Year 5
Welcome to Year 5!
Week Ending 04/10/2024
Year 5 have now bid farewell to their Ancient China topic and have delved straight into their Science all about Space! We have looked at the planets in our Solar System and discussed their immense sizes and distances between each other. We have also had the opportunity to ask questions and share facts about what we already know about Space, the galaxy and the universe with lots of exciting and fun experiments to come over the next few weeks!
Week Ending 27/09/2024
Linking to our Ancient China topic, Year 5 have been studying taotie masks and taotie patterns in Art. These taotie patterns were very common during the Shang Dynasty and were created by using a bronze casting method. A mould was made out of clay and the molten bronze was poured in; once the bronze solidified, the mould would be removed and the solid bronze object would be left. As part of our Art, we created some of our own taotie patterns out of clay and used a plaster of paris solution to create a mould from that (rather than molten bronze!). They are already looking excellent and the next step is to paint them to create a rusted green bronze look!
Week Ending 20/09/2024
Throughout this week, Year 5 have continued to delve into our Ancient China topic, focusing on Fu Hao; a powerful warrior Queen from the Shang Dynasty, very reminiscent of the story of Mulan! It was not common for women to be in such positions of power in ancient times so she is certainly an important and inspirational figure from history; in our lessons we discussed why she was important and how we know so much about her, creating an information poster and leaflet all about her and her achievements.
Week Ending 13/09/2024
Hello and welcome to Year 5!
Well done all for working so well during your first full week of the school year. This week, we have delved straight into our Ancient China topic; we have studied some primary sources of evidence like oracle bones and looked at a timeline of the different dynasties, making our own timelines with some added creative flair!
Week Ending 19/07/2024
The last full week of term is finished and it has been a busy one! Year 5 have been busy with their Nature Art topic, learning about the different ways natural materials can be used to create shapes and show texture as well as finding out about low and high relief art. They also had the opportunity to consolidate this learning with a wonderful trip to the gardens in the Lee Valley Nature Reserve! I hope you have enjoyed your time in Year 5 - you have had a fantastic year and have produced some brilliant work. I wish you all the best for the summer; enjoy your well-earned break!
Week Ending 12/07/2024
Well done on your wonderful contributions to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! You sang and acted well and we had some excellent Oompa Loompa dances! I can’t wait to see what you can produce as main roles next year seeing as your drama has been brilliant!
Week Ending 05/07/2024
The performance for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is almost upon us and Year 5 have been working hard to help out in any way they can. We have created our own Willy Wonka lollypops for the backdrop and one of the songs and we have also made some lovely advertisement posters!
Week Ending 14/06/2024
This week, Year 5 have been continuing their Art topic about Line, Light and Shadow. This week, we looked at sketching with different mediums, using pen and pastels to blend and contour in different ways. We worked hard practising the techniques and produced some fantastic final pieces!
Week Ending 07/06/2024
This week, Year 5 had the opportunity to visit the Radlett Museum as their local trip! We learned about what Radlett was like during the Roman times, during Victorian times and all the way up to the present day as well as the history of the Porter’s Park Golf Club. We saw photos of schoolchildren from the Victorian Age, shared games they used to play and even saw photos of the old manor house that used to be on the site where Newberries is today!
Week Ending 07/06/2024
Over the past few weeks, Year 5 have been completing a large variety of different topics; we have completed our work on Shakespeare's Macbeth in English, culminating in an excellent report of the final battle. Throughout the topic, Year 5 had lots of opportunities to demonstrate their expression by acting out different scenes from the play; there were so many brilliant performances and readings in each of these sessions - everyone in Year 5 should be proud of their dramatic achievements!
In our Topic sessions, we have been looking at the properties of different materials, moving onto solutes and solutions over the next few lessons. In Art, we have started to develop our sketching and shading techniques by practising on one line sketches and an in-depth study of the eye, with some fantastic results!
Week Ending 10/05/2024
Year 5 have had a great week exploring Macbeth using drama, spoken word and writing. They have really enjoyed acting out some of the scenes and we’ve been so impressed how well they have picked up the Shakespearean language. In Geography they have enjoyed learning about different farming techniques and created some fantastic information leaflets for future farmers!
