Year 5 News 2016-2017
Interhouse sport
Year 5 and 6 children had an energetic and exciting afternoon on Friday in their inter-house Netball and Football Tournaments. Excellent teamwork in the Netball games, involving fluent passing, accurate shooting and keen tactical awareness, resulted in very close matches. Ultimately, even with extra time, St. Andrew and St. David both topped the table. In the Football Tournament, there were unexpected results throughout the afternoon: the St. George's team developed during the afternoon to clinch joint equal place with a fabulous St. David team. However, there was little between all teams: the standard of play was exceptional.
Year 5 trip to Quarry Bank Mill
Pupils arrived at Styal Mill and waited patiently in the garden courtyard before hearing the bell ring to signal them to go inside the gate. They were greeted by Mrs Shawcroft, who showed pupils to the classroom where they used the slate boards. After, they went upstairs to the dormitories where they learned more about how the apprentices would of lived in the house. Later, they were shown some of the unorthodox medicine methods! Later, they viewed the parlour and accessed the kitchen where they discussed eating habits. Pupils found out at Styal the living conditions were not ideal but they were fed fairly well compared to a normal workhouse. As they later discovered, Mr Greg wanted to keep them fit so they were available for work!
After the workhouse it was time for lunch, and then they had a tour of the mill. First of all they analysed some photographs of the owners and learnt about Styal. During the tour they looked in the manager's office and dressed up as two of the rich office workers and two mill workers and compared pay. Again, they were drawn to the fact the boys were treated differently to the girls. They then watched a demonstration of working machinery and the dangers the children may have faced working with the machines. Pupils were shocked to hear about some of the awful working conditions and were able to imagine this by hearing the loud noise of the working mill to get a snapshot of what it must of been like. Pupils each received their own piece of cotton when they learnt some of the techniques used to attach it together which concluded our informative trip!
UN convention on human rights
In Year 5, we have been learning all about human rights, in particular, regarding children's rights. We learned about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which was introduced to protect children all over the world. We made links with the character, Jim, in our class reading book, Street Child and the fact that many of his rights were denied. We also learned that in some countries, such as Somalia, children's rights are not protected.
Science - Martian Soils
Year 5 were visited by Sue Andrews, a space ambassador from ESERO. The children were involved in a whole morning of practical 'working scientifically' investigations. Their aim was the find the soil most like Martian soil. First, they were briefed on the mission using an animation of the Mars Challenger. The children were then told the criteria of Mars soil. Did you know that every soil sample taken from Mars contains salt? The investigations involved testing for acidity, particle size, soil consistency, colour, salt content and the speed of water filtration. Not only did we learn lots about Mars, but we were able to improve our investigation skills too!
Clay Sculptures inspired by Henry Moore - Art (wb 6th Feb)
Over the past few weeks Year 5 have been looking at proportions of the human body. They have worked creatively to create charcoal sketches and clay sculptures based on Henry Moore's work. Pupils have worked hard to mend, glaze (with PVA for a shiny effect!) and create a sculpture developing on their clay modelling skills. We look forward to creating foil sculptures based on another artist's work next week to continue the theme!
The Very Greedy Dog - French (wb 30th Jan)
In French the children have looked at the story of The very Greedy Dog which is an alternative story to The Hungry Caterpillar. They have learnt many food items and are beginning to use these in full sentences.
Astronaut Food -Science (Wb 23rd Jan)
As part of the Space topic, we have been learning about life as an astronaut on board the international space station. To ensure food on missions doesn't rot or grow mould, it is prepared in a way which removes water, called freeze drying. We sampled freeze dried ice cream and strawberries, then used our knowledge of nutrition to design balanced space meals for astronauts.
STEM Club Build Bridges (wb 23rd Jan)
During this week's STEM club children were given the task of building a bridge using just 20 art straws, sticky tape and paper clips. The bridge could be any design and would be tested at the end using weights. We first discussed the ability of shapes to distribute weight and decided that triangles would distribute the force down both sides, with less chance of collapsing. The winning bridge held an impressive 500g!
Trip to Space Port (wb 23rd Jan)
We had a fantastic time during our visit to Space Port, experiencing the observatory, the space dome and riding the space simulator! Using specialist scales we were able to work out our weight, and the weight of a can of baked beans on different planets. In addition to all of our new knowledge on Space, we also visited the 'good vibrations' and 'shocking electricity' exhibitions.
Rocket Race (wb 16th Jan)
As part of their space topic, Year 5 have learnt about the Google Lunar XPrize Space Race. There are currently teams competing worldwide to win the race. 'A successful Google Lunar XPRIZE would result in cost-effective and reliable access to the Moon, allowing for the development of new methods of discovering and using space resources, and in the long-term, helping to expand human civilization into space.' Year 5 also designed and launched their own rockets in an Avalon space race. Well done to our 3 winners!
