Year Five have had a busy week.

The early part of the week was spent finishing off the debate topics – writing them up into something more formal.  The children also produced some excellent posters which were designed to be a visual version of the spoken debate – A3 sheets with lots of speech bubbles representing the various points of argument.  They will form a great wall display.

The Mayan mask work this morning was…interesting.  Lots of Plaster of Paris everywhere, and some of it actually on faces.  The end results are good though, and it is pretty cool to have a mask in the shape of your own face.  We will let them dry fully and then paint them next week.  The Mayans had masks for lots of different occasions and reasons, so there are plenty of designs to choose from.  They will also make good displays and children will bring them home at the end of the term.

Science this week has covered the important topic of Electricity.  The children built simple circuits, and saw how a circuit is formed and what it needs to actually work.  Decent batteries for one thing… They also looked at the idea of a switch to break a circuit and we talked about electrical safety and electricity in the home.

I guess we are still waiting for the weather to properly settle into something summery – but there has been the odd lunchtime where we have managed to get everyone on the field.  Children have to sit and eat their lunch under the shelter (if they have a packed lunch) and are not allowed to wander around eating – for obvious reasons.  After that, they can stroll around our wonderful spaces and interact with other year groups.  It is usually a happy and vibrant scene.

There is great excitement about the Traversing Wall – especially as it is there, looks great, and cannot yet be used.  There was a slight hitch with the construction, and it needs one or two additional bits before they will sign it off.  It looks to be a superb facility – many thanks to those (especially the PTA) who have made it happen.  We think it will be operational on Monday.  Lots of children were fascinated to see it go up – and it was pretty much all hand-made, with some skilled woodwork going on.

On the subject of skilled work, when we get back from half-term we are going straight into Theme Week.  It is hard to explain, but it is a week with…a theme…and lots of the learning that week will be focused on that theme.  We mix year groups to some extent, and children get to choose what they do.  There has been great excitement about this.  The theme is ‘Jobs and Careers’ and each teacher has been asked to work up some sessions (with guests and equipment) to illustrate possible future careers.  Children can choose two of these to study through the week.

For Years 5 and 6 the jobs they can study are:  Vet, Pet Shop Owner, Mechanic, Sports administrator, Physiotherapist, DJ, Aircraft Technician, Computer Coder, or Graphic Designer.  It should be a good week – thanks in advance to everyone who is helping with this.

Next week there will be some focus on SPaG – including a couple of bits we need to catch up on – using ellipsis and exclamation marks correctly.

Have a good week.

Y5 Team