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.

THIS TERM'S THEME

'Be Curious...'

This term, Year 5 pupils will be learning to develop their curiosity, build new skills and ask questions that enhance their learning opportunities.

They will find out about how other localities in South America compare to life in Devon.

P.E AND DANCE DAYS

Dance will be on Thursday and PE will be on a Friday. Please ensure your child comes to school with the correct kit, which is clearly labelled. For more information about kit requirements, please visit our 'Physical Education & School Sport' Page. We will ensure that PE kits are sent home at the end of every half term. 

HOME LEARNING DAYS

Home learning will be sent home on Fridays and should be returned to school on Wednesday. Home learning should be completed to the best standard possible and Mathletics and Times Table Rock Stars should also be completed weekly. We celebrate the efforts of Mathletics and Times Table Rock Stars in our assemblies with special class shout outs and certificates.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Monday 25th April - First day of Summer term 

Monday 2^nd May – Bank Holiday

Friday 27^th May – Last day of Summer 1

Monday 7^th June – Magpies Residential Day 1

Tuesday 8^th June – Magpies Residential Day 2

Wednesday 9^th June – Magpies Residential Day 3

Tuesday 26^th July 2022 – Last day of Summer term

MEET THE TEAM

If there are any issues or concerns, please feel free to call or email your teacher (Mr Passmore) or alternatively please contact a team lead (Mrs Gidley or Mrs Foster).

bpassmore@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

rgidley@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

lfoster@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

ACADEMIC YEAR 2021/2022

SUMMER TERM

Summer term curriculum map

Wednesday 20th July - Cricket trip to Somerset

Today, 30 children in Year 5 and 6 visited Somerset Cricket Club to watch a match between Somerset and Yorkshire. All the children enjoyed watching the cricket, completing the activity book and getting autographs from some of the players. Have a look at some of our photos below! 

Friday 15th July 2022 - Science - Properties and Changes of Materials

Over the last week, Year 5 have completed their Science learning on Materials. We have learnt about what a mixture is and decided the best method for separating mixtures (filtering, sieving and evaporating) after thinking about the size of the particles and the state (solid, liquid or gas) of the materials in the mixtures. We thought about the properties of various materials and how they are suited to the purpose of the object. In small groups, we investigated three properties: absorbency, electrical conductivity and response to magnets. We learnt about chemical reactions and now know that when a chemical reaction occurs, a new product is made. Throughout our learning, we used our scientific skills to make predictions, to recognise and control variables, to take accurate readings from a thermometer and to present and explain the results from an enquiry. 

Thursday 8th July 2022 – Transition Day – Meeting our new teacher!

Today, we went to our new classrooms and met our new teacher - Mr King. During the day, we did lots of fun activities and are all looking forward to Year 6 in September. 

Monday 25th June 2022 – RSHE – Changes during puberty

This week in Year 5, we have been learning about the physical and emotional changes our bodies go through during puberty. We then learnt about the reproductive organs and what changes we may see during menstruation and sperm production. In our final lesson, the children learnt the importance of personal hygiene.

Some of the children were asked what they had learnt during the sessions:

1. One thing I have learnt about puberty is that it is normal and I shouldn't worry about it because it is a part of growing up.
2. I have learnt that puberty starts at different ages.
3. I now understand what is going to happen in my body during puberty and the changes I should expect.

Thursday 21st June 2022 – PE – Cricket Festival with Churston

Today, Year 5 took part in a Cricket Festival, run by the Year 10 Sports leaders from Churston. The children had a great time and learnt lots of new skills link with cricket, such as bowling, batting and fielding. They worked really well in the teams, to score as many points as possible. We had a brilliant afternoon.

Thursday 17th June 2022 - PE - Javelin

In PE, Magpies have been practising their throwing accuracy. We learnt how to hold and throw a javelin with the aim of throwing it as far as possible. We also practised our short-distance throwing, to see how many times we could throw a ball into a basket in three minutes. Everyone did fantastically!

Tuesday 7th June 2022 - Year 5 Residential - Day Two and Three

On day two, Magpies went to Bonehill Rocks and Hound Tor on Dartmoor. Here we had a go rock climbing where the children challenged themselves to get as high as possible. We also had a go at weasling, which involved crawling through the small gaps.

On day three, Magpies went to Goodrington and took part in lots of activities on the beach, including raft building and races.

All the children did fantastically and had a super time! 

