Wednesday, 5 December 2007

Divali recipes

We have been studying Divali this half term and in our last lesson we made some amazing Rangoli patterns, I am in the middle of creating a display so check back for pictures soon! Or come to the class and see them for yourselves!Here are some recipes for food that you might like to make!

DIVALI

DIVALI DISHES
Date sweets

Ingredients: 400g condensed milk; 75g desiccated coconut; 200g dates; I OOg glacé cherries.

Utensils: knife (adult use); saucepan; mixing spoon; cooker (adult use); non-stick baking tray.

• Chop up the dates.
• Place in a saucepan with the coconut,condensed milk and cherries.
• Cook on a low heat stirringcontinuously until a soft lump is formed.
• Remove from the heat and allow tocool.
• Grease hands and roll teaspoonfuls of dough into small date-sized shapes.
• Sprinkle with coconut.

Raita

Ingredients: 5OOg plain yoghurt; half a cucumber; carrot; banana; coriander leaves; black pepper.

Utensils: knife (adult use); grater (adult use); scissors; bowl; plate.

• Remove the skin from the cucumberand chop into small pieces.
• Wash and grate the carrot.
• Slice the banana.
• Snip the coriander leaves into small pieces.
• Stir all ingredients into the yoghurt. Season with black pepper.
• Serve with salad and crisps.

Spicy cheese rolls (makes 25)

Ingredients: 25g butter; 1OOg self-raising flour; 75g porridge oats; 170m1 milk; I 50g grated cheese; 1 tsp curry powder to taste.

Utensils: bowl; grater (adult use); mixing spoon; non- stick baking tray; oven (adult use).

• Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Grate the cheese and add most of it with the oats and curry powder to the breadcrumb mix.
• Add milk and mix.
• Roll small amounts into sausage shapes.
• Place on a baking sheet, sprinkle with the remaining cheese, and bake at 200°C, Gas Mark 6, for 25 minutes.

Edible divas (makes 10)

Ingredients: I50g cooking milk chocolate; 3 tbsp golden syrup; 2 tbsp icing sugar; water; liquorice.

Utensils: bowl; microwave (adult use); tablespoon; cling film; fridge; knife (adult use);jug; teaspoon.
• Break the chocolate into a bowl andwarm in a microwave until melted.
• Stir in the golden syrup until themixture comes away from side of the bowl.
• Wrap in cling film and refrigerate forhalf an hour.
• Cut into 10 pieces. Mould each piece into a hollow diva shape with a small spout.
• Mix icing sugar into a firm pouring consistency and spoon a little into each diva. Add a liquorice wick.


On Friday 23rd November, we went on our London walk to visit some London attractions. It was a fleeting visit as we had a lot of walking to do and not a lot of time!! Ask your children about some of the places they liked the best as there are lots of free places to visit! (However there are also lots of expensive places that could be visited as well!)
We were so lucky with the weather and I was very proud of the children for behaving so sensibly whilst out and about. Here are some pictures of our trip. The next stage of our geography project is to make a leaflet about the tourist attractions so keep an eye out for that!
The children all remembered this view from last year when we went to the Tate!










Unfortunately we didn't get to go inside the Houses of Parliament but the teachers were very impressed with how knowledgable some children were about our Government and politics in general!




Lots of children were amazed by the size of the London Eye and really wanted to go, we looked really carefully to see it moving slowly around the sky.
The children were rather impressed by this! Ask them why they were there!







I couldn't take anymore pictures here as the police on duty didn't like it!




The children were amazed that the soldier's weren't allowed to talk whilst on duty! I'm not sure I would last very long being silent!






We finished up at Trafalgar Square by the National Gallery and then got our train home. We were really glad it was lunchtime as we were all hungry!
Miss Thavarajah has even more photos of our daytrip so we may try to create a display or some record of it!

Tuesday, 30 October 2007

Welcome back

This half term is going to be a busy one, I hope you all managed to enjoy a rest over the holiday just gone!




At the moment in Maths we are studying time and I am so impressed with how well the children are doing already! Most children are confident with both digital and analogue format (ask your children what they mean... they should all know!) and some have already moved on to using a 24 hour clock. If you could practise this at home with your children, we would be very grateful as the more practise they get the better!! We will be moving on to adding and subtraction with decimals and word problems next, if any eager beaver children would like to get ahead!



In R.E we are studying festivals and in particular will be focusing on the festival of Divali. Make sure you check back soon as I will be putting challenges and activities on here for the children to do at home. It would also be great if you could ask your children about what they have learnt in class in their different subjects, we get through so much each day.In music we are lucky enough to be having a workshop in two weeks time and the end result will be a performance. Check back soon for more information.
We have also started a new subject called Morphology. The children have all made an enthusiastic and impressive start. Today we looked at word classes and using and grouping them correctly. We will be looking at prefixes and suffixes in detail and studying words in greater detail.We have begun a Geography block on tourist attractions and will soon be going on a trip. Letters will be coming out shortly.
How many London tourist attractions can you name??


