Welcome to the Summer Term!

We are looking forward to an exciting and busy term ahead.  We will be learning about the Benin Kingdom in History and Italy in Geography. We will continue to work hard but we will also have fun and develop our love for learning along side our knowledge and skills.  Please remember to keep completing your Reading Record and bring it to school every day.  We will also continue to work hard on our presentation so that you are ready to make a strong start to Year Six.

Mrs Kent and Mr Murphy

Maths - Turns and Angles

We have been learning about direction and angles.  We used instructions to create a plan of a bedroom on the playground.  Next, we made angle measures to show acute, obtuse and reflex angles.  We drew these on the ground outside and then used ICT to test our partner's knowledge of angles.

English - Role Play

We have been reading "The Lost Book of Adventures" and considering the dangerous situations we could find ourselves in.  We created freeze frames based on illustrations from the book and we will use these to inform our planning and writing.

Science and Maths - Gestation and Statistics

In Science, we have been learning about the gestation periods of different animals.  We used the data we collected during our Science lesson to create bar charts in our next Maths lesson.

English - Explorers!

We began our new topic by being explorers and finding pictures of items linked to our new book around the playground.  We then worked with our partner to answer questions about the artefacts and make predictions.

Fun Science Afternoon!

We have a great afternoon of making and exploring in Science.  We made pullies and then used our Maths knowledge to help us to make parachutes which we tested in the KS1 playground.  This was a great end to our topic "Let's Get Moving!"

Easter Egg Hunt

A huge "thank you" to the Mini Vinnies and Mr Murphy for arranging such a fun Easter Egg hunt today!

NSPCC - Speak Out, Stay Safe

Last week, Mrs Kent led an assembly to remind us about the important message of the NSPCC "Speak Out, Stay Safe," campaign.  We learnt that:

- No means no!

- Private parts are private

- The telephone number for Child Line is 0800 111111

We all designed pants to remind us of the important information.

Shakespeare Week - Workshop and Geography

We enjoyed attending the workshop for Shakespeare week, where we learnt to act out scenes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  Before we returned to the Hall for the final performance, we completed a Geography task where we looked up the settings of Shakespeare's plays and located them on a map.

Maths - Perimeter

We have been learning about perimeter in Maths and completed several practical investigations and activities.

Stations of the Cross

We were very lucky to receive a visit from Father Tony, who prayed the Stations of the Cross with us in our chapel.  It was a moment of reflection and thanks and we really thought about how Jesus' suffering can inspire us to live a better life.

Science - Investigating Friction

During our Science lesson, we investigated friction on different surfaces by building a ramp and rolling a cotton reel down it.  We then recorded our results in a table and a bar chart.

World Book Week Maths

During World Book Week, we completed several book and reading themed activities in Maths including a treasure hunt in the hall.  On Wednesday, we calculated our reading speed in words per minute and then calculated how long it would take us to read the books we chose to read to Year One.

World Book Week - Monday

During English today, we each created our own book from a single piece of paper!  We have been learning about cliff hangers in stories and we each wrote our own mini story with a cliff hanger!

St David's Day Assembly

Well done, Year Five!  What a wonderful St David's Day assembly!  You taught the whole school about St David and Wales and shared a beautiful song.

Future London Survey

In our first Geography lesson of the term, we took part in a survey from the Mayor of London's office.  Young people have been asked to give their opinion on what the Mayor's priority for the future should be.  There were some excellent ideas!

Virtual Reality Maths Workshop

We all had great fun during the Virtual Reality Maths workshop!  We had an opportunity to work with our partner to try out different games and Maths activities in different settings.

Trip to the Golden Hinde

We had a wonderful time at the Golden Hinde and learnt so much about exploration during Elizabethan times from Catherine, our guide.  After lunch, we walked along the South Bank to Waterloo, taking some time to stop and sketch Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Maths and History - Making Vegetable Pottage

During Maths we prepared the vegetables for an Elizabeth vegetable pottage (soup).  We weighed each vegetable and used division to calculate how much of each one we would need.  We used the chopped vegetables to make our soup, which we tried during our History lesson.  We agreed that we needed some salt - which would have been very expensive during Elizabethan times - and a few more herbs to make it palatable!  

Golden Time

We played some fun games outside for Golden Time this week!

Elizabethans Assembly

We shared our History learning about Queen Elizabeth I and the Elizabethans during our whole school assembly.  We have learnt that Elizabeth wanted everybody to be able to choose their own religion.  We reflected on how important this is and wrote a class prayer to thank God for this freedom.  You can see the prayer after the photographs, below.

Maths Week - Maths and History

At the start of Maths Week, we consolidated our learning about multiplying numbers by solving puzzles and playing games.  We made links with our History topic of the Elizabethans.  We solved multiplication problems about facts and figures from the Elizabethan era.  We also learnt about Sir Francis Drake and the route that he took when he circumnavigated the world.  We used string to measure along the map and estimate the distance.

Science - Identifying Parts of a Flower

We have been learning about the life cycle of plants in Science.  We looked at some tulips in detail and made observational drawings.

English - The Promise

We started our new book in English by looking at some items which feature in the story and using them to ask questions and make predictions.

New Year, New Term!

Our first few days of the Spring term have been busy.  Our Science topic is Circle of Life and we took a walk around the school grounds to identify plants at different stages in their life cycle. We began the second day of term with prayers in the Chapel.   In Maths, we are learning to multiply larger numbers and we completed some excellent pair work, where we took on the role of teachers.  In RSHE we are thinking about being called to God.  We heard the story of the tax collector and created freeze frames.

Christmas Fun!

On our last full day of term, we took part in fun activities to improve our team work and communication skills and to help us get into the festive spirit.  This included a snowball challenge, Christmas statues, pass the parcel and creating a Christmas scene from paper drinking straws.

Westminster Cathedral Advent Mass

Year Five and Year Six travelled to Westminster Cathedral to attend Mass during Advent.  It was a very special occasion and we were able to hear the Mass in Latin.  After the Mass, Father Brian, who lead the service, complimented us on our wonderful behaviour.  He also reminded us that the Cathedral is a church for everyone and we are always welcome to visit.

Theatre for Every Child

We were inspired by our visit to "Matilda," and think that every child should be given the opportunity to visit the theatre.  We wrote letters to the Society of London Theatres to support their campaign to make this happen.

Matilda Reviews

Following our wonderful trip to the theatre last week, we wrote letters to the cast and crew of the show to share our reviews.  We have also made a book of our letters and pictures, which will be part of a new theatre section in our Library. 

Matilda

We had a wonderful time watching "Matilda," at the theatre. It was spectacular!  Everyone was very well behaved.  We travelled on the Bakerloo Line and arrived at Trafalgar Square.  This gave us the opportunity to see several famous landmarks and theatres before arriving at the Cambridge Theatre, where the performance was taking place.  We had to wait outside for a few minutes, which gave us time to perfect our Matilda poses!  Nobody was "Naughty," and several children mentioned that that would like to work in the theatre "When I Grow Up."  

Christmas is Coming!

We enjoyed Christmas jumper day and walked to church with Year One to take part in Advent Mass.

Maths - Fractions and Baking

We were the first class to cook in the brand new kitchen!  We began by calculating the fractions of ingredients we would need to make our cake and then worked in table groups to create delicious chocolate chip tray bakes.  We also used excellent team work and communication skills.  Once our cakes were in the oven, we all helped to wash and clean up.

Christmas Doors

We have decorated the door to our classroom with some beautiful, hand-made Christmas tree lights.  The lights remind us of the light and love which Jesus gives us and we all wrote a short prayer of thanks to him.

Christmas Craft

We have been making bracelets to sell at the Christmas Fayre.

English - Interviewing The Highwayman

We role played different characters in the poem "The Highwayman," and recorded our interviews using iPads.

Science - Investigations in the New Kitchen!

We were the first class to use the new kitchen area for a Science investigation when we put soap into the microwave for a minute and a half and observed the change of state.  (Remember, do not try this at home!)

Friendship Week - Learning Sign Language

We have been learning British Sign Language during Friendship Week.  We can now communicate basic greetings including "good morning," "good evening" and "hello."

Music - Recorders

This term, we have been learning about Jazz and playing the first notes on the recorder.

Memory Box

We visited the chapel and spent some time thinking about people who are no longer with us.  We wrote some memories and prayers for the memory box.

Science - States of Matter

We used stop-start animation to create short films about states of matter and how the atoms in solids, liquids and gasses are different from one another.

Geography - Locating Mountains

We began our new Geography topic by using Atlases and iPads to research and locate famous mountains.

Science - Investigating Materials

Do you know what this is?  We began our new Science topic by investigating the properties of materials.  We were given a mystery fabric and had to find out what it was by considering its properties and using the Internet for research.  We found out that the material is Kevlar, which was invented by a scientist called Stephanie Kwolek.

Black History Month - Writing a Persuasive Letter

We have been learning about persuasive writing in English.  We researched black role models and then wrote letters to Royal Mail to try and persuade them to feature these inspirational figures on future stamps.  We will let you know when we hear back!

Black History Month - African Drumming

We enjoyed our African Drumming workshop!

St Luke's Day 

We had a wonderful day, celebrating our class saint on his day of 18th October.  We started with a treasure hunt to find facts around the classroom.  This was followed by some quiet time to write prayers, which we shared in the Chapel.  Later in the day, we completed some art work.  We created symbols featuring St Luke's animal of the ox and made posters to thank workers in the NHS because St Luke is the patron saint of doctors.  The day ended with a tea party!

Spanish Theme Day

We dived into a world of Spanish culture and language. We had great fun in class starting to learn shape names in Spanish in Maths. We imagined what it would be like to holiday in Spain and created some persuasive sentences to encourage families to visit the country in Literacy.  Finally, we explored the vibrant world of Spanish art, creating Cubism portraits in the style of Picasso. Here are some pictures from our day.

Black History Month - History and RE

In History, we have been learning about the Vikings, who invaded the monasteries in the north of England.  We researched the life of St Hadrian, a very religious man, who helped to shape the future of the Church in England shortly before the Vikings arrived.  We started our learning with a quiz and then created factsheets.

Black History Month - Science

Our Science topic this half term is Earth and Beyond.  We have been learning all about the Solar System.  In Science, we learnt about three female, black scientists who have made huge achievements in this area.

Black History Month - Music

This half term, we have been learning about Rock and Roll Music.  During Black History Month, we listened to "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard, a pioneer of this style of music.  We created graphic scores to show the patterns in the music.

Black History Month - Performance Poetry

Year Five began Black History Month by performing poetry by the poet and rapper Karl Nova.

Viking Day Costumes and Fact Finding

Our Viking Day began with time to admire our costumes and props.  This as followed by a fact finding mission.  We researched and shared fun facts.

Viking Day - Broaches and Badges

We studied Viking patterns and designs and made our own badges and broaches.

Viking Day - Making Soda Bread

We followed a Viking recipe to make soda bread.  At the end of the day, we ate like Vikings by tearing off chunks of bread to taste.

Viking Day - Invasion!

We staged a (peaceful) invasion of Year Two!  They were very surprised when we explained that we wanted to take over their classroom.  After the invasion, we took some time to tell them about our costumes.

Viking Day - Dancing and Role Play

We researched Viking Long Ships and role played constructing and rowing one.  We followed this with some Viking style dancing!

Maths - Ordering and Rounding Numbers

This weeek, we have been learning to order and round numbers.  We played several fun games to help with our learning.  These skills also helped us in Science, where we learnt about the distance between planets in the Solar System using toilet paper.

Smart, New Uniforms!

Congratulations to the first winners of our new certificates to reward smart uniforms.  We are looking forward to giving out more in the near future.

Science - The Solar System

We followed instructions to make models to show how the the Sun, Moon and Earth are related to one another within the Solar System.  IT took patience and teamwork but was worth it!

English - Drama

We have been learning about abstract and concrete nouns and using this knowledge to create locations for our poems.  We imagined visiting these places and created freeze frames to show our reactions!

Our First Day in Year Five

Our first day in Year Five included an introduction to our new classroom, a class prayer in the Prayer Garden, team games and some quiet reading time in the Library.