Science: An experiment fit for a king!
Year 5 have planned and conducted an experiment fit for a king. They received a very special message from the King with a problem he was facing.
With this message in mind, Year 5 used the enquiry question ‘Which material is the best insulator of heat?’ A thermal insulator is a material that does not let heat pass through it easily or quickly.
Our scientific enquiry type was ‘comparative and fair testing’. 
The children used three materials: fabric, bubble wrap and foil. They wrapped these around their beakers and used scientific equipment to measure the temperature of their ‘tea’. Year 5 recorded their results into their tables.
Next week, the children will analyse their results and see if they have any anomalous results (a result that does not fit in with the pattern of other results).
Help at home: Discuss the independent (what is changed), dependent (what is measured) and control (what is kept the same) variables in this experiment.
Living and Learning
Last week, our Living and Learning statement was ‘I know that some drugs can be harmful’. On Friday, Dave from d:side came to talk to us about how we can care for our bodies. The children impressed him with their amazing answers!
Strawberries are healthy.
You should brush your teeth in the morning and before bed.
Yoghurts have milk in. Milk is good for your teeth and bones.
You can have chocolate as a treat.
Guess who?
Last Friday, we had another go at drawing our faces. We looked carefully at our facial features. Can you spot your child’s self-portrait?
James and the Giant Peach
Last week, we were reading at an extract from James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.
We practised the skill of inference through ‘hot-seating’.
Hot-seating is where one child becomes a character and then the rest of the class asks the person questions about their behaviour, background, motivations or feelings.
The child then has to answer the questions in character!
Help at home by hot-seating with your child when reading their guided reading book!
We are historians!
This half term in topic, we are historians.
In history, we are learning about the Romans and Anglo-Saxons.
This is our vocabulary for this topic:
| chronology | arrangement of events or dates in time order |
| empire | a large group of countries or states ruled by an emperor |
| invasion | when a country or region is invaded by an armed force |
| tax | a payment you must make to a ruler or government |
| to resist | to stand up to or fight back against something |
| innovation | an improvement or replacement for something |
| bias | a viewpoint that may be based more on opinion than fact |
| kingdom | an area of land ruled by a monarch (a king or queen) |
Before we learn about how the Romans came to invade Britain and how the Anglo-Saxons lived after the Romans had left, we needed to learn about what the timeline of British history looks like.
A timeline shows us the chronological order of events.
We have learnt that before the Romans invaded, Britain was living in the Iron Age. The people who lived at this time were called Celts.
The Celts:
- lived in tribes
- were farmers
- lived in wooden, thatched huts
- had no rulers but did have chiefs
- made tools and weapons out of bronze and iron
After the Romans invaded, who had power in Britain changed. During the Iron Age, there were lots of tribes each with their own chief. However, in Roman Britain, there was one emperor who was in charge of the whole Roman Empire.
Help at home by asking how power changed from Iron Age Britain to Roman Britain.
Maths: Adding with different denominators
For the past two lessons, Year 5 have been learning how to add fractions with different denominators.
Firstly, we recapped Year 4 learning where we added fractions with the same denominator. 
We then moved on to fractions with different denominators. To add these types of fractions, we need to find equivalent fractions that have the same denominator. Once we have fractions that have the same denominators we can add them like we did previously. Have a look at a worked example.
Help at home: Have a go at these questions.
Spring term after-school clubs
*UPDATE*
We do have the following availability for clubs should your child wish to sign up.
The after-school clubs for this term are available for booking. We hope your child/children can get involved with our extra-curricular activities.
Please contact the office if you have any queries about the after-school clubs.
Living and Learning: D:side drug education visitor
This week, we had a visitor: D:side Dave! Dave came in to talk to Year 5 about the impacts of smoking and vaping.
First of all, we played a game of ‘Which is the most dangerous?’.
- Knives or a plastic cup?
- A toolbox or a Year 5 maths book?
- Smoking or vaping?
The discussion led us onto the impacts and risks of traditional smoking. Have a look at the key points:
We then talked about the different types of vapes and e.cigarettes and how their packaging is incredibly similar to some packaging for sweets. Take a closer look:
Finally, Dave spoke about how smoking and vaping can impact our health.
Help at home: How many different health impacts can you list in a minute?
Spring 1: Week 2
Maths
This week, we continued to engage with counting activities. A key focus this week has been the stable order principle – understanding that the position each number holds in our number sequence does not change. To help us understand the stable order principle, we used cubes, blocks and other resources to make staircase patterns.
When making our staircase patterns, we discovered that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number.
Help at home: Make a staircase pattern at home. What will you use?
Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem is a short poem called I can build a snowman.
Literacy
This week, we continued to read Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. For our writing challenges, we created missing posters and drew pictures of some of the things we would pack if we went on a journey to the South Pole. We also enjoyed watching the live penguin cam at Edinburgh Zoo. 
Help at home: With an adult, use the internet to find out some interesting facts about penguins. If you don’t have access to the internet, you could look at a non-fiction book. Please bring your facts to school!
PE
On Tuesday, we enjoyed our PE session with a Foot-Tech coach. This half-term, we’ll be developing our fundamental movement skills: running, hopping, jumping and skipping.
Here’s a snapshot of some of our winter learning activities this week…
Home-link challenge
Year 2 trip to Abbey House Museum
What a great day! Year 2 learned a lot about the past by being transported back to Victorian Leeds. At Abbey House Museum, the children found out how people lived over 100 years ago and explored the street and all the shops, including the grocers, the chemists and an ironmongers.
Help at home by discussing how life was different in the past. Ask your child what they remember from our trip to Abbe House Museum.
