Ash Tree Class Blog
Ash Tree Class Blog
Weekly Update - 17.1.25
Miss Bairstow (d.bairstow) on: Ash Tree Class Blog
Hello,
A much more "normal" week this week! Everyone was glad to finally get back outside at breaktimes and lunchtimes and we definitely feel like we are back into the swing of things now!
In English, we started looking at figurative language and other poetic devices as well as reading some rainforest themed poetry. In maths, Miss Bairstow's group have been finishing their work on fractions and Mrs Trotter's group have been learning about decimals.
We started our new science unit - Life Cycles - and computing unit - Selection in Physical Computing.
Y5 were very excited as auditions were held and parts were cast for our upcoming Easter production of Bugsy Malone. The children have until half term to learn all their lines and cues – they are all so very keen, which is marvellous. Some may be a little disappointed about the role they have been given, but whatever their role, it will definitely be a fun show to participate in, so please do encourage them.
And finally... READING! I have spent some time over the last two weeks listening to all children in Ash Tree read. It is really important still in Years 5 and 6 that even if your child sounds like a fluent reader, they continue to read regularly both independently and with an adult at home to develop their comprehension skills as texts they read become trickier. Please support us by encouraging your child to read for a minimum of 20 minutes 5x a week.
Some interesting statistics from The Reading Agency (a UK charity with a mission to empower people of all ages to read) are:
- One in four children hasn’t reached the expected level of reading by the age of 11. Many of these children will struggle to keep up at secondary school.
- Students are less able to learn other curricula if they do not develop sufficient reading skills by the middle of primary school.
- Children who read books often at age 10 and more than once a week at age 16 gain higher results in maths, vocabulary and spelling tests at age 16 than those who read less regularly.
Reading is an essential life skill and investing time in this now will help prepare your children for their future. We greatly appreciate the support you give to this at home.
Have a great weekend!
Miss Bairstow
Weekly Update - 10.1.25
Miss Bairstow (d.bairstow) on: Ash Tree Class Blog
Hello and Happy New Year!
This week has not been the start we expected but despite the weather conditions we have made it through and still done lots of learning!
Some children in UKS2 were busy on Thursday at both the Leeds Athletics Finals and the Young Voices Choir event at Sheffield arena on Thursday. Check out the school Facebook page for lots of Young Voices highlights!
On Friday morning, UKS2 had an immersive topic morning to launch our new "Rainforests" topic. Sadly, a school trip to the Amazon was off the cards so instead we made do in our classrooms and made our own rainforests in a bottle! This was a great activity to help us understand more about biomes and ecosystems and we will continue to monitor our rainforests throughout the half term!
Have a great weekend and hopefully a more "normal" week next week!
Miss Bairstow :)
Weekly Update - 20.12.24
Miss Bairstow (d.bairstow) on: Ash Tree Class Blog
Hello,
This week started with our UKS2 parties on Monday afternoon, followed by our assembly for parents "A WW2 Christmas" on Tuesday, lots of children out attending singing events on Wednesday, making Christmas cards, finishing the book and watching the film version of Goodnight Mister Tom as well as wrapping up lots of other curriculum areas. We have had a fantastic first term and can't believe how quickly it has passed! The children have really enjoyed our WW2 topic so lets hope they enjoy our rainforest and Ancient Maya topic just as much in the new year! Speaking of our new rainforests topic, we would like to ask if you could help us with out our exciting topic launch activity. Please see details below. Children may also want to collect and bring in a small amount of moss to add to their biome.
UKS2 looking fantastic in their WW2 costumes:
We also wanted to share with you some examples of our amazing non-chronological reports on the role of women during WW2. Ash Tree have spent several weeks researching, writing and publishing their reports and have done a fantastic job. For many of the children, this is the first time they have been asked to present their work so creatively and they rose to the challenge!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Miss Bairstow :)