What a fantastic start to the year!
This term the children have taken a step back in time and have been learning all about the Dynamic Dynasty! The children have explored many artefacts and have carried out lots of enquiries to discover what life was like in during the Shang Dynasty. The children were able to step into the shoes of a warrior as they wrote diary entries the night before they stepped into battle. They also became podcast presenters and recorded episode 1 ‘The silk road’ which educated others on trade during the Shang Dynasty.
In English, the children have read and explored the text ‘Bronze and Sunflower’, a story set in China to link in with our History topic. They also read ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom’ by Louis Sachar. The children enjoyed writing a persuasive text and some fantastic narratives based upon the story. Many of the children have gone on to recommend the book to others or are now reading books written by the same author!
In Maths, Year 5 have been working with numbers up to 1,000,000 and securing their addition and subtraction skills. They have also been working hard on our multiplication and division skills. The children have been securing their knowledge of their times tables. The children have then applied these to long multiplication and bus stop division.
During Science, Year 5 have enjoyed conducting many experiments as part of our science topic: Forces and mechanisms. Children led their own investigations into gravity, water resistance and air resistance. The children used the data that they collected to form their own conclusions. Year 5 have also toughly enjoyed their Earth and Space topic. The children have learned a fun mnemonic to remember the order of the planets. They made a simple model to help them understand how the moon orbits the Earth and how the Earth orbits the Sun, and created a movie to explain all the exciting facts! They also explored how the Earth’s rotation creates a range of phenomena, including day and night and the appearance of the sun rising above the Earth’s horizon in the East at Sunrise and setting in the West at Sunset. Earth and space is ALWAYS a fascinating topic!
Our Geography unit, saw children exploring topography and how the land use of the local area of Hastings has changed over the years. The children worked on their map skills. They enjoyed exploring Ordnance survey maps of the local area and learning how to use 4 and 6 figure grid references.
We particularly enjoyed DT this term, in which children designed, created and evaluated their own pulley systems. They had to use all their skills, especially their teamwork, problem solving and staying positive skills when creating their product as they encountered hurdles along the way.
A highlight of our term has been seeing the children achieve their Bronze and Silver stars for doing either 25 or 50 quality pieces of work in their star books! Well done to everyone who has earned their so far!
As we come to the end of a busy term, the children are looking forward to ‘wrap a gift’, the Christmas grotto, Christmas jumper day and Christmas lunch! We look forward to seeing what Term 3 and 4 has to hold for us all!
