Year 5

Welcome To Year 5

Friday 29th March 2024: Week 6

We can't believe Spring term is over - what an amazing term it has been! This week, we enjoyed playing some matches in tennis so we could combine all the skills we have learnt over the last 6 weeks. We look forward to the Summer term! 

Friday 22nd March 2024: Week 5

This week has been our favourite yet! The highlight of our week was cooking spaghetti bolognese in D&T (we loved having a second lunch!). We got to see the seeds we planted in Autumn had grown into salad, which were able to enjoy with our spaghetti bolognese. In Music, we performed our vocal and body composition pieces - follow the QR code to watch. In P.E, we enjoyed practising a volley with our partners. We had a special visitor this week and thoroughly enjoyed having Test Valley Brass in for a taster session. 

Friday 15th March 2024: Week 4

This week has been full of reading! From reading about Mount Versuvius in Geography to performing poetry in Guided Reading! We love Free Reading Fridays the most in Year 5 - we love to sit with our friends and enjoy a good book! 

Friday 8th March 2024: Week 3

We had a wonderful week this week! We absolutely loved World Book Day, especially reading with the Year R children. We loved creating Mothers Day cards too. In Maths, we enjoyed measuring objects around the classroom to convert between different units of metric measure. 

Friday 1st March 2024: Week 2

What a week! A highlight of our week was using the cameras in Computing to try out different camera angles, we had so much fun being creative. In Geography, we made mini volcanoes so we could demonstrate our understanding of the key features. Our learning journey in Guided Reading working with the book The Station Cat has come to an end but we loved creating our own version of the cat, as well as performing some of the text (follow the QR code). In Maths, we learnt about volume using multilink. 

Friday 23rd February 2024: Week 1

The first week back has flown by! We started our Human Life Cycle unit in Science by researching the six stages and creating a poster with our teams. In English, we discussed and evaluated some sentences, and we applied our knowledge of relative clauses to edit them. We enjoyed learning about videos in Computing, we're excited to see how to create an effective video to eventually create our own. 

Friday 9th February: Week 6

We cannot believe it is the last week of term! We loved seeing everyone in their wonderful Greek costumes! We had the best day participating in Greek cooking, the Olympics and making our own masks. 

Friday 2nd February 2024: Week 5

This week we have loved using the greenscreens in English to demonstrate show not tell emotion through facial expressions and body language. We got to create our Hundertwasser houses with clay this week - we can't wait to paint them! In Science, we tested everyday materials to identify their properties and most suitable uses. In Music, we used the glockenspiels to improvise our own blues music. 

Friday 26th January 2024: Week 4

Wow - what a brilliant week! We really enjoyed our investigation to determine whether tinfoil or felt was a better thermal insulator in Science! We learnt about the Battle of Marathon in History and we had to order key features of the Ancient Greeks from most important to least. In P.E, we practised different rolls on the mats, focusing on slowing down to gain control. Lots of us loved painting our nature themed tiles, we cannot wait to create our Hundertwasser houses! Using the glockenspiels in Music is always a great way to finish our week!

Friday 19th January 2024: Week 3

This week, we have thoroughly enjoyed developing skills to manipulate clay to create a nature inspired tile. We cannot wait to create our Hundertwasser inspired houses. In Guided Reading, we learnt all about the fable of King Midas and the golden touch - we even played a game of fact finding bingo! In P.E, we continued to develop our balances, focusing on technique this week. 

Friday 12th January 2024: Week 2

This week we have had lots of fun in Music learning how to play a chord on the glockenspiel. In History, we looked at artefacts from Ancient Greece to try and find out more  about life in the ancient civilisation. We found out that Ancient Greece has influenced many areas of society today, including sport and entertainment!  

Friday 5th January 2024: Week 1

First week back! We have had so much fun this week learning all about Greek myths and legends - we visited the Tipi to hear a few of the most famous fables. In Maths, we have been developing skills to estimate and measure angles. In History, Year 5 began learning about Ancient Greece by mapping out the key events of the Greek civilisation on a timeline. We also enjoyed exploring symmetrical and asymmetrical balances in gymnastics this week. We were so excited to find out that in Computing this term we will be coding programmes to run circuits! We got to create a circuit this week to make a sparkler flash different colours!

Friday 8th December 2023: Week 6

We all had a lovely lunch time today sharing our Christmas Lunch whilst listening to Christmas songs. This week we have also been finishing our DT projects of using mechanisms to create a pop-up book and we are sharing them with the children in Year One next week. In Science, we learnt about the orbit of the Moon and we went onto the playground to demonstrate this using different sized balls to represent the Moon, Sun and Earth. We have also performed in Balksbury Come Dancing and we can't wait to share that with everyone at home soon! 

Friday 1st December 2023: Week 5

This week, we have continued to practise our dance for Balksbury Come Dancing and we are looking forward to sharing with our families soon. A group went to John Hanson to take part in the Andover Schools' Hockey Tournament and played very well.

In Geography this week, we have been looking at topography and the highest mountains in the UK. We located them on maps using atlases then using potatoes, drew the contour lines onto the map to show the height and steepness of the mountains. 

Friday 17th November 2023: Week 3

This week we have continuing to look at our Solar System and ordered the planets in relation to the Sun. We discussed the sizes of the planets and made them using plasticine. In Geography, we enjoyed visiting Mount Everest on the Virtual Reality Headsets and found out lots of interesting facts about it. 

