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Abbotswood Primary School

Together We Aim High, Believe and Achieve

2023-24 Year 5 Otters and Woodpeckers

Welcome to Year 5!

Meet the team...

Mrs Welsh (Otter Class Teacher) Mr House (Woodpecker Class Teacher)

Miss Short (Teaching Assistant Mon, Tues, Wed) Mrs Hollick (Teaching Assistant)

Explorer Dome

As part of our space day, we had the explorer dome in where we enjoyed learning all about the solar system. We also completed astronaut training and tried astronaut space food.

Check out our amazing Space homework!

2022 - 2023

Air Resistance Experiment

As part of our enquiry 'What Do Forces Actually Do?', Year 5 carried out an experiment to test the effect of air resistance on different size parachute. To make it a fair test, we made sure we kept the weight, length of string and height of drop the same.

Jailbreak Competition

Recently, Year 5’s took part in a Jailbreak competition. Jailbreak is a collaborative, invasion game that requires tactical awareness. The objective of the game is to steal balls from the opposition and get as many players from the opposition’s team in their jail.

There were 6 schools that attended the competition. Abbotswood entered two teams, finishing in 3rd and 4th place. We are very proud to have won The Fair Play Award for showing great teamwork, resilience and sportsmanship.

Year 5 – Easter at St Nick’s Church

On Wednesday, Year 5 were invited to go to St Nick’s church for a special Easter workshop. We got to take part in a roundabout of activities including listening to a sand story, drawing our idea of hope on rainbow paper and making a model friend with pipe cleaners. It was a lovely way to spend part of our morning.

Baking Flapjack for the Homeless

As part of our enquiry 'How Can Science Help the Vulnerable?', we have been looking at a local charity called 'Lizzie's Soup Run'. Using our knowledge of reversible and irreversible changes, we made flapjacks to donate to the charity so they can be handed out to people living on the streets.

Insulating Materials Experiment

We have been experimenting with different materials to find out which ones are the best insulator. We want to know which materials would be best for keeping people living on the streets warm. To find out, we wrapped different bottles of water in different materials and checked the temperature of the water at various points throughout the day.

Artists - How Do Different Artists Represent Their View of the Earth?

In today’s lesson, we looked at 3 different artists that have studied and created art based on the Solar System. We looked at Charles Bittenger, Ludek Pesek and Chelsey Bonestell. Each artist portrayed the Solar System is a different way and each one had a unique style. For the second half of the lesson, we looked at Charles Bittenger’s work in more detail and looked at how he used bright colours and how he created shadows using smudging. We then had a go at creating our own copies of some of his pieces.

How Do Different Artists Represent Their View of the Earth?

In today’s lesson, we looked at 3 different artists that hav studied and created art based on the Solar System. We looked at Charles Bittenger, Ludek Pesek and Chelsey Bonestell. Each artist portrayed the Solar System is a different way and each one had a unique style. For the second half of the lesson, we looked at Charles Bittenger’s work in more detail and looked at how he used bright colours and how he created shadows using smudging. We then had a go at creating our own copies of some of his pieces.

2021-2022

Term 4 - The Tudors

Science Week

We celebrated science week in year 5 and did a round robin of activities with some of the year 5 and year 6 teachers.

With Mr Edwards, we created proteins called enzymes out of amino acids. With Miss Griffiths, we created our own antibodies. These stick to viruses to attack and destroy them. With Miss Jolliffe, we looked at illusions. With Miss James, we looked at a plants life cycle.

We did lots of other things too. Including, lots of assemblies and extra visits to the allotment and forest school area looking at the lifecycle of a daffodil.

Fractions in Maths

To consolidate our fractions knowledge, we took part in different activities - we played games on the laptops, converted mixed and improper fractions, compared fractions and completed some loop cards. We loved the practical learning lessons.

Terrible Tudors

We have continued to learn about the Tudors this term. We have learnt about Tudor houses and compared how these are similar and different to Viking houses and modern day houses. We then learnt about the different illnesses and cures used in the Tudor times. We were shocked at the different cures, or lack of them! We have also learnt about the different crimes and punishments from the Tudor times and compared them to modern day punishments.

Exciting Electricity

This term we have been learning about Electricity. We have used the equipment to make different circuits, learnt the proper symbols for the different components and investigated the effects of voltage on bulbs, motors and buzzers.