Week Ending 19/04/2024
In Year 5 this week, we finished our Art topic on Expressionist painting. For our final piece, we took photos of ourselves showing different emotions and used pastels and paints to emphasise these emotions with our use of colour and brushstrokes. We ended up with a wonderful assortment of expressionist artworks!
Week Ending 22/03/2024
Throughout the past few weeks, Year 5 have been focusing on dragons as a central thread in all their English work. At first, we learned about the features non-chronological reports and used this to create our own reports about a specific type of dragon, complete with illustrations and key details! Then we turned to a more creative task, creating a short adventure story about a dragon; we focused on our use of vivid figurative language, such as similes, metaphors and personification, to really bring the story to life and we carefully planned each event before writing the final piece. As a last activity, we then created a blurb and front cover to go with the story, thinking about how we could get the reader interested without giving too much away!
Week Ending 15/03/2024
This week, Year 5 have been working through our new topic of Life Cycles in Science. We looked at the life cycles of a few different animals, discussing the similarities and differences between them. We are now looking into animal conservation and what is being done to protect many critically endangered species from extinction.
Week Ending 08/03/2024
In Year 5 this week, we have been completing a large variety of different tasks in English all surrounding World Book Day! Our chosen story for this year was ‘The Girl and the Dinosaur’; a story about a girl called Marianne who digs up a dinosaur fossil on the beach. Then at night, she wishes with all her might and the fossil comes to life and whisks her off on a journey to a Magical Moonlit Island in the clouds!
We focused our English learning around the story of Marianne and her dinosaur, creating our own spirit animals and our own magical lands, designing persuasive adverts to encourage others to visit, all of which culminated in a story about a journey to our magical lands!
Week Ending 01/03/2024
In Year 5 this week, we finished our Art topic of ‘Tints Tones and Shades’; as a final piece, we designed and sketched a simple landscape drawing and decided what different tints and shades we could use to show the same hues of colour in different ways. For example, well applied a variety of tints, tones and shades of green to show the grass, vegetation and trees.
Week Ending 16/02/2024
Today, Year 5 have officially completed their Mini Police training! We have learned so many important lessons about road safety, internet safety, anti-social behaviour and anti-bullying. This culminated in Y5’s assembly where the children did a wonderful job relaying all they had learned with some excellent acting and dramatisations; well done Y5 for all your hard work!
Week Ending 02/02/2024
In Year 5 this week, we have continued with our work on the Ancient Greeks. This time, we looked at some significant individuals from the Ancient Greek times – discussing why they were important and the effects they had on the wider world. We created information posters to present the most important facts clearly, with some excellent results!
Week Ending 19/01/2024
This week, Year 5 have continued with their Mini Police training! During this session, we learnt about the difference between Anti-Social Behaviour and Pro-Social behaviour, discussing how to act to make a positive impact in our communities based on our actions and choices.
Week Ending 12/01/2024
This week, Year 5 have started a wide range of new topics for the start of a new term! We have looked at long multiplication in Maths, different types of persuasive writing in English and we have started our History topic of Ancient Greece. In French, we continued with our topic of clothes, focusing on what we’d want to take with us on holiday – we needed to create a list of the clothes we would bring, choosing them carefully for the type of holiday we were planning; lots of the French writing we accomplished was excellent!
Week Ending 08/12/2023
Throughout this week, Year 5 have been learning more about forces and the effects they have on objects. We investigated the effects of air resistance on different shaped cupcake cases when dropped from an equal height. We also made a variety of different shapes with the same mass out of plasticine and dropped them into a container of water to see how water resistance affects different objects by the speed of their fall. We demonstrated our findings in a variety of different ways, noting our results in tables and converting them in bar charts for clarity.
Week Ending 01/12/2023
Year 5 have been busy learning about a multitude of topics this week. We have recently finished our Geography topic about the human and physical qualities of the earth, culminating in a geographical enquiry into different settlements of the UK. We have now started our next Science topic all about forces; we have already learned about gravity and completed a scientific investigation into the difference and relationship between the mass and weight of objects. There is more to come in the following days involving friction, air resistance and buoyancy! We have also had the opportunity to delve deeper into the more advanced skills of digital art in our ICT topic where we have created some wonderful nature pieces, designed our own emojis and even completed some wonderful digital impressions of Pudsey!
