle of insects you’ll need to think about whether the insect goes through complete or incomplete metamorphoses. Record this in any way you like. Perhaps you’ll draw diagrams like we did in school or maybe you write a presentation explaining this or you could act it out and take pictures as you embody the different stages of an insect’s life. As always, be as creative as you like.

Dates to remember:

17th October – Pegwell Bay walk in the morning. The children will be in PE kits anyway but please make sure children are protected from the cold, wind and rain. Make sure to still adhere to the school’s uniform policy for PE.

               Please also bring a snack and a water bottle in their bag.

17th October – Final day of term

We hope you have a lovely week!

Miss Isaac and Mr Oxley

Autumn is finally here but we are not done with long, sunny days just yet. Let’s enjoy it while we still have it and have a look at what we’re learning this week!

English

In English this week, we have been looking at newspaper reports. We will be writing a newspaper article reporting on Shackleton and his crew returning to Plymouth harbour after being trapped in Antarctica. We began by identifying the features and skills needed to write a great report and then reenacted the arrival of Shackleton into Plymouth so that we could feel the excited atmosphere and interview people of interest. We wrote the introduction of our report, trying to answer the 5 W’s (ask Year 5 what they are) concisely whilst also making our reader want to read more. We then revisited writing direct and indirect speech and how to punctuate speech accurately.

Next week, we will be continuing our report, incorporating indirect speech.

Maths

In maths this week, we have been working on multiplication. We began by practicing multiplying and dividing numbers by 10, 100 or 1,000; using place value sliders to help us. We then recapped multiply 3 and 4 digit numbers by 1 digit using column method and then we finished the week by revisiting the much more daunting two-digit multiplied by two-digits. We, as we often do in Year 5, mixed up Team Royal and Team Indigo to make sure everyone was learning the approach to multiplication that best suited them. Some revisited the grid method before moving onto their next step whilst others had a go at the compact, long multiplication method. Year 5 worked incredibly hard on this and it can be a tricky one to get to grips with as, whatever method they used, it showed how important neat, organised working out is.

Next week, we will be looking at division.

Thematic

This week we have been working on our dioramas of the various mountain ranges of North America and the United Kingdom. We began by creating the form and shape of our mountain range using newspaper and tape. We then moved outside to use mod podge to turn our newspaper bundles into much more recognizable mountains, adding in lakes, details and texture. We also researched our range, finding out the highest point, location and other fun and informative facts. On Wednesday, we finished them off by painting them. This has been a great opportunity to explore the key features of each range and to really think and work with a group to create something recognizable and informative. Once they are fully dried, you can see our mountain ranges on display in our class windows.

Spellings

With our rehearsals for harvest assembly next week, we won’t be doing spelling lessons. The week after however, and at the end of each term, we will be testing Year 5 on their red words. These are the words they will be tested on this term:

Mr Oxley and Miss Isaac’s group:

Accommodate    category    determined     foreign      lightning      profession     sincerely     accompany      cemetery       develop

Mrs Mirza’s group:

Accident     calendar     eight     guide    mention    possession     straight     accidentally         caught       eighth

Love to Learn:

For your love to learn task this week, we would like you to become a teacher. You have worked so hard on your multiplication that we would like you to teach one of your adults how to answer the types of questions you’ve been practicing.

Have a look below at the three different types of questions we practiced and teach the method from your group. Then ask your adult to complete the question below and pink and blue their work.

Dates to remember:

9th October - 2.45pm Year 5 and 6 Harvest assembly (in school hall with families invited to watch)

17^th October – Pegwell Bay walk in the morning. The children will be in PE kits anyway but please make sure children are protected from the cold, wind and rain. Make sure to still adhere to the school’s uniform policy for PE.

               Please also bring a snack and a water bottle in their bag.

17th October – Final day of term

We hope you have a lovely week!

Miss Isaac and Mr Oxley

English

In English this week, we finished our book ‘The Ice Trap’ which told of Ernest Shackleton’s third expedition to Antarctica wherein he kept his crew alive for over 2 years with everyone making it out. We have been learning more about the man himself and working on writing character descriptions of him. Character descriptions are something the children work on every year and it is a big step up in quality in Year 5 as we bring together familiar skills such as expanded noun phrases and prepositions with new skills such as relative and embedded clauses. Year 5 have been incredibly creative with their writing and descriptions and paint a much more vivid picture than they previously thought themselves capable of.

