The children in Year 5 have had a great couple of weeks. They have immersed themselves in our poetry core text, The Lost Words and written kenning, incantation, diamond incantation and etheree poems. We have enjoyed sharing these aloud in our classes. In science, we have continued our learning on living things and life cycles, researching animals that go through metamorphosis and presenting findings to the class. All of the children were incredibly sensible and mature when learning about the changes their bodies will go through when they reach puberty - they should be commended for their excellent questions and engagement with the talks. 

What a busy and exciting couple of weeks it has been in Year 5! A highlight was our trip to Holy Trinity Church in Richmond, where the children took part in an enriching Easter Experience. It was a thought-provoking session. The children were completely absorbed by the performance of the Easter story and asked some fantastic questions in the forum afterwards.

Back in the classroom, we’ve continued bringing Shakespeare to life in DT, crafting our Macbeth puppets. From fearsome witches to a rather regal-looking King Duncan, the creativity on display has been outstanding. We’ve wrapped up our units of work on shape in maths and global trade in geography, whilst in computing, we've pushed on with our work on databases, where we've been developing our computational thinking by using logical operators to help us answer questions based on the information held in records. 

Well done to all the children for participating in the Great Sheen Mount Bounce. There might be some sore legs after some very energetic bouncing! We look forward to the final event of the term on Friday, the unmissable Talent Show. Well done to all the children who participated in the Year 5 auditions. It was a pleasure to see the whole of the year group actively supporting and encouraging each other.   

In Y5 we truly do seem to seize every moment of every day. Since returning from half-term, we have been busy learning about different types of puppets and their history in preparation for our DT topic this term. This complements our English topic, Macbeth, as the children will be creating their own puppets based on different characters from the play and using them to perform a few scenes - hopefully nothing too gory! 

In maths, we completed our first topic of the term on perimeter and area and enjoyed estimating the area of our outstretched hands. We are moving onto a short topic on statistics. In geography, we have been finding out about global trade and investigating where the food in our fridges and cupboards originates from. There were a few surprises, Brazil nuts from Bolivia, for example!

The Djembe drums have been as popular as ever in music and have given our voices a rest after the excitement of Young Voices at the O2. In French, we are exploring the language of the classroom whilst in computing we are learning about databases. Everyone's a gymnast in PE where we have been practising safely carrying out rolls with good technique, before progressing onto some more advanced moves.

Last week Y5 participated in one of the highlights of our year - the tremendous Young Voices at the O2. Along with 9,000 other primary school children from across the South East, we sang our socks off to a medley of songs that included a Bob Marley tribute, pop classics spanning the ages and music from the musical Hairspray, all accompanied by professional singers and musicians. The children worked really hard in the run-up to the event, and we were hugely impressed by their enthusiasm and proud of their behaviour on the night. Great work children! A huge thank you to the Y5 parents for their support of this endeavour. It is a hugely enriching experience - unlike anything we can reproduce inside the classroom - and even the most reluctant of singers had an absolutely incredible evening.

Of course, classroom learning has also continued over the last couple of weeks! In maths, we completed a short unit of work on fractions that included multiplying both fractions and mixed-numbers by whole numbers. In science, we have been separating mixtures as part of our topic on materials and their properties. Viking trade routes and sagas have been the focus of our enquiries in history and, in English, we have performed part of the witches' opening scene from Macbeth, to help inspire and generate ideas for written setting and character descriptions.

...is more bread! We have been very busy in Y5 designing, baking and evaluating breads. From baps to plaits, we have had everyone in the school salivating as the smell of freshly baked bread has wafted through corridors, infused with lashings of cheese, onion, rosemary, pesto and jalapeño. It tasted pretty good as well!

We've also been busy in science, learning about hydrodynamics by investigating how the shape of an object influences resistance to its motion as it travels through a liquid. In addition, we've looked at the forces involved in levers and begun to develop an understanding of the concept of mechanical advantage through load/fulcrum/lever models.

In maths, our unit of work on fractions culminates this week, and we look ahead to multiplication and division in the new year. Poetry and motivational speaking have been the order of the day in English through our current text, Shackleton's Journey.

Finally, as the end of term approaches, we have been singing our socks off in preparation for the Christmas Carol Concert, which will surely be a wonderful and fitting conclusion to a fantastic autumn term.

The second half of the Autumn term got off to an explosive start as we have discovered how plate tectonics are involved in the formation of volcanoes. In science, after briefly considering volcanoes that exist beyond the realms of Earth - including the extinct mega-shied volcano Olympus Mons on Mars - our attention has shifted from outer space to forces. 

We have explored new number concepts including square numbers, cube numbers and prime numbers in our unit of work on multiplication and division, whilst in English we have petitioned Sir Ernest Shackleton to join him as crew members on his 1914 Trans-Antarctica Expedition. If you need a cook, photographer, champion swimmer, navigator, dog handler or able seaman, then you need look no further!