Year 5 - February 2023

Year five have had a busy start to the year with lots of learning taking place. The blogging team for this blog didn’t have to interview anybody as we are writing down the things that we did ourselves. 

In English, we have been writing a narrative about the seaside. Our originally sentence stacking was based on the Anthony Browne book ‘Zoo’ so we chotted for ideas for figurative language to describe a zoo, but for our end of unit piece of writing, we innovated our ideas to write about the seaside. After we had created our paragraphs, we edited using dictionaries to check our spelling and thesauruses to up-level our vocabulary. We also had to re-write and add to our sentences to make them as good as we possibly could.

In maths, this half term, we have been learning about fractions. We have learned about simplifying fractions, finding equivalent fractions and adding and subtracting fractions, where we had to ensure we found equivalent fractions to ensure our denominators were equal. In addition, we learned about improper fractions and mixed numbers and how to convert between them. As well as this, we have been converting measurements, such as centimetres into metres, like 5cm is equal to 0.05m. 

In science this half term, we have been learning about how different flowers spread their seeds and the different lifecycles of animals and plants. For one of our lessons, we were looking at the different steps on how a bee can help a flower reproduce. In this lesson, we were ordering which steps go first for the pollination reproduction. We also did multiple life cycles. For the last lesson, we did a life-cycle of an insect which completely changed its appearance. For example, the life-cycle we could’ve done is a caterpillar into a butterfly. This is called metamorphosis.

In computing, we have been learning about Islamic art and how we can re-create it on Skype. For our first lesson, we use Inkscape to learn how to use it and to create anything we wanted. For our second lesson, we use Scratch to create patterns using the pen blocks and the variable blocks. Finally, in our last lesson, we use Inkscape to create Islamic art.

In geography, we have been learning about natural disasters and how they leave devastating damage. In our lessons, we were mostly taught about volcanoes, earthquakes and a bit about tectonic plates. We learned that earthquakes are created when tectonic plates are rubbing against each other in opposite directions. When tectonic plates collide, one of them goes under the other, creating mountains and volcanoes. When tectonic plates pull away from each other, it creates massive cracks in the earths surface. We learnt that an earthquake can cause a volcano to erupt, or it could cause an immense wall of water called a tsunami to form in the ocean.

In PE this term, we have been doing health-related fitness like lunches, star jumps and arm to knee skipping and we even made our own fitness trail, including shuttle runs, sidestepping, skipping and my favourite… sumo squats. We have also completed gymnastics and learned how to jump safely in the tuck and straddle position. Also, we have use apparatus such as the high ropes where you can climb up to the top, climbing frames that you can find lots of different ways to get to the top of, and finally, the balancing beam that you can find different ways to stay upright and balance right at the end before jumping off. Additionally, a person from Saracens came in and we did a mini session with him. He taught us how to do a pop pass, play tag rugby, and taught us how to play banana peel. 

In art, we have been learning about Joan Miro and his surrealist paintings (surrealist painting is like a painting in real life, but something isn’t quite right). In these lessons, we have tried to recreate his paintings. In one lesson, we created a collage using torn up pieces of newspapers and magazines. For our final lesson, we created a surrealist collage in our art books.

In music, we have been learning a song called Make You Feel My Love by Adele (the original version was made by Bob Dylan). In these lessons, we have been doing a warm up to get a sense of rhythm and to warm up our voices. As well as this, we have been learning the song verse by verse - we have gotten more confident at singing it the more we have practised. We also discussed what type of song it was. We decided it was a ballad and also discussed our likes and dislikes about it.

Every Thursday we have had PCSO’s Chris and Dan come in for a mini police session, where we learn about what we should and should not be doing in society. We learned about personal safety, antisocial behaviour and how to be safe when out in public as well as the Highway Code. We also learned about how deforestation and littering can affect animals in the whole world and about the youth justice department, and how the police can arrest you when you are over the age of 10. We also did a bleep test, which is one of the tests that you do to become a police officer.

This term, we went to the STEM Centre in Stevenage. In the STEM Centre, we did some experiments, including exploding paint, and it went all over a bag (creating a galaxy effect). We also saw the prototype for the Mars rover (named Bridget). We had fun exploring the hands-on area completing lots of different activities. We have also had some visitors from Santander to talk about banks and how they work as well as a visit from Rabbi Adam who talked to us about Judaism and what his job entailed. He brought in a scroll and talked about how animal skin, which the scroll was made out of, would last a lot longer than paper. He told us about the commandments that Jewish people follow and how Judaism is a way to live your life as much as it a religion.