Year Five: January 2023

Resolutions

Right at the beginning of 2023, we read some 'New Year Resolution' poetry by Brian Moses. Then we had a go at writing some of our own. Some examples can be found below:

Tanka Poetry

In English, we wrote poetry in the style of Japanese Tanka Poetry. These poems traditionally are about seasons, nature, desires, or feelings, and often include many different types of literary devices, such as personification, metaphors, and similes. Tankas typically present a whole story or picture within the 31 syllables:

Computing - Video Editing

In computing, we were required to plan, film and then edit a short film clip. Some children worked on the task of 'filming something that when watched in reverse looks impressive. Some examples are below:

Reading

We have been using 'Book Blankets' to allow pupils to choose Book Talk and class reader books. 

Geography

We have begun learning the names of the counties of the UK. There are lots to learn! Our first focus is knowing the ones that border Cambridgeshire.

Emma Lindström Inspired Space Art

 

Bridges

In design and technology this term, we have been learning about the structure of bridges. This culminated with groups in each class building a bridge and the class voting for which one they felt was the best. This afternoon, we held a competition where the four chosen bridges were tested over a 1 metre span. We tested them by adding marbles. The winning bridge managed to hold an impressive 125 marbles! 

National Space Centre Visit

Year Five had a fabulous day expanding their understanding of space, the solar system and the space race with a visit to the National Space Centre this week.  They completed research about the different planets for their persuasive writing, tested out all manner of fun activities to enhance their science knowledge and watched a brilliant video all about getting to, living in and returning from space.

Space Art Preparation Work

As part of our autumn term theme around space, the pupils have been completing a range of art-related tasks in the build-up to their final 'space art' pieces inspired by the artist Emma Lindstrom.

They have explored shape, colour, light and shade, and the examples below are from their observational drawings of planets in our solar system.  The pupils tested out a range of media and techniques both within and between the various images.

Vector Drawings: Birds

We have further developed our ability to create vector drawings by learning how to use gradient colouring and layering of shapes. Work by Alice, Esme and Alfie can be found below.

Creating Vector Drawings

This afternoon, we have begun creating our own vector drawings. 

In this lesson, we identified the shapes that are used to make vector drawings. We now know that each element of a vector drawing is called an 'object'. Then we created our own vector drawings, by duplicating objects to save time. Some examples of our work can be found below.

Alice's House

Amelia's Dog

Betsie's Sheep

Max's Bird

Olly's Koala