Welcome to Silver Birch class!
Welcome to year 5 in Silver Birch class with Mrs Ruffy and Mr Allen. Check below for each term's topic map as we enter each new term.
View our class Meet and Greet letter here
Hi! I am Mrs Ruffy, Silver Birch class teacher.

Likes: being a mum to my 3 boys, teaching maths, reading children's fiction, cupcakes with lots of icing (just like the ones Edward makes!), Christmas movies and singing loudly in the car (sorry to my boys!).
Dislikes: slimy things, things that jump, liquorice- ew!
Dream job: Your class teacher (of course!) or a CBeebies presenter!
Keep an eye on the news items below for weekly updates! Scroll down to view.
View our term 5 curriculum overview here!
View our term 4 curriculum overview here!
View our term 3 curriculum overview here!
View our term 2 curriculum overview here!
View our term 1 curriculum overview here
Marvellous Maths
Click the image to log in to your TTR account!
Hit the Button is another quick fire skills test where pupils can beat their own score- can you top your own correct answers total in one minute? Click on the button to test your speed and accuracy in multiplication and division facts
Weekly update 14.3.22
Apologies for the late update!
Last week the children completed their decimals chapter in maths. We have now begun looking at percentages and will be converting between fractions, decimals and percentages. We are applying these to real life scenarios in order to embed solid understanding for the real life application of this maths.
In English, we are now publishing our indpendent writing- non chronological reports. Once completed, they will be posted to your child's seesaw journal. Make sure to take a peek to see the fruits of their labours in this formal report on a self-chosen animal.
We are near the end of learning our spelling rules for year 5 which means lots of revision and consolidation of these in the coming summer term. Some children are being further challenged and have been added to a new group on Ed Shed so don't be alarmed if their EdShed words don't match the class based spelling words. All are great practice.
Where handwriting has been mastered and is fluent, children are now using this time to deepen their spelling rules knowledge and have some additional time to practice in class too.
In topic, we have studied the pros and cons of tourism and this week we will be looking at the effects of avalanches on the alps landscape. We are working towards producing a 'not a tour guide' to deter poor tourism practice and promote more conscientious human activity when visiting new places such as the Alps.
In art, we are studying the style of Hundertwasser this week. Next we will become architects and prepare to design our own monuments inspired by the abstract techniques we have been studying.
Finally, this week and next week we will be undertaking some assessments in maths, grammar, spelling and reading. The children will receive individual feedback and will set some targets for the summer term. We always enjoy our assessment weeks. Your children are extremely driven and keen to do better than their best, but we remind them always that these tests don't tell the story of what amazing individuals they are. We will all do our very best and celebrate all of our achievements. I know they are all excited to see their results as have been keenly awaiting these tests all term! Love the enthusiasm!
Thank you for all your support as ever.
Weekly update w.c 21.2.22
A wonderful first week back!
We launched into our decimals learning and a little bit of line graph work to recall prior learning. The children are now well accustomed with regular short bursts of retrieval practice across the curriculum and this is a particular win in maths with a huge range of topics covered across the year. Another retrieval task included converting times. It would be really useful if you could spend some time focusing on telling the time and converting between analogue and digital times. We have also been calculating how much time has lapsed between events.
In English, we are near the end of our sentence stacking lessons on Emperor penguins, and will be preparing for independent writing of our non-chronological reports by the end of week 2. Remember, that spellings are available on Ed Shed and in your child's homework folder.
In science, we have revisited our prior learning on retrieving materials from a solution as we prepare for new learning in chemistry.
In RE, we spent a morning at the church enjoying a pilgrimage through the stations of the cross with Captain Chris before preparing some materials for the upcoming Easter service.
Check out the galleries posted to your child's journal on Seesaw. These include kurling, science and RE from week 1. Seesaw has been a great way to document our learning, communicate and share interests and will continue to be used in this way as our school returns to a more 'normal' approach. This means we can share with you elements of your child's learning journey while we await a more 'normal' parents evening and open-day sessions as we had in the past where you could see your child's work.
I look foward to speaking with you all via Zoom this coming week for Parents Evening!
Spring 2 curriculum map now available!
Our spring term 2 curriculum overview is now attached above on this page.
Homework booklets will come home on Thursday in week 1 complete with this term's focus spelling lists, additional arithmetic tasks and some grammar revision. Please continue to encourage regular reading and engagement with Spelling Shed and Times Table Rockstars.
