Merlins are very resourceful and energetic.  They approach every task with vigour and use creativity to get the very best results that they can.  Through their efforts and resilience they put maximum effort into all areas of the school curriculum.

Welcome to Yr 5 Merlins Class

In class 5 Merlins, the teacher is Miss Appleby, with Mrs Carthy as the Learning Support Assistant.

The Year 5/6 theme for this term is 'Made in China'. This is a cross-curricular approach to learning, which will provide the pupils with an all encompassing and enriching learning experience. The pupils will be immersing themselves in The Magic Paintbrush by Laurence Yep, using this text as a stimulus for their writing and reading, as well as enhancing other areas of the curriculum. For more information on the curriculum, look at the Summer Term Curriculum Plan below.

PE days:  Monday and Thursday, however please ensure that PE kits are in school every day.

Home Learning:  All home learning is to be completed in Home Learning  Books and will be given on a Thursday to be completed for the following Tuesday. If home learning  is not completed, it will have to be completed  during Wednesday lunchtime.
 

Team Lead: Mrs Natasha Tyson 

If there are any issues or concerns, please feel free to come in and see the teacher (Miss Appleby) or contact the Team Lead.

Miss Appleby     lappleby@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

Mrs Tyson          ntyson@white-rock-primary.torbay.sch.uk

UPCOMING EVENTS:

UPCOMING EVENTS

On the 13th, 14th and 15th July, Year 5 are taking part in this year's performance of 'Rockin' through the Decades'.

Terracotta Army!

On Wednesday 10th June, staff from South Devon College came to White Rock for a clay workshop. During the morning, all of Year 5 made their own soldiers to be part of our very own Terracotta Army! 

Wednesday 10th June 2015: Developing our sketching skills.

Today we shared our still life sketches with each other.  We looked carefully at another person's sketch and noted the things they did well, then gave suggestions on how to improve.  Once we had read our comments, we went onto the school field and tried to improve our work by focusing on every detail of the item we were sketching.

Buddhist Visit

On Tuesday 9th June, we were very luck to have a visit from Jake Lyne, who is part of the Western Chan Fellowship in Exeter. During the morning, we learnt all about Buddhism. This included the history, special festivals, their beliefs and we even had a go at some meditation.

Monday 8th June 2015

We had a fantastic trip with the whole of Year 5 and Year 6 to the Princess Theatre.  Whilst there we watched the talented Philharmonia Orchestra. We were treated to their interpretations of Britten's Soiree Musicales; Beethoven's, Symphony No.5; Britten's Simple Symphony; Bizet's Carmen Suite and Brahm's Hungarian Dance No. 5.  The members of the orchestra were able to effortlessly tell the musical stories of these very famous works and it was a joy for us to experience a real live orchestra.

Wednesday 3rd June 2015: Craft Work

We had a creative time painting our clay dragon figurines that we made at South Devon College.  They are really starting to look unique.

Monday 2nd June 2015: Instructional Writing

Today we had a lot of fun giving instructions! To start with we had to sit back to back with a partner and give them instructions on how to draw a particular animal.  We could not mention the features of the animal.  The only instructions we could give were to do with lines, shapes and positional language.  After this, we had to do folding of card by listening to instructions.  We then repeated the exercise with the same instructions but ones that used visual prompts.  The difference in our results were incredible!  We are now progressing to writing our own detailed instructional texts.

22nd May 2015.  Problem solving in maths

Through our learning this week in maths, we have been investigating how to find the perimeter and area of regular and irregular shapes. Today we explored the most cost effective layout to seat guests at a reunion.  We looked at how the perimeters changed with the increasing arrival of guests. Through doing this we were able to apply our knowledge of perimeter and area to real-life situations.

Thursday 21st May 2015.  Chinese day at South Devon College

We had a wonderful day today at South Devon College. From the moment we stepped through the double doors we were immersed into the culture of China.  The lady who greeted us was dressed accordingly with chopsticks in her hair!  The café was decorated with lanterns, fans, Chinese dragons and ornate oriental table cloths.

