Welcome to Fox Class

Welcome to Fox Class.  We are Year 5 children (aged 9-10 years) and there are 23 children in our class.  Our teacher is Mrs Shand and she is helped by our teaching assistant,  Miss Gardner. We are taught in a ‘pod’ with  Badger Class (Year 6) so we also work with Mrs Howey.

To find out what we will be doing this year look at the Our Curriculum section of our website. To help us with our spelling and reading look at the phonics and reading section of our website. As we get older, we access the internet more and school wants us to stay safe online.  To find out how you can support us in staying safe online, checkout the E-Safety section of our website.

See below for academic year 2019-20

Summer 2019-20

School Closure due to COVID-19 pandemic

Due to  Further to the guidance issued by Central Government all schools across England are closed.  With the fantastic support of our parents, our children have been able to consolidate their learning by completing activities sent home and set online.

Fox class have been so busy while school has been closed due to the Coronavirus. I have loved receiving daily updates and photos of the fabulous work you have all been doing. Keep it up! Stay safe everyone and I hope we are back at school very soon.

 

 

We have started to look at our new science topic ‘Earth and Space’. We have been researching planets and creating leaflets.

 

How delicious do these sound?

 

 

                                           

Keep the updates coming Fox Class. I love seeing what you have been up to.

                                                 

Keep the updates coming Fox Class. It is great to see how busy you have all been.

Spring Term 2

We had a great trip to Hamsterley Forest. We enjoyed orienteering and loved exploring the forest!

 

Year 5 and 6 had a fantastic start to this half term with a visit to Newcastle. We had such an adventure! We visited The Hancock Museum and had a great walk through Newcastle followed by a visit to the Knife Angel. The Knife Angel was breathtaking! We took part in a wonderful workshop ran by Samantha Madgin’s mum and sister, who were so brave to talk about the sad loss of their loved daughter/ sister. Samantha sadly died as a result of knife crime and now her family are her voice.

Following on from our visit, we have written some descriptions of the Knife Angel during our short burst writing session. Here is a selection of the fabulous work produced in Fox Class.

 

Mathematics

This half term we will be continuing to look at fractions and then moving on to explore percentages and decimals.

 

English

We are going to continue reading The Endless Steppe and our writing work will be closely linked to this book. We have really enjoyed it so far and have produced some great work. We have some exciting pieces of writing planned for this half term!

 

Science

In science, we are exploring materials and their properties as well as changing materials. There will be lots of investigations to plan and carry out so we can answer our topic question ‘Can we change materials?’.

 

Enquiry

Our question for this half term is ‘Where are Europe’s major landmarks?’. We are looking forward to starting this topic and being able to answer this question. Our design and technology work will be closely linked with this question too.

 

Spring Term 1

We have had lots of fun in the snow!

We have started our new class text ‘The Endless Steppe’. We have made some excellent predictions about the text based on the title, front cover and blurb. We are so excited to read this book and produce some writing closely linked to it.

 

We are really enjoying this book and it is generating lots of discussion in our class. Look at a few of the vocabulary choices we have selected to look at. Our aim is to be able to apply some of these words into our own writing.

 

In mathematics we have started our topic of multiplication and division. We are solving lots of problems so far and are enjoying unpicking misconceptions. This knowledge is helping us with our second topic of the half term which is fractions.

 

In science this half term we are looking at forces. We have started by looking at gravity and will soon move on to look at other forces which we see every day.

Our enquiry topic is comparing County Durham to other counties. We are looking at the physical geography of our county and seeing how it is similar or different to other counties around the UK.

Here is a selection of our great work comparing counties.

We have been looking at the work of David Hockney in art this half term which has inspired us when completing our own work. Here is a selection of some of the amazing pieces produced by year 5 and 6 this half term.

Autumn Term 2

 

 

We are very excited about this half term! We are continuing to read Street Child for the first couple of weeks and then we are moving onto ‘Into the Forest’. What could this story be about? We are going to explore the excellent illustrations within this book and finish off by writing our own story.

In maths we are looking at multiplication and division as well as exploring square and cube numbers. We will finish the half term by finding the perimeter and area of shapes.

 

 

We looked at real life examples and tried to find the perimeter and area of these shapes.

