Summer 2 Week 5

What a wonderful week we have in Year 5!

In English, we have continued reading the story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We have written a short chapter of the story from the perspective of Oberon (king of the fairies) using parenthesis to add more detail to our sentences. We have also looked at the key features of a playscript and on Friday we wrote our own playscript based on a chapter of the story. 

In Math’s, we have finished our unit on measurement (converting units) and we have completed some end of year assessments which we have been working hard to complete. 

In RE, we explored the story of Ruth & Naomi and we thought about the qualities Ruth had showed in her story. We then discussed how Ruth’s actions demonstrated her loyalty to Naomi and we created a piece of artwork to show this. 

On Monday, in D.T., we finished constructing our wooden truss bridges and they look fantastic! We had to use our problem solving skills to piece the truss bridges together. The bridges we built were really secure and were able to hold a significant weight due to their structure.

Following on from our fieldwork, in Geography we created a magazine article about changes in our local area. In our article, we wrote about the geography of the local area, what we know about the new housing development and its impact on the village. 

On Thursday, we performed our brass showcase in front of parents and the whole school. We blew the audience away with our talent and everybody was amazed by how much progress we have made!

Summer 2 Week 5

We have had another wonderful week in Year 5!

This week in English we have started to read A Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare. We recapped what we already know about Shakespeare and then we learnt some more interesting facts about him. We then created a Shakespeare Top Trumps card, where we had to think about how we could summarise key information about him and the key skills and traits that we could create Top Trumps ratings for. As we have been exploring parenthesis using brackets this week, we have been working hard to include this in our writing. We have also familiarised ourselves with the complicated plot by putting the key events in chronological order. As well as this, we have explored the thoughts and feelings of key characters in the story (such as Demetrius and Helena). On Friday, we retold a part of the play from the perspective of one of the characters. 

In Maths, we have started our Measurement unit. We have been busy converting between grams and kilograms, metres and kilometres, millimetres and centimetres and centimetres and metres. We have used multiplying and dividing of powers of ten to help us find the answer. We have shown excellent problem solving skills this week!

In D.T., we have started building our wooden truss bridges in our table groups. We worked as a team to measure and saw down the correct sizes of wood. We will be glueing the parts together next week to construct the foundations of our truss bridge. 

On Wednesday afternoon, we had our wonderful West End in School Shakespeare workshop. We used drama and role play to recreate key scenes from the play and at the end of the day the whole school came together to present all of our learning in a whole school performance. 

On Tuesday, as part of our Geography learning (about changes in the local area), we conducted some our fieldwork in Hoddlesden. We walked down to observe the old Vernon Carus Mill site and we took photographs and made sketches of the old site. We also spoke to the local shop worker and members of he public to ask them about their opinion of the new housing development, that is going to be built on the old mill site. We found that people in the area have mixed opinions about the new development. We will present our findings in a report next week! 

Summer 2 Week 4
 

We have had a wonderful jam-packed week in Year 5!

This week in English we have written our own narrative stories based on the Jabberwocky using our own mythical creatures. We have been working hard to apply a range of Year 5 grammar features to our writing such as: relative clauses, different sentence starters (such as simile openers, ‘ed’ openers and ‘ing’ openers), expanded noun phrases and blending action, description and dialogue.

In Maths, we have been reflecting 2D shapes using folding and mirrors to help us draw the reflected shapes accurately. We have then been finding the new coordinates of reflected shapes on a grid. 

In Science, in pairs we led our own inflating balloon experiment to observe a chemical reaction taking place. We mixed vinegar and baking soda together in a bottle and we watched the balloons inflate with gas. We discovered that this gas was called carbon dioxide. We then discussed why this change was irreversible and thought about a new hypothesis that we could measure, ensuring we were still completing a fair test. 

In Geography, we looked at how Darwen has changed over the last 100 years. We learnt about the mills in Darwen and how they brought about change to our local area. We then thought about recent changes that we have noticed in our local area, such as the new housing development that is being developed at Vernon Carnus Mill. We thought about the positive and negative changes this could bring to our local environment. Next week, we are going to be undertaking some field work to observe these changes first hand and to record some data to help us investigate these changes further. We are also hoping to find out some local people’s opinions of these new changes that are going to happen in Hoddlesden. 

In D.T., we finished building our spaghetti truss bridges. Next week, we are going to be building wooden truss bridges in our groups, thinking about how we can improve the structures that we have built in our spaghetti truss bridges. 

In R.E., we have learnt about a significant lady in the Bible, Jochebed, who helped protect her son’s (Moses’) life from the wicked orders of the Pharoah when he demanded that all baby boys should be killed in Egypt. We reflected on her thoughts and feelings during this difficult time and why she is recognised as such a brave and caring mother. 

On Wednesday afternoon, we had our final outdoor learning session of the year, which was based on Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We had lots of fun building fairy houses in the woods, creating performances in groups using the natural resources outside to enhance our performances, whittling down sticks to make a fire and learning how to light a fire using a flint and steel. 

Summer 2 Week 3
 

Year 5 have had a very exciting week this week! 

On Tuesday, we had our Music trip to the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. This was to showcase our brass learning which has been taking place throughout the year. We got to play with the world famous  Hallé orchestra and we got to listen to some of their amazing instrumentals. It was an extraordinary experience and we were all blown away by the progress the children have made! It certainly was a day we will never forget! 

In English, we have been busy collecting adjectives and verbs to describe our own mythical creature (based on Jabberwocky). We have used our descriptions in a newspaper report, which is about a mythical creature which is terrorising our local area. We have been using cohesive devices in our writing, such as time and place adverbials and connectives, to make our writing flow nicely.

In Maths, we have continued with our geometry unit Position and Direction. This week we have learnt how to describe the translation of a shape and then we translated shapes independently. We have also been looking at lines of symmetry in a range of 2D shapes. 

In Geography, we used a digital map to plot a variety of physical and human features of our local area. We had to think about the positioning of points on our map and the proximity of the different features. 

This week in P.E., we have been practising hand stands and our balancing skills in gymnastics. We have also been working in groups to create a gymnastics sequence which uses a range of balances and transitions. 

As part of our bridges unit in D.T., we have been working in groups to construct a truss bridge made of spaghetti. We had to think about the size of each part of the bridge and the strength of our bridge too. We really enjoyed the challenge of building the bridges and we showed wonderful team work! 

Elliott - I have enjoyed learning about co-ordinates in Maths this week. 

Lucas - I have enjoyed building the spaghetti truss bridges in D.T. 

Leonardo - I have enjoyed playing with the Hallé orchestra at Bridgewater Hall this week.

Will F - I have enjoyed PSHE this week because we learnt about how to look after ourselves.

Summer 2 Week 2

This week has been a lovely, sunny week in Year 5!

We have begun our next whole school theme Hoddlesden Globe. In English, we have been reading our class poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. We have looked closely that the old language and unusual vocabulary that is used. Then we started by performing the poem in groups using action, sound effects and intonation. We have explored what is happening in each verse of the poem. 

In Maths, we have started our new unit Position and Direction. We began our unit by identifying co-ordinates on a grid and then we plotted co-ordinates on a grid. We have used our reasoning skills brilliantly this week!  We have also been drawing shapes on a grid and we have identified missing co-ordinates too. 

This half term in D.T. we are going to be constructing a wooden truss bridge. We have started the unit by investigating how different shapes and structures affect the strength of a bridge.

In Science, we are learning about reversible and irreversible changes. We did an investigation to see what would happen when hydrogen peroxide, yeast, warm water, washing up liquid and food colouring were mixed together. We loved watching the reaction of the chemicals! We discussed why the materials reacted and why the temperature of the mixture increased. We then wrote a description of what happened, which substances we thought acted together, what was the new material that was made and then whether it was a reversible or irreversible change. 

In French, we have been applying our new learning about the weather to write sentences which describe what the weather is like in a season.

On Friday, had our CPR training. We thought that the session was extremely valuable and we enjoyed learning about CPR and how to perform it.

Stanley - I enjoyed the CPR training because I learnt things that I didn’t know.

Charlotte - I have enjoyed doing coordinates this week.

Gideon - I have enjoyed learning about the Jabberwocky. 

Lucas - I enjoyed D.T and testing out the different bridges .

Noah - I enjoyed the experiment in Science because I like learning about chemistry.

Summer 2 Week 1 

History week has been great fun! We have really enjoyed celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee by learning about the Queen's life and important events that have taken place during her reign. On Thursday we had our whole school Jubilee picnic and it was great to see so many parents and guardians that were there.  Most of our learning this week has been about the 1960s as this was a very exciting decade. On Friday, we had our whole school dress up day and we dressed up either in 1960s style clothing or in red, white and blue.

On Tuesday, our learning was centered around the Queen. After ordering the Queen's important life events on a timeline, we looked closely at the Queen's family tree and discussed why she became Queen. We then wrote an interesting fact file about the Queen. We also learned about the Queen's coronation and the different aspects of the ceremony. We used role play and drama to re-enact this and we used props to represent the orb, sceptre and crown.

On Wednesday, we learnt about decimalisation and we looked closely at real coins from the 1960s (e.g. pounds, shillings, six pence and half pence). We then explored what the coins each of the coins were worth compared to today. We really enjoyed learning about how England won the World Cup in 1966 and we read eye witness accounts from the time to find out what it was like. We then imagined we were a child during this historical moment and we wrote a diary entry using the primary sources that we looked at. 

Since the Flower Power movement was so popular during the 1960s, we read about the cause of the movement and we looked at photographs taken of the peaceful protests. Following this, we created an anti-war poster using some of the slogans we identified from the campaigns such as "Peace and Love" and "Love not War". We loved learning about the fashion of men and women during the 1960s. We admired how colourful their clothing was and the interesting patterns that they wore. Using photographs as inspiration, we designed our own 1960s outfit. This week we have listened to some of the Beatles' music and we have choreographed our own 'Twist' style dance to Twist and Shout. Finally, we have looked at what food was popular in Britain during the 1960s (such as tunnel cake and prawn cocktails) and we designed our own 1960's themed menu. We found it interesting to learn that choc ices and fish fingers were very popular at the time! 

Summer 1 Week 6

Another fantastic half term that has just flown by! 

On Tuesday, it was our whole school Sports Day! It was great to see everybody taking part, demonstrating our key sport values of determination, respect and self belief. 

In English, we have been finishing writing our stories which have been adapted from on our class novel The Nowhere Emporium. We have also completed an independent write, focusing on a part of the story but from a different perspective. We have been working hard to include relative clauses in our stories. 

In Maths, we have been continued learning about the properties of polygons, quadrilaterals and different types of triangles. We have been working about missing angles in polygons by using our knowledge of angles around a point. 

This week in History, we have learnt about a significant historical figure: Alfred the Great. We learnt about his achievements and we discussed whether he should be given the title of ‘Great’ or not. We then wrote a discussion text about this. 

In Computing, we have been finishing our Viking and Anglo-Saxon quizzes. We also imported a new Sprite into the program so that our characters asking the questions were either a Viking or Anglo-Saxon. 

In French, we have been writing our poems about different seasons using the vocabulary we have learnt this year. We described colours, months and the temperature in our poems. 

On Friday, it was Music day and we had a music session in the hall with Mr Richards. We listed to a marimba piece of music and learnt it on the glockenspiels, ukuleles, tambourines, tambours and maracas.  We then added our own improvisations and and performed to one another.

Douglas - I have enjoyed writing the story from a different perspective.

Zachary - I liked making the quiz on Scratch. 

Louis & Emily - I have enjoyed helping with the KS1 Sports day this week.

Amelia - I have enjoyed learning about Alfred the Great and writing about the past. 

Joseph - I enjoyed History and finding out if Alfred the Great should be called ‘Great’. 

Summer 1 Week 5

We have had a great week this week!

In Maths, we have been measuring and drawing angles accurately using a protractor. We have also been using our knowledge of different angles to work out missing angles on a straight line and around a point. 

In English, we have been busy planning and writing our own innovated stories of our class novel The Nowhere Emporium. We have spent time planning the vocabulary and grammar features we are going to use. 

In History, we have been analysing sources to find out about the Lindisfarne raid which was one of the Viking's first raids in Britain! We learnt about the effect this had on the monks living on the island and what the Vikings stole from it. We then thought about how we could classify the sources into fact or opinion. On Monday, we also had our Anglo-Saxon History workshop. We loved using drama and freeze frames to show the different roles of people found in Anglo-Saxon society. 

In Computing, we designed our own interactive quiz, thinking about the different questions we would ask and the outcomes. 

This week, in PE, we used the technique we practised last week to throw some discus at different distances. We also took part in some shuttle run races. 

In Art & Design, we used our drawing skills, developed over the half term, to draw a mythical creature that we would expect to find in the Nowhere Emporium. We collected digital images to support our drawings and we used our imagination to do the rest! 

In Science, we looked at scientific data which showed the differences in life expectancy between men and women over the last 150 years. As a class, we made conclusions from this data and thought about the reasons why life expectancy has increased over the last century. 

Summer 1 Week 4

This week has been a super week!

