Giraffe Class recently had a wonderful time sharing Christmas themed stories with our children in Cubs and Foxes Rooms. We loved reading to them and we hope they enjoyed listening to us too!

Year 5 are feeling very proud. They have worked very hard across this half term, studying the abstract art works of the American artist, Peter Thorpe. Peter Thorpe was born in Oregon in 1957. He began painting and drawing from an early age and by the age of eighteen was working as an illustrator. His lifelong love of space led to the creation of his ‘rocket paintings.’ This collection of paintings used paint that would have otherwise be thrown away. The paintings involve an abstract background painted on a blank board or a large canvas. Inspired by his work, Year 5 created their own mixed media space landscape pieces of artwork. We are sure that you will agree that they are fabulous – they are currently on display in the Year 5 and Year 6 corridor for everyone to enjoy!

What a wonderful experience Year 5 had on Monday 2^nd December when we visited the ‘Wonderdome.’ Dave, who had previously worked for NASA, took us on an exciting journey through the universe. We visited the moon, each of the eight planets and discovered what happened when two black holes collide! Dave was very impressed by our knowledge of ‘The Skies Above our Eyes’ and had to think very hard to answer some of our tricky questions!

Year 5 have been investigating and explaining the cycles of the moon. Year 5 already know that it takes the moon approximately 28 days to orbit the Earth. There are eight phases of the moon and the different phases that we see are when the moon is in different points of its orbit. Creating sliders to show the cycles of the moon, Year 5 could demonstrate and name … new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter and a full moon.

During their recent studies about ‘The Skies Above My Eyes,’ Year 5 took on the role of scientists and presented findings to each other to discover whether the earth was flat or spherical. Evidence to support the theory that the Earth was spherical included the fact that planes fly around the world and nobody has ever reported finding the ‘edge’ of the world, observations of the shadow cast by the Earth on the moon and the fact that travelers and sailors all see different constellations of stars wherever they are in the world. Evidence to support the theory that the earth was flat included the ancient Chinese belief that the Earth was a flat square surrounded by heavens that were a round egg shape. After much discussion, our Year 5 scientists concluded that they followed the belief that the Earth was approximately spherical rather than flat!

In Music, Year 5 have been investigating sea shanties. After listening to ‘The Drunken Sailor Mash-Up’ by Nathan Evans, we created our own vocal arrangement of ‘What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?’ We added a sung descant ostinato pattern, a sung bass ostinato pattern, split into 2 parts to the sing the song and add body percussion pulse and rhythm patterns. What an amazing arrangement!

Year 5 launched their new topic, ‘The Skies Above Our Eyes’ and celebrated No Pens Day all at the same time. Taking part in a space walk around the classroom, on hearing the sound of the shooting stars , the children had to find a partner and share facts that they already knew about earth and space and then share questions that they would like to find out the answers to about earth and space. We are hoping to find out if there is life on other planets, what is the combined weight of all the other planets and how many unknown planets are out there in the Solar System?

Year 5 continued their learning about ‘The Skies Above Our Eyes’ by working together to create a presentation to demonstrate and explain the relationship between the Earth, the moon and the Sun. We learnt that it takes Earth 365.25 days to orbit the Sun and the Earth is held in its orbit by the Sun’s gravitational pull. The Earth rotates on its axis in an anti-clockwise direction and makes a complete rotation over 24 hours. It takes approximately 28 days for the moon to orbit the Earth and the moon is held in its orbit by the Earth’s gravitational pull. The moon spins once on its axis every time it orbits the Earth. This means that we only see one side of the moon. We videoed our presentations and performed them to our classmates. Thankfully nobody got too dizzy when making their video!

Queen Emma have marked Anti-bullying week, this years theme was 'choose respect'. On Tuesday, everybody came to school in odd socks to celebrate that we are all different.  All classes have taken part in activities encouraged them to think about the part they can play to make our school a happy, safe place to be where everybody chooses respect. Lots of children were inspired by a kindness boomerang and decided to do a kind gesture for someone else. You can see some examples of their work in our new floorbooks.