We started the day by visiting the catering school kitchen and learning how to make spring rolls and fruit kebabs.  During this visit we also learnt how to count in Chinese and spoke about the Chinese zodiac.  The head chef made us some prawn crackers and we blind-tasted some different dips.  Afterwards we joined the rest of Year 5 for a wonderful Chinese banquet that the chefs had specially cooked for us.  We tasted chicken noodles, spring rolls, pork and Chinese rice. The kitchen staff gave us all a set of chopsticks and we had great fun trying to eat our food with them.  Our tasty food was then all washed down with delicious ice cream!

After our lunch it was time to be creative!  Firstly, we went to the printing studio and produced some dragon prints. We then went to the ceramic studio and made our own dragon sculptures out of clay.  We learnt fantastic new skills and used specialised tools for the purpose.  A fantastic day was had by everyone and we are really proud of everything we learnt and made.

Wednesday 20th May. Chinese lantern making

Today we researched about the traditions associated with Chinese lanterns.  We looked at how they originated and their importance in Chinese celebrations.  At the end of our research we designed  our own lanterns and  using Design and Technology skills created them for display on the mezzanine area.

Tuesday 19th May 2015: Compositions in Music

As part of or preparation for the iOrchestra concert we spent this afternoon looking at musical composition.  To start with we learnt about the families of the instruments that make up an orchestra and quizzed ourselves on recognising their sounds. We then looked at some of the elements of music that make up an orchestral piece and made up our own movements to correspond with different musical entries. 

When we listened to some of the pieces we were able to spot repeated rhythmical patterns which are called 'ostinatos'.  We used this idea to compose our own Year 5 piece by using an ostinato with variations on a theme. Doing this we learnt a lot about all of the musical elements and working collaboratively on a composition.

Friday 15th May: Fundraising for Nepal

This afternoon Year 6 put on a carousel of wonderful outdoor activities to raise money for Nepal.  Our class really enjoyed all of the events including: Hurdles, maze (blind-folded) and saturating the Year 6 children with either throwing sponges or with a water pistol! Thank you very much to the Year 6 children who spent a lot of time organising this worthwhile fundraising event.

Friday 15th May.  Library Presentation

We were thrilled today to present some children in Upper Years with prizes from Paignton Library.  They were chosen as they did amazing descriptive writing during their library visit.  Congratulations!

Wednesday 13th May: Science experiment.

During our new topic in Science we have been learning about 'forces'.  Yesterday we had some great discussions about friction and how friction changes according to the environment and materials that are used.  We planned an experiment and predicted what would happen if we  picked up jelly using chopsticks.  We then altered the surface of the jelly by firstly adding oil, then sand. We ensured that we carried out a fair test and kept an accurate time chart.  After the experiment we reflected on our predictions and made a conclusion as to how the friction was altered.  

Thursday 6th May 2015: Science presentations to Year 1

After a couple of weeks of hard work we got to show Year 1 Bramblings  our space presentations.. All of our class could select an area to do with 'Space' that they wanted to research further, and an area that they were particularly interested in.  They then had to design a presentation using ICT skills to deliver to Year 1 children.  This was a tricky task to ensure that they used elements in their presentations to engage and excite the younger target audience.  The results were amazing!  We had a large variety of subjects being covered, and all of the younger children were so impressed by the presentations.

Thursday 6th May 2015:  Maths.

We have been using our skills of estimation, and then seeing how accurate we are by  measuring different things around the school.  We thought carefully about which apparatus we needed to use to carry out our measuring. 

Monday 5th May 2015: This morning we have been working in the ICT suite to finalise our presentations for Year 1.  Our class have been very excited to share with the younger students what they have been learning about in Science. They have worked hard to decide on a theme to do with 'space' that they would like to research further.  They spent time doing research, note taking and planning the best way to present their findings to engage younger students. Most children decided on a power-point presentation.  They used their ICT skills in inserting animations and audio clips to engage the Year 1 students. We look forward to sharing these with Bramblings class tomorrow.