On Wednesday, we had our outdoor learning afternoon. We navigated our way using a map to Millennium Green. When we. In History this half term, we have been learning about the Vikings. We have learnt about the Viking Futhark (the Viking alphabet) and their system of writing which was through using Runes. Using the sticks that we had whittled down, we wrote our own names and secret messages using the runes. We then worked with our partner to try and interpret their secret message. After this, we made charcoal line drawings of our surrounding environment. 

In English, this week we have been learning more about the characters in the our class novel The Nowhere Emporium and we have been using evidence from the text to support our ideas. We have also used our imagination to design our own room that we would like to see in the emporium. On Friday, we used persuasive language and features to write a job advert for a new employee in the Nowhere Emporium. 

In Maths, we have started our new unit Geometry: Properties of Shape. We have been recapping our prior learning of identifying acute, obtuse and equilateral triangles. We then moved onto comparing angles and ordering them from largest to smallest. Next week, we are going to be using a protractor to help us measure some tricky angles. 

Our focus in History this week has been based on when, where and why the Vikings settled in Britain. We compared the reasons why the Vikings settled in Britain to the reasons that the Anglo Saxons came to Britain and we found that they shared some similarities. We then imagined that we were a Viking when they first arrived in Britain and we wrote a letter to one of our relatives persuading them to come and join us using what we had learned. 

In Computing, we have been using Scratch to start programming our own quiz. We had to think about the questions and conditions we wanted our sprite to respond to. 

As part of our RE learning this week we have been exploring more of the book of Daniel. We read the story of The Fiery Furnace and explored the reasons why the three men had been saved by God. We created a piece of artwork using oil pastels to demonstrate the power of the story. 

Summer 1 Week 3

We have enjoying diving further into our class text 'The Nowhere Emporium' this week. We have been writing diary entries from the perspective of the main character Daniel to show his thoughts and feelings after his return to the Nowhere Emporium. We have also been looking closely at how the author blends action, description and dialogue throughout the text and we have come up with our own for each character. 

In Maths, we have been working really hard with some tricky decimal numbers! At the start of the week we were adding and subtracting decimal numbers with a different number of decimal places. Then we have been counting in decimal sequences and identifying different terms in each sequence. 

In History, we have been undertaking some research on the Staffordshire Hoard discovery and we thought about what the artefacts show about the Anglo-Saxons. We discovered that the Anglo-Saxons were very skilled artists and that they brought about cultural and religious advancements to Britain during their rule. 

In Art & Design, we were busy using our observational drawing skills to draw a collage. We had to think about the proportions of our drawing and we used our pencil shading skills to make our sketches bright and colourful!

As part of our Programming unit in Computing, we have been developing our understanding of selection by using the ‘if… then… else...’ structure in algorithms and programs. We then wrote their own programs that use selection with two outcomes.

In PE with Miss Tapp, we have been developing our orienteering by creating our own maps and using maps to navigate through different paths. In Athletics with Miss Dobie, we have been practicing our discus throwing and our sprinting technique.

Summer 1 Week 2 

This week has been a brilliant week!

In English, we have been creating freeze frames to depict different events in the story. We have also been writing descriptive paragraphs of the Nowhere Emporium which include: simile sentence openers, expanded noun phrases and we have made links to the four senses. 

In Maths we have been using mental methods and written methods to subtract decimal numbers with up to three decimal places! We have all shown huge amounts of perseverance with this. 

In Science, we have been learning about gestation and we have been comparing gestation periods of different animals. We have learnt that larger animals have longer gestation periods because they need longer to devlop due to their size. We also looked at the development of a foetus and how they develop throughout  pregnancy. 

In History we have been discovering more about the Sutton Hoo ship burial. W have thought about what the objects found inside can tell us about how the Anglo-Saxons lived. We then wrote a diary entry from the perspective of the landowner and we described how she felt about the archaeologists discovery.

In PE, we have been practising our triple jumping technique using the sequence hop, skip and jump. We then ran into our jump to give us more force and momentum. 

As part of our Art learning we have been exploring the work of Paul Klee. We used mirrors to create a line drawing self portrait. We found it tricky not being able to take our pencil off the page but we really enjoyed the challenge of it! 

Our Computing unit this half term is Programming: Using Selection To Create a Quiz. We are going to be using Scratch to program and create our very own quiz. We started our first lesson by exploring the different conditions, selections and actions in Scratch. 

Summer 1 Week 1 

It has been a short but super first week back after the Easter holidays! 

In English, we have begun our new unit which is based on Ross Mackenzie’s story The Nowhere Emporium. In pairs, we have been writing exciting expanded noun phrases to describe an image of an emporium and the objects inside it. We have been exploring some interesting adjectives that we used in our expanded noun phrases. Following on from this, we created a list poem using the expanded noun phrases that we constructed. On Friday, we discussed the title of the story and made predictions of what the story is going to be about. 

In Maths we have recapped some of our learning from last half term, by percentages of amounts, to consolidate our knowledge. We then started our new unit on decimals. We are going to be adding and subtracting decimals using mental and written methods, counting in decimals and multiplying decimals by powers of 10. 

In History, we have started our new unit and this half term we are going to be learning all about the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. On Friday, we looked closely at an Anglo-Saxon helmet and thought about what this tells us about how Anglo-Saxons lived. We then explored the reasons why the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain and we discussed which reasons we thought were the most important. 

Our French learning this half-term is about the weather. With Madame Wardle, we learnt some new vocabulary related to the weather, months and the different seasons. We used actions to help us remember the new vocabulary!

In PSHE we explored what we mean by our rights, responsibilities and duties. We thought about what rights, responsibilities and duties we have to manage in our lives and how these might change as we grow older. We also talked about what makes these difficult to carry out.

Spring 2 Week 6 

What a wonderful week we have had in Year 5!

On Tuesday, we had our school trip to Barley Sculpture Trail. We really enjoyed exploring Barley and its natural and physical features, observing the sculptures and finding clues around the trail. After that, we had a picnic and played some games on the field. 

In English, we have been busy writing a hybrid information text. Our hybrid text includes: a set of instructions, a persuasive paragraph and an explanation text. All of the texts have linked nicely with our Geography learning about the Alps. We have been concentrating on using adverbials of time, place and number in our writing.

In Computing, we have been filming our videos, that we planned last week, and we have worked hard to apply the different filming techniques we have learnt. Each of our videos were based on our learning in Science and Geography this half term. 

Following our school trip, in Art & Design we have designed our very own sculpture/ monument to commemorate a significant person. We chose Sir Captain because of his efforts to raise money for the NHS during lockdown. We thought about the sculptures we observed on our trip and how we could use them as inspiration for our monument design. 

Elliott - I have enjoyed filming our videos for Computing this week. 

Cora  - I have enjoyed doing the Art and making the videos in Computing. 

Leo - I have enjoyed writing the hybrid texts and Computing this week. 

Harry - I have enjoyed playing a class game off cricket in PE this week. 

Spring 2 Week 5

What a glorious week we have had in Year 5!

In English, we have been finishing writing our legend stories. Miss Dobie has been so impressed with our application of a range of grammar features in our writing including: relative clauses, expanded noun phrases and 'ed' and 'ing' sentence starters. We have also started our non-fiction unit on hybrid texts. We are going to be combining different types of non-fiction texts into one! On Friday, we wrote an explanation text based on our Geography learning on fold mountains and how they are formed. 

In Maths, we have been converting fractions to decimals to percentages and we have been calculating percentages of amounts. We have shown huge determination with this! 

In Science, we have been exploring another type of force: friction. We investigated which surfaces and objects hold the most friction.

In Geography, we have been learning about how avalanches are caused and how to protect yourself from an avalanche. We created a poster for tourists to alert them of the ways they can protect themselves in the event of an avalanche.

In PE, we have been working in groups to choreograph and perform a 1 minute routine consisting of balances, rolls and jumps. 

As part of our Computing learning, we have planned our videos with a partner using a story board. We had to think about the range of video techniques we can use to make our video look effective.

On Wednesday we had our outdoor learning session! We were using our team working skills and rope skills to help rescue members of our group from a steep slope. We also made garlic bread using the wild garlic from our local woodland area.

On Tuesday, we were very lucky to have a zoom call with Reverend Rebecca to ask her questions about how the traditions in church during Eastertide reflect feelings of victory. It was great to hear about the different how the different services that take place in church during Easter work!

Spring 2 Week 4 

We have had another super week in Year 5!

In English, we have been busy planning our own legends which are based on the our focus text: The Legend of Gelert. We have had to think carefully about the innovating the plot and choosing our settings and characters. We have blown Miss Dobie away with our creative ideas and descriptions. 

In Maths, we have been comparing and ordering decimals and we have been learning about decimals up to 3 decimal places. Following on from this, we have been rounding decimals to the nearest whole and tenth, by using the significant digit. 

In Science, we conducted our falling cupcake experiment which we planned last week. We are learning about air resistance and how this impacts falling objects. We found that larger cupcake cases took longer to fall than smaller cupcake cases. During our investigation, we had to think carefully about how we were going to conduct a fair test and we took multiple measurements to make sure our results were reliable. 

In Geography, we learnt about different industries in the Alps including tourism. We discussed the positive effects of tourism on the Alps and we researched the negative impact tourism can have on the environment.  

In Art & Design we created a design for a house in the Alps. We had to think about the materials we were using, the purpose of the house and how we were going to make it environmentally sustainable. We then drew a designs from different perspectives e.g. front perspective, a floor plan and a 3D drawing. 

In PE, we have been practising our balancing positions and jumps in gymnastics. We have also been practising our bowling technique in cricket.

Louis - I enjoyed PE this week. I enjoyed doing the daily mile and practising our throwing and catching in cricket. 

Joseph - I have enjoyed learning about tourism in the Alps. 

Spring 2 Week 3

Year 5 have had another busy week in school!

On Monday, we had our World Book Day workshop which was based on the text Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. We enjoyed performing freeze frames for different scenes from the story. We have also written a letter from the perspective of Max to his parents, describing what it felt like being King of the Wild Things. After this, we have been exploring the emotions of Prince Llewelyn throughout the Legend of Gelert and we have created an emotion graph to show this. 

In Maths, we have reached the end of our unit on Fractions and we have started our new unit on Decimals and Percentages. We have recapped the value of decimals (including tenths and hundredths) and we have been converting fractions to decimals. 

In Geography, we have been looking at how houses in the Alps are adapted to the climate. We created our own design of a house in the Alps, thinking about local materials we would use and the structure of the house. 

In Art, we have been learning about the work of Frederick Hunderwasser. We explored the patterns and vibrant colours in his work and we experimented with these patterns in our sketchbooks using oil pastels. Then we recreated these patterns and added them to a simple black and white photograph of a house. They looked amazing! 

In French, we designed our lunch menu, where we had to use our knowledge of food and the French dictionary. 

In RE, we explored the Easter story further by exploring the emotions of Mary and the disciples when they found out about Jesus’ resurrection. We then imagined how the disciples would spread the news of Jesus’ resurrection. 

Olivia - I have enjoyed our brass lesson this week because I like the song we were learning (We Will Rock You).

Rubee - I have enjoyed Art this week because I liked decorating the house and adding colouring it. 

Douglas - I enjoyed French this week because I like learning a new language!

Millie - I have enjoyed English and learning about our grammar focus this week. 

Spring 2 Week 2 

What a super week Year 5 have had!

This week in English, we started to explore our new focus text for this half term: The Legend of Gelert. We started by exploring the new vocabulary in the story and following on from this we did some role play in the perspective of Prince Llywelyn. We have had some really good discussions based on the text . We have also read other legends such as Saint George and the Dragon and Finn MacCool and the Giant’s Causeway. We compared the themes and characters in these stories to the Legend of Gelert and we found many corresponding themes (e.g. heroism, loyalty and good vs evil). 

In Math’s, we have been busy multiplying unit and non-unit fractions and later in the week we were finding fractions of amounts! We have really impressed Miss Dobie and Miss Tapp with our perseverance this week.

Our Geography learning this week has been about fold mountain formation. To help us understand how this works, we used different colours and layers of clay (to represent the Earth’s plates) and sand to show how, over time, the movements of the plates can create huge mountain ranges!

In RE, we looked closely at the events of Easter story and we compared the different gospel tellings of the story. We discussed how and why Christians view Christ’s resurrection as a symbolism of victory. We then chose the events which we believed to be the most victorious and we had to explain why. 

We also had our second Bikeability session. This week, we went out on the residential roads in Hoddlesden to practice road cycling, turns and different cycling manoeuvres in the road. We really impressed Miss Dobie and the Bikeability team with our listening and safety skills. 

On Friday, we celebrated World Book Day and it was wonderful to see everybody dressed in very imaginative costumes! We spent some time reading and talking about our favourite books. Miss Dobie chose two best dressed finalists from our class and these were Bella (who came as the Demon Dentist) and Rubee (who came as the Billionaire Boy)! 

Spring 2 Week 1 

What a brilliant first week back we have had!

In English, we have been exploring the work of Andy Tooze, a British poet who came to visit our school on Wednesday. Before he came, we spent time looking at the vocabulary he used in his poem ‘The Lean Green Eco Machine’ and we performed it using actions, varied tone and sound effects. On Wednesday, we had a poetry workshop with Andy, where he read some of his favourite poems and he gave us some useful tips for writing a good poem. Later in the week, we wrote our own environmental poems about deforestation and pollution. We thought about applying the new vocabulary we have learned and we applied the tips Andy gave us. 

