We have also had a lot of assessments this week including 3x maths and one comprehension. We have had a bit of a school trip this week as well because we went to Longmeadow Church. We were learning about the Easter story, we got to plant our own sunflowers and we got to fill out a booklet. We also had the choice to wash our feet or wash our hands if we wanted to.  This showed how kind Jesus was because he washed his disciples’ feet.

In Literacy we have been writing a narrative based on a video titled One Small Step. As part of an experience day, we made origami rockets, which was really tricky to do! It helped us to understand what Luna felt like when she was experiencing failure in the story. Also this week we celebrated World Book Day where we dressed up as our favourite book characters, read with the Reception children, had a World Book Day themed quiz and made a creative origami bookmark.

We had fun in the Boxercise session this week doing different exercises. In Music, we have been carrying on with our Grime tracks but adding in some audio. The final result was very successful. 

In Science, we conducted an experiment to find out how much gas was produced as part of the non-reversible reaction between a vitamin C tablet and water. We had to use film canisters and put a quarter of a vitamin tablet in it with water. When we turned them upside down, the film canister shot up like a rocket because of the chemical reaction that took place. Next, we tried half a tablet, then three quarters and finally a whole vitamin tablet. Some of them went higher than the roof! It was definitely one of the best science lessons we have had. 

In Art, we have been doing our final portrait designs using oil pastels, pens and a picture of ourselves. We had to use all our ideas to make a multi-media creative self-portrait.

To finish the week, we had an online workshop about AI. We then worked as a group to create a poster about how to use AI safely.

In Science, we started our new unit about Materials. We first had to sort different materials that had been mixed up by making a sieve to separate the items from each other. In our second lesson, we investigated which of the solids dissolved in water using some everyday objects: salt, sugar, bicarbonate soda, and sand.

In Art, we have been learning about portraits. We have been creating our own portraits of ourselves using poems as outlines.

Written by Poppy E!

Written by Poppy Edgar

We started the year focusing on the book Katie and the Waterlily Pond by James Mayhew. In art, we have been drawing and painting waterlilies inspired by the book. In PE we have been running and training for the cross-country competition coming up for Year 5 and 6. In DT we have begun learning about bridges: Arch bridges, Beam bridges and Truss bridges. We even started to make our own Truss bridge out of spaghetti.

In Design Technology, we have been busy making our soft toys that we designed with our parents early in the term. 

We also got the opportunity to visit the Three Horseshoes Bowls Club at Shephalbury Park. We have had a number of sessions at school run by experts from the club and it was great to actually get to play on a bowling green. 

On Wednesday, we had Sports Day, and our favourite activity was the water slalom run, which was where you had to get a sponge, fill it with water and squeeze it into a bucket. Whilst we were doing this, the teachers squirted us with water guns. However, the teachers ended up getting wetter than some of us! 

On Thursday, it was Science day and we had a Harry Potter themed day. We had to plan and carry out an experiment linked to a flying car! We used helium balloons to experiment and find out how many people the flying car could carry. We used our previous science knowledge to think about what was happening in the experiment. In the afternoon, we got to visit the Wonderdome which was an amazing experience. The presenter took us on a tour of the solar system.

Also, we have had coaches visit from the Three Horseshoe Bowls club, who have come in to teach us how to play Bowls. On Wednesdays, we have been going out and taking part in a number of activities to improve before visiting the green in a couple of weeks. 

In science, we have started our life cycle topic. This week we found out about the different parts of the plant and how pollination happens. We found it interesting that plants have both female and male parts. We then went outside and looked at the plants growing in the allotment and found the parts of the plants we had learnt about. 

After this, we carefully measured, cut and sanded the individually pieces of wood for our bridges. It was tricky to cut the diagonals for the support beams. We then used a glue gun to put our structure together before strengthening each corner with card triangles. We are really pleased with our final products.  

We have also been busy completing our games in Computing. We have managed to create games with multiple levels and have had fun playing each others. 

In Science, we have been answering the learning question 'How does the position of the Sun in the sky change?' We set up our own experiment to track the sun throughout the day and recorded the shadow of a stick to help us understand what is happening. 

In Science, we have continued to learning about space. This week we found out how the planets move in our solar system. We went outside to map out the orbits of each planet. This helped us to see how each planets orbit time would differ. 

We were lucky enough to get a visit from the ducklings that have been in the Nursery for the last two weeks. 

World Book Day was packed with different activities. We enjoyed trying to find out who was behind each book in the 'Masked Reader' quiz. Also, we had some great conversations about our favourite books and used this to create our own reading river. 

