This term, we have been learning about human development and this week in particular we focused on the milestones a person reaches as they grow from a baby to a 10-year-old. There was lots of excellent discussion, especially from the children who still have babies or toddles in their households. We also reminisced about our favourite nursery rhymes and the children in 5H taught Mrs Snedden all about Little Rabbit Foo Foo! The children added their new information to their ever growing timeline. You can imagine from the picture above just how long the timeline will be when complete it. 

We have had a very busy week in Year 5 with a lot of learning in geography and science. We continued to learn about coastal erosion on Monday. The children recreated a beach using sand trays. They observed what happened to the sand when the waves approached from straight on and then from an angle (using the Isle of Wight as an example). The movement of the sand when the waves approach the beach at an angle is called Longshore Drift. The children then investigated what would happen by adding barriers along their "beaches" and looked how these "groynes " are used along beaches to slow coastal erosion.  In science, the children have begun their learning about human lifecycles. We have been extremely impressed with the discussion this has generated and the way in which the children have used the science vocabulary to describe the beginning of the human lifecycle and the reproduction of humans.

What a fantastic final week before Half Term! We continued our learning of life cycles in science as we learnt about the gestation period of mammals. The children were able to interpret data and use this to create a bar graph which we then analysed and subsequently discovered that an elephant has a gestation period of around 22 months! We also finished reading our class text, Journey to Jo'burg, which centres around 2 children as they navigate apartheid in South Africa. The children subsequently wrote a diary entry as the character, Tiro, which retold the events of one of the chapters. 

As our Global Trade geography topic has come to a close, we have started our new unit which focuses on map skills and the physical geography of our coasts. During our first lesson we learnt all about OS maps, what scale is, how to use a key and symbols and how to give a four or six figure grid reference! What a lot of new information. The children really enjoyed using the OS maps and were surprised to see how much bigger Richmond Park is compared to the common. They, of course, all enjoyed locating their houses and our school too. 

After a cancelled trip in 2020, Year 5 were able to visit Juniper Hall this year and we could not have been happier! At the field study centre, the children took part in three activities across a very busy day. During the shelter activity, the children learnt all about what you need in order to survive in the wild. They first built a small shelter for a 'mouse' and held a competition to see which shelter could keep the 'mouse' the warmest. They then built a shelter to protect their entire team. While 5B were building their shelter, they were very excited to discover a real dormouse, during 5H's turn Esme found a woodpecker skull and 5D saw a beautiful peacock butterfly! The children also learnt all about habitats and were able to spend time pond dipping. We found a wide range of invertebrates and were particularly impressed with the dragonfly nymph. We also looked under logs and learnt all about the difference between millipedes and centipedes. One of the highlights for many of the children was the orienteering. Armed with a map of the site, the children had to work in a team to find the markers and return to their group leader. It was brilliant to see the communication between the children and the focus on the task. Our day ended around the campfire toasting marshmallows and listening to stories. The Year 5 teaching team were so proud of the children and the staff at Juniper Hall complimented them on their fantastic behaviour and enthusiasm.