In Maths, we have been subtracting fractions and mixed numbers with different denominators by finding the lowest common denominator. We have really persevered with this! Following this we have been multiplying unit fractions by a single integer. We used repeated addition to help our understanding with this. 

In Geography this half term, we are studying the Alpine Region in Europe. We started the lesson using our deductions skills to work out what part of the world we are going to be studying this half term. We looked at physical maps to help us identify countries with mountainous landscapes. We then labelled a political map of the Alpine countries and we listed their capital cities.

In Science, we started our new unit Forces. On Monday with Miss Tapp, we discussed what gravity is and why it is important. We went into the hall and investigated what would happen if we dropped different balls of varying sizes from the same height. We found that all the balls landed at the same time and we discovered that this is due to the gravitational pull of the Earth. We then explored what Galileo proposed about gravity. 

In Art, we began our new Architecture unit. We completed an observational drawing of a house and we had to think about the proportions of our drawings and then we added more detail and tonal shading onto our drawing. 

We also had our first Bikeability session for this half term. We were practised cycling around cones and obstacles, followed instructions and directions and we practised our breaking skills. This was to get us ready for our session out on the residential roads next week! 

Spring 1 Week 6 

Year 5 have had a super last week of the half term!

In English, we have written a discussion text based on the Jungle Book story. The question we debated as a class was: Should Shere Khan be allowed to hunt Mowgli? The children have had very creative ideas about the arguments for and against the hunting of Mowgli. For our grammar focus, we been looking at using cohesive devices to make our writing flow and to link our ideas together. After this, we conducted some research about deforestation and its significant to India (where the Jungle Book story is set). On Friday, we used our research to help us formulate an argument about whether deforestation is good for our planet. 

In Maths, we have continued with our unit on Fractions. This week, we have been comparing fractions greater than one by finding the lowest common denominator. Following this, we have looked at adding more than two fractions with different denominators. We have shown a lot of determination with this! 

Our Science focus this week has been the moon. We looked at how the moon orbits the Earth, how long this takes and then we investigated the different phases of the moon. 

In History, we reflected on all of our learning about the Shang Dynasty and our historical enquiry for this term which was: Was the Shang Dynasty a successful civilisation? We held a debate about this and we came up with some great arguments. 

In PE, we put into practise all of the skills we have learnt in cricket this term and we had a whole class game of rounders cricket. It was great fun! 

With Mr Richards, we listened to and practised singing the song Make you feel my love by Adele. We then had a go composing our own rhythms and sequences to the song. It was also great to have Mr Greenland back on Thursday and the children were really enjoying getting stuck into brass again! 

In D.T. we finished making our pop-up books! We have really enjoyed making these and we are very proud of them. 

Spring 1 Week 5

What another super week we have had in Year 5!

In English, we have been busy retelling the ending of the Jungle Book in our own writing using a range of the grammar skills we have learnt this half term such as ‘ed’ opening clauses and creating complex sentences using the relative pronouns ‘which’ and ‘that’. We have also started recapping the features of a discussion text and the purpose of these features in preparation for next week’s writing!

In Maths, we have continued with Fractions and this week we have been converting improper fractions to mixed numbers, counting in and with mixed numbers and comparing fractions by finding the lowest common denominator. 

In Science, we have learnt about the Earth’s rotation and how this causes day and night. We also explored how the tilt of the Earth causes Earth to experience different seasons and we looked at how this differs across different hemispheres. We worked in our groups to model and explain this to the rest of the class using a torch and a tennis ball to represent the Sun and Earth. 

This week in RE, we reflected on what the Kingdom of God may look like and what we would see there. We then created colourful watercolour paintings to represent our view of this. 

In D.T, we started building another mechanism in our pop-up books such as a flap and a pop-out structure. We had to use our imagination to link our ideas of using these mechanisms to the Jungle Book story. We had to think hard about how we might present this to our target audience (Year 1 children). 

In History, we analysed another historical source. We started the lesson by looking at a photograph of a tomb and we had to infer who it might belong to by looking closely at the artefacts within it. We did a brilliant job of identifying the items and interpreting what they were made of. We then learnt that the tomb belonged to a Queen known as Fu Hao: a very significant person during this time. Following this, we created our own profile of Fu Hao and we had to explain why she was an important figure within the Shang Dynasty era. 

Spring 1 Week 4

We have had another great week in Year 5!

I want to start by saying how impressed I have been with the online learning that the children have been completing whilst at home. It is great to have seen so many of the children attending the live lessons and the standard of work has been excellent!

In English, we started the week by predicting what will happen at the end of the story and we drew our prediction in a crystal ball. We then compared the ending of the Rudyard Kipling ending to the story to Walt Disney’’s (1967) version. We found some notable differences and some similarities! On Thursday, we created our own story map to help us remember the complex ending to the story. On Friday, we planned our ending of the story, thinking about combining all of our grammar skills we have looked at this half term. 

In Maths, we have started our new unit on Fractions. We started the week by recapping what we mean by the numerator and the denominator. We then started looking at ways to find equivalent fractions. After this, we started looking at fractions which amount to a whole. We have blown Miss Dobie away with our use of mathematical vocabulary and phrases in our reasoning explanations.

On Wednesday afternoon, we had our Wild Ones outdoor learning session. We loved every minute of it - especially the compass work and the sawing we did! 

In History, we started looking at the achievements of the Shang Dynasty and the contributions they made to ancient civilisations. We undertook research in our table group and presented our findings to one another. 

In RE, we looked at few more parables that Jesus told such as The Prodigal Son, The Great Banquet and his Parable of Talents. We reflected on what these stories tell us about how God wants us to build relationships with others. We then did some role play performances of these important parables. 

In D.T., we continued constructing our pop-up books and this week we built a slider mechanism in the first page of our book. We blew Miss Dobie away with our creative ideas and sense of imagination!

In PE, we practised our overarm serves in volleyball and we had small group rallies. We really enjoyed competing against the other teams and practising our serving skills. 

Spring 1 Week 3 

We have had another great week in Year 5!

In English, we have been using role play to create freeze frames of a key event in the story, when Mowgli arrives in the man village. We have captured the thoughts and feelings of each of the characters in each scene. On Friday, we wrote a letter from the perspective of Mowgli describing what the man village is like and what it is like being a man. 

In Maths, we have been working hard using our division skills. We have used the chunking method to help us divide 4 digit numbers! 

In Science, we investigated what the famous astronomers, Copernicus and Galileo, proposed about the orientation of the solar system. We learnt how the heliocentric model, faced lots of criticism and backlash at the time due to the Christian church’s beliefs.  

This week in French, we looked at the la galette des rois and this week we have focused on identifying the verbs in the recipe. We spent some time looking at the meaning of the words. 

In History, we learnt about the life of people living under the Shang Dynasty rule. We investigated what life was living in each of the social classes. 

Spring 1 Week 2 

We have had a wonderful week in Year 5!

In English, we have continued reading our focus text, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. We started the week creating a ‘Found’ poster to describe the character of Mowgli, using evidence from the text. On Tuesday, we read the poem ’The Law of the Jungle’ by Rudyard Kipling. We debated the most important and the least important rules in the poem and we discussed why rules are important. We also wrote our own short narrative to a particularly emotive scene in the story, with a focus on blending action, description and dialogue in our writing. 

In Maths, we continued multiplying numbers up to four digits by one digit using grid method. We used our knowledge of multiples of 10, 100 and 1000 and to help us calculate the answer. On Wednesday, we used mental methods to help us divide a two digit number by a one digit number. Then on Thursday. Next week we are going to be using chunking method to help us divide a four digit number by a one digit number!

We have enjoyed PE this week. We took part in some batting and fielding practise. We spent time practising our throwing and our long distance catching techniques. 

In History, we started our new unit which is about the Shang Dynasty in ancient China. After analysing a range of sources, we interpreted what the artefacts might have been used for and what time period they came from. 

This term in RE, we are learning about Jesus and his teachings. As a class, we discussed what makes a good teacher and we thought about the most important things we have been taught. In groups to make lists of all the people who have taught us things and we identified what we have already been taught by Jesus. 

In Computing, we continued creating vector drawings but this week we created space-themed vector drawings as this is what we are studying in Science. We then looked at importing and blending our drawings into backgrounds. 

In Science, we looked at the movements of the different planets and the speed in which they travel around the Sun. We discussed the heliocentric and the geocentric model of the solar system. We then went outside onto the playground to create a human model of this.

Spring 1 Week 1 

We have had a brilliant start to the Spring term! Although it’s been a short week, we have dived straight in with all of our new learning! 

In English, we began by reading the plot to Rudyard Kipling’s version of The Jungle Book. In pairs, we then performed a section of the plot using actions. We have also spent time exploring some of the unfamiliar vocabulary in the book. 

In Maths, we started our next unit on Multiplication and Division. We started by recapping the way to multiply a two digit number by one digit number using a partitioning strategy. Then we multiplied three digit numbers by one digit numbers using grid method. We have used our knowledge of multiplication facts to help us calculate the answers to tricky calculations. 

With Mrs Wardman on Thursday, we started our Computing unit on vector drawings. We really enjoyed creating layered images using different shapes on PowerPoint. We blew Miss Dobie away with our creative digital drawings!

On Friday, we began our new unit in French which is based on Food. We discussed different food celebrations and the different foods we eat in each celebration. As it is currently the Christian celebration of Epiphany, we learnt about how French people celebrate the Christian festival and we looked at the types of food they eat and the traditions they have. We then compared these traditions to that of English people. We practised saying different types of food in French.

Autumn 2 Week 7

We have had a wonderful last week of the Autumn term! 

In English, we have written our own poem’s about Black Saturday: the first day the bombings of the Blitz began. We reflected on how people would have felt before, during and after the first bombing and what the environment would have looked like. We looked closely at the meaning of new vocabulary in other war poems and then we incorporated this higher level vocabulary into our own war poem. Our poems were very descriptive and dramatic to read! We have also spent time looking at persuasive adverts and the different features of these (such as alliteration, rhetorical questions, superlatives and imperative verbs). We then created our own eye-catching persuasive adverts for our Elf Enterprise product. 

In D.T, we have been super busy constructing our Elf Enterprise products. These have been challenging to build, but we are so pleased with our final product! During our lessons, each group has been working on different parts and mechanisms of the cards so that we could build our cards quickly and effectively. We felt like elves busy at work in the North Pole! We have blown Miss Dobie away with building of the tricky circuits and our team working skills.

In Maths, we have been busy completing our end of term assessments. Linking in with our Elf Enterprise theme, we worked out the total costing of all of our components for our cards and from this we valued how much each card was worth. After this, we calculated how much profit we had made and all profits are being donated to charity.

On Thursday, we had our class Christmas party. We watched a Christmas film, played games, completed Christmas puzzles and we also enjoyed doing some drawing and colouring. As a class, we have also made Christmas cards to give to our families. We really hope you like them!

From all of the team in Year 5, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas! 🎄

Autumn 2 Week 6 

What a fantastic week we have had in Year 5!

Our Christmas festivities are well under way! This week we have started our Elf Enterprise theme. 

We began our week by undertaking some product research, which lead into us designing our very own Christmas product: a light up nativity card. In our RE learning this term, we have looked closely at how the different gospels (Matthew and Luke) portray the nativity story. So we would like our card to reflect our knowledge and understanding of what we have learnt in RE this term. 

In D.T, we started investigating electrical circuits and we thought about the different ways we could create a switch in our circuit. Following on from this, in English we wrote an explanation text which explained how an electrical circuit works and what function of the switch is and why it is important in an electrical circuit. 

In History, this week we started our lesson by analysing an eye witness statement of a news correspondent, who reported the Blitz in London. As a class, we reflected on how people would have felt at the time and the sorts of events they would have seen. We also looked at the impact that the Blitz had on our local area (Darwen and Blackburn). Using the source, we created our own free verse poetry based on the Blitz.

In French, we had the second round of our spelling bee and we blew away Madame Wardle with our recital of the French alphabet and the spelling of French nouns! Douglas and Arthur made it to the final and won some special prizes - well done boys!

On Wednesday, we had our wonderful Wild Ones Adventure session, which was certainly wet and muddy, but it was a fantastic morning! We were busy treasure hunting, shelter building and marshmallow roasting! We all showed super team building and problem solving skills. 

Autumn 2 Week 5 

What a week we have had in Year 5! 
This week in Maths, we have been using our knowledge of multiples of 10,100 and 1000, along with our multiplication facts, to multiply powers of 10. We have also started our final unit of the term: Measurement. We have begun by revisiting our understanding of perimeter and finding the perimeter of rectilinear shapes. 
We started in English by writing a setting description of the train journey the children in the story made from the ghetto to Auschwitz. We included lots of descriptive language and devices in our writing such as expanded noun phrases, similes, metaphors and show not tell. As part of our writing phase, we have planned an innovated ending to our class novel: After the War. We discussed where the characters might go and live after the war and we are going to be writing a three part story of this. We are focusing on blending action, description and dialogue to make our stories more creative and interesting to read. 
In Science, this week we started to explore the life cycle of a flower plant, learning new scientific vocabulary based on the parts of a flowering plant. We have also looked closely at the functions of each part. With Miss Tapp, we learnt the role these parts play in the pollination process. 
In our RE lesson this week, we reflected on the evil actions of King Herod after baby Jesus was born. We wrote a diary entry from the perspective of Mary or Joseph when they had to flee and escape to Egypt.