 

 

 

We generated some vocabulary as a class to describe a Victorian drummer boy. We came up with some very interesting vocabulary choices before we moved on to writing our own description of him.

 

We have been using concrete materials to find cube numbers. We were surprised by how big the numbers got.

After developing the use of our figurative language and noticing the impact it has on our reader, we produced our own poems from an image from our class book ‘Into the Forest’. Please see below for a couple of examples of the amazing work we have produced.

 

 

 

We have been working with year 6 to explore water colours and have produced some amazing water colour winter landscapes! A selection of our work is below.

 

We have had a fantastic time visiting Wolsingham school every Thursday this half term. We have had so much fun! Developing our trampolining skills and dance skills is something which we have all enjoyed. Please see below for a selection of photographs from our visits.

 

 

 

 

Year 5 and 6 have had a great time at The Discovery Museum today. We were introduced to our new science topic of ‘forces’ and had so much fun exploring the museum.

 

Autumn Term 1

This term in English we are reading Street Child which links to our historical enquiry of the Victorians. Our writing is closely linked to this book and we are really enjoying it so far. In mathematics, we are looking at place value, addition and subtraction and we will be looking at statistics. To introduce our enquiry question, ‘How did the Victorian period shape Consett and the North East?’ we visited Cragside house and grounds. We learnt about Lord Armstrong and his impact on the North East. ave you got any facts you can share about the Victorian Period and how this impacted on the North East?

We join with badger class for science. Please see badger class page for examples of our science work so far.

 

Please note that we did not have a ‘Fox Class’ during the academic year 2018-19 due to variations in cohort sizes.

See below for academic year 2017-18

This half term in maths, we have been exploring fractions. We have all been practising hard to learn our times tables as this helps us to identify equivalent fractions and convert improper fractions into mixed numbers and vice versa.

In addition, Fox Class have been taking part in a Energy Heroes programme which links to maths and science. We have learned about climate change, global warming, fossil fuels and renewable energy. The programme raises awareness of the need to save energy and reduce our carbon footprint (and save money!) We are monitoring the energy usage in our school and saving energy wherever possible, for e.g,  turning off lights that don’t need to be on and turning down the thermostat if the classroom is higher than 21 degrees Celsius.

In English, we are reading ‘Street Child’, which ties in with our Victorian topic this half term. The main character (Jim) has been sent to the workhouse and we have enjoyed planning his escape. In our writing, we are focussing on different sentence types and using vocabulary for effect.

Our Science topic is Types of Change and this week we investigated which material would dissolve in the least amount of water: coffee, sugar or salt?

 

We have some exciting visits planned this half term. Last week, we visited Durham Cathedral and, whilst marvelling at this magnificent, historic building, we  learned about the Northern Saints.  In between learning about the Northern Saints, we  were  lucky enough to  get the opportunity to see Professor McGonaghall’s classroom (from Harry Potter). We were all very excited about this!

In March, we will be visiting Beamish Museum to learn about ‘Joe the Quilter’. Durham Cathedral and Beamish Museum are also coming into  school to deliver some outreach sessions.

School life in 1913

 We had lots of fun on the last day of term, decorating eggs and creating Easter cards at our Easter Stay and Play session.

Happy Easter!

Spring Term 1

In English, we are finishing our class novel: The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo. We are all eager to find out what happens to Bertie, Millie and the White Prince. Once we have finished this novel, we are going to start reading ‘Street Child’ which is set in Victorian times. This will link nicely to our new topic ‘The Victorians’ and give us a further insight into this era.   Click here to see our homework grid:  Homework grid Spring 1

In maths, we have been looking at multiplication and division and equivalent fractions. We have been practising our rapid recall of times table facts and developing our problem-solving and reasoning skills.

Our Science topic is Forces and we have been investigating gravity, air resistance and buoyancy. We made gravity models to demonstrate the concept of gravity.

 

 

Autumn Term 2

 

We investigated spooky vocabulary to use in our writing. We had to find the definition of the words and decide which words we wanted use in our spooky setting description.

The next day, we wrote a spooky setting description using the words from our balloons and figurative language such as: similes, metaphors and personification. Does this writing send a chill down your spine?

Finally, we  performed our compositions in front of the class or in small groups.