We’re now starting to explore our new English unit – we’re going to be learning all about William Shakespeare, with a focus on one of his most famous plays, The Tempest. Our reading lighthouse for this unit is below …
reading lighthouse the tempest
To kick off our super summer term our new funky focus for the year 5 creative curriculum will be the nationally acclaimed artist David Hockney. Check out our plans and lighthouse for this theme below …..
lighthouse newsletter
Y5 creative curriculum planning David Hockney
and keep eyes peeled for some fabulous work from our wonderful children.
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We are now looking at our new focus in English. We will be studying the short stories of Oscar Wilde, including The Selfish Giant, The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose. Check out our reading lighthouse below for more details ….
reading lighthouse oscar wilde
Artist of the Term
Year 5 have been artistically inspired. As part of the Artist of the Term project the children have been challenged to create sculptures inspired by the work of Henry Moore.
Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art.
Check out the sculptures 5G made …
As part of Fairtrade Fortnight 5G took part in a variety of P4C activities to develop our critical thinking…..
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We prioritised cards about sustainability and social justice and answered the question: What’s the most important thing I can do to make the world a better place?
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We looked at photos of people of different ethnicities and answered: What are they like? We tried to label them with words such as rich, poor, lazy, happy, clever, strange, naughty, funny, lucky, and unhappy.
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We used a blank map of Africa to record our responses to the question: What would you expect to find if you visited Africa?
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We used a picture stimulus of Jean-Baptiste, a 9 year-old worker on a cocoa plantation, alongside a brief description of his life and work. We created a response grid for Jean-Baptiste, his mother, a child buying chocolate and a shopkeeper selling chocolate to answer the question: How do they feel?
We’re ready for a new theme. When we come back after the holidays we’ll be looking at the Industrial Revolution and the impact it had on the local area. We’ll be looking at the novel Street Child as part of our work in the theme. Click the links below to look at our reading lighthouse and plans for this theme.
reading lighthouse street child
Y5 creative curriculum planning Industrial Revolution
What a brilliant end to Maths Week for 5G – on Thursday we took part in an outdoor maths lesson (cold but fun!) then on Friday we completed our mathematical art work (tessellating art inspired by M.C. Escher) and held a maths based P4C session which began with a picture of the mayan counting system as a stimulus and led to a very big question which we struggled to give one answer for – was maths invented or discovered?
It’s time for our new English focus – we’re going to be writing newspaper articles tied in with our Anglo Saxon theme. We’re going to be writing about Hengist and Horsa – the legendary brothers who are said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in the 5th century. Click the link below to see the reading lighthouse for the unit.
reading lighthouse newspaper articles
It was our Race To Space maths workshop yesterday and we had a great time making human sculptures with a space theme – we also solved a maths puzzle to help choose the best candidate for the newest astronaut post on the space station!
Did 5G crack the code?
Well …. we sort of did! We almost got to the end of our lock boxes but didn’t quite get the key to stop the timer! We showed brilliant resilience though and fabulous self help skills – lots of examples of our learning attributes – made Mrs G very proud!
Year 5 had a fantastic day on Wednesday celebrating 24 Hours in Anglo Saxons. We met Mildreth, an Anglo Saxon storyteller – she told us lots of traditional Anglo Saxon stories, we investigated some unusual Saxon artefacts and she taught us the basics of Anglo Saxon warfare. What a fabulous day!
We’re starting our new creative curriculum theme this week. We will be learning about the Anglo Saxons – getting ready for our Anglo Saxon expert coming in to do our workshop day.
Click below to see our learning lighthouse and medium term plans for the unit.
lighthouse newsletter Y5 Anglo Saxons MTP
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Our new English unit is inspired by the narrative poem The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. Click below to see our reading lighthouse for the unit.
reading lighthouse the highwayman
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We had a DT afternoon in 5G today – we used art straws, paper and tape to construct 3D models of a pirate ship that could stand unaided. We developed our skills of joining and strengthening, trying to find ways to construct the boat that didn’t rely on lots of sellotape! It was also a great lesson for demonstrating the fabulous team work skills 5G have – the children in each group worked well together, ensuring everyone had a role to play in the task.