As part of National Story telling week, we enjoyed writing our own stories based on the book The Journey. It was great fun sharing these with year 2.   

In Literacy, we have started a new unit based on non-chronological reports. We started off by looking at the layout and structure of the texts. Then, we enjoyed watching a documentary about emperor penguins. We found out lots of fascinating facts, and we are now using these to write our non-chronological reports.

We got a number of different liquids and ran them down pieces of cardboard and used our observational skills to decide which were the most and least viscous of them. 

We got a bit messy but managed to do a great job and come up with a class ranking. In literacy, we have been doing some performance poetry. Looking at reading a poem fluently and to a beat, adding in some actions and adding some flair to the performance. We finished the week by putting the performance together to make our own video. 

In science, we have been looking at the properties of materials. We took on the role of Roebuck surveyors and checked the materials and buildings of areas around the school. We made note of why different materials which would have been chosen to do different jobs. We then assessed whether the materials had been weathered and if they were still fit for the purpose.

As part of our Mini Police session this week, Year 5 have impressed everyone with their phonetic alphabet knowledge. Most children could say their name using the language that  the police use and some could recall the whole alphabet. We also investigated different types of bullying. 

As part of Remembrance Day, we learnt about famous soldiers from World War I and II and found out facts about them. We then used these facts to create a memorial fact file poppy. 

In science, we have planned and carried out an experiment to find out how the shape of a plasticine ball affected how quickly it fell through water.  We found out that if it had a bigger surface area there was more water resistance acting on it and therefore it fell slower although some of our results were inconsistent.  

We got to handle and interrogate different objects that were found at the site and replicas of tools and equipment that they used. The cow jaw bone drew a lot of attention with some at first thinking it could have been a person. We then looked around the museum and looked at things such as swords, shields and clothes (we even got to try some of them on!) 

After lunch we visited the village. We went round in groups looking at how they were built and what materials were used. We found out that sometimes up to 10 people would live in a house with only one room and one fire. At the end of the day we all gathered in the 'Great Hall' and our group leader gave us some extra background information on the site and we got an opportunity to ask her questions about what we had experienced. 

We had a great day out and it was fun to actually see and experience how the Anglo-Saxons lived.

In Science, we have been busy finding out more about forces. We have been looking at the difference between mass and weight. We then carried out our own experiment where we used scales and newton meters to gather evidence and compare the measurements, to see if there was a link. We also had a fun lesson with bubbles. We were looking at what makes something move and the forces that act upon the object.

In art, we are focusing on portraits. We used a printed image of ourselves and used it to draw a continuous line drawing portrait. After we did this, we used tracing paper and created a poem that followed the outline of our portraits. 

In science, we have started our unit on forces by looking at how different forces may act on objects. We carried out a number of experiments and found some interesting results. One of our favourites was a bottle filled with rice. We inserted a pencil into the bottle and had to push it in and out of the rice continually. Eventually, we were able to hold the bottle with just the pencil. We think this happened because the little pockets of air between the rice started to reduce as the pencil was pushed in and out. As the grains of rice got pushed closer together, there was a lot less air between them. The grains were also rubbing against each other and friction allowed the pencil to get ‘stuck’ in the rice. 

In literacy, we have started our new literacy topic based on the book kick where we will be writing a letter to a professional sportsperson to try and persuade them to wear clothes with a label that show their clothes come from child-labour free zones. We have completed our research and will begin starting our writing process. 

In maths our new topic, you guessed it, is angles! 

We have been looking at the different types of angles and have been practising using a protractor to measure the angles accurately.

Take a look at our books and us practising using our protractors. 

We also started a new narrative in literacy based on the Michael Morpurgo book 'I believe in unicorns'. We have enjoyed our sentence stacking lessons based on the book and are going to be writing a similar story based on a special place of our own. 

In Year 5 we have some talented artists! We have been looking at architecture as part of our new topic in art and have been sketching some observational drawings of houses. Take a look at some of our wonderful work!

In maths, we continued our topic on fractions, now looking at not just adding and subtracting, but also multiplying fractions. They're geniuses! 

We will also be visited every Tuesday by Herts cricket coach Matt, who is going to teach us the key skills of cricket. After the first lesson, we have noticed some natural talent already. 

We have also begun our new topic on North America in Geography where we used compass directions and an atlas to match up different countries to their position in relation to each other. 

