Highlights from Year 5

This half term, we have been carrying out a range of activities linked to different curriculum subjects. It has been lovely to see the huge progress every child has made this year and the good standard of work they have produced.

In English, we wrote narrative stories about someone who was in a bad situation and how overcoming this problem made them richer. We based our stories on Cinderella, Oliver and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. The children carried out drama activities to empathise with the main character they were writing about. We also wrote diary entries using a video input called treasures. The children produced some excellent descriptive work and emotions in their diary entries.

In Maths, we have been consolidating our strategies for using multiplication and division and working hard on our times tables, also we investigated percentages and found what their equivalent fractions were.

History has been quite gory this half term as we have been looking at medicine and disease through the ages and drew timelines of the key events outside, this took a lot of cooperation and discussions. At times it has been quite squeamish, especially if you were around during prehistoric or Mayan times! Also, the Egyptians had some unique beliefs and traditions, e.g., mummification and removal of body parts. The Romans seemed to have the best idea about hygiene and health. The children have enjoyed learning about the different diseases and especially The Black Death where we acted out a scenario to do with this fatal disease.

Science has been about learning to work scientifically and carrying out investigations to predict, analyse and record what will happen, and what did happen, when we investigated friction, marbles and different surfaces. We also looked at Professor Brian Cox and created fact files about him, I didn’t realise he had been in a band during the 80s and had a hit record!

In Art we have been looking at the illustrations of Quentin Blake and the children have loved using different marking techniques to create illustrations and copying pictures that he has drawn from some of his famous books. We also had diversity week and we were given North America and an artist to copy his style of work, who painted entirely with his mouth! All the children enjoyed this activity and said it was very hard to just use your mouth! The artwork created was fantastic and congratulations to our winner.

Sports Day came and all the children participated and showed respect for their fellow peers and team members from all year groups. Congratulations to the Year 5 girls and boys who won their sprint races and thank you to all the parents that showed up.

All-in-all, it was a jam-packed half-term and so much to cover. I am proud of all of Year 5 and what they have achieved this year and I have enjoyed teaching them.

Mrs Beauchamp, Year 5 Class Teacher