Month: March 2015

Information for families working with pupils in Class 5

Homework tasks in Class 5 this half-term will link to the key curriculum areas, and learning skills, that we will be focusing on during the school day. These are as follows:

1) Geography – learning about rivers by studying the River Thames and the Amazon River as case studies;

2) Literacy (spelling) – recapping the words from Year 5 target spelling words, learning homophones and homonyms, learning words with verb prefixes;

3) D.T. – designing and making a model bridge;

4) Literacy (core skills)– using direct speech accurately, ensuring the best presentation of work and checking work for errors (try to progress to the Advanced work and complete as many tasks as possible);

5) Mathematics – continuing to work on mental maths skills as well as focusing on written problem solving activities; and

6) Literacy – reading comprehension skills and learning how to write adventure stories;

7) Science – the life and work of famous scientists;

8) R.E. – practice for our Post-Resurrection Service at the Cathedral;

9) International Week – Singapore; and

10) Debating Club – all children in Key Stage 2 will be invited to join a new Debating Club that will run after-school on Thursdays – it is designed to develop pupil’s speaking and listening skills.

These tasks are in addition to the usual recurring tasks of reading, times tables and spelling practice.

The usual structure for homework in Class 5 will be as follows (please note some weeks this usual structure may not apply due to special circumstances, e.g. preparing for/recounting a special event):

Monday – test preparation

The children will be set 10 new words to learn and write in a sentence (sentences should link to a piece of punctuation that the pupils are currently learning about). Tests will be sat on Friday with an expectation that the children score 100%.

Tuesday – foundation subject links

The class will complete a task that enhances their learning in a foundation subject area – see blog links above for examples.

Wednesday – Mathletics

Pupils are set a range of different tasks on the Mathletics website that relate to current curriculum areas.

Thursday – Literacy/Mathematics

The students will be given a task that links to current topics being covered in their Literacy/Mathematics lessons – see blog links above for examples.

Singapore is the little country with big impact. It is one of the smallest countries in the world yet it’s one of the most powerful and influential and its citizens enjoy one of the comfortable and affluent (affluent means you have got enough money to spend on luxury items and treats) lifestyles in the world. Plus, the country is not even 50 years old yet! Like London, it has a mixture of many different people from all over the world with many different languages, religions, traditions and fashions.

We will be mainly studying the history of Singapore and its physical and human geography. We can learn about science through the physical geography of the Singapore and learn about R.E., Art and D.T. through the human geography of the island.

Read the information below, and follow the links, to learn more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Physical Geography

Location

Singapore is in South-East Asia, near to Malaysia and Indonesia. It is an island, like Britain, and it is extremely small. Because it is an island, Singapore has lots of coastline which means that lots of boats sail to the island – we will learn why this is important later.

Climate

Singapore lies almost exactly on the Equator, which means that it is always hot there. This means all day and all night, and every day of the year it is hot. It does not have seasons – so no winter and no summer. Every day there is 12 hours of daytime and 12 hours of night time, the sun rises and sets at the same time. All you can say about changes in the weather is that ‘sometimes it will rain and sometimes it won’t’ but all the time it will be hot.

Human Geography

People

Singapore has a very big mix of people that originally came from all over the world and whose family, at some point, decided to migrate there. A lot of people’s families in Singapore originally came from China, Malaysia and Indian, and there is also a lot of people who have recently migrated from Europe, America and Australia – it is a big mix of people, just like London. In fact, in Singapore there is a group of people known as the Peranakan community which can only be found in and around the city-state. And this big mix of people is the key to understanding life in Singapore.

Religion

Because there is such a big mix of people from all over the world there is a big mix of religions as well. In Singapore, there are a lot of Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Taoists (it is a religion originally from China). It is very tolerant of different religions and people of faith get along easily.

Food

The big mix of people leads to a big mix at the dinner table. Eating is a national sport in Singapore! The delicious food comes from all over the world, just like its citizens, with peranakan food a particular highlight.

Art

There are a lot of modern Asian artistic trends visible in Singapore. Modern Asian art mixes traditional artistic trends (often Chinese in origin) with modern themes to produce something new. We will focus on peranakan artwork and in particular we will focus on peranakan plates.

Design Technology

Singapore is home to some breath-taking architecture and lots of exciting design trends can be seen just by walking around the island.

History

Britain and Singapore

Singapore celebrates its 50^th birthday this year (on August 9^th); it is 50 years since Singapore gained independence from Britain. The island used to be an important part of the British Empire for many years, but before the British arrived Singapore used to be rainforest and almost no-one lived there. The British – led by Sir Stamford Raffles – created an island where people could buy and sell things, this is what has made Singapore a successful country.

Singapore and WW2

During WW2, the Japanese Army invaded and occupied the island for 3 years. This was humiliating for the British, who ruled the country at the time. After the Japanese were defeated at the end of WW2, Singapore decided to become independent but it took until 1965 for the country to become fully independent.

Lee Kuan Yew

One man has completed dominated life in Singapore – Lee Kuan Yew. He died in March this year and he was mourned by millions of Singaporeans. Although Singapore is a democracy, Lee has dominated politics so much that he ruled for over 30 years and now his son rules the country. He is credited with building Singapore into a strong and wealthy country.

If you’d like to learn more about International Week activities from previous years, click on the links below:

Click here for information about Nepal

Click here for information about China

Click here and here for information about Mexico

Click here for information about Ghana

Click here, here and here for information about Jamaica

In our Design Technology lessons this half-term we will be researching, designing and making bridges with moving parts. Our D.T. sessions will link to our Geography sessions on rivers.

As part of our geography-based River Study of the Thames, we will be learning about the many bridges that cross the river near to us in Southwark. Of course, we will focus on the grand, old Tower Bridge, as it is one of the world’s most famous bridges, but we will also focus on the different types of bridge that are local to us. (Parents/family members, if you’d like to participate in some further learning activities outside of school, The Tower Bridge Exhibition hosts an excellent and informative ‘Bridges of the World’ section that would be beneficial for the children, however a ticket would need to be purchased).

We will, also, be learning how to make precise technical drawings and how to evaluate plans during the construction phase.

 

During the first half of the Summer Term, Class 5 will be studying rivers. We will build on the previous work that the class completed on this subject by using case studies to compare and contrast two different rivers.

The first river we will study is our local one – the River Thames. We are lucky to live near to one of the world’s most famous rivers, and we will be conducting some fieldwork by undertaking a River Study of the South Bank towards Shad Thames, where we will examine the human geography in and around the river.

In addition, we will study the physical geography of the River Thames, by looking at it as a tidal river and an estuary.

Our second river will be the Amazon River in South America. The Amazon is another one of the world’s most famous rivers. We will be comparing and contrasting the human use of the river with that of the Thames. In addition, we will study the physical features of the Amazon by examining it as an example of a river delta and a drainage basin.

 

 

The Somewhere Special Project Exhibition was a great opportunity for the children to showcase the work they had completed on their special place. It was fantastic to see the huge variety of locations chosen and that so many pupils had chosen to research parts of the world that they had visited personally or locations where their family live.

Thank you to all family members that helped the children complete their projects, the time and effort that had been given to producing the final outcome was clear to see.

Please take a moment to view the photos below and leave a comment on the blog.

 

Class 5 visited the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms to deepen their understanding of life during the Blitz in London. It was fascinating the see the actual rooms that the British War Cabinet, and military leaders, used during one of the most important periods in Britain’s history.

Leave a comment below about your experiences of the day and what you now know about life in London during the Blitz.

A very Happy World Book Day from Class 5!