Year 5 Autumn Term 2017-18
Year 5's First Week
We have had a great first week settling back into school. We are getting used to our new classroom and being in a different part of the school. It's very exciting! We have done lots of work this week on new beginnings and how it feels to go through big changes in our life. We have also set targets and goals for our year ahead. It's going to be lots of fun!
Clay Monkeys
We have been learning about South and Central American artists in our art lessons. We learnt about famous artist Frida Kahlo and her interesting links with wildlife and jungles. She also used a lot of monkeys in her art work so we drew inspiration from this and created our own clay monkeys. We practiced rolling, cutting and shaping skills and our monkeys look fantastic!
Our Class Assembly
Year 5's class assembly was all about the Magnificent Mayans! We taught our fantastic audience lots of fascinating facts about this marvellous civilisation and gave some wonderful performances as Mayan kings, gods and priests. We sang lots of songs and shared our learning so far this year with our parents and other children in school. Thank you all for coming and for your kind words of feedback!
Filming TV Adverts
We have been writing Persuasive brochures about Central and South America and to build up to this, we looked at TV adverts and what makes them persuasive. We created our own TV advert scripts for a Mayan product - chocolate, maize or a pok-ta-pok ball - then split into groups. We chose one person to be the director and use their script to film our own TV advert. Another member of the group became the camera person and recorded the advert using an iPad and the final members of the group were the actors who used their drama skills to perform the script.
Making Christmas Baubles
To prepare for our Christmas fair, Year 5 made some beautiful, glittery baubles. We also made some chocolate boxes where we created our own nets and filled them with sweets and mini-roll Rudolph's which looked delicious.
Pyjama Afternoon!
Year 5 celebrated filling up the pom pom reward jar in our classroom with a movie and pyjama afternoon. We all changed into our pyjamas and then snuggled down in our slippers and under our blankets to watch a Christmas film. Most of Year 5 watched A Christmas Carol as we have been focusing on this story in Literacy. We had a great afternoon!
Mayan Masks
Our first topic in Year 5 is the magnificent Mayans and to kick start our topic we designed and made our own Mayan warrior masks. We used the skill of mosaic and followed a colour pattern in the style of the legendary Maya warriors. I think you'll agree, they look really scary and very authentic!
Purple Mash: Literacy
To finish off our unit on legends and revise everything we have learned so far this term, we went to the computer room and used Purple Mash to practice spelling, punctuation and grammar features we have learnt such as relative clauses, subordinating conjunctions, using commas, adverbials to show cohesion and shades of meaning. Some of us even completed another piece of writing linked to this genre. We wrote newspaper reports about legends we have read and leaflets about characters from famous legends. We have really enjoyed learning about legends and have learnt a lot!
Marvellous Mexican Monkeys
As part of our Art and Design topic, we have been looking at art from Central and South America. We looked at the artist Frida Kahlo and took inspiration from the themes of the pictures she painted to create our own clay monkeys. We shaped our clay into different parts of the monkey, put them all together and left them for a couple of weeks to dry out. Finally, we painted them. I think you'll agree, they look fantastic!
Heart Rate Investigation
In Maths, we created our own line graphs to show how our heart rate increases during exercise. First, we created a way to investigate this together as a class. Next, we went into the hall and took our resting pulse rate. We then exercised for 3 minutes and took our pulse rate again. We repeated this until we had done 15 minutes of exercise! Finally, we went back to the classroom and created a line graph to show how our pulse rate rose and fell before, during and after exercise.
The Meaning of Christmas
In RE, we have been learning all about the true meaning of Christmas. We split into groups and wrote a short script about what Christmas is and means to Christians, how Christians celebrate Christmas and traditions they may have, and finally what ‘love’ means at Christmas time and how Christians show love to others. We created a drama performance from our script which we filmed using an iPad. We then watched one another’s performances as a class and peer assessed using success ladders.
Dream Catchers
We have been learning about South American artist Leonora Carrington. She was well known for creating pictures that were dream like. We took inspiration from her work to create our own dream catchers. We cut out a circular shape, weaved thread with beads across the circle and finally added beads and feathers for decoration. I think you'll agree, they look fantastic. Let's hope they keep our bad dreams away!
Podcasts
In Literacy, we have been learning about 'Legends' and we heard the legendary creation story of the Maya, known as Popul Vuh. We paired up and were given a set of picture cards of images of the Maya creation story. We then took it in turns to tell the story to each other in our own words using the cards as prompts. Finally, we matched up two pairs so we were a group of 4 and decided who would tell which part of story in order to make a Podcast. We used voice recorders to record our podcasts and retell the story. Our stories were excellent and we remembered all of the main events!
Performance Poems
Our second unit of Literacy this term is 'Performance Poetry'. We were given two different versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears in the form of a performance poem - one was a rap, the other was from Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes. We had 15 minutes to decide how to perform the poem to the class using as many different performance techniques we could think of such as improvisation, props, character voices and humour. We then performed our poems to the class and gave each other constructive feedback.
Centre for Life
On Thursday 2nd November, Year 5 visited the Centre for Life in Newcastle to learn about all things Science. We travelled around the exhibits learning about dinosaurs, space, our senses and lots about physical science such as energy and momentum. Our main activity of the day linked to our topic, Properties and Changes of Materials. We visited a Science lab where we performed an experiment using chemicals to identify if changes made when heat was applied were reversible or irreversible. We used Bunsen burners to heat up different chemicals and then observed the changes before and after heat was applied with some surprising results! We learnt a lot about chemical and physical changes and had a great day
Mayan Writing
We have been learning all about Mayan writing in our topic lessons. We looked at the Mayan letter system and investigated different facts about the Mayans and the way they used to write. We then created our own pastel art work to show one letter or word the Mayans used.
Christmas Jumper Day
Year 5 had a great time on Christmas jumper day! We all had fantastic jumpers, t-shirts and accessories. We also enjoyed our delicious Christmas dinners!
Christmas Party
To finish off a fantastic term, and celebrate Christmas, Year 5 and 6 had a terrific Christmas party. We did lots of dancing and played some really fun games with prizes for all of the winners. We also had a talent show where we showed off our fantastic singing and dancing skills. It was a great afternoon!
