Marvellous Machines!

Happy Half Term everyone!

We've had an exciting week in Class 5 yet again. On Thursday and Friday we got to really focus on our design and technology project of levers and pulleys.

We studied the cartoons of Rube Goldberg, who designed elaborate contraptions to perform a simple task, then had to use all our understanding of machines (and forces, which our year 5s had fortunately just been studying) to create our own!

We're very proud of our machines, but what the videos below don't show is the amount of teamwork, planning, hypothesising and evaluating that we've been doing during this unit. Of course we also had to use our values of hope (hope it will work this time!) and resilience (let's try this again!), and really tested our growth mindset!

Here is the table that showed the successes of each team: -

Here are the videos from each team showing our machines and explaining how they work: -

A huge thank you to Mrs Martin who led our building teams on this adventure.

Hope everyone has a fabulous half term and is ready and raring to go after the break when we will be exploring space!

Miss Vidler

To experience, to learn, to enjoy

Another ram-packed week in Class 5 again this week! As well as work in class, some of us (with Mr Wainwright and Madame Brown) went to visit the cathedral – see the wonder and awe blog for more details!

In English this week we completed our unit on adventure stories. We read through a few paragraphs that demonstrated suspense by using devices such as rhetorical questions, short sentences for effect and the power of 3 (see the blog title). We then used these to rewrite a passage of our own. As well as completing our warm write we also investigated words ending in –tious and –cious, increasing our vocabulary with new words such as audacious and pretentious. At the end of the week we were able to use a webpage about life as an imaginary Athenian and Spartan to test out our skimming and fact-retrieval skills in reading (as well as learning a bit more about our theme!).

In Maths we have progressed to looking at fractions. We have begun this week by making sure that we can order decimal numbers, and understand the value of digits to the right of the decimal point. We enjoyed playing a ‘3 in a row’ game by placing decimal numbers on a number line. Meanwhile some of our confident problem-solvers had to try and complete a decimal puzzle by working through a set of clues logically. It hurt our heads a bit but we got there in the end!

Clearly a bit of a head-scratcher...

Not sure what's going on in the writing corner?

Guess who's winning this game?

It turns out doing Gold challenge can be tough on the brain...

... but we were very pleased when we solved it!

In theme we have been looking at the legacy of Ancient Greece. We had a chance to write in the Greek Alphabet and study Greek Architecture. With the help of Megan’s Dad we were able to say hello and goodbye in Modern Greek too! Our pots were also finally completed and are now proudly displayed in our classroom. We also managed to complete our Greek dance based on the myth ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’, and had a chance to film and evaluate it.

At the end of the week we got a chance to play ‘mouse trap’ as an introduction to our D&T project on ‘Levers and Pulleys’. This will be continued into next week when we will be designing contraptions of our own – so have your recycling bags of cardboard boxes and tubes on standby please!

Miss Vidler

Our quiz for Week 6: -

1.       Can you write a sentence that contains a ‘power of 3’?

2.       Can you work out what the difference is between 0.7 and 0.54?

3.       Can you name one of the Greek columns and the characteristics? 

Year 5 - Science - Water Resistance

We dropped a paper clip into a cup of air, water, oil and syrup to see which paper clip reached the bottom first.

 We designed and made paper boats and predicted how many paper clips each would hold.

Have at Thee Class 5!!

Class 5 have embarked on more adventures and learning this week, some of which we've already posted!

In English we have started a new unit on adventure stories. We began by imagining that we were a half-blood from Percy Jackson (half human, half God - they attract lots of Greek monsters!). We had to write a chapter describing an adventure that our character had.

What do you mean there's no full stops???

Just one of the amazing action drafts

One of the trickiest skills we needed to learn was how to make action sequences more exciting, so Miss Vidler approached this in a very practical way! We started by watching Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom in a sword-fighting scene from Pirates of the Caribbean, we collected all the strong verbs and phrases we would use to describe what was going on.

After that, we all filed in the hall and, with the aid of foam swords, choreographed a fight scene of our very own! With all these ideas, some of us were desperate to start writing and describing our sequence, and produced some amazing writing as a result!

