Year 5 have been busy learning all about the coastal features on the Isle of Wight! We have investigated how the groynes at Sandown beach work to stop longshore drift, as well as being able to identify the effects that coastal erosion has had on the island. We will see all of this in action next week! In English, we have rounded up our topic on The Lost Words, where the children have impressed us with their poetic prowess. We have begun to look at our new core text, Journey to Jo'burg by Beverly Naidoo, where we have explored the history of apartheid in South Africa. We have had some excellent discussions in our classes, full of curiosity. In maths we have been learning how to count through zero into negative numbers, applying this to real life situations like temperature. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday morning with a suitcase in tow! Happy packing!

What an excellent start to the summer term Year 5 have had! We wrapped up our learning linked to Shakespeare’s Macbeth by choosing a favourite scene from the book to perform using our puppets. Our new core text is The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. We have begun to explore kenning poetry and write some of our own. In geography we have started our topic of coastal features, where we have learnt how to write 6-figure grid references and understand the features of coastlines. You will see in the photos below some lovely examples of our observational house drawings from our new art topic. This week we used viewfinders to choose a section of our sketches to develop into a monoprint. In science we have been able to enjoy our wonderful outside space as we looked for flowers to identify the male and female parts needed for reproduction. 

What a weird and wonderful couple of weeks it has been in Year 5. Following all manner of strange sightings on World Book Day, which narrowly missed our last newsletter, we have been busy investigating strange substances in science. Making the most of the sunshine, we worked outside, making and manipulating Oobleck - a non-Newtonian fluid that confounds predictions and defies normal fluidic behaviour. Back inside the classroom, we have been filling the heads of our Macbeth puppets with stuffing and giving them (in some cases quite terrifying) facial features. Further afield, the children have been learning about the Fair Trade organisation in the context of global trade, developing their understanding of the different stages of supply chains and of how consumer choices can have an impact on producers and suppliers half a world away. Closer to home in maths, we have begun a new unit of work on shape and are busy working with angles, whilst in English we are putting the final touches to our newspaper reports based on Macbeth. 

Wes hál - or hello - from somewhere in Anglo-Saxon Britain! On Monday, Y5 experienced an epic conclusion to our investigations into the Vikings in Anglo-Saxon Britain. This was a brilliant and enriching experience for the children as they discovered more about Anglo-Saxon and Viking life and tried their hands at various traditional crafts from the era including: candle making, weaving, ink preparation and rune writing, mixing herbal medicines, and more. They then jumped in time to the present day and became archaeologists, searching for and cataloguing artefacts.   This was a fun and meaningful experience that enhanced their learning and sparked curiosity outside the classroom. A big thank you to the parents who helped with different activities throughout the day. 

Y5 experienced another enrichment experience outside the classroom when they attended an "Eat the Rainbow" workshop as part of mental health week. The children learnt about the importance of a varied and colourful diet and of how this helps them to stay healthy in different ways. In the classroom, we also spent time thinking about ourselves and, inspired by the film Inside Out, created individual personality-islands in order to know ourselves a little better. We also discussed how embracing a positive mindset can help us to grow.

As half-term approaches, we are finishing our unit of work on decimals and percentages in maths and our potion writing in English. The children have also produced some brilliant mixed-media self-portraits in art.

The end of last term saw the children participate in their Carol concert at Christ Church. We are so proud of them and of their beautiful singing and are very excited to be performing as part of Young Voices at the O2 next week! These are both fabulous enrichment opportunities that really enhance the children's learning and provide fun and meaningful experiences beyond the classroom. 

Before the Christmas break, we concluded units of work on natural disasters in geography, forces in science, Shackleton's Journey in English and, rather tastily, bread-baking in design technology.

The spring term has got off to a flying start! In science, we are developing our understanding of materials, their structure, the states they can exist in and of how they interact with each other. We are getting to grips with Macbeth in English and using primary and secondary sources to help us understand Viking conflict during the latter stages of the Anglo-Saxon period in history. The children have also enjoyed getting creative in our new unit of work incorporating portraiture in art - it transpires that it is somewhat challenging to draw a self-portrait without taking your pencil off the paper!

In the last couple of weeks we have been keeping our cool in Antarctica with Ernest Shackleton and his crew aboard the Endurance, creating some pertinently polar poetry along the way. In science, we have been developing our enquiry skills and learning about air resistance - with the help of some parachutes.

Watch out for mouth-watering recipes with some rather interesting ingredients in DT. Pupils have been getting creative and applying what they have learnt about different breads together with their own experiences to imagine their own baked masterpieces that they will produce and taste next week.

Mix all of this in with considering the pros and cons of living next to volcanoes, knead together with some work on fractions and you have just another week in Y5!