And so we reach the end of the term - Christmas around the corner; ready to say hello to 2022... but there was work still left to do!
Maths
Area and perimeter - our last of the year.
A test nearly caused panic, but the class did not fear,
Their drive and hard work came to the fore,
And each was rewarded, with a very good score.

English
Reaching Monday with the write-up not done
We need to get it finished before all the fun!
Beautiful stories. They'd make Kipling proud,
If you have a chance to read them I'm sure you'll be wowed.

Friday
Finish off the sewing - some wonderful trees!
Out for a game of dodgeball - a few scuffed knees.
Christingle service - how nice to be together,
Singing and smiling - hooray for the weather!

Now maybe my poem is a little contrived,
But that's all I can muster, sat here in Year 5.
It's been a lovely week, and an excellent term,
We'll see you in January - there's much more to learn!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Mr Pester

​Photos below: finishing of 'Just So' stories; Christmas sewing with Mrs Bonnett and Mrs West; Christingle service with year 5's '12 Days of Christmas' posters.
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Well, it has been a long and hard week for the children of Year 5 but here we are at the end of it, with Christmas on the horizon. This week has been jam-packed with assessments, starting with spelling on Monday, then maths assessments on Tuesday and Wednesday, ending with a reading paper yesterday. The class were not deterred, and faced the challenges with optimism and a positive attitude - they have all done themselves proud, and myself and all of the Year 5 staff are proud of them too - well done everyone!

Friday was left free of assessment to give the class a nice end to the week - with problem solving Friday being a big hit as always! They worked through some tricky questions in teams and had fun along the way (photos are below).

The Christmas hamper is continuing to grow, and is looking splendid - who knew that so many tasty and exciting things were purple? We have done a fantastic job of selling raffle tickets and I am looking forward to finding out which lucky person will win our hamper. The deadline for hamper money and ticket return is Monday, so there is still some time to frantically sell over the weekend if you have any tickets left!

Next week we will finish the 'Just So Stories' unit of English, and I am very much looking forward to reading the children's finished pieces. Afternoons will be increasingly reserved for Christmas activities as the excitement builds for the festive period!

Thank you for your hard work this week and have a good weekend,

​Mr Pester

I will begin with an apology for the lack of a blog post last week. As such, this will be a bumper edition.

Last week was bookended with science! On Monday afternoon, the children began their 'slippy shoe' experiment report, laying the groundwork for the next lesson by thinking of their own hypotheses to explain what they think will happen when a shoe is dragged across a variety of surfaces at a variety of different angles. What they were all waiting for happened on that Friday though - the experiment! Working in groups, the class excelled at measuring the force taken to move the shoes and showed fantastic teamwork to complete the task - well done everyone!

Art this week led to some very sticky situations - glue, glue and more glue, as the class were tasked with testing their pottery designs by making models using PVA and newspaper. Some designs looked more like pots or vases than others, but all had a great time experimenting and creating (it is much harder than it sounds).

The last two weeks have seen the start of a new English unit based upon Rudyard Kipling's 'Just So Stories'. The class now know the stories inside out. On Thursday and Friday, we began planning for our own animal-based story, and the ideas so far have been imaginative, funny and creative. I am really looking forward to seeing the finished pieces.

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