(More pictures to follow in the next few days)

Monday 6th June 2022 - Year 5 Residential - Day One 

Magpies have had a great first day to our residential. We started with a scenic walk down through fields to the River Teign. Then, we all played lots of different team-building activities before tucking into our dinner - jacket potato with a choice of fillings. To finish the evening, we all took part in Danish Longball and then played a game called 'Battle Royale' using a catapult made by the Reach Outdoors team. The children have all had a wonderful day and lots of fun!

Wednesday 18^th May 2022 – Art – Queen’s Jubilee

Year 5 have begun to think about the Queen’s jubilee and all the things that have happened during her reign. We are creating a wall hanging that celebrates her Platinum Jubilee. We thought about things we associate with the Queen and the Capital City – London. Each of us designed an image and painted it onto fabric. We’re looking forward to seeing them all together.

Tuesday 10th May 2022 - D&T - Lego WeDo Moon Rovers

As part of our Design and Technology learning this term, Year 5 have been exploring rovers used by NASA. We developed a design criteria for a new rover and used the Lego WeDo sets to build, programme and evaluate our designs. Have a look through the photos below.

Wednesday 4th May 2022 - Computing - Online Safety Session

Today an online safety consultant, from the UK Safer Internet Centre, came to speak to Upper Years about how to be safe and sensible online.

We started our session by thinking about what it means to go online - searching on the internet, watching YouTube videos, gaming, interacting with others, texting, messaging. As a group, we discussed the term 'digital tattoos', which replaces 'digital footprints'. We talked about the permanency of a tattoo. Anything we put online, will stay there whether we delete it or not.

We explored Apps that allow us to send photographs, such as Snapchat and Instagram, and the journey a photo we send takes before it reaches the recipient. This made us think about how many photos are produced and that they don't just disappear if we delete them. 

Thursday 28th April 2022 - PSHE- Debate

In PSHE, Year 5 have been learning about democracy. We learnt about parliament, voting and debating. The class had a go at discussing the motion ‘Lessons should be optional’ and the children shared their opinions. Everyone then voted to decide whether they were for or against the motion.

SPRING TERM

Spring term curriculum map

Tuesday 5th April 2022 - PE - Swimming 

This term, we have been going to Brixham to swim. We have all gained in confidence and have been working on improving our strength and technique when in the water. 

Tuesday 29^th March 2022 – Science – Night and Day

Our topic for Science is ‘Earth and Space’. We have been learning about night and day. The vocabulary we have been learning to support our understanding is rotate, axis and shadow. We used a torch, Lego person and globe to show how the sun shines on the Earth and the Earth rotation causes night and day. We also discovered that countries on either side of Earth experience night and day simultaneously.

Thursday 24th March 2022 - Paddleboat Theatre Company

We were so lucky today to have the Paddleboat Theatre Company come in to share their performance of 'Margo and Mr Whatsit'. It was about a girl called Sophia, who has an imaginary friend called Mr Whatsit. No matter where Sophia finds herself living, he's always there with a new joke to tell and a new game to play! We listened really well and had so much fun watching this. Thank you Paddleboat!

Friday 19th March 2021 - Red Nose Day

Today we wore our red noses, dressed up as super heroes or wore red to support the fantastic work of Comic Relief. During the day, we took part in some activities that the Y6s arranged - Red nose and spoon race, Guess the amount in the jar, Pin the Red Nose and Red Nose coin fill.

Friday 11th March 2022 - Music - Glockenspiels

This week, Year 5 have started to learn how to play the glockenspiel. We began by learning how to hold the beater correctly and comfortably. We then recapped reading music notation from our recorder learning last term, recognising a half rest and a quarter rest. We had a go at playing D, E and F and then put the notes together to play 'D-E-F-initely'.

Friday 4th March 2022 - Design and Technology - Soup

In our Design and Technology learning, Year 5 have evaluated a variety of soups and designed their own using a mixture of seasoning and vegetables. Today, we chopped up the vegetables to make our soup and once it was ready, we tried our soup, evaluated whether we liked/disliked it, what we did well and what we would do differently next time. 

Phoebe said "This is the best soup I have ever had!"

Thursday 3rd March 2022 - Reading - World Book Day

Today was World Book Day 2022. We dressed up as some of our favourite book characters; some of us dressed as ourselves because we are all authors! We started off the day with a whole school assembly, where we listened to Green Eggs and Ham by Dr.Seuss. Later on in the day, we shared stories with Foundation and continued with our class story.