I look forward to speaking with you all at our upcoming parents evening appointments but do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions before then!
Weekly update w/c 31/1/22
What a week!
After an amazing trip to the space centre we have continued our learning about the big bang theory and explored how the universe has expanded from a set point and continues to do so. We explored this using balloons and measuring the increasing distances to visualise the concept further. Mrs Ruffy made the mistake of telling the children she is scared of balloons! Luckily, no balloons popped so all is well!
We have published our narrative writing in English and attached photos to seesaw to share with our families. The standard is incredibly high and the care and attention to best handwriting shows the great pride everyone took in this descriptive piece. We have now begun our non-chronological work by analysing a text all about the arctic fox.
In maths, we have shown incredible resilience and continued solving calculations with unlike fractions. We are more confident now with converting our unlike fractions and ending the week by moving onto multiplying fractions by whole numbers.
We have a lot of work to do to finish our DT pop up books but aim to get these done next week and cannot wait to read them to our Oak class buddies. Keep an eye on seesaw for a preview of our finished pieces!
While we have been unable to invite families in now for some time, we hope to keep posting examples of our learning journey on Seesaw so please do let us know if you need a new QR code to sign into your child's account to view their work and the class posts (including some brilliant dancing in PE amongst a range of other learning). We look forward to the day when we can bring you in for an exhibition or stay and learn session. Thank you for your support and patience during this time.
Weekly update 25.1.22
What an amazing week already!
We are practising our spellings daily in handwriting lessons, testing our table partners, via EdShed and through some spelling games. Thank you for the home support to practise spellings. It makes a huge impact. This term we have replaced the Friday spelling test with reading comprehension and ramped up our practice of spellings to ensure we are still embedding new spelling rules and exception words to our working memory.
In English, we are now drafting our narratives. We are taking a paragraph at a time, editing and critiquing as we go. Our narrative work is centred on the opening to the Nowhere Emporium which is also our current class read.
In maths, we have been working on adding and subtracting fractions. We are also having a brief break from fractions to allow it to rest while we look at money, income, living costs and poverty as part of a global goals cross curricular maths unit. This is allowing us to apply a range of operations as well as data recording as we calculate real world problems with money- a nice sneak peek into decimals which we will start in the coming weeks too!
In science, we are going to be producing a guide to the planets, looking at the unique features of the terrestrial and gassy planets in our solar system. More excitingly, we are going to the Space Centre on Friday! Watch this space for photos of our trip!
In RE, home work tasks around salvation are deepening class discussion and this week we have considered what some people might consider worthy of sactrificing their lives for. We discussed the possible people we felt we guilty of Jesus' crucifixion and reflected on a quote by Martin Luther King- "He who has nothing he is willing to die for, is not fit to live" and asked what he meant by this, what we think it means to us and how this applies to the story of Jesus' death.
A great week already!
Weekly update w.c 17.1.22
Hello everyone!
This week some of our keep focuses are:
Maths- converting unlike fractions using bar model and finding common denominators
English- sentence stacking the final plot points of our Nowhere Emporium novel with a focus on editing our sentences using carefully selected synonyms for action, description and details in dialogue.
Science- looking at the movement of the planets and what causes a solar and lunar eclipse
Dance- adding a pique turn to our bank of moves as we choreograph to an upbeat 8 bar track
History- looking at social issues affecting significant figures in the space race- Hidden Figures
DT- Pop up book making continued
RE- Salvation and what it means to us
Well done for your hard work in class and at home. Some excellent responsibility being seen in taking ownership for own learning with frequent practising of spellings, additional maths practice and topic research and a wide range of novels being shared in class all the time.
Don't forget it's our school trip next Friday. Reminder and timings will be sent on Parent Pay.
Welcome back and weekly update 4.1.22
I hope you all had a wonderful break and I am super excited for this term's learning ahead!
The curriculum map is now uploaded to this page above and you can have a peek at where our learning journey is taking us this term. This is my most favourite term ever because we will learn all about space, Katherine Johnson, Galileo, Newton and Copernicus. We will dig deep into how thinking and knowledge has evolved over time and this week we will be critiquing the significance of historical events in our journey as humans that travel into space!
