Year 5

WELCOME TO YEAR 5

The staff in Year 5 are Mrs Filisetti (teacher) and Mrs Collins (teaching assistant).  Miss Ellison will be taking the class on Fridays.

PE

Please be aware that all children are expected to wear their PE kit to school every Friday. 

CURRICULUM NEWSLETTER

The Spring Term Curriculum Newsletter below is shown below - this shows you what the children will be learning in each subject over the course of the term.

HOMEWORK 

As with all previous years, it is VERY IMPORTANT that Year 5 children READ as much as possible at home and also discuss their book with an adult.  They also need to know all of their TIMES TABLES so please support them with this too - they can use Times Tables Rock Stars if they want to.

Spelling homework will be set every Tuesday to be returned the following Tuesday (or earlier!)  The children will be tested on the spellings used in their homework each week.

Each half term the children will also be set a project to work on at home which they will share with the class before the half term break every 6 weeks (approximately).  This half term's project is detailed below:

YEAR 5 SUMMER TERM

STEM Club competition at 3M

Three teams each with 5 children have been working hard in the after school STEM Club for the past 12 weeks to create a marble run for the 3M Young Innovator's Challenge.  The challenge was to design and build a marble run using only materials from a given list, which maximised the time taken by a standard glass marble to roll from top to bottom.  It had to be no bigger than given dimensions and had to incorporate at least three methods of slowing the marble's descent.  The children had to consider their knowledge of forces, gravity, energy, friction, gradient and material properties.  They also had to work in a team to create a presentation which they had to present to the judges at 3M.

Our teams presented their marble runs brilliantly and with confidence.  They were able to talk about their findings and their techniques and could answer all of the judge's questions about the work they had done to create their finished models.  Unfortunately, the marble runs themselves didn't behave as well as we would have hoped when being scrutinised, with the marble getting stuck a few times and also falling off the track on one of the models.  The children dealt with these issues very well though and were able to talk to the judges about what was going wrong and what would remedy the problems.  

The judges commended the children from Fox Hill on their enthusiasm and scientific knowledge - they were especially impressed with the innovation used in the models.  The children were a credit to the school and made me very proud!

A special THANK YOU to Mr Filisetti who has given up a lot of his time to support the STEM Club each week and has tirelessly shared his engineering expertise with the children.  He also accompanied us to 3M and made the whole trip possible by transporting our models.  

SUMMER TERM HOMEWORK - MAYA PROJECTS

As always, I am beyond impressed by the amazing homework projects my Year 5 class have completed this half term.  In presenting their work to the rest of the class, they have taught me so much about the Maya Civilisation which I didn't already know!  The creativity and knowledge of the children is astounding - thank you to all of the parents who have supported them with this latest topic.

YEAR 5 SPRING TERM

SCIENCE WEEK

Year 5 really enjoyed the whole school Science week at Fox Hill.  The theme was GROWTH and we learned lots about growing plants and also growing animals - including humans.  We devised our own investigations into what seeds need to grow well:  we tried watering our seeds with different amounts of water; some of us tried growing our seeds in different materials (soil, mud, sand, paper); another group placed the different pots of seeds in different places around the school - and one group investigated how the amount of air around the seed effects its growth.

On another day, we were able to try tasting different parts of plants - we ate some roots (carrots and radishes), the stem ( celery), the leaves (spinach, watercress, lettuce), the flower ( cauliflower and broccoli) and the seeds ( corn and peas).  Celery and rocket were not very popular!

Other activities included looking at photos of when we were younger to consider how humans change as we grow as well as considering how to keep ourselves healthy and so able to grow up fit and strong.

Dragon Eyes

Continuing with our Viking theme, we have created some art work using the mythical creatures of dragons.  After spending time carefully designing a dragon eye, Year 5 used clay to sculpt and create our own personal designs.  They look amazing already but will be even better when the clay has dried and we have painted them.

Viking trip to Ufton Court

What a fantastic day at Ufton Court we had!  We were so lucky with the weather and I was extremely fortunate with the children I took!  They were brilliant!  Throughout the day, we were accompanied by Elliott, a brave Viking who shared his knowledge and experience with us and made the history come alive.  We started by looking at a vast selection of Viking artefacts and tried to identify what they were and what use they may have been - the sinew from a deer's leg has us all stumped but we soon found out it would have been used to make strong string! Next Elliott taught us a selection of Viking skills, from wattling fences to spinning wool as well as using flint and steel to start a fire.  We all agreed that while it was fun to learn these new skills, they would become tiresome very quickly if we had to do them all of the time.  We then had a 'Vicious Viking' bootcamp when we learned how to fight Viking-style, using shields, swords and axes.  

After that we replenished our strength with a lunch break before becoming 'Voyaging Vikings' - we climbed aboard the longship and learned to row in time in order to explore new lands and also to rampage and pillage villages.  We went as far as Russia and Arabia and returned with some valuable silks and spices!

Magnetic Materials

As Year 5 continue to learn about the properties of different materials, we tested out various everyday objects to find out which ones were magnetic.  We also used iron filings on a piece of paper over a magnet to see the magnetic force.  The pattern produced by the filings was very clear as you can see in these photos.

Filtration and Evaporation

Following on from our lesson on solubility, we next considered how to separate the solutes from their solutions to see if we could retrieve whatever material we had dissolved in the water.  We noticed that the water level had gone down over the week and we know this is due to evaporation.  We used filtration to separate the remaining water from the materials which were undissolved (tea leaves, sand) and then we heated the sugar-water and the salt-water to evaporate the rest of the water and see what we were left with.  The salt looked almost unchanged by the process but the sugar became a solid material the colour of a syrup.

Yet more amazing homework!

