We also held our annual Christmas Performance.  

Everyone did a fantastic job!

It was time for us to showcase our Autumn Home Learning Projects.  Above are some of the pieces of work that the children brought in.

Have you seen a bee up close?  

Can you identify what type of bee it is? 

Snow, snow, snow!  What a start to the week, the world covered in a blanket of snow!  Even though it caused a few interruptions, that never stopped us from our learning.  

Below are some of our Winter Poems. 

Here are some examples of research on Tribes in the Amazon that children created at home.

This week was our week of assessments where we could prove how much knowledge we have gained and what we are working towards achieving.  Everyone tried really hard and stayed focused throughout the different assessments.

Next we used PVA glue to glue our leaves and flowers in place.  

Using glue spreaders and cotton buds, we explored different patterns that can be used to add on to our Amazonian flowers.  We tried to make our patterns as fine and intricate as possible.

Once this step was complete, final patterns were added to our flowers only - making them stand out from the leaves.  

Another busy week packed with learning!  

In English we continued to work on our persuasive speeches on plastic pollution.  We looked at the lifecycle of plastic and how it ends up in our oceans.  We wrote about the change that needs to happen and are now calling for action to take place. 

In Maths we looked at multiplying 2-digit, 3-digit and 4-digit numbers by single digits.  We explored multiple methods and through continuous practise we can now identify and with confidence use our preferred method of choice when solving these problems.

In English we continued looking at the disastrous effect plastic has on our planet.  We looked at the government's point of view regarding this matter and discussed where and how we can make a start in school to eradicate the use of single-use plastic items.  For this we went on a secret mission as undercover agents to find examples of single-use plastic items in our school.  Below are a few examples of what we found.

In English we are looking at a persuasive speech around the topic of plastic pollution.  Most of this week's lessons were spent identifying the different shapes and arranging them.  A couple of lessons were also dedicated to finding single-use plastic items around the school and learning about the effects of plastic pollution around the world, especially in our oceans. 

Children had the opportunity to create their own slides with motion animation to share some of the statistics and facts that they've learned about plastic pollution.

On Thursday we completed our Chapter Review for Addition and Subtraction.  Everyone tried their best to apply what they've learned.  Our next chapter is all about Multiplication and Division.  In our first lesson we found different multiples.  We used square counters to find multiples of 8, 7, 6, 9, 4, 3 and 5.  They were all explored in a range of ways with some questions trying to trick us.

At the start of the week, early on Monday morning, there was a lot of excitement in both Year 5 and Year 6 as it is the week of our residential to Fair Play House.  Children eagerly waited for the coach to arrive to start their week of adventures.

These were some of the reading activities completed over the course of the week by the children who stayed behind.  Think about the novel you are reading.  Are you able to complete the above tasks for your novel?

In the afternoons we worked on a project around our school threads.  We looked at what each thread involves and in pairs created a collage with words explaining our threads.

This week we started working on our Art Project.  We started off by looking at how different artists represented rainforests in their work and then explored paintings of the Amazon by John Dyer and Abel Rodriguez.  We also used our Kew Gardens experience as a building block to our art work.  

Once familiar with the style of these two artists, we started exploring colour mixing to create a range of vibrant shades.  The first tint we created was of brilliant blue and turquoise.  We created a background wash using sponges.

We then looked at the leaves we saw at Kew Gardens and decided which ones we are going to use.  The children practised mixing shades of green.  Once they've chosen the shades they wanted to use drew and painted their leaves.   

Once the leaves were done, children moved onto their chosen flower.  For the flowers they had to practise mixing shades of orange and purple.

When the leaves and flowers were dry, the children carefully cut around the edges of the shapes.  The next step would be to layer these onto the background.

During our unit session we used Google Earth to locate Brazil.  We then looked at famous Brazilian landmarks using Google Earth and started researching one with our partners.

Our Educational Visit to Kew Gardens created a lot of excitement this week among the Year 5's!  It was an unbelievable experience; looking at the various plants found in rainforests as well as understanding how warm and humid the air in rainforests are. 

These amazing flowers and leaves left us inspired and will play a great role when we start our art work on layered leaf paintings. 

We also went on the Treetop Walkway where we got a birds' eye view of the Gardens.

Everyone had a great time!  Year 5's were true Manor ambassadors receiving many compliments for their exemplary behaviour and manners! 

This week was the second week of our 2-week swimming block.  It was great fun and a lot of progress was made in each and every session!

Our Spring Onion experiment is on its way!  Look how they've grown.  Some are growing better than others.  We are hypothesising why this might be happening.

The Explorer by Katherine Rundell has taken us on a great adventure!  From learning about Fred, his workaholic father and cousin that lives in Brazil - we have completed a range of activities to support us with our writing tasks.  

Listening and looking at videos of the Amazon Rainforest, hot seating different characters and building a raft are only a few tasks we've completed to aid our writing. 

In Science we started looking at the reproduction of plants.  One of our first experiments was to see if it is possible for some plants to reproduce with a single parent plant.  We are testing this theory using spring onions.

The Year 5's made plenty of promises that they are going to try and keep throughout the year.  They've set themselves some goals and identified areas for improvement.  Hard work, perseverance and commitment were only a few of the promises Year 5's made towards achieving their goals this year!