Half Term for Base 4!!

We have made it to the half term and what a packed half term it has been. I have been so impressed by how all of Base 4 have settled into being year 5's and taking more responsibility for their learning. They have all welcomed me into the school so well making it much easier for me to settle in and get to know them all.

We have finished our maths this term looking at the perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes (shapes made up of more than one rectangle) and the area of squares and rectangles in preparation for our Piet Mondrian painting challenge for after the half term. We have all tried really hard in maths learning new vocabulary and other ways of learning especially having a go at solving problems independently. After half term we will be moving onto multiplication and division focusing on common multiples, factors and prime numbers, all of which will incorporate our times tables (make sure you keep practising).

Our Literacy lessons have been linked with our History as we are becoming historical reporters and jumping back in time to 1829 to discover who George Stephenson was and why he is so famous today. We have been perfecting our sentences and grouping sentences into paragraphs this week ready to write our newspaper reports after the half term. Following this we will be using the text ('The Railway Children') to start writing descriptively using a range of vocabulary and then moving on to investigating writing letters using formal and informal language.

We have finally finished our Learning Journey book covers which will be displayed around our classroom to start showing off the children's hard work. Our trip this week allowed us to deepen our understanding of engines and the history of engines, including how these engines have been transported around the world, to places such as Tasmania and India. After half term we are going to be focussing on our local area, focusing on the geography of the area and the impact of the railway and canal. Our Science lessons will be moving from gravity to friction, looking at how these work against each other and the effects of different surfaces. We will also be working on our drama linking this to music.

A huge well done to all of Base 4 for their effort in the Harvest festival, you should all be very proud of yourselves and your hard work putting it together with your own ideas.
Thank you all for your hard work this term and I look forward to seeing you well-rested on Monday 2nd November, enjoy your half term!

Reminders

The new set of 20 spellings have now been given to all children to be learnt along with the weekly spellings. Times tables still need to be learnt — we really need to master these! Don't forget your homework project I set you a couple of weeks ago, you can be as creative as you would like to be!