Friday 10th November 2023: Week 2

This week in Year 5 we have been very busy creating our Christmas cards and learning more about space! We have also been writing some brilliant poems about the light using figurative language- we hope you enjoy listening to some of them! 

Friday 20th October 2023: Week 7 

We have completed our first half term in Year 5! All the staff in Year 5 are so proud of how hard the children have worked over the past seven weeks and they have all settled in to their new classes and routines so well. We have enjoyed learning about the ancient Egyptians, forces and drawing using perspective in Art. 

Enjoy your half term breaks and we look forward to seeing you all in a weeks time! 

Friday 13th October 2023

Over the past few weeks, we have been learning all about the ancient Egyptians. We have had a visit from Open Box; learnt about the ancient Egyptian social classes; and more recently, mummified a tomato in the same way that the Egyptians mummified people. We enjoyed learning about the process of mummification and look forward to seeing what has happened to our tomatoes after we have left them. 

Friday 6th October 2023: Week 5

This week we have enjoyed showing off our hockey skills in P.E. when playing matches against each other and  making music by reading and writing musical notations. We had two visitors in to speak to us about how to ensure we are being kind to all and how the law protects us. 

Friday 29th September 2023: Week 4

During our Science lessons this half term we are look at different forces and this week we investigated water resistance. We had to make different shapes out of play dough and then see how their shape changed the speed at which they travelled through water. We are really enjoying all the practical opportunities we have had during this unit of Science!

Friday 22nd September 2023: Week 3

We started this week with a visit from Open Box which we all really enjoyed. We learnt a lot more about the Ancient Egyptians and had lots of fun too! In Science, we carried out an investigation into how the size of a parachute effects the speed at which it falls. We made parachutes and then tested them, counting the time in which they fell to see the effect air resistance has on different surface areas.  

Friday 15th September 2023: Week 2

This week we have been learning about air resistance in Science and had a great time on the playground experiencing the effects of air resistance using parachutes before planning our own investigation. On Thursday, we were able to enjoy the swimming pool and everyone was impressed by our wonderful swimming skills and we used different materials to create tone in Art.  

Friday 8th September 2023: Week 1

What a lovely week we have had to begin Year 5. We have been able to spend lots of time outside looking at information about Leonardo Di Vinci in Art and making memory sticks as one of our Wellbeing activities as we begin our new year together. We are so proud of how well all the children have done this week- they have quickly settled into our new classroom routines in a such a polite and mature way. Well done, Year 5!!

Friday 7th July 2023: Week 5

Arts' Week! 

We have has such a brilliant week taking part in workshops around the federation and completing all our Arts' Week activities. Our work has been focused around that of Henri Cartier-Bresson, a french photographer. We really enjoyed our visit to John Hanson to take photos and then editing them using a software on the computers. 

We hope you enjoyed seeing our work at The Arts' Festival. 

Friday 23rd June 2023: Week 3

Sports Day was a lovely way to end another busy week in Year 5. This week we have continued our DT work on bridges by making truss bridges using spaghetti and been writing as different characters from Romeo and Juliet. We hope you enjoy having a look at some of the pictures from this year's Sports' Day. Well done, Year 5: we were so impressed with all your hard work today and also the kindness you demonstrated towards each other. 

Friday 16th June 2023: Week 2

London: what an amazing day we had! We saw so many famous landmarks and enjoyed visiting Borough Market, The Tate Modern and looking at the Houses of Parliament. The children were amazing and we are so proud of them all. 

Friday 9th June: Week 1

We have had a lovely first week back: we began our Shakespeare unit on Romeo and Juliet by retelling the story- with some very dramatic portrayals of the characters! We have also begun our new History unit of Benin and looked at classifying different materials by their states of matter in Science.

Friday 26th May 2023: Week 6

We wanted to share some pictures of our year group Rounders Tournament this week. All the children were involved as batters, fielders or umpires and they demonstrated the skills that we have been learning this half term. There was a lot of competitive play and rounders scored! 

Have a lovely half term and we look forward to the start of the final term in Year 5. 

Friday 19th May 2023: Week 5

The sun has finally shone this week and we have loved having the opportunity to spend more time outside. We really enjoyed our PE lesson on Monday when we all went out and practised our rounders skills in preparation for our year group rounders tournament next week. A highlight of the week has to be making our bolognese in DT. We were so impressed with how carefully you prepared and cooked the ingredients needed for our sauces- unfortunately Miss Nield wasn't as successful cooking the spaghetti! 

Friday 12th May 2023: Week 4

This week may have only been four days but we have managed to fit a lot in! We began the week by finishing our persuasive writing. We then really enjoyed recording it using the green screens and our school digital cameras. We have continued our music unit of work on looping and remixing by playing fragments of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' on the glockenspiel- we are a very talented year group! This week we were also pleased to begin our swimming lessons, especially when the sun appeared! 

Friday 5th May:  Week 3

What a busy week we have had! In Music, we have been learning how to play 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' on the glockenspiels, ready for us to start remixing it next week and in PE, we have continued to improve our rounders skills; during this week's lesson we were focusing on how to stump a batter out. This week, we have also been putting out French skills to the test when reading and speaking about different types of habitats. We have learnt lots of new words and are doing really well at translating sections of text using this new vocabulary. As well as this, we have continued writing our persuasive reviews of Gravenhunger Manor which we look forward to sharing soon! 

