It's been a busy couple of weeks since our return to school. We have been excited to start learning our Djembe rhythms (bass, slap, tone). We have also investigated absorbency of kitchen roll and have been interested to find which countries our food comes from, while learning about global trade. Next time you have your breakfast, think about how far the food on your plate has travelled! In English, we are busy writing newspaper articles linked to Macbeth after finishing our superb soliloquies. 

Year 5 had an absolutely amazing time at the Young Voices Concert on Tuesday. We arrived at the O2 at 12:30pm and once we found our block, we ate our lunch. After this, we found our seats which were brilliant - Mrs Boa very much approved! We then spent the next few hours rehearsing and enjoying the experience of being at the O2. Finally, the moment of truth came when the thousands of parents entered and the show started. Our children were amazing! They sang their hearts out and loved very single second of it. We would like to thank those who were able to come and watch - we hope you enjoyed the performance as much as we did!

It has been a very busy end to our Year 5 Autumn Term. The children have made bread, which was delicious! We have rounded off our geography learning about natural disasters by learning about tsunamis and where in the world they occur. We have also finished our writing using Shackleton's Journey as our inspiration and look forward to using Macbeth as a stimulus for some of our writing after Christmas. Additionally, we have been singing our hearts out, preparing for our carol concert and are exciting at the prospect of singing at the O2 in January. Happy Christmas from everybody in Year 5!

Over the last couple of weeks in Year 5, we have been writing a persuasive letter from Ernest Shackleton to a prospective crew member. We have been looking at the writing skills needed to successfully persuade as well as learning how to use relative clauses to create complex sentences. In our science topic 'forces', we have looked at gravity, friction and air resistance. This week we investigated whether the surface area of a parachute had an impact on the air resistance and how quickly the parachute would fall. In maths, we have been multiplying and dividing numbers by 10, 100 and 1000 and continued to consolidate our understanding of the vocabulary linked to multiplication. 

Last week, we enjoyed welcoming a visitor to our school for our Anglo-Saxon day. The day helped to reinforce our learning about what life was like in Anglo-Saxon times. The children took part in many creative activities including: an archaeological dig, illumination writing, making medicines with herbs, candle making, making ink and writing with a quill. Thank you so much to the parent helpers who joined us for this wonderful day.

In maths, we have started our new topic, addition and subtraction. We have been learning how to estimate and approximate answers to calculations by using our understanding of rounding numbers.

We have completed our narrative writing inspired by the Lost Thing and have been really impressed with the imaginative endings the children have written.

In science, we have been learning about the phases of the moon - when you look up in the sky tonight, you should see a waning gibbous!