With Madame Wardle, we began our spelling bee and we were tested on our spelling of the names of places/ locations in our town. There were so many of us who took part and we really put ourselves out of our comfort zones. 
We have also been busy learning our class Christmas song Join the Angels, which we really love singing! 
 

Autumn 2 Week 4

We have had a super week in Year 5!

In English, we have continued reading our novel After the War. We researched how Britain celebrated VE day, which lead to us writing letters to describe the events that took place and we also reflected on how people were feeling on the cheerful yet sorrowful day. 

In Maths, we have been multiplying and dividing four digit numbers (with up to 2 decimal places) by 10, 100 and 1000. We have also been solving some challenging problems related to this. 

This week in Science, we learnt about the life cycle of birds and we made comparisons between the different life cycles of birds, amphibians and insects. Then in Computing, we created a PowerPoint about one of the life cycles we have explored and we even used sound effects and animations to make our slideshow more interactive and interesting to watch.

On Monday, in PE, we continued developing our ball skills, where we were working in teams to dribble a ball between the cones and we also played a game of four corners which involved using our passing and interception skills. In our Space Dance PE lesson on Thursday, we choreographed our own solo 'zero gravity' dance, where we had to think about the way astronauts move and travel in space.

In History, we wrote a balanced argument based on whether Britain was right to declare war on Germany. We also reflected on the negative effects the war had on Britain and we discussed the need to help those who are in trouble.

In our RE lesson, we listened to different versions of the Magnificat song, a song that was sang by Mary when she was told by Angel Gabriel that she would give birth to Jesus. We then looked closely at the lyrics of the song and reflected on what they tell us about Christian beliefs.

Autumn 2 Week 3 

We have had a brilliant week in Year 5!

In English, we started reading our historical fiction text After the War: From Auschwitz to Ambleside, which a story based on the Windermere Children. We are loving reading this book! We have spent time learning new historical vocabulary, using evidence from the text to justify our opinions about a character and we have written a diary entry from the perspective of one of the main characters. We have really worked hard to incorporate our grammar focus - using dashes for parenthesis - into our writing. 

In Maths, we have continued with our Multiplication and Division unit and this week we have been learning about prime numbers, square numbers and cube numbers. We found cubed numbers especially challenging, but but we have done really well using our problem solving skills to solve some tricky word problems. 

In History, we explored the reasons behind why World War II began. We then wrote our own speech, imagining we were Neville Chamberlain, when he declared that Britain would be at war with Germany. 

This week in Science, we investigated the life cycle of amphibians and we focused on the life cycle of a frog. We wrote about what happens at each life stage from frog spawn to pregnancy. We couldn’t believe that some frogs have a life span of up to 12 years!

In RE, we discussed the different ways in which we celebrate Christmas and we made links between our traditions and the Bible story. We then created a piece of artwork which illustrated either Luke or Matthew’s nativity gospel. 

With Madame Wardle, we were using our knowledge of the French alphabet to spell some of the names of places of French in preparation for our spelling bee which will take place in a few weeks time. 

In Computing, we created a PowerPoint about ourselves using images, animations, background effects and different fonts in our presentation. 

On Friday, we all came to school in non-uniform to raise money for Children in Need. The winner of Pudsey creation was Emily, who made a fantastic drawing of Pudsey bear! Our best dressed finalists this year were Lucas and Stanley! 

Autumn 2 Week 2 

We have had another great week in Year 5! 

This week has been Math’s Week, we have been spending time developing our problem solving skills and we have developed our mathematical thinking. We have also started our new unit on Multiplication and Division, looking at finding multiples and factor pairs of given numbers. Miss Dobie has been very impressed by our time table recall and we have also been taking part in Mrs Bullen’s times table badge challenge!

Linking with our History learning, in English we researched the life of Winston Churchill and we wrote our own biography about his life and his achievements. In light of Remembrance Day, we have reflected on the events of World War II and those who lost their lives. As a class, we wrote a Remembrance poem and decorated our class poppy, which we took up to the war memorial on Thursday for our Remembrance Service. On Friday, we wrote our own biography about Greta Thunberg. 

In Science, we learnt about the life cycles of reptiles, more specifically that of a sea turtle. We were all fascinated by this and showed lots of enthusiasm towards learning about this! 

In RE, we discussed the reasons why Luke and Matthew’s Nativity stories differed and we learnt that they were created for different audiences. We then thought about who Matthew and Luke might send to visit baby Jesus today and why. We had lots of interesting ideas such as: David Attenborough, the Queen, Prince Charles and even NHS workers. 

With Madame Wardle, we have continued learning about directions and we mapped out and wrote sentences about our journey to school. We really impressed Madame Wardle and Miss Dobie with this as many of us were very creative with our sentences and choice of vocabulary.

Here are some of our comments about what we have learnt and enjoyed this week: 

Leo - “I have enjoyed learning about factors and World War II.”

Cora - “I have enjoyed English because I liked learning about Winston Churchill and Greta Thunberg.”

Olly - “I have enjoyed researching Winston Churchill and writing a biography about him.”

Will - “I really enjoyed playing hockey in PE this week!”

Lucy - “I enjoyed writing sentences about our journey to school in French.”

Autumn 2 Week 1 

It has been a busy first week back in Year 5! We have started our new Factual Footprints theme learning. In English, we have started our Non-fiction November learning, reading and comparing biographies of significant environmental experts such as David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg. We have looked closely at the structure and features of a biography and we have started to generate questions that we will use to write our own biographies next week. In light of the COP26 event, we have had lots of discussion about what Greta and Attenborough have done to raise awareness of climate change. Linking with our Science learning on Life Cycles, we watched David Attenborough's speech at the COP26 event and we wrote a letter to him explaining how and why his speech had inspired us. 

In Maths, we have continued reading and interpreting data presented in two-way table charts and timetables as part of our Statistics unit. 

On Monday, we kickstarted our Hockey unit with Miss Tapp and we practiced our dribbling and passing skills. On Thursday, we began our next unit in PE: Space Dance. We spent time thinking about how astronauts might move in space and we started to learn the first three steps to our dance routine to Around the World by Daft Punk. 

In History this term, we are learning about World War II and we started our unit by analysing different sources (such as photographs, letters and even physical objects taken from the war), using our inference skills to suggest what each of the sources were showing. 

In RE, we used our knowledge of the Bible from last term to locate the nativity story in the Bible. We found the nativity story in two different books in the Bible and we looked at the differences and similarities between the way the two gospels depict the story. 

Autumn 1 Week 8

We have had a brilliant last week of term! This week in English, Year 5 have been writing their own innovated chapter of our focus text 'A Long Walk to Water'. We have been working really hard to include 'ing' opening clauses into our writing to vary out sentence starters.

At the beginning of the week, we started our Statistics unit in Maths looking at how to present data in different charts. We have been reading and interpreting data from line graphs, bar charts, table charts and pictograms. We also drew our own bar charts and line graphs, which we found challenging!

In RE, we explored the life of William Tyndale and reflected on what he might of thought and how he might have felt felt during different events throughout his life.

In Art and Design, we finished building our musical sculptures and we evaluated our final pieces and reflected on the building process.

With Mrs Wardman, we created our own spreadsheet drawing on all of our learning and the skills we have developed over last 7 weeks. Computing has been one of favourite subjects this half term. 

In Geography, as we have been learning all about Kenya, we created persuasive leaflets to encourage people to visit Kenya and all of its wonderful physical features - our leaflets were very creative!

On Wednesday, we had our behaviour treat which was an inflatable bouncy castle come obstacle course! We were very excited and really enjoyed it.

On Friday, we came to the end of our Native Narrative theme, but we are looking forward to starting our next theme 'Factual Footprints' next term! 

Autumn 1 Week 7

We have to come the end of another super week in Year 5! This week in English, we have read more of our class novel 'A Long Walk to Water'. We have enjoyed reflecting on each character's thoughts and feelings throughout the text and we have made predictions based on how the character's in the story are going to meet each other.

In Maths, we have been completing inverse operations by applying our knowledge addition and subtraction.

In Science, we have conducted experiments based on reversible and irreversible changes by trying to dissolve different substances into liquid.

In Geography, we have explored the impact of urbanisation and the expansion of human features in Kenya's capital city Nairobi. We also discussed the effects that urbanisation has had on animal environments.

In Dance, we have been working on our Rock n Roll partner routines to the song 'Rock Around The Clock', by mastering our partner lifts and syncronisation skills.

In Art, we have started to build our musical sculptures and we have enjoyed using different tools to construct our sculptures.

On Friday, we performed our final showcase of African music to Year 3, which was excellent and we should all be very proud of ourselves. 

In worship, we have reflected on some environmental issues (such as pollution) and we wrote our own teaspoon prayers about ways in which we as can actively care for the environment and God's creation. 

Autumn 1 Week 6 

This week has just flown by in Year 5! We have worked very hard this week. In Maths this week, we have continued with our Addition and Subtraction unit and we have been applying written methods of addition and subtraction to help us solve some tricky questions involving decimal numbers. We have also been using estimating and approximating to answer addition and subtraction calculations with 6 digit numbers. 

As it is Black History Month, in our worships lessons we have been learning about an inspirational lady named Dorothy Vaughan. Dorothy Vaughan, was an African American mathematician who worked for NASA. Her work contributed towards the launch of the first satellite and the first man on the moon! We discussed the hardships Dorothy faced (such as segregation) and how this impacted her life. To spread the news of Dorothy's achievements, in our English lessons we have been working towards writing a newspaper report about her. We have looked at the structure and features of a newspaper report and we have done some shared writing to support our understanding of this. 

In Geography this week, we learned about the country of Kenya and what life is like living out there. We compared the physical and human features of Kenya to our own country and we found a range of similarities and differences. 

In Art, we spent some time looking at different methods we could apply next to build our own musical sculptures. 

In Music, we have continued to practise our skills playing the baritone and cornet and we started play along to some music, thinking about the different rhythms within the song. With Mr Richards, we have been practising for our African music performance which we will showcase next Friday to the Year 3's. 

In Computing, with Mrs Wardman we have been inputing new data to calculate the average score on our spreadsheet - we all seem to be really enjoying this!

Here are some of the comments about from the children about their learning this week:

Emilia - "I have enjoyed Maths because it has been challenging."

Joseph - "I have really enjoyed Music this week because it has been fun learning how to use the baritone."

Lucy - "My favourite lesson this week has been PE, I liked learning the next part of our partner sequence."

Olivia - "I have enjoyed Computing because it is unlike any other lesson. You have more freedom with it and I enjoy not having to write anything down!"

Autumn 1 Week 5

What another great week we have had in Year 5! In English this week, the children have been performing rainforest poems and they have written their own poems about the African desert and the African rainforest. The children have been using some wonderful vocabulary and have been using the descriptive devices we have been investigating in class. In Math’s this week, we have kickstarted our unit of Addition and Subtraction and the children have been tackling some challenging calculations and problems using column method.

In Geography, we have been investigating what it is like living near the equator and what physical features lie near the equator in Africa. In our Science lesson with Miss Tapp, we have been developing their understanding of the properties of different materials and their suitability for  building different objects. In PE, we have been developing their Rock and Roll dancing skills by working in pairs to learn a new dance routine. In our football lessons, we have been practising our attacking and defending skills. In Art, we have revised and improved our sculpture designs and have started to think about how we are going to building their sculptures ahead of next week. Mr Greenland visited our class on Thursday afternoon and we all received our own instrument. We spent time practising their breathing technique and blowing skills on the baritone and cornet.

Autumn 1 Week 4

We have had another productive week in Year 5! The children are tackling their new work with confidence and enthusiasm. In Math's this week, we have been counting forwards and backwards in positive and negative numbers and we have also been tackling Roman Numerals (using them to represent numbers up to 1000). In English, we have been using digital research to find out information about Africa's biomes, such as the Congo Rainforest and the Sahara Desert. We have created their own information texts and we have done a super job of applying the Year 5 grammar features. In Science, we have been investigating how different objects act as conductors and insulators. We have also discussed the implications of creating a fair test and ways of presenting our findings. 

On Tuesday, we had a session with the Life Education team about Friendships and we spoke about what makes a healthy friendship and an unhealthy friendship. In Art, we designed our musical sculptures and thought about the equipment and materials we could use to make them - we have been very creative with their designs! In RE, we have been using our skills to locate different chapters and verses of the Bible. We have also been summarising the key messages of each of the different chapters. In PE, we have been developing our marking skills in our football lessons and in dance the children have been working in groups to choreograph a hand jive routine. Miss Dobie been so impressed with how well we are all participating and giving the dance moves a good go!

On Thursday, we had our second Brass lesson with Mr Greenland, where the children spent time practising the correct techniques for playing the baritone. We are very much looking forward to getting our own instrument next week. With Mrs Wardman, we have been developing our Excel skills by inputting data and using formulas to multiply and add. We are learning this very quickly and we are enjoying the wizardry of Excel! With Mr Richardson, we have been playing the Djembe's and bells and rehearsing the Degu song which we will perform to the Year 3's towards the end of term.

