Friday 5th July - D.T.

Year 5 have loved making - and testing - 'tethered aerodynes' otherwise known as kites! They built a 3D box kite in each group by creating four tetrahedron shapes made out of equaliteral triangles. They then connected them together with string and attached light weight material to two sides of each tetrahedron so allow it to catch the wind. Unfortunately there was very little wind today and we coouldn't wait to test them so we have to use our legs instead!

Wednesday 3rd July - PSHE

Earlier this term, we were learning about Dr Sara Josephine Baker, a female physician who made a huge difference to protecting infants from typhoid in New York at the turn of the century. To show pupils how important hygiene is to prevent germs, we conducted an experiment. Caution - the results are revolting!

Tuesday 2nd July - Geography

Year 5 have been learning about different types of flooding and factors that increase the risk such as deforestation, hard gorund or steep slopes. Today, we looked at real footage from a case study - the Toddbrook Reservoir. We explored the damage that heavy rainfall had created and what the potential consequences were to the reservoire failing. 

Monday 10th June

It may not be the cricket and sunny weather that we were hoping for but we have really enjoyed indoor competitive team games. Each player had to use both attacking and defending skills to collect points for their team.

Thursday 6th June - English

At the start of our new writing topic - a Rags to Riches Story - pupils are gathering their own ideas for their own writing. Today, they decided on their setting and main character. The illustrations have helped think in more depth and add details. This will help with their written descriptions when they start story telling. We are looking forward to the next stage which is planning. 

Thursday 6th June - Science Investigation 

Pupils have been learning about chemical reactions and irreversible changes. Here, they investigated if the amount of salt or a coating affects how fast iron rusts. You can see from the results the change in water colour. Pupils learned that coating the nail halps slow down rust occurring. More salt in the water speeds up the process. 

Tuesday 8th May - Art and Design

Year 5 have had great fun with the first stage of building their set design models. This is based on their portal stories so have two different place settings and a portal which leads to the other world. Freddie S has a very innovative design where a hole appears in the floor and drops through to the world below. Grace's portal leads to an underwater world. Archie and Lola love that they a free to create and build freely using lots of different materials, resources and range of tools. We can't wait till next week to continue bringing our planning and visions alive!

English - Monday 29th April

Year 5s have been learning about play scripts and their features. Plays are slit into scenes and Acts, rather like chapters in a book. At the start of each scene, a setting description tells the director what scenery, background and props might be required. Play scripts use the characters name and a colon to seperate the dialogue. One of the most important features of a script is satge description. This tells performers how to deliver their lines and act; it is seperated from the dialoge by use of brackets. It helps the audience understand the context of the play. Today, we looked at the layout and features of a play script and practiced using them during short performances. 

19th April

Today in Music, we carried on with our composition topic and became foley artists. First we used a range of symbols to create a graphic notation to show what we were going to play. Then, we used a range of instruments and every-day objects to create sounds to match a clip from Zootopia. Here are a couple of action shots and photos of our work. What would you use to recreate the sound effects for each scene?

Sharing our Portal Stories with Year 4 - Monday 25th March

D.T. Project - Planning and Building a Lunar Rover - Tuesday 19th March

This project has been great fun and an super opportunity to work collaboratively when making decisions and discussing ideas. Pupils learnt how to create an electric circuit using a battery and a motor and included a switch. They then built the frame, measuring and cutting wooden battons and securing them into place with a hot glue gun. Each group made their own decisions about the size of the wheels and the pulley system that rotates the axel, and considered how this may affect the speed of the rover.  We look forward to testing them on different terrain on Thursday!

International World Maths Day - 3.14

This morning, Year 5s learnt about gross and net pay. It was shocking news to learn that amounts are deducted from your wage! We looked at why deductions are made from your payslip and how tax and pension money is used. They used their percentage knowledge to work out how much money they would take home after deductions. 

World Book Day - Thursday 7th March

We have had a great week with lots of focused reading activities which have been fun and engaging. We have compared characters in Harry Potter novels and been detectives finding clues which show their character traits. We have taken part in a 'Footy and Booky Quiz' run by the Literacy Trust, we have used drama to bring chapters from books alive and created maps using descriptions of settings. Best of all, we have enjoyed reading and sharing great stories!

