Term 4

Welcome back! Term 4 begins with Paddington Bear providing us with lots to complain about in English. In Geography we are going to learn all about the countries and different cultures of South America and of course, we continue everyone's favourite form of PE - swimming.

English

Wednesday 24th February

Paddington Bear has arrived and caused chaos! We went into role as seriously disgruntled neighbours complaining about the damage to our properties, remembering to consider expression/tone of voice and use of new vocabulary.

French

Friday 25th February

In French we are practising giving directions. We gave each other instructions in French such as, 'deux pas à gauche' and 'un pas à droite' and followed them, moving two steps to the left or one step to the right to show we understood.

Computing

Friday 25th February

We were excited to learn about spreadsheets using Excel. Most of us were unaware of the features of Excel, such as that it can work as a calculator! By inputting a formula, numbers in different cells can be added together. We were able to think of many situations when this would be useful.

Thursday 3rd March

World Book Day

The day began with much excitement and admiring of each other’s costumes. We wanted to celebrate World Book Day with as many books as possible, so we set up a book cafe. Different genres of books were set out at tables, and in groups we had time to explore each and note details that would inspire us to read a particular book. Adventure, mystery, Pokemon (we found out that Japanese books are written from right to left so the back is actually the front cover!), non-fiction - there were so many books to explore that it was unsurprising that everyone found at least one book they really wanted to read!

Thursday 3rd March

Continuing our learning about seasonality and bread making, we researched different breads from around the world. We discussed the need for market research, finding out what is already available and trying to see if there was a gap in the market for a new product. Then came the part we had been looking forward to - taste testing different breads! We recorded our opinions of the appearance, texture, smell and taste and compared with others in our groups. Many of us tried breads we would never have eaten otherwise, containing olives, herbs and tomatoes.

Monday 7th March

PCSO visit
PCSO Williams came to talk to Years 5 and 6 about internet safety. We worked in groups to discuss all the questions he asked us and were able to show our understanding of how to keep safe on the internet when given scenarios to consider. We were surprised by the permanence of the internet, many of us didn’t realise that even after you delete a picture, it has not disappeared, people can still access these. We discussed again the importance of following age recommendations and not playing games, apps or using online sites designed for older children.

Tuesday 8th March

Science

We investigated irreversible changes this week, we knew that this type of change creates new materials. We couldn’t wait to see what happened when we mixed bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. We watched in amazement as the balloon inflated! After discussion and thinking about biCARBONate of soda, we realised that this experiment had produced carbon dioxide. We did not know what a useful gas this is, that it provides the fizz in our fizzy drinks and that it puts out fires.

We then mixed warm milk with vinegar, correctly predicting that it would cause the milk to curdle. However, we were very surprised to learn that this formed a type of plastic, called casein, which was used to make buttons and combs in the early twentieth century.

Wednesday 9th March
Printing

We began our printing project this week. We were able to recall the tools and skills we used before Christmas, creating a mind map to show this. We then practised with the tools on pieces of lino, making straight lines and curves before printing the results.

Monday 14th March

English

In English, we are learning about explanation texts, and will be writing our own about marmalade making machines. First, as some children had not tried marmalade before so did not know why Paddington likes it so much, we all had marmalade sandwiches. From the faces in the photos the different responses can be seen!
We went on to design our own marmalade making machine, labelling it with technical terms such as dispenser, conveyor belt and chute.

Wednesday 16th March

The long awaited day arrived – everyone has been looking forward to making the bread they designed last week. Working in small groups, the ingredients were weighed out, mixed then the kneading began. This was harder work than many were expecting! After proving the dough, more kneading then the adding ingredients and shaping to match the designs began. Seeds, garlic, feta cheese and olives were the choices – many children tried a small piece of something new. Olives received many “Yuk”s whereas feta cheese was popular!

Thursday 17th March

The exciting part of baking bread - the evaluation! Everyone was very keen to try their creation, and after smelling, feeling and tasting their bread, all agreed they had done a super job of following the process from design to product.

Look at the effort that has gone into these homework projects about South America this term! We have been amazed by the research undertaken and the creativity in producing these masterpieces. Well done Year 5, these will all be on display next term.

Bikeability

Monday 21st March

First the children congregated on the playground to complete level one and confirm everyone knew the rules of the road and were confident cycling in pairs. Then they progressed to riding on the roads, practising different road positions, cycling past and into junctions and learning to ‘control’ the road. To witness how much their confidence grew over the two days was wonderful, every child was rightly proud of their achievements. They all receive a badge and certificate.

Wednesday 30th March

Swimming

All the children enjoyed the last session that brought to an end the swimming unit for this term. Everyone has made so much progress, it has been a pleasure to watch their confidence and competence in the water grow, week after week.

Guided Reading

Thursday 31st March

The challenge for this week was to learn a poem by heart and perform it to the class - well done to all as everyone achieved this! The poem was Seeking Answers by John Agard, and the children showed their interpretations of it through their performances.