The spring term culminated with pupils producing fantastic puppets based on characters from Macbeth. There were disquieting witches, ill-fated Banquos, deranged Lady Macbeths and some magnificent - if malevolent - Macbeths. This week the children have enjoyed the fruits-of-their-labours and performed scenes from the play with their puppets, concluding this unit of work. We now move onto poetry and are looking at the fabulous book Lost Words, by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris.

We've been cartwheeling in PE and identifying different types of angles in maths - as well as learning how to measure, estimate and calculate them.   Grid references have been the order of the day in geography and in science, we have dissected flowers in order to better understand their different parts and functions. A cracking start to the summer term!

Year 5 celebrated Sheen Mount's platinum anniversary day in true sixties style. We went retro - finding out all about the space race, the world's first electronic mouse, what school children in the sixties thought their futures would hold and whether they were right or not; all washed down with lashings of Pop Art and accompanied by the Beatles. What a fabulous and 'far-out' day!

Back in the 2020s, we have been busy compiling soliloquies fashioned on Macbeth's ruinous ruminations as well as designing puppets based on characters from the very same play. Watch out for some spine-chillingly sinister witches and menacing Macbeths.  

Global trade has been on the agenda in geography. We've been impressed by pupils' insights into where the food they eat is produced and how it reaches us, alongside their developing understanding of the implications of this at a local, national and international level. 

Tuesday 30th January saw Y5 pupils participating in an exciting STEM challenge - a fantastic, full-day, online workshop that brought the excitement of aerospace engineering right into our classrooms. The day began with a design activity, supported by virtual top-tips and guidance that also linked to our previous learning about forces. Pupils then teamed up to build three of their designs before testing them on the astro-turf. Finally, they evaluated how the different combinations of tail configuration (empennage) and wing shape had performed.  An action-packed and inspiring day.

In English, we have continued our work on Macbeth, bringing to life the three witches and their ominous prophecies, whilst in maths we have finished our topic on multiplication and division and moved on to working with fractions. Alfred the Great has been the focus of discussions in history and in art, children have been assembling photo collages inspired by the work of David Hockney.

There is no slowing down in Y5! This week we have been kneading up a storm and have created some fabulous show-stopping breads in Design Technology. The entire school has been salivating as the smell of delicious baked goods has wafted out of the teaching kitchen and along corridors. Yum! In English, pupils have been putting the final touches to some very motivational, and at times - emotional, speeches; inspired by Sir Ernest Shackleton's experiences in Antarctica. Meanwhile, in maths we have been getting our heads around adding and subtracting fractions. On top of everything else, Y5 have been working hard in preparation for next week's carol concert. They sound wonderful.

The week kicked off with pupils investigating how frictional forces vary between different surfaces, using a range of objects at their disposal, as well as the school's grounds. In English, we set off on our adventures to Antarctica with Ernest Shackleton and his crew on board the Endurance, and made some lovely diary entries that articulate the sense of anticipation, excitement and trepidation experienced by the crew.  The evacuation of the town of Grindavik in Iceland  leant a human dimension to the impact that volcanoes have on populations, supplementing our work in geography.

Y5 kicked off the week with a fabulous Anglo Saxon workshop delivered by the brilliant Saxon Sue. The children enjoyed a hands-on experience of what life would have been like during this period and developed some useful skills as well. Candle making, weaving, ink making and amulet design were just a selection of the activities they engaged in before becoming archaeologists on the hunt for Anglo Saxon artefacts. In Science, pupils carried out an investigation to determine why the moon has so many different sizes of crater, by making their own craters in the classroom!