W/C 26th February

We have started our next unit in Music: composition. This week, we have been using the website Charanga to compose our own melody line to play on the recorder. We listened to a range of styles (Jazz, Motown, Bollywood, Pop, Funk, Reggae and Orchestral).

Here are some action shots as well as some example compositions from Lola and Emily.

Friday 16th February

Pupils have had great fun learning more about how poets use stanzas for a purpose such as creating imagery through personification, use of structure, rythmn and rhyme to create a musical poem, to describe a setting or a subject etc. Here are some examples of our work. 

26th January - Art - Maya Inspired Fashion Design

This Art project has really opened our eyes to the fun and inspiring work of fashion designers. Pupils were given the task of designing an outfit for a pretigious awards ceremony - all inspired by Maya! Pupils showed lots of enthusiasm and creativity in their designs, including use of Maya colours, patterns, head pieces and animals! Here are some examples of their design work:

January 2024 - P.E. - Dance

This term, pupils have learny about 'dance by chance' and how to create choreography by sequencing a range of differnt movements like jump, twist, spin, kick and changing the dynamic (explosive, slow, fluidly, robotically etc). Here our some of our groups practising.

24th January - History

We are well and truly emersed in learning about the Ancient Maya. Today, we learnt in more depth about the difference between an emprire and a civilization. The Maya, during the classic period (2000BC-AD250) lived in separate city-states, each one with its own ruler. We examined what you can learn about the Maya from looking at the ruins of such cities. This includes ornate places, tall pyramid temples, huge ball courts and observatory towers. Buildings the were considered the most important were built in the middle of the city and differed greatly to the plain hut-like housing that the every day Maya lived in aorund the outskirts. Pupils learnt that the Maya were excellent builders, particularly for that time, that they were deeply religious (even ball games!) and their was a hierarchy with the Royal Family at the top. They were also skilled astronomers and used their knowledge to create calendars. In groups, pupils enjoyed creating their own city-state based on what they had learnt. One group also included a 'cenote', a sink hole filled with water which provided an underground reservoir - important for a large population.

11th November - Narrative Poetry in English

We have really enjoyed learning about narrative poetry and its features. It's been fun exploring the amusing personification and imagery in 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'.  Next, we learnt a new poem, 'The Ballard of Jack and the Dragon', and loved learning and performing this poem by heart. We used volume, tone and pitch to express the story along with actions. Here are some examples from groups when performing.

Science - Thursday 5th October

As part of our Forces Topic, pupils have been learning about simple mechanisms such as levers and pulleys. 

A lever is a simple machine that consists of a rigid object, such as a board or bar, that is free to pivot around a fixed point called a fulcrum, like a seesaw. The longer lever with a greater disctance from the fulcrum works more efficiently than one that is closer to the fulcrum. 

In this practical lesson, pupils created their own pulley system. A simple machine that consists of a grooved wheel that is free to rotate around an axle. A string was used to pull on the load and we measured the force required to lift it using a Newton metre. We experimented with two types so see that the moveable pulley reduced the effort reqired to lift the load. 

1. Fixed pulleys: The pulley is fixed to a stationary object, such as a ceiling or a beam, and the rope or cable is used to lift the load. Fixed pulleys change the direction of the force required to move the load, but do not reduce the amount of force required.

2. Moveable pulleys: The pulley is attached to the load, and the effort is used to lift the load by pulling on the rope or cable. Moveable pulleys reduce the amount of force required to lift a load, but do not change the direction of the force.

PSHE - Monday 2nd October

LO: To make choices about my own behaviour because I understand the importance of rules.

In PSHE today, we discussed why we need rules, both in school and in society as a whole. We worked in small groups to devise our own rules for a new game. We explained our game and its rules to the rest of the class and thought about what would happen if there were no rules in a game, at school or no laws for people to follow in society. We concluded that rules come with rights and responsibilities and are necessary for groups of people to live harmoniously together and to achieve their goals.