Year 5
WB: 08/07/24
The last two weeks the children have worked very hard to complete a collage of a bird, combining their learning of different techniques to create texture, knowledge of feathers and bird features and printing skills. Children used a range of materials to create these, and they have turned out brilliantly! They are looking forward to showing them off at our art gallery next Friday. In science, the children were experimenting with different forces, using our PE equipment to create fully working pulleys and exploring how to make them more effective. In English, the children have had their detective hats on, investigating the mystery of who trashed the Year 5 classrooms on Monday morning. They have undertaken a crime scene search, scanned for clues and interviewed their top staff suspects. We look forward to getting to the bottom of this incident and seeing how fabulous the newspaper reports the children are writing will turn out!
WB: 17/06/24
Year 5 have been super busy the past 2 weeks, with many exciting new topics and activities. We started a new topic in English, writing a horror narrative based on the poem 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes, which the children have dived headfirst into, using different writing techniques to create stories filled with fear and suspense. In maths we have tackled fractions, decimals and percentage problems head on as well as converting between analogue and digital time. The children have been thoroughly enjoying our latest geography topic - rivers - including a fun workshop where they learnt all about how rivers around the world work, what they are used for and the importance of the local River Thames. Putting their lab coats on, our little scientists have engaged in several experiments looking at how forces such as gravity and friction affect our planet- made even more thrilling by showing how they can control the forces acting on objects like bubbles and cars!
WB: 22/04/24
Year 5 have been working so hard over the last two weeks and have produced some fantastic work. In Literacy, they have been analysing the short film: the piano! They have written some excellent narratives from the perspective of the man in the film.
In maths, we have been deep diving into the four operations and applying these into word problems - why don't you ask your child to help you calculate your weekly food shop?
In DT this week, the children have enjoyed tasting different bolognese sauces. They had to compare the nutritional values in different sauces and then research what they want to put into their own sauce.
WB: 22/01/24
In year 5 we have had a very busy and exciting two weeks! Last week we explored Colchester castle, learning all about the Romans, including their weapons, invasions, way of life and their downfall. The children had a brilliant day and all came back to school brimming with new knowledge and excitement for our topic. In science we have been putting on our lab coats and experimenting with dissolving, testing the time taken to dissolve for different substances. The children created some fantastic poetry for our Macbeth topic last week, diving headfirst into the cauldron of disgusting ingredients and bringing to life their horrifying creations through a poetry reading with the other schools in the trust. Our architectural skills have developed leaps and bounds, with the children exploring truss' and beginning construction of our wooden bridges.
WB: 08/01/24
This week in year 5 we have been learning about different types of bridges. The children explored a variety of building techniques as ways to reinforce their structures and investigated to find out what combinations of those techniques would build the strongest bridge.
In science we investigated how to separate materials in a mixture and used a range of techniques for different substances. The children got creative with their experiments and used newspaper as a filter!
The children have been very intrigued by our new History enquiry into the life of Romans, sharing their knowledge and expertise. In preparation for our trip to Colchester castle next week, we have been exploring how and why the Roman army were so successful in their invasions and how far their invasion spread.
WB: 10/12/23
This week, Y5 had their USA day to celebrate all the fantastic work they’ve done this half term in International Studies! We had a wonderful day that started with the children researching each of the individual states in order to find out their defining characteristics, geographical qualities and interesting information. From this, they created a physical 3D map of the USA that showcased these vast differences within the country. Following this, the children learnt the hand jive from the iconic American film ‘Grease’ and quickly became hand-jiving experts! Finally, to end the day, the children made replicas of important landmarks across the USA and presented them to the class, talking about their significance. A ‘totally radical’ day was had by all!
WB: 28/11/23
Over the past two weeks, Year 5 have been writing letters in role as ‘The Alchemist’, a character who tragically neglected his family in order to work on and construct a revolutionary machine that turned metal into gold when fed with precious memories. The children have really embodied the character, writing to persuade his son to forgive him. Using things such as flattery, emotive language and a range of sentence openers, they have worked hard to pull on the heart strings and to convince him to give them another chance. Have a look below at some of the fantastic letters that have been produced!
WB: 13/11/23
Year 5 have been exploring a new style of art this half term – surrealist art! Firstly, we researched surrealist art to see who originated it, where it originated, and what characterises the style. Our minds were blown by its interestingly unique and fantastical style, and we couldn’t wait to get started with it. Last week, we had a go ourselves and tried to recreate Salvador Dali’s famous painting, ‘The Persistence of Memory’. Have a look below at some of our fantastic attempts! We’re very much looking forward to trying to replicate the work of Magritte, another famous surrealist artist, this week.
WB: 30/10/23
This week Year 5 have started a new topic in science: properties of materials! We have refreshed the knowledge we have gained from previous years this week and have been thinking about the way we can describe and categorise materials, identifying their properties. To do this, the children decided what the best way to prevent their classification would be, deciding on a Caroll Diagram that clearly allowed them to compare the items in a way that was easy to observe. Then, using items from around the classroom, they classified a range of materials, changing the properties they were comparing each time. We had a great time scratching our brains and thinking about the more difficult to categorise items, and a lengthy discussion about the difference between a material and an object ensued!
WB: 09/10/23
This half term we have been looking at Earth and Space in our science lessons. Over the last few weeks we have explored the different types of planets, why the Earth is spherical, how day and night occurs, and the phases of the moon. This week, we have been exploring the constellations seen in the night sky from different point of the world! The children have been researching the different constellations, looking at their shape and interesting facts about them. Now, they’ll likely be able to spot them on a starry night – see if they can!
WB: 25/09/23
This half term, Year 5 have been looking at electrical greeting cards in Design and Technology. After familiarising ourselves with the history of greeting cards, the pros and cons of different types, and how we can make a circuit to power our electrical greeting cards, today we started planning them. We worked like true card designers by researching our purposes and themes to make mood boards; this will make it easier to ensure our cards are fit for purpose when we start to make them next week! Just have a look at the creatives in action yourself!
WB: 11/09/23
Wow.. What a fantastic start to Year 5 the children have had! They have each come in with such a wonderful attitude to the new learning and challenges that lay ahead of them and we, the Year 5 team, couldn’t be more impressed. Nothing demonstrated this commendable beginning of the year more than their first piece of English writing: an innovation of the story of The Three Brothers (originally told by Hermione in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). Just have a look at some of the examples below to see why we have been so pleased; their descriptive language is out in full display, they have shown that they can vary their sentence openers to make their writing flow, and finally, their presentation (even after six weeks off) is top-notch! Well done Year 5!