Friday 1st May 2015:  Chinese Dynasties

We have been learning about Chinese dynasties and the impact they had on Chinese society, including the innovative inventions they are famous for.  In our learning we have worked in groups to design fact files about each dynasty, and encoded their invention and date of reigns with a riddle and mathematical calculations for our other team mates to decode.

Friday 1st May: Maths learning

Today in our Maths lesson we went outside on a maths trail. We had to search for questions to do with relating fractions, decimals and percentages.  We also played maths bingo to match up pairs of fractions with their decimal equivalents.

Tuesday 28th April 2015. Trip to Paignton Library

Today we had a great experience walking from school to Paignton Library.  Whilst at the library, we had a tour of all of the sections in the building, including all of the resources available to us.  It was great to see what the library can provide and everyone enjoyed exploring all the different genres the library had to offer.  We were very luck to partake in some activities related to our theme, 'China'.  We learnt about the Chinese Zodiac, how the dragon got its lion head and celebrated Chinese folklore in storytelling and descriptive writing.  We had chance to have our lunch at Goodrington sands on the way back to school.  All in all a 6.3 mile round trip!

Tuesday 21st April 2015

 In literacy we have been focusing on some products which are made in China, in connection with our theme. We started by looking at the ipad, and watched some documentaries about the working conditions of many children there.  Through writing our emotive accounts from the eyes of a Chinese worker, and also writing persuasive letters to the company Apple, we have now started to look at Apple from the other side.  We looked at how Apple as a company uses advertising campaigns to sell their products, and engaged with the features they use to create our own adverts.  After recording and also performing our adverts we all chose one which appealed to us the most and wrote reviews on them.

Friday 27th March 2015. Book share with Year One class

We really enjoyed singing songs and reading together with Bramblings today.  All of our class carefully selected a book that they wanted to share with Year one children, and Bramblings brought along their favourite books too.  It was lovely seeing how much the children enjoyed sharing their reading in our class. 

Thursday 26th March 2015:  'Inspiration Day' at Paignton Community College

We had a wonderful day during our visit to Paignton Community College.  All of Year 5 got to participate in some fantastic workshops:  Samba music; roller blading; parkour; gymnastics; dance mats and futsal.  There was a real drive amongst everyone who participated to do their very best.  Everyone showed great determination to complete each workshop, and there was a great feeling of collaborative team work.  We also made new friends from Preston Primary and Oldway Primary School, who were also doing the same workshops as us.

Comic Relief

We all had great fun decorating our faces to raise money for this very worthwhile charitable cause.

17.3.15:  French Role Play

In our French lessons we have been learning basic greetings, we have been having a lot of fun practising our new vocabulary, and making up our own short role plays to perform these to the class.

12.3.15: Creative Brazil Day

Today as part of our cross-curricular thematic work we were visited by 'Creative Brazil' from London.  We had a wonderful day of exciting Brazilian cultural activities.  All of Upper Years were in 3 groups and were able to experience every workshop throughout the day.  The workshops were: 

Brazilian Samba Dance and Caporeira (Brazilian non-contact Martial Art). 

We were put through our paces with the exciting and fast choreographed movements, and learnt two routines. 

Craft Workshop: 

In this workshop we recycled materials to design and construct our own carnival hat, it was fascinating to see all the creativity amongst us in really varied and unusual designs.

Samba Band:

We learnt about the Brazilian Samba rhythms, and practised singing two part rhythms, clapping them, and then putting all we had learnt into playing the instruments.  We had to listen really attentively to know which signals from the conductor meant which stops.  It was a fantastic experience for all of us and we will continue what we have learnt today in our own work in school. 

5.3.15: World Book Day

Today was World Book Day.  We celebrated it in Year 5 and 6 by coming to school dressed as a character from a myth or legend.  Everyone's efforts were so appreciated.  After a team assembly focusing on reading, our class brought in their favourite book to share with Year 2 children.  It was lovely to see everyone excited to share their favourite book with others, and how well everyone read to each other.  At the end of the day we heard from famous footballer and author Frank Lampard through a live link to the children's authors website. 

