Otterbourne Church of England
Primary School
With God's love, all are encouraged to thrive
TRUST
RESPECT
DETERMINATION
TRUST
RESPECT
DETERMINATION
TRUST
RESPECT
Year 5 (Kangaroos) (pre-2022)
Welcome to Kangaroo Class!
During the children’s first year in Upper Key Stage 2, the pupils in Year 5 begin to take on greater levels of responsibility within the school. They are, for example, offered the opportunity to become school librarians. They are encouraged to become more independent in their learning, taking on responsibility for their personal organisation and study.
The Year 5 teaching team is:
- Kangaroo Class Teacher - Mrs Cook
- Koala Class Teacher - Miss Hutchings
- Science Teacher - Mrs Compton
- Learning Support Assistant - Mrs Johnson
Homework
In Year 5, pupils will have two pieces of ‘formal’ homework each week. In order to prepare them for Year 6 and life beyond primary school, children are encouraged to spend 30 minutes on each piece of homework. Homework will be set on a Wednesday, and should be handed in on the following Monday. These pieces of homework are:
- English/ Topic - Handed out at the start of each half term with activities to be completed weekly, and handed in each Monday.
- Maths - Handed out on a Wednesday to be brought back to school on the Monday.
There will also be a list of spelling words handed out every other week for children to focus on and learn in preparation for a test in school.
We will look towards using the online platform of Google Classroom to set homework, as well as other online learning activities.
Reading
Regular weekly reading is encouraged. Children should read 5 times a week, and should record this independently in their reading diary. If 5 reads are not recorded in their diary, they will spend time reading with a teacher in school.
P.E.
Although there may be occasional changes due to unforeseen circumstances, in general, indoor P.E. will take place on a Thursday afternoon, and outdoor P.E. will take place on a Friday afternoon. Please ensure that your child has appropriate kit in school with them on these days.
Library Time
Our allocated library time in Year 5 is on Tuesday afternoon.
Year 5 Topic Newsletter - Autumn Term
Friday 10th June 2022
Happy Friday Everyone!
We've had a super week back - learning lots about the Queen's Reign and what key events have happened during it too.
Today, the whole school enjoyed a Jubilee lunch outside and we planted a tree as part of the Her Majesty's Green Canopy Campaign.
A few pics from a memorable day!
Enjoy the weekend,
Best wishes
Mrs Cook & Mrs Harrision
Jubilee Lunch
Friday 27th May 2022
Happy Friday Everyone!
The Kangaroos have had a super half-term, which has flown by! We've learnt all about fractions, decimals, and percentages. We have mostly mastered angles - different types, use of protractors, finding missing values on a straight line and around a point. We've written instructions on how to play the the world's first team ball game - Pok-a-Tok, as well as designing and making their own Mayan masks! See the pics - lot of fun and mess with a very striking outcome!
Have a really good Half-Term break!
Best wishes,
Mrs Cook and Mrs Harrison
Making of the Mayan Masks
More making...
Friday, 25th March
Happy Friday Everyone!
What glorious weather it is!
We've had another super week in Kangaroo Class. I'm very proud to say how well their writing is developing - I've been 'wowed!' several times this week! In Maths, we are continuing with decimal fractions and we have started our new Topic - Environmental Engineers. This has already inspired a few of our class members to pursue a career in Engineering! Fantastic!
Today was our 'Break the Rules Day!'. Not too many were broken here in Kangaroos, but a fun day was enjoyed by all.
Enjoy the super weather over the weekend,
Best wishes,
Mrs C & Mrs H : )
Friday, 18th March
We've had another very productive week at school!
Today, we had our annual Otterbourne's Got Talent Show! A 'very well done!' to all of you that took part, and an extra 'well done!' to the winners in KS1, Annabelle and Clementine, and KS2 'The Steves'!
We have now finished our clay pots - please see pics below. Next week, we will start our new topic - Environmental Engineers, where we will focus our learning on green/sustainable architecture.
Have a super weekend!
Mrs C and Mrs H
Greek Style Clay Pots
Friday 11th March
Happy Friday!