In maths this week we will complete chapter 4- word problems. Focusing on use of bar model and inverse operations to solve multi step word problems
In english, we will be exploring The Nowhere Emporium by Ross McKenzie- it is FABULOUS! We will be looking at sentence stacking to write a descriptive narrative passage as part of our broader narrative unit over the coming weeks.
In science we will look at the work of Copernicus in understanding what is out there in space and a little bit of flat earth theory!
In DT, we are going to be making pop up books for year 1 children, so this week is all about designing them.
In RE, we are asking whether Easter or Christmas is the most important Christian festival as we introduce the unit Salvation.
In PE, we are dancing and playing a pokeball game!
Weekly spellings are coming home in your homework booklet and assignments are live on edshed!
Weekly update 9.12.21
This week we have been learning:
In maths- how to interpret data in a range of tables, noticing trends in frequency of activity and in identifying when flights, trains and events are available. We have learned how to look for key information to enable us to read the table effectively. We have solved a range of word problems with real world links to broaden our understanding, even writing our own problems and data stories.
In English- we are drafting a review of Camp Green Lake. We have so far identified key features and mapped out how we each want our reviews to be presented. We have looked at a range of sentence structures for effective desription of key features of the camp and Stanley's experience there. In our grammar work we have been developing use of speech in the forms of reported and direct speech and the correct punctuation of direct speech. To deepen this learning we have developed action and reporting clauses within dialogue.
In art- we have now critiqued and evaluated our drafts and are ready to redraft our Torres-Garcia inspired designs.
In geography- we are ready to present our end of unit knowledge catcher next week after creating our mountain dioramas which we will be using as part of our computing and music work with Mr Allen.
Peer critique and self evaluation of our first drafts for our Torres-Garcia inspired deisgns




Weekly update w.c 29.11.21
This week, Silver Birch have shown resilience and responsibility as we completed assessment week. The whole class recevied a work of the week award for their attitude towards assessment and were excited to celebrate their progress.
Alongside our assessments this week, the children have continued their study of the novel Holes.
In DT, we have been constructing our mountain dioramas. There's still a bit of work to do before we can then use them in oue music project with Mr Allen this week. We will be recording a movie style soundtrack and doing some stop motion animation in computing all using our dioramas as we bring our topic to a close.
In maths, we began some new learning in division and explored partitioning of numbers to help us to understand the long multiplication method. Many of the class then used their preferred short diviesion (bus stop) to check their answers.
The field was too boggy for our tag rugby lesson so we learned some tactics in some brilliant games of bench ball where we could use some of the teamwork strategies, coordination and positioning from our tag rugby lessons.
Weekly update w.c 6.12.21
In Silver Birch this week we will be:
Consolidating our learning of multiplication and division and beginning a new chapter in maths: data.
In English, we will be looking at review writing alongside some grammar work looking at modal verbs and imperative verbs.
In Guided Reading we are developing retrieval and summarising skills using the text 'Christmas'.
In DT, we will be finishing and evaluating our dioramas ready for our music/ stop motion project with Mr Allen.
In science, we will be looking at asexual reproduction as part of our living things study.
In RE, we will explore the Hadith in our study of Islam- Being Human.
In PE, we will be navigating a wider area in our orienteering practice as well as some more tag rugby with Mr Allen.
In Art, we are going to be critiquing our first draft, evaluating and preparing to publish our Torres Garcia pieces.
A fab week ahead!
Weekly update 22 11 21
This week we have drafted, edited and published our informal letters as Stanley Yelnats.
Children will post their final pieces on their seesaw journals next week.
In maths, we have looked at multiplication of 2 and 3 digit numbers using a range of methods including expanded form and column method.
In our foundation subjects, we have considered why cities developed around major rivers and the potential future consequences of human activity on rivers. We have also looked at the reproduction of flowering plants as part of our living things study in biology.
Next week we will be drafting our Torres Garcia inspired paintings and begin creating our mountain dioramas which will also be used in a music/computing project. Final pieces will be shared via seesaw before the end of term.
Weekly update w.c 15.11.21
This week we have been focusing on the function, structure and content of paragraphs as we prepare to plan and draft our informal letters. We will be writing home as Stanley Yelnats from Camp Green Lake as part of our novel study of Holes by Louis Sachar.
