Looks like we made it...

We are officially half way through Autumn Term!

Our final week has been one of finishing things off, and discovering new things!

In English we have been completing our biographies about famous prisoners of the past. We had a chance to type up our biographies so we can compile them into a class book. As well as this, we created our own piece of artwork to sum up their lives and achievements.

In maths, we have had a chance to go over some key objectives in the year 5 and 6 curriculum. So while year 5 refreshed their memories and extended their understanding of Roman numerals, Year 6 got stuck into a nice bit of algebra!

In science, Year 6 completed their topic on light by having free choice of a selection of different light-related activities. Here we are creating shadow-art, having our minds blown by optical illusions, enjoying the logic of a laser-maze game and making our own periscopes!

However the biggest highlight of our week has to be our DT day on Tuesday when we finally got to make our own Viking Ships. We had to follow instructions carefully to create the cardboard hull, and test a lot of skills with sawing the mast frame and sewing the sails ourselves! Then we got to be really creative in our designing of the figurehead and the shields to go along the sides. It was hard work and sometimes quite frustrating, but we were all really pleased with our finished products!

And so we sail off into the sunset... but only for a week!

Homework over half term is to have fun and have some rest - we have a lot more learning to do before we can even think of Christmas!

See you back in the classroom on Tuesday 1st November.

Mrs Crawley

Biographies, BODMAS and Boat Designing

It may be getting colder and darker, but that doesn't put a stop to our learning in Class 5!

In English, we have started writing our biographies about famous people who were imprisoned during their life. Having done our research last week, we studied biographies again and were able to summarise the purpose of each paragraph. Having done this, we were then able to start writing our own biographies about famous people such as Anne Frank, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. Look out next week to see us finishing it!

Here's a few photos of us practising our fine-motor skills in handwriting practice by cutting out the longest, most accurate loop that we could.

In maths we have completed our unit on mental and written methods, and have just started on BODMAS! We are trying some tricky problems involving the order of operations, remembering to use the rule of Brackets, Order, Division, Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction.

In science, Year 6 were discovering how refraction of 'white' light actually shows that light is made out of all the colours! We had a go at making rainbows using prisms, CDs, a glass of water, as well as water in a bowl with mirrors. We then proved that white light was made out of all the colours by creating our own fast colour spinners. When we spun them around what colour did they blur into? Well - white of course!

In theme we concluded our study of graffiti artwork by creating our own stencils and stippling paint onto our own paper walls - the same way that Banksy creates his artwork.

Maths homework this week is based on roman numerals for year 5, and BODMAS for year 6.
Spelling homework is to learn all 50! End of half-term mini-tests begin next week!

Finally, don't forget to bring in a cereal box by Tuesday the latest so you can make your marvellous Viking Boats that you have been planning!

Mrs Crawley

The Writing's on the Wall...

5 weeks in... although according to a class discussion we had this week many of us still feel like it's only week 3! (Mrs Crawley does not agree - it definitely feels like week 5!)

On Monday we attended our school harvest festival, and the year 6s had their first opportunity to run the service themselves! They did a great job, and have shown that they will also do brilliantly at the Christmas carol concert later on this term!

On Tuesday we continued learning about crime and punishment, this time focusing on the Viking and Saxon era. We learnt about some of the punishments given in Saxon times, then held our own courtroom debate as to whether we should punish criminals with the modern punishment or the more brutal Saxon one - by the end of the afternoon we were pretty bloodthirsty!

In writing we have started looking at biographical writing. First we studied the features of biographies, and then began researching the life stories of famous people who had been arrested or imprisoned for their beliefs, such as Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Gandhi and Emmeline Pankhurst. On Wednesday we also continued to work on our handwriting skills, enjoying this counter-flipping competition to flex our fine-motor skills!

In maths we have continued practising our mental maths skills, as well as going over the skills we need for written problems involving addition and subtraction.

Near the end of the week we started looking at our art topic, focusing on street art and graffiti. After discussing the ethical issues and legal issues surrounding graffiti art, we then looked at the work of Banksy. On Thursday we had a go at watercolour blending to create our own graffiti tag.

On Friday we started looking at Viking Boats in preparation for our DT project - best start saving your cereal boxes now!

Mrs Crawley