What a fun packed, busy term we have had in Year 5! Whilst it may seem like a lifetime ago, year 5 started the term with their swimming course and we cannot begin to tell you how proud of each and every one of the children we were by the end of the three week course! Everyone worked super hard and showed fantastic determination to make excellent progress in their swimming. It was so lovely to see the smiles on their faces as they persevered with something they were finding difficult and to hear the pride in their voices when they said “I can swim now!”. Everyone’s behaviour was fantastic and they were a real credit to you and the school when out at the swimming pool. We look forward to hearing about all of the fun they now have when swimming in the future!
This term, our topic has been ‘Secrets of the Deep’ and we have had lots of fun exploring the different wonders of the ocean. We began by learning all about the different continents and oceans of the world, the continent song (which can be found on YouTube) is now a firm favourite in the year 5 classrooms! Following this, we learnt all about the different marine wonders of the world, we researched facts about the Great Barrier Reef, Mariana Trench, The Red Sea and many more! We were particularly interested in the idea of being able to float on The Red Sea! Whilst looking into the Great Barrier Reef, we explored the dangers that tourism is having, we learnt about how important the coral reefs of the world are and different ways in which we can protect them! We looked closely at the different layers of the ocean, learning all about the different animals that can be found in each layer. We have really enjoyed exploring the different animals of the ocean and we clearly have some animal fanatics in year 5!
Alongside our work into the wonders of the ocean, we spent some time learning all about Herbert Nitsch, a famous free diver, who can hold his breath underwater for a miraculous 9 minutes! We had a go ourselves to see how long we could hold our breath but soon discovered how hard it is!
We have spent some time exploring computer programming on scratch this term after we took part in a live lesson with Barclays, where we created our own game whilst also learning about plastic pollution in the ocean! Following on from this, we followed instructions set by Miss Shepherd to help us create our own ‘shark attack’ and ‘chase’ games. The instructions for these are all on Google Classroom if you would like to have a go at these again over the Easter break!
In English this term, we looked into the Titanic disaster and we were very impressed to hear lots of facts that the children already knew. We had some really interesting discussions surrounding this. After looking at survivor statements and facts and figures, we created our own newspaper articles all about the disaster. Children also used their math and ICT skills to create a database looking at the number of survivors who made it onto the lifeboats. They were able to use formulas on Google Sheets to calculate the percentage of people on each of the boats. This information really shocked and moved the children. Moving on from the Titanic, we have started to read Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’. We have created detailed drawings of the island, made predictions about the story and even explored the story from a different character’s perspective. The children are really enjoying this story and I am sure they are talking about it with you at home. We are looking forward to continuing our work on this after the holidays!
Children have also enjoyed working in their various Senedd groups this term. They have voted and elected Chairs, Vice Chairs, Secretaries and Treasurers for each department and are currently working on action plans that they have developed with their child’s voice! We have been blown away with their ideas already and can’t wait to see what they come up with in the future.
We hope you all have a wonderful Easter break and we are looking forward to starting our new, exciting theme after the holidays!