Week Ending 24/11/2023
This week, Year 5 have been learning all about settlements in Geography. We discussed the difference between settlement types and we completed our own geographical enquiry into one settlement of the UK. In the enquiry, we needed to use Google maps to gather information about our settlement and use this information to decide whether we thought the settlement was a hamlet, village, town or city.
Week Ending 10/11/2023
This week, Year 5 have been learning all about the human and physical make-up of the world. We looked at the physical features of climates and biomes and what defines them, and then moved onto the human features of the different world continents, such as their areas and population densities. We have also had the opportunity to present and share what we have learned in a variety of different creative ways!
Week Ending 03/11/2023
In Year 5 this week, we have started our new Computing topic focused on formatting and editing shapes using Google Drawings! We have had a practise using some basic shapes to create grand homes and our favourite animals, understanding how to duplicate shapes and use layers to create a completed image.
Week Ending 13/10/2023
This week, Year 5 continued their Science topic of Space. We now moved our attention to the Earth’s moon, learning how it goes through each of its phases over the course of a month and how it only appears to change shape in the sky. In order to demonstrate this properly, we used Oreo biscuits and, for the good of Science, we resisted the temptation to eat any of them!
Week Ending 06/10/2023
Year 5 have now started their topic of Space. We have already discussed all the different planets of our Solar System, including their sizes, their order from the Sun and lots of other interesting facts! This week, we studied the rotation of the Earth on its axis as well as its orbit round the Sun, realising that the Earth’s rotation is what causes us to have day and night and its tilted orbit is what creates the seasons.
Week Ending 29/09/2023
In Year 5 this week, we completed our taotie mask patterns! We created the moulds out of clay and Mr Costi filled the mould with plaster. After that, we decorated the masks with different tones of green and blue watercolours to give them a rusted bronze look, as if they were found in the tombs of Ancient China itself!
Week Ending 22/09/2023
In Year 5, we have now begun to look at art and crafting in the Ancient Shang Dynasty, seeing them as great craftspeople who created and cast a multitude of different bronzes. In our Art, we are studying taotie, a pattern popular in Ancient China at the time, and we are going to cast these using a mould of clay. This week, we prepared our design ideas and practised mixing watercolours to decide which colour we liked most for the final design.
Week Ending 15/09/2023
This week Year 5 have continued to delve into their Ancient China topic. We have created timelines to see the different family dynasties with a sprinkling of creative flair! We also investigated the religious beliefs of the Shang Dynasty as well as Fu Hao, a warrior Queen who led her armies to many impressive victories!
Week Ending 08/09/2023
Welcome back to school new Year 5! It’s been wonderful to hear about all the lovely experiences you have had over the holidays. We have already begun our first topic of Ancient China, looking at different pieces of evidence from the Shang Dynasty and even having a go at some Chinese writing! You have started the year very well, despite the unseasonable heat! Keep it up!
Week Ending 07/07/2023
As the summer gets into full swing, Y5 have been learning all about nature art. We looked at different types of natural installations of high and low reliefs created by artists, discussing the different materials they used and what purpose these materials served. After that, we then designed and made our own natural low relief art pieces!
Week Ending 30/06/2023
Y5 had a very sporty week this week, with Sports Day on Monday and an Athletics Competition on Tuesday! I was so proud of all the excellent effort and determination shown by everyone in the class in each event; you should all be proud of yourselves for your achievements, well done!
Week Ending 23/06/2023
On Wednesday of this week, it was World Music Day. To celebrate this occasion, each class took part in an enrichment workshop to practise and play samba style music. We discussed the origins of the samba and where it is played and then it was our turn to create our own samba music. We used a wide range of traditional musical instruments, such as agogôs and pandeiros, and some of us even used frying pans and wooden spoons! The children had a wonderful time and the tunes we created were very catchy!
