Year 5

 2022 - 2023

Year 5 had an amazing trip to Wildwood today. We dodged the rain and enjoyed workshops all about how nature has changed over the years and the wonderful things the Blean Project are doing for future wilding.

Year 5 have been completing a lot of active learning today. To begin with they performed drama scenes in R.E based on the commandments in the Qu'ran and then in English, they went out onto the playground and  made their very own wordsearches based on Term 5 spellings for their friends to complete.

Year 5 have begun their Healthy Bodies week with a healthy picnic research task, where they designed a picnic, which included items from all of the five food groups and then they compared the supermarket prices for all the items. As well as this, they completed a mindfulness activity and demonstrated their healthy food and sporting knowledge in some Kahoot quizzes. What a great start to Healthy Bodies week!

Year 5 enjoyed a little sunshine yesterday while carrying out some Geography fieldwork in the village.  As our topic is 'Allotments' we were researching which area might be best to build a community allotment.  We selected a spot and drew maps of the chosen piece of ground and surrounding area. We also completed some perimeter and area calculations which will allow us to draw some more detailed, scaled plans in school today.

Purple Class took their writing outside today and focused on their senses to generate ideas for their setting description of the Amazon Rainforest. They came up with some lovely language and enjoyed being out in nature.

Year 5 kicked off our new Allotments topic by making our own self watering propagators.  We have all planted some sunflower seeds, so the race is on to see whose germinate first.

As part of Minster's Musical Masterpiece day, Purple class had the honour of visiting the Church to learn all about the history of the Church organ, to hear it played and to play it themselves. It was brilliant - if a little loud at times! As we left the Church, we walked out to the Harry Potter theme tune, which was instantly recognisable on the organ. Thank you to the team at the Church for having us.

Purple Class have been learning about the lifecycle of a frog and today they were given the challenge of drawing a frog from memory in five minutes. We discussed how a lot of these were cartoon like and 2D so we followed a tutorial on how to draw and shade a 3D frog and these were some of the results. What amazing work from Purple Class! Quite rightly, there were a lot of children who were very proud of their art.

Year 5 have been learning about the four stages of a frog's lifecycle, including the metamorphosis from tadpole to frog. The children learnt that the female frog can lay up to 4000 eggs at once and that the male frog guards the eggs from predators. We watched a video showing the whole four stages and the children saw the moment when the frog's limbs literally pop out of its internal body to become an external body part. As part of this learning, we went looking for tadpoles in the pond area and found other life in this habitat.

The Year 5 stayers days have come to an end with a visit to The Marlowe Theatre to watch The Demon Dentist. It was epic! What a show. The children loved it, as did Mrs Brown and Mrs Stanley. We were all lucky enough to make it back to school in time for the Coronation Party. These past three days have been wonderful and the children have been so fun to be around. Year 5 stayers - we are over and out!

Day two! More eating but not before a well battled out game of crazy golf, where there were quite a few hole in ones. After the matches, we visited the local gift shop and purchased souvenirs to remember the day by. At lunchtime, the children ate a three-course meal in Prezzo and wow, it was delicious and all plates were cleaned. We are all a little tired now but are beyond excited for our trip to the theatre tomorrow, which for some of the group will be a first! The stayers know how to have a good time!

Isle of Wight - Day 1

At the Needles

Stayers activities – day one!

We have had so much fun today. The day began with preparing the dough to make our individual pizzas and these turned out amazingly well. The smell of them once they had all been cooked was delicious – Pizza Hut eat your heart out. The children had their picnic in the Forest school area, complete with Mrs Stanley’s extra special rice krispie cakes, sliced melon and sliced pineapple. After the food had been devoured, it was time for a few rounds of Dodgeball out in the sunshine. In the afternoon, the children visited Minster Bowls club and were given a masterclass in lawn bowls, as well as lawn bowls golf. The kind team at the club also provided snacks and drinks, which again the children devoured. There has been a lot of eating today. Year 5 had some very talented players amongst the group and the children were a credit to the school on their visit. What a great first day! Now it is time to rest in preparation for tomorrow’s trip to Broadstairs.

Purple Class visited the story tent and discussed the key themes in the text, The Kindest Red. They identified the theme of friendship and explained what a kind child would be like.

Turquoise Class dodged the rain today and enjoyed reading the beautiful story 'The Kindest Red' outside  in our story tent area.  We spent lots of time talking about the message in the book and how we could take that forward and be the kindest version of ourselves.

Year 5 have kicked off our new Beast Creator topic by going on a minibeast hunt. We learned what makes a mini beast and all about the habitats they prefer. We then classified the ones we discovered and put them back very carefully.

Year 5 and 6 were lucky enough to have a visit from a theatre group, performing their "Who Cares" piece. This was a trip through the NHS and a sample of over the 300 jobs that are available in the NHS. It was funny, engaging, interactive and educational. Both year groups laughed a lot, learnt a lot and had a really good time.

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.