Thomas Willingale School and Nursery
Summer Term
Lambourne End
WB: 8.7.24
This week we have been learning about Rags to Riches story.
Do you know what a Rags to Riches story is?
Here are some examples of Rag to Riches stories:
* Cinderella
* Aladdin
* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
* James and the Giant Peach
* The Prince and the Pauper
We'll look forward to seeing you on Open Evening so that you can read our Rags to Riches stories.
This week the children had the opportunity to attend Lambourne End activity centre, which they thoroughly enjoyed. Those children that didn't attend Lambourne End had a great day with Miss Burling doing lots of different activities about the Euros.
WB:1.7.24
We have continued with our learning about different mechanisms. This week we have learnt about cams, pulleys and gears.
What are cams?
A cam is a simple mechanism that converts rotary motion (movement that goes round in a circle) into linear motion (movement in a straight line). These mechanisms can be found in car engines, printing machines and sewing machines.
This is a toy that uses cams mechanism to work.
What is a pulley?
A pulley is a simple machine that uses a wheel with a groove and a rope to lift heavy objects. The rope fits into the groove and goes around the load and the wheel. You can pull on one end of the rope to move the load or change the direction of the force. Pulleys can be used alone or in sets to make lifting easier. Pulleys are used in many things like elevators and cranes.
What are gears?
Gears are mechanical parts with cut teeth designed to fit with teeth on another part. They are simple machines that harness force and are found in various devices such as bicycles, clocks, wind-up toys, and engineering machines.
Cams
Pulleys
Gears
Aspirations Day 2024
Sports Day
WB: 17.6.24
Our new Topic balloon blaster is all about different mechanisms and how they work. This week we have been learning about catapults.
What is a catapult?
A catapult is a simple mechanism used to forcefully propel stones, spears, or other projectiles.
It has been in use mainly as a military weapon since ancient times. Soldiers would use the catapults in both siege and defense maneuvers to capture or protect cities or castles.
Using craft sticks, elastic bands and a plastic spoon, we made our own catapults. We then used our catapults to see who's could propel a malteser the furthest. It was great fun!
Making catapults
In Maths we have been learning how to read and plot co-ordinates, translate and reflect shapes.
What are co-ordinates?
A co-ordinate is a point on a grid that has two numbers to identify its position.
Coordinates are always written as the number of steps across first, then the number of steps up or down. Grids have two axes. The horizontal axis is called the x-axis and the vertical axis is called the y-axis. These axes can be used to find a point on a grid.
What are the co-ordinates of the square?
What are the co-ordinates of the circle?
What does translating a shape mean?
The translation of a shape will move it up, down, left or right but the dimensions and appearance of the shape will stay the same. In order to correctly translate a shape, each point must move at an equal distance. When translating a shape does not change its size or orientation.
How has the shape been translated?
What is reflection?
Reflection is a type of transformation. To reflect an object, you need a mirror line.
When a shape is reflected, its size does not change - the image just appears 'flipped'.
Every point on the shape is the same distance away on the other side of the mirror line.
Using squared paper can be very handy to help you reflect an object.
WB: 3.6.24
This week we started our new topic Balloon Blaster. In this topic we will be learning all about toys and how they work.
We began out topic by looking at the history of toys and how they have changed overtime. We have also compared the differences between old and new toys.
Over the next few weeks, we will be learning about different mechanisms and how they make toys work.
Maths
In Maths we have been learning to add and subtract decimals. We have also been learning about decimal sequences.
What is a decimal sequence?
A decimal sequence is a list of decimals that follow a pattern. Like all sequences, decimal sequences have a rule that tells us how to go from one number to the next.
Science
In Science we have been learning about gravity. Did you know that gravity was discovered by Sir Isaac Newton witnessed and apple falling from a tree. Some people claim that the apple hit him on the head, although we can't be sure that this really happened.
Computing
In Computing, we have been learning about binary code. Did you know that data can be transmitted from Mars using binary code?
What is binary code?
Binary code is a coding system that uses 0 and 1 to represent letters, numbers, and symbols. It is called binary code because it’s made of only two symbols, and the “bi” in binary means two. Binary code is used in computers as a series of "off" and "on" switches, where 0 is "off" and 1 is "on". Each digit's place value in binary is twice as much as that of the next digit to the right2. Binary code is used in many other systems, such as morse code and braillle.