Year 5 are having a quick Christmas themed unit in English before the end of the term. We’re going to be creating magazine articles about Christmas customs around the world. Check out our reading lighthouse below for more details ….
reading lighthouse magazine articles
STUNNING SEA SHANTIES
5G have had great fun writing new verses for the classic sea shantie ‘The Drunken Sailor’ – click the link below to see our crazy new additions to the song!
drunken sailor extra verses
STEM WORKSHOP DAY IN 5G
We had a brilliant day today working with Dr Irene Wise from Lancaster University’s Engineering Department. We completed lots of fun activities including a team building game (where we learnt about the important skills an Engineer needs to tackle tricky problems), making a motion powered vehicle using stored elastic energy, making a circuit using Playdoh and racing hydrogen powered cars. Such good fun and the children were fantastic little Engineers for the day.
Click the links below to some video clips from the day …
Video 26-11-2018, 14 21 29
Video 26-11-2018, 13 41 37
Video 26-11-2018, 11 50 35
Three boys in 5G have been using the values of co-operation and patience this week, working together to complete a tricky jigsaw!
5G celebrated our Values Week this week with a P4C lesson about Kindness, an Anti Bullying lesson about Respect and a lesson on Tolerance inspired by Dr Seuss’ The Sneetches. We started our ‘Choose Respect’ Anti Bullying lesson by writing down on a post it note, one positive thing about the person sat next to us. We then shared these moments of kindness with the class. We followed it up by thinking about respect and how this encourages kindness in others. We then created a display on the theme of How Does Respect Grow? We each created a flower that listed ways we can show respect to each other. 
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It’s time for a new theme in Year 5 – Treasure Island. Our focus is music, inspired by local and national sea shanties. Check out our lighthouse and plans, including our reading lighthouse for our Treasure Island inspired English unit, below:
lighthouse newsletter
reading lighthouse treasure island
Y5 Treasure Island creative curriculum planning
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Year 5 have impressed us so much with the work they have produced this week during our WW1 theme. This is just a small sample of the fabulous work they have created, including digital printing inspired by the war artist Paul Nash (as part of our Artist of the Term project).
Today we met Staff Sergeant Smith who helped us gain a better understanding of warfare nowadays compared to 1918 and WW1. The children had the opportunity to look at his kit bag and ask questions about his time as a soldier. He even put the children through their paces – letting them take part in a real-life drill session.
Another fascinating World War 1 experience today. We met the famous World War 1 poet Siegfried Sassoon – we heard about his life, his poems and key battles that took place in World War 1. We played some fun games to learn about important people from the Great War timeline. We created dramas of scenarios from the war to help us explore how the soldiers would feel in those difficut times.
What a great start to our WW1 theme. We met a WW1 nurse who talked about the role of women in the war and the challenges facing doctors and nurses on the front line. She also brought some amazing replica artefacts for us to explore.
This week we have also been making our felt poppy badges which we will be “buying back” to help raise money for the Royal British Legion.
Our new focus theme for the next couple of weeks is WW1. We will be creating art work and poetry inspired by this important time period in national and global history. Click our plans below for more information ….
reading lighthouse poetry
lighthouse newsletter
WW1 Creative Curriculum Plan
5G & P4C
We’ve had a really interesting P4C session in 5G over the last two weeks. We started with this picture stimulus and created a story for the image. Then we suggested key words that the story & image made us think of.
We decided to focus on the theme of Homelessness and had a follow up enquiry session. We began this by looking at some stimulus cards with statements about homelessness, then worked in groups to order or group them according to the group’s own criteria.
We then looked at images of homelessness and tried to order these. Finally we suggested key words that all the stimuli made us think of. Using all of these resources we then focused on the question “Should all homeless people receive help from others?”
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We’ve been focusing on Digital Citizenship in our Computing lessons, with a particular focus on how to stay safe online when using social media or online gaming. The games in this link are a fun way of learning how to be cyber smart. For any parents who want advice on how to keep your child safe as well as instructions on setting up parental controls please click here and here.
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We’re moving on to looking at Information Texts in English … check out our reading lighthouse for the unit below …
reading lighthouse information texts
This week in 5G we learnt about the Parthenon and why it is still culturally important to this day. We were time travellers and imagined we were Ancient Greeks being told that Pericles wanted to rebuild the Parthenon. We had a debate with speeches and had to decide if we wanted it rebuilt or not … most of us wanted it rebuilt …. we obviously wanted to please the goddess Athena more than we wanted to save some money!!
