WELCOME TO YEAR 5 MAGPIES
Magpies are known for their intelligence. We are also resourceful and curious and being part of the upper years team, we are able to gather knowledge and apply this to our daily learning.
P.E & Dance days
P.E. Days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Please ensure that your child has the correct kit in school all week. We will ensure that they are sent home at the end of every half term
Home Learning days
Home Learning will be handed out on a Friday and collected in on a Wednesday. This will give you the opportunity to explore aspects of your child's learning if you wish.
Meet The Team
If there are any issues or concerns, please feel free to come in and see your teacher (Mr Morton) or alternatively please contact a team leader (Mrs Gidley or Mrs Foster).
dmorton@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk
Friday 12th July - Water Safety Workshop
Years 5 and 6 were fortunate today to have a visitor from Open Water, a charity which educates children in water safety and believes the best way to guard against drowning is to educate by sending professional open water beach lifeguards into schools. They have devised their own E.S.C.A.P.E WATER programme to comprehensively deliver drowning prevention and water awareness to local schools.
Thursday 11th July 2019 - Home economics
As part of their learning about fairytale characters this term, the Magpies today attempted to make the perfect porridge for Goldilocks. They designed, cooked and ate their own porridge recipes which were 'just right' for Goldilocks (or in some cases, the porridge was 'bearly' right at all...) using oats and water, plus a choice of additional honey, blueberries, bananas, sugar and salt. They will be using today's cooking session to write an instructional text recipe about how to make the perfect porridge with reference to taste, smell, texture and colour.
Wednesday 10th July 2019 - Learning Celebration video of the Magpies year
At a learning celebration today, the Magpies enjoyed showing their family members examples of their learning from this term, most notably their wonderful and original 'Inside the Villains' fairytale stories.
A collection of photos featuring the children's activities from this year was also displayed as part of a video, which is included here:
Magpies video.mp4
Monday 1st July 2019 - Maths (negative numbers)
Today, the Magpies developed their understanding about negative numbers by exploring how we use these in different contexts. They used positive and negative numbers to investigate temperatures, money amounts and heights in metres and to solve problems involving these.
Thursday 27th June 2019 - Science (Living Things)
The Magpies became budding young horticulturalists today as they enjoyed dissecting Alstroemeria flowers during an investigation into the male and female parts of these plants. The pupils had bloomin' good fun as they used tweezers to prise apart the different sections of the flowers, record the details and display their findings as part of a presentation.
Thursday 20th June 2019 - Maths (volume)
Today, the Magpies used 1cm³ blocks to investigate volume of shapes. They learned how length x height x width = volume. This forms part of their learning about Geometric Reasoning this term.
Lyrics for Sing Around the Bay Opening Song, Final Song and MAGPIES ONLY Threats song
Sing Around the Bay First Song (all Year 5 together)
Sing Around the Bay - MAGPIES ONLY - Threats Song (instrumental)
Sing Around the Bay Final Song (All Year 5 pupils together)
Monday 10th June 2019 - compound shapes
Today. the Magpies created their own compound shapes as part of a maths investigation. They calculated the areas and perimeters of these compound shapes, in addition to those of rectilinear shapes, as part of their current learning about Geometric Reasoning in maths.
Tuesday 4th June 2019 - Science investigation
Today, the Magpies researched about different life cycles of animals as part of their learning about Living Things this half term. They investigated how five animal groups - insects, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds - progress from embryo through to adult, and presented their findings to their peers.
Thursday 23rd May 2019 - perimeters of rectilinear shapes
For their maths learning today, the children from Magpies headed out onto the playground and created a variety of rectilinear shapes as part of an investigation into perimeters. This outdoor experience enabled the Magpies to understand more about shape properties prior to their new learning about areas, volumes and capacities in maths after half term.
Tuesday 14th May 2019 - Science
Today, the Magpies investigated more about dissolving solids into liquids to form solutions - and in particular, learning about whether salt, sugar or flour would reach saturation point first when no more solid could be added to the solution. This lesson was as part of their learning about materials and their properties.
