Well, the weather was certainly kind to us today!

After a beautiful walk down Grey Street and across the Gateshead Millennium bridge, we took over the Level 5 viewing platform in The Baltic. We had a brilliant time observing the skyline of Newcastle, before undergoing five different sketching and crafting tasks based on the iconic bridges that cross the River Tyne. We were really impressed with all the different designs, giving us inspiration for our very own bridges that we will be designing in DT next term!

On the way back, we strolled down the River Tyne to cross the Swing Bridge and climbed up the many stairs to Castle Keep - we couldn't resist a snap in front of the castle! After all our step climbing, we certainly made up for missing the Beep Test!

Class 5 have blown Miss Parker away this week - so much so we broke the Golden Book record!

In English, we have been channelling our inner journalists, interviewing four witnesses surrounding the death of outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow. Our questioning has given us some direct quotes that will be extremely useful for our final newspaper report. 

On Friday afternoon, we continued our bridge research, focussing on trust patterns that support a bridge's structure and strength. Although a fiddly process, we showed great teamwork and have begun to create some extremely sturdy structures!

Happy World Book Day!!

Amongst admiring and enjoying all of the imaginative costumes seen throughout the school, we had a great day focussing on the story of 'The Sneetches' by Dr Seuss. We had a brilliant discussion about the moral of the story, treating everybody as an equal irrespective of how they look, and not changing ourselves to try and 'fit in'. We then created our own Dr Seuss inspired stories, making up crazy characters and enjoying the freedom to make up our own wacky words!

To close up our Science topic on Properties of Materials, we investigated Irreversible Change. We may have stank out the classroom, but with just three materials - vinegar, milk and bicarbonate of soda - we created our own plastic and blew up a balloon!

In RE, we have had some brilliant discussions on why some people believe in God, and some people don't. Gathering up our questions, we invited two special guests into the classroom to interview them on their differing opinions and beliefs.

On Friday, we started our DT topic focussing on Bridges. We will be exploring and testing a variety of different structural elements, before designing and creating our very own bridge to cross the River Tyne!

Over the past few weeks, the Year 5 classroom has turned into a Science lab! We have been developing our investigation skills, and have designed a number of experiments testing the properties of materials. This week, we were looking at which every day materials are soluble, and have had some brilliant discussions about how to make it a fair test.

In English, we are really enjoying our class novel, Holes. On Thursday, we looked at a variety of different non-chronological reports and picked out their key features. Using the book to gather information, we are currently becoming experts on the deadly Yellow-spotted Lizard, to write a report warning others if they were ever to encounter the reptile!

Continuing our learning about Rivers, in Geography we looked at the different features we find on a river's journey, and then tried to identify the features from photographs, satellite pictures and Google maps - it was trickier than we thought!

In Art, we have started looking at perspective, and how we can create depth in 2D images. We like how perspective can be created using a variety of mediums. On Friday, we started sketching a one-point perspective piece showing a mountain and river landscape (I think you can see a theme coming on here!). To consolidate our Geography knowledge, Miss Parker challenged us to include as many features of the river's journey as possible - and we certainly succeeded!

Happy New Year!!

We have come back into school with a bang, working well together in many of our lessons. In Geography, we have started our new topic of Rivers and Mountains. This week our focus is on Rivers, reminding ourselves of the water cycle and how important it is for the planet. On the theme of water, in Science we investigated the effect water resistance has on objects, and tested which of our shapes were the most streamlined. 

Focussing on gravitational pull in Science, we investigated the link between an object's mass and weight. Using a Newton meter and weighing scales, we chose a variety of objects from around the classroom, and accurately recorded their mass (g) and weight (N). We did a great job discussing our results, suggesting what we could do when we find an anomaly in our data. 

In Maths this week, we have been looking at squared and cubed numbers. Creating our own cubes, we found out why a cubed number is called a cubed number!

Well what a way to bring in the first of December with all this snow! We couldn't resist getting out in the soft powder, and had a great time challenging Year 6 to a snowman competition - Dom even found a carrot for the nose!