Week Ending 16/06/2023
In our Art this week, Year 5 have been learning all about blending and shading techniques. We first practised using graphite pencils to create shadows and perspective in objects and we then tried the same techniques with a variety of other mediums. We blended using colour pencils, pastels and even shading with black pens to create texture and investigate the different styles, with many fantastic results!
Week Ending 09/06/2023
This week, Year 5 went over to the Radlett Tennis Club for their local trip! The moment we met up with the coaches at the club, the children we engaged and enjoying themselves with all the different activities available. First, we warmed up our muscles with some relay races, though in the glorious sunshine, not much warming up was needed! After that, we practised our hand-eye coordination skills with ball bouncing and balancing games and we then had the opportunity to practise our forehands and backhands, trying our hardest to keep the ball in the court. To finish up, we enjoyed a packed lunch picnic in the shade while having the opportunity to watch other members of the club playing some games of tennis and show us how it’s done with some excellent rallies of their own. Even Mr Thomas and Mr Costi had a good time and managed to have a few rallies before the end of the session!
Week Ending 25/05/2023
This week in Year 5, we started our new topic on chemical reactions in science. We conducted experiments on solubility where we investigated if different substances would dissolve when added to water. We tested salt, sugar, pepper, flour, foil and paper. We wrote our results up in a table. Next we carried out further experiments to see if changing the conditions made a difference. We found, for example, that raising the temperature of the water caused the salt and sugar to dissolve more quickly.
Week Ending 12/05/2023
Last week, for the King’s Coronation, we completed a variety of royal-themed tasks. We designed Union Jack bunt for the courtyard, discussed the history of the monarchy and what it would be like if we were King or Queen and, by junk modelling, we created castles fit for a King!
Week Ending 21/04/2023
In Science this week, Year 5 have been learning about the life cycles of different plants and animals. We looked at the life cycle of a chicken and compared it to the life cycles of butterflies and frogs, learning about how animals change as they grow and how some undergo metamorphosis as they become adults. For our tasks, we thought of many different creative ways to present these life cycles vividly and in a clear way.
Week Ending 24/03/2023
Throughout this week, Year 5 have been working on their Art, focusing on Expressionism and, in particular, the works of Edvard Munch. We discussed the different ways he portrayed emotion through the use of brushstrokes and colours and we practised these techniques using different emotive photographs. As a final piece, we used photos of ourselves showing different emotions and painted over them, using what we had learned from the expressionist paintings, to emphasise these emotions.
Week Ending 17/03/2023
In English this week, Year 5 have started their topic all about dragons! First, we studied the book of Dragonology to investigate the different types of dragons, their habitats, their diets and their temperaments. We then used this to design our own dragons and we wrote reports outlining their different features with labelled diagrams and warnings about sightings of them in the sky. We are now moving onto using descriptive techniques such as similes, metaphors and personification to describe our dragons and their lairs in detail, preparing to write adventure stories about them in the coming days.
Week Ending 10/03/2023
This week, Year 5 started their Geography topic studying the Vikings as explorers. We discussed how the geography of Scandinavia was a significant factor which led to the Vikings becoming raiders in the first place; they needed to expand their territory as their population was growing and the North of Sweden and Norway was too cold and mountainous for them to live. In our first few lessons, we have looked at the different countries the Vikings travelled to and for how long they stayed; they even travelled as far as North America!
Week Ending 03/03/2023
Throughout this week, Year 5 have been reading a book called “The Barnabus Project”. It is all about a creature called Barnabus who is thought to be a ‘failed experiment’, is kept in a bell jar and yearns for freedom. We focused our English learning around the story of Barnabus with a wide range of exciting activities; from creating our own creatures, completing lab reports about the creatures and even making comic strips to tell a story of how the creature escapes!
Week Ending 24/02/2023
This week, Year 5 completed their Mini-Police Project! As a final activity, we had to plan and prepare an assembly to show what we had learned over the course of the project. Everyone in Year 5 demonstrated a real enthusiasm to showcase what they had learned and they really did themselves, and the school, proud with their wonderful assembly! Really well done Year 5, you are now officially Mini Police of Hertfordshire!