A highlight of the week was our celebration of the King's coronation where we enjoyed a street party lunch before making our own crowns and taking part in the federation's Crown Parade- whilst showing off our excellent royal waves. 

We hope you enjoy the bank holiday weekend- well done on another amazing week, Year 5!

Friday 28th April 2023: Week 2

This week has been another very busy one. In Music, we really enjoyed using the iPads to created music using different notes and octaves. We have also been tasting different pasta sauces before we created our own bolognese recipe in DT- we are really looking forward to making these soon. Finally, our English learning journey is well under way now and we are becoming very persuasive writers!

We hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend!

Friday 21st April 2023: Week 1

What a brilliant first week back we have had! We created sacred places outside in RE; thoroughly enjoyed our visit from Andover Tennis Club and the start of our Rounders topic in PE; and have been scientists investigating different types of materials- including using the Makey Makeys to test materials conductivity.

Well done Year 5 on such a brilliant start to the Summer Term! 

Friday 31st March 2023: Week 6

Wow! What a wonderful week we've had here in Year 5. We have have written setting descriptions to create tension in English; created our own videos in Computing; we have been inspired by Henri Rousseau to recreate photographs in Art, focusing on brush techniques; in Music, we became composers of our own music to express how we can hear colour (using our voices); in PE, we were inspired by Greek dancers, and we have had an arithmetic week full of exciting competitions. 

Thank you for all your hard work this week Year 5, have a lovely Easter. We look forward to seeing you in April. 

Use this link to find a few examples of our final Computing videos!

Year 5 Computing!

Friday 24th March 2023: Week 5

This week in Computing, we designed our videos - to showcase how brilliant Balksbury Federtation is! We had to think about where we would like to film in the federation, the most suitable camera angle to use and we wrote our own scripts. Next, we went outside to film and we (just) missed all the rain. We can't wait to edit them together next week.

In Computing this week, we experimented with different camera angles to discuss which was the most effective for different purposes. For example, when using dialogue, you may want to consider using the Close Up shot, as this records audio best. We can't wait to create our own videos in the following weeks.

Did you know that a frog can lay up to 4000 eggs at one time? This is just one of the many facts we discovered during our investigation into the life cycle of an amphibian. We even got to observe a tadpole under the microscope! 

This week, we had a practical lesson interpreting scales and converting between different units of measurement. 

We celebrated World Book Day this week by reading with the Year 1's! Year 5 had such a wonderful time being able to share their passion for reading with the younger children. What lovely costumes too!

We transformed into film crew this week when we used the greenscreens and cameras to try out different camera angles! We definitely see some future cinematographers amongst the cohort!

This week, Year 5 Balksbury Federation children were asked to support the European Space Agency on their journey to space! Whilst transporting through the glorious Milky Way galaxy, the children were lucky enough to witness how scientists believe our Solar System was formed. Wow - what an exciting day for Year 5!

In Art this week, we used wire, cardboard and mod roc to begin to create our Greek architecture, inspired by Hundertwasser.

In Music this week, we used glockenspiels to play the song 'Shosoloza', which is a traditional South African song. 

Follow the QR code to watch Maple class singing the song.

In Science this week, we conducted an investigation into which shape is best for a shark (sharks must be agile and be able to move quickly through water to catch their prey!). We made our own salt dough sharks and tested the water resistance by dropping them into water and recording how quickly they sank. From this, we concluded that the best shape for a shark to be was narrow with sharp edges, as these cut through the water quickest. 

In Health and Wellbeing, we discussed the importance of Fairtrade by looking at the roles involved in the production of bananas. We debated how much we thought each job should be paid, based on how long they worked, fees they had to cover and how crucial their role was. 

Wow what a brilliant first full week back! Time has flown by and we can hardly believe all the exciting things we've learnt about and all the amazing work created. 

This week we had a special visitor from Ancient Greece, who travelled far and wide to read us the story of Medusa and the Minotaur - what a treat!

In Science, we collaborated to create parachutes to test air resistance. Using our observation skills in Art, we were able to create beautiful artist profiles on the wonderful work and life of Friedensreich Hundertwasser. We were transported to Ancient Greece whilst creating beastly and ferocious creatures to annotate and describe, using a variety of expanded noun phrases and relative clauses. 

Well done Year 5, you've smashed it! 

Tree Planting Trip 16.11.22

Year 5s had a lovely morning (despite the weather) at Bury Hill on Wednesday to support with planting more trees in one of our beautiful areas we have here in Andover. All the children enjoyed being a part of it and it will be amazing to go back in the future to find our trees. 

First Week Back

Look how fast this week has gone! We have been so busy and it has been jam-packed with learning. We have used the VR headsets to explore the Himalayas and Mt. Everest; we have started our longitudinal study in Science involving some rotting pumpkins... and we have enjoyed reading our new text driver in English - The Dark. We can't wait to start writing some poetry with all of the vocabulary we have been gathering this week. Well done to everyone in Year 5, it's been a busy week but we are so proud of you all. 

To test this we set up an experiment using oil, washing up liquid and vinegar to test whether other liquids (not just water) can be used to dissolve substances to form a solution. We found that the answer to this question was no - washing up liquid does not dissolve sugar!

WB 19/09/22

What a week! It may have only been four days long but it has been a brilliant week. We were lucky enough to have Open Box join us for an Ancient Egyptian workshop and later visited the Balksbury Art Gallery to view some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous art work. We have started a portfolio in our sketchbooks and we can’t wait to share these when they are finished!

