Welcome to Class 5 - Foxes

Term 6 Curriculum Overview

Term 5 Curriculum Overview

Kent Test presentation by Mrs Garrett to Class 5 Parents 

Thank you!

I just wanted to say an enormous thank you for the hugely generous gifts and kind words. I really appreciated everything and will miss the class greatly. I hope you all have a fantastic Easter break.

We had such a wonderful selection of Easter bonnets it was hard to choose two winners. However, Jacques and Elsa came out triumphant! 

This is our entry to the National Performance Poetry Competition run by the Poetry by Heart website. The class have spent a lot of time learning their lines, rehearsing, adding actions and performing the poem, all about the Titanic.  Please enjoy their performance. 

During Performing Arts week, we have explored the music and life of Vivaldi and the Baroque period. We listened to his symphony, 'The Four Seasons' and produced some artwork inspired by what we heard. We also produced computerised fact files about Vivaldi and wrote poems based on one of his seasons. The work of the female composer Florence Price, inspired our own graphic scores and we performed Beethoven's Ode to Joy on the chime bars ad boom whackers. The class also had a go at composing some pieces on Garage Band!

We studied and listened to the work of the composer Steve Reich. He is famous for composing pieces of music using 4 notes repetitively and then adding on other instruments with equally simplistic rhythms. We then had a go composing our own minimalistic pieces in groups.

After listening to Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy', we had a go at using either chime bars or boomwhackers to play the notes that he had composed.

After listening to compositions by Steve Reich and Philip Glass, we had a go at composing our own minimalist pieces using a 4 or 5 note repeated section and then added in some other instruments to create a simple tune on Garage Band on the iPads.

After learning all about coral reefs and how they are made from living organisms called polyps and thrive in clear, warm, shallow waters. We made coral reef models out of plasticine, focusing on shapes, textures and using different tools to add details.

This term's Music topic saw us listen to some examples of folk music and appraise them. We identified the structure of the songs and then focused on writing some lyrics for a folk song about the Titanic. In small groups after writing the lyrics, we composed some music and rehearsed and performed our songs.

Our Fantastic Friday activity was to paint and decorate our well being pebbles to be placed in the school well-being garden.

During our lacrosse lessons this term, we have learnt how to hold the lacrosse stick correctly, cradle the ball, throw and catch the ball, scoop and shoot the ball. We have combined these skills in small group scenarios and then unto larger games. The use of space and teamwork were all key skills we worked on throughout the term.

This term in dance, we have focused on the style of street dance and hip hop. We learnt some discrete moves such as the 'pop and lock', neck and arm rolls, the 'helicopter' and then combined them in a sequence to create a short dance. We also focused on understanding the '8 beat count', starting and ending together on time. During the unit, we worked in pairs and small groups combining our skills and experiences.

We studied the work of Claude Monet and in particular his River Thames series. We paid close attention to his use of only four colours and blending them together. We used watercolours to produce our own replica pieces of Art!

In our Topic lesson, we learnt all about the different part of the river system. We then reproduced a river system either using Lego, Plasticine or by painting our own pictures. On each model the key vocabulary was labelled and the definitions written on the reverse of the labels too.

We have been exceptionally lucky this week to have two very knowledgeable guests come to talk to the class about the Titanic. Firstly, Mr Williams (Rufus' Grandad) came and spoke all about filming the discovery of the wreckage and about Eva Hart's family, who were passengers on board the ship. It was fascinating to hear about the tragedy from a different perspective and look at photos of the ship. Then we had Matthew Snoad in who told us all about the building and making of the ship and the journey it took. He also brought with him some wonderful artefacts and a large model of the ship which he had made.

For Fantastic Friday today, we made trophies from Lego to award to another member of the class for something about them which they felt needed celebrating.

We made 'values trees' in our RE lesson which had hung on them values which we think are important to live our lives by. These values ranged from forgiveness, honesty, love to trust, friendship and positivity.

The class had a fantastic time during STEM week, really enjoying all the varied investigations that we participated in. We started the week by conducting an experiment to see how to prevent apples browning. We made a prediction and then cut our apples into 6 pieces and dipped one in each of these solutions: Lemon juice, apple juice, orange juice, salty water, cold water and warm water. We then observed and recorded the changes over the course of the week.