Wishing you all a restful weekend.
Welcome back. We hope you have all had a restful half term and are ready for the last half term of Year 5.
Tudor Day
Year 5 travel back in time...
The Setting: May 1536, The Final Days of Anne Boleyn
It is the time of the Reformation. Henry VIII has broken from Rome in order that he could divorce his first wife, Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. Now, however, with only a daughter and no son from his new marriage, and rumours of affairs with other men, Anne has been taken through Traitor’s Gate at the Tower of London and is being tried for treason. We are in a country manor house awaiting news of the trial, helping the craftspeople who work in different rooms of the manor.
This day gave the pupils a rounded picture of the Tudor world, also covering such things as religious beliefs, literacy, crafts and materials of the period.
Activities included:
• limning (painting lockets)
• ink making and writing with quills
• soap makers
• leather bookmarks
• sewing
• scent bag making
• apothecary
• barber surgeon
• Alchemist
Please look in your child's brown paper bag for these items.
In the afternoon the children broke up into different groups to rehearse the entertainments for the feast, which included a play, singers, dancers and jugglers, while a few of the children were trained as servants with our teacher, Sir Patrick. Sir Patrick then hosted the afternoon’s feast. The feast included bread, cheese, apples, grapes and some wine (juice).
A great day was had by all.
WB: 13.5.24
It has been another jam packed week in Year 5.
In English, we have been writing autobiographies. For these autobiographies we 'stepped into the shoes' of Harriet Tubman, who was born into enslavement in 1822.
An autobiography is an account of a person's life written by that person. When writing an autobiography it should be written in 1st person and in the past tense.
Miss Burling and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the children's autobiographies.
In Maths we have been learning how to find missing angles around a point and on a straight line.
The sum of an angle around a point is 360 degrees and the sum of angle on a straight line is 180 degrees. Can you use this information to calculate the value of the missing angles below:
In Science we have been learning about how forces act on objects.
What is a force?
Forces are pushes or pulls.
What different types of forces are there?
WB: 6.5.24
We hope you all had a wonderful long weekend.
It has been another busy week in year 5!
Our new topic is 'Rich and Poor', we kicked started our new topic by learning about the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
What is the Transatlantic slave trade?
When was the Transatlantic slave trade abolished?
After over twenty years of campaigning, the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1807. The Act made it illegal to buy and sell enslaved people throughout the British colonies.However, while the act abolished the trade in enslaved people, it did not end the use of enslaved labour across the British Empire. Plantation owners were still able to use their existing enslaved labour force. This meant that some people in the Caribbean, and elsewhere in the British Empire, remained enslaved.
To support this learning, in English we have been learning about Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman is an African- American woman who escaped from slavery in the South to become a leading abolitionist before the American Civil War. She led dozens of enslaved people to freedom in the North along the route of the Underground Railroad. Next week we will be writing autobiographies as if we were Harriet Tubman.
In Maths we have been learning to classify, estimate and measure angles.
Angles can be classified as acute, obtuse or reflex. We also have rights angles which are 90 degrees and angles on a straight line which are 180 degrees. Today, we learnt how to use a protractor to measure angles, we found this quite tricky so we will be practising this again on Monday.
PE
This week both classes were fortunate enough to have an additional PE lesson with Mrs Watkins from DPHS. The focus of this session was tennis. We learnt a number of different skills that we hope to perfect next half term.
In Art this week we have been learning about Vincent Van Gogh.
Who is Vincent Van Gogh?
Vincent van Gogh was a major Post-Impressionist Dutch painter whose work had a huge impact and influence on 20th century art. He is well known for his vivid and colorful self-portraits, paintings of flowers, and landscapes such as Starry Night. Van Gogh worked with great speed and passion, using coarse brushstrokes. He greatly influenced the style of art called expressionism, which shows the emotions that objects and events stir up in the artist.
We took inspiration from his 'Sunflowers' painting and painted our own using different brush strokes.
STEM with Wings with NASA engineer Ashitey Trebi- Ollennu.
Today, 2nd of May, Year 5 took part in a very special event. This special event was from 'STEM with Wings' was an opportunity for year 5 to find out about the amazing zero-gravity Mars helicopter and the Mars Rover Robotic Arm. Year 5 heard NASA engineer Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu's inspiring story from Ghana to the UK to NASA, they had the chance to ask him questions, and took part in his engineering challenged inspired by nature.
