Blackfell Primary School

Year 5 in the balance

In Year 5 this week, we enjoyed working on balances in PE. We started the lesson with a game of 'Would you Rather?'. We were given a choice of two things e.g. Disney+ or Cartoon Network. Based on our choice, we then had an exercise to perform for 15 seconds. It was really good fun and we even managed to persuade Mrs Taylor to join in!

After a very vigorous warm up, we were given some different balances to practise. We worked in groups to refine and hold the balance for 5 seconds while keeping arms and legs straight, pointed fingers and toes and fingers together. We practised symmetrical and asymmetrical balances before performing them to the class. Great work, Year 5!

Finding Common Factors

Year 5 have been working really hard in maths this week. They particularly enjoyed a lesson on Thursday where they had to find common factors of numbers. We used the hoops to make sorting (venn) diagrams and then sorted the numbers into the correct section. All of the numbers in the overlapping section are common factors. 

Bikeability Completed!

Congratulations Year 5 on completing your Bikeability training. The children have been learning the rules of the road and how to ride safely. They have all passed either level 1 or level 2 of the course and today they received a badge, certificate and booklet. We are all very proud of how well they represented our school with their super attitude and listening skills.

Investigating Air Resistance

In science, year 5 have been learning about forces. This week, they were set a challenge to find the best parachute to land Spider-Man into enemy territory. They planned the investigation thinking about how the size of the parachute would affect the speed of landing. Using their knowledge of air resistance, they made predictions and designed and made paper parachutes. We tested different size parachutes to see which would land the quickest. Our results showed that the smaller parachutes fell quicker than the bigger ones and have less air resistance.

Christmas dinner

Year 5 enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner. We enjoyed turkey and all the trimmings along with Christmas music. There was even a surprise visit from Santa!

Year 5 and 6 Talent Show

Miss Kitchen and Mrs Taylor hosted the Year 5 and 6 Christmas Talent Show and they certainly weren't disappointed. What a talented group of children we have! Some of our talents include: singing, dancing and even sports. It was great to see so many children taking part and such a variety of different performances. Well done Year 5 and 6!

Off to a great start!

Year 5 have settled really well into their new class and they're all working very hard. During the first 2 weeks, we have been very busy. In Literacy, we are using the text 'Room 13' as a stimulus for our writing. We've done some hot seating where we all took on the roll of the main character to help us think about how she feels at certain parts of the story. In computing, we are learning how to write more effective commands to play a game. 

What a busy week in Year 5!

We've had such a busy week in year 5! It was National Poetry Day on Thursday and we celebrated by joining the rest of the school to perform a poem. Our poem was 'Wings' by Pie Corbett and the children came up with their own actions to go with it. We enjoyed sharing and also listening to all the other classes perform theirs too.

In literacy, we have been working super hard to write a story with 5 parts. Since the start of the year, we have been reading Room 13 and used this as a stimulus for our writing. We wrote a part each day before editing and publishing our final piece. We are very proud of our efforts!

In French this week we have been learning how to describe seasons with a focus on winter. En hiver il neige et il fait froid! Ask a member of our class what it means. We played an interactive game on the whiteboard to help us remember some of the vocabulary we have been learning.

Finally in music, we have transported Mrs Taylor back to her music era- the 90s! We have loved listening to the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air by Will Smith. This week, we've listened, rapped and played an accompaniment on the recorder!

What a busy week! Wonder what next week will bring...

D.I.S.C.O.

Year 5 had a brilliant time at the disco. We partied, danced, sang and enjoyed our hotdogs!

The Man Who walked Between The Towers.

In literacy this week, Year 5 have been working really hard on their writing. We have recently enjoyed reading 'The Man Who Walked Between The Towers' which is a true story about a man from Paris who walked on a wire between the Twin Towers in New York. It was really fascinating to learn more about his daring feat including the fact that the wire was 417 metres above the ground and 140 feet long. The story captivated the children and they produced some brilliant eye witness recounts.