We explored the ability of helium balloons to carry different weights and then investigated what solutions and shape bubble wands were best at making bubbles. A paper plane challenge was great fun, we followed instructions to make the best paper airplanes and then tested them, making modifications as we went. We also investigated how to stick string to ice using salt!

The Sheldwich robot challenge had us all engaged for a whole morning where we spent time programming and coding micro-bit robots so that they could navigate a specific course. This was challenging and we had to constantly make changes and tweaks so that our robots would stay on track.

We tested our understanding of technology by learning about catapults then we designed, made and tested them. In between goes we evaluated and improved our designs, measuring which team’s catapult fired the projectile the furthest.

As part of STEM week, we welcomed Ms Hummerstone, a secondary school Physics teacher, into our class to teach an afternoon on Forces. We had an overview of Newton’s laws, discussed the idea of balanced and unbalanced forces and their effects on motion. She showed us some wonderful experiments and demonstrations using dynamics trolleys, big “skateboards’ that the children sat on and we looked at pushing/pulling and the effects on different masses. We also used water rockets attached to a bicycle wheel and to a long stick which the children held and had great fun. The children then had the challenge of designing and testing a car that would protect an egg in a crash. We looked at crumple zones, forces to slow down the cars, friction and air resistance and the all had the same materials to use. We then tested them on a ramp of increasing gradient until the eggs cracked – leaving us with one winner – the Noodles!

Term 3 - D.T - Fairground Rides

This term's D.T project has involved us learning and exploring pulleys, gears and levers. We have been learning all about the history of fairgrounds and theme parks so we were challenged with making a ride from K'Nex. In groups, we tried following instructions and building a range of theme park rides with motor power. We then evaluated the the making process.

D.T. - Flip Books

We have made some flip books all about extreme sports in keeping with our 'Thrills and Spills' topic. Having looked at a variety of animations, we then focused on the small changes and details which needed to be changed on every page to continue the animated story.

We had a marvellous Poetry slam competition this week. The class had written their own poems either individually or in pairs, rehearsed them and then performed in front of the class in a knock out competition.  The performances were judged on the quality of the poem, rhythm, use of gestures and props and eye contact. Everybody performed brilliantly and after a close fought battle, Safi and Isabella were crowned the winners!

In this term's Computing lessons, we have been learning and using Excel Spreadsheets to design a theme park and then calculate how much visitors will spend in the park, the total running costs of our parks and the the profit we will make. To do this we made tables, input formulae and turned our findings into pie and bar graphs.  Once we had completed that some of us even used the school iPads to make logos for our theme parks too.

As part of our topic DT lessons, we learnt about and investigated making our own pulley systems before we make some theme park rides next week. The children were all given the same objects to use as creatively as possible!

This week in Science, we investigated the effects of water resistance. Each group made 3 shapes from Plasticine to test how fast they travelled through water! Great fun!

We explored the idea of moving images and how you show that something is moving in your artwork. We studied photos and images of fairground and theme park rides, analysing the use of blurring, smudging, facial expressions and arms and hair in the air!

F1 Stem Day at QE

DT –F1 Car Designing, testing, evaluating

Class 5 attended the Q.E Grammar school to take part in a fantastic STEM Day. The day was all themed around the F1 in schools challenge and the children competed in teams to design, make and test their own F1 car model. Initially, within their teams they discussed and created team names, logos, colour branding and initial car designs. We then made prototypes and discussed the physics behind making a fast, aerodynamic car. The children’s ideas were amazing and so creative – team names included: Leaping Leopards, Solar Speed, Blue Wolf and the Fast Falcons – the bold bright team branding was very clear. For the next stage, we explored different body shape designs, types of wheels, extra features such as wings and spoilers. After, the teams constructed and built their models they tested them in the smoke air tunnel, edited and tweaked their designs and made some wonderful team posters to help promote their teams. The day culminated in a competition to see whose car was the fastest –getting the chance to test them on their air powered track. After a very exciting competition there were two teams left to fight it out for the title – Devil Killers (Ethan R and Hugo) and Solar Speed (Summer and Florence) and the Devil Killers were victorious. Some other awards were handed out too: Overall Champions – Phoebe and Esme, Best Design – Isabelle and Helena, Teamwork Award – Ethan H and George.