Next week, we will be writing descriptions of Shackleton’s personality.

Maths

In maths this week, we have been practicing subtracting using the column method. Whilst addition and subtraction column methods look similar at first glance, it’s important we practice them both and note the differences between them. We recapped how what we do when we don’t have a large enough digit in one column and therefore need to exchange from the next column up. We then put our knowledge of subtracting to the test with some missing digits problems. These not only test our knowledge of subtraction but also our resilience and organization as it is easy to make mistakes in these types of problems and get muddled up. In year 5, we work hard and play hard so we took a well earned break to mix up the classes and play a subtraction themed board game with members from the other class which was great fun!

Next week we will be working on multiplying using short and long multiplication and the grid method.

Thematic

This week in thematic we have been focused on the topography of North America and the United Kingdom. We explored what topography is and that topographical maps show up the elevation and altitude of a country but could also refer to the depths of the ocean or how the land may be used; agriculture, for instance. We learned about the three main mountain ranges in North America and the UK and then split into groups to begin making dioramas of a given range. The task was to begin by creating the main shape of the mountain range they were given as next week, we will be using mod podge to add the final details before painting it the week after. They don’t look like much right now, but as a wise member of Team Royal once said, “Just trust the process guys.”.

Spelling

Mr Oxley and Miss Isaac’s group:

Acceptable    comfortable     breakable    fashionable     perishable     tolerable

Laughable      appreciate        attached        available

Challenge words:    dishonourable      detachable       forgettable 

Mrs Mirza’s group:

Like    kite    bike   line    fine    Nile    five  

Red words: break    steak

Challenge words:   campsite      smiled

Love to Learn

Ernest Shackleton was a hero to the men he saved and is famous for it. However, heroes come in lots of shapes and sizes and don’t need to save a life to be a hero to you. We would love to know about a hero in your life. Try to think of someone you actually know whether it’s a sibling, parents, uncle/auntie, family friend, sports coach or somebody else and write us a character description of them.

Whilst what they look like might be worth mentioning, we really want to know about their personality and why you look up to them.

Feel free to draw a picture or attach a photo or just leave their looks up to our imagination!

Dates to remember:

9th October - 2.45pm Year 5 and 6 Harvest assembly (in school hall with families invited to watch)

17th October – Final day of term

We hope you have a lovely week!

Miss Isaac and Mr Oxley

English

This week in English we have continued our work on writing non-chronological reports. After researching and writing about penguins and seals, the children chose an Antarctic creature of their own: squid or blue whales. They then conducted all the research they would need to write all about them without any help. We revisited relative clauses and learned how to correctly use a colon to help us clarify. For example:

Squid eat a variety of sea creatures: fish, shrimp and crustaceans.

Blue whales mainly eat one animal: krill.

To end our unit on non-chronological reports, Year 5 split into groups, elected each person to publish their best paragraph and created a complete, published non-chronological report on Antarctica’s Amazing Animals.

Maths

This week in Maths we have been practicing our addition. We began by learning that the next column from ten thousands is hundred thousands and then practiced using the column method to add together 6-digit numbers. We then challenged ourselves with some ‘missing digit’ problems. These can often seem simple at first glance but it is important to start at the right most column and see if any regrouping has taken place before you put any digits in. Have a look at the question below to see that, at first glance, 6 seems to be the missing digit, but we need to look at the thousands column first…

Next week, we will be practicing subtraction.

Thematic

This week in Thematic we looked at how humans first arrived in North America and then what occurred after Christopher Columbus discovered America and then moving into the first English colonists. While things seemed to begin on a positive note with the native Americans, Europeans colonists quickly began to take over, make false promises and push the native people off their land. After learning about the chain of events that followed Columbus we had a class debate where we argued ‘Was Christopher Columbus a good explorer?’. The phrasing of this question was important as Year 5 seemed to largely agree that he wasn’t a particularly good person but we had to debate if, in spite of his actions, he was still a good explorer or not.

Next week in Thematic we will be looking at the geography and topography of North America and how it compares to the UK.