We've had a week of exploring in Year 5!

In Science, we started our new Science Topic, Forces. We explored what a force is (enjoying throwing different objects across the classroom), and some of the different forces that act on objects in a variety of scenarios.

On Friday, we brought the museum to us, and engrossed ourselves in the Viking life. From the exploration of artefacts, to battle tactics, to Crime and Punishment and finally tasting some traditional Viking cuisine, we certainly had a fun-filled day - and even had a go and making our own butter. With a few tupperware explosions along the way, we had a couple of successes to enjoy on our toast when we got home!

We've had a flying start to the new half term! It is never too early to start preparations for the Christmas production, and we had a brilliant time working closely with Class 6 to learn many new and exciting lifts. Everyone worked extremely hard and showed brilliant strength, bravery, and maturity when it came to ensuring our peers were comfortable and safe when soaring through the sky!

In Music, we rounded off our unit of work with a performance of a piece we composed as a Class. Weeks of hard work certainly paid off, and Miss Parker even gave us a standing ovation!

As it is Remembrance weekend, Class 5 created their own poetry piece dedicated to those who have/do protect the people they love and care for. We have also created our own poppy wreath to show our respects, making a lovely display for the classroom. 

To finish off Autumn 1, we got wet and wild at the Rising Sun Country Park. Working in small teams, we walked (briskly) around the acres of parkland, using our map reading skills to find each orienteering tag. We all showed excellent teamwork, and came back to school in high spirits, despite the weather!

In Science, we have been investigating how long it takes each planet to orbit the Sun, and the Moon to orbit the Earth. After some complex calculations, we demonstrated these rotations in human form - making sure we experienced no collisions!

Well done Class 5, and have a great half term!

To finish off our Poetry focussed unit, we had a look at finding a poem within a piece of text. After creating a mind map describing the characteristics of the Valkyries, we carefully chose powerful words or phrases that we felt portrayed these characters. Once happy with our phrases, we blocked out the rest of the text with intricate designs to leave an impressive and powerful piece of poetry. 

In Art, we enjoyed incorporating all of our pencil sketching techniques into a still-life drawing. Using at least three different techniques, we created some brilliant effects to produce 3-D looking bananas, apples and oranges. And who doesn't love an art lesson where you get to eat your work afterwards?!

This week, we have been working hard on our 500 words story. Going on a treasure hunt around school, we found some unusual objects that may inspire our storyline. After sketching our objects, we thought about how they could be incorporated with our characters. From an alien gender reveal, to champion goal scorers - we are certainly letting our imaginations fly!

We've had an extremely busy week this week in Class 5! 

In Science, we worked together to put the planets in our solar system into their order in relation to the distance from the sun. We then started creating some mnemonics to help us remember this!

We have continued with a Poetry focus in English, looking carefully at the language used in our novel Viking Boy. After some brilliant discussions, we became wordsmiths and created some kenning poems that had us all wincing at the Wolf Men. 

On Friday, we enjoyed starting up Music lessons again, and did really well at counting in fours to keep to the beat. In the afternoon, we practised some different shading techniques ready for our final Art piece. Well done Class 5!

Buenos días, cómo estás?

To kick off our study of Spanish, Class 5 explored where in the world speaks Spanish. We were all surprised that 21 countries around the world speak Spanish as their main language, and created some great posters about our chosen country. 

Our Science topic this term is Earth and Space. In small groups, we have done some brilliant independent research on one of the planets found in our Solar System. We then presented our findings to the class, and found out that humans won't be inhabiting many of the planets anytime soon!

We've had an absolutely brilliant start to Year 5 - it's great to be back! On Wednesday afternoon, we created our own balloon tractor beams, and investigated which material would create the strongest pull. In Maths, we practised our Roman Numerals up to 1000, and worked together to create a matching pyramid. We have also had some brilliant discussions about Growth Mindset, and given ourselves a positive goal to stick to this year.