We've had a super week - building websites, swimming, clay pot making and much more!
In Maths, we are still continuing with fractions and will soon be moving on to decimal fractions. In English, the children finished their Snow Globe writing, as inspired by local author Anne Wan.
As we now nearing the end of our Greek topic, the children had the opportunity to build a website using Google sites, hopefully one more session will complete this. In Art, they made Greek style clay pots, which now just need to be painted (pics to follow).
Swimming started this week and I must say, I'm very proud of their behaviour and how they represented the school - well done you guys! It was great to see them in the pool - they absolutely loved it! It is so good to be able to be in some sort of 'normal' again, finally!
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs C & Mrs H
Friday 4th March
Welcome back! Hope you all had a relaxing and fun-filled half-term.
It has been great to welcome the children back and they have settled really well into class and school routines.
This week we have continued with fractions, which they are all doing tremendously well with. We had a fantastic, very informative visit from local author Anne Wan - the children loved her workshop. Many were inspired to buy the books, which we have used a writing stimulation in English this week.
This week also saw World Book Day - such a great atmosphere throughout the school!
Have a super weekend,
Mrs C & Mrs H
Thursday 17th February
Kangaroo's have enjoyed a very busy week - we've had Greek Day and Spring into Fitness week! We've continued to learn and consolidate our knowledge and application of fractions, and in English completed our non-chronological reports on the Ancient Greek Olympics.
Please see pics below!
Have a super half-term!
Mrs C & Mrs H
Spring into Fitness Week
Wednesday 16th February
Friday, 28th January 2022
Happy Friday!
I can't believe we are nearing the end of January already! It's been another busy week of learning in Kangaroos.
In Maths, all children have been amazing at converting improper fractions into mixed number fractions and vice versa. In English, we have continued to explore different myths and the children are far more confident at recognising and including; expanded noun phrases, prepositional phrases and relative clauses, within their writing.
As part of our Topic, we are creating a class Google Slideshow, which we hope to finish next week and I will post for you all to view!
Have a super weekend!
Mrs Cook x
Friday 21st January 2022
Here we are at the end of another busy and productive week!
We have now finished our unit on formal written methods to multiply and divide - all children approached this with great resilience and are far more confident with their times table and use of efficient methods. Next week - fractions!
In English, we have seen some super writing - great use of powerful language and varied sentence structures to engage the reader. More unravelling of myths and descriptive writing next week.
Topic - we've now explored the great Greek legacy and children now know what the Greeks did for us - they really enjoyed skimming through books, searching for information relating the 7 main categories of PLASTIK! (see pics!)
We look forward to another busy, inquisitive and fun-filled week of learning next week.
In the meantime, have a super weekend!
Best wishes,
Mrs Cook x
Friday, 14th January 2022
Happy Friday Everyone! What a super week we've had! Kangaroos have been brilliantly focused on their learning. Perseverance = achievement. It's been an absolute pleasure to observe their determination and resilience, particularly in maths, where all children have a cracked efficient written method to multiply. In English and guided reading - we have made great progress with our precis skills and thoroughly enjoyed learning about Greek Myths and writing blurbs for particular myths.
Topic kicked off with a slow reveal of Greek artefacts (see pics) and we look forward to learning more over the coming weeks!
Have a super weekend,
Best wishes,
Mrs C x
Topic Reveal
Friday 7th January 2022
Happy New Year!
It has been wonderful to welcome everyone back and to hear all about the fun and excitement the children enjoyed over the holidays.
We've kicked off the week as we mean to go on - with perseverance and determination! In English, we have explored the similarities and differences between myths, legends and fables. We will be delving deeper into a few chosen myths next week. In maths, all children have shown great resilience when learning to multiply a 2 digit number by a 2 digit number. Well done all of you! We also learnt about the importance of digital well-being and how we need to be safe and aware of the negative uses of the internet, as well as the positives.
We look forward to a full week of learning next week and starting our new topic fore this term - The Glorious Greeks!
Have a super weekend,
Best wishes,
Mrs Cook
Friday 17th December
Wow! I can't believe it's nearly Christmas!