Year 2 and Year 5 had their first ‘Buddy Reading’ session this week. The Year 5 children listened to the Year 2 children read their books and then made comments in their reading records. It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to share their enthusiasm and thoughts on their reading books.

Year 5 have started a brand new unit of English work. Over the next two weeks, we will be creating a speech which we hope will persuade the Anglo-Saxons to join King Alfred the Great in wonderful Wessex. We started the unit by improving some boring sentences by including alliterative adjectives, a rhetorical question, emotive language, the rule of three and statistics. After much discussion, ‘Eat these doughnuts’ became …’Are you feeling hungry? Will you ever forgive yourself if you miss the opportunity to taste these delicious doughnuts, these super sweet treats, these sugary rings of joy? 99% of customers would recommend today.’ We then tried to write sentences independently. Have we used strong language? Have we persuaded you to do or believe in something?

Taking on the role of scientists, Year 5 investigated the effects of water resistance. Using three playdough shapes – a cube, a sphere and a cone, we first predicted which would fall the fastest and the slowest to the bottom of a measuring cylinder filled with 500ml of water. We discussed and shared our ideas, predicting that the cone would fall the fastest as it was the most streamlined shape and had a pointed end to cut through the water. After our investigation, we found out that the cone actually fell the slowest! We believed though that this was because the cone flipped and fell to the bottom of the cylinder sideways, creating more resistance. If we could have made the cone fall with the point, pointing to the bottom of the cylinder at all times, we think we may have had different results!

Year 5 were fantastic ambassadors for Queen Emma when visiting West Stow Country Park near Bury St Edmunds. Taking on the role of historians for the day, we looked, listened and asked questions to find out more about life in Anglo-Saxon times. During the morning, Year 5 visited the reconstructed Anglo-Saxon village, taking in the sights of the great hall, the farmers house, the weaving house and workshop. In the afternoon, we headed to the museum to find out fascinating facts. We dressed as Anglo-Saxons and saw items such as bone antler combs, keys, beads, jewellery and knives – they all told us so much about everyday life in an Anglo-Saxon village.  

As part of our learning about forces, Year 5 investigated air resistance by making and testing parachutes. Working in pairs, we made three parachutes, changing one variable each time. We could change the size or shape of the parachute, the height of the drop or the object attached to the parachute. We then predicted which parachute would create the most air resistance and which would fall the slowest. Come and ask us if our predictions were correct!

Year 5 are loving their French lessons this term. We have learnt how to say the names of 8 pet animals and know how to say ‘I have a cat’ or ‘I have a dog’ etc in French. Miss Stubbs is very proud to say, ‘J’ai un chien,’ whilst Mrs Holman is super proud to say, ‘J’ai un chat.’ ‘As-tu un animal?’ ask Year 5.

Giraffe Class enjoyed their very first visit from ‘Ozzy’ our school mentor dog this week. We made sure our classroom was Ozzy ready and remembered to follow our Ozzy rules. Ozzy was very well behaved and felt so comfortable that he joined in our lesson and lay down on the floor!

 

Year 5 continued their work as ‘Island Invaders’ by taking on the role of the Anglo-Saxons arriving in Britain. Where would they settle? What would their new villages and homes need? Thinking carefully about how they would survive against starvation, thirst and the threat of attack, Year 5 designed their own Anglo-Saxon settlements. Remembering that there was no access to the internet for supermarket shopping in Anglo-Saxon times, Year 5 had to remember that the settlement had to produce everything that they would need to thrive and survive!

Year 5 are very proud of their recent art work. After studying their facial features in a mirror, they sketched and coloured half of their face. They then filled the other half of their face with pictures of objects, images and logos that represented them. Pictures of pets, hobbies, talents and skills, favourite food and bands, holiday locations and animals were all incorporated into their work. The amazing finished creations are now on display in the corridor outside the Year 5 classrooms. We are very proud of our work and hope you enjoy them as much as us!

Year 5 have become ‘Island Invaders!’ Delving into the time of the Anglo-Saxons, Year 5 have already investigated when and where the Anglo-Saxons came from and discovered the push and pull factors that supported their move across the North Sea to England. Next, we will be finding out about Anglo-Saxon settlements and designing our own Anglo-Saxon village.