Blackfell Primary School

Our Wonderful Homework!

To kick start our Spring term topic, Our Wonderful World, we completed some homework over the holidays. As you can see, we were extremely creative and made some fantastic pieces of art work to show the earth, space and even local landmarks and wonders of the world. There was also some very informative PowerPoint presentations and drawings. We are looking forward to our new topic and you can find our wonderful work displayed in the classroom! 

Snow Day!

We were lucky enough to have some snow in Blackfell so we decided to put our scarves, hats and gloves on and make the most of it! We enjoyed running around, throwing snowballs and making snow angels before we went home. 

Writing a Rap

In Music, we have been writing our own raps based on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. We have thought about keeping our lyrics similar to those used in the song already, and how we can make our lyrics fit the pulse and rhythm of the song. Some of us performed our songs at the end of the lesson and sounded like real pop stars in the making!

Learning to play the recorder

n Music, we have been learning the song ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ by Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff. Over the last 2 lessons, we have been adding musical instruments to the song. We have learnt the recorder and have been playing along, as a class and as small groups, focusing on keeping to the rhythm and pulse.

Art and Design: Block Printing

In Art, we have been creating our own block printing. First, we created a collage background to look like under the sea using different coloured tissue paper. Next, we were given a polystyrene tile which we turned into our printing block by carving an under water picture into it using clay tools. Finally, we covered our tiles in printing ink and printed them on to our backgrounds. They looked fantastic! 

Easter Assembly

To support our learning in RE all about Easter, Year 5 put on a short Easter play as part of the whole school Easter assembly. We explained each part of the Easter story through 6 scenes – Palm Sunday, The Last Supper, The Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus’ Betrayal and Arrest, The Crucifixion and Burial, and The Resurrection. We performed the story confidently to not only the school, but our parents, and showed what we had learned about the Christian Easter story.

Music

In Music, we are learning the song ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ by Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff. In the first lesson, we listened to and appraised the song. We then played some games which helped us find the pulse, rhythm and pitch of the song. Finally, we started the learn the lyrics to the song. In our second lesson, we split into groups and were given the lyrics to the song to go away and learn. We spent time doing this before coming back together and sharing what we had learnt.

Safer Internet Day

For Safer Internet Day (5th February), Year 5 spent some time thinking about the theme of the day - Together for a Better Internet. We considered consent and what it means to give our consent and share content online. We also looked at our digital footprint, and how the websites we visit now and the content we post online can follow us for years to come. We learnt a lot and were given lots of opportunities to share our thoughts and ideas.

Gibside: Geocaching and Orienteering

Year 5 went on a trip to Gibside to put all of our Geography skills we have been learning during our topic into practise. In the morning, we went Geocaching. We were split into pairs and given a GPS device; we had to use our computing skills to program it. We then had to estimate how far 28m and 21m is using our Maths skills because the GPS systems are not always accurate! Finally, we used our GPS device to track down boxes hidden on the estate. When we found them, we had to solve puzzles and problems linked to the local habitat (Science). In the afternoon, we split into groups and went orienteering. We were given a map of the estate which was marked with points and we had to use our direction and grid referencing skills (Maths/Geography) to find the points and write down a letter that was located there. We had to plan out a route before we left to make sure we did not miss any of the points as we did not have time to turn back – we only had an hour! It was a fantastic day and we were able to put lots of Geography fieldwork skills into action whilst using and applying skills and knowledge from other areas of the curriculum.

World Book Day

To celebrate World Book Day, Year 5 were looking at the text Journey by Aaron Becker. We started by reading some of the book, and then stopped to draw and describe a setting we believe the main character travels to. Next, we imagined we had a magical crayon like the character in the story, and wrote poems about what we would do if we were given a magical crayon. After that, we were given 6 images from the story and had to write the text for the images as Journey is a picture book. Finally, we had a quiz all about the story and everything we had learnt. Evie and Katie were the winners and they got free vouchers for bowling! It was an excellent day!

We visit the ducks!

We visited the ducks up in Reception and even got to have a hold! Five ducks have been born, some girls and some boys. This supported Year 5's learning in Science, where we have been looking at the different life cycles of animals, including birds. 

Our Music Performances

We split into our groups this week and spent some time practising our rap - Will Smith's 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air'. We then performed our rendition of the song to the rest of the class. We all did a fantastic job and our rapping skills, timing and finding the pulse of the music are really improving!

The Moon

In Science, we have been learning about the Moon and its movements. We created a model of the Moon, Earth and the Sun to show how they move in relation to each other. We learnt all about how the Moon orbits the Earth but doesn't rotate, that because of this, there is a dark side of the Moon that we know very little about, and that the Moon is a natural satellite. 

Plastic Pollution Posters

We have been investigating current changes to physical Geography in our world today, and have explored the modern issue of plastic pollution more in depth. We began by finding out what plastic is, when it was invented, what it is made from, and what we can make from it. It made us realise that plastic is everywhere! We then learnt about plastic production, and its durability and biodegradability. Finally, we learnt about the effects plastic is having on our environment and to support this, we watched a clip of Blue Planet 2 where David Attenborough explained the impact of plastic pollution on our oceans and to the animals. To show what we had learnt, we created posters filled with facts on what plastic pollution is, how it is impacting our world’s physical Geography, and what we can do to overcome plastic pollution and slow down its effects.

Anti Bullying Performance

We had a visit from Firehorse Productions who put on a play all about anti-bullying for us. They told us all about what bullying is, why we should always report bullying, why we should never participate in bullying behaviour or be a bystander, and how to deal with being bullied. It was extremely fun and informative; some of us even got to test out our acting skills!

Science board games

In Science, we have been creating board games linked to our learning about life cycles and reproduction. Our games were designed to test your knowledge and understanding of the life cycles of plants, mammals, amphibians, insects and birds. They really showed off how much we had learnt!