The best insulator

Today, we have looked at insulators and conductors and devised a test to compare different materials' ability to insulate or conduct heat. The children tested glass, ceramic, metal and paper against the temperature of the water over time using thermometers. The material which kept the heat in the best was deemed the best insulator.

Perimeter measuring

The children have been introduced to their new area and perimeter maths theme by measuring outside! We looked at drawing lines of certain measurements, measuring perimeter of different shapes and creating shapes of certain perimeters. Good learning Year 5!

Circuit Creating

Today, the children experimented with circuits by adding different elements and taking them away to see what made the bulbs brighter and dimmer. They found that more batteries produced more light and adding lights made the bulb more dim. They experimented independently and in groups for use in their future DT lesson when they create their final product!

World Book Day

Year 5 have been super creative with their costume ideas this year and I can see lots of effort has gone into them! We started the day by exploring climate change and the small changes we can make personally to help. We then moved into looking at the text 'The Journey Home' and summarising the events using a map of the world to show the animals' journey and feelings. The children then produced some beautiful narrative poems depicting the events of the book and illustrated these fantastically too. Finally, we researched into the different animals and created a new 'Meet The Crew' page using lots of facts and new knowledge. The work they have produced is fantastic!

Safer Internet Day

For Safer Internet Day 2023, we have looked at the right and wrong actions when in an online setting. The children then used these rights and wrongs to devise their own safer internet board games. The wrong actions would send them backward and the right actions would send them forwards. Some groups were even more creative by adding fact cards and danger cards! 

Fieldwork

We have further explored contour lines this week by venturing outside to the school playgrounds. The children created sketch maps of the hills and slopes and then used geographical terms to write a brief description of the area and its slopes. They then created a contour map for both areas.

Exploring Mountains

We kicked off our Ground Shakers topic by researching mountains and famous mountain ranges. The children were presented with different research forms such as information leaflets, powerpoints, videos and books to create these fantastic and informative posters. 

Water Resistance

We have been exploring forces in science recently and yesterday we investigated water resistance. The children looked at how different surface areas can affect water resistance and how a greater surface area leads to greater water resistance. The children explored this by timing the shape sinking to the bottom of the beaker.

Potato Contours!

Today, we looked at contour lines and how they show relief on a 2D map. We learned that the steeper the slope the closer the lines and the gentler the slope the further away the lines. The children then looked at creating their own contour maps using potatoes and measuring their height. They then presented this by looking at the side profile vs the contour maps they created.

Air Resistance Investigation

In science, we have been looking into and investigating forces in motion. Last week, we learned that gravity is not affected by weight and this lesson we developed that by looking at air resistance and how that is the factor leading to objects hitting the ground at different times. The children found that the bigger the parachute, the more surface area and air resistance it had and therefore the longer it took to reach the floor.

Sparkly Start

We introduced our Ground Shakers topic last week by climbing the equivalent height of Snowdon – one of the tallest mountains in the UK. Whilst doing this the children also created some beautiful mountain landscape drawings inspired by Jen Aranyi which focus on perspective and water colour blending. They all seem super keen to start learning all about mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes.