Year 5 - Term 1 2021

At the start of our Topic - Earth and Space - we used our hall as a small-scale Solar System and measured the distances of planets to the Sun. By using toilet paper and a conversion table, where each toilet was equivalent to 17 million miles, we managed to work out how close the planets were to each other and the Sun relative to our Solar System, the hall.

In art, we practised using compasses to help draw accurate circles for the planets of the Solar System. With perseverance and determination, the children produced some impressively neat drawings.

                               

Later on in the term, we used papier-mâché to create our own planets. With balloons, a paste and lots of newspaper, in groups the children made each planet for a Solar System. After drying, we painted them and created our own Solar System with washing lines across our classroom.

We continued working creatively by learning the different phases of the moon through block printing. We started by creating our stencils with scissors and cardboard of each moon phase to dip into the ink. Once ready, we were able to print the moon phase into our sketch books. Due to the grooves on our pieces of cardboard, we had to press our stencil down with great force and before labelling the moons.

              

                                          

As part of our ELLI focus for this term, the children undertook different activities which would challenge them. We started off by trying to unpick riddles before moving on to these two activities. Firstly, the children had to move water from a cup to a jug blindfolded, with the cups decreasing in size as they progressed through the challenges. Our second challenge was to create towers out of dice using pencils. In this challenge, the children showed that practise makes progress as they started to find and use strategies which helped. Some used the grooves in the dice for grip, some used the opposite end of the pencil to steady the dice. Both activities caused an element of frustration, at times, but we learnt a great lesson in perseverance!

       

                                    

In literacy, the children were reading The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. Because of Ted Hughes' reasons for writing this novel, we decided to research about his life and the experiences that influenced his writing. After this, the children produced scripts and PowerPoints to present to the class.

During the month of The Rosary, Y5 got to experience worshipping with their own Rosary beads. They learnt the prayers that come with The Rosary and why this is an important practice for Catholics.