4.3.15:  Recycle workshop

We were very pleased to welcome Alex Mack from Recycle Devon.  She did a lot of exciting interactive work with us, focusing on the Waste Hierarchy.  We learnt about: The 4 R's.

REDUCE - Lessen the amount we use to reduce the impact on the environment.  REUSE - To use your rubbish again.  RECYCLE - Turn the rubbish into something brand new/compost.  RECOVER - Generate energy from waste by burning the rubbish.  She showed us the new factory in Devonport in Plymouth that was the EfW - Energy from Waste's newest depot.  She showed us the ashes that were made by incinerating the rubbish at an EfW site.  These ashes are then reused to make road aggregate.  We all enjoyed the workshop and working together in our teams on all of the quizzes and sorting activities.

3.3.15:  Visit to Torbay Bookshop

We had an exciting time today visiting Torbay Bookshop in Paignton.  It was great to see a huge selection of books to browse and buy.  Too many to choose! As part of Book Week all of the children were given a voucher to use to help purchase a book of their choice, and they all chose really exciting new titles. 

27.2.15: Visit to Bramblings

We were very excited to visit the new arrivals in Bramblings class today!  All of our class had the opportunity to hold the new chicks and see the baby quails, as well as view the eggs in the incubators that were hatching!

26.2.15: Tag Rugby

We were very happy to visit Churston Grammar School today to participate in the Tag ruby School Partnership festival.  Our class competed against other local schools and learnt new skills in passing, dodging and team work.  It was very challenging for all who competed in this event due to the slippery and muddy conditions, however, we all had a lot of fun and learnt a lot about this sport.

Bikeability

Over the course of the next two weeks (beginning 23rd February) Year 5 children are taking part in Bikeability training. They will gain confidence with cycling and learn about the importance of staying safe when cycling on the roads.

13.2.15:  Capitalism workshop

Today we had a whole day workshop looking at capitalism through the chocolate industry from producer to consumer.  There were many activities to promote great discussion amongst the class.  Through quizzes, developing characters, watching videos, interactive discussions, role play and learning about Fair Trade we had a clear understanding of the concept of Capitalism and how our decisions as consumers have a direct impact on the producers.  A very thought provoking day which ended up in a chocolate tasting survey!

12.2.15:  E-Safety

We received a very warm welcome from Paignton Community College today for the E-Safety workshop.  It was a very informative morning learning about how to protect ourselves and others, and stay safe whilst online.  All of Year 5 designed their own E-Safety poster and the winning three received prizes. 

12.2.15:  Theatre Workshops

We had our final Paddleboat Theatre workshop today.  This was a great ending to some really inspirational work.  All of the students performed their own short plays and put all of their mime, puppetry and story telling skills together to make up their own short monologue.

11.2.15: Our Maths Learning

During our maths learning we have been having fun exploring fractions. We have used many visual and practical resources to help us work out equivalent fractions including: Fraction walls, shapes and counters to make arrays. 

11.2.15:  Poetry Slam. 

We had a fantastic afternoon at the Princess Theatre's 'Poetry Slam'.  This was a poetry performance event where twenty schools from Torbay competed in the Poetry X factor!  We were very proud of our five finalists, who gave a wonderful performance of their poem, they showed great artistic skill and wowed us with their musical and dramatic performance skills.

30.1.15: Action Aid Workshop

We were extremely happy to welcome Julia an educational outreach officer from charity Action Aid this week.  Julia gave us a huge range of activities to explore the rights of children, focussing on the work that Action Aid do to relieve poverty for children in Brazil.  We took part in: a flight simulation; locating landmarks on maps of Brazil; sharing real life stories of children in Brazil; learnt some Portuguese phrases; food and drink tasting and mask making. 

27.1.15  Our trip to Las Iguanas.

We had a super trip to Las Iguanas restaurant in Plymouth.  The staff treated us all to a wonderful South American experience.  We ate traditional food; learnt about the produce from Brazil; broke up a raw coconut and toured the restaurant.  It was a great immersion for the class into their theme and we all had a fantastic time.