Our first theme of the term will be the Groovy Greeks – check out our learning and reading lighthouse …
lighthouse newsletter
reading lighthouse greek myths
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Check out what Year 5 got up to last year ….
Year 5 had a fantastic visit to Borwick Hall this weekend. On Friday we crammed lots of fun activities in including canoeing, low ropes climbing, an exploration of the grounds, football, rounders and a night time movie. On Saturday we used the centre’s electronic orienteering kit and chose a workshop activity to take part in – creative writing, watercolour painting, sketching the hall, maths crafts and documentary making. What an amazing weekend!
Check out some of the children’s diaries of their weekend:
diary (1) diary (2) diary (3) diary (4) diary (5)
Click here to read Igor and Harvey’s murder mystery stories inspired by Borwick Hall and the grounds:
Harvey’s story Igor’s story
It’s time for a new focus theme in Year 5 … we’re going to have a history focus when we look at The Industrial Revolution in Lancaster and Morecambe. This will be inspired by our current English theme which is based on the novel Street Child.
Check out our plans for more information ….
Y5 creative curriculum planning Industrial Revolution lighthouse newsletter
We learnt about World Oceans Day on Friday 8th June. It is celebrated around the world on that date to raise awareness of the importance of the world’s oceans and to raise awareness of the negative impact human’s have on the environment. This year’s theme was a focus on plastic pollution – what it is, why it is a serious environmental issue and what we can do to help prevent it.
5G have been exploring their artistic talents again, this time creating art inspired by traditional Canadian artists. We’ve designed Thunderbirds, inspired by the spiritual cultures we studying in our creative curriculum unit.
It’s time for a new focus theme in Year 5 … we’re going to have a geography focus when we look at The Americas. We will be learning about North and South America and we are looking forward to an art project inspired by traditional Canadian artwork and a music project inspired by South American Samba beats! Check out our plans for more information ….
Y5 creative curriculum planning the americas lighthouse newsletter
What a fun start to the new term! On Monday we travelled to Australia to celebrate 24 Hours Around The World. It was an action packed day, but the highlight for 5G was creating art work inspired by traditional Aboriginal rock and bark art.
5G finished their DT projects last week. We made set designs for a scene from The Tempest, which we have been studying in English. Each set design needed to have a moving stage part – it moved through a gears system that we integrated into the design. Check out this video of our set dioramas (in our evaluations we noted that some gear systems were more successful than others!)
What a fantastic time we had at Literacy Live! 5G took part in a Soundscape Poetry workshop, we made eBooks for students in Norway to help them learn English and we had a workshop with Mikey; he taught us how to create Found Poetry using song lyrics – and he also taught us the importance of believing in ourselves and our ability to be creative.
Year 5 had a really interesting visit from The Highway Traffic Officers today. We learnt about road safety and how to stay safe on motorways and busy bypass roads like the Bay Gateway. We topped up our knowledge of the government laws associated with road safety. They showed us the equipment they use to keep themselves and others safe, then we all had a tour of their highway patrol car.
5Gr had great fun celebrating World Book Day!
5Gr had a great P4C session today. We started with our stimulus story: The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew it was None of his Business. We explored the theme of revenge by focusing on questions about whether revenge was ever fair or ok? Then we created posters of everything we had discussed associated with the theme of revenge.
Our new theme to start Spring Term 2 is Super Shakespeare. We will be looking at his life and legacy, as well as studying one of his most famous plays – The Tempest.
Y5 creative curriculum planning Shakespeare lighthouse newsletter
5G have had an action packed day celebrating Chinese culture by looking at their traditions and customs at Chinese New Year. We’ve watched dragon and lion dancing, read the story of how the zodiac animals were chosen, learnt Chinese songs (click IMG_0611 to see us singing!), counted to ten in Chinese, made a Chinese lantern, had a yummy Chinese buffet for dinner, made a Chinese Dragon and painted a cherry blossom tree with our names written in Chinese on it! Phew!!! We’ve had a fantastic day!!
5G sang a song in the school values singing assembly this morning. They sang Big Bay View, a song that celebrates our local community, and they sang it beautifully!
Year 5 took part in an Anglo-Saxon workshop which was led by Adrian, a historian who specialises in this time period. Adrian gave an all round view of the Saxons, covering topics such as clothing, warfare, religion and food. This also included a demonstration on how a quernstone was used to grind wheat.