Year 5 are so brilliant at completing their homework projects each half term, they have already started bringing them in to share.  We have had the opportunity to sample some authentic Viking bread, heard about Viking weapons and been impressed with a longship!

Testing the Solubility of different materials

In Science this term Year 5 are learning all about different materials and their properties.  In our recent experiment, we were testing the solubility of different materials.  After making our predictions, we added 11 different solutes to 50ml of solvent (water) to create 11 different solutions.  We were surprised by some of our findings.  Next we are going to consider how to separate the original solute from the solution...

Reporting live...

As we continue our work on Vikings, the children have become immersed in the story of Beowulf.  They presented the news of his death in a live news broadcast and shared the major events of his life as well as celebrating what a strong warrior he was.  Some of the groups interviewed Beowulf's friend or some of the citizen's who lived in the Land of the Geats while he ruled.  Many of the children showed their in-depth knowledge of the story -but found it difficult to be very sombre at this tragic news!

Launching the Vikings

Our Spring term has started with the launch of our new Topic: The Vikings.  After less than a week, the children have already completed their own mini-sagas in English and have designed their own Viking longship for display to illustrate the journeys taken by the Vikings from Scandinavia.

YEAR 5 AUTUMN TERM

End of Autumn term Homework Projects

The homework project for the last half term has been Space-related and the finished work (which the children have been sharing in the last week of term) are absolutely amazing!  The creativity shown in their approaches to their homework has been inspirational, from creative writing pieces to a 3D model of a rocket.  The children have clearly gained much from their efforts and it was wonderful to see the pride they have taken in their work.

A SCHOOL TRIP (AT LONG LAST!)

For our first school trip since the pandemic arrived in the UK, Year 5 visited the Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium.  The trip linked with both of our Science topics this term (Earth and Space and also Forces) and with all of the hands-on exhibits, we could learn more about lots of other aspects of the Science curriculum.  We had plenty of time to experiment with all of the exhibits as well as take part in a rocket-building workshop before having our own show in the planetarium - it was out of this world!!!

INVESTIGATING FORCES

Following on from our experiments with parachutes when we learned about air resistance and gravity, we have now investigated the effects of water resistance - or 'upthrust' - on a ball of plasticine.  We placed the plasticine in different shapes on the surface of some water to see what would happen to it.  We then had a competition to see who could mold their plasticine into a shape which would be able to support the most amount of dienes cubes.  Some of our 'boats' were much more successful than others!

STORM ARWEN BROUGHT US SNOW!

The school grounds were transformed by a (thin) blanket of snow after Storm Arwen battered the UK over the weekend.  It was too cold to have our usual break times outside but the temptation proved too much for Year 5 and we had a brief 10 minute play outside just to enjoy the snow!  Luckily the heaters are quite effective at drying out shoes and gloves.

COMPOSING A MOTIF

In Music we have been studying Gustav Holst's Planet Suite and this week we focused on Uranus.  Holst used a pattern called a motif or motive throughout this piece of Music.  It is used like a repeating pattern in a story, and helps to join different sections of a piece of music together.  Uranus has a 4-note motif.  Different instruments play this motif throughout the piece.  We used glockenspiels and xylophones to create our own motifs - we think some of them sounded like a jingle form an advert!

FORCES: TESTING PARACHUTES

Year 5 are now learning about forces in Science and have carried out an experiment to find out if the size of a parachute makes a difference to how quickly it falls.  Unfortunately, there was a bit of a breeze on the day we tested our parachutes and so we are not sure how reliable our results are!  Some of us found that the bigger parachutes fell more slowly and this is what we had predicted.  However, some of us found the smallest parachute fell slowest or even the medium sized one!  We had a discussion about human error and the need to repeat an experiment to ensure maximum accuracy.

MORE HOMEWORK PROJECTS!

Year 5 have continued to impress with their Extreme Earth homework projects.  We have had volcanoes in many different forms brought in and some have even erupted - but the tastiest piece of homework was definitely Kit's chocolate cake volcano, complete with red and yellow lava made from icing!

HOMEWORK PROJECTS

Year 5 have already started bringing in and sharing their homework projects linked to our Extreme Earth topic - and they have been amazing!  We have had information posters about quicksand, mountains and volcanoes as well as some 3D models of tsunamis, some erupting volcanoes and even a simulation of an earthquake.  The children have all presented their work to the class with confidence and have obviously gained much from working on these projects - a huge thank you to their parents for supporting them!

EXPLORING SHADOWS

As part of our Science topic on the Sun, Earth and Moon, we carried out an experiment with our shadows to find out how they change  throughout the day.  We established that a shadow appears when an object blocks the light and over the course of the day, our shadows changed in size and in direction.  This is because the Earth is rotating on its own axis (which makes it seem as if the Sun is moving in the sky) and so the sunlight is hitting Earth at different angles as it revolves.

MARTIAL ARTS TRIAL SESSION

Year 5 really enjoyed their trial session with Michael who teaches Martial Arts as an after-school club in the school hall.  He taught us how to stand to deliver punches and kicks and gave us the opportunity to practise using the pads - some of the children looked quite terrifying!

CREATING MODEL EARTHS

As part of our learning about Extreme Earth, Year 5 have looked at what is going on beneath our feet, deep underground.  The children learned about the Earth's core as well as its mantle and crust.  This helps us understand why volcanoes exist.

3...2...1...BLAST OFF!

In Year 5 we are starting off the year with a Science topic of Earth and Space.  We began by thinking about what we already know about Space and HOW we know these things.  This got us thinking about satellites and rockets - so we used our knowledge of things that fly to design and make our own mini-rockets and launched them with a big puff and a straw!  The children had lots of ideas on how to improve their rockets and on how we could adapt the experiment - we will be considering these later in the term.