In maths we are showing resilience in our multiplication learning. We are continuing to revise our knowlwedge and understanding of factors, multiples and prime and compostite numbers. We are now also looking at the different variation we can use when multiplying larger numbers by single digits. We have looked at formal written methods including short and expanded column method, partitioning of digits, grid method and use of place value grids and counters as we regroup in multiplication problems.
In Science we have compared the life cyles of living things that lay eggs- did you know that the butterfly leaves its larval stage fully formed, while frogs still have some metamorphosis to do once hatched? We were intrigued by the range of egg forms across living things and made some excellent observations.
In art, we have contrasted the styles of Torres Garcia and Mondrian. Watch this space as our project evolves and we produce our own inspired innovations of their work.
In orienteering we have now added compass points and directional language and are ready to apply teamwork, endurance and our new compass skills to some map challenges next week.
We were delighted to welcome Mrs Ingham back into class this week too and she will be helping us with reading maths each week- welcome back Mrs Ingham!
This week, the children will be bringing home so revision booklets to support our multiplication study.
It would also be really helpful if you could continue to support with telling the time on analogue and digital clocks- talking about how much time until dinner, between activities etc.
DT- Diwali
Your diwa holders have now come home and you can cut them off the card base we used to secure them. Check out some of our final pieces! These should last a long time after being thoroughly glazed and will hold a tealight and/or an incense stick.



UPDATE TO POST BELOW!
The hands are already glazed! I realise that reads like you might need to glaze them... you don't! :)
This week in Silver Birch
This week in Silver Birch we have been working super hard to master square and cube numbers. We even looked at expanded expressions using just prime numbers. I am very impressed with the determination and successes of all of our classmates.
We finally sent home our Hamsa hands which we made as part of our Hinduism study. We made these to mark the festival of Diwali. You should now be able to cut them off their card bases and enjoy them as a tealight or incense holder in your homes. They are stunning.
We also wrote prayers for the Remembrance service taking place this Sunday at St Andrew's Church. Here are some of our poppies in the making that we will hold with pride during our school remembrance service this week too. We used the work of Darrel Wakelam to inspire a recycled, eco-friendly design.
We launched our new study in science today too. We are looking at life processes and how life cycles compare across different living things. We played a yes/no game to identify the living thing on our backs! Great fun that led to some specific scientific questioning. Some brilliant retrieval of prior learning with questions such as "am I a carnivore?"


English w.c 8.11.21
Have you met Stanley Yelnats? Possibly you have! If not, then you will soon be introduced through your children's English work this term!
So far we have read 5 chapters of Holes and developed deeper understanding of Louis Sachar's vocabulary choices. American English can be so different to the language we use daily but we are making great connections. Did you know what a spigot was?
This week's grammar has focused on modifying words for intensity- brutal- brutally, happy- happily.
We are looking at a variety of sentence structures also to exaggerate perspective as we retell Stanley's first encounters with other children and staff at Camp Green Lake! Watch this space for our informal letter writing home from Stanley to his parents!
This week's spelling test is list 7, last week's words. And we are learning list 8, which will be tested next Friday. All spellings are accessible on Spelling Shed and in your children's homework booklets.
Term 1- Brutal Britain
What an incredible first term we are having. As we draw to a close of our first topic it is wonderful to be able to showcase and celebrate some of the children's achievements this term.
As part of our novel study we have written a recount as Herbie in Malamander (by Thomas Taylor) of his experience meeting Violet Parma in his hotel Lost and Foundery! Take a look at your child's Seesaw page to see this marvellous writing and to hear them reading their work. We are now working on an opening to a sequel to Malamander with our creations of a further mythological creature for Herbie and Violet to face!
In maths, the children have worked hard on number, place value, addition and subtraction. We are now beginning our multiplication work as part of our Maths No Problem mastery approach to learning in maths. It has been wonderful to see the progression in children's journalling in maths as they develop their answers, proof and explanations to a range of problems every day.
In science, we have been focusing on materials, their properties and changes in state. We will be presenting our learning in this unit, including reflections on our investigations by presenting an explanation text next week.
In history we have really developed our understanding of reliability and bias of sources, and considered why we know what we know, or think we know, about the Dark Ages in our British history. Our chronological awareness is developing with application of our knowledge to different timeline tasks and we will continue to explore chronology throughout the year, contrasting events with what else we know happened at different points in time.

What do you think to our character designs for our mythological creatures in English?