Week Ending 10/02/2023
This week in Year 5, we have started our new topic all about the Vikings. To begin, we discussed the main events that occurred during the Viking and Anglo-Saxon conflicts and we designed and created a timeline to clearly present this information; we also had the opportunity to add a little Viking flair to our timelines!
Week Ending 03/02/2023
Throughout this week, Year 5 have been learning all about different tints, tones and shades in Art. We practised mixing colours with black, white and grey to see how the colours changed and we matched the colours to certain aspects of landscape paintings by famous artists. At the end of this week, we then put all our learning into practise and we created our own landscape paintings using tints, tones and shades to create a wide range of colour.
Week Ending 27/01/2023
Well done on your fantastic class assembly Year 5! You were all brilliant!
This week, the Year 5 Mini Police Project also got into full swing! We practised the different activities police do when marching and on parade and the children had a great time practising the ‘bleep test’. While doing all this, we even got a chance to wear our formal Mini Police uniforms!
Week Ending 20/01/2023
In Year 5 this week, we started a new book which our next few English lessons would be based around, called ‘Tales from Outer Suburbia.’ First we looked at a few illustrations of outer suburbia and we discussed what type of place it was. At first glance, it looked like a very ordinary, maybe even boring, suburb. However, when we looked closer, we could see that not everything was as it seemed; the streets were far too quiet and empty, the houses were far too similar and there were even animals hidden in the trees! In the first tale, we met a lonely water buffalo who lived in a vacant lot in outer suburbia. He was good a pointing to give people directions but he never spoke. We then gave the buffalo a voice so we could practise how to create different types of narrators; some of us made him a moody buffalo and others a very cheerful one. They were definitely suited to the weird and wonderful world of outer suburbia!
Week Ending 13/01/2023
This week in Science, Year 5 have been studying gravity as a force. We have conducted a variety of experiments, just like Galileo did many years ago, to prove the existence of gravity. We looked at how gravity acts on objects when dropped from the same height, the difference between mass and weight, and even how gravity acts on different planets!
Week Ending 16/12/2022
Throughout this week, Year 5 have been completing a variety of Winter-based activities, such as learning about advent in the lead up to Christmas as well as the festival of Hanukkah. Today, we designed and made our hats ready for our Winter Party next week!
Week Ending 09/12/2022
In Geography this week, we have been delving into our topic of ‘Investigating the World’. We looked at the different zones of the Earth, from time zones to climate zones and even vegetation belts and biomes. We then moved onto studying the human geography of the Earth, discussing the continents of the world and many of their features and we have managed to organise all this knowledge in many different forms, from tables, to fact files and even top trump cards!
Week Ending 02/12/2022
This week in English, we completed our first poetry topic of the year! We were looking at cinquains; five line poems about a single theme with a very specific structure. We planned and shared ideas for different cinquains, making sure we followed the structure, and then we had the opportunity to design and create our own poems!
Week Ending 25/11/2022
Throughout his week, Year 5 have been continuing their topic of Space and it was time for us to turn our attention to the moon. We looked at the moon’s different phases, discussed why it looks different throughout the month and why it is lit up at all! To show what we had learned, we used Oreo biscuits to demonstrate the different phases and everyone just about managed to resist the temptation to eat any of their moons!
Week Ending 18/11/2022
It has been Anti-Bullying Week this week and, to mark the occasion, Year 5 have shared many discussions about what bullying is; rather than being bystanders and allowing bullying to take place, we spoke about how be an upstander and stand up to bullying. We also designed ribbons filled with kind words and positive encouragement to help us understand we are all amazing in our uniqueness!
Week Ending 11/11/2022
This week, Year 5 have had various discussions about Remembrance Day, sharing what it is for and why it is important to remember the bravery and sacrifices of all soldiers who have fought to protect our freedom. To commemorate the event, we took part in an online, nationwide assembly and we also used the work we have done on watercolour painting to create an image of what we imagine the poppies would look like in the fields of Flanders.
Week Ending 04/11/2022
Throughout October, for Black History Month, Year 5 have been looking at the difference in the way black people were treated from the past to the present and what more can be done to make sure we can achieve equality for all. For the final week of the month, we looked at the work of the artist Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, who often depicts black children living on the streets in his artwork; he does this to tell their stories and give them more of a voice, believing that everyone deserves a chance to be heard, regardless of wealth or colour.