We've had a super week in Kanagaroos! Everyone has been busy, enthusiastically sewing their river birds - and what a treat they are too! Please see the pictures below - their creativity, effort and determination has blown me away this week! They are all A-MA-ZING!
We are all very much in the Christmas spirit - and whilst sewing have enjoyed many a merry sing-a-long in class. As well as this, we had the Yr R Nativity at the Church, which is always a very special time of the year. We look forward to carols around the Christmas Tree tomorrow and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderfully Happy New Year!
With an abundance of sparkle and festive spirit,
Mrs C xx
D.T: River Birds
Friday 26th November
This week we have been busy writing formal letters to a local councillor expressing our concerns about plans to expand Otterbourne Waterworks. The children have worked hard generating persuasive words and phrases to encourage them to rethink the proposed plans. I have included an example below of just one of the formal, persuasive letters!
In Maths we have been exploring multiples, factors and prime numbers. We found out that prime numbers are numbers that only have two factors - 1 and itself. We also found out that numbers which aren’t prime numbers, are called composite numbers. We carried out some investigations around prime numbers, and found various interesting patterns such as a prime number added to another prime number above 2, will always equal an even number, and if the digits add up to a multiple of 3, for example, 51 = 6 (a multiple of 3) then it is not a prime number.
In the afternoons, we have learnt about a range of subjects - past and present uses of the River Itchen in Topic, and fossils in our Science lesson.
Have a super weekend!
Mrs C xx
Friday, 19th November 2021
We have enjoyed a very comfortable end to our week with pyjama day – raising awareness and money for Children in Need!
Throughout the week, we have been very busy learning about multiples and factors in Maths, words ending with ance in spelling, and beginning to put together arguments for why an extension to the Waterworks in Otterbourne should not go ahead in our English lessons. We have also started to research river birds, which will pave the way for our DT project this term. In addition to this, we have also been perfecting our balance sequences in PE.
We look forward to another busy, fun filled week next week!
Have a good weekend,
Mel Cook x
Friday 12th November, 2021
Kangaroos have enjoyed a busy week preparing for our Remembrance Service yesterday. We looked at a range of war poems and poets - highlighting key words and phrases which we then used to create our own Remembrance Poems. Please see below!
Also, this week, we got the P.E equipment out in the hall - they were very excited about this and increased with confidence with each turn they had, which was great to see! In Art this week, we've been colour mixing - creating and naming our own colours (again see below for pics!). The children last week collected data to create bar charts on the school playground, and today we consolidated this learning in the classroom by creating bar charts to show favourite pets and flavours of crisp.
Have a super weekend!
Mel Cook x
Remembrance, Art & P.E (balance & symmetry) photo's:
Friday 5th November, 2021
Welcome back - I hope you all enjoyed the half-term week!
Kangaroos have come back to school engaging in and brilliantly embracing our learning for this term. This week has seen a visit to our brand new, high-quality and high-functioning ICT suite. Learning new skills in PPT and Excel - both linked to our topic of Rolling Rivers.
We have been learning and preparing for 'Time to Shine' day; creating adverts to persuade children (and their parents!) to buy high-visibility jackets, which are available to buy now. The children have applied the persuasive techniques of alliteration, repetition, flattery, presumption, rhetorical questions and slogans to encourage/convince people to buy these essential high-visibility jackets. Their adverts will be on display around the school and on the website!
We have also been busy preparing for our Church Collective Worship, which we shared with the school today. The theme of our worship is 'Belonging', which is focused around the Creation story and how humans belong on the planet all together. We have uploaded a recording of this so that you can watch and enjoy!
Have a lovely weekend!
Best wishes,
Mrs Cook x
Happy Half-Term Everyone!
Kangaroos have had a great week - exploring expanded noun phrases, subordinate clauses and conjunctions to produce some quality descriptive writing based around our class book The Journey. Maths was rather messy - see pics! The children really enjoyed this and it was a great opportunity to confirm strengths within their learning.
Have a relaxing and enjoyable half-term!
