Year 5

 2022 - 2023

This week, the children have been considering how the Gospel of Mark described the journey of Jesus through Holy Week. The children worked together in groups to match the text with the images and there were some deep and in-depth discussions being had. Finally, the children discussed which part of the Easter story they thought was the most important to Christians and why.

Year 5 have kicked off this week with a gruesome science experiment. As part of our Pestilience/Plague topic, we are investigating different types of bacteria and how well they might grow in our classrooms. We predicted which areas we thought might be 'bacteria hotspots' and rubbed pieces of bread on them. Now we wait to see if our predictions, of what we think will happen next, are correct!

Purple class began international Women's day with a clear-cut case of injustice. The girls were tasked with sitting on the floor and sorting out the felt tip pen tray and sharpening pencils. Meanwhile the boys, sat comfortably in their chairs and read their books.. We discussed how this one experience highlighted the fact that females around the world are often treated worse than males and don't always get the same experiences. It was a powerful message.

Year 5 completed a carousel of Minster Maths Madness activities today, working in groups to complete challenges involving multiplication, Roman numerals, timetables and addition and subtraction. There was a great atmosphere as the children enjoyed the competitive element and recalling their Maths knowledge.

This morning Year 5 have been learning all about the Danse Macabre or The Dance of Death, an artistic genre of the late Middle Ages. This style was popular during the time of the plague. They tried very hard to capture the movement of the skeletons dancing, using ink and cocktail sticks to make the marks.

Year 5 began their Peasants, Princes and Pestilence topic by being biologists. The children created their own buboes by adding custard and food colouring to a jam doughnut. They then heated these and popped them, just as they did in Medieval times. As a biologist, the children dissected the buboes and identified the blood, pus and infection. It was a gruesome and gory start to the term!

Year 5 launched their rockets today with every rocket taking to the sky! They were lucky enough to have Year 1 come and watch and they completed the count downs together. See if you can spot the rockets in the sky - one even looked like it was flying to the moon! There are definitely some future engineers and astronauts amongst the year group.

To launch STEM week, Year 5 have worked together to create rockets to launch. The children constructed the nose cones and the fins, as well as adding decorative details and giving their rockets a name. The big question now will be, how well and how far will they fly tomorrow?

Year 5 have thrown themselves into Number Day today and begun the day by solving some maths problems. They worked brilliantly in their groups and demonstrated some fantastic number knowledge. They would now like you to do something for them:

Think of a whole number. Now double it. Add ten. Half the number. Take away the number that you started with. 

Year 5 think that the number you are now thinking of is....5!

 Year 5 have visited the library this week, as part of their Reading Relay. This week, they had the opportunity to visit the Arctic Circle when examining the book, The Good Bear. The children then when on a hunt to find more books about bears, information about the Arctic circle and facts about polar bears. Did you know that a polar bear can sense a seal from nineteen miles away? Impressive! Year 5 love visiting the library.

Year 5 have been enjoying our new Reading Relay Library Challenge.  We are visiting fabulous fictional and real places through reading during term 3. Mr Kenny even popped in because we were having so much fun.

Year 5 began the week by using the internet to research the different planets in our Solar System. They were tasked with finding interesting and unusual facts about the planets and discovered facts such as:

Saturn has the most moons of any planet in the solar system

A year on Mercury in 88 Earth days

Venus is sometimes called, Earth’s evil twin.

The children then discussed which planet they would most like to visit and why. Now we just have to organise the school trip!

Year 5 kicked off their new topic Stargazers with a visit from The Astronomy Roadshow. They got to learn about stars, planets, rockets, black holes and much more in their very own planetarium.

Year 5 have had a brilliant week learning all about our chosen country Spain, for the start of this year's World Cup. We've learned to speak some Spanish, researched the geography of the country, created fact files, poems and persuasive pieces of writing with all the research we carried out too. It has been ESTUPENDO!

Year 5 have been examining the physical and human geographical features of Egypt. They have understood that human features are man-made and physical features are natural. The children have also examined how humans can change the physical landscape, such as by building pyramids in a desert. Today, at the start of their lesson they analysed photos of Egypt and justified whether they were human or physical features and afterwards researched the geography of Egypt. This could be their specialist subject on Mastermind now!

Year 5 had great fun decoding Ancient Egyptian. We discussed the similarities and differences between hieroglyphics and the English language and translated some hidden messages. We recalled interesting facts about Tutankhamun and wrote them in hieroglyphics on papyrus paper.

Year 5 have been having great fun learning how to be game developers this term. So far, we've created a storyboard of our game and this week we've been inventing characters, creating backgrounds and sound effects on Scratch.

Year 5 had a visit from a medal winning British athlete today, who runs the 400 metres in an incredible 50 seconds. As part of their day, the children got to take part in an exercise circuit, which was fun but hard work. You can see from the photos how much they loved it! There is still time to sponsor the children for their efforts and help raise money for new sports equipment for the school! There will be wrist bands available for children who raise more than £5. Perhaps the children can design their own exercise circuit for you to complete.