Week Ending 21/10/2022
In Art this week, Year 5 have been studying a range of different artistic techniques to prepare for their final taotie pattern designs. We sketched the Ancient Chinese taotie designs and we practised with watercolours and pastels as we will need to apply skills using these when completing the finished piece after half term. For a first practise, the children’s use of watercolours was wonderful!
Week Ending 14/10/2022
This week, Year 5 have been using the app, Google Drawings, to practise their digital art in preparation for our finished pieces to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our school. The pictures may look simple, but every individual shape has been created, formatted and placed in the correct layers to make the final product. I’m looking forward to seeing our final pieces as we will have opportunity to showcase all the different techniques we have learned during our week of digital art!
Week Ending 07/10/2022
Over the past few weeks, Year 5 have been learning all about Ancient China; we studied many different primary sources of evidence, from oracle bones to chariots, and we even found out about the legend of the warrior Queen, Fu Hao! Using this evidence, we then created a variety of wonderful pieces of work to demonstrate what we have learned about Ancient China so far!
Blogs 2021-22
Week Ending 15/7/2022
For our last full week of the year, Year 5 have had the chance to be more creative with their curriculum work. In English we have been working on storybooks for younger children, focusing on more simple stories with a clear moral and lots of fun characters! We are just adding the finishing touches and the last few illustrations on Monday and then we’ll hopefully have the chance to read them to some of the younger years!
Week Ending 8/7/2022
This week, we have discussed having a Year 5’s Got Talent show at some point near the end of term! However, Mr Costi is not sold on the idea as of yet, so in English we learned about persuasive writing and created formal persuasive letters to help convince Mr Costi that the talent show should go ahead. To show their dedication to the task, Year 5 also created advertising posters to spread the word about this wonderful event!
Week Ending 1/7/2022
This week, Year 5 had their willow weaving workshop! Each group was going to create a 3-D turtle out of willow and tissue paper; it sounded like a daunting task! However, after learning how to weave willow in a variety of ways to form the base structure and with a large dose of teamwork, the project all started coming together. We then had to cover them in strong tissue paper (and glue!) and then add a coat of colour on top. We all had a wonderful time creating our turtles and we certainly learned a lot! The finished designs look fantastic, but you’ll have to wait until Celebration Afternoon to see those ones!
Week Ending 24/6/2022
This week, Year 5 reached the end of their land art topic. The outcome was to create a free-standing installation made from natural materials; not an easy task! After the design process, where we sketched and labelled our wonderful (and ambitious!) designs, we then set out to craft the installations. Part way through the making process, we soon realised that most of these designs were perhaps a little too ambitious! However, the children showed great initiative and quick thinking to edit and adapt their designs to match what was possible with the time and resources we had available. In the end, all the finished pieces looked wonderful and I hope we are all now looking forward to our workshop next week when we can apply the skills we have learned on an even larger scale!
Week Ending 17/6/2022
Continuing with our land art topic, this week Year 5 designed and created their own low relief art made entirely out of natural materials. We decided what shapes we wanted to make and which materials to use based on their properties; we ended up with some lovely and clear reliefs!
Week Ending 10/6/2022
This week, Year 5 have started their new Art topic linked to Sow, Grow and Farm. We looked at different types of land art and earth art, discussing their shape, texture and even what we thought their meaning was! We then used our sketching techniques to replicate the examples and practise for when we start to plan our own designs.
Week Ending 26/5/2022
This week, the whole school have all been completing different jubilee themed activities; in Year 5, we used a silhouette of the queen and experimented with blending colours to create a vivid design. Our experimenting certainly paid off as all of them turned out brilliantly!
Week Ending 20/5/2022
This week, Year 5 have read Journey to Jo’burg and used the story as a stimulus for their writing. At the beginning of the week, we identified the features of a letter and explored using subordinate conjunctions to create compound sentences. We then finished the week by writing a letter of our own from a character’s perspective. In maths, we moved on to measurements and looked at the relationships between different units of measurement. In the afternoons, we continued to work on our geography skills by exploring different climate zones and identifying which one is needed to grow different things.
