After the children’s dress and technical rehearsal we thought they earned a well deserved break so we took a little trip to Leeds Museum. Below you can see the children enjoying their time in the Hip Hop Journey exhibit. We were mesmerised by the Ancient Egyptians exhibit and saw a replica of a 3000 year old mummy and its tomb. This was so exciting because our unit for next half term is the Egyptians!!!!

To compliment our Macbeth theme we have been studying the life of William Shakespeare and the impact his works have had on our culture. The children learnt about the key moments of his life and how he started off in the world of theatre. We loved learning about the words and phrases he made popular through his works such as ‘to be or not to be’ (you can see some more below).

In todays computing lesson the children looked at how to code so their Microbit would become a fortune teller. The children did this using the online programming site called Scratch. The children learnt that the Microbit had a sensor built into to it allowing them to program in a way where they didn’t have to press any buttons to get an answer but to just simply shake using the ‘on shake’ coding block.

Year 5 enjoyed their singing assembly this morning as part of UKS2 Clergy Worship! They sang songs about our current value, ‘forgiveness’. 

In 5S we have started our computing unit where we are learning how to program using MicroBit MakeCode. The children programmed a MicroBit to show correct when button A was pressed and wrong when button B was pressed, through this we learnt about conditions and that we have to instruct a computing by coding and programming. Have a look below!

5S had great week of learning during Anti-Bullying week. We took part in the UKS2 picket – we created our own picket signs and had our own class chant, ‘stand up, speak up, make a noise’. During our Anti-Bullying PSHE lesson, we conducted a silent debate. The children silently moved around the classroom in groups, writing down their thoughts and opinions for different bullying incidents.

I was really proud of the class – they put a great deal of thought into their silent debate contributions!

We spent the week looking at what Remembrance Day is truly all about, its significance and the sacrifice of those who fought for our country. We learnt about the significance of the poppy and how they were seen in Flanders Field by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He saw them and was inspired to write a poem which became so popular it is the reason we use poppies today as a symbol for never forgetting those who died in the war.

Here is a poem by Abigail inspired by ‘Amulet’ by Ted Hughes.

Remembrance Day:

Inside the bitter cold, the despicable pain.

Inside the despicable pain, the horrific losses.

Inside the horrific losses, the Flanders Field.

Inside the Flanders Field, the only hope.

Inside the only hope, the flourishing poppies.

Inside the flourishing poppies, the distressing years.

Inside the distressing years, the bitter cold.

Inside the bitter cold, the fight for freedom.

Today the children spent the day in an amazing Ancient Greek workshop. They started the morning with an assembly where our workshop leader told the children about different Ancient Greek myths and had them act out exciting parts of the story. We learnt that the city of Troy was in fact burnt to the ground and was found to be covered in a layer of ash. After our assembly, we took part in three fun activities. One where we went head to head with each other playing a board game of Athens v Sparta, this activity taught us the skills warriors would need; perseverance, patience and being able to think two steps ahead. Another included using the classroom and capitalising on the Ancient Greek information boards to answer questions of a fascinating quiz….we learnt so much. Did you know the brand Nike is named after an Ancient Greek Nike who was the god of victory? The wings have also been flipped on their side and now look like ticks! Finally some Maths, we used our problem solving skills to create a rectangle using different shapes…it was really tough but we persevered. This helped us gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of some of the Maths problems the Greek philosophers helped the world solve. We ended the day all together as a year group and went head to head in a warfare game, learning about the skills and equipment of the hoplites (soldiers). Have a look at the pictures to see how immersed the children were in their Ancient Greek Day.

What an afternoon! I would like to thank all the parents again for their participation and attendance at 5S Art’s Fortnight. The children worked so hard to produce artwork and a dance that they were proud off. We pushed ourselves even further and created a stop motion animation of the story of Icarus which was a HIT. If you were unable to attend the animation will be uploaded later this week for all to see. Our performance was the story of Icarus and his downfall shown through dance. Some of my favourite parts were where the children lifted Icarus and then all participated in a trust fall depicting the part when Icarus fell to his death and when at the start when Icarus was putting on his wings showing that he was headstrong and ready to leave captivity. Our artwork consisted of water colour paintings showing still scenes of the sky Icarus would often fly beneath, sketches of the children with wings telling you where they feel free and relief artwork where the children created 3-D feathers. Have a look at some of the images below to see the journey.