23.1.15: Our learning in maths

We have worked very hard this week on our problem solving activities and consolidating our knowledge of division.  In our problem solving we had to budget for a Lunar Theme Park!  Through doing  this we used our addition, subtraction and multiplication skills to work out the cost of the rides, utilities and how much time it would take us to be in profit.  There was some super maths skills being used, and everyone worked extremely well in presenting their calculations and plans to the class. 

21.1.15: Division in maths.

During this weeks learning in maths we have been looking at methods for division.  The class have been learning how to show division in three different ways:  Using arrays to represent sharing; number lines to show clear groupings (using our knowledge of times tables) and the bus stop method.  By using all three ways to represent division it engages the class with what division actually means, and this is aided hugely by the physical representation. We are continuing to look at what the remainders now represent, and how we can interpret these as fractions and decimals.

21.1.15. Theatre Workshops.

The Paddleboat Theatre workshop this week tied in with our literacy work.  They were looking at descriptive vocabulary in the form of narration.  The class modelled high level adjectives that they could use in their narrations, and then put these to the test.  Some of the class acted as narrators, whilst the others were miming animals from the Amazon Rainforest. 

20.1.15. Hot seating. 

During literacy we have been engaging with a silent animation.  Through using this emotive video of 'The Lighthouse' as a stimulus we have been learning about inferences:   What the creators infer about the character and setting; and also forming predictions based on those inferences.  After this we engaged with how the main character changed throughout the story, and the class wrote questions they would like answered by the character.  We had a volunteer to be the character and we placed him in a hot seat and posed our questions to him, he reflected on these questions well and gave some very descriptive answers.  We have now progressed to storyboarding the main events with highly descriptive sentences, using our literacy tools to really hook the reader in. At the end of the week the class will be using everything they have learnt from this work and writing their own short descriptive stories.

14.1.15; Poetry Workshop

Today Year 5 had the opportunity to work with Dreadlock Alien, a professional poet.  He took a whole school assembly and then gave extremely exciting and engaging poetry workshops for both Year 5 classes.  During the course of this workshop we were focusing on the word 'diversity' and coming up with rhyming couplets as a class.  After modelling some different performance styles to engage the audience, each class worked on bringing their class poem alive by the use of theatrical skills; intonation; songs; raps; beat boxing; tempo changes and solo lines.  The workshop was thoroughly enjoyed by the whole year group, and it has wetted everyone's appetite in performance poetry.

14.1.15. Paddleboat Theatre Workshops:

We are delighted in Year 5 that we are lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with Paddleboat Theatre Company until half term.  Each Wednesday afternoon we are immersed in wonderful workshops to develop our teamwork, creativity and leadership skills.  The workshops work on creating a stimulus for inventing characters; storylines; settings and through using props and the genre of mime we are able to develop our means of creative expression.  The theatre company links each workshop to our class curriculum, and we have been focusing on travels in Brazil, through doing this our class have experienced the joys of the carnival, as well as the woes of children who are forced into labour at a young age. 

8.1.15: Che Guevara:

During this lesson we looked at the iconic image of Che Guevara.  The children thought of questions that they would like to know the answers to.  Each group chose another group's questions to research about Che Guevara.  It promoted a lot of good discussions about what he represented.  We are looking forward to taking these ideas and exploring them in greater depth in our History lessons.

Our Learning Journey. 

During our Literacy lessons, we are focusing on a new class book entitled, 'Oranges In No Man's Land.' This is in keeping with our 'Conflict' theme and is based on the Civil War in Beirut.  The novel tells the story of a young girl named Ayesha and her struggle to support her family throughout a time of war.

Within the theme of 'Conflict', we have been completing our own research, using the new class set of ipads.  We have researched the causes of World War II, evacuation and rationing. In Art, we have forged links with an International school in Munich as a way  of exploring the World War II artist Henry Moore. We will be sharing our findings with the school as well as the artwork we will be creating over the coming weeks.  

In our music lessons we have been learning to write our own rhythms and songs. We have written a class song called 'Farewell'.  The verses tell the story of how it feels to leave someone or something precious.  The children showed great creativity in doing this.  We are progressing now in developing our singing skills and writing our own melodies using correct musical notation.

