Year 5

Welcome to Year 5 2023-24 with Mrs Brown, Mr Hartshorn, Mrs Mattson and Mrs Taylor.

We would encourage you to keep an eye on these pages as we like to share aspects of the children’s learning and experiences from Silver Birch and Pine classes. 

14th December 2023 - Pen pal letters

Y5 have recapped their knowledge of letter writing and the differences between informal and formal language in order to write an informal letter to a child in a school in Epernay, France. Why there you ask? Well, Epernay is one of Clevedon's twinned towns and we are lucky enough to be able to be a part of keeping relationships going between our towns. We look forward to recieving their letters in return! 

12th October 2023 - DT (sewing)

Today, the children were able to put all of their learning from the past term into practice by creating their eco-friendly Christmas decorations. They showcased their newly learned stitches on their carefully designed decorations. 

 

2022-2023

22nd June 2023 - Crumble Kits!

Y5 were lucky enough to have STEM ambassador Garry Packer in again and this time it was to tackle ‘crumble kits’ ! The groups worked collaboratively to combine algorithms on a computer with physical computing components. They had to build a circuit that included the crumble controller and use blocks to write a program to turn a light on and off. The children tackled each challenge that Garry gave them with enthusiasm and showed great problem solving skills. Garry said he thought the children worked really well and there were some great solutions.

17th-21st April 2023 - Mill on the Brue Residential camp

Y5 did us proud this week with their exceptional behaviour and extraordinary bravery at Mill on the Brue. The children pushed themselves out of their comfort zones with activities such as zip lining, leap of faith, axe throwing and archery to name a few. It was such a pleasure to accompany Y5 this week. 

  

23rd March 2023 - Coins and notes

As part of their enquiry, Y5 have been learning about trade and currency. This week, they had a range of coins - old/new/foreign - to order throughout history on a timeline. Following this, as engineers, they ranked the set of coins/notes they had from best-worst using criteria such as material, durability, longevity, appearance, size and weight. A lot of interesting discussions were had across all of the groups. 

  

11th January 2023 - Finding/Losing stories

As author readers and writers, Year 5 have begun their work on their new narrative type - finding and losing stories - with a focus on openings and endings. They came in today to find that a number of well-known stories had LOST their opening paragraphs so we had to FIND them and match them to the correct front cover! They were all over the playground! 

They followed this by carrying out a 'story opening investigation' where, in groups, they investigated the opening paragraph of a range of stories and identified what type of opening was used e.g. diaglogue/action/hook/setting. 

A bonus outcome from these lessons has been the excited children who have decided that they want to begin reading one of the books they looked at during their investigation BASED ON their opening paragraph! 

     

15th December 2022 - Belief Enquiry

Y5 completed their enquiry ‘How can you show what you believe in?’ this week by creating two clay tiles as their challenge. As artists, they learnt clay techniques such as slabbing, relief and using slip to make their tile designs come to life. As philosophers, they designed tiles to show the beliefs of the Mayans and themselves.

 

 

 30th September 2022 - Explorer Dome (Scientists)

Year 5 had a fabulous morning inside the ‘explorer dome’ as part of their enquiry ‘What does Earth look like from the Solar System?’

As Scientists, they explored our planet, moon, sun and solar system. They got to see how they move and what we see in the sky. They then went star-spotting to discover the constellations as they will appear tonight and discovered the stories behind them through the gods and heroes, myths and monsters from Ancient Greece.

2021-22

25th May 2022 - Computing

Physical programming using Micro bits

 

 

3rd - 6th May 2022 - Mill on the Brue 

Day 1: Year 5 have had a great start to our camp. We set off well and have already enjoyed lots of fun activities. We have already taken part in activities such as canoeing, archery and visiting Bruton itself. We have tried new foods and have settled into our rooms. We can not wait to see what we do tomorrow!

Day 2:We have just settled down again after an action packed day. We are proud of how well the children are demonstrating independence and also care for one another. It is a privilege to see each one flourish in this environment. Highlights have been the zip wire, canoeing and some new (in some cases!) but delicious food. Berry cheesecake and the sticky apricot flapjack were quite a hit!
The weather has stayed dry and so this has meant break times have been time to roll down the gently sloping banks, chill and chat with friends, kick a ball about or clamber over the climbing frame.
Hopefully our postcards will arrive home before we do!

Day 3: The sun shone for our last day today as we traded in the colony game, saved the river and enjoyed a camp fire this evening. We are all packed and organised for our return trip and looking forward to seeing our families tomorrow very much. Mustn't forget to mention the strawberry jelly and ice-cream for afters at lunch which went down very well!

