A fantastic week of learning in Dolphin Class!
In our English learning this week, we've continued our work relating to 'Rumaysa', completing our drafting process, before moving on to our extended writes. We've discussed the use of adverbials and fronted adverbials, before applying this skill. We talked about the placement of these word types and how it can affect the impact of a sentence, for example - Silently, Rumaysa cried is more effective than Rumaysa cried silently. We also discussed and used figurative language for impact. We discussed similes and metaphors, recognising that a simile is when something is compared - Rumaysa was as brave as a lion and a metaphor is when something is literally described as something - Rumaysa was a lion, ready to pounce. We finished the week by completing our extended writes, which were fantastic! A great start to Year Five!
Our maths leaning this week has seen us complete our work relating to place value. We began the week by revisiting negative numbers, which was a new concept last year. We looked at much larger negative numbers this time, discussing the relationship between adding and subtracting through zero. We then revisited rounding, as it was a little tricky for some of us last time. We learnt a brilliant golden rule - when rounding a number, always look at how many zeros there are, as it will help you. For example, if you are asked to round a number to the nearest 100, your final number will have two zeros, just like the number you are rounding too, therefore it's the next number along, in this case the thousands, that will indicate your answer - up or down.
Our History learning has seen us investigate the city of Makkah in 600AD, and why it was so pivotal to civilisations around it. It was interesting to learn that, before the beginnings of Islam, the city was already a place of pilgrimage to Christians, Jew and Sikhs, due to the Kaaba shrine, which contained religious artefacts relating to their religions. We also learnt that the city was busy due to merchant traders, as it was a central point between many places. Our favourite fact, however, was definitely that the camels used by traders travelled in lines called caravans!
Our Geography learning this week saw us investigate megacities. We learnt that a megacity, by definition has over a million inhabitants. We looked at some examples, such as New York City and discussed the pull and push factors which influence people to live there, often moving from rural to urban environments. We learnt that a pull factor is a positive thing within the city and a push factor is a negative thing from a person's current habitat. We then looked at the case study of Lima, in Peru, which has expanded into a megacity, but has no room for expansion due to the coast being on one side and the Andes being on the other. We discussed that this megacity will ultimately fail, as they have to have room to expand and grow to be successful.
What a fantastic week of learning!
Have a lovely week,
Love from Dolphin Class. xxx
Dolphins Week beginning 19/09/22