Keep up the hard work Year 5!

Autumn 1 Week 3

We have had another brilliant week in Year 5! Throughout the week, we have shown great perseverance and enthusiasm with our new learning. In Maths, we have continued with our Place Value unit, rounding numbers to the nearest 100,000 and comparing and ordering numbers up to a million. We have demonstrated such determination with this. In English, we explored a new non-fiction text (The Wonder Garden) and we have spent time picking out more wonderful, higher-level vocabulary, learning about the different creatures that live in the different biomes and writing our own description of the desert.

In Science, with Mrs Harrison we conducted an experiment to test how different materials respond to the different experimental conditions. During PE on Monday, we continued our football unit with Mrs Harrison and on Wednesday we started to the Electric Slide dance. Some of the children in our class took part in the Darwen Primary School Sports Association and won their first game which is a great achievement. 

In Art, we finished evaluating the musical sculptures that we researched and we discussed the different properties of their materials. We also had a visit from our other Music specialist Mr Greenland, who is going to be teaching us how to play brass. We are very excited by this and can't wait to get started with it! With Madame Wardle, we have been learning how to spell our own name and other names using French alphabet. Overall, we have had a jam-packed, fun week and Miss Dobie is looking forward to seeing how we progress next week!

Autumn 1 Week 2

What a wonderful first full week we’ve had in Year 5! We have all worked really hard and have shown lots of resilience with starting our new year group. In English, we have started to read our class novel ‘A Long Walk to Water’ which is set in Sudan, Africa. We have enjoyed reading their new book and we've shown great enthusiasm researching the country of Sudan. During our English lessons, we have learnt lots of interesting facts about the countries native animals, plants and history. We have also explored a range of higher-level vocabulary which we are starting to embed in their writing. In Maths, we have been rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 and we have shown great determination with learning this.

We started our first Science lesson by sorting and grouping different materials based on their properties. We began by learning some new vocabulary related to different scientific properties. Then we regrouped the materials according to what we had learnt. In Geography, we spent time looking at maps of our local area, identifying different features of human and physical geography. In RE, we have started our unit about the Bible and we came up with different questions that we have about it which we will unpick each week.

In PE, on Monday we started our Football unit and we talked about the importance of rules and why we need them in sport. Then, in our groups we came up with our own ball game that had to contain their own rules. On Wednesday in PE, we started our Dance unit and we listened to different kinds of Rock and Roll music and we learnt about its variation and different sub-styles. We then came up with our own eight beat hand jive sequence.

In Art, as a class we researched different musical sculptures around the world as we are going to be creating our very own musical sculptures. This week in French with Madame Wardle, we have been exploring the French alphabet a little bit further and we have learnt some new phrases for how we introduce ourselves. In Computing, with Mrs Wardman we have started to learn about Excel, creating our own spreadsheets and learning new shortcuts on the programme. Finally, in Music with Mr Richardson we have continued to listen, recall and learn different African chants and songs. We also used different instruments including the djembe drum and bells. 

Autumn 1 Week 1

This week we have had a very positive start to Year 5. Although it has been a short week, it has been a privilege and a pleasure to get to know the children and to spend quality time with them.

The children have settled in really well and seem to be getting used to our normal school routines again. It’s been really nice to see how positive they have reacted to coming back to school. Over the last few days, the children have took part in a range of activities including creating a class contract, discussing about our expectations for the year and thinking about our ambitions for the year ahead. We have also played some getting to know each other games which have been really good fun! On Friday, we also got to spend time with our specialist teachers (Madame Wardle and Mr Richardson), where we got to learn all about the French alphabet and have a go at chanting, clapping and singing to African music and rhythms. 
 

It has been a very enjoyable start to Year 5 and I am very much looking forward to the rest of the term! 

Summer 2 Week 5

What a busy week we have had! As well as completing some end of term assessments for English and Maths, we have also been enjoying our other lessons. In English, we have been thinking about whose fault it was that Romeo and Juliet ended so tragically. We have identified lots of characters who could be blamed and then we gave our own opinions on who we felt was to blame. We then thought about how the different characters might defend themselves from the accusations and what they might say to defend themselves and their actions. In Maths, we started to learn about volume, what it was and how to calculate it. We started off using some multi link cubes to investigate how we could work out the volume and to help us identify that although shapes may look different they can have the same volume. On Tuesday, we were very excited to work with Mrs Dixon to create the Shakespearean musical instruments that we designed from clay. We used a range of techniques to shape the clay include the pinch pot and slabbing. Mrs Dixon has taken our designs away to let them dry, we will paint them next week and then she will fire them for us. In P.S.H.E. we looked at some of the ways we will change both physically and emotionally as we grow and start to get a bit older. All of the children showed great maturity during this lesson and we were able to have fantastics discussions about it. In Computing, we continued to work with the programme Scratch and we were developing our mazes so that they were more complex and we learnt to programme our sprite to do more intricate actions. We finished the week with our sports day, all the children joined in brilliantly and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was lovely to see so many of the children supporting each other and demonstrating the sporting values that we try to promote. 

Summer 2 Week 4

As usual, we have been very busy in Year 5 and we have been working very hard. In English we became journalists and we wrote a Newspaper report about the fight between Tybalt, Mercutio and Romeo. We then moved onto thinking about the potion that Friar Lawrence gave to Juliet and what the advantages and disadvantages of taking it would be. We decided that there were lots more disadvantages and it would not be a good idea to take it. Then we imagined that we had invented the potion and we had lots of fun coming up with a name for it and then creating adverts to persuade people to buy it. In Maths this week, we have been thinking about time. Firstly we looked at how to convert between different units of time. Then we started looking at bus/train time tables and TV guides looking at how to read and interpret them, we used our skills to solve some challenging problems. In History, We used our detective skills to find out what The Globe theatre would have looked like when it was first built from a sketch of The Swan theatre, which was built around the same time as The Globe. We also made a timeline of different theatres that were built during different periods of history ranging from AD70 to AD1999. On Wednesday afternoon, we carried out a Science investigation to find out which material would make the best thermal insulator. We put some hot water into cups and covered the with different materials. We used thermometers to measure the temperature every 5 minutes, to see which one stayed the hottest. We have enjoyed having some of our specialists back in school and we did some excellent work with Mrs Wardman on Scratch. We built mazes and then programmed our sprites to move through them. In our music lesson with Mrs Harty, we were learning about dynamics and learnt some new vocabulary such as forte, pianissimo, diminuendo and crescendo. 

Summer 2 Week 3

We have had a busy week of learning both in school and at home and the children have continued to impress us with their resilience and attitude. In English, we have been focusing on the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet and looking at the original version that was written by Shakespeare in old English. We enjoyed using a range of strategies to interpret the vocabulary so we could understand the text. We looked at the use of statements, questions and commands in some of the character's speeches within the scene. The we worked in pairs to act out parts of the scene, mixing the old English with more modern language. It was so wonderful to see the children throwing themselves into the acting with enthusiasm and also to see them not following gender stereotypes when choosing their roles. In Maths this week, we have started a unit on measures and we have been focused on converting between a range of different measures including m and Km, g and Kg, l and ml. We have also been solving some complex problems with a number of steps that have needed us to apply lots of different skills to solve them. As part of our Hoddlesden Globe topic, we have been doing some History and Geography lessons combined together. We have been looking at what coal mining is and the advantages and disadvantages of it including the environmental impact of it. On Wednesday in R.E. we looked at the story of Ruth and the different qualities she showed. We focused on loyalty and discussed what it meant, the children then created some fantastic pieces of artwork to reflect loyalty and what it means to them. Our P.E. has been a bit different this week as we looked at The Countryside Code to ensure that if we were completing outdoor and adventurous activities in the countryside we know how we should behave in order to look after the environment and keep ourselves safe. In P.S.H.E we identified the people we could trust and thought about what to do in situations where we felt uncomfortable. Although our specialist teachers have not been able to come into school, they have made us fabulous videos to use or have done live Zoom lessons for us to join in with, which have all been lots of fun. 

I loved this week Computing with Mrs Wardman where we were making a maze and controlling the characters to go through - Maddie 

This week I enjoyed P.E and French. In French I like spelling le rivier whilst my back was turned to the board - Alex H

This week, I enjoyed doing the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. I also enjoyed learning about William Shakespeare - Lisa

Personally, I think doing the art was the best thing this week, because I got to work with my friends - Megan

Summer 2 Week 2

We have had another fantastic week in Year 5, despite the disruption of some children have to self isolate. Once again they have showed amazing resilience and flexibility and those pupils working remotely have done a wonderful job. On Monday we watched the opening scene from West Side Story and made comparisons to Romeo and Juliet. Then we worked in small groups to act out a section of the scene, these videos have been uploaded to the video resource centre on for you to watch and enjoy. Following on from acting out the scene, we wrote it as a story blending action, dialogue and description. In Maths we have finished our unit on position and direction by looking at reflection. This week we had a very tricky problem to solve where we had to make symmetrical kites from different triangles. In P.E. we have been thinking about maps and how they are used in orienteering. Miss Whaley put lots of equipment out on the school field and we created are own maps considering the size and orientation of the items. In Science, we were investigating ways to separate solids and we had the challenge to separate a mixture containing dried peas, beans, sugar, rice and paper clips using only cling film, foil or cardboard. We had lots of fun designing and testing our sieves to see if we could separate the mixture completely and we had to use some problem solving skills when it didn’t work straight away. On Thursday we used Scratch in Computing again and this week, we had to write programmes to make our sprits draw a shape. Everyone enjoyed it and they were able to create some complex shapes by the end of the lesson. On Friday, although Blackburn Rovers couldn’t come into school they sent us the activities to complete and we really enjoyed playing some games to improve our reaction times and our stamina, strength and flexibility inside and outside of the classroom. We also thought about some of the benefits of exercise and we wrote them in outlines of our bodies on the playground. 

Summer 2 Week 1

It has been a wonderfully bright and warm start to the half term. We started our new topic Hoddlesden Globe by learning the story of Romeo and Juliet in our English lessons. The children are really enjoying it and they are showing a good understanding of the story already. On Wednesday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went outside to take part in a 'woosh story' where we all had a chance to act out different parts of the story together, which everyone enjoyed. On Friday, we looked at the life of William Shakespeare (who wrote Romeo and Juliet) and created a Top Trumps card for him. In Maths this week, we have continued with our position and direction unit. We recapped translation and have also looked at lines of symmetry in 2D shapes and in patterns. We looked at Ordnance Survey maps on Wednesday. We looked at what the symbols meant and also the grid references. We compared an Ordnance map of Hoddlesden which is a rural area with a Ordnance Survey map of the city London to see some of the differences between them.   In PSHE we thought about finding ways to describe and talk about our emotions, especially as they are starting to change as we grow up. Additionally, thought about the Japanese proverb 'fall down 7 times, get up 8' and how we could use this to help us in our own lives. In Science, we finally managed to go outside complete our parachute investigations. We tested them by dropping a doll from a height wearing each of the different parachutes and timing how long it took to reach the ground. In art with Mrs Dixon, we looked at some of the musical instruments that would have been played in the theatre during Shakespearean times and how they sounded. We then made some sketches of the instruments ready to start making them from clay next week. We used the programme Scratch to start our programming topic with Mrs Wardman, where we changed what our sprite looked like and wrote instructions to make it move in different ways. We had our first session with Blackburn Rovers, learning about having healthy lifestyle.  
 

This week I really enjoyed Computing where we used Scratch. We did algorithms and we changed the background and made our character move in different ways - Georgie

We did a fun whoosh story about Romeo and Juliet with Miss Whaley - Max

On Wednesday, I enjoyed doing Geography, because it was fun finding places on the map. We used 4 digit grid references to write where a place is - Momina

This week, I enjoyed doing art with Mrs Dixon (a specialist) all about the Elizabethan era and the music that was played in that era - James

Summer 1 Week 7

We had a great start to the week, with our second adventure morning. Even though we did get a little muddy, we had a fantastic time. We completed an alien scavenger hunt, a night line activity, and took part in lots of team building activities that we thoroughly enjoyed. It was lovely to see the children working as a team to try and complete the challenges. After our adventure morning, we then had a fantastic afternoon tasting some Chinese food! We did this in the school hall where we sat with our friends and enjoyed the different flavours, smells and textures! On our record sheet we had to take notes and rate our food. We did this so we knew which ingredients we wanted to use when cooking our final dish. Over in the classroom, this week have been securing our understanding of Mulan and how she would be feeling and thinking when she was up against the beastly Bori Khan. We have written our final piece which was a flashback where Mulan is thinking about why she is there to fight Bori Khan and what events have led up to this moment. I was really impressed with the children’s final pieces. On the other hand, maths this week has been a little different.  In Maths this week, we have been looking at 2D shapes as well as completing a maths quiz applying their knowledge from the last half term.  On Wednesday and Thursday, we began to cook our Chinese dishes. Some groups decided to make a noodle based dish, whilst others preferred a rice based dish. All the children did an excellent job peeling, chopping and stir frying and the dishes smelt and looked delicious, hopefully they tasted just as good too!  We have looked at first aid this week in PSHE and we have discussed the importance of calling 999 and who can help us. We have also explored potential injuries that can occur and how we could provide someone with appropriate first aid whilst keeping ourselves safe at the same time. In French we have been looking at directions, and we were able to write a dialogue between two people. The children used their map of the town to direct the other person to where they needed to go. In history, we looked at the fall of the Shang Dynasty and whether we would go to fight for King Di Xin if we were living in Shang times. The children debated both viewpoints. In PE, we have been improving on our spiriting techniques. We have been racing and completed some timed sprints, looking at the differences between a long distance runner and a sprinter.