Week Ending 13/5/2022
This week in Year 5, we have continued with our topic of Sow, Grow and Farm, with more of a focus on Geography. However, we have also still been monitoring the process of our plants; lots of them are showing excellent progress and the seedlings are looking wonderful! Soon they’ll be too big for their pots and they’ll need to be moved into the allotment!
Week Ending 6/5/2022
For the past few weeks, Year 5 have been working through their topic of Sow, Grow and Farm with a focus on Science. We look at plant life cycles and the different ways they reproduce, followed up with a study of the different parts of a plant. Now we have started an experiment by planting some seeds to see these weekly changes for ourselves; we’ll hopefully be seeing a few seedlings soon!
Week Ending 29/4/2022
Throughout this month, Year 5 have been focusing on different artistic techniques all linking to springtime. We have sketched different natural objects that represent Spring, such as baby animals, flowers and trees, focusing on our use of mark making with a pencil. We have also used pastels to create leaf rubbings and prints, experimenting with different colours and types of leaves. This week, we have focused on creating perspective within sketches of landscapes. All this will then build into our knowledge and understanding of our overarching topic of the term: Sow, Grow and Farm.
Week Ending 22/4/2022
With Spring in full flow, Year 5 went outside to complete their Art this week. We were focusing on leaf rubbings and printing and we experimented with different colours and leaves to see which would stand out the most. In the end, we created some lovely colours and vivid leaf designs!
Week Ending 1/4/2022
This week, Year 5 have been working on capacity in Maths. We converted different amounts of ml and l, we read different amounts on measuring jugs and today we applied our knowledge by making our own mixed juice drinks! We have now created a tally of our favourite drinks and we will convert this into a bar graph to see how data can be collated in a real life setting.
Week Ending 25/3/2022
This week, Year 5 have started their new Science topic of Life Cycles, just in time for Spring! We have looked at the life cycle of a chicken, a butterfly and a frog so far and we have discussed the similarities and differences between them. We have also gathered a batch of frogspawn from our school pond to see the process of metamorphosis for ourselves! The frogspawn has now hatched into tadpoles and some of them are getting quite large already!
Week Ending 18/3/2022
It was Science Week this week and the main theme this year was all about growth! So to mark Science Week, Y5 created posters to show different aspects of natural growth; there were some really wonderful and creative ideas and they all ended up looking lovely!
Week Ending 11/3/2022
Throughout our Art topic this term, Year 5 have been learning about print-making techniques. First, we practised a large variety of sketching techniques to identify how artists create texture by only using a pencil. We then took inspiration from the repeated patterns of William Morris and we created styles of our own. Using these styles, we formulated a final design, embedded this onto a polystyrene block before covering it with paint and using it to then print our finished patterns onto paper.
Week Ending 4/3/2022
On Thursday this week, it was World Book Day and it was lovely to see everyone’s smiling faces in their colourful and creative costumes! Throughout the day, we completed a whole host of different activities, from describing the joys of reading to designing our favourite book characters on potatoes!
Week Ending 25/2/2022
Over the past few weeks, Year 5 have been learning all about the Vikings! First we discussed when the Vikings existed and how long ago they lived, comparing their time in History to the Ancient Egyptians as well as our own. We then discussed the main events that occurred throughout the time of the Vikings and we mapped out a timeline to demonstrate this clearly, complete with a little creative Viking flair!
We then looked at the first main events involving the Vikings that occurred in Britain: mainly, the raid at the monastery of Lindisfarne. We talked about the reliability of historical sources and the definition of bias before looking at some very exaggerated reports about the raid from the Anglo-Saxon scribes! We then created our own reports about the raid from two different points of view. First, we narrated the report from the point of view of an Anglo-Saxon monk full of hysteria, and then from the point of view of a historian with a more factual assessment of the event.
Next we will be looking into the lives of the Vikings themselves, such as their laws and their beliefs; there is more to them than the bloodthirsty raiders that they are made out to be!