Spellings

Mr Oxley and Miss Isaac’s spellings:

Possible     horrible    terrible     visible     incredible     sensible   responsible  

Red words:      amateur       ancient       apparent

Challenge words:      legible      accessible   

Mrs Mercer’s spellings:

Cake    rake    face    race    snake     hate    name  

Red words:    busy    sure

Challenge words:     whale      escape   

Love to learn:

In Art this week we learned about perspective an that, as things get further away, they appear smaller. For your love to learn this week, we’d like you to have a go at drawing it without Mr Oxley or Miss Isaac’s guidance. Below is the link to what we drew in class (it is much faster than your teacher) but feel free to draw something different to what we drew while using the techniques we learnt.

How to draw a landscape #art #landscape (youtube.com)

Perhaps you could draw a city where the buildings get smaller as they are further away, or maybe a football pitch which shows the people in the distance appear smaller. Have fun with it, we had a blast in class and the children were blown away by how brilliantly they did.

Dates to remember:

25th September – Chilton School’s 50th Birthday

26th September – Thrive coffee morning 9am-10.30am in the studio – a chance to meet our well-being team

9th October - 2.45pm Year 5 and 6 Harvest assembly (in school hall with families invited to watch)

17th October – Final day of term

We hope you have a lovely week!

Miss Isaac, Mr Oxley and Mrs Mercer

English

For the next couple of weeks, we are learning to write non-chronological reports. We are creating a report about the animals of Antarctica and have begun with penguins. We have practiced effectively reading and noting down key information from a text before organizing that information and rewriting it all more concisely and in our own words. The children then had to repeat that process, more independently, to research and write about seals. We have made sure to pick out expert language and use it in our own writing and have been introduced to relative clauses which are a great way to add information to our writing. For instance, we could write:

Seals eat fish, squid and crustaceans to survive.

Or we could add in a relative clause:

Seals, which are carnivores, eat fish, squid and crustaceans to survive.

Next week we will continue researching Antarctic creatures even more independently and then finish it up by ‘publishing’ our work in groups.

Maths

This week in Maths we have been ordering and rounding numbers up to 100,000. Rounding numbers can sometimes be a tricky concept, particularly as we are introduced to more and more digits. We stripped it back to recap rounding 2 digit numbers before working our way up to our new 5 digit numbers. Take a look below at how we do it. If you are still struggling the best thing to do is keep practicing at it. At first, get an adult to come up with 3-digits numbers to the nearest hundred, 4-digit numbers to round to the nearest thousand and then 5-digit numbers to round to the nearest 10,000. Practice makes perfect!

Next week we will be learning to use colons in lists.

Thematic

This week in thematic we began our topic ‘Across the Pond’. We began by identifying where the continent of North America is on a map and what countries it consists of. We then looked into how our knowledge of the continent has developed since it was first ‘discovered’ and who some of the key players were in it’s discovery and colonisation. We learned how Christopher Columbus is often credited with discovering America but he was not the first to know of it’s existence, he wasn’t even the first European. Around 500 years earlier Leif Erikson had landed in Canada after being blown off course when returning to Greenland from Norway. To finish off, we explored the question of whether a country can actually be ‘discovered’ when there were already native people living there.

Next week we will look at how Europeans settled in America and became the U.S.A.

Spellings

We will be continuing with our spelling words from last week:

Mr Oxley and Miss Isaac’s spellings:

Tomb   comb   bomb   climb   lamb   thumb   crumb  

Red words: accommodate   accompany     according

Challenge words: plumber    debt    catacombs

Mrs Mercer’s spellings:

Phone   home    rope    bone    rose    slope    nose  

Red words: move   prove    improve  

Challenge words:   alone   clone    saxophone   

Love to learn

For your love to learn task this week, we would like you to recreate one of the flags we will be looking at in thematic. You can choose from the flags of Mexico, U.S.A, Canada or the United Kingdom. How you make this flag is up to you. You can draw it with pencils, make a chigiri or mosaic collage, go all ‘Art Attack’ on it and make it out of clothes on the floor and photograph it  (with parent’s permission of course). You do not have to complete it in your Love to Learn books if you come up with a better way to pull this off so get creative.

Here's a clip from Art attack to inspire you!

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/JsHuNuoAfV0?playlist=JsHuNuoAfV0&autoplay=1&iv_load_policy=3&loop=1&start=

Messages:

It’s that exciting time of year again when our Year 5 and 6 pupils can apply to become Thrive Ambassadors.