In theme, as you have already seen, we have gone completely potty! Our pots are really taking shape, and will hopefully be painted and designed to look Ancient Greek at the beginning of next week!

Maths has been a challenge for all of us too this week, as we have been developing our skills with written methods in multiplication and division. For some of us this week has been a brain-tickling revision of methods, whilst for others we were introduced to new methods for the very first time! We had the opportunity to work our way through challenges independently, working with an adult with a whiteboard if we thought we needed more reinforcement. Class 5 showed some real maturity and growth mindset by being able to assess whether they had understood a concept or not. Our maths homework is to tutor someone at home one of the methods we are confident in - parents, you have been warned!!!

Speaking of homework, we had our first homework share today. The standard of the work produced left the teachers gobsmacked! The variety of Gods, and the way they were presented, showed lots of time and effort. We had a chance to go around and look at each others work, writing comments in each others home learning books. Some of the 3D models have been displayed in our room, and we have already devoured some of the tasty 'God offerings' that were baked! Well Done Class 5, I really look forward to future homework shares where you can really show off your talents!

Miss Vidler

Here is this week's quiz: -

1. Can you name a new word that you have learnt in guided reading this week? What does it mean/what synonyms does it have?

2. Can you name a square number?

3. Whose homework were you most impressed with this week and why?

Feeling the Force in Year 5

Just a quick update on what year 5 have been learning about in Science this half term.
It is all about forces ...

Grace and Eva using a Forcemeter.

Investigating friction 

Balloon Rockets - How far will they travel on different types of string.

Max is really thinking about this!

We measured how far the cars traveled on different surfaces.

Exploring air resistance

Predicting which paper spinner will fall the fastest.

Class 5 have gone Potty!

This afternoon we began our project of making Greek pots! Here is a report about our afternoon: -

This afternoon we have been making paper Greek pots. Here are five pictures that have been taken of class 5 doing this fun papier mache. Then we put these encouraging pictures on the blog.

Miss Vidler explaining what we need to do

Getting our hands messy!

Jessica avoiding the dreaded gluey water!

Concentration required...

Pots beginning to take shape

To make these pots [depending on what size you want it] blow up a balloon, tape some circled cardboard, on the top tape some circled paper [paper has to be same size as balloon ] and then for handles you have to kind of angle them and glue some ripped newspaper then you’re done.

Reported by Charlie J

Piecing it all together

Goodness yet another busy week has flown by in Class 5. Can't believe we've managed to cram in so much already - and there's still so much more planned to do!

We looked at recount texts this week, by writing a memory of something significant that has happened to us. Miss Vidler has learnt a lot about the class: from hospital visits, to clumsy pets, to silly brothers and sisters! We learnt (and some of us managed to apply) how to include a 'hook' in our introductions - where we can tease the reader with a little bit of information about our story without revealing the whole thing! Next week we are moving on to adventures!

In maths we took this week to look at the properties of number. We investigated factors and multiples and learnt the definition of a prime number. We had to work hard with our learning partner to try and put together a square and cube number jigsaw, applying lots of skills as part of a 'thinking things through' lesson. Next week we will be using some of these mental skills to help us with written multiplication and division.

We were also piecing our work together in theme this week - as we looked at what we understand about daily life in Ancient Greece thanks to pots! First we used the internet as a research tool to answer questions that we had about the Ancient Greeks, then we had to stick together and study images of original Greek pots and make conclusions as archaeologists. Next week we will be consolidating all our learning by creating a Greek pot of our very own!

Finally we all went into Stanway on Friday to experience life in secondary school. Everyone came back very tired and excited, full of stories about making keyrings, fun PE lessons and apparently excellent food! Don't get too excited though Class 5 - I'm not letting some of you go until at least mid-July! :-)

Don't forget we have our Harvest Festival in the Church on Monday - any contributions to the collection will be gratefully received.

Miss Vidler

Our weekly quiz. Try and put down a different answer to those already given: -

1. What is the best time connective that you can remember?

2. Can you name a prime number?

3. What is the best fact about Ancient Greece you have learnt this week?