Monthly Archives: January 2022

Competition Update!

English
Today Year 5 were lucky enough to have a chance to talk to the author Tim (also known as T M Jorden), author of the brilliant book The Adventures of Poppy and Lord Ted: The First Summer.
There has been a new competition launched for KS1 and KS2, where they can think up a new character to features in Tim’s next new book (due for release before Christmas 2022).
 Year 5 had an opportunity to discuss their ideas, read them out to him, show him their pictures and ask him about the new book – no spoilers…but we are super excited!
We have been given extra time to finish and give in our entries as we have secured T M Jorden to visit on World Book Day! So, although the competition entries must be in by 28th February, we have until 3rd March when Tim comes to visit.
So, all you budding writers, get those creative minds working, think about a character that Tim could weave into his next book. Remember it will need to be someone/something that can slot into his type of story (so no Star Wars type characters). If you haven’t read the book yet, get reading, get inspired and get writing those descriptions of a character. Draw a picture too if you want, but it is not essential, just a good description so Tim can get a good idea of what the character might do in his story.
Happy creating!

Exciting Competition

English
Year 5 were lucky enough to have the author T M Jorden come ​and visit us when we were still Robins! Now that we are Kestrels lots of us have read the first book The Adventures of Poppy and Lord Ted.
There is now a competition!
An amazing chance to create a new character for the next book! As well as that (if that wasn’t amazing enough) the lucky entrant will get to have their school in the story too! So Bells Farm Primary could feature in the next Poppy and Lord Ted book! How fantastic is that?
Character competition CLICK HERE

Properties of Materials

Science
Year 5 investigated different materials by carrying out a number of tests on them to see if they would be suitable in different situations.
Have a look at what they did:
They checked if each material stood up to these tests:
Hardness
Transparency
Thermal conductor
Electrical conductor
Magnetic
Soluble in water
They realised that because they had certain properties that made them better for certain jobs. For example: wood being used for a hook is not always suitable because metal can be moulded easier and can be made into smaller, intricate shapes.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

English
Year 5 worked on their English role play skills. In this group, they worked on analysing the characters on Mr Tumnus and Lucy from the book: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
It was interesting to see how the characters changed when the roles were swapped! They became quite emotional and some of the Mr Tumnus’ began to break down and cry!
It was lovely to explore the characters further and think about how each of the characters felt at each point.

Area

Maths
Today Year 5 consolidated their learning of area and extended to area of compound shapes. It was good to see children explain their understanding by guiding those that were not here last week.
It was clear that all the calculations needed were easy to do if we were secure in our multiplication facts. That is why going on Times Table Rock Stars, daily is so important.
We also needed to remember that area is measured in the unit (cm, m, km) squared.

Experimenting with Colour

Art
Today Year 5 experimented with making shades of colours to complete their Monet pictures. They only used primary colours and then added white to get various shades. In some cases, they used their primary colours to make colours like brown. Do you know how to make brown?
It is:
Yellow + Red = Orange
Orange + Blue = Brown
Did you know that?
They used small brushes and made careful dabs rather than long strokes to mimic the Monet style.

Perimeter

Maths
Year 5 looked at perimeter today. They showed they understood how to calculate the perimeter of a shape.
It was important to remember metacognition – thinking about what they already knew. It was important to remember the properties of shapes: knowing that rectangles have two equal, opposite sides. This information helped when calculating the perimeter of a shape quickly.
Have a look at Tanatswa’s work:
One of the challenges was to draw a rectangle which had a given perimeter of 14cm. This was a challenge in that they had to visualise the shape and understand that each of two sides had to have the same length.

Vikings

History
Year 5 tackled the question : How close did the Vikings come to taking over the country?
The had to put events into chronological order and then moved them left or right depending on how much control they had.
They had to use metacognition to determine what they knew and the best way to tackle the task and team work to achieve it. A lot of talking was essential too.

Metacognition

Class Work, English, PSHE
Today Year 5 had a challenge! They had to plan and make something that held water. They had 30 minutes to plan and make it. They were going to time how long it could hold water for. The aim was to apply their metacognitive skills.
But what is metacognition?
It is the thinking about thinking- thinking about what you already know about something and using that knowledge. It is very powerful. When we take the time to stop and think about what we already know it means we build on that knowledge and work smarter, rather than rushing into a task.
In this task, talking, discussing, sharing, evaluating along the way is so important.
There were some “cups” that did not hold water for more than 1 second, so it did not do its job. Others held water for over 100 seconds, a couple went for over 800 seconds!
Excellent challenge Year 5.