I look forward to seeing the Kangaroos bouncing back in to school in a week or so!
Best wishes,
Mrs Cook xx
Friday Blog!
Happy Friday everyone! As half-term nears, we've once again enjoyed the beautiful countryside and nature that is upon our doorstep. Starting off with a hearty walk to the River Itchen, the children rotated around three activities: measuring the depth of the river (with the help of a wild swimmer!), sketching and asking members of the public questions about their reasons to visit. In PSHE, we have learnt about what it takes and means to overcome challenges. The children's collaboration and speaking/listening skills are progressing really well - expressing and agreeing/disagreeing (politely and with respect) with each others opinions. Enjoy the pictures and I look forward to seeing you next week, at Parents Evening.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Cook x
PSHE
Our Visit to the Itchen at Otterbourne - Monday 11th October 2021
Water Meadow Photos - Wednesday 6th October 2021
Friday, 8th October 2021
Wow! What a busy week! We had an excellent visit to the Water Meadows (photo's to follow). The weather couldn't have been more perfect - it was a stunning. The children rotated around four different activities - all of which they thoroughly enjoyed (as did the staff!). I think the all-round favourite was the St Cross Hospital tour - so very informative and beautiful. The children were thoroughly engaged at all times and having chips for lunch was the icing on the cake to a superb day! A big thank you to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, and the Brothers and volunteer guides from the St Cross Hospital.
One of our activities was to describe the setting....here are a few snippets:
Amongst the grass, the trees spindly fingers grasp the air with St Catherine's Hill towering behind it. The clock tower looms over the serrated flint wall. Rayyan Piper and Henry Baker
The snow-white butterfly flies past the ancient trees. The luscious green grass sways gently in the warm Autumn breeze. The vibrant purple flower sprouts against the tall, green grass blades, as the old gnarly tree stand on the far left of the meadow. Ellie L-B & Molly H
As I walk around the grassy-green habitat, I can the warm Autumn breeze on my face. I hear the clock chiming in the whistle of the wind. As the leaves sway on the old, gnarly tree, the magnificent St. Catherine's Hill stands proud in the sun. I can taste the bitter sweetness of the air on my tongue. As I end my piece of writing, I look up to the sun... Arthur T and Henry S
Friday, 1st October 2021
What a great week we've had! Today saw our first visit to the church for our Harvest Festival - it was really lovely to be there. The Kangaroos and Koalas wrote some wonderful descriptive pieces of writing based on a Harvest video. Here is a selection of their writing:
Deep red leaves gaze into the drifting sky, whilst beautiful birds feed on the ripe, juicy berries. Hay bales glisten in the Autumn sun and the green grass turns into golden wheat. Long grass sways in the warm Autumn breeze and machines go along cutting the crops into neat lines.
Henry Baker
The golden corn sways gracefully in the soft, Autumn breeze. As the lime-green apples fall triumphantly onto the emerald grass, they wait to be collected. Night sweeps over the sky, while the Harvest moons glows bright.
Emily Lewis
As the sun shines bright,
the food turns ripe.
In the evening mist,
the leaves scatter down without making a sound.
That's why we thank you, Dear God.
Henry Softly
Friday, 24th September
We have really enjoyed settling back in school life, getting used to routines again and finally, starting our curriculum learning! Our focus this week has been collaborative learning and I must say all Kangaroos have embraced this new skill with some excellent outcomes – for reading, writing and teamwork. In Maths, we started exploring the place value of digits within numbers up to the value of 1,000,000. We kicked off our 'Rolling Rivers' topic by visiting the woods, and using our collaborative skills, worked together in small groups to build our own mini rivers using a range of natural materials. Our English lessons have been based on the book 'Journey' - generating word banks full of exciting descriptive language and collaboratively and independently, composing different sentence structures around the images from this book. Today, we brought the school week to end with a whole school write based around the discovery of a time capsule on our school grounds. The children took this challenge on with a great positivity, from which there were some super continuations of the story. Well done, Kangaroos!
Have a super weekend!
Mrs Cook x
Rolling Rivers - creating their own at the woods!