In Literacy we are looking at newspapers... if you have them at home, please read them and share what you have found out in class. Any old copies would be greatly received!

Please remember we are here if you have any queries or worries, if you come and see us after school we will do our best to see you either immediately or as soon as possible. The children have a lot on now, with expectations for classwork and homework high. The teachers certainly appreciate their efforts and we work very hard to ensure they are working to the highest standard! I have had some parents asking for more work for the children and would like to stress that at the moment they are receiving enough! They need some free time to play and relax too! If a child isn't reaching their potential, the Year 5 teachers will make sure they speak to you.

Finally, a big good luck to Mohammed and Karim and Courtney who are representing Gateway at cross country running on Wednesday 31st October!

Wednesday, 17 October 2007

Most Original Design Winners


These children won the competition for the most original design for their musical instrument. The Oranga Can really is a fantastic instrument which had some great features and created some wonderful sounds!
Congratulations!!

Design Competition Winners


These children won the competition for the BEST PRESENTED musical instrument design and final product. There was a tight timeline for this project and they worked really well together on their ATM Flutex! Congratulations!!!!

5 Magenta the Design Consultants!


This week we have also come to the end of our Design & Technology project of making musical instruments. We explored the sounds of different instruments and looked at the different ways instruments are made. We collected over the past weeks lots of recycling objects and created designs of our own instruments. The class put all their designs together to create a Manual of Instructions and have now made the final instruments. They look and sound fantastic!




Pointilism



5 Magenta have been working on pointilism techniques. They have been looking carefully at the work of Georges Seurat and have started to create their own pointilism artwork!!

Friday, 12 October 2007

Work of the week!

Here is an example of excellent Literacy work. Zumorod has written a character study of Neetu, a main character from the book Grandpa Chatterji, by Jamila Gavin.

Neetu is always getting up early in the morning and getting ready for school. She wears a short skirt with a t-shirt. She also wears high heel shoes for school. She makes sure to do her hair with a ponytail, leaving a slip of hair over her eyes. She also wears a cardigan. Sometimes she wears heely shoes with trousers and shiny tops. She has a curved nose and curly eye lashes with white teeth.

Neetu often feels shy when she sees new people but she is always obedident and sensible. She also finds homework very easy and obvious. At school she is very helpful and passionate. When she is in the playground, she feels popular and confident. She is eager at the funfair.

Neetu is a girl that has many sides to her. Sometimes she feels superior at school because she is conscientious and tries hard in all lessons. She thinks that she is the cleverest child in the class.

I think that Jamila Gavin tries to tell us throughout the book that Neetu is a hard working and likeable character.

I liked this piece of writing because Zumorod tried hard to use lots of adjectives and impressive vocabulary in her writing. Well done!

Miss S

Wednesday, 10 October 2007

Hello!

Hello to all!
We have been very busy this half term in Year 5 and we have all taken a little while to settle in as there are lots of changes from last year.The children now receive homework every night for both Literacy and Numeracy. I am pleased to say that most children are coping brilliantly with this. The teachers know it isn't easy for all parents to help their children but homework is always based on what we are doing in class. If there are any problems if you could write a short note or let us know and we will spend time with the children to clarify any difficulties they may have.
Spellings are still given weekly and they have their test on Friday so please remind your children or test them if you can.There is also a reading journal the children are beginning to bring home weekly. Even if you could just check the neatness and presentation of the work, it would be much appreciated!

We also started swimming this half term and they seem to love it. Many children have made amazing progress in a very short time so well done! The children are all remembering their kits which is great. They still have P.E in school and this is on a Monday so they need to remember that kit as well. They need a plain white (or school) t-shirt, dark tracksuits bottoms and trainers. A jumper in this cold weather is also required. Children who forget do still have to take part and so may need to wear lost property or spare kits. It is especially important they have a change of clothing as they are getting older now and it is not appropriate to do Games in their school uniform.On the note of school uniform children must wear the correct uniform. Most children are dressed correctly but there are still a few wearing jeans or incorrect coloured trousers. Trainers are only acceptable if they are black.

If you check back, by the end of the week there will be a selection of excellent work the children have been producing. Come into the classroom as there will soon be a collection of children's work and the learning that has been taking place!

In Literacy we wrote our own short story based on the Jamila Gavin book, Grandpa Chatterji. We have carried out a detailed author study so ask your children what they know. I'm sure you will be amazed by some of the facts they have discovered!

Finally a special mention for Doua. Since the beginning of term she has been working so hard and been a real star in class and making a real effort with her homework. Well done!

Miss Sullivan

Tuesday, 4 September 2007

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to school and your new class!