Will it dissolve?

In Science we tested which substances dissolved in liquid. We used water to test these and wanted to find out if all the substances were soluble (does dissolve) or if some were insoluble (does not dissolve). We made predictions and reasoned these using our existing knowledge to back up our ideas. 

We tested: flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, coffee, tea and salt.

Our Egyptian Adventure!

This week we have started our exciting learning journey on the Ancient Egyptians! We began with an archaeological dig where we set up an excavation site and found a variety of interesting artefacts which led into our English learning. In History we used the VR headsets to find more clues to try and infer some more information about the Egyptians. We travelled through ancient tombs and observed the great Pyramids of Giza from close up! We all loved it and have so many questions about the Egyptians now that we can't wait to find the answer to. 

Year 5 STEM Week started with Alan Turing who inspired our art work.

Photos from STEM Week 

Crown Prosecution Service

Today Year 5 were lucky enough to have a visit from two brilliant ladies who work for the Crown Prosecution Service. Year 5 learnt all about the ins and outs of a court room, who does what job, and the process of collating the evidence all the way to eventually being sentenced by the judge! We learnt that at the age of ten, you are now responsible for following the law and can be prosecuted if you are not! It was a brilliant visit and Year 5s had some super questions to ask. 

Computing

In computing this half term we have been learning how to use a crumble kit to make and program a carousel. We began by learning how to join the circuit and program the crumble to light an LED sparkle. We got them to change colours and set a sequence like a traffic light system. We then added a motor and a wheel, followed by a switch - this controlled the circuit. We loved being able to create and code our programs and see our final product come to life! 

RE

In RE this term we are learning all about the concept ‘sacred’. We started the unit of work with a focus on Neverland, from the book Peter Pan, in order gain an understanding of ‘What makes a place sacred?’ The children learnt: what is needed; who should be in the sacred place and where this could be for individuals. Next the children designed and made their own sacred place outside for a ‘stick baby’. Throughout the rest of this term, we will be putting this knowledge into context by exploring both Christian (Canterbury Cathedral) and Muslim (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) faiths. We will complete the unit of work by evaluating and communicating the concept into our own individual lives.

In art today, we were learning to use varied brush techniques on large paper outside. The following question was asked... How could we create these effects: rough; smooth; hard; light: thin; thick; wispy; soft; bubbly and speckled whilst using a variety of different painting tools? We also discussed the effect of different brushes and different parts of the brush that can be used. We then added our own ideas to our tree. 
 

Wow - A trip to the Amazon Rainforest!

As we are sadly unable to take the children to the real Amazon Rainforest, we decided to take them to the next best thing. A VR experience of the rainforest helped us in Geography in our 'digital fieldwork' in order to see what it is really like! We saw a whole host of wildlife and different plants and trees and we all loved the sloth up the treehouse! Below are some photos of each class' experience.

International Women's Day 8th March 2022

Alice Coachman was a black woman from America who attended the London 1948 Olympics. She became the first black woman to receive a GOLD medal for reaching the height of 5' 6 1/8'' in the high jump. She was 14 years old. Alice went on to win many more medals and help others achieve their goals. To find out more come and see the work the children completed after school tomorrow, Wednesday, you will find us outside year 6. This is a selection of the work.

World Book Day

We used the book 'Only One You' as a stimulus for World Book Day. This helped us to understand that we are all unique and that this should be celebrated. Everyone painted a 'Goldilocks' pebble which will be added to our Reflection Garden. We continued the theme and Year 5 took time out for our wellbeing completing a yoga session in the afternoon. 

Medusa and Perseus

In our latest English learning journey we have been loving getting to know a variety of Greek myths. We chose to rewrite Perseus and Medusa but considering Medusa’s viewpoint. Below are a few examples and snippets of our rewritten myths. Enjoy!

We've been to Space!
Over the weekend we received this interesting email and couldn't resist exploring our Solar System ourselves. It was absolutely amazing! Please have a look at our page to see photos and videos of our VR experience.

Ancient Egyptian History Day!

What a brilliant day we have had! All the children looked amazing in their costumes! We discussed reliable historical sources, built pyramids, learnt about mummification and identified the gods and goddesses. We hope you all have a lovely half term. Enjoy it, from the Year 5 team.

Free Reading Friday!

Today we LOVED having Year 3 to join us for free reading Friday as we were able to share our Egyptian adventure stories that we have written in English lessons, with the wonderful Year 3s. Year 5s were then able to listen to the year 3s reading their books too. It was lovely to see the year groups come together to share their stories and read to each other. 

Ancient Egyptian Open Box visit

What a brilliant way to delve into our Ancient Egyptian learning! We had a visit from Open Box and loved every minute of it. We learnt what life would have been like living in the 'black land' nearby the River Nile; learnt that they wore linen made from flax and how cattle were used back then for farming alongside the tools they used to retrieve water from the Nile. We also found out how the pyramids were built and thought about how the slaves pulling the huge, stone bricks would have felt in that desert heat! 

It has been amazing to start this academic year, we have had an amazing week getting to know each other. We have spent a lot of time building relationships by collaborating to achieve different challenges. Using our Balsksbury Federation Learning Values and team building skills we achieved some great results having been given a limited amount of resources. The instructions were: to build the tallest tower, build a bridge that will hold a car, build a pyramid or a 3D shape (using only straws/ lollypop sticks/ cardboard triangles/ string and tape). Some super results. 

