Spring Term Highlights from Year 5

Year 5 have thrown themselves into their learning this term! In-between lessons they have also been swimming every week and many participated in Bikeability. Year 5 have loved swimming and I have been impressed with all the techniques they have learnt and their determination to become the best swimmers they can.

We have been reading Secrets of a Sun King in Reading, and this book has pulled us in with its fascinating plot about Tutankhamun. Year 5 look forward to reading the next extract every morning and their discussion about the text has developed greatly. We discuss a range of areas, sharing what we think is happening in the text, what estimations we can make about the characters feelings and thoughts and why they may be feeling this way.

In Mathematics, we have been working extremely hard on calculating area and perimeter. It can be tricky to remember when we are adding against when we are multiplying but Year 5 have tackled this with confidence and have amazed me with their determination on a challenging unit! We have also been looking at compound shapes, shapes that are made up of multiple rectangles. This has been challenging but we learnt that we must split up our shape into rectangles. Because we know how to find the area of rectangles, we can then use this to find the area of our more complicated compound shapes! We have been diving even further into our times tables and it is clear to see everyone’s hard work paying off.

In Writing, we have written wonderful adverts for Pinball Machines, I would definitely be persuaded to buy one! They have used a plethora of wonderful adjectives, included some fantastic rhetorical questions, and included a wide range of conjunctions. It is great to see them all developing and enjoying their writing. Year 5 particularly loved acting out our adverts as if it was for TV.

In Geography, we travelled to Japan to learn all about the human and physical geography there. We were surprised to learn that in Japan the students have to sweep their school twice a day! We also learnt all about earthquakes and why Japan is so prone to them: being on the border of 4 plate boundaries. Year 5 thoroughly enjoyed learning about earthquake drills and acting them out. It was also very interesting learning about the four main islands of Japan and what their climates are.

In Science, Year 5 have been learning about animals and their life cycles. First, we looked at human life cycles and the different stages. Then we moved onto different animals types. First mammals and then amphibians. It was surprising to learn about how different a frogs life cycles is to a dogs. However, Year 5 have been able to clearly explain the difference between tadpoles and frogs and how it differs from a mammal’s life cycle.

Year 5 have delighted in learning about Pinball Machines in DT and getting the chance to make their own. We investigated the history of the pinball machine and its origins. We then learnt about all the different mechanism and how they work together. Next, we made a first attempt of our pinball machine to know what challenges we might face and how to overcome them. Finally, we made our very own pinball machines and I was extremely impressed with how they came out!

In History this term we have been learning about the Groovy Greeks. Year 5 were quite shocked to learn about the different games they would play, very different to what we might play today! We have compared life in different areas of Ancient Greece and had a class debate trying to decide if we would rather live in Sparta or Athens. It was a split and Year 5 were fantastic at articulating why they would want to live in one area or another, using reasons to explain their answer!

Overall, I have been impressed with Year 5’s determination in their learning and how well they have challenged themselves this term. From Miss Prior