Welcome to Year 5 Maple Class!

Email: maple@bentfield.essex.sch.uk

World War II Rationing

To think about what it would have been like to live during the war, we thought about the amount of food families would have had during rationing. We had a go at making some ‘crunchies’ and a cake made with mashed potatoes. We then tried to design a menu for a family of 4 for a day. A lot of us ended up using almost all our meat on the first day of the week! It showed us how difficult it will have been for people living then. If you would like to have a go at making the crunchies at home, the recipe is in the pictures below. 

Harvest Assembly

For harvest assembly, we put together a presentation explaining all about harvest for the very start of the assembly. There were lots of words in our script that could be spelt out of the letters in the word 'harvest', so we made the letters and in groups, made the different words as they were said by the narrators. 

Teamwork Towers

In our PSHE work, we were thinking about how individuals can impact on groups. We had a challenge to build the tallest tower we could in five minutes. First of all, we had no directions other than what to do and what the challenge was. The second time around we had defined roles in the groups. The second time around went better for most groups; we discussed that this was due to learning from previous mistakes and also having defined roles so that not everyone was trying to do everything at once.

Gilwell Day 1

A smooth journey down to Gilwell and we arrived and put our bags in a room where we ate lunch. We had to wait to find out where we were sleeping as it was still being cleaned. After lunch and a play, we had our first activities. Group one had problem solving, followed by the gauntlet and group to started with backwoods cooking then had problem solving. We then collected our bags and got into our rooms, setting up for night. It wasn't long before we went to the dining room, and had BBQ chicken, roast potatoes and vegetables with chocolate cake for dessert. We then had a bit of time back in our rooms before playing loads of games on the field by our building before hot chocolate and birthday cake and bed.

Gilwell Day 2

Breakfast at 8am this morning was sausage bap with scrambled egg along with a selection of cereals and toast. It wasn't long until we were into our first activities. Today both groups did: pioneering, fencing, fire lighting and climbing. In between we had lunch of cheese focaccia and soup. We managed to fit in a trip to the gift shop before dinner of burger and chips. Our evening activity was fun songs round the campfire before heading back to our rooms for a quick hot chocolate before bed. 

Gilwell Day 3

This morning, before breakfast, we packed up all of our things and hoovered our rooms before pancakes for breakfast. We completed our final activities: gauntlet for group 2, backwoods cooking for group 1 and orienteering for both groups to finish off. Lunch was sausage roll and beans before heading back on the coach to school. A fantastic trip and the children did themselves and the school proud. 

Digging for Victory!

As part of our World War II work, understanding what it was like to live during the Blitz, we went to our allotment to plant some potatoes, just as people would have done to have enough food for them and their communities. Later on, we will cook some rationing recipes that include potatoes as well. 

World War Two Games

A lot of the focus of our history work this term is about what it would have been like as a child living during The Blitz. As part of this, we used our first outdoor learning session to have a go at playing hopscotch, canon, jacks and skipping. After this, we went down to the field where the children came up with their own games using the natural environment, just as children would have done during World War Two.

Autumn Term

Our topic for the autumn term is, 'The Blitz' where we will be focusing on learning about what is was like for children living during that part of World War II. Our main text will be Kingdom by the Sea by Robert Westall, which we will study during reading lessons and use as inspiration for our writing as well. To see what we will be learning about in other subjects and for some more detail, look at the planning overview below...

Homework

Homework should be completed from the homework grid. Children should choose one task a week to complete and hand it in on a Tuesday. Homework books will be handed out again on a Thursday ready for the children to complete their next piece of homework. The homework grid is available below as well as being stuck in your child's homework book.

Regular reading at home should still be happening. A combination of reading alone and reading to an adult or sibling is a good idea for year 5 pupils. Times tables and division facts underpin so many areas of mathematics that it is crucial that children know them well. The aim is that they can respond within a few seconds to any calculation given rather than having to count through times tables to get there. It is important to practise regularly to maintain this important knowledge. The links below can support with this. 

Spelling a crucial area to work on in year 5 to consolidate spellings learned in previous years and also to learn new spelling patterns. In your child's homework book is a grid of activities that they can do to practise their spellings at home as well as which spelling patterns we will be learning about during the term. Below is a link to Spelling Frame, which is an excellent programme to practise spellings. Their login is stuck in their homework book.

Spelling and Times Tables Links