We have also planned our writing of a non-chronological report about an animal that lives in an extreme habitat. We used Chromebook’s to research an animal of choice and collected as many facts as we could! We will start writing these up next week and can’t wait to see and share the final pieces of work.

We have also recently finished our independent writing in literacy, where children across the year group wrote lovely stories based on the short movie and picture book ‘the Varmints’

In maths, we have started our new topic focused on reading and understanding timetables and graphs. We have got off to a great start in this topic, working well in groups and pairs to find answers and investigate the line graphs. 

This week we have also planned and given our arguments in a debate whether there should be a hydroelectric dam built in Stevenage. We looked at the positives and negatives of hydroelectric dams and some very good points were made. 

We look forward to our DT topic which we are completing in the next week, all about electronic greeting cards, which is perfect timing for a certain event coming up....

To prepare, we had an experience day using camping equipment to ‘camp out’ in the school playground. Some of us got rather cold!

In maths, we are coming to the end of our multiplication topic where we have been multiplying 2,3 and even 4-digit numbers! They have done a great job and shown real resilience throughout the topic. 

In science, we have continued our investigations into forces and their effects on objects. We have looked at how different amounts of mass can stretch an elastic band. 

In English, we have finished our unit called 'One Small Step' and have planned our own narratives based on our dream jobs. Year 5 are looking forward to writing these next week. 

In Science, Year 5 continued to explore friction. Last week, we carried out an investigation to discover how we could get a piece of plasticine to become buoyant. Ask your child, "What forces acted upon it?" 

Well done Year 5! 

In maths, they have been using their place value knowledge to help them round numbers. Ask your child, “What are the rules for rounding?”

In English, Year 5 finished their first narrative unit called ‘Cosmic’ and wrote their own action-packed endings. Ask your child, "What vehicle did your car turn into and what exciting things happened?"

Well done, Year 5! 

Year 5 kick started their mathematics learning by exploring place value. Within this unit, they have been reading and writing 7-digit numbers and have started to compare them. Can you ask your child, “How do you compare numbers?” 

In science, we have been looking at forces. Can you ask your child, “What force made the ball fall to the ground?”

In English, we began our unit called ‘Cosmic’, where we chose cars from the school car park and created verbal adverts to sell them. We included superlatives and expanded noun phrases to make them descriptive and enticing. Ask your child, “What is an expanded noun phrase?” 

Well done Year 5. Keep up the hard work! 

Additionally, Year 5 have started a new unit in maths, which is all about angles, and are becoming experts at naming and measuring them (using a protractor). In Literacy, they have become immersed in a narrative called ‘I believe in Unicorns’, by Michael Morpurgo, and have been writing from Tomas’ perspective. 

Year 5 were also in awe of the inspirational speaker that they had, called Bart Gee, who carried out a workshop with them, so they could experience the challenge of everyday activities with a disability. 

Furthermore, they also became scientists and investigated the all-important question of “Which biscuit brand makes the best dunker?”. During this investigation, the children compared various qualities of each biscuit before formulating an opinion of what will make the most ideal dunker. They then carried out a fair test to make their final conclusion. Which biscuit brand is your favourite dunker? 

Year 5 have also been studying an exciting new PE unit this half term - Lacrosse! The children were given a taster session by Katie, a GB player, before completing their first PE lesson this week. At Roebuck Academy, we are athletes!

Furthermore, we have been persevering with our sketching skills and wow has it paid off... check out the pictures of our tigers!  

At Roebuck Academy, we are scientists and artists!

PE and Music have been going really well, as we have been restarting our Cornets learning, as well as starting a new topic of Gymnastics. We have even explored using apparatus and the wall bars! The adults in Year 5 have been really pleased with the start the children have made...now we have to keep it up!

In DT, we explored a range of greeting cards before designing and creating our own electrical version using a circuit. Ask your child, “What components are required to make a circuit?” 

In maths, we completed the first part of our fractions unit and have worked hard to understand how to add and subtract improper, mixed-number and unlike fractions.  

We also had a snow-tastic time making snow angels and snowmen outside on the field. 

Well done for a fantastic first term in Year 5! 

Merry Christmas. 

Mrs Norman and Mr Downie 

Our music lessons have kicked off in earnest, welcoming a specialist music teacher into school to teach the children how to play some musical instruments. The PE journey has also continued, learning a range of skills in Badminton to try and outwit an opponent in game situations.

In addition to this, we have completed a whole half-term of Handball (celebrating with a mini tournament at the end), and even built our own Parachutes in science to test air resistance and gravity!

What a wonderful half-term we've had in Year 5. Well done!