Literacy
This week, we have continued reading our class text, 'Private Peaceful', by Michael Morpurgo. We are thoroughly enjoying the text, learning about the characters and their feelings. By the author flitting between the past and present, from the characters' point of view, the children are developing a deeper understanding of what life was like during the First World War. The children have been continuing with their development of their inference and retrieval skills, as well as learning and understanding new and interesting vocabulary.

During our writing sessions, we have begun a new area of learning about narrative writing. Our hook into learning took us down the path of understanding the techniques used by an author and how they use the various features to produce a story. The children will be developing their use of direct and indirect speech, relative clauses and expanded noun phrases. 

Maths
In our maths learning this week, we are continuing our learning about multiplication. We have been developing our skills when multiplying four and five-digit numbers by single and two-digit numbers.

Miss Fury, school science lead, organised a fantastic Silly Science event for us to participate in. 
The children participated in a variety of science investigations, that linked to our Spring science topic about Forces. The scientist who came to our school, explained in detail about air resistance, displaying this using a variety of different machines, including a leaf blower! The children were taught how to use this safely and experienced first hand the effect of air resistance on a range of objects.

Teams DB, JD and LF have had a very interesting day, experiencing what life was like during World War 1. We employed the expertise of Mr Fidment to teach us drills and team building exercises when in combat. 
Throughout the day, the children looked at what life was like in the trenches, watching videos about the soldiers' experiences, including the BBC documentary where World War 1 was borught to life in colour. We discussed in detail what the daily life of a soldier might have been like, as well as writing about the different experiences of the participants of the Great War. 
In addition to this, the children discovered how women played an important role during the war, especially taking the roles and responsibilities usually held by men.
Our time with Mr Fidment, presented the children with many challenges, including learning drills whilst preparing to be a soldier as well as building camps in the nature reserve. This allowed the children to experience first hand team work, including ensuring their camp was well camouflaged!

Maths
This week in our maths learning, we have been investigating and learning about money. Many of the children knew about money notation and the various coins and were  able to add and subtract successfully. As our learning has progressed, the children were able to develop their skills by applying their knowledge about money into word problems.

Literacy
The children have continued their writing of their newspaper recount. The purpose of their writing has been to use dialogue, including indirect speech, as well as ensuring cohesion between paragraphs. The children have applied various literary skills into their writing, to write a recount of a plane landing in the early 1900s, based on an idea from the class text, 'Private Peaceful', by our class author, Michael Morpurgo.

Reading
We have continued our reading of our class text, 'Private Peaceful', by Michael Morpurgo, and the children have enjoyed looking at the historical aspect of the text. So far, the children have discovered what school was like in the early 1900s, as well as life in the country. Morpurgo has used a technique where the present meets the future, and the children are beginning to follow the difference in the times presented by the author.

P.E.
In our P.E. session this week, we have been developing our skills in both Gymnastics and Hockey. During our indoor P.E. sessions we have been focussing on developing our movements across mats by using various types of rolls as well as Cat Leaps and chassis steps. Our ultimate aim is to connect the movements together to create a sequence.

Literacy
We have started our new literacy learning this week, and the children have been focussing their learning about the features used when writing a newspaper recount. The purpose to their writing will be to write a newspaper recount linked to our class text, 'Private Peaceful'. Our reading links to our history topic, The First World War. So far the children have been ontroduced to the text and are already engrossed in what may happen next.

Maths
In our maths learning this week, we have been focussing our attention on multiplication. Whilst being in Year 5, the children have secured their multiplication knowledge and are now ready to expand this into multiplying by two-digit numbers. 

History
One of Mrs Bamforth's favourite topics to cover in Year 5, is the history of the First World War. This week, we have learned about how World War One started in 1914. The children discovered how the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand escalated Europe and the rest of the world into war.

It's been a busy couple of weeks in Team DB, we have performed our Christmas concert for our grown-ups at home. The children were marvellous, as always, and did an excellent job! Well done Team DB, you were fab!

Writing
In Year 5, we have started a new topic in our writing, learning about how to write instructions effectively. The children have used a hook into their learning, discovering where and how instructions are used in every day life. Moreover, the children have been learning the literary features that are used to write instructions and have been implementing these into their own writing.

Reading
During our class reading sessions we have been continuing to enjoy the class text, 'The Arrival'. This is a book based on images rather than words, and the children are having to use their previous knowledge of texts to try and tell the story through the pictures presented. As a class we have had deep conversations surrounding moving from one country to another with the possibility of doing this alone without our families.

Maths
In our maths sessions we have been continuing our learning about decimal fractions, involving hundredths. The children have been developing their knowledge surrouding addition, subtraction, multiplication and division when using decimal fractions and whole numbers.

Science
We have been very busy in our science sessions, learning all about sound. As part of our investigation, we discovered that the further away a sound is the harder it is for us to hear. We took ourselves outside to investigate, which saw us testing our hearing skills. 

Today the children have been learning about the history of Children In Need and how it started one November Day back in 1980 - which of course is a really long time ago to our Year 5s! During their reading, the children developed an understanding how the charity developed from a tradition established during the 1930s, whereby there would be a 5 minute radio plea on Christmas Day for those children who were less fortunate. This then progressed into a televised plea as technology progressed, until, finally becoming a telethon on national TV.
The children established an understanding of Sir Terry Wogan's legacy and how he was the face of Children in Need for many years.
To help raise money for this amazing cause, the children were invited to wear spots for the day, as well as taking part in Spot-tacular event, chasing and finding as many spots as they could around Park Street. And, because Team DB are fabulous, they found all 50 in no time at all. Throughout the day, the participated in maths events, as well activities during out Incredible Us! time.