This term, we have been learning the rules and  skills associated with handball. We have focused on footwork, attacking and defending. The key area of finding space and not bunching around the ball was a challenge but we improved throughout the term. Whilst defending, we looked at the importance of positioning between the goal and the attacker and keeping an eye on the ball.

This term we have been exploring paired balances both on mats and on apparatus. We started looking at counter balance and counter tension balances on mats, having a go at three levels of difficulty. We then explored mirrored balances and joining these into a routine/sequence on apparatus. The focus was then to join these balances smoothly and transition between entering and exiting the routine.

After learning about the aborigine culture and how they represented this using earth colours and symbols, we had a go at creating our own.

We used different techniques to represent shade, tone and texture. Only using a range of sketching pencils, we produced drawings of a variety of landmarks from the continent of Oceania/Australia. We tried to focus on capturing shape and proportion.

The class have loved having Mr Daintree teach them Music over the past two terms. This term, we used the Bon Jovi song, 'Livin' on a Prayer' to learn about tempo, dynamics and pitch. We learnt the lyrics and accompaniment on the glockenspiel to the song and composed our own pieces.

This term in our Computing lessons, we have been using Scratch to code our own adventure games. During this process, they have planned and designed their games, made prototypes and coded all the elements and then played and improved them.

Having studied all about Easter Island and the Moai statues in our Topic lesson, we embarked on making our own versions from clay. We used techniques of moulding, sculpting and attaching different bits together effectively.

We looked at the Tinga Tinga African art work and focused on the use of colour and pattern. Inspired by the African animals, we created our own pieces of artwork.

These adventurous chefs all had a go at making the delicious teriyaki chicken noodle recipe at home!  Brilliant effort and it all looks really yummy! 

We thoroughly enjoyed our session with Darren, from Roots to Food this week. The class learnt all about the nutrition in food, a variety of cooking techniques and all made and ate their own Chicken Teriyaki Noodles. I even got to try it and it was very tasty. Take a look at the recipe and give it a go at home.

This term, we have been learning the skills and techniques to play netball. We have focused on passing and shooting with control and accuracy, to learn and apply the footwork rule, to develop dodging and defending skills and to apply these in game scenarios.

We completed an experiment to see what happened to light when it was passed through a prism. We discovered that it was refracted and split into the seven colours of the rainbow as each colour had a different wavelength. In our experiment, we passed torchlight through a variety of glass and plastic prisms and through coloured overlays.

Throughout this term, we have been planning and making our own interactive adventure stories using PowerPoint. We planned out the theme of our stories and then created them using hyperlinks to jump to particular sections of our stories.

In small groups, we used the class set of iPads to go outside and take some pictures that we thought were interesting and then we wrote a poem about one of them. After this, they rehearsed there poems and recorded them on the iPads themselves - great fun!

We had a large amount of entries into the Poetry Slam competition and we really enjoyed listening to everyone's brave performances. After a tight results count, we crowned our winner... Ethan H.

We read some list poems for inspiration and then had a go at writing our own.

We explored a huge range of poetry including; list poems, non-rhyming poems, haikus and rhyming poems. We then performed them to each other, read some to trees and shouted them at each other, we wrote our own individually and in groups, we created a class poem inspired by the poet Gary Studley and we filmed our our performances using the iPads! A very fun and jam-packed week!

After studying the Ancient Greeks all term, we designed and then made from clay our own Greek vases. We modelled them from clay and then painted intricate and authentic designs on them.

We learnt all about the importance of Greek temples and how and why they were made. We then had a go at making our own making sure we chose either Ionic or Doric columns and had a statue to the god or goddess we were dedicating it to.

In Maths, we have been learning about 3D shapes and their properties. We had a go at making our own prisms or pyramids carefully labelling their vertices, edges and faces.

Geography and DT Day

We focused on ‘where are food comes from?’ We looked at the idea of harvest and the food we produced locally in Kent. We went for a walk to see the local harvested fields of wheat, barley and oil seed rape. We also studied seasonal fruit and vegetables and made a seasonal food calendar. In the afternoon, we made apple crumble. We developed our grating, cutting, weighing and mixing skills. We then designed a label for the container.

Wow!! What absolutely fabulous homework you all created - I have been totally blown away by all the effort and time you have put it! Each Pandora's box was so unique and well thought out with descriptions to match.