Easter Reflection at St Nix Church

On Wednesday 30th March, Year 5 were invited to St Nix church for an Easter Reflection. After hearing the Easter story, they took part in 4 activities - what qualities do good friends have, what are we grateful for, what are our hopes and dreams and what questions do we have. It was a great morning and thankyou to the church and volunteers for inviting us.

Reading with Year 1 and 2.

We were very lucky enough to visit Badgers and Hedgehog class today and have the opportunity to hear them read. When we arrived in class, we picked a 'reading buddy' and we listened to them read their school reading book. We asked the children relevant questions about the text and asked them to make predictions based on what they had read already. This is going to become a regular occurrence and happen every week. We can't wait to hear them read again!

Term 3 - The Tudors

Big Bang

To start the term, we spent some time learning who the Tudors were. We looked at timelines, family trees and spent some time learning about the key events from the Tudor times.

We really enjoyed learning about the Battle of Bosworth, King Henry VIII and his wives, Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada.

We are excited to find out more about what life was like during the Tudor times.

Lego Club

Over the past 2 terms, 10 children from Year 5 have been taking part in Lego club. They have been learning to programme a robot to complete different missions. They have also completed an innovation project. All their hard work has been building up to taking part in the Lego League competition.

Tudor Rose Cross stitch

This term, in DT, we have been learning to sew. We have used cross stitch and back stitch to create a Tudor Rose. First, we had to mark out the image onto the Binka. We then learnt the different stitches before starting our sewing. We are so proud of them.

Environmental Week

The final week of Term 3 was environmental week. We read the story 'Song of a dolphin boy'. During this story, dolphins in the ocean get hurt and injured because they think the helium balloons on the surface of the water are jelly fish. A group of children set out to help save the dolphins.

During the week, we learnt about the effects of plastic pollution in the oceans. We created posters with facts about plastic pollution.

We also investigated litter in our local community and noticed that disposable facemasks are littering our area. We decided to make reusable facemasks. We started by tie dying some material using natural dye (red cabbage and turmeric). We then pinned the material together before sewing. We learnt to do over stitch, back stitch and blanket stitch. We are extremely proud of the final outcome.

Tie Dye

Sewing

Our finished facemasls!

Term 2 - Trapped!

Becoming Polar Explorers

This term we are learning about Ernest Shackleton and his expedition to the South Pole. We all replied to his advert and took part in a multi-stage interview process. Part of this interview was a physical task where we had to show our physical and leadership abilities. We were given many challenges, including crossing the swamp!

At the end of the week, we were all given our identities aboard the expedition and recreated the original team photo.

Colour mixing

In art this term, we thought all about colours and creating and using different colours and brush techniques. We thought carefully about how to mix different colours to create our artwork focussing particularly on the colour blue.

Our amazing Visitor - Al Sylvester

To end what has been an exciting and interesting topic, we were lucky enough to have a visitor in school. Al Sylvester, an experienced explorer, visited us to talk about life as an explorer. He told us all about his own exciting and dangerous journey to the South Pole. Just like Ernest Shackleton planned to, he trekked across the Antarctic most of the way to the South Pole. He told us his amazing story, shared photographs with us and allowed us to try on some of his kit! It was one of the most interesting mornings we had and we learnt so much about life as an explorer.

He also reminded us that we can do whatever we want to do, if we have confidence and believe in ourselves.

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Term 1 - The Vikings

Big Bang!

To start off the term, Year 5 took part in a Viking day. We started the morning with a treasure hunt. We had to find pictures, which were clues to help us work out what we would be learning about in History. We founds different dates, maps and pictures of shoes, boats and coins. We worked out that we would be learning about THE VIKINGS!

In the afternoon, we took part in 3 activities.

Activity 1 - making trollkors.

We used pieces of wire and twisted them around to make a trollkor or a troll cross. The Vikings believed that they would ward off the dangerous sorts of magic and evil trolls.

Activity 2 - writing in runes in clay

Activity 3 - weaving

The Vikings used a loom to weave their own clothes. We had a go at weaving - it was much harder than we thought!

Science

In Science this term, we have been learning about fair testing. We learnt how to ask a question and set up an experiment to test it out.

One of our questions was

What would happen to the size of the gummy bear if we changed the type of liquid it was placed in but kept the colour of the gummy bear and the amount of liquid in each container the same.

The following day we observed what had happened and we were surprised by the results - some of the bears had grown! We used see saw to take photos and voice record our findings.