Our class

We are all so excited to be back at school after a long summer! Year 5 are settling in well and quickly adapting to their new title and classroom. It has been an exciting journey so far and we are looking forward to everything this first term has to offer.

Summer: What we've been up to

Performing arts week

In the last week before half-term we had performing arts week and Year 5 created a video titled 'A Day in the Life At George Street'. The theme for this year was self-esteem, so when embarking on the project, we discussed everybody's talents and used this to choose who would be producer, filmer, actor and script-writer. I was so proud of how well Year 5 worked to embrace their talents and I hope they recognise what a brilliant job they did!

Clay in art

This term, our art topic for art is sculptures so we have been experimenting with clay. Year 5 spent some time using different techniques with the clay to achieve different shapes and styles. There were some very impressive designs! To top off the lesson, Year 5 did a superb job tidying up - everybody in the class put in effort to make sure the tables were spotless. Well done Year 5! 

Trip to Gadebridge Park

Last week, Year 5 took a trip down to Gadebridge for a morning out whilst the Year 6's used our classroom. We had a lovely morning playing rounders and other games.

Spring: What we've been up to 

Science week

As part of science week, Year 5 got stuck into being forensic scientists on Monday afternoon. Somebody had snuck into our classroom and taken a bite out of a prize bar of chocolate! The class had many ideas of suspects and got to work straight away investigating every piece of evidence from bite marks to footprints.

Art week

For Art week, Year 5 have focused on sketching using a range of skills. We have looked at:

• How to use a range of shading techniques including stippling and cross-hatching.

• How to draw from different perspectives

• How we can draw in a realistic and impressionistic style

We used specialist sketching pencil and explored how they could have different affects on our drawings. It was difficult at the beginning of the week however Year 5 have shown excellent resilience. By the end of the week we had all produced something that we were really proud of. Well done Year 5.

Autumn Term: What we've been up to

Air resistance

This week we investigated how air resistance affected parachutes of different surface areas. We started off by dropping two pieces of paper, one being flat and one scrunched up and discussed why the scrunched up one fell quicker. Following this, we made our predictions and teamed up to make parachutes of different sizes so we could conduct our experiment and time how quickly they fall. To ensure it was a fair test, we dropped them from the same height each time. We all discovered that our predictions were correct and the parachutes with a larger surface area faced more air resistance and thus took longer to reachthe ground.

DT Week

Year 5 have been bringing to life their very own Cam Toy designs. As part of the production process we used saws to cut the wood for the frame of our toys. It was harder than we expected and has certainly helped us to develop our resilience! We then glued our boxes together, made the holes, created our backgrounds and toys and our last step will be adding the mechanisms. It has been a huge project but it has been so exciting!

Testing gravity

As part of our Science topic on Forces and Mechanisms, Year 5 conducted an experiment. We were looking at how much gravity effects objects with different masses. We predicted that objects with a larger mass would have a larger weight and tested this by measuring the mass and weight of a variety of objects. 

Hampton court palace

As part of their History topic of Kings and Queens, Year 5 took a trip to Henry VIII's former residence, Hampton Court Palace. They spent the day exploring the palace and its grounds, forming an understanding of how the lives of the rich and poor would have differed by using the buildings as a historical source. 

Prime or composite?

In maths this week we have been learning about factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers. To test our knowledge we did a relay race in teams, competing to correctly identify numbers as prime or composite in the fastest time.

Decimals 

We have been learning all about place value, looking at decimals and whole numbers. To embed our learning we played a great board game in pairs, putting our understanding of decimal numbers to the test.

Autumn Term dates and information

Important dates

Thursday 1st September

First day back 

 Monday 11th October

 Hockey begins

 Thursday 13th October

 Trip to Royal Hampton Court (TBC)

 Monday 24th October to Friday 28th October

 Half-Term holidays

 Monday 31st October

 Inset Day

 Tuesday 1st November

 Return to school and swimming begins

 Friday 2nd December

 Occasional Day

 Tuesday 20th December

 2pm finish for Christmas

Important information

PE will be on Monday’s and Wednesday’s: please ensure pupils have their kits with them to bring on Mondays to leave in the class for the week - on Monday's they need mouthguards, shin pads and normal PE kit.

Swimming: pupils will begin swimming lessons on Tuesday the 1st of November, and this will repeat each Tuesday until Christmas. Pupils need a swimming hat, costume and towel for Tuesdays - hats can be purchased from the office too. A letter with further information will be sent nearer the time.

Reading: please aim to read with pupils four times a week and have them fill in their reading diary, with your support. They should write a brief summary of what they have read in their records.

Homework: this will be set on google classrooms (or given out on paper if preferred) on Friday’s and should be completed by the following Wednesday. It is typically two pieces, one Maths and one English. Homework will always be related to current learning so pupils should be familiar with the tasks, however instructions will also be given.