I enjoyed looking at the Shang Dynasty in history – Poppy

This week I enjoyed our outdoor adventure mornings where we did some fun games and hunting – Momina

I really enjoyed the Chinese food tasting – Annabelle

Summer 1 Week 6

We had an exciting start to the week, with our first outdoor adventure morning, although it was very wet, we thoroughly enjoyed it. We did some archery, firstly practicing our technique individually and the working as a team to try and hit every number between 1-20 on the target. It was lovely to see the children working as a team and helping each other out. We also did some shelter building in the woodland, which came in handy with the very rainy weather! In small groups, using tarpaulin, rope, pegs and carabiners we used the natural environment to help us build our shelters. Again, the children worked really well together and created some really effective shelters. Back in the classroom, we have been working very hard. In English, we have done some assessments so that we can see what things we have understood really well and what things we need to revisit next half term. We also looked at how Mulan was feeling and what she was thinking when she arrived at the army training camp and how this compared to some of the other soldiers who were men. In Maths, we have built on our understanding of coordinates by moving onto translation. We spent some time in the paddock creating human shapes and translating ourselves to help us understand that translation is a movement and that the shapes do not change. We have been translating shapes in a coordinate grid and drawing their new position as well as identifying how much a shape has been translated. On Wednesday, in Science, we worked in groups to make the parachutes for our air resistance investigation, we are eagerly awaiting some dry weather so we can take them outside to test them. Again, it was lovely to see the children working well together and helping each other, both within their group and across the whole class. This week in PSHE, we have been thinking about different qualities and skills people have such as communication, interpersonal and problem solving and how these skills can be applied to careers. We looked at some of the skills you would need for different careers and then evaluated our own skills to identify what careers might be good for us. In R.E. we looked at the word persecution and what it meant. We identified that unfortunately some Christians in the world today are persecuted for their beliefs and thought about how difficult that would be. We looked at one story about a particular Christian who had been treated badly because of his faith and thought about what advice would we give him. We used the story of Daniel from the Bible to help us encourage and inspire him to keep a strong faith in God. In French, we have been identifying places around town and then using a map to help us give directions from one place to another. 
 

This week I have enjoyed doing adventure mornings, because I have never done archery before and I found it very fun - Annabelle

My favourite thing this week was when we did the outdoor adventure day - Logan

This week, I enjoyed making our parachutes out of bin nags and investigating the thickness - Katie

This week was a good week, but the best thing was French. I enjoy it because I really love l’alphabet - Robert

Summer 1 Week 5

This week has been mental health week, and in our worship session we have been thinking about how connecting with the outdoors can be beneficial for our mental health. We spent some time outside using our mindful looking and listening skills to appreciate the natural world around us, which made us feel calmer and happier. In addition to this, we enjoyed a martial arts session earlier in the week, where we spent some time exploring Kung Fu and Tai Chi techniques. We learnt some punch, kick and blocking moves as well as some balances and set pieces. In our English lessons, we have continued our work on discussion texts thinking about whether Mulan's father should have gone after her or not, considering the reasons for and against. We have also read some more of the text taking us up to Mulan arriving at the training camp. In Maths, we have started a new topic on position and direction. We have been looking at reading and plotting coordinates in the first quadrant and the children have shown a great understanding. We have also been plotting missing coordinates to make a shape on the coordinate grid, which can be a tricky skill to master especially when the shapes are in different orientations. In History, we looked at the tomb of Fu Hao that was discovered in 1976, studying the items that were found inside, thinking about what they could tell us about Fu Hao and what it was like during the Shang Dynasty. We had a closer look at some of the artefacts and thought about what they were made of, what they were used for and what they could tell us about the period. We continued to explore the story of Daniel in R.E.  This week we looked why Daniel refused to eat the royal food and some of the food laws that Jewish people follow.  In our outdoors P.E. lesson we were sprinting and we had a go at the crouching start technique as well as pumping our arms to make us go faster. On Thursday afternoon, we thought about what things we are looking forward to when we are grown ups and also some of the things we are not looking forward to. We linked this to rights and responsibilities and we noticed that the things we were looking forward to were mostly rights and the things we were least looking forward to were responsibilities.   We discussed how in order to enjoy our rights, we would have to fulfil our responsibilities. 

I enjoyed being outside and discovering the senses of nature and how to connect with it.  I extremely enjoyed doing Maths where we learnt about angles and how to plot coordinates - Jessica

This week, I really enjoyed learning about kosher food in R.E and also I enjoyed computing - Alex T

I enjoyed doing martial arts on Tuesday and P.E. where we learnt how to start in a race - Lucas

This week, I have enjoyed doing martial arts and mental health week where we connected with nature. Also the discussion text (which was in English) was fun - Poppy

Summer 1 Week 4

Although it has been a slightly shorter week due to the Bank Holiday, we have still managed to fit a lot of learning in. In Maths, we completed our unit on decimals and how to calculate with them. We applied all the skills we have learnt over the unit to a tricky, but fun problem about bridges and their lengths. It took a lot of perseverance to work through and we had so many Brave Bananas in Year 5 who kept on going even when it was really tough. In English, we have read some more of Mulan and we began to think about whether or not she was right to go and join the army in her Dad's place. We had a discussion, where we thought about both sides of the argument using information from the text to help us. We then started to look at some discussion texts and identified their features, ready to write our own next week. On Tuesday afternoon, we continued our work on forces and air resistance in Science. We have planned an investigation into the most effective parachute. We have designed a range of parachutes, that investigate the shape of the parachute, the material they are made from, the length of the strings, the size of the parachute and the thickness of the parachute. We are looking forward to making them and testing them out. In our theme learning, for Amazing Asia, we have been looking at Chinese foods that would have been eaten during the period of the Shang Dynasty and how they compare with foods that are eaten in modern day China. We also did some research about the legacy the Shang Dynasty have left us, such as creating a calendar system and bronze castings.  In our P.E. lesson, we improved our technique for throwing the discus to enable us to throw it further. On Friday in our French lesson, we continued to learn the French alphabet and we also sang some songs to help us learn how to say left and right. We also enjoyed completing a wordsearch that contained some places around town in French.

I liked P.E. and using the discus. I also liked French and learning new words - Jacob

Science was my favourite thing this week, because we were designing a parachute- Megan

I enjoyed learning about the Shang Dynasty, but my favourite was independent writing with what the Matchmaker would say - Kayleigh

I enjoyed doing the violins and how we learnt about putting two fingers on a string. I also enjoyed learning about blogs in Computing - Kayleigh

Summer 1 Week 3

It has been another packed and exciting week in Year 5 this week. In Maths we have continued to look at calculating with decimals using both mental and written methods. We have also been looking at multiplying decimals by 10, 100 and 1000. We have been really impressed with the children’s understanding and the excellent explanations they have been writing using a wide range of Mathematical vocabulary. In English, we have read more of our text, Mulan and we have met some very interesting characters that we created wanted posters for. We also thought about how Mulan felt when she had to go and see the Matchmaker and then wrote diary extracts in role as her, after her disastrous experience. On Friday, we had a wonderful forest school session, which was all based around the story of Mulan. The children became warriors, like Mulan, complete with red headbands and mud on their faces and they thought about the qualities needed to become a warrior; loyal, brave and true. During the session, they completed some warrior challenges like an obstacle course and making their own bows to fire. Then they finished it off with some hot chocolate and toasting marshmallows, they all took part brilliantly and thoroughly enjoyed it. In R.E. we read the story of the fiery furnace and thought about who the 4th figure could have been. We looked at some existing artwork that showed the event and used it as inspiration to create our own pieces of art using the chalk pastels. We began to think about Chinese food in DT, we thought about the types of food that is eaten in China and shared our own experiences of eating Chinese food. As part of our History learning, we had a closer look at the hierarchy of society in the Shang Dynasty and thought about what it was like to be in the different classes. For our Science learning, we looked at air resistance and how it is created. We began to think about how air resistance can affect a falling object and how we sometimes create air resistance to help us. On Monday, in P.E we were thinking about the different gymnastics skills of jumping, balancing, rolling and shaping. We worked in small groups to create some sequences using a variety of the skills. On Wednesday, in our athletics lesson, we were learning the technique for throwing the discuss. We had another fun French lesson with Madame Wardle, where we built up our knowledge of the French alphabet and played hangman to guess some of our names and buildings we would see around town on our way to school. 
 

I enjoyed the Mulan forest school and creating bows- James

This week I loved the Mulan forest school, the food technology and doing the wanted posters in English - Lisa

This week was great,I enjoyed learning about the characters of Mulan, Xianniang and Bhori Khan. I also liked P.E with Miss Whaley where we did discus - Toby

I enjoyed doing the fiery furnace pictures in R.E. - Lucas

Summer 1 Week 2

The second week of the Summer term has flown by and as usual Year 5 have been very busy. In Maths, we have continued to look at calculating with decimals, focusing on subtracting this week. We have also looked at adding and subtracting decimals, where the numbers have different amounts of decimal places in them, we have had to ensure we have lined them up correctly. In English, we went into the amphitheatre in the paddock to perform our sections of the Ballad of Mulan in the sunshine and we did a super job. The performances are all on the school website for you to watch in the video resource centre.  We have also started to read the book, Mulan this week. In the first chapter we learnt lots of things about Mulan; about her life and her personality which we then wrote in some outlines. We also explored how she felt about the Ancient Chinese lifestyle and customs, that meant she would have to marry and be a housewife in order to honour her family, even though she did not want to get married. As part of our Amazing Asia topic learning, we started our History and we looked some artefacts from the Shang Dynasty, trying to work out what they were made of and what they were used for. We learnt what a dynasty is and what the hierarchy of society was during the Shang Dynasty period. During our Science lesson, we learnt about gravity, what it is and how it affects us. With the help of Professor Brian Cox and NASA also thought about if we dropped a feather and a bowling ball from the same height, which one would hit the ground first. We were quite surprised by what happened in a vacuum when all the air was taken away. In our French lesson with Madame Wardle this week, we look at being able to say our own and other people's names and we started to learn the French alphabet. Some of us were able to spell our own names in French. We had a very interesting PSHE lesson, where we were researching interesting facts about the human body using the ipads, which we all really enjoyed and now we know lots of facts about the human body. In P.E. both our gymnastics and athletics have been about jumping. In gymnastics, we have been doing vertical standing jumps and using the vault and in athletics we have been trying to master the tricky technique of the triple jump. 
 

Out of this week, I have enjoyed finding out about the human body on Thursday. We learnt some interesting facts such as the liver does 500 jobs - Momina

I enjoyed learning about the Shang Dynasty in History and also learning about the Warrior Queen - Lisa

Science was fun as we learnt about gravity - Jacob

I enjoyed P.E. when we did jumping - Logan

Summer 1 Week 1 

It has been a very exciting and busy start to the new term. This week, we have been very lucky to take part in two different workshops. On Tuesday, we had cricket with Jordan, where we played lots of different games to improve our bowling, batting and catching skills, which was lots of fun. Then on Wednesday, we took part in a Chinese Lion Dance workshop. We learnt about the origins of the lion dance and what it symbolises as well as being able to take part in some lion dancing. Some of the lion heads were quite heavy, but we really enjoyed doing the dance and being able to try and scare our friends. In our English learning, we have started to look at the story of Mulan, to link in with our Amazing Asia topic. This week we looked at ‘The Ballad of Mulan’ which is the ancient poem that the story originates from. There is a lot of tricky vocabulary, which we explored to ensure we had a good understanding of the ballad. We have also worked in pairs to learn a section of the ballad to perform next week. We used some talk for writing strategies to help us. In Maths, we have continued to build our understanding of decimal numbers with 3 decimal places by looking at mental and written strategies for adding them. On Friday, with Miss Wright, we started to look at some angles. In Science, we began to look at friction and what it is. We did some activities to investigate what factors can effect friction including moving jelly from one plate to another using chopsticks and then adding some oil to see what difference it made. We were quite surprised by some of the results, where it was actually quicker and easier to move the jelly with the oil as it stopped the jelly from sticking to the plate and chopsticks. We also thought about which surfaces created the most friction, by sliding an object along different surfaces to see how far they would go. In P.S.H.E we thought about what the human body needed to be healthy and what things could cause it to be unhealthy. We gave some advice to a person who was not living a very healthy lifestyle about how they could be more healthy.  We had our first lesson with our new french teacher Madame Wardle, we played lots of games and enjoyed the lesson. Following the sad news of the death of HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, we spent some time reflecting on his life and all the things he achieved. We enjoyed finding out that he enjoyed doing oil paintings and that he redesigned Buckingham Palace. We wrote  some prayers to thank God for Prince Philip’s life and to ask him to support the Royal Family in this difficult time. 
 