Wednesday 16^th February 2022 – Science – Asexual reproduction

Today in our Science learning, we explored how some living things reproduce asexually. This means that only parent is needed to create offspring and they create a perfect clone of themselves to keep their lifecycle going! We planned our own scientific enquiry to see asexual reproduction in action. We took cuttings of basil plants, used rooting powder to encourage root growth and potted them in nutrient-rich soil. Hopefully, we will soon see if they would grow smaller plants - proving that basil plants can reproduce asexually!

Thursday 10th February 2022 – Art – Drawing

This week in Art, Year 5 have been experiencing using different types of mark making to draw a variety of waves. We looked at different techniques to show the water’s spray as a wave begins to barrel over. Next, we will look at planning the foreground, midground and background of the painting ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ before creating our own drawing and painting these.

Monday 7th February 2022 – Writing – Kensuke’s Kingdom

Year 5 are beginning to start our new writing journey. We will be using the text Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. We will look at Morpurgo’s writing style and the ideas which inspire him to write. We know that he is a children’s author, and he likes to write from the point of view of his main characters.

Here is the first chapter for you to read:  

Monday 24th January 2022 - Writing – Non-chronological reports

In Writing sessions, we have been currently looking at the features of a non-chronological report. As a class, we completed a shared write on Camels. We planned it together, wrote an example and used this to inform and support our own writing.

Here are some examples of our amazing learning:

Monday 17th January 2021 – Music – Music Lab

In Music, we have been experimenting using music lab to create our own 16-bar melodies. We looked at how you can change the tempo, instrument, percussion, the length and the beats per bar. Below are some pictures from today's lesson along with the QR code for the children to access at home, if they would like to! 

Monday 10th January 2021 – Geography – Trade Journeys

Today, we have been looking at the importance of imports, exports and trade, in the UK. We learnt what these words meant.

Below are photos of our completed learning, where we looked at where we import fruit and vegetables from.

Wednesday 5^th January 2022 – PHSE – Emotions, Feelings and Friends

This week, in PHSE we have been thinking about friendships. We discussed four key questions:

• Do you like all your friends in the same way?
• Do you like doing the same thing with all of your friends?
• Do you tend to see some friends only in certain situations?
• Would you want to see all of your friends all the time?

We realised through our discussion that we all tend to have friendships at different levels, and this is ok. We do not want to be best friends with all of our friends. Some of us have many friends, while some prefer to have one close friend.

We completed a diagram to help us understand the relationships we have with our friends. We didn’t need to use anyone’s real name if we didn’t want to.

This was our task:

AUTUMN TERM

Autumn term curriculum map

Thursday 16th December 2021 - Christmas Dinner

Magpies had a delicious Christmas dinner today. We really enjoyed eating all the pigs-in-blankets, pulling the crackers and telling all the jokes.

Wednesday 8^th December 2021 – Maths – Fluency

This term, Magpies have been working on building up their fluency and speed in the 2s, 5s, 10s and 4 multiplication tables. We have two minutes to complete 40 multiplication questions and then we check our answers but chanting together.

Watch the videos below, to see how we do it.

Thursday 2nd December 2021 – PE – Reach Outdoors

For the past two weeks, we have been with Reach Outdoors. The groups changed over their activities.

Archery

Group A had a great time firing the arrows, in archery. We also listened carefully to the instructors so that we knew how to hold the bow properly and help to develop a better aim.

We played a game called ‘Holiday’ where each colour of our target corresponded to a place to stay/how we were going to get there/what our accommodation was etc. We had some very funny combinations. Everyone in the group improved. We also played a game where we had to synchronise the firing of the arrows with our group. 

Phoebe said, “It is very fun because I have to challenge myself and enjoy trying new things.”

Henry said, “The archery was really good because I have enjoyed playing the fun games.”

Wednesday 24^th November 2021 – Maths – Squared and Cubed Numbers

In Maths this week, we have been finding out about squared and cubed numbers. We understand that a squared number is a number that is multiplied by itself twice, for example: 2x2=8. After we learnt this, we also discovered that a number multiplied by itself three times is a cubed number, for example 2x2x2=16.

We used the multi-link to help show the cubed numbers.

Thursday 18th November 2021 – PE – Reach Outdoors

Archery

Group B had a great time firing the arrows, in archery. We also listened carefully to the instructors so that we knew how to hold the bow properly and help to develop a better aim.

We played a game called ‘Holiday’ where each colour of our target corresponded to a place to stay/how we were going to get there/what our accommodation was etc. We had some very funny combinations. Everyone in the group improved.

Baye said, “I really liked it because it was really fun and I enjoyed the holiday game we played at the end.”

Archie said, “I thought that I would always hit the white part of the target, but I hit the red which I really liked!”

