Friday 21st April

Welcome to this term’s first blog from Year 5F.

Maths – The children have been investigating rounding decimal numbers. They began the week by rounding a decimal number to its nearest whole number. They used the tenths column to help them decide whether to round up or down. They remembered the rule from earlier this year…1 to 4 hit the floor and 5 to 9 climb the vine! Take a look at how they did it…

23.14…lies between 23 and 24…has 1 in the tenths column…1 tells you to round down (1-4 hit the floor) …so 23.14 would round to 23

44.58…lies between 44 and 15…has 5 in the tenths column…5 tells you to round up (5-9 climb the vine) …so 44.48 would round to 45

Later in the week, the children moved on to rounding numbers to one decimal place. It was the same process, they just used the hundredths column to decide whether to round the tenths column up or down. Take a look at how they did this using the same number as before…

23.14…lies between 23.1 and 23.2…has 4 in the hundredths column…4 tells you to round down (1-4 hit the floor) …so 23.14 would round to 23.1

44.58…lies between 44.5 and 45.6…has 8 in the tenths column…8 tells you to round up (5-9 climb the vine) …so 44.48 would round to 45.6

Why not try rounding decimal numbers to the nearest whole number using this online football game?...

English – The children have been looking at the spelling rules for words with the silent letters wr…mb…kn. Also, they have begun a new topic called BATTLE CRIES. What is a battle cry we hear you ask. Well here’s the dictionary definition…

battle cry is a noun that means…

1. a shout uttered by soldiers going into battle

2. a slogan used to rally the supporters of a campaign or movement

Taken from Collins English Dictionary.

Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

The children have looked at three separate battle cries. The first is given by a woman to the people of her village to rally them into battle against an evil creature called the Tyrannoflax. The second is taken from a scene in the film Gladiator. A Roman General (played by Russell Crowe) gives a battle cry to his soldiers before entering into war. The final one is taken from the film Braveheart. William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson) rallies the Scottish army before facing England near Falkirk in 1298. Take a look at the scene from Gladiator to give you an idea of what a battle cry looks like…

Topic – The children have begun their new topic all about the Ancient Greeks. They have been thinking about what they already know. Did you know that Greece was where the Olympics first began? Did you know that Greece is a hot country in the Mediterranean Sea? Did you know that Greece is made up of lots of islands? Did you know that its capital city is Athens? Well the children did as well as lots more interesting facts!

Science – The children have been planning and carrying out an investigation this week. They have been thinking about air resistance and how it works. They have made a spinner (similar to a sycamore seed) and thought how it falls to the ground.

Then they made predictions about what might happen if they have added a weight (paperclip) to it and if that effects how quickly it drops to the ground. The children recorded their results and checked if their results matched their prediction.

Here is our CERTIFICATE WINNER for this week. She won it for having a wonderful week back in school after the Easter holidays. She has worked her socks off and become a Math’s Wizard this week. A big well done from all of us.

All that remains to say is have a fabulous weekend and we’ll see you again on Monday.

Finally, have your say.  Each week you will have a chance to decide on which new song we will learn in next week's whole school assembly.  Click on the link below to take part in an online vote.