This week, we did Science and we were learning about friction. It was so fun using jelly, chopsticks and oil - Evie

I really enjoyed French and the Chinese lion dancing - Lucas

This week I enjoyed writing a prayer for Prince Philip - James

I loved cricket and the Chinese lion dancing because the costumes were so cool - Jacob

Spring 2 Week 5

What a busy week it has been, I think we are all definitely ready for a good rest over the Easter holidays after working so hard. In Maths this week, we looked at equivalence between fractions, decimals and percentages and how to convert between them. We also had another look at fractions and how to convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers using multiplying and dividing. In English, we had a new mini topic about space. In groups we imagined that the BBC had asked us to give a presentation all about the Moon as part of a new show that Professor Brian Cox was making. We had to work together to find the information to include and then write the presentation. It took us a few days, but on Thursday we gave our presentations and they were fantastic, there are definitely some natural tv presenters in the class. All the the presentations have been uploaded in the video resource centre on the website, for you to watch. We also learnt about the mathematician Katherine Johnson and the role she played in sending people into space. We enjoyed making a comic strip about her life. On Tuesday in PSHE, we had a fabulous discussion about borrowing and lending. We explored the vocabulary loan, debt, credit, mortgage and interest and discussed times when it would be appropriate to borrow money and places to consider borrowing it from. In R.E we continued to think about Easter as a victory and we created some abstract art work to reflect this. We also used chalk pastels to create some beautiful Easter cards. On Thursday morning, we had a wonderful session with Trikidz where we had the opportunity to become triathletes. We had a go at land swimming, cycling and running to feel what it it is like to take part in a triathlon. Then we took part in some relay triathlon races, which was exhausting, but also lots of fun. Then in the afternoon, we worked with Mrs Clitheroe to add some watercolour paint to the pictures of the Titanic that we drew last week, the finished results are fabulous. The Year 5 team would like to wish you all a very happy and relaxing Easter and we can’t wait to see you all again in the summer term. 

This week, I have enjoyed doing PSHE learning about credit, loan, debt and interest. It is important so we know when we are older - Momina

Doing the space presentations was fun and we did it in duos - Jacob

This week I've enjoyed a lot of things, but most of all Trikidz - Isla B

I really enjoyed when Mrs Clitheroe came and we painted with watercolours on our Titanic drawings - Ellen

Spring 2 Week 4

It has been a super week in Year 5. We have continued to learn about The Titanic in English, this week we have focused on the sinking of the ship. On Tuesday, we became journalists and wrote a newspaper report all about what had happened. We also explored whose fault it was that the ship sank, looking at the shipbuilders, the ship designer, the manager of White Star Line and Captain Smith. We had lots of very strong opinions about this. We ended the topic by writing some diamante poetry about The Titanic. On Thursday, we had our World Book Day, where everyone looked fantastic in their costumes. We spent the morning thinking about villains. We discussed who were the best villainous characters and what made them such good bad characters. We made some Top Trumps cards for some of the villains we know about. After that, we created our own villains using all the information we had gathered to inspire us to design the most terrible villains we could. In Maths this week, we have continued to look at percentages and how to calculate different percentages of amounts, which the children really enjoyed doing. We have then looked at how we apply this to a real life situation of working out new prices of sale items.  Keeping with the theme of money, in PSHE we thought about a character who had got some money for his birthday and different scenarios of how he could spend it. We tried to think about the long and short term consequences of him spending it in the different ways and which ones we thought would be best. For our Science learning, we looked at the life cycle of a flowering plant as a whole, putting together all the knowledge we have gained over the last few weeks. On Thursday afternoon, we were very lucky to have an art lesson with Mrs Clitheroe, we looked at how to draw The Titanic using perspective and the results were amazing, we have created some excellent pictures that we will be finishing next week when we paint them.  

I enjoyed learning about the Titanic and I also enjoyed World Book Day where we created our own villains - Toby

I enjoyed doing percentages and also doing conjunctions - George

This week I enjoyed doing the PowerPoint about The Titanic and doing art drawing Titanic - Lisa

I enjoyed watching the talent show entries and voting for the act we liked the most - Jessica

Spring 2 Week 3

It has been so wonderful to have all the children back in school together this week and to feel like a whole class again. The children who have been remote learning have settled back into school life brilliantly, just as if the closure had never happened. Our English topic has been all about The Titanic this week, which everyone has thoroughly enjoyed. We have focused on how amazing and luxurious the ship was for its time and what it was like on board before it sank. We have created some information posters with facts about the ship, leaflets to persuade people to buy a ticket, descriptions of the different classes and also a letter in role as a passenger. We are also looking forward to next week, where we will be looking at what happened when The Titanic sank. In our Maths lessons we have started to learn about percentages and we found this really fun. We are all confident in what percent means and how we can calculate some simple percentages such as 50%, 25% and 75%. On Monday, in PSHE we spent some time reflecting on the school closure and what things we have enjoyed (mostly having a lie in and being able to eat when we want) and what things were challenging for us such as not seeing our family and friends. In History this week, we thought about some of the reasons why the Anglo-Saxons came over to England and what the journey over would have been like, We wrote diary entries as an Anglo-Saxon to describe what it would have felt like. We also continued to learn about the reproductive cycle of flowering plants, focusing this week on seed dispersal and the different ways it can occur. We all enjoyed our P.E. session on Monday where everyone got to have a go a beach ball volleyball! We soon got to grips with the beach balls and we were able to enjoy an exciting game. As it is a very special day on Sunday we have been very busy making something to show our appreciation for all the things our Mum’s do for us. We wish all of our Mum’s, Grandma’s  and Nana’s a very happy Mother’s Day for Sunday. 
 

I’ve loved Maths and English, but most of all being able to see all my teachers and friends again - Isla G

My favourite part of the week was learning about Titanic and describing the different classes - Alex T

I loved PE this week because we got to use the beach balls. I also loved Maths learning about percentages - Katie

Doin the Titanic topic and the percentages in Maths is fun - George

Spring 2 Week 2

This week we have had a very busy and enjoyable week. Our topic for English this week has been ‘Heroes, Health and Hygiene’ and we have been researching about micro-organisms and important scientists such as Alexander Flemming and Louis Pasteur. On Tuesday, we made information leaflets designed to inform younger children about micro-organisms and their different characteristics. We focused on using child-friendly language and persuasive features to make our leaflets appealing to read. The teaching staff in Year 5 have been very impressed by the children’s ability to include the grammar features we have looked at in the lesson in their work. We have also discovered our new favourite song ‘ The micro-organism song’ which has helped us to remember all the important things about micro-organisms and we have all found it very entertaining. In Maths, we have been looking at decimals this week and we have learnt how decimals show parts of a whole one just like fractions. We have been comparing decimals and converting decimals into fractions which we have done incredibly well. In Science, we have been recapping the parts of a flowering plant and their different functions. On Monday we looked the reproductive process of pollination and we completed a scavenger hunt out on the playground in the sunshine which the children thoroughly enjoyed. In our History lesson, we looked at the where the Anglo-Saxons came from and we investigated where they came from and drew a map to show the seven kingdoms which they ruled. Our learning objective in art was to be able to sketch a perspective landscape looking carefully at the different proportions and details of the objects. In PE we have made fantastic progress with our throwing and catching skills and our ability to play a game of rounders. 
 

Doing the leaflets (about micro-organisms) and also art looking landscapes. I enjoyed watching Danny the Champion of the World at lunchtime and doing cricket rounders in PE. - Lily 

Working hard this week, I have enjoyed looking at micro-organisms and making posters about them. - Isla 

I loved making the colourful big NHS poster that had a lot of information about the NHS. On Monday, I loved doing the scavenger hunt for the plants. Listening about the Anglo-Saxons was fun too! - Alice 

This week my favourite thing was the scavenger hunt in science. Finding a clue, they were hidden all over the playground and we had to figure out what part of the plant it was talking about. - Luca 

Spring 2 Week 1

Our first week back in school has been very busy and also lots of fun. Year 5 have loved continuing to read the text Danny the Champion of the World in our English lessons. This week we found out some of the different methods Danny’s Dad used to catch the pheasants such as the horse hair stopper and the sticky hat method, then we created our own guide to catching pheasants.  We have also been predicting what could happen next in the story to the different characters and we came up with some brilliant ideas! All the staff in Year 5 were completely blown away by the imagination and attention to detail that the children included, as well as the different grammar features that we have been looking at. On Friday, we created our own book trailers for the story using our computing skills to create presentations with animated text, images and sound. We have completed our unit on fractions this week and we are so proud of how the children have grown not only in skill, but in confidence too. Over the week, we have been multiplying fractions and mixed numbers as well as finding fractions of amounts. We have also shown great confidence in tackling some tricky problems involving fractions. On Tuesday, we all enjoyed starting a new History topic about the Scots and the Picts and learning lots of information about who they were and where they came from. As well as this, in PSHE we looked at how the media can send mixed messages about smoking in particular about smoking in young adults. In Science, we started to look at the different parts of the flowering plant and what their functions are in the reproductive process. In art we looked at our sketching skills using different techniques to draw a part of an object using a viewfinder. 

History has been amazing because I found out things I did not know before - Poppy

This week, I have enjoyed writing what happened to Danny’s Dad because I felt like I was using my imagination - Robert

I enjoyed art because we got to learn new skills and methods on how to sketch - Katie

I really enjoyed making a book trailer for Danny the Champion of the World - Lucas

Spring 1 Week 6

This week, we have had lots of fun in Year 5. In our English lessons, we have been reading Danny the Champion of the World and studying some of the characters to describe what they are like. The book talks about pheasant poaching and we realised we didn't know very much about pheasants, so we did some research to find out about pheasants and then made some digital information texts. We have continued to look at fractions in Maths and we have been adding and subtracting fractions that have different denominators as well as mixed numbers. We have solved some very tricky problems involving fractions over the week and all the staff in Year 5 have been blown away with how well they have done! On Tuesday, we explored the most famous painting in the world, The Mona Lisa and we gave it a modern twist by adding some line drawings to her head and in the background. The artwork that was produced was spectacular. In Science we have been investigating shadows, how they appear to move and how their size changes each day. At the beginning of the week, we found out about where in the world different foods grew and how this is connected to the climate zones they are in. For computing this week, we designed our own emojis and created PowerPoint presentations all about us to celebrate what amazing people we all are. In PSHE, we thought about different types of drugs both legal and illegal and how they can affect our bodies. We identified that some drugs such as medicines, can be helpful, but if they are used in the incorrect way they can be harmful. We also had our behaviour treat on Wednesday, a virtual African singing and dance workshop, which was lots of fun. It was fantastic to see the children in school and at home joining in with the different dances and chants so enthusiastically.  We have had a super half term, we can't wait to see what we can achieve next half term! 

In Computing, I liked making our own emojis and making a PowerPoint about ourselves - Maddie

This week I loved doing Maths and learning about fractions. I have also enjoyed playing basketball with the whole class at lunchtime - Theo

I really enjoyed making an information text about pheasants in English - Luca

I liked the Science on shadows using the chalk on the playground - Evie

Spring 1 Week 5

It has been a bit different for Year 5 this week, as we have all been at home remote learning. Although we have missed seeing each other in person, we have done lots of live lessons over Zoom and it has been wonderful to see and hear everyone every day.  We are so proud of the children, for being so resilient and getting on so well with their remote learning at very short notice. In English, Art and Computing, we have had the theme inventors and inventions. We have learnt about some famous inventors such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Ada Lovelace and Steve jobs and how their inventions have changed the world. We also came up with our own inventions and the children blew our socks off with their creativity and ideas, I will be looking out for them on Dragon’s Den in the future. We have also looked at advertising techniques and we have written some amazing adverts for our inventions using a whole range of different persuasive skills. In Maths we continued to look at fractions. We have looked at comparing fractions with the same and with different denominators and we have also been adding fractions with the same and then with different denominators by finding the lowest common denominator. Again, the children amazed us with how well they have understood this. In PSHE we have been thinking about dilemmas with our friends and this week, we focused on peer pressure from friends and some strategies that we could use to help. In R.E. we looked at the parable of the Prodigal Son and created emotion graphs for the different characters at different points in the story. For Science this week, we began to think about some of the different planets in our solar system (other than Earth) and we did some research all about them. Even though we have been at home, we have been keeping active with some P.E. looking at volleyball with Mr Hassey and some circuit training with Mrs Winward. We have also enjoyed using some online apps and games such as Bedrock Vocabulary, Learning by Questions and a new Maths game called Prodigy. Well done Year 5, you have all done an amazing job this week.

Surprisingly, I really liked doing gymnastics. We did circuit training. I managed to do the whole thing with no stopping - Momina

I have enjoyed making our inventions and writing the scrip for the invention advert- Robert

I have enjoyed English, because we have been learning about different inventions, which I now think is really cool - Katie

I have enjoyed doing the fractions the most - Max

I enjoyed the Art learning and writing a biography about Leonardo Da Vinci - James

This week I have enjoyed learning about inventions and especially us making our own invention - Kayleigh

Spring 1 Week 4

I can’t believe another week has passed, we have been working so hard and everyone has done some wonderful work both in school or from home. We have been tackling the tricky area of fractions in our Maths lessons. Everyone has worked so hard and they have shown super understanding of equivalent fractions, improper fractions and mixed numbers. We even enjoyed learning how to convert improper fractions into mixed numbers and vice versa. We started a new mini topic all about inventions in English. We learnt about some significant inventions that have had a huge impact on the world like the wheel and clocks. We also had great fun learning about things that were invented by accident and what the accidents were. To fit in with the work we have been doing in English, Miss Dobie did some close up artwork looking at the inner parts of a clock and how to shade. In Science, we have been thinking about the moon and why it appears to change shape in the sky over a month. We learnt lots of Scientific vocabulary and what it means such as waxing and waning. On Monday, for our Geography learning we looked at the lines of latitude and longitude on the Earth, including the Equator, The Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer as well as the Greenwich Meridian. For our volleyball lesson, we looked at hitting the ball down as well as starting to play a game.  Mrs Wardman set us an exciting Computing task, where we had to make a word cloud using words to do with kindness. We had some wonderful creations. 
 