Luckily, for us, one of our questions was read aloud. The questions posed was 'Do you have an animal shaped invention?'. Ashitey told us that he did have an animal shaped invention, which was shaped like a lizard and had gecko grippers, that the inventors used to grip the robot to Mars.
The Brilliant Club Graduation
Congratulations to the 14 children in Year 5 who finished their Brilliant Club programme with their PhD tutor, by completing a 1000 word essay. On the 25th of April, they had a graduation ceremony at The Royal Holloway university. Whilst there, they had time to reflect on the courses, spoke to and asked questions of students who currently study at the university and also went on a campus tour. The children had a great time and were all blown away by the beautiful 'Founders Building' which the children were certain was actually Hogwarts.
WB 22.4.24
We kicked started our week with our swimming lessons at Davenant. Lisa, our swimming teacher, asked us to get into the pool in the shallow end in pairs so she could see how well we could swim. Once we had completed all of our swimming assessments, we had a few spare minutes to have some fun. We practised sitting on the floor of the swimming pool, blowing bubbles and made different shapes in the water to see who could hold them the longest. We thoroughly enjoyed our first week in the pool and are very much looking forward to going back next week.
In English this week, we have been writing our portal stories that are set on a volcanic island. We have all enjoyed using our imagination to write these stories.
In Maths we have continued with our learning of decimals. We have been learning to compare, order decimals number up to three decimal places and have also been round decimal numbers to one decimal place.
In Science, we have been learning about the changes that the human body goes through when it reaches old age. Did you know that the reason for these changes is because cells within our body die and they are not able to regenerate as well when we are older compared to when we are younger. Some of the changes that the human body goes through during old age is determined by how well we look after ourselves when we are younger, such as eating a balanced diet and keeping the body and mind healthy. These changes do not happen at the same time for everyone.
In Geography, we have been learning about time zones. This Time Zone Map shows the time difference between the UK and other countries around the world. What is the time difference between the UK and Australia?
WB: 15.4.24
What a lovely first week back we have had.
We hope you all had a lovely half term and are now feeling rested and ready for the busy term ahead.
We are certainly ready for the summer term and the craziness ahead…
In English, we have been exploring and learning all about portal stories. We read a text by Pie Corbett called Elf Road. As a class, we verbally retold this story using actions and a story map. After that, we worked together with our partners to create a feelings graph. Did you know a feelings chart is a character's emotional journey at key points in the story?
Some of us even had the opportunity to meet Billy from Elf Road! Unfortunately, Billy wasn’t real but some children had the opportunity to step into role as Billy and dress up. The other children acted as the audience and asked Billy questions based on his adventure in the story. To end the week, we began planning for our own portal stories. We are super excited to begin writing these next week.
In Maths, we have been looking at decimals.
Similarly to fractions, decimals are also part of a whole. Our Decimal System lets us write numbers as large or as small as we want, using the decimal point. Digits can be placed to the left or right of a decimal point, to show values greater than one or less than one.
The decimal point is the most important part of a Decimal Number. Without it we are lost, and don't know what each position means. To begin our new topic, we used place value counters to recognise the value of decimals up to 2 decimal places. After that, we started exploring the relationship between decimals and fractions. For example: 0.4 is equal to 4/10 or 40/100. We also identified equivalent fractions and decimals. For example: 1/2 is equal to 0.5, 1/4 is equal to 0.25 and 1/5 is equal to 0.2.
In Science, we started our new topic, which is all about us! Yes, that’s right, humans! We explored the different stages of growth and development we go through. Then, we created our own timelines to show this. Can you name the 7 seven stages of human development?
On Wednesday 17th of April, we had an assembly with a lovely lady from the charity, MIND. She spoke told us about how we can keep our minds healthy and what to do if we are having difficulties and need to talk to some one. She told us that are mental health is just as important as our physical health.
We have had a busy first week back and we look forward to sharing more with you next week. We can’t wait for Monday because we begin swimming!
Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Welcome back! We hope that you have all had a lovely holiday and are ready to start the Summer term with a bang! Can you believe that the children only have one full term left in Year 5!