Gymnastics
Year 5 produced some very imaginative and sound bridge shapes in their P.E. lesson on Friday. They worked collaboratively with their partner, experimenting with different bridge shapes.
English
With great enthusiasm, Year5 talked about one of the books they have read recently, explaining why they enjoyed their book. They spoke with conviction and clarity, gaining and retaining the interest of their group, covering a range of aspects such as the genre, the really exciting or interesting parts and the writing style used. Many children have been inspired to try a different book.
Charlotte's Web
Year 5 had a lovely English lesson, drinking tea, eating spiders' web biscuits (provided by one of our parent helpers) and listening to a recording of E.B. White reading the last two chapters of Charlotte's Web. We have enjoyed reading the book and exploring the language and issues raised.
Maths - problem solving
The Year 5 children have been problem solving in maths this week, particularly focussing on measures. They had to convert the different unit to a common unit before solving the problem. The children discussed their approaches with a partner before attempting the question. Discussion gives children some thinking and playing-with-the-problem time. They need to test out ideas, to make suggestions, to go up ‘dead ends’ and adjust their thinking in the light of what they learn from this, discuss ideas with others and be comfortable to take risks.
Here are some of the problems they were discussing.
Natalia and Christian measure the height of a classroom using two metre sticks and a ruler. One metre stick reaches the ceiling and one is touching the floor. The cm ruler measures the gap between the metre sticks. What is the height of the classroom in metres?
A joiner needs 12 lengths of wood measuring 245mm and 6 pieces measuring 582mm. The wood is sold in lengths of 3m. Calculate how many lengths of wood are needed, and how best to cut the lengths so the longest piece is left over.
A tin contains 425g baked beans in sauce. The tin itself weights 60g. How much will a pack of 6 tins weigh in kilograms?
History
In History, Year 5 have been practising being 'Historians' by looking at artefact photographs, matching labels, predicting and asking questions. They have looked at vocabulary such as 'Rich' 'Reliable' and 'Relevant' and sorted out sources of evidence cards in groups to decide which one is the most reliable and rich in evidence. Finally, they had to imagine that they were the luckiest Historian alive and select three sources of evidence that they would collect if there was a choice. A popular selection was 'Artefact' 'Letter' and 'Film Archive'. This was a 'hands on' lesson with plenty of group discussion and debate!
Grow Wild!
Year 5 have been involved with the 'Grow Wild' project, growing wild UK native flowers on our school grounds. This is part of the national outreach initiative of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 'In the UK we’re lucky to have some amazing wild flowers, but they're in danger: we have lost 97% of wild flower meadows since the 1930s.' As well as sowing flower seeds, we have installed a bee house for solitary bees, a type of non-aggressive bee that do not live in colonies.
The Balaclava Boys
In our PHSCE lessons, we read the story of "The Balaclava Boys" by George Layton. In the story, George asks his Mum fo a balaclava so he can join a gang (The balaclava boys) When his Mum says he can't have one, he decides to steal another boy's. The children talked about how they might have reacted were they in that situation and how might George have dealt with the balaclava problem differently. What conversation could he have had with his friends about the balaclavas? Could they have helped George? How could he have discussed this with his Mum? Did he explain his problem properly to his Mum? George regretted stealing the balaclava straight away, does this make you feel sorry for him? What lessons do you think George has learned from this experience?
The children had some thoughful responses:
"I don't feel sorry for George because it is never right to steal" AP
"George didn't even bother to discuss the problem with his mum, not even 10% of it. That could have solved the problem" ER
"I think his friends could have been more considerate towards George and had some days where they don't wear them" JH
"I think that he should have discussed it with his Mum and told her how he was feeling. She could have helped him" HA
The Year 5 children even went on to perform the story in an assembly. It was a very worthwhile activity and helped the children understand about peer pressure and the importance of communication.
Feelings
In our PHSCE lessons, Year 5 have been talking about things that they are really excited about for the year ahead. Many children wrote about looking forward to the summer production, playing for the school football team and different trips. We wrote them on leaves and created a tree in our classroom which we will add to over the year.
Area and Perimeter
Year 5 children have been calculating the area and perimeter of rectilinear shapes. They learned how, to calculate the length of the missing sides and then the perimeter of the shape. They then partitioned the shape into two smaller rectangles, calculating the area of each before finally finding the total area of the shape. They were then assigned challenges to find, for example, the difference in area between two rectilinear shapes and shapes with the same area but different perimeters. They found that, for example, two shapes had an area of 24cm2 but one had a perimeter of 20cm (a 6 x 4 rectangle) and one had a perimeter of 26cm (a 12 x 2 rectangle).