Barbados Class Year 5
Autumn 1 2023
The children in Barbados have made a fantastic start to the year. They have adapted to the increasing pace and pressures of life in Year 5. Already we have completed several units, continued with our swimming and improved with every flute session. And this is only the first half term!
In English, the children have created their own resolution and endings to the Iron Man by Ted Hughes. Alongside this, Barbados has produced some amazing pieces of art using pencil, pen, oil pastels and water colours to imitate the book’s illustrator, Chris Mould.
In Maths, we have been revisiting place value and ordering & comparing decimals. The children have been engaged in the “Goal Free” questions.
The first Geography unit – “Mapping” has been completed and the children have been busy learning how to play the flute!
Barbados has enjoyed their hourly sessions at Oxley Swimming Pool on a Tuesday. Everyone is now confident getting into the water. Some have learnt/improved on skills learnt before Year 5. Hopefully they will continue to grow in water confidence once the sessions have finished at the end of this term.
March 2023
We seem to get busier and busier in Barbados. Lots has happened!
The main content of our English lessons this term has been looking at the poem “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes. The children have acted it out, read it and written character descriptions for the 3 main characters – The Highwayman, Bess and Tim the ostler.
In maths, the main focus has been heavily on fractions. Everyone has worked incredibly hard on learning about numerators, denominators, adding, subtracting and multiplying fractions. The past few weeks has been taken up with learning about calculating perimeter and the area of rectangles and component shapes.
In Geography, Barbados has learnt about natural disasters including hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis. In addition, we have looked at and compared the UK to California.
Other exciting activities have included our visit to Paignton Zoo, World Book Day and Red Nose Day. Recently it was British Science Week and Barbados carried out a variety of activities including “Biscuit Bonanza” (biscuit dunking), Fingerprints and “Bridge Blunder”. A lot of fun was had and it is evident from our curriculum floor books which contain photos of the events.
Two terms down, with the summer term to go. Lots to cover before the move to Year!
Happy Easter from Barbados
February 2023
This year is zooming by with so much happening in Barbados. Everyone has settled well in our new school building and it is has been lovely to be a whole school again. The children have enjoyed mixing with other year groups and getting involved again in after school clubs.
In maths, Barbados have concentrated on the 9 & 7 times tables. Fractions have been the focus for maths learning all about equivalent fractions, improper fractions, mixed numbers. The children have been using bar models to ensure that they really understand the various concepts taught. Barbados has also learnt the technical maths vocabulary including numerator, denominator, simplifying, equivalent, mixed and improper.
In English, the children have been reading, innovating and creating their own versions of “The Canal” – a warning story. Barbados is currently learning and writing non-chronological reports about earthquakes.
Linked with the non-chronological reports, Barbados is learning at natural disasters in geography. The children are fascinated by these acts of nature and how destructive they can be.
The children also enjoyed the “Properties of materials” unit in science and worked really well in small groups completing experiments to separate materials including sieving, filtering and evaporating.
In computing, the children have started to understand how spreadsheets are used and have begun creating their own to show data in tables, graphs and pie charts.
December 2022
Another busy month for Barbados starting with the very wet residential to Mill on the Brue. Despite the terrible weather, everyone who attended had an amazing time. Many overcoming fears to participate in the activities on offer. As usual the instructors, accommodation and food were fantastic.
In maths, we have concentrated on the 3 & 6 times tables. The end of term times tables test proved that the daily times table activities were having an impact on recalling facts. This half term saw the children concentrating on being able to multiple up to 4-digit numbers by 1-digit and starting to grasp the concept of 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication.
Swimming at Oxley Pool, is now over much to everyone’s disappointment. However, the children did really well with many achieving greater water confidence, be it in the shallow end or completing a length of the pool. Swimming awards were achieved by everyone.
Barbados has enjoyed learning about the Shang Dynasty. Again, the children are disappointed that we have finished the topic as they wanted to learn more. Lots of amazing work is evident in their books which we will show at the next parents evening.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Barbados
NOVEMBER 2022
Since our last website post, Barbados has continued to work hard and strive to fit as much learning as they can in the school week. They have shown continued resilience, trying their very best in all subjects.
In Maths, Barbados have continued strengthening their knowledge with daily times tables practise of the 4, 8 and currently the 3 times tables. This has helped with their learning about multiples, factors and prime numbers.
In English, Year 5 has started to read the classic story, “Wizard of Oz” and Barbados has created news reports based around the start of the story where Dorothy, Toto trapped in the house disappears into the cyclone.
Art has been a fantastic success, especially as the majority of the class didn’t believe in their artistic abilities. All of them should be very proud of their achievements!
Swimming at Oxley pool continues to be a highlight of the week, with everyone, no matter their ability, continuing to impress the instructors.
Lastly the children have started to broaden their knowledge of how to identify symbols and use maps in Geography.
Next week, many of Barbados will be attending the residential trip at Mill on the Brue. Several will be staying behind, but will no doubt have a lot of fun with the activities organised.
AUTUMN 2022
In Barbados we have based our English learning around the book Iron Man by Ted Hughes. We have written our own versions based on similar events. This half term, we have been concentrating on place value; ordering, rounding, negative numbers and decimals. We are currently revisiting and strengthening our knowledge with addition and subtraction using 4-digit numbers. In art, Barbados have begun to compare the two different illustrations of the Iron Man book. We have started to sketch the Iron Man and will continue by using pen and paint to give depth and character. In science, Barbados have been learning about our solar system including looking at how the Moon and Sun affect us .