Balksbury Half Marathon

Year 5 have been running miles to achieve our Balksbury Half Marathon. Each foot on our visual wall represents a mile. We are also learning the techniques for running to help us. We are starting to make huge progress. Just look at the difference to our display board. 

                                  Rainbow Forest Painting

We have been learning to develop our knowledge and skills, to paint in the style of Henri Rousseau. The process started with a woodland walk to identify the colours and animals he used in his work. Next, we learnt the skills of mixing different colours, brush techniques and adding texture to get the best effect. After that, we used the learnt skills, to help us paint a Rainbow Forest in the style of Rousseau. Our last part of the finished process, will be to add a wash to the canvas and add detail. 

                                            Freeze Frame

This week, the children learnt how to use the 'freeze frame concept' to explore a narrative. The children focused on each other's freeze frame, giving development points, in order to understand the technique fully. You can see the different emotions portrayed on the faces of the children, as well as through their body language. For the next step, the children will be to include the ideas into their own written work.  

Crime Prosecution Service

Year 5 were fortunate to benefit from the expertise of the Crime Prosecution Service earlier this month. They came to school and spoke to us about Hate Crime. They informed us as to what happens when these crimes are reported, for the offender but also focussed on how the victims of Hate Crime feel. We learnt that there are different types of Hate Crimes, such as racist & religious, homophobic / biphobic / transphobic, disability and Hate Crime against older people. We also learnt that there is more than one type of court, Magistrates Court, Crown Court and Youth Court. From the age of ten a child can be legally prosecuted. It was so informative, we continued to learn about the subject, in lessons, for the next two weeks. We learnt how the Crime Prosecution Service works with the police, how they use witness statements and testimonies to build a case against the offender, ready for court.

In Year 5 we have been having a great time basing our poetry work on ‘There’s a Rang-tan in my bedroom’. We listened to, and watched the poem, discussing its viewpoint and purpose and using this to perform it in our class. We focused on how our intonation, tone and volume can affect the meaning of a poem when read aloud and provided each other with feedback to improve. 

Is there no end to the skills in year 5?

Action Art

Final outcome: look at all the amazing action art that was produced both in school and at home! The children used a combination of the skills they had learnt, in previous weeks, to produce their final piece of art. Pendulum art, ball art, string art and splatter art were combined for their masterpieces. We are so proud of all the hard work!

Splatter Art

We added another skill to our portfolio this week using the technique of splatter painting. The children, home learning and keyworkers, through a live lesson used a wide variety of items to splatter paint onto their canvas without touching the paper. The effect I am sure you will agree, is once again amazing! The children collected ordinary objects that they found at home and recycled them into artistic tools. Theses artistic tools ranged from: a toothbrush, paintbrush, straw, pipe cleaner, syringe, spoon, an electric hedge trimmer and even an iron (parents were supervising). We had such fun! Enjoy the photographs!

Action Art Pendulum Painting

This week we learnt the new key skill of pendulum art. We all explored using different resources during the live lesson. The children experimented and explored this method using forces to create their own art – large scale as well as small scale.  At home, the children explored some very innovative ways to make their pendulum creating some amazing pictures. In school, the key worker children, in groups of 3, created large scale pictures on black paper.  

Action Art

Year 5 started their enquiry by exploring the action artists Jackson Pollock and Rotem Reshef, looking at their art and the effect of their work on the audience. Action art allows the children to use their knowledge and understanding of forces which we are also studying this term. The pictures show the children learning the skill through the action of 'motion' using a variety of different balls with oil, paint, food colouring and other materials. I think you would agree that they are amazing.  

The Planet Suite

Each class in Year 5 produced their own space themed dance to 'The Planet Suite' by Gustav Holst. The children learnt to dance as a class travelling into space as astronauts. To achieve this, they split into groups and choreographed a dance as aliens from different planets based on the music. 

We took a 'leaf' out of Andy Goldsworthy's book!

On Friday afternoon, we decided to make use of all of the autumn leaves that are falling from the trees and to put them into something artistic! The children were told to use natural resources to produce a symmetrical art design. We think they did an amazing job!

DRESS DOWN DAY FRIDAY!

Well done to all of Year 5 for winning the most tokens this half term! With a grand total of 6603! We have earned ourselves a dress down day this Friday 23rd October! 

Egyptian Day 21st October

We built great pyramids and unearthed archaeological finds whilst dressed as Egyptians. We also wrote our own documentaries and recorded them on our ipads. We included lots of information and facts about Egypt and the famous explorer Howard Carter. 

Aron Ralston Stories

Our latest English learning journey has been all about survivors! We read part of the story of Aron Ralston, a young canyoneer, who got his arm trapped by a huge boulder. We wrote our own endings for the story, thinking about the decision he would have had to make. Here are some brilliant examples of what we came up with...

Egyptian Day! - Wednesday 21st October

As you will know, we have been thoroughly enjoying learning all things Ancient Egypt! As always, we loved having Open Box in to teach us all about what living in Egypt would have been like for the farmers and slaves. They even let us wrap ourselves up like mummies!  

On Wednesday 21st October we will be having our very own Egyptian Day where we will be dressing up as Ancient Egyptians (teachers included) and having a day dedicated to fun-filled activities and deepening our knowledge even further. Please see the letter attached for more details. 

