What a busy April we have had! He is just a snippet of the children’s learning.
Our theme in History has focused on Maya civilisation. The children have been researching how the Mayas ruled and compared it to how the Anglo-Saxons ruled, using a variety of resources. Investigated the location of the Maya civilisation. Looking in more detail, at what modern-day countries their city-states and temples were located in, what hemisphere it’s in, the climate and what direction you’d need to travel from the UK to get there.
They children were also lucky enough to investigate a variety of Maya artefacts.
During Literacy the children have been learning about a Maya myth called The hero Twins. They have been creating setting and character descriptions, using figurative language to engage the readers, which lead to the children recreating the myth, improving the original with their own descriptive language.
During Maths the children have been learning their decimal number bonds to 1 and 10 answering questions like these 1.1 + 8.9 = 10 2.1 + 7.9 = 10 1.2 + 8.8 = 10 2.2 + 7.8 = 10 as well as missing number problems e.g. 0.2 + ⃝ = 1 or 3.6 + ⃝ = 10.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths–games/hit–the–button
Using this game will help your child practise decimal number bonds to 1 and also 10 in a fun and engaging way. Can they beat their previous score? Can they beat your score?
Not only have the children been learning decimal numbers but also angle estimating, reading and drawing as well as measuring perimeters.
In science this month, we have been continuing our work on materials and specifically how to separate materials using varying techniques. Year 5 were set the challenge of being marooned on a desert island and in desperate need of drinking water. Each group were given a sample of sea water whereby they needed to separate all the polluted items from it and make it as clean as possible to be consumed. The children used techniques such as removing by hand, sieving, using a magnet to remove magnetic items and filtering. However, the children soon realised that the sea water was in fact a salt water solution. In order to remove the salt, the children placed their water samples on the window sill to allow the water to evaporate, thus leaving the salt crystals behind as they’re too heavy to evaporate with the water. The children did noticed that to collect the water, it would need to be condensed by coming into contact with something cool.