 

5th April 2022 - Coast Walk

To consolidate the learning they had done about the coast, Y5 embarked on a coastal walk this morning. It was fascinating to stand on the top of 'Poet's Walk' and identify so many of the features we had seen in class in 'real life' in our locality. Y5 demonstrated excellent behaviour while we were out and about. Thanks to the parents who made the trip possible and to Mr Thurgur, our local coast expert for leading the expedition!

21st March 2022 - My job is ...

Today, Y5 enjoyed a visit from Geo-environmental engineer, Clare Prosser who works for a company called 'Jomas Environmental Engineering.' Clare talked about how she became an engineer in terms of how long it took, the sort of interests and qualifications she needed and how she spends her days. It was exciting to hear that no two days are the same and that she got to operate large drills which sometimes unearthed non-geological objects!
Her visit also focused on 'Old Harry Rocks' which we are currently learning about in Geography. It is a great example of coastal erosion and Clare explained how each part of this famous feature had come in to being. It was a good job she was so clear as we are going to use what we have learnt to create tourist information leaflets to explain it to holidaymakers in Dorset. Look out for our display of these soon!

My job is Y5 22

 

10th March 2022 - Kidzania Trip

Y5 travelled to Kidzania in London to learn about what we might want to be when we are older. It was great to be able to go off independently and try out so many different jobs as if we were in these situations for real. Mr Hudd also did a great job of pointing out famous landmarks such as the London Eye and The Houses of Parliament. Perhaps he could be a tour guide in the future?
All our teachers remarked on how sensible and trustworthy we were during the day even when it was tiring towards the end. We are especially grateful to the parents who accompanied us to make the trip possible.

 

7th March 2022 - Grid References

As part of our learning about coasts, we learned how to construct four and six figure grid references. We then applied our knowledge to solve some tourist information problems so that we could point holiday makers in precisely the right direction. Perhaps we have some budding tourist information officers among us?

8th/9th February 2022 - Bikeability

Y5 were fortunate enough to receive first class 'Bikeability' training this week. Here we are being put through our paces! We are grateful to the trainers for their patience and to Mr Hughes for organising it. We demonstrated our school rules 'ready, respectful and safe' on two wheels:

 

27th January 2022 - Myths

Y5 were so inspired to write their own myths that they created class anthologies of them. They are very humorous! Why not ask to borrow one and share it with your class?

 

30th November - 1st December 2021 - Anglo-Saxon DT days

What better way to continue our learning about the Anglo-Saxon way of life than to research and make our very own artefacts! We spent several afternoons in the lead up to these days designing and planning. For example, once we had discovered that the colours and designs of a shield had a particular significance, we ensured our own ones reflected the sort of warrior we would have wanted to be. We have also been studying Anglo-Saxon pottery in order to design and make our own vessel. Other Anglo-Saxon learning centred around a wall quiz to enable us to research Anglo-Saxon religion and beliefs, looking at historical sources to deduce how Anglo-Saxons spent their leisure time and also imitating the beautiful calligraphy of monks such as those who lived at Lindisfarne Priory. One of our favourite parts of the week was learning about cams and gears in order to produce moving Anglo-Saxon scenes and sewing brooches, having learnt that there were no such things as zips to hold clothes together in those days. Finally, after learning about Anglo-Saxon diets, we decided to design our own pottage recipes. It was interesting to smell the different herbs and select the different vegetables to put in it. We learned that barley or oats would be used to ‘bulk up’ the dish. We are not too sure what the rest of the Kikaboga building thought of the strange smell that wafted down the corridor though! 

Y5 Anglo-Saxon DT Dec 21

1st December 2021 - DT Cams and Gears

Thank you to all for your generous shoe box donations. Here we are transforming them in to Anglo-Saxon moving scenes which use cams and gears. We have quickly become DIY experts in the process!

 

 

11th November 2021 - Poppies!

Y5 learned about the significance of poppies at this time year and made 3D versions. Look out for them displayed at Tesco Clevedon!

 

22nd October 2021 - Britain and the Blitz posters

As our learning about Britain and the Blitz begins to come to an end, we decided to use our 5C skills of critical thinking, collaboration and creativity to research some of the questions we had raised about the precautions people took. Working with others to become experts in the field of gas masks, evacuation or the blackout, we were then mixed up to share our expertise. Finally, we produced some outstanding non-chronological reports as posters which are now proudly displayed in and around Y5.

 

7th October 2021 - Science: Forces

We have been investigating how different surfaces can have different levels of friction using a Newton meter as part of our Science topic on forces.

 

29th September 2021 - Topic!

Y5 are busily learning about what it was like to be a child during the Blitz. Here, we are using our collaboration skills to share information using the 'pinwheel' technique. Why not ask one of us what this entailed?