Well, we’ve got to start with the muffins!

Your young people really rose to this particular challenge.  Please see the pictures below, and thank you for your short-notice sourcing of the ingredients.  The children were fully up to speed with everything, and the right people brought the right stuff in.

We had to remember that this was actually a DT project, with a food focus.  We have talked about food miles, and farming, so that there is a good understanding of where food comes from.  Today was about design – thinking about what ingredients, in what quantities, would work best – and implementation – following a recipe accurately to ensure a decent final result.

Honestly, we are so proud of them.  Groups (of three, four or five) worked together to weigh out flour and sugar, weigh and melt butter, beat an egg into a measured quantity of milk, and add in other ingredients.

Everything was ready to go to the kitchen by 11.30am, and Sarah and her colleagues were their usual super-helpful selves in making sure what came out was just perfect.  And tasty too.  Each group had a chance to discuss with the other groups the ingredients they had chosen, and then in the afternoon there was a mass tasting session.  Please see below for proof.

Many thanks to Karen, Claire, Sarah and Michelle for their help with this project.  Maybe you’ll have some volunteers for baking this weekend.  Maybe not.

Literacy this week has focused on the animals information texts, which are nearly finished.  We couldn’t help noticing how difficult it is turning notes into more formal text.  Partly this is because it is difficult to think of what to add to some notes that already seem fine, and partly it is due to the fact that just copying what you have done already is much easier than thinking of something else.  But notes are just that – notes, aimed at yourself.  Prose for someone else to read is definitely something different, something that needs several drafts and a fair bit of care.  The reports are not bad though – we are happy.

One group in maths has been finishing off the statistics module, and the other has worked on angles.  The latter included marching on the playground and turning (as a squad) through different angles, on the ‘officer’s’ command.  Quite good practice for 45, 90, 180 and 270 degrees.  We also used this to practise compass points.  Never Eat Shredded Wheat (or Naughty Elephants Squirt Water).

We had a thoroughly puzzling afternoon trying to figure out the Mayan numbering system on Wednesday.  ‘What?  More maths?  It’s the afternoon!’ was the plaintive cry.  Well, yes, sorry.  More maths.  But quite interesting.  They have a dot for one and a line for 5, and the vertical position of the symbols represents place value (whereas we represent place value horizontally – hundreds to the left of tens and so on).  They also count in base 20.  So two dots and a line in the top row and three dots and a line in the lower row would be…let’s see…the top line is 7 x 20 = 140, plus the bottom line which is a 5 and a 3, adding to 8, making 148.

We played small sided tennis games this afternoon.  There are a couple of very good tennis players in Y5.  Impressive stuff.

In Computing, we have moved on to a new module called ‘We are Bloggers’.  They will learn about what a blog is, how to write blog posts and comments on others’ posts, and how to keep safe.  Our system is a SCPS internal one, so there is no external contact, but they can write for, and comment on, the work of the Y5 group only.

Science considered gestation periods of different animals (and humans).

We hope you have had a good week and are looking forward to a peaceful weekend.

Y5 Team

p.s. We are delighted to welcome a new child to Year Five.  Niki B gave birth to ‘Baby Murdoch’ at 5.04pm on Tuesday.  Mum and baby are doing well, and we have requested that we (Year Five) are the first to meet the new arrival.  Warmest congratulations from all of us to Niki and Scott and their new baby.