What an amazing start to Year 5! We have just loved welcoming everyone into the year group, to the new 'normal working environment'. It has been brilliant meeting and greeting you all in the mornings with your parents, siblings, relatives and carers. There is such a lovely atmosphere and buzz about the school and playground but especially in year 5. We love it! All of you have been just superb so sensible, despite all the hand washing, cleaning, climbing the stairs and social distancing. You have amazed all the team so thank you. Thank you to all parents and carers for all your support. We have appreciated your help to ensure the children are kept safe and sound. 

Mrs Sanderson

Week 15 Home Learning

Dear Mums, Dads, Step-Mums, Step-Dads, Aunties, Uncles, Sisters, Brothers, Carers - ALL OF YOU!

Thank you so much for all your hard work over the last 17 weeks.  We know it's been tough and thank you for all you have done.  They say "it takes a village to raise a child" and it has never been more true than the last few months.  Thank you for all the work you have done with your children and for keeping them going through this strange time; we hope you are all well and have been able to find good times within the strange.  We look forward to seeing the children back in September, and until then, we hope you have a great summer (let's hope the sun makes a return!) and stay safe. 

The home learning is on the Week 15 page.  There's some fun activities this week to keep you busy and learning. Enjoy!

Week 14 Home Learning - 8.7.20

Earth to Year 5... Come in Year 5... Do you read me?! Are you still there?! We miss you all so much - it feels like forever since we saw you. Do say hello to us through the email closure@balksbury.org if you can, we would love to hear from you! Let's hope the weather gets more summery soon - it feels more like autumn at the moment.  The work for this week is on the system - enjoy!

Week 13 Home Learning

Hello Year 5! All you need for your home learning is ready for your attention! This week we're reading Romeo and Juliet - we would love to hear what you think about it! Stay safe; we miss you!

Week 12

Hello Year 5! As always, we hope you are all doing well and keeping safe.  Keep being kind to your family and take care as some of the rules are relaxed over the next few weeks. The overview for Week 12 is here full of adventure stories, PE challenges and mind blowing science experiments! Look after yourselves!

Week 11

Hello Year 5! The weekly overview is all on the website for you, with lots of new learning this week.  Please keep sending your work to us, this week we have seen some amazing Tudor Roses, some poetry and a brilliant PowerPoint about Tudor monarchs.  Keep working hard!

Week 10 - 10th June

Hello Year 5! Another week gone: another week of us missing you all! We hope you're safe and well - the learning for this week is ready for you to get to work on! Please send us your work, we love seeing it.

Week 9 - 3rd June

Hello Year 5! The Weekly Overview and learning tasks are now online for week 9 (3rd June).  We hope you are all doing ok and are managing to find fun times in this strange time.  We are still missing you all and think of you every day.  Remember - please send any work you do to closure@balksbury.org  The teachers are checking that page so much: we just love seeing what you've been up to! Stay safe and look after each other.

Hope you are having a great half term, what gorgeous weather. Please find our new PE challenge for the week, feel free to give any of the activities a go and see how you get on. If you complete them all email us a copy to show your results! 

Dear Year 5s, 

Week 7 is now updated and ready to go with activities. We have loved seeing all your hard work, well done and keep it going! 

We hope you enjoyed celebrating V.E. Day and remembering those who fought for us, it makes us realise how lucky we are, even in these tricky times. 

We look forward to seeing more of your learning.

Year 5 Teachers

Hello Year 5, 

Please find our Week 6 work added today, we look forward to seeing what you have created. Well done for working so hard we know it is not always easy at home, remember grown ups can find it tricky too. Keep smiling, it is also contagious! Enjoy the weather, a little bit of time with nature, every day, can make you feel better (and links to our science this week!). 

Take care 

Year 5 Team.

A big well done to all of those who have sent in pictures of their work, we love seeing what you have been doing. Your work is brilliant and shows us how hard you have been working, keep going! 

Year 5 Team 

Welcome to Week 5 of working, we have added some PSHE and Computing as different activities this week. 

Calling all Year 5's!

Hope you are all well and staying home. You may have noticed there are some websites that are offering free teaching online, you are welcome to tackle these as well as the work we are setting you. 

https://www.thenational.academy/online-classroom/year-5/#subjects

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/levels/zbr9wmn

A Letter from Mrs Cowley

Mrs Cowley has sent Aspen class a letter. Look below to find it.

Week 3 - Here are some fun bits to tackle, we have: reading, writing and spelling ideas and some maths challenges.

Some useful websites 

corbettmaths.com/5-a-day  These have questions for every day, and worked through answers to help you work out how to solve them (bronze is easiest up to super tricky platinum). 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UobNZmVfA49XWXTxw5hzROpoogtz2fN7  This a weekly challenge set from our Hampshire PE teachers. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/joinin/bp-can-you-find-it-puzzles  For this one you need your eyes wide open! 

Draw with Rob Biddulph

Mrs Conner has been enjoying taking a break for 10 mins every Tuesday and Thursday to draw along with illustrator Rob Biddulph. It’s great fun! You can find his videos on YouTube and we would love to see your drawings if you have a go yourself. 

Easter Activities

Hello Year 5, we hope you are all looking after yourselves and staying at home. We have put up some Easter activities if you wanted some fun bits to do over the holidays.

Take care and enjoy the sun when it shines! We miss you all. 

26th March 2020

Hello our wonderful Year 5 families!

