Welcome back to school and Term 3! 
As always, we have many exciting learning opportunities lined up this term. These include a tour of Boston; a visit from Mr Lawrence, who works at the Port of Boston and of course the swimming lessons everyone has been looking forward to.

Our learning centres around understanding our own locality this term. We will explore the many stories which connect this Boston with the American Boston, and the importance of the docks to the town, both in the past and currently. We will also practise our map skills while learning about North America. In Art, Banksy and Rousseau are the artists we will compare and then create our own works based on their styles.

For homework projects we would like to ask everyone to research a country in South America (which will be our focus next term) and create a project of your own design. Examples could be in the form of a power point, a shoebox montage, display with facts about the chosen country or top trump cards. 
 

Please come and join us on Wednesday 18th January for our class assembly, which will showcase all our learning about space.

Thursday 9th February 

Port Manager visit

Year 5 were delighted to receive a visit from Mr Lawrence of the Port of Boston. He showed many photos of ships that come and go through the port, their cargo and how this is loaded and discharged. There were many fascinating facts such as that one of the cranes cost £2.5million, one of the largest ships coming through Boston could carry 84 tonnes and it takes three days to travel here on a cargo ship from Finland.

By the time he left, many children were considering careers at the port - there are a range of opportunities available!

Wednesday 8th February 

Guided Reading 

All of Class Tolerance are very proud of themselves for being able to learn by heart and then perform a poem this week. The confidence now when performing in front of the class is noticeably higher than the first performance at the beginning of the term. Well done everyone!

Monday 6th February 

Science

We were able to separate mixtures in Science, using different processes to suit the materials. For flour and raisins we used sieving. Magnetism separated paper clips from rice and filtration separated sand and water.

Monday 6th February 

Art

We discussed all our learning to date, exploring artist’s techniques before creating our own art pieces in the style of Banksy and Rousseau. We drew the background and little girl, then painted the balloon using a template, showing our understanding of monochromatic work. Illustrating understanding of analogous work, we chose neighbouring colours to paint jungle scenes in the style of Rousseau.

Friday 3rd February 

French

We explored differences and similarities between French and English towns. We were able to identify shop names in French, then design our own town, labelling in shops in French. Following this, we were fascinated by the view on Google maps, as we were able to see real French streets, including street cafes. We were delighted to be offered croissants to help us imagine sitting on the pavement outside one of these cafes.

Thursday 2nd February 

History

Many thanks to the wonderful Jane Keightley for our tour of Boston’s historic buildings. We were fascinated by the stories of past wealth and details of how these buildings had been used. After spotting names (familiar because of our history lessons) on the memory stones outside the church, we were able to recall the tale of migration of Bostonians here to Boston in USA.

Library 

Wednesday 25th January 

We were delighted to take the opportunity to choose a book to read for pleasure, there are so many brilliant books to choose between! Several recommendations were given and received, and we all left happy with a book we can’t wait to read.

Science

Wednesday 25th January

We investigated dissolving today, learning that when a solid is added to a liquid and dissolves, it forms a solution. We also found out that evaporation is a way of reversing the process, by experimenting with salt. We left a salt solution overnight, and were amazed to find salt crystals had formed the next day.

Art

Monday 23rd January 

We explored colour value this week, looking at both Banksy and Rousseau’s works. We then copied parts of their paintings and experimented with changing colours by adding darker and lighter shades of paint.

Wednesday 18th January 

Class assembly 

We were delighted to welcome our families and carers to watch a performance all about our space learning. Everyone had learned their lines by heart, spoke clearly and loudly and presented themselves and their learning confidently - the Year 5 team were very proud!

Friday 13th January 

Library

We loved our visit to the school library, reading and discussing books. The librarians helped other children find particular genres they wanted and everyone enjoyed all the book talk. We can’t wait to go again!

Wednesday 11th January 

Maths

We used concrete representations when learning to use the grid method in order to multiply 2 digits by 2 digit numbers. We quickly got the hang of this, so were able to move to drawing the calculations large scale. 

Tuesday 10th January 

English

We ended our Speeches Week with the grande finale - everyone presented their speech, with only a prompt card to support. There were many, many nerves but everyone achieved their goals and we were all proud of each other. In order to give a voice to one of the many animals affected by destructive human activity, the lemurs of Madagascar, we learned about the problems they face. Drastic loss of habitat caused by deforestation and the illegal pet trade are two serious challenges they face. Some children were so inspired to help, they have joined the WWF!

Thursday 5th January 

History

We learned about what life was like in seventeenth century England and the level of religious persecution and discrimination suffered by people who did not conform to the official religion and how they reacted. Boston was involved in stories about different groups of people migrating to the New World, including the famous story of the Mayflower and the Pilgrim Fathers. To ensure understanding, we acted out parts of the story.

Wednesday 4th January 

RE

We read the gospels account of Jesus’ death and resurrection, then in pairs we created a freeze frame to represent each part of the story.