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?

15th April

Do you know what a nonet poem is? 

Answer: A nonet is a nine-line poem. In the nonet form, each line contains specific, descending syllable counts. The first line contains nine syllables, the second line contains eight, and the third line contains seven, and so on.

Today we had a look at some nonets and then recited them from memory, using actions to help us. Here are some freeze-frames from our favourite line in the poem we learnt.

25th March - Portal Stories

Today, we went down to Year 4 to read them our portal stories. After hearing our stories, the Year 4s then answered a mini quiz about our story.

Take a look at the Year 5 'Whole Year Group Events' page to see our D.T. project and parent event, which we've been working on over the last 2 weeks.

https://www.whitecourtschool.co.uk/whole-year-group-events-1/

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 Logan and Xavier.

We also made the most of having the Chromebooks out and logged on to Times Table Rock Stars and set each other challenges.

Art

Our design brief was to design an outfit suitable for a prestigious awards evening. The outfit had to contain elements of the Maya. 

To begin our topic we looked at a the work and inspiration of a selection of artists and fashion designers including - Sophie Cochevelou, Alice Fox and Rahul Mishra. We gathered some ideas and inspiration for pour work before creating a mood board about the Maya and then designing our outfits. To complete the topic, we produced our outfits using a selection of acrylic painted paper and bits 'n' bobs found in our art and design boxes.

Have a look at our finished garments as they hit the red carpet.

Can you identify the links to the Maya? Would you wear outfits?

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