Poppy said, “I enjoyed learning about how to hold the bow and arrow.”

Evie said, “At first I was really nervous but was once I got the hang of it, it was really fun.”

Seth said, “At first, I struggled to shoot the arrow properly but once I understood it better, I shot it really easily.”

Oliver said, “I was having a hard time trying to figure it out, but by the end I found it a lot easier!”

Climbing

Group A also had a fantastic time climbing. Everyone in the group pushed themselves to climb further up the wall. We encouraged and supported each other. Like the group before us, we had to think about how to be safe and use the procedures, that we had been taught, to get up and down the wall.

Sophia said, “On the first try I got about 3 steps high but on the second go I got a lot higher!”

Henry said, “At the start I felt like I should’ve gone in a different group and on my second go, I felt a lot more confident.”

Monday 15th November 2021 - Art - Jo Di Bona

In Art, Year 5 have been experiencing using different mediums to recreate artwork similar to Jo Di Bona's. We chose half of a picture and had a go at recreating the other half. Have a look at some of the artwork below! 

Friday 12th November 2021 - Dance - Emotions

In Dance, Year 5 have been portraying emotions through using both solo and group performances. We have learnt about the dynamics of dance and how to show the feeling of this. Then, we had to think carefully about what dynamics to use for the different parts of the dance. 

Friday 5th November – Outdoor Learning – Observing the Environment

As part of National Outdoor Learning Day, Magpies have been out and about in the wooded area. We have been making observations about what sort of wildlife and nature we can see in the environment around our school. We discovered that there’s a lot more to see when you take the time to look really closely! We grouped some of the things we were looking at and came up with a tally chart to note how many times we had seen it. Once back in class, we used our data to create a bar chart to show our findings.

Monday 18th October 2021 - Music - Recorders

In Music this term, Year 5 have been learning to play a variety of notes, whilst building on their prior knowledge. We have used the notes 'B', 'A' and 'G' to play along to a variety of songs and can read and play these notes confidently. 

Thursday 7th October 2021 - Year 5 Residential Presentation 

Please find attached the presentation from Reach Outdoors regarding our upcoming residential in June 2022.

Wednesday 6th October 2021 - Science - Digestive System

In Year 5, we have been exploring how the digestive system works from taking the first bite to disposing of waste. We have built upon our previous learning about the functions of teeth and looked at what happened once we swallow our food. During our investigation, we used bread to represent how food is torn and broken up by our teeth, orange juice to represent the stomach’s acids and water. We then mixed the food, juice and water up in a bag, to represent the stomach breaking down food before moving into the small intestines. The contents of the bag was then put into some tights and squeezed to represent the nutrients being absorbed into the body. We then cut the tights to show the body disposing of the waste products.

Wednesday 29th September 2021 - Assembly - Parliament

Today we were visited by a guest speaker, who spoke to us about The Houses of Parliament. We learnt about what happens in The Houses of Parliament and the two main Houses - The House of Lords and The House of Commons. At White Rock, our constituency is Totnes and our local MP is Anthony Mangnall. He represents us and our area and shares our views with the rest of Parliament. 

Thursday 23rd September 2021 - Leaflet Writing - Recycling Week

In Year 5 this week, we have been writing an informative leaflet about the 3 R's (reduce, reuse, recycle) and the different materials that can be recycled. We discussed the impact of recycling and how it can help to save the environment. The children aimed to give their leaflet a bright, eye-catching design to draw their readers in. 

Friday 17th September 2021 - Science - Taste Test

In our Science lesson this week, Year 5 learnt about the function of the salivary glands and taste buds and the role they play in the digestion of food. We learnt that digestion starts in our mouths and messages are sent to and from our brain to the various parts of our bodies that are involved with digestion. As part of our learning, we used our taste buds to conduct a taste test. We all ate three sweets of the same colour - one whilst blindfolded and with our noses pinched; another whilst just blindfolded and then the final sweet whilst neither blindfolded or noses pinched. We recorded our predictions and our results - they were very interesting!

Did you know that, on average, humans have around 10,000 taste buds on their tongue?

Friday 10th September 2021 - Art - Evaluation

As part of our Art learning in Year 5, we have started evaluating the work of a famous Parisian artist called Jo Di Bona. His artwork has a creative yet unique style, which mixes a range of pop culture with graffiti, collage and bright colours. He is often recognised for the large murals he creates for popular galleries across the world. As a class, we started off by evaluating his artwork into our sketch books with discussions about what we like and dislike. The end goal will be creating a self-potrait of ourselves in a similar style to his.