This week, I really enjoyed our Computing where we made word clouds - James

I loved learning about things that were accidentally invented and writing our information - Evie

This week, I have loved doing Maths changing an improper fraction to a mixed number - Theo

I liked learning about the moon because it was challenging - Isla B

Spring 1 Week 3

It has been an extremely busy (but fun) week in Year 5! We have been continuing our mini project on Deadly creatures in English and Geography. We identified Australia as a country that has a large number of deadly creatures living there, we did some research and then made an information booklet all about the creatures that live there and the environments that they live in. For our English learning, we used what we had learnt about existing deadly creatures to design our own creature and we did a super job. They were so imaginative and extremely deadly, I would not like to come across one! We then wrote some fact files about our creatures to tell people about them and we also imagined we were an explorer who had spotted one and wrote an eyewitness report. In Maths this week, we started to look at fractions. We have been looking at the different parts of the fraction and different ways to represent them. On Friday we started to look at equivalent fractions which we will build on next week. Miss Dobie did some art on Tuesday looking at different patterns on animal skin and the children recreated them with watercolours. In Science we looked at how the Earth rotates on its own axis and how this causes us to have day and night. We have also been improving our volleyball skills by looking at the underarm serve and a bump pass, we are really enjoying using the beach balls to practice with. We looked at the parable of The Good Samaritan in RE and rewrote it in a more modern day setting, some of the children’s ideas were fantastic and their parables were a joy to read.

I really enjoyed the English this week, creating our own deadly creature the explorer Daisy McDougall - Evie

I enjoyed doing the Science learning this week, about how the world turns and we get day and night - Jack

I enjoyed re-writing the parable of The Good Samaritan in and modern way. I also enjoyed doing the Zoom lessons - Alice

I loved doing the Australia booklets and doing the research - Jacob

Spring 1 Week 2

We have had a busy and fun week both in school and through remote learning. We started a two week topic on ‘Deadly Creatures’, which the children have all engaged really well with. In English we have read a variety of different information texts about lots of different deadly creatures such as tigers, king cobras, mongooses and the blue ringed octopus. We loved all the different facts about them and lots of us were very surprised to learn that a mongoose would defeat a cobra. We have made some information posters, Top Trump cards about them and then used everything we had learnt to create some (very tricky) quizzes about them.  Towards the end of the week, we looked at a poem called The Tiger Dance and we explored what some of the vocabulary meant. We then wrote our own poem in the same style, but about a different deadly creature. In Geography we looked at the climate zones across the world and what it is like to live in them. We found out about some of the plants and animals that live there as well as why people visit them. In Maths, we have moved onto dividing and the children have amazed me with how well they have picked up the written methods of division and how well they are able to apply them to reasoning and problem solving activities. We loved doing our PE lesson this week. We are going to be learning about volleyball and to get us started we practiced using beach balls, which was lots of fun although we found them quite difficult to control to begin with! On Friday afternoon, we had a real treat, to join a virtual celebration worship and to see all the remote learners and the other classes and their teachers. In R.E. We started to look at parables and what we could learn from them. We started with the parable of the unforgiving servant and thought about it could help us in our own lives. It has been a super week and I am looking forward to continuing with our learning next week. 

I enjoyed keeping the beach ball up in PE for volleyball- Max

I enjoyed looking at the poem ‘The Tiger Dance’ and writing our own poems about deadly creatures - Lily

I enjoyed doing Top Trumps cards about the King cobra and mongoose and also learning that in a fight the mongoose can beat a cobra - Lucas

I enjoyed making posters about deadly animals and making pictures of the climate zones - Maddie

Spring 1 Week 1

I think it is safe to say, this week has been the strangest week we have ever had in school. Our return to school after the Christmas break was definitely not what we were expecting. The children have been amazing and we are so proud of how well they have coped with the changing situation and even a snow day to end the week. We have been doing blended learning, with some children in school and some children completing remote learning from home. The effort that all the children have put in and the quality of the work they have produced has been outstanding. 
We started with some PSHE and setting ourselves some New Year goals to achieve both in school and at home. We discussed what the lockdown meant for us and how the children were feeling with the new lockdown in place. We identified some positives (mostly to do with having a lie in!) as well as negatives and also any worries or concerns we had. In Maths, we continued to work on using written methods of multiplication to multiply 2 digit by 2 digit numbers. For English, we read Adrift in New York, which told us what happened to Grace and Catherine from Below Deck: A Titanic story, that we really enjoyed reading for Guided Reading in the Autumn term. We designed postcards from New York and also front covers for the new story, with lots of children taking on the challenge of drawing the Statue of Liberty with superb results. We started our new topic in R.E. and were thinking about people who have taught us and what qualities they showed. We then created our own ‘Super Teacher’ thinking about what they would look like and the qualities they might show. On Thursday, with Mrs Walsh, we looked a some winter poetry and how snowflakes were formed. This inspired us to design our own snowflakes thinking about their symmetry. Friday was a snow day and lots of us enjoyed playing in the snow, having snowball fights and making snowmen.

Autumn 2 week 7

It has been an even busier week this week to finish off the term, it has been so busy that we forgot to take as many photographs as usual. We have been finishing our learning about life cycles in Science. We looked at the human life cycle and then compared the life cycles of different living things. On Wednesday afternoon, we all really enjoyed watching the pantomime Covidella, we enjoyed joining in with the booing and cheering. During our Thursday learning, with Mrs Clitheroe, we have helped the elves work out the perimeter of shapes to repair the workshop sign. We have also worked on different reindeer pens for the model village and there were some very interesting designs as they could only be within a certain perimeter range, to fit in the relevant space. In English, we wrote our own World War 2 poems, based on the model of 'The Alphabet Poem' and tried to convey the impact of The Blitz within our writing: linking with our work within history. We thought about a range of issues within our PSHE learning: in order to begin to understand that the information we see online, is not always true or accurate. On Friday we had a lovely festive day, making Christmas cards and completing some Christmas themed puzzles. The highlight of the day was when we all opened our Secret Santa gifts and guessed who had got them from us, there were some really thoughtful gifts. 

Autumn 2 Week 6

What a busy week we have had in Year 5, it has been like Santa’s workshop as we have been making our products for elf enterprise. Once we had the design we needed to think about how we could make the reindeer’s nose light up. We spent some time looking at circuits using bulbs, batteries and wires. Then we looked at how to create a simple switch for the circuits using two paper clips and a strip of paper. We realised that the batteries and wires would be too bulky for our tree decorations, so we looked at using alternative equipment such as copper tape and flat batteries. On Wednesday, we created a production line in order to make the products efficiently, with the children working on a specific part of the reindeer. We were then able to add the bulbs for the noses and the circuits to the beach, they have been very temperamental and have really tested our understanding of circuits and at times our patience! Any orders will be sent home next week. We had lots of fun writing our advertising blurb for Santa’s Shining Buddy and lots of the children showed a natural flair for this. We could have some advertisers of the future amongst our class. 

We have also enjoyed our last cricket and gymnastics sessions with the specialists this week. We have learnt lots of skills over the half term including batting, bowling and fielding in cricket. In gymnastics we have learnt different types of rolls and balances as well as creating our own sequences. 
We have also been filming our Christmas videos throughout the week, which the children thoroughly enjoyed especially the music video. Look out for them on Seesaw and the school website next week once they have been edited. On Friday, we had our Christmas dinner, which was different to usual, but just as delicious. We all pulled our crackers and sang along to some Christmas songs. 

Out of the whole week, I enjoyed doing the Christmas lip synching and pulling Christmas crackers at the Christmas lunch time - Momina

The things that I have enjoyed this week were making Santa's Shining Buddy and singing - Georgie

I have enjoyed violins, Elf Enterprise and well mostly everything - Isla G

The thing I enjoyed doing was multiplying numbers by each other to get 999 - Max
 

Autumn 2 Week 5

We have had a very festive week in school as we have entered the month of December and the season of Advent. The children loved coming into school on Tuesday to find all the Christmas decorations were up. We even had a sprinkle of snow on Friday to add to our excitement. 
This week in Maths, we have started looking at different strategies to multiply mentally and also using the grid method as a written method of multiplication. We then turned into teachers to ‘mark some work’ finding the mistakes that had been made. For English we have been preparing to write a biography about Sir Captain Tom Moore. We thought about what questions we would ask him and what information we would need to include. On Friday we did some research to find out the information we needed and made some notes. Sadly, we have finished our Guided Reading text about The Titanic. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this text and have shown such enthusiasm for it. We have also really enjoyed our History learning this week, continuing to look at World War Two. We had a historical debate thinking about whether Great Britain should have got involved in the war. We also looked at some primary and secondary sources about evacuation and we thought about how it would feel to be a evacuee. On Thursday, we looked at some poetry and imagery about The Blitz and then created some fabulous artwork to show the night sky. We started our Elf Enterprise work by looking at some existing products to help us then design our own products. We have started to create some initial designs ready to create next week. 
 

In History, I have loved learning about evacuees - Isla B

This week I liked doing art, making silhouettes with Mrs Clitheroe - Logan

I loved designing our product for enterprise - Alice

On Friday, I enjoyed finding out who my secret Santa is. Their name is...... - Robert

Autumn 2 week 4

It has been another busy week in school for Year 5. We have started a new English unit about biographies. We loved playing guess the biography at the start of the week. We have been looking at the biography of the environmental activist Paul Watson, which had a lot of challenging vocabulary in it and thinking about whether his actions were good or not. We have also continued to learn about World War 2, we have found out why it happened and which countries were involved. We even went into role as the prime minister, Neville Chamberlain and wrote a speech declaring war. In Maths, we have been multiplying and dividing numbers by 10, 100 and 1000 and writing our own problems. On Wednesday in Computing, we started to add sounds to our Powerpoint presentations using sound effects and also pieces of music.
Within our Thursday learning, we have been very busy within our maths learning, working on calculating perimeter. In English, we have continued our unit of poetry and have looked at a variety of poems to identify some of the various features. In our Mind-Up activity, we looked at using mindful looking to help us to look really carefully at details. For this, we looked at a small part of our shoe, to pay attention to creases, tears and stitching. in our PSHE learning, we listened to a story of 'The Red People' and how many other people came to their land. We considered how everyone was welcomed because of the various qualities they could offer and we then had to think about the differences within our own society. The children completed a jigsaw piece to look at we can all live harmoniously, thinking about kindness, compassion, tolerance and many other important values. It was an exciting afternoon, where the children enjoyed using their violins in their music lesson. They did such a great job and did so well to remember so much from what they were taught in Year 4!

At school, I have enjoyed Computing adding sounds to my PowerPoint page - Kayleigh

In History, I enjoyed learning how World War 2 started - Alex H

I enjoyed doing the jigsaw puzzle piece in PSHE - Lisa

My favourite thing this week was doing the 5 lives game in cricket - Logan

Autumn 2 Week 3

In our Thursday learning, we have started a new unit on poetry that will link to WW2. We watched a short, emotive animation in which the children were able to try and imagine the feelings of the soldiers and they did really well with this. In maths, we have looked at measuring the perimeter and have had to apply some accurate measuring skills to assist us. In our PSHE learning, we have looked at injustice and considered the issues Rosa Parks faced. The children were provided with various scenarios to consider whether they were fair and just and there was lots of discussion around this. In music, the children continued to rehearse the Basketball Rap and also came up with their own clap rhythm at the end of the session: writing and drawing out their musical pattern on to a board and then performing them to others in the class. 
This week we have really enjoyed our Maths learning. We have been looking at square and cube numbers as well as multiplying numbers by 10 and 100. We have been able to apply our skills to some challenging problems and we have written some super explanations in our reasoning. Our Guided Reading text is all about the Titanic, which we have loved reading and we have enjoyed finding out what it was like in the different classes. On Friday, we imagined we were the main character Grace and we wrote a letter home to describe our experiences, we lots of children found really fun. We began our new History topic this week, by looking at some secondary sources and seeing what they could tell us. We are looking forward to learning more about World War 2 next week. In Science, we have been looking at the life cycle of a sea turtle. We then used this knowledge in our computing. We created PowerPoint presentations to show the life cycle using photos and animations. 
 

This week I enjoyed Computing because I liked adding the different effects and I liked learning about the life cycle of a turtle - Toby

I enjoyed writing a letter to Auntie Nora in Guided Reading - Ellen

I enjoyed the Maths and Science. I also enjoyed reading A Long Walk to Water in English - Scarlet

I enjoyed doing listening posters with Miss Dobie in PSHE - Momina