Following our trip to Kenilworth Castle on Wednesday, today in History, year 5 Kestrels have been finding out facts and writing a guide about the castle.
We used the castle map that our guide, Clare, gave us and wrote our facts on post it notes, once edited, we wrote the facts on different coloured clouds to stick around the map.
Year 5 Kestrels visited Kenilworth Castle for the day. In the morning our guide, Clare, showed us around the grounds.
Clare told us that Kenilworth Castle was built in 1120 and was a royal castle for most of its history. It was expanded by Kings John and Henry V.
King John added an outer bailey wall of stone to the castle for extra protection and to improve defences. He also built Mortimer’s and Lunn’s towers. King John also improved the castle’s defences by daming the two nearby brooks, creating the Great Mere.
In the afternoon we had a lot of time to explore in two groups, we went inside The Gatehouse and learnt about how in 1563 Queen Elizabeth I granted Kenilworth Castle to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
After that, we also explored the castle grounds… and up into the towers.
We were all very brave and careful on the spiral staircases!
We all thoroughly enjoyed the day!
Year 5 learnt about Isambard Kingdom Brunel in DT and the bridges he constructed that are still in use today.
The Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by Brunel in 1830, is now a famous landmark in Bristol and a Grade I listed building.
In our lesson we were given the challenge of making the tallest tower out of one piece of paper, only using scissors and glue.
Year 5 filmed have completed their Magna Carta plays. Watch them below.
Group 1
Group 2
We have been writing poems about different feelings in Year 5 Kestrels. We typed up our poems and changed the fonts, colour and size of the text to add interest. Today we started an illustration that compliments the emotion of our poem. Then we will cut up the words and lines from our poem and stick them in and around our illustration.
In the week, Year 5 Kestrels printed pictures of flowers, blossom and trees that we liked. During art today, we started painting the pictures in the style of Claude Monet, thinking carefully about colour and texture.
Some children started a lovely background wash to their picture, trying to add texture and depth to it using the paint.
Some children made an excellent start to their painting by adding the flowers and blossoms or trees onto their background.
This afternoon Kestrels in Year 5 filmed their Magna Carta plays. Mrs Butterworth’s group filmed first on the green screen.
The barons getting into character!
The Arch Bishop of Canterbury’s grand entrance.
The barons informed the Arch Bishop of Canterbury about how they were feeling and their concerns with King John.
The dramatic end… King John stamping Magna Carta.
Last week Year 5 started reading and annotating different poems.
Today we read rhyming and non rhyming poems about different feelings and emotions. We chose an emotion and started to mind map ideas for our own poem.
Niah described anger like a volcano erupting. Elliott described happiness like bright sunshine. Sophia describes sadness as being apprehensive. Kenny described pride as wearing it for everyone to see. We all had brilliant ideas and contributions.
Year 5 were transported back to England in 1215 during our History lesson this afternoon.
The barons were not happy!
The Arch Bishop of Canterbury got involved as the barons wanted to declare their rights and make new rules, that even a king must obey…
King John had no choice but to agree and on 15th June 1215, the barons presented King John with 63 rules written on parchment – this was called Magna Carta.
King John placed his royal seal on the document to show the world that he agreed to these rules. Some rules were quickly changed, some were broken and some still apply today! Magna Carta showed that it is possible to lay down rules that even a king must obey.
Next week we will film the play!
This term, Year 5 Kestrel’s History topic is Kings and Queens. We’ve been learning about King John, today we split into two groups, one with Mrs Butterworth and one with Mrs Calbreath. We started practising a short play about The Magna Carta, we assigned parts and ran through lines. Tomorrow we will be performing in front of each other!
