Catholic Life in Year 5
In the final week, we were lucky enough to make connections in a Science workshop called 'The Connection'. The day started off with Rosie, our workshop leader, explaining the connection with fire invented during the Stone Age, to the Great Fire of London to the space missions of NASA. Our workshop enabled us to learn about Katherine Johnson, a black American woman who was influential in the Apollo 11 space mission. It was fascinating to learn about how she calculated the trajectory for the space mission and how her work enabled the mission to be successful; even though her race and gender were considered to be inferior at the time. The children thoroughly enjoyed the freeze frames and were able to demonstrate a thorough understanding at the end.
Each year, we celebrate Shakespeare day by looking at one of his famous plays. This year, we were treated to a modern day version of The Tempest. The children thoroughly enjoyed the play and found the workshop leader really engaging. Once again, they demonstrated excellent teamwork and creativity throughout.
As part of our Lenten almsgiving, the children wore something funny for money and helped raised much needed funds for Comic Relief. It was wonderful to see how imaginative the children were; particularly one group who decided to have a food theme for the day. We had a tasty breakfast along with a burger meal to brighten up the classroom. Well done Year 5!
The beginning of the second Spring half term focused on the love of reading. We celebrated World Book Day in comfort by wearing our PJs, enjoying reading with reception, creating trailers for our book the Nowhere Emporium whilst also taking some time to share our books with other children in the class. It was a perfect way to start the half term and excited us for the parent activities that were hosted before and after school during the rest of the week.
This half term, we experienced a surprise snow day at school and one at home. During the school day, as many of the children were unable to come in, we took the opportunity to enjoy the snow and try some of the new DT equipment to test out our coding skills. The day was very relaxed, exceptionally chilly but very productive!
As part of our DT curriculum, we were very lucky to enjoy Spade to Fork this half term with Mrs Hawkins and Mr Lahert. In class, we learnt about how to make a healthy spaghetti bolognaise and our time outside enabled us to understand how to grow some of the ingredients and cook them as part of the meal.
Online safety week this year focused on the children thinking about what they say and do online. Our E safety lessons talked about how to stay safe and how something we say online could be misinterpreted online. They were taught to THINK during their online workshop and explored different problems that may occur when they are online.
Our unit in Music this half term has been 'Music from the Middle Ages' and, during the course of the topic, the children have learnt about Gregorian Chants and common instruments from this period of history. We were especially impressed by their rhythym during the composition lesson where, in groups, they worked as a team to compose a short piece of music that reflected a medieval procession.
Click here to see the videos on the 'video sharing platform' on our website.
Our first Science unit has been all about forces and the children have been particularly impressive in their recall of key information. During two of the lessons, the children set about investigating the impact of surface area on air resistance and worked with their partners to design their own fair test. We thought the children worked brilliantly and were able to identify where problems may have risen that may have affected the results. Overall, the investigation clearly supported their writing and they should be very proud of their scientific investigation skills.
This week, we began our first Art topic called 'Style in Art' where the children will learn about various different art styles and artists. Our first lesson explored style as a technique and the children were fabulous at drawing pears using smooth and rough techniques. Here are a few photos of them working. Photos of their art will follow shortly.
The following lessons focused on abstract art and the children designed their own art using inspiration from artisits such as Jackson Pollack, Mondrian and Delauney. Their finished work will be displayed very soon but here's a sneak peak of them working through the process.
We began our first unit in PE on Tuesday with Dance and the children began to learn some of the initial 'non-locomotor' steps for Bollywood Dancing. This included the 'step-turn', 'Banghra shoulders' and the lightbulb.' They came up with their own short dances which they then performed to the rest of the class. I was incredibly impressed with their enthusiasm and I look forward to seeing them develop during this unit!
