Year 5 Gallery & Work 22/23

Week Beginning 22.05.23

The previous two weeks in Year 5 have been extremely busy leading up to our half term break! We have had several exciting things going on in school, one of which was attending a workshop with Paul Cookson; a successful poet who designed and created a personal poem with us. He was extremely funny and we were able to buy some of his amazing poetry after the session.

 As part of our topic this term, the Ancient Maya, we have been comparing similarities and differences between the Mayan society and England between the 8^th and 10^th century. This has involved looking at different focuses such as, how we know about the Maya and the chronology of major events in their timeline. Recently, we have been looking in detail at how the Maya were ruled and have discussed the hierarchy that was in place with a King or Queen leading each individual city!

 We have also been extremely busy during our Science lessons, discussing how humans age and the different life stages that come with this. We spoke about the how in each stage of life, humans experience different things due to their age, and how we can be reliant on others for help and support. This all links to our life cycles focus that we have looked at throughout this term.

 Finally, we have also created our own Maya masks linked to our topic as part of a Design Technology focus. We first studied what different Maya masks were used for, looking at the specific designs and purposes for each one. Following this, we created a sketch of our own mask using the colours and patterns we had chosen based on our research. We were then able to create and design our own Maya mask based on our original idea!

Week Beginning 08.05.23

The previous two weeks in Year 5 have been extremely busy. We have been working hard on increasing the depth of our discussions relating to our Ancient Maya topic, as well as debating the different impacts the teachings of the Gospel of Matthew have.

 During topic, we have been looking at comparing the Ancient Maya times to England between the 8^th and 10^th century. We have also been looking in detail at the question ‘How do we know about the Maya?’. To answer this, we have looked at the job that archaeologists do in studying different artefacts in order to draw different information from past civilizations.  

 We are still looking at our big question in RE: ‘What would Jesus do?’. This led us to learning about the values that Christians believe in based on Jesus’ teaching from the Gospel of Matthew. We organised these different day to day values, and discussed how your choices can help build a strong foundation for your life. As part of this, we had an assembly with ‘Youth for Christ’ to discuss these teachings.

 Finally, we have begun our invitations to the newly crowned King Charles, where we have created a leaflet showing an afternoon tea party he is more than welcome to attend!

Week Beginning 17.04.23

Over the last two weeks Year 5 have been working extremely hard to get back into our normal routine after a well-deserved Easter break! We have been looking at a number of different subjects; including beginning our new topic, the Mayans.

 As part of our P.E lessons this term, we have moved onto the Physical skill set of our learning. During our first few lessons, this has involved focusing on our balance and different movements we can adapt when passing a ball. We have practised this in both a warm up and game situation, trying our best to implement these skills into competitive scenarios. Over the coming weeks, we will be looking to increase the difficulty of these skills and games to challenge ourselves further.

 We have also been working hard on our new focus for R.E this term, Christianity. We have been looking in detail at different Gospel texts, specifically Matthew. During this time we have been trying to interpret what different parts of these Gospels are saying, as well as any messages the texts may have behind them. Throughout this, we have also focused on one of our big questions, ‘What would Jesus do?’.

 Mr Bianchi has also been with us to help us improve our listening and response to different types of songs and afterwards discuss the texture and tempo of each. From this, we have been able to rehearse different genres of songs and talk about the time signature and structure different genres require.

 Finally, last week we created our own art work for Earth Day 2023. We worked hard to express a piece of work to show how our planet should look, alongside what it potentially become due to the negative impacts of climate change!

Week Beginning: 13.03.23

Over the past few weeks in Year 5 e have been working extremely hard across all areas of our learning, looking at a variety of lesson objectives in order to expand our learning.

 Firstly, we have been practicing certain skills and movements in P.E and applying them to game situations. During our sessions of ‘Sit Down Volleyball’, we practiced using our core muscles to keep our balance. This involved sitting with our feet off the ground and moving different objects from side to side. We increased the difficulty of this skill by changing the movement or adapting the same one.

 We have also been working hard on our new R.E topic, Hinduism. We have been learning about Brahman, Vishnu and Shiva and how Hindu’s believe that these three Gods combined bring balance to the universe. We wrote down some of our ideas in groups about what we think God might be like from a Hindu perspective. This allowed us to answer different questions about each God, as well as discussing any differences and comparisons with Christianity.

Finally, on Friday 17^th March, we were all very privileged to take part in a Hockey tournament at Farringdon Academy. This involved several high intense games against other schools in the area led by local hockey coaches, resulting in an overall winner. Although we did not quite take home first place, everyone had a fantastic morning and picked up key skills to remember going forward!

Week Beginning: 27.02.23

During the last two weeks before and after half term, Year 5 have been working extremely hard across all of our areas of learning. Firstly, we have begun a new focus for our P.E lessons this term, based upon ‘creativity’. This involved experimenting with a new game called ‘Sit Down Volleyball’ where we were encouraged to come up with new rules to improve the game as we progressed. This allowed us to be creative and get to know the game in more detail.

In addition to this, we have also been working hard in English building up to a new piece of writing, a newspaper report concerning a mountaineering accident in the Lake District. We have been discussing the Mountain Rescue Service, and all of the different features needed to create a detailed newspaper report.