Year 5 took part in the Roar Project School Final today, with special guest visitors from Thanet Lions Club. Before the grand final, all children got to share and discuss their ideas with Mr McCarthy and the Thanet Lions team. The children were so passionate about their ideas and prototypes and were shining examples of how this generation can improve the future. The final four teams then pitched their ideas and their creative presentations were worthy of a spot on Dragons Den. The judging panel of Mr McCarthy and The Thanet Lions team deliberated for sometime but eventually decided that the idea going through to the Kent Final was The Nana Star Smart (pronounced narna as in banana.) Congratulations to all of Year 5! You were all brilliant!

Year 5 begun their new topic, Pharaohs, by mummifying each other. Earlier in the lesson, they demonstrated an understanding of the mummification process, including removing internal organs, mashing up the brain and stuffing the body with sawdust, however we decided to use our imagination and skip these stages and just do the wrapping in bandages (or in our case toilet roll) instead. As you can see, there were some excellent mummies or really played their part well.

This term, Purple Class have been taking part in Performing arts lessons and today performed Bugsy Malone to their families. It was wonderful to see their singing, dancing and acting abilities. It was a great success and the children should be really proud of themselves!

This term, Year 5 have been learning all about theme park rides as part of their Scream Machine topic. To end the topic, the children built a prototype of their very own drop ride! This involved a great level of independence, resilience, synthesis and creativity. The year group were amazing and as you can see from the photos, there were some particularly scary themes. Perhaps we will be riding these for real in the future!

Year 5 all became Creation Crusaders when they designed and made 2023 calendars on the theme of Reduce, Recycle, Reuse. The hope is that the children will take them home and receive a small donation in exchange for the calendar. All the small donations will be put together and with the money rasied, Year 5 will adopt an animal at Wingham Wildlife Park. By adopting this animal, they will be creating a better life for it. The intention is to visit their adopted animal when they have an educational visit to Wingham, as part of their Beast Creator topic in Term 5! Well done Year 5!

Year 5 have started the design process for our very own drop rides to culminate our Scream Machine topic.  They've been thinking about what mechanisms and systems they will need in order for them to function properly. They've also decided what them they would like their ride to have so that it is aesthetically pleasing too. 

Year 5 have been investigating the effects of water resistance today and have been considering the best design for a boat ride in a theme park. The children have thought about how it needs to be streamlined, with curve, smooth edges, which keep the rider safe and don't let water in it. The children made boat out of tin foil and raced them in water trays, some rather more successfully than others. There were a few that sunk and a couple that capsized but it was still really good fun to investigate!

This week, Year 5 have begun learning about the features of setting descriptions because they will be describing a theme park in detail, including its sights, sounds and smells. In this piece of writing, the children will also be bringing to life the carousel and the Scenic Railway. Today, they were identifying the features and language techniques within setting descriptions. They did a fabulous job of this! Well done Year 5. 

Year 5 have begun learning about forces and this week focused on gravity. They were able to identify their centre of gravity and that in a number of situations( as shown in the photos,) certain movements are difficult to achieve because your centre of gravity is off. There was a lot of wobbling and generally being unbalanced. It was great fun.

2021 - 2022

Purple class have been investigating volume in maths and were building their own cuboids of 12cm cubed. We discovered that there are a number of combinations that the cuboids could be made in and we used the height x width x length calculation to check the volume of the cuboids.

Year 5 have been making self-watering propagators as part of their allotment topic. Today, they have planted sunflower seeds and are hoping that now that the seeds will be watered by the string within the propagator, they will germinate and begin to grow.

On Monday 16th May we went to Wingham Wildlife Park. It was a brilliant day and we were so lucky to have several talks from the keepers.

To launch their Beast Creator topic, year 5 went on an invertebrate hunt this morning in the school grounds. You can see from the photos the variety of minibeasts they are also part of our school.

As part of their investigation into the Black Death, Year 5 were biologists and studied the anatomy of a bubo. They realised that the bubo was a swelling like a boil and that it was filled with blood, pus and an infection. In order to recreate one to dissect, the children filled a jam doughnut with custard (the pus) and green food dye (the infection.) In the Mediaeval times, the plague doctor believed that bursting the buboes would release the toxins so the children tried this too. Their buboes were warmed in a microwave and popped. The children then saw that the bubo oozed, the blood, pus and infection. They loved learning about the anatomy of a bubo and being biologists for the morning.

Purple Class ended their Egyptian topic this term by making Egyptian neme headdresses. They ensured they used contrasting colours in their band design and used metallic paints to reflect the wealth and status of the Egyptian pharaohs. The children were particularly pleased to be able to parade the playground and show their art work to their buddy class, Blue Class. What a wonderful end to a fascinating topic.