Click here and here and here for some short videos from the day.
5G created some fantastic group balances in PE the other day …..
We’ve got a new display in 5G all about our new class novel ‘Tom’s Midnight Garden’. We’re looking forward to reading more of the story and adding to our display.
5G visited the library bus today to choose new books for the class library.
Today 5G put the highwayman Dick Turpin (Ryan!) on trial. We all took part in a courtroom role play. Some of us were members of the court (Clerk, Prosecutor, Usher, Defence), some of us were witnesses (Bess, PC Brooks, Tim the Ostler, Mrs Brown) and the rest of us were the Jury led by a Foreman.
The jury found the defendant (Dick Turpin) GUILTY of his crimes and the Judge (Mrs Greenwood) sentenced him to death!
5G had a busy afternoon today! Mrs Greenwood gave us a set of clues about why the Anglo Saxons invaded and we had to work out what the clues represented. We then used this information as background knowledge that would help us to sort 10 facts under the headings: Definitely, Definitely Not, I Don’t Know – I’ll Need To Research It. We then went back to our original clues and decided which were push factors and which were pull factors. Finally, we tried to spot these factors in a cartoon about Anglo Saxon Invasion.
5G started their Gymnastics PE unit today – we were developing our travelling skills; learning steps, turns and spins that we can include in sequences we will create in the future.
Happy New Year!!
We’re kickstarting the new Spring term with our Anglo Saxon creative curriculum theme …
Y5 Saxon MTP
lighthouse newsletter
In English we’re going to spend the first couple of weeks of the term studying The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes.
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It’s time for our new English theme – we’re exploring Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen. We’ll be writing our own alternative endings to the story …. Mrs Greenwood is looking forward to choosing some fantastic pieces of writing for 5G’s new display.
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Our new curriculum focus area starts this week. We’re going to be studying the life and work of David Hockney as part of a focused art unit.
lighthouse newsletter
Y5 creative curriculum planning David Hockney
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5Gr are loving our Treasure Island theme and we’ve been singing some traditional sea shanties as part of it….
We’ve also been writing some fabulous pirate adventure stories which Mrs Greenwood has LOVED reading. The children have made an audio recording of an extract from their stories, which you can listen to in the video below (and you can see their fantastic pirate watercolours too!)
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Ten Pieces and The Nutcracker – Live Lesson
The children in Year 5 took part in a BBC Live Lesson today. The BBC worked with the Royal Opera House and Royal Ballet School to lead a Live Lesson full of dance, movement and characterisation. The children learnt how to create their own original dance moves, inspired by Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. The music chosen for the programme will also feature on the Ten Pieces III Repertoire – which aims to inspire a generation of children to get creative with classical music.
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Our new curriculum focus area is Treasure Island! Click the link below to see our learning lighthouse for this theme.
lighthouse newsletter
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5Gr have been having fun in their french lessons practising the names of colours through song! Click below to here us singing!
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WOW!!!!
Check out this fantastic piece of English work – using figurative language to write descriptive sentences. It gave Mrs G goosebumps when she read some of these sentences ….
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5Gr finished their Digital Citizenship unit this week in Computing. We refreshed our understanding of being safe online and designed posters to encourage children to make sensible choices when they are online.
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In 5Gr we’ve kickstarted our Philosophy for Children journey by thinking about what makes a good philosophical question. We re-read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and decided where to put questions about the story on a question quadrant. This is going to help us think of some brilliant philosophical questions in the future ….
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In Year 5 we’ve totally embraced the school’s Our Amazing Planet theme. We’ve been focusing on the Frozen Planet – we’ve researched the Arctic and Antarctic and we’ve learnt about famous polar explorers (keep your eyes peeled for these being turned into biographical writing).
We created some stunning silhouette art work inspired by the Northern Lights, using a watercolour background … check out some of our work below.
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Class 5G are VERY proud of the myth that they have written in our shared write sessions over the past two weeks. Click the link below, have a read and see what you think ….
class myth
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We’re kicking off the year with our Groovy Greeks history theme, we’re going to be looking at Greek Myths in our English lessons too … check out our creative curriculum and reading lighthouses below for more details ….
lighthouse newsletter
reading lighthouse greek myths