Tuesday 7th May 2019 - Maths
The Magpies today practised how to compare and order fractions (with different denominators) whilst using cubes to demonstrate their understanding. This is helping them to increase their knowledge of fractions, decimals and percentages - and how these relate to each other - during these next two weeks.
Today, the Magpies explored how to convert mixed numbers into improper fractions, and vice versa. This is as part of their current maths learning about fractions, decimals and percentages - and how these relate to each other.
Today, the children in Magpies class created different card triangles - right-angle triangle, equilateral triangle, isosceles triangle and scalene triangle - in order to discover more about sides, angles and other properties of these geometric shapes. They also pushed themselves further by investigating how right-angle triangles might be either scalene or isosceles triangles.
Tuesday 2nd April 2019 - Science (Materials)
Today, the children in Magpies experimented with electrical circuits and tested out whether plastic, metal or cardboard/wood might allow electricity to flow around a circuit or not. They discovered that metal is an excellent electrical conductor as it allows electricity to continue around a circuit, whilst plastic and cardboard are effective insulators which stop the flow of electricity. The children also investigated and suggested other uses for metal, plastic, wood and glass as part of their learning about the properties of everyday materials.
Tuesday 19th March 2019 - Magpies Learning Celebration
Today's Learning Celebration saw the children from Magpies class presenting their wonderful learning and beautiful artwork - connected to this term's theme of life during Henry VIII's time - to their parents and grandparents. Thank you to everyone who came to watch the Learning Celebration, and to the children who worked so hard to create such an amazing event.
The Mystery of the Onyx Murder... by Freya Chadwick
Friday 15th March 2019 - Comic Relief Red Nose Day!
The children of Magpies class enjoyed wearing non-school uniform and having crazy hair today, as they celebrated Red Nose Day with some fun activities to raise money for charity!
Monday 11th March - Friday 15th March 2019: Science Week
For Science Week, we have been carrying out the topic "Ditch the Dirt". For this, we have been investigating the issue of dirty and contaminated water in Turkana (Kenya). We started the journey by collecting water from a 'polluted water hole' using various equipment. We then made filters to try and filter to water to make it safer to drink. We designed and made these filters first and shortly we will be evaluating how effective they are at cleaning the dirty water!
Thursday 7th March - World Book Day
This year, for World Book Day, Magpies teamed up with Buzzards to share stories and listen to each other read. We also went on a book trail around the school to answers clues and we enjoyed a team quiz about characters and authors.
Today, the Magpies enjoyed creating 3D shapes from 2D nets. They identified the names and properties of these geometric models, and a keen discussion then took place about how many vertices, faces, edges and angles each shape contained.
Today in science, the Magpies were learning how to separate materials from an 'alien soup' solution. They mixed sand, salt, paper clips and pasta with water and then had to extract each 'ingredient' individually from the mixture using different apparatus: filter paper, magnets, funnels and spoons. They all had a 'souperb' learning experience...
Gymnastics Spring 1 Half Term
In Year 5 this half term, we have been practising our Gymnastics skills, including egg rolls, log rolls, rock'n'rolls and teddy bear rolls. We have also created routines that include these rolls, as well as balances and travelling movements. We then performed these routines both on the floor and on apparatus, as you can see in the photographs.
Tuesday 12th February 2019 - Maths Division
Today, the Magpies practised how to divide numbers by using sharing and grouping methods. This helped them to understand the building blocks of division in readiness for more advanced calculations in the coming days.
Thursday 7th February 2019 - Reach Outdoors Caving
The Magpies braved water, mud and darkness when they went caving at Pridhamsleigh Cavern, near Ashburton. They worked excellently together in their morning and afternoon teams to travel through the caves safely and enjoyably. Well done everyone!
Thursday 31st January 2019 - Reach Outdoors Archery
Today, the Magpies celebrated a string of successes when they enjoyed a session of archery organized by the Reach Outdoor team. Many bulls-eyes were hit - and many new targets achieved - by the pupils, who all had a 'bow-utiful' time down at the centre in Marldon.
Thursday 24th January 2019 - Reach Outdoors Climbing
Today, the Magpies took their learning to new heights when they tackled the climbing walls at the Reach Outdoors centre. The children showed great determination and courage as they got to grips with their climbing challenge - well done everyone!
