An introduction to bridge

It is that exciting time of year again where Graham, who is one of our special visitors, has moved to teach bridge to the Year Fives. Today, it was Y5GE’s turn. They began with a recap of their learning with him last year. We recapped the basics (52 cards in a deck, two different colours, 4 suits) and then played some mini games to warm us up. The aim of the mini-games were so we could familiarise ourselves with the cards, the suits, the values of the cards and of course – to work on our team work. Whilst we were quite loud, we were just very enthusiastic!

Whist was the first quick and easy game we were taught. It would be easy to play at home:

Take one suit of cards and deal them to your table. Each person should fan their cards in their hand so they can see them. Then, the dealer lays down one card – everyone lays one card on top of it, one at a time. The person who lays the highest card wins the ‘trick’. For example: if the dealer laid a ten, the only cards tha can beat it are a J (jack), Q (queen), K (king) or A (ace). Value of the cards is important here.

This was one of many games we played – it was a great hour and a quarter!

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Another Ancient Greek myth

After two successful weeks learning and rewriting the Ancient Greek myth ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’, today we moved onto a new myth: The Wooden Horse (also known as the Trojan Horse).

After collecting some boastful language (really good quality adjectives) to describe the different artist impressions of the wooden horse, we watched an old cartoon version of the story. As they watched the cartoon a second time, the children collected the main events of the story in their jotters. We have become very successful at summarising main events, and this was clear in our learning.

The task we were challenged to do, was to create a comic strip for the main events of the story. Here we are in progress:

Campfire – reversible and irreversible changes

Thankfully, there was a break in the weather on Thursday as it was time for the science to get fully practical. In last week’s lesson, the children had observed the changes to an ice cube when heated and determined whether this change was reversible or irreversible. This week they went outside and Mr Allsopp led the session, using heat as a source again to investigate change.

As Mrs Reid reported: We have had a fun and memorable afternoon doing science! Outside, we looked at the way heating and burning materials using fire can change them irreversibly. Mr Allsopp showed us changes to bread, chocolate, egg and cheese using the fire and we got to taste some freshly popped corn.

When we went inside we looked at how mixing solids and liquids together also became an irreversible change, making a tasty (but disgusting sounding) treat called armpit fudge!

Division

This week, we have moved onto using the short division method for finding remainders. Wednesday’s lesson was hard going, with all the many steps to remember, even with a WAGOLL. In today’s lesson some children moved onto using the method to find remainders independently, some children just needed another quick recap of the short division method and some needed a lot more input to use the method without remainders. However, we all began with looking at the process in a more pictorial way – using the good old place value counters!

Orienteering – the sequel

We have now completed our fourth orienteering lesson for PE and have built up our skills each time. Today was our final lesson before going out into the grounds and using the map symbols to orientate ourselves.

A ‘map’ was laid out in the classroom and each pair had to orientate themselves to it. The task today was even harder than before, as the specific corners or areas on the map were important – as Miss Eden had laid out many red herrings. Each child, one a time, had to move around the map – beginning on the red triangle – and record the letter they found. However, some of the letters were really close together, so close detail was needed.

We found it quite hard to begin with but really understood it by the end of the lesson. Miss Eden and Mrs Dwyer cannot wait to see how well they do on and around the yard next week!

A historical puzzle

Having now built up our knowledge of using primary and secondary sources and how to use them to learn about the past, we used this skill again in a different context. Last week, we were trying to find out all about the Ancient Greek Olympics following our pictorial predictions the week before.

To begin the task, the children worked in groups to try and reform an Ancient Greek vase. From putting the image together we were able to immediately identify some events that took place. There was chariot racing, javelin, running and discus.

Reasoning

In maths today, after finding the area of a number of rectangles with a given area, we worked hard to solve three problems that combined our knowledge of area and perimeter. Each child attempted the problem independently or within a group. After, some brave children came to the front to share the process of what they had found out.

This was such a good task. Katy, A

melia, Chloe and Daiton were the four chosen today to stand and teach the class how they had attempted these problems. They used excellent reasoning and accompanied their reasoning with diagrams and working out! Better yet, the rest of the class were able to offer their own findings, add further information and complete or edit their own work. Well done Y5!

Orienteering – the beginning

We had an absolutely amazing PE lesson, this afternoon! We have begun our half term on orienteering in preparation for a visit to Hillsborough Park later in the year. Today the children recapped one of the main three skills of orienteering, which is being able to orientate a map. Each pair had to use the map to negotiate themselves around a laid out course. Whilst doing this they had to total up the values to check their accuracy. Every pair had great success.

Following that we learnt the new skill that was introduced, and will be built on in coming weeks through PE and geography, which is to use map symbols. Each group had to ‘run’ and grab a map version of their picture and create a whole map. We used the first task to have a go at matching the symbols. Then, a map key was introduced and we played again to see how fast it could be completed. 100% success was had here too!

Science in Y5

Each week, our Y5s have been having a weekly science lesson. They have been looking at materials and properties and the changes involving them. Yesterday, we thought about how we could create a fair and reliable test to see how the temperature of water effected how fast sugar dissolved.  We made predictions and related this to making a nice cup of tea with boiling water.

Here are some of the children in action:

More Spectacular Home Learning

Despite the half term only just beginning, we have had some more superb home learning brought in. Mrs Dwyer has been really busy adding it to our display, with Mark the caretaker’s help. We have had a shield that a legionary would use from Regan, a blood-tipped sword from Lucas, a detailed-handled sword by Shakeel and now a toga and stola and belt from Sabi!

Fantastic guys!