We hope you are keeping safe and well and remembering to stay in your houses and gardens.  We miss you all! Do make sure you are looking after yourselves and being kind to one another.

We have put some new resources here for you to use to keep yourself busy! The weather won't be quite as nice next week, so you will have lots of time to do some more school work! 

Remember to keep hold of all the work you are doing - we can't wait to see what you have done.

Hello Year 5!

We hope you are all well and working hard at home. Here are some of the resources you would have received in your pack last week, in case you need to refer to them. We hope you are finding lots to keep your brains and bodies busy. Please check our website regularly as we will keep you updated with learning. 

Happy learning.

Thank you,

From the Year 5 team. 

TTRockstars

Click here to login and practise your times tables!

Times table rock stars is a wonderful game for children to play while practising their times tables. 

Week beginning 9th March

We are loving learning about plants in Science this term. This week we carried out an investigation to see how plants produce oxygen. Mrs Fettes brought in pond weed from her garden at home and we used a bright light to encourage the plant to photosynthesize. We used our visualizers to get a great view of the bubbles of gas being produced. 

Week beginning 2nd March 2020

We have had very busy week in year 5, including celebrations for World Book day (see English curriculum page). Learning in all of our lessons has been rich and we are asking lots of fantastic questions to deepen our understanding. In Science, we have been studying plants and finding out about the process of photosynthesis. Furthermore, in Geography we have been using a range of different maps to find the different states of the USA and we've been finding out what these locations are like. 

Week beginning 24th February - Bikeability

Year 5 have been working towards their Bikeability awards this week and have had great fun despite the weather!

"All of Year 5 have worked really hard to achieve their best. I have ridden a bike for the first time and I am proud of myself and everyone else for persevering." Stanley, Olive class. 

Winchester Science Centre

On Wednesday 12th February, year 5 went on an adventure to Winchester Science Centre. The day started off with a trip to space via the planetarium! Afterwards, everyone had a great time exploring the different exhibits and trying out the many hands-on activities. Finally, we completed a workshop where the challenge was to design a robot and launch it as far as possible. The trip was the perfect end to our space topic in Science this half term. 

The Maths Odyssey

On Friday 7 February 2020, two teams of bright year 5s ventured into the towering school of John Hanson. These students had been specially selected for a complex maths challenge. They were up against several schools, creating nine teams in total, from St John the Baptist, Hatherden, Abbotts Ann and Anton. The eight Balksbury students were split into two teams: The Brainy Balksburies and The Maths Menaces.

The challenge consisted of four different rounds. The first two rounds were simple tests with squared numbers, equivalent fractions and year 7 and 8 word problems. The third challenge was an enjoyable problem solving test but the fourth and final round was found challenging by everyone. It was a difficult crossword with numbers instead of words. However, the students powered through and one of the Balksbury teams finished in a commendable third place.

Well done to: Matilda Evans, Nicola O’Sullivan, Finn Williams, Ramazan Bilgic, Georgia Davis, Summer Marvin, Alex Gurung and Ed Hobson.

Week beginning 27th January

We are really getting to grips with the CPA (concrete, pictorial and abstract) approach in Maths and this is helping to deepen our understanding of key mathematical principles. This week, we have been focusing on fractions, decimals and percentages, and trying to apply this to measures such as litres and milliliteres. 

Week beginning 20th January 

This half term we have been using the probots within our computing lessons. We have been creating different algorithms to make the probots follow different routes and draw a range of shapes. The children have had to draw on their knowledge from geometry in maths to calculate the angles needed. 

Week Beginning 13th January

We have had another fantastic week learning about mountains and developing our map skills. 

We started off the week by learning about contour lines and how they show height on a map. We then used potatoes to create our own contour lines. 

At the end of the week, we had a visit from Martin Wragg, who visited base camp Everest in 2019. He showed us pictures and told us stories from his trek, as well as answering our questions. 

Week beginning 6th January 2020 

Happy new year! This week has been a fantastic start to 2020. We began our new geography unit - On Top of the World- with a day exploring mountains in a variety of ways. A highlight of the day was modelling the formation of mountains using sand. "We pushed two groups of sand together to represent how mountains are made,"  explained Finn . 

Week beginning 16th of December

Three elves cooking up a storm!

This week we have been making and baking gingerbread men as part of our Design and Technology curriculum. Thank you to our lovely LSAs in Year 5 who helped the children with their cooking.

See our updated book reviews by scrolling down.

Week beginning 9th December 2019

 Over the last few weeks, we have been making Medieval artefacts for our homework. The children have handed in some truly amazing work and we are very proud of the effort that has gone into their projects. We have had a whole range of items from 3D models of castles, swords and shields to crowns.

History- A Knight's tale

During our history lessons, we have been learning about the life of a Knight and whether we would have liked to be one. We have also been learning about the Magna Carta, castles and leisure and entertainment during the Medieval era.

Week beginning the 2nd December 2019

See our updated book reviews by scrolling down.

Science: Forces

In science we have been learning about different forces. This week we have looked at gravity and air resistance. We did an experiment with different sized parachutes.

Science- Parachutes and forces

Lately, in Year 5, we have been learning about forces based around gravity and air resistance. We have made parachutes with different sized canopies to test how gravity and air resistance work together. The sizes we used were 20cm², 30cm², 35cm² and 40cm². We used new glue sticks, tape and string. The reason we used new glue sticks is because then they would all have the same weight which makes it a fair test. The canopies were made out of unused plastic bags.

