Year Five: February 2024

While the start of February was full of great learning (such as starting our Famous Five adventure narrative, investigating properties of materials in science, exploring fractions and decimals in maths, looking at mountain formation and habitats in geography and so much more), the big event was our residential trip!

In the last week of last half term, Year Five had a very busy but enjoyable trip to York.  The schedule was packed with exciting opportunities, including heading to the National Railway Museum within an hour of arrival!  After marvelling at the miniature railway, clambering on, over and through all sorts of train models and completing a scavenger hunt throughout the main museum, it was time to head back to the hostel for dinner and the most important part of the trip: finding out about rooms!

Following a delicious (and enormous!) meal, the rest of the evening was filled with a range of group activities (designing Viking shields, solving Norse Code and constructing mini catapults) before settling down for their first night away.

Tuesday began with a rotation of Monday’s activities, with the addition of building Viking longships big enough to hold eight people and participating in some tricky team games.  The collaboration and encouragement were fabulous to see, and they ensured some competitive but enjoyable challenges.  After lunch, it was time to head into the centre of York for a guided historical tour of the city walls before dinner and more activities in the early evening.  A cosy film with pyjamas and cuddly toys rounded off the day.

The final full day was just as busy!  The morning started with a walk into York for a very exciting open-topped bus tour and a picnic lunch, followed by a wander down the Shambles (the inspiration for the representation of Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films.  The afternoon saw a visit to the hotly anticipated York Chocolate Story and gift shop (which they left with considerably lighter wallets!), followed by dinner and the big finale of the end of residential disco.  After they wore themselves out with lot of enthusiastic moves to the blasting music under flashing lights, it was time for bed.

Who wants to waste a whole morning when you’re away on a residential?  Not us!  After very efficiently packing and evacuating rooms, there was time for one last visit: the Castle Museum.  A fascinating walk through time with lots to see and a final chance to spend any remaining money before an al fresco lunch and onto the coach.

Over the course of four days, the children had a fantastic time and demonstrated lots of skills. They were archaeologists and historians, puzzle solvers and athletes, artists and engineers, chocolatiers and performers.  They also demonstrated some fabulous collaborative and communication skills throughout (something commented upon by the YHA staff).

All of the adults were extremely pleased and proud of everyone who came along.  They showed ambition, resilience and kindness, and were praised by members of the public and the YHA staff for being excellent ambassadors for our school.  Well done, Year Five!

For those who didn't attend the residential trip, there were a host of exciting, linked activities completed back at school.

Year Five Residential

The Year Five residential trip this week was a great success.  Many pictures and updates were posted on our school social media pages on Facebook and Twitter, and a few of the pictures from the visit can be found on our school website.

A post-disco rating...

Mid-September Update

It's been a really busy couple of weeks!  We've been settling in and getting used to the new routines, and we've already been challenging ourselves with some fun activities.  Some of what we've been up to is included below.

English

Our first focus in English is Twelfth Night, which is a play by William Shakespeare.  We really liked finding out all about him as part of our summer home learning, so it has been good to read one of the plays.  It's a really funny story with lots of mix-ups and confusion.  It was especially fun acting out some of the scenes and learning about life in Shakespeare's time.

Maths

Maths this week has been great!  The best activity was trying to solve the Mad Hatter's Tea Party logic problem.  We had to work out the seating plan just from some tricky clues like, "The grinning one has to be kept in check and needs to sit next to the White Rabbit."  It was really hard and it took us a while, but we got there.

Art

We've created all kinds of beautiful art over the past couple of weeks.  The ruler art looked so tricky at first, but once we got the hang of it, it was really easy.  Everyone's looks different, but they all look fantastic.  We also started researching and drawing some bird art.  We're really proud of our sketches so far, and we can't wait to start painting with watercolours.

R.E.

As part of our 'sparky start' for R.E. this year, we got to try all kinds of foods linked to religious celebrations.  We're going to learn all about how different religions mark important events this year, and we found out that food is quite an important part of those celebrations in every religion.  Some people didn't like the dates very much, but most of it was really tasty.

Vikings WOW Work

Kittie and Millie created this work for the WOW Display in 5AC. 

The work was thought to be so impressive that Kitty, Yasmin, Evie and Millie presented it to their class.

Well done girls!

West Stow

On  Friday  20th  November,  Year  Five  visited  West  Stow  Anglo  Saxon  Village.    Year  Five  have  been  studying the Anglo Saxons and the children learned a great deal during the visit.  A video informed  us about the history of settlements at Stow and many were amazed by how long ago people lived  on  the  site  where  we  were  sat.    After  that,  we  visited  the  houses  built  as  part  of  experimental archaeology.  At West Stow, the archaeologists are experimenting to try to learn more about what  Anglo Saxon houses would have been like.  Most children agreed the houses were very sparse, a bit  smelly (due to the fires to heat them) and that they were very small. In  addition  to  the  houses,  we  also  visited  the  museum  which  is  packed  full  of  artefacts  dug  up during the excavations at West Stow. The  children  displayed  interest  and  enthusiasm  throughout  the  day.    When  questioned,  many children gave pertinent and informed answers to historical questions.  Year Five children will soon  write non - chronological reports about the Anglo Saxons as part of their English work.