Coals to Goals

Year 5 had a brilliant day at The Beacon of Light on the Coals to Goals program. We took part in 4 different activities across the day and learned about the local history of coal mining.

During our first activity, we looked at the history of the club crest. Did you know that, until recently, the only teams who had badges on their strips were the teams that played in the FA cup final? We looked at the changes in design of the Sunderland badge over the years and spotted references to local history e.g. coals mining and ship building.

For our next activity, we spent some time with Bill Elliott, who comes from a family of coals miners. Bill told us what it was like to work down the mines. He showed us some of the hats they wore and brought his father's and grandfather's davy lamps for us to look at. We learned about the dangerous gases down the mines and he taught us some songs about them.

Next, we went on a treasure hunt to find different symbols around the stadium. We saw the Bob Stokoe statue and found out that he was the last Sunderland manager to win the FA cup in 1973!

Finally, we had a PE session. We played different games and worked as teams to collect the most coal.

What a great day!

Year 5 and 6 Christmas Carol Service

Everyone was so proud of the performance put on by Year 5 and 6 at their Christmas carol service. Their singing was amazing and some children were even brave enough to perform solos! It was lovely to put smiles on the faces of the audience. Well done Year 5 and Year 6. You are all superstars!

 Practical maths in Year 5

We've had another great week down in Year 5. To round off our place value unit in maths, we did some practical work on partitioning. We were given the challenge of finding how many different ways we could partition a 6 digit number and used place value counters and Base 10 to help us. We also made giant part-whole models to show our understanding of the value of the digits within numbers. 

In computing, we are using Purple Mash to design our own game. We are working really hard to write the code for the game which involves scoring points for catching falling items. Mrs Taylor was impressed with our coding skills and thinks she may have some future game designers in her midst! 

Balancing high in Year 5.

In P.E. this week we have taken our balances to another level. Quite literally! Over the past few weeks we have spent time in P.E. lessons refining symmetrical and asymmetrical balances. This week we have transferred those skills onto the apparatus. This required a greater amount of control as well as remembering to try and keep our legs and arms straight and good posture. 

Year 5 visit the 'Wear here 4 you' bus

The 'Wear here for you' bus visited school today and Year 5 had the opportunity to go on board and learn about the different services they offer. Some of the things we talked about included: Sunderland youth council, anti-bullying service, careers service and community hubs. We discussed bullying and what it means to be supportive and how this might affect the way someone feels. We drew around our hands and wrote the 5 trusted people on each finger.

Black History Month

Year 5 really enjoyed learning about Mae Jemison as part of Black History Month. We carried out our own research and used it to create some fantastic double page spreads. Our research led us to discover that Mae was the first black woman to travel into space. Her achievements while working for NASA are inspirational.

We are very proud of our work!

Bikeability

Today, we have taken part in 'Bikeability'. This is a course designed to develop road sense, awareness of traffic dangers and to improve safety when riding a bike. We started with a safety talk in the classroom and learned about some of the road signs and what they mean. Next we were shown how to carry out bike checks using 'ABCD' before we were allowed to ride on the school yard. We have spent all day learning how to ride safely and improving our skills and confidence.

Fabulous Festive Friday

Year 5 had fabulous first festive Friday! We all looked amazing in our Christmas jumpers and we were so excited that the elves had brought some snow. During morning break, we were allowed to go outside and have some fun. We had a snowman competition, built igloos and made snow angels.

After break, we were visited by Laura and Isabella from Groundworks. They came to tell us about the importance of recycling and reusing especially at Christmas time. Many people throw away unwanted items and Laura brought with her some old books. We used the pages of the books to make Christmas star decorations. It was quite tricky but the children showed great perseverance to complete the task.

Finally, during lunchtime, we decorated the classroom. Great teamwork was involved especially when it came to untangling the Christmas lights! The tree is now standing proudly in the classroom and the countdown to Christmas has officially started!

Year 5 and 6 Christmas Party

Year 5 and 6 had a brilliant time at their Christmas party. There was some fabulous dancing as well as party games and snacks. The children all looked amazing in their party clothes!