During the second part of autumn term, a group of amazing computer scientists from Years 5 and 6 enjoyed taking part in Miss Mason's Coding Club. The children used Scratch to write their own code - some of the children had already used the app, but for others it was brand new. Over the weeks, the coders got to create fun games like Pong and a platform game, as well as writing code that made sprite animations. Everybody had a fun time and practised their coding skills.
"Scratch is all about your ideas - your creativity is your project." Henry Cooper, 6M
Year 5 have been hard at work again. We have earnt our very own Blue Peter badges! We had the exciting task of combining our artistic skills with our reading ability and entered into a competition to write our very own book reviews. We summarised a text of our choice by a famous author and even drew fabulous sketches to show our favourite or the most pivotal moment in the book we had read. After our forms had been submitted and after a long but exciting wait, our Blue Peter Badges finally arrived! Not only did our Accelerated Reader word count go up, but so did our literary skills! Check out our fabulous badges.
The Science Garden at the Think Tank offered us an adventurous and entertaining session, bringing themes of engineering, mechanics and forces to life through hands-on resources. We all had a great time with exciting and inventive exhibits including an eight metre high clanging ‘Terminus’ machine and a giant human-sized hamster wheel that has a top speed of 30 revolutions per minute, a harness renewable energy to power a mechanical theatre - which turbine or solar panels, an explosion of dancing balls and whistles and riding on a wagon with square wheels on a bumpy road. We explored air and water resistance as well as levers and pulley systems and weights distributed upon a pivot. It was so much fun!
As part of our Space and Science units on Friction, Year 5 embarked upon an adventure to the Think Tank, Birmingham! We had a spectacular day exploring artefacts and exploring the interactive models on display. We even took part in a special workshop all about the planets and travel to outer space. We answered so many questions, because of our fabulous research and Science posters on 'Space', that we blew the socks off the presenter with our knowledge and expertise. Cotwall End were out of this world!
Year 5 have been incredibly lucky, as Madame Turner, a French subject specialist from Beacon Hill Academy, has been leading French lessons this term. She has worked hard with pupils using songs, games, televisions shows, celebrities and famous world wide events to bring our lessons to life. She has taught us the importance of correct pronunciation, spelling and word order in French. We have used our word class skills to make comparisons with the English language. We have practiced both speaking and listening and writing in full sentences using our sentence builders to help. We have explored music, hobbies, Eurovision and the Euro’s. We have further explored using numbers, dates, colours, adjectives and popular French phrases in our sentences, as well as fluency. We are becoming language superstars!
French
Year 5 learned how to play the flute and had to assemble them ourselves. Our teacher was Miss Accili. Each week we improved upon our skills. We followed musical rhythms and patterns, clapping to a regular beat, we watched video clips and even sung songs. We practiced with our instruments then performed a piece of music altogether.
We performed some of the musical sequences following the direction of a leader. We learned to play the notes B, A and G. Some of us struggled to play all of the different notes in a musical sequence because we needed to stretch our fingers so they reached the different notes. Finding these positions was hard. Angling ourselves to blow through the mouth piece was also difficult but we persevered.
ART
PARENT WORKSHOP
In Art we enjoyed working with our parents exploring different buildings in London, Las Vegas and across the world. We made links to our Greek topic and were able to identify features that we liked. We watched a BBC interview discussing the job of the architect. After that, we worked with our parents to design and create a 2D, 3D or floor plan depiction of our building. Some of our parents are so creative, they are natural born designers.
Quotes from parents:
"Fantastic workshop. Loved getting involved and spending time with my child as well as learning all about architecture."
"Thanks so much for inviting us in. Wonderful work. Well organised. I was allowed to draw!" Alice’s Dad
"Lovely workshop, great spending time with our child. He loves art lessons so he’s really enjoyed it." Cooper Family
"Fantastic art session, really enjoyed spending time with Brayden and helping him with floor plans." Brayden’s Mum
"A most enjoyable and informative experience. Loved it so much." Partridge Family
"Great workshop. Olly enjoyed designing his own house. Hope he has enough money to get it built!" Bate Family.
Children shared their reading books with younger children across the school, dressed in their comfiest clothes. They were able to :
· Do some independent reading
· Take part in drama and role play
· Interview a character from a book they are reading
· Sing our school World Book Day song
· Create a potato character of their choice.
· Enter into a whole school competition.
Year 5 took part in a space workshop with lots of different schools across the nation. Almost one thousand primary pupils took part. We learnt all about space travel and how we would get into outer space. We looked at life as an astronaut and what it would be like on the ISS — The International Space Station and also looked at what would happen to if pets went into outer space. We helped to launch a rocket, took part in a questions and answer sessions and completed a quiz. It was so much fun!
Year 5 took part in the ancient Greek Olympic Games as part of their Groovy Greeks topic. There were many different activities for children to complete including: the javelin, the sprint, the relay race, the chariot race as well as team games. Children cheered along as their friends made it through to become winners. To help get us in the spirit of the games we researched the Greek Olympics and watched video clips of the different activities. It was so much fun!
Groovy Greeks
On Tuesday 12th March Year 5 embarked upon their educational visit to Chester Zoo. Chester Zoo holds a large and diverse collection of different species of animals. We were allowed to walk between the islands via a series of bridges and were able to interact with animals during feeding times in their natural habitats.
The day was truly amazing and we learnt so many different things when moving from one island to the next. Have a look at our photos.
We designed and created our own sculpture inspired by Claes Oldenburg. Part of this process involved what message we wanted out art work to convey to the public. We took the following into consideration:
· Where we would place our sculptures for the maximum effect?
· What we would make our scaled down models from and why?
· What message we wanted our piece to give to those in the within the community, or how did we wish them to feel when they experienced