Week Ending 11/2/2022
In English this week, we were finishing our work on the Tales of Outer Suburbia. In our last tale, we needed to design an expedition through Suburbia to a strange missing point on the map; some of our designs were very in-keeping with the wacky and wonderful world of Outersuburbia!
Week Ending 4/2/2022
We are getting ever closer to creating our final prints for our artwork in Year 5. In Art this week, we looked at different William Morris patterns and, using his style, we creating three designs of our own, each with a repeating pattern. We now need to choose our final design and the final printmaking can begin!
Week Ending 28/1/2022
In PSHCE this week, we talked about our different personalities and what makes us all individuals. To demonstrate this, we each started with a blank picture of a dog and we added the different features of ourselves; such as our hobbies and our goals.
Week Ending 21/1/2022
Throughout this term, we have been learning all about forces in Science, focusing on gravity, air resistance, water resistance and friction. We have conducted many different experiments to investigate what these forces do, how they affect different objects and how we know they actually exist at all!
Week Ending 14/1/2022
This week, we have started our new Art topic all about printing and William Morris. We looked at the works of many different artists over the 19th century and we compared and contrasted them with some of William Morris’ styles and techniques. Afterwards, we had a go at a quick sketch of one of the paintings we studied; our sketching techniques are coming along brilliantly!
Week Ending 10/12/2021
This week, we finished our Mini Police Project which we had been taking part in for about eight weeks. For our grand finale, Year 5 demonstrated the different things they have learned from the project by showing them through drama in a series of events; this included anti-social behavior, different forms of bullying, road safety, marching and the bleep test! Year 5 performed brilliantly and they have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the project!
Week Ending 3/12/2021
This week, we have started looking at our D.T. project for the term and we are going to be designing and creating water rockets! In our first lesson, we researched existing products to give us some initial ideas for our own designs. Our rocket needs to be streamlined enough to go high, but it also needs a safe landing!
Week Ending 26/11/2021
Throughout this week, in ICT, we have been looking into the program: Google Drawings. We had some time to experiment with the different tools and applications for the program and used a variety of lines and shapes to create pictures. We have been sharing all our ideas and discoveries collectively as a class and together we have created some wonderful and wacky images!
Week Ending 19/11/2021
For Children in Need, we all took part in Joe Wicks’ special fitness session for a healthy early morning workout! We then spoke about what Children in Need is for and why it is important; we designed and created posters to help others understand this and what we can all do to support.
Week Ending 12/11/2021
As part of our learning for Remembrance Day, we found out about what the war was like for soldiers; we did this by reading a few diary entries and looking at photos of the time in the trenches. We then completed a collage of a red poppy with a newspaper background about the day the armistice was signed to make sure we never forget the service they gave for all of us.
Week Ending 1/10/2021
Continuing with our work on Egypt, we studied Ancient Egyptian tombs and what they believed about the afterlife. After collating our own notes about an Egyptian’s journey to the afterlife, we created leaflets to clearly present the information. This included the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony, the dangerous journey through the underworld and the final Weighing of the Heart to prove themselves worthy of the afterlife!
Week Ending 24/09/2021
Throughout this week, Year 5 have been delving into the mysteries of Ancient Egypt! We have learnt about many of their traditions, such as putting the organs of the dead into Canopic jars as well as their language of hieroglyphics. In Art, we replicated the techniques the Ancient Egyptians would have used when creating hieroglyphs; we used different mediums and decided which we thought was best for the different symbols.
Week Ending 17/09/2021
This week, Year 5 continued with their journey into the depths of Space. We studied the moon and we learned why it appears to change shape in the sky throughout the months. To demonstrate the phases of the moon in the clearest way possible, we used Oreo biscuits; we even managed to resist the temptation to eat any of them! Make sure you look out for the moon in the next few days; it won’t be long till we have a full moon in the sky!
Week Ending 10/09/2021
In Science this week, we have been learning all about Space! We looked at the different planets and their sizes and distances compared to one another and we created a pastel piece to help us remember the order of the planets from the sun. We have also had lots of wonderful discussions and interesting questions all about space and its many mysteries. I’m looking forward to more great discussions next week!