December 8th 2014

During our maths 'Problem Solving Challenge' the children were given a budget of £100. Out of this money they had to plan a Christmas party for 8 children.  They had to pay for enough food and drink; entertainment; prizes for competitions and cups and plates.  In their teams each pair had a different role assigned to them.  Some pairs were collating all of the figures and giving a running total, others were itemising the food items they needed to feed the children.  All in all the children developed great team building skills and used their math's skills of: Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I am happy to report every team came in on budget!

One team were challenged even further and had to arrange a 3 hour party for 25 children with a budget of £150! 

During the last six weeks we have been learning about the World War II artist Henry Moore, and in particularly studying his shelter drawings.  Our focus has been on investigating his significance as a historical artist.  We have been recreating our own sketches focussing on light and shade and perspective.  We have forged links with the Art department in  St George's International School in Munich who have also been studying Henry Moore.  Our presentation will be viewed by this school and they will be writing a presentation in return so that we can have peer feedback across Europe!

The next area we will be investigating is design and technology.  The children will be designing 'To Scale' shelter models and making their designs using recycled materials.

During history we have been researching about Guy Fawkes and presenting our facts in creative ways: Composing raps and the music to go with them, powerpoint presentations, posters and songs.  Everyone was completely immersed in using IT to assist them with this.

In connection with our theme of 'Conflict'  we have been looking at the significance of Remembrance day and the symbolism of the poppy.  We are writing our own remembrance poems this week. In class we watched a short video clip about WWI and the significance of Remembrance Day. We made lists of key words in our teams about how the video made us feel, we are going to use these 'keywords' to assist us in planning our poems.

Literacy: Remembrance Day Poems

During literacy we had a look at many Remembrance Day poems, and used the sentiment of this as a stimulus to write our own.  A few members of our class were invited to share those with you on our class page.

During our music lessons we have immersed ourselves into song writing.  Each group wrote a verse in connection with our class book - life as an evacuee in World War II.  We called our song 'Farewell'.  This was the first song writing experience for our class and it  took a lot of courage to perform it and be recorded !

We are beginning to learn many songs together to get used to singing and listening to one another in an ensemble.  Alongside learning our songs we are learning how to write our own tunes using standard musical notation, which we will then perform on instruments.

Over the next couple of weeks during our learning in literacy we are focussing on persuasive language.  We have been linking this to our 'Conflict ' theme and have been looking at the persuasive features people use in debates, letters and discussions.  Our class really immersed themselves in representing opposing viewpoints in response to the question: 'Should dogs be banned from public parks?'

The class was split into two opposing sides who eloquently argued their case for/against the ban to a very impartial jury.  We had a chairperson who allowed everyone the opportunity to express their opinion and kept order in the court!  After the debate the jury left the room to discuss what the outcome should be and returned to court after much deliberating and cogitating to announce the verdict.  The jury were very concise about why they chose the winning team and were able to state which parties had used the most persuasive language in arguing their point of view. All in all it was a very enriching day in court!

Trip to Torre Abbey and Torquay Museum:

In connection with our 'Conflict' theme this term, Upper Years were very privileged to have a visit to Torre Abbey and Torquay Museum. We learnt a great deal about the changing purposes of Torre Abbey since it's construction in 1196, it really demonstrated to  us how one building and grounds could play such a huge part in so many important periods of history.

In Torquay Museum we visited many wonderful attractions including the World War II exhibition.  We had to act like special agents and had clues to crack to find the secret code by answering questions in relation to the World II, all children were then presented with a certificate.

GRENVILLE HOUSE 2014

Our class had a wonderful experience at Grenville House.  We challenged ourselves in our  teams and as individuals.  A huge number of us conquered our fears and pushed ourselves to try new things and in the process became stronger, resourceful and more independent.  All of us can feel proud of our efforts and achievements and enjoy the memories for a very long time.

In our Science investigations we have been learning about properties of materials.  We have been predicting and conducting our own experiments to investigate reversible and irreversible changes.