Week 6 has been a very busy week with the effects of the first half term now taking its toll on the children, despite this they have continued to work hard and try their best with their learning, resulting in a lovely week. 

Our English learning this week has been focused around a new writing genre, first person alternative recount.  To do this we have decided how to retell the story of Rumaysa in which she was not kidnapped, but instead abandoned! Also at the end there will be a shocking twist when her closest friend betrays her. We investigated how to use who, where, when what and why in our introductions to add detail and ended the week working on the correct use of inverted commas for reported direct speech.

Our Maths learning this week has seen us investigate various areas of geometry. We began the week recapping our year four skills -  identifying acute, right and obtuse angles, comparing and ordering them, it was great to see how much they had retained. We then moved on to a new skill and tool - using a protractor to read and draw angles. This resulted in a couple of lessons where we learnt how to use one to both measure and draw angles. It is always hard to learn how to use new tools whilst also completing work but the children have showed great resilience and are now confident in the use of the different scales and how to position it.

Our Science learning this week saw us looking at water resistance, just like air resistance this is another type of friction. To aid our learning we did an experiment looking at how a streamlined object can reduce the effect of water resistance. We learnt how both man-made and natural things have streamline shapes such as jets, cars, sharks and manta-rays.  

Our History learning saw us continue our learning relating to early Islamic civilisations. We journeyed to the city of Cordoba and learnt that the ruler, Abd-al-Rahman, had fled from Syria, as it had been invaded and his family were killed. With the help of the Byzantine Christians he constructed a mosque. When finished, it had over 1200 pillars and could hold 10,000 people! We were so curious if the mosque was still around we went on Youtube to see that it was indeed!

Our Geography learning this week saw us looking at favelas in more detail, makeshift homes that are illegal buildings, usually with no running water, electricity, police, schools or even bin lorries! Despite this people still manage to make a live there and some areas look very colourful and full of joy for children such as Raphael, a young boy who lives in a favela in Rio.