Today, we used a dramatic performance technique called 'Mantle of the Expert' to act out scenarios relating to Henry VIII, the Pope, Buckfast Abbey and commoners. This enabled pupils to explore and better understand the issues relating to Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in England.
Thursday 10th January 2019 - Science - Space and the Universe
Today we investigated and answered our own favourite science questions involving Earth, space and the Universe. Questions included "What are black holes?", "What is at the centre of the Earth?" and "How big is the Universe?"
Academic Year 2018-2019
Autumn Term Curriculum Map
Thursday 20th December 2018 - Science Home Learning
In connection with our learning about space and the Solar System, the children's Home Learning for the last couple of weeks has been creating their own model of the planets in our Solar System. They could use whichever materials they wished and be as creative as they wanted to be. They worked extremely hard on their models and came in with some really imaginative creations.
Monday 3rd December 2018 - Space Exploration
To begin our topic of Space, the children had to participate in Astronaut Training where they needed to complete several different activities. These involved designing their own Space Rover, calculating the weight of their cargo being loaded onto their ship and exploring the planets and their moons.
8th - 22nd November 2018 - Reach Outdoors
This term, the Year 5 children have had the opportunity to participate in various activities with Reach Outdoors including climbing, kayaking, hashing and archery. The children have shown great determination across all activities and have tried hard to challenge themselves.
Archery
Hashing
Climbing
Friday 16th November 2018 - Children in Need
This week, White Rock have been raising money for Children in Need. Today, the Year 6 children were running a day of fundraising activities ranging from naming the bear, guessing the number of sweets in the jar, putting money on Pudsey's face and many sporting events. Magpies came dressed in a range of different outfits and were very creative with their hairstyles!
Wednesday 14th November 2018 - Life in Antarctica
Today, the children were exploring different aspects of Antarctic life and learning about what life would be like if they lived there. They worked as a team to put up a tent, explored the different clothing they would need to wear and tried some of the foods they would eat if they were there.
Wednesday 31st October - Plymouth Ski Centre
In connection with our learning about explorers, we visited Plymouth Ski Centre today so the children could experience what it would have been like for Scott of the Antarctic, the land explorer that we will be learning about. They participated in activities such as skiing, tobogganing and tubing.
Monday 29th October - Maths - Cuisenaire Fractions
Today in Maths, the children were exploring equivalent fractions using Cuisenaire rods. They were looking at the relationship between different rods and how this relationship could be represented through fractions.
Thursday 18th October - Science - Balloon rockets
In connection with our Science learning about forces, we explored the force created by air through creating balloon rockets. We discussed how the force and speed at which air comes out of a balloon pushes the balloon in the opposite direction.
Wednesday 10th October - Boat Trip to Brixham
Today, the children travelled on a boat from Paignton to Brixham to experience what it would have been like for the British and Spanish who fought in the Spanish Armada. While aboard, the children had the chance to steer the boat and also see some of the amazing wildlife along the Torbay coasts. We then walked to visit and sketch the Golden Hind which was the boat that Sir Francis Drake captained.
Monday 8th October - Science - Magnetic Force
Today, we continued our learning around forces and experimented with Magnetic Force. We spoke about the magnetic field and how the different poles on the magnets attract and repel those of another magnet.
Tuesday 2nd October 2018 - PSHE - Can I explore my Human Rights?
In PSHE today, we learnt about Human Rights and their importance within our society. We discussed which rights we believed to be the most important to us and why. Also, we talked about which rights we might have at home and in school. The children then selected 5 rights which they deemed to be the most important to them and created a poster displaying these.
Wednesday 19th September 2018 - Science - Parachutes and Air Resistance
Over the last couple of weeks, the children have been exploring forces and air resistance. We talked about the effects that air resistance has on moving objects and the children then designed and created their own parachutes which we tested.
Friday 7th September - Learning Journey - Tudor exploration
For the past couple of days, the children have been exploring what it would have been like for people living during Tudor times. This is linked to our theme of explorers and our study of Sir Francis Drake. Magpies participated in a carousel of activities based around this time period. They learned about food through making 'ships biscuits', researched about Kings and Queens of the period, looked at traditional clothing and looked at means of transport.