This year, we’ll be selecting a smaller group so that we can provide more in-depth training with our Thrive practitioners. As a Thrive Ambassador, you will play a very special role in our school community, offering support to others, being a friendly face in the playground, and giving advice and comfort to children who may need someone to turn to.

We are looking for candidates who:

• Show excellent behaviour

• Care deeply about others

• Have good attendance

• Want to make a positive difference to our school

If you would like to apply, please write a letter to Mrs Winchcombe, explaining why you would make the perfect Thrive Ambassador - Please hand these into your teachers, who will pass them on to her. 

Deadline: Friday 19th September

Good luck – we can’t wait to hear from you!

Dates to remember:

18th September – Meet and greet for years 5 and 6 from 8.45am-9am in your child’s classroom. This is an opportunity to meet your child’s teaching team and get to hear about what to expect in the year ahead

25th September – Chilton School’s 50th Birthday

26th September – Thrive coffee morning 9am-10.30am in the studio – a chance to meet our well-being team

9th October - 2.45pm Year 5 and 6 Harvest assembly (in school hall with families invited to watch)

17th October – Final day of term

We hope you have a lovely week!

Miss Isaac, Mr Oxley and Mrs Mercer

English

In English this term we will be reading the story ‘Ice Trap’ by Meredith Hooper which tells the story of Ernest Shackleton’s expedition into Antarctica. Before reading it however, we have been learning all about Antarctica; where it is, what it’s like and what lives there. Did you know that the word arctic comes from the Greek word arktos, meaning bear and so Antarctica means ‘no bears’ as you won’t find any bears there?

Year 5 have been collecting vocabulary and writing some wonderful setting descriptions of the glaciers, icy cold waters and wildlife of Antarctica. Next week we will be researching the animals found in Antarctica and learning the skills needed to write a non-chronological report.

Maths

In maths this week, we have been looking at our knowledge of place value. We already knew about the ones, tens, hundreds and thousands column and so we have looked at the next column, ten thousands. Year 5 have really demonstrated their knowledge of numbers, understanding that no single column can have more than 9 in it. For instance, if you have 10 in your thousands column, you must exchange them for 1 ten thousand. We also discussed the difference between a number and a digit. If you’re not sure yourself, ask your child(ren).

Next week in maths, we will be ordering numbers up to 100,000 and rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100, 1000 and 10,000.

PSHE

This week in PSHE, we have been discussing the different forms courage can take. We asked questions like ‘Is doing the right thing always the brave thing?’ and ‘Is courage always visible?’. We learnt how being kind can inspire others to be kind but also causes chemical reactions in our brains. We later watched a short film called ‘The Silent Child’ which showed the struggle of a young girl name Libby who is deaf but had to be very brave as she was not getting the help she needed.

Next week we begin this term’s thematic topic ‘Across the Pond’ where will explore the history of North America and how it was ‘discovered’.

Love to Learn

Your love to learn this week is to decorate your Love to Learn book to reflect your amazing personalities. Please make sure, however you decorate it, that your name is very clear so that we can tell whose book it is!

Please bring them back in (whether you have completed the task or not) every Wednesday.

Spellings

Mr Oxley and Miss Isaac’s spellings:

Tomb   comb   bomb   climb   lamb   thumb   crumb  

Red words: accommodate   accompany     according

Challenge words: plumber    debt    catacombs

Mrs Mercer’s spellings:

Phone   home    rope    bone    rose    slope    nose  

Red words: move   prove    improve  

Challenge words:   alone   clone    saxophone   

Messages:

The password for all school logins such as TTRS and AR should now be update to Viking25 (note the capital V).

Dates to remember:

18th September – Meet and greet for years 5 and 6 from 8.45am-9am in your child’s classroom. This is an opportunity to meet your child’s teaching team and get to hear about what to expect in the year ahead

25th September – Chilton School’s 50th Birthday

26th September – Thrive coffee morning 9am-10.30am in the studio – a chance to meet our well-being team

9th October - 2.45pm Year 5 and 6 Harvest assembly (in school hall with families invited to watch)

17th October – Final day of term

We hope you have a lovely week!

Miss Isaac, Mr Oxley and Mrs Mercer