Year 5 Autumn 2

The final week of the Autumn Term...and what a week it was! Year 5's finished their persuasive speeches on the impact plastic pollution has on our oceans, our world, our future. These were then recorded as podcasts to make others aware of the global issue we face.

Children also worked on their Stop Motion Animations throughout the week. They thought carefully about what they want to make others aware of and tied this in with plastic pollution in our oceans. Each team then created a story plan for their animation.

Consolidation and practise of certain skills were the focus for Maths this week. The children supported each other by looking at different methods as well as encouraging everyone to be part of lessons.

Another exciting event was sharing all the home learning tasks that the children worked on (at home) over the past couple of weeks.

A big thank you to everyone that put in great amounts of effort with their home learning project!

If you thought this was it, then you were wrong. As part of our design and technology, we studied what foods and food products come from the rainforests. We further developed our cooking skills and repertoire through creating dishes using rainforest produce. We made three different crumbles! Yes, three! Apple, rhubarb and banana! Yum!

We evaluated these recipes after tasting them and had discussions about how to modify them and make improvements if we had to make it again.

The last week of term is also the time where we share what we've been reading to our peers through our reading showcase.

And had great fun playing their own games!

This week we also did work around Jane Goodall, a British scientist who has studied chimpanzees for many years.

In Tanzania, she patiently observed them over a number of years. Jane won the trust of the chimpanzees, and noticed new and interesting things about their behaviour.

Chimpanzees are on the endangered species list and are nearing extinction in some African countries.

We looked at threats to their survival and created posters to make others aware of the situation and what we as mankind can do to help save chimps.

Year 5 and Year 6 also visited the University of East London where the children took part in different sporting activities; basketball, volleyball, netball, athletics and football. After lunch they also got to watch a live volleyball match where UEL played against Essex Blades.

An online Junk Bots workshop provided great fun in the classroom! Alongside other Primary Schools, children create their own bots from junk-modelling materials. In their groups they thought of a purpose for their bot, protecting planet Earth.

Phew! What a busy, fun-filled, creative week we've had! Discover came to visit us for two further workshops where we created our own shadow puppets, which will soon be exhibited at Discover! As part of the workshops we've created our own feelings islands, which then turned into our character. A story was generated based on the character and we then made a shadow puppet.

Shadow puppets in the making!