After, we had made our mini parachutes, we all went outside to test them out. We tested each parachute 3 times, recorded the results and found the average speed each one took to hit the ground.

We quickly found out that the bigger the canopy was, the more air resistance got trapped in because of the surface area. This meant that the bigger the canopy the slower it meant to fall.

By Ava and Georgia

Young Carers

At Balksbury, many children have a big responsibility at home and so Mrs Hunt, the ELSA, created a young carers club. This week, the ELSAs from across the Federation brought all of the young careers together and they had a wonderful time. There was colouring, games with balloons and even cake decorating! The children had a great experience and new friendships were created.

"What's really nice is that the older children and younger years were playing altogether. Although it was hectic and busy, it is about us all working together." Mrs Hunt.

Mrs Hunt is optimistic about an outside reunion in the summer.

By Matilda

Year 5

Week beginning 25th November 2019

This week we have been learning skills in DT which will help us build our catapults.

English

In English we have been learning about the Legend of Robin Hood. We wrote our own version of The Golden Arrow.

Legend 2

Legend 3

Week beginning 18th November 2019

On Wednesday the 20th of November we visited Harmony Woods as part of an ongoing project organised by Andover Trees United. Luckily, the weather was kind to us and the children had a lovely morning planting a variety of trees- Rowan, Willow, Holly, Birch to name a few.

Elm Tree

A disease-resistant Elm tree was purchased for the school with a grant from the Tree Council. This is to help start to reintroduce Elm into the landscape.

To learn more about the project click on the logo below:

Week beginning 11th November 2019

This week we have had a lot of discussions around our focus on Anti-bullying week.

Here is one of the tasks that we did.

The children were asked to squeeze out some toothpaste and to try and put it back into the tube again. Of course they couldn't!

This helped the children to understand how when hurtful words are once spoken, cannot be taken back.

Bullies say hurtful words frequently and need to know the impact that their words have on others.

Maths

Fractions

Currently in Year 5, we have been learning about fractions.

When a fraction has a bigger numerator than it’s denominator, its known as an improper fraction.

When the numerator is equal with the denominator, you can make it one whole.

By Ava and Georgia.

Week beginning 4th November 2019

We have had a great start back after half term so far.

We have started our new history topic- A Knight's tale by looking at the Bayeux Tapestry to learn about the Battle of Hastings.

Hocus Pocus Poetry

We wrote some poetry based on the Sorcerer's Apprentice scene from Fantasia.

We learnt about different literary devices to help our writing.

Week beginning 14th October 2019

This week in Maths we have been learning about division by grouping. We have been using place value grids to help us to answer division questions. The Year 5 classes have taken these challenges and flew straight through them. Why don't you have a look!

Next week we will do some work on area. Good luck Year 5!

By Finn and Nicola.

English

In Year 5, we have been learning about Biographies. The person we are learning about is Michael Morpurgo.

Interesting facts we have learnt about him:

• He has won an OBE in 2007.
• He became Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo when he got his Knighthood in 2018.
• His children are Sebastian, Horatio and Rosalind Morpurgo.
• He has a wife called Clare.
• He has written over 127 books.
• He puts pictures into his books because he thinks it adds excitement and adventure to them!
• He is a very slow reader and doesn't read much.

By Georgia and Ava

My Favourite Book by Year 5

Matilda By Roald Dahl

The reason I like Matilda is because I like the way any normal girl can be powerful. Now, I always try and move things with my mind when I'm bored and it gives me excitement. I really want to get telekinesis.

Next Week, I nominate Ava.

By Georgia.

Scarlet and Ivy: The Lost Twin By Sophie Cleverly

I like this book because it's all about a girl called Ivy and she thinks her twin is dead. She is on an adventure to find out if she is or not!

I nominate Finn.

By Ava

Fing By David Walliams

I enjoyed this book because it's creative and very different to some of his other books. Plus, it has some pictures which give an idea on how and why it's happening.

Finally, it's quite funny like how he says the Fing eats only custard creams!

I nominate Nicola.

By Finn.

The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell

This book is one of my favourite books by far! Not only because this book makes you think that wolves are not just animals, they are best friends too but this book can show that animals are not what you think they are. These beautiful creatures can make your life living in a dream! This book may not be famous but I think, I know that it should be. I highly recommend this book.

I nominate Ed.

By Nicola.

The World's Worst Children 3

By David Walliams

I like this book because it's very creative and funny. My favourite books are action and adventure. I also like books with children in instead of adults. If you find books hard to understand, The World's Worst Children is your kind of book.

I am now reading a book called the Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton which is also very good.

I nominate Matilda.

Jolly Foul Play

By Robin Stevens

Jolly Foul Play us an amazing book part of a series called Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens. This is my favourite book because it is full of adventure and friendship. The mum characters are complete best friends and they have started a detective society that has solved four whole murder mysteries. Now it looks like a fifth murder has happened and it is up to the girls to find out exactly what happened. I recommend this book to anyone between the ages of 9-12.

By Matilda.

I nominate Anna.

Week beginning 30.09.19

This week we have visitors from Winchester University.

Watch this space!

Autumn 1 2019

This term our topic is called Viva La Espana.

Recently, we have been learning about the La Tomatina festival.

We have used our observational skills in art to develop a piece of work using sketching and oil pastels.