It’s Christmas…
There are no homework tasks or spellings during the holiday period.
Instead, support your child in other ways. Make sure they take part in family events, encourage them to relax and catch up on some reading at home, encourage them to send thank you notes (emails are fine, too!) – all these things will help their English skills of speaking and listening, reading and writing.
Plenty of maths skills can be practised, too – planning some top telly and considering times and durations of programmes, working out what half price is when the sales start… could your child even help with some cooking to use various measures?
Whatever they do, make sure your child, and you, have a happy and healthy Christmas break.
It’s half-term…
…so there is no homework this week.
Please make sure your child spends some time most days reading – books, comics, newspapers… Why not visit the library or a book shop this week?
To support writing, your child should review their spellings from the last few weeks. You could test them on words from all the lists, and ask them to use the words in sentences or a story, or create a comic strip with a word used in each speech bubble.Perhaps you could set a challenge (for you as well as your child!) of using spelling words in everyday conversations! Practising handwriting by joining up is a useful activity, too.
In Maths, children in Key Stage 2 should definitely practise times tables – including the related division facts. Can your child respond within five seconds (not counting up to work it out) to questions like ‘What’s 7 times 8?’ and ‘What’s 42 divided by 6?’
Of course, make sure your child is happy and healthy over half-term, too! A walk and play at Roundhay Park, a bike ride, a conker challenge, a trip to the art gallery… Enjoy!
09 October 2015
This week’s spellings will be tested on Friday 16 October. They all end in ‘cious‘. Children can practise on their own using their red Learning Lists book but it is also great to practise writing the words into sentences to check that they understand the meaning.
- vicious
- precious
- conscious
- delicious
- malicious
- suspicious
- ferocious
- gracious
- spacious
- atrocious
02 October 2015
This week’s spellings will be tested on Friday 09 October.
They are homophones whose spelling shouldn’t be difficult, but understanding their role in the sentence (noun or verb) is trickier.
advise – advice
- Verb – I advise you to stop smoking.
- Noun – That was good advice you gave me.
devise – device
- Verb – We need to devise a plan.
- Noun – This device will help us with our plan.
license – licence
- Verb – I am licensed to drive.
- Noun – I hope I can get my driving licence.
practise – practice
- Verb – I’m going to go and practise my piano.
- Noun – I need to walk to the piano practice.
prophesy – prophecy
- Verb – I prophesy that I will get top marks.
- Noun – The prophecy said I would get top marks.
compliment – complement
- Verb – That jumper complements your eyes.
- Noun – A full complement of workers built the house.
- Verb – I complimented my mum’s eyes.
- Noun – What a lovely compliment.
descent – dissent
- Verb – The crew dissented from the captain’s decision.
- Noun – A steep descent loomed in front of me.
25 September 2015
This week’s spellings focus on the ‘double up for a short vowel‘ rule and will be tested on Friday 02 October.
- aggression
- accommodate
- accompany
- according
- lugging
- possibility
- approached
- clattering
- pummelled
- toppled
Your child will be tested on six of these spellings. In addition, they’ll be tested on two spellings they’ve learnt in previous weeks and two spellings that follow the double up rule but aren’t on the spelling list.
Additional spellings
Although we’re learning the spellings given in our red learning list books, here are some additional ones picked from mistakes in books this week.
- thing
- there
- for
- no-one
- found
- saw
18 September 2015
This week’s spellings use the spelling part ‘ough’ – this week, the ‘ough’ is pronounced in different ways. There are some tricky words to remember as well. We’re focusing on the 8 times table. Both will be tested on Friday 25 September.
- though
- although
- dough
- through
- thorough
- borough
- plough
…And here are the tricky words.
- achieve
- amateur
- ancient
11 September 2015
Children have been given a new Learning List book, which gives lots of great tips for learning spellings as well as being designed to allow children to practise independently.
This week’s spellings are all words that include ough:
thought
bought
ought
nought
brought
ought
rough
tough
enough
cough
10 July 2015
The spellings this week are a little different. The children won’t know the spelling list until the test. However, they have been told that the words will be from the three main spelling rules we talk about:
- drop the e for ing
- double up for short vowel sounds
- drop the y for an i
Children should look back at their learning lists for spelling lists featuring these rules.
03 July 2015
This week in Year 5, there are no spellings to learn.
Next week, we’ll be carrying out short progress tests to help inform my end of year assessments. These will include a spelling test.