Finally, for world book day this year we have been looking at our school novel ‘Mother Earth is Weeping’. This highlights the need for change on our planet due to the negative impacts of climate change. For this, we decided to create an inspirational speech from the perspective of ‘Mother Earth’ trying to encourage people to change their ways and highlighting the problems climate change can cause. We also took time to read and share our favourite books with Year 2 and took turns in reading to each other!

Week Beginning: 6th February 2023

During the last few weeks in school, Year 5 we have been working extremely hard in all areas of our learning. We have been building up to writing a persuasive letter to Al Slyvester, to see if he would take us on an expedition to Mount Everest! This has involved working hard on the vocabulary we need to use, as well as different persuasive features in our sentences.

We have also completed the next step of our Science experiment, which involved investigating properties and their materials. From the results of our practical experiment, we designed our own lunch box with the inner lining made from specific materials of our choice! In addition, we also continued the next step of our landscape art design. This involved using pastels and blending to achieve different outcomes and vibrant colours.

Finally, this week we have been discussing our rights within school, with a specific focus on Article 13 (freedom of expression). We discussed why it is important for everyone to have freedom of expression and what benefits can come from this. We then took time to think about something we ourselves are passionate about and shared this in our groups.

Week Beginning: 23^rd January 2023

Over the past fortnight Year 5 have been working extremely hard on a number of different focuses we are looking at this term, as well as getting thoroughly stuck into our Spring topic, Mountains and Rivers!

Art

During Art lessons, we have begun looking at our artist for this term, Geogria O’Keefe. We discussed her life, her background and most importantly the type of art work she was most known for. This led us to producing a fact-file about her life and her artistic style. Following this, we began our second mountain sketch of this term, building up to using pastel colours to show foreground and background.

Geography

In Geography, we compared the highest peaks within the UK to some of the highest mountain ranges around the world, taking a close look at the continents they are part of and why some parts of the world are more mountainous than others.  

Science

In Science, we have looked in more detail at properties and their materials, conducting an experiment to decide what type of material would be best suited to the inner lining of a lunchbox. This involved initial predictions about which materials would be best suited. We then conducted a practical test involving wrapping the chosen materials in plastic cups containing ice, observing which one took the longest to melt!

R.E

During our R.E lessons over the past week, we have looked in more detail at the meaning of the word ‘messiah’ and ‘incarnation’. This led to discussion on why Christians believe Jesus was the Messiah and what evidence is shown to support this in different parts of the Bible. We discussed how Jesus was kind, caring and selfless, as well as being born in Bethlehem and a descended of David.

Week Beginning: 9^th January 2023

As part of our first week of learning after the Christmas break we have been introducing new topics for this term in different subjects. We have first discussed Mountains and Rivers and the overall impact they can have on our lives and how they can impact our planet. We looked at the different parts and features of a mountain together, using the definitions for each word to match it correctly on our diagrams. Through this, we were able to determine the parts of a mountain we were familiar with and those we were not.

 Alongside this, we also began to sketch our own mountain or mountain range, using a step by step guide. The individual steps allowed us to add specific detail of ridges, slopes and plateaus, all of which we had identified when labeling the parts of our mountain! In addition, we discussed the importance of lightly sketching the outline of our mountain initially, before adding any shading or outlines to show shadows.  

 Finally, we have also begun our new Science topic for Spring term, Properties and changes of Materials! As part of this, we discussed materials we were aware of already and the features that they had in common. We then looked at the 3 states of matter, and identified the main differences between solids, liquids and gases, as well as the reasons for these differences!

Week Beginning: 5^th December 2022

During our learning this week, we have been building up to Christmas by starting our various Christmas craft designs as well as rehearsals for our upcoming performance next Tuesday afternoon! We have been enjoying getting into the Christmas spirit and cannot wait to display our craft designs. We have also been working hard on one of our final pieces of writing for this term; a newspaper report based on the Viking invasion of Lindisfarne. We have loved learning the details of the Viking raiders and the landscape of the monastery on Holy Island that they plundered. 

In addition to this, we have also been looking in more detail at how we can resolve conflicts both in and out of school. We discussed methods to avoid conflict completely and techniques to use if we feel ourselves becoming angry and overwhelmed. We then created a list of these techniques to refer back to whenever we feel we may need them.

Week Beginning – 21^st November 2022

As part of our last two weeks of learning in Year 5, we have been working hard on sunset art during afternoon lessons. This involved blending different colours together for a fantastic effect, using different shades and tones to express the light. We were able to link this to Remembrance day, adding poppies to the foreground.

We have also been continuing work on our topic this term ‘Raiders and Invaders’, and have been looking at in more detail, the different types of raids the Vikings would carry out. As part of this, we looked closely and what sort of weapons they would use in battle, and which would be more appropriate to use for certain warriors or situations.

Finally, a group of children from our Year group were lucky enough to take part in a Bikeability course, taught and run by trained professionals who visited our school from Monday to Wednesday. This involved practising our signalling and decision making skills on our bikes on the school yard, before being taken out on the road to apply them in real life scenarios. Everyone involved had a thoroughly enjoyable time, despite the miserable weather, and we would like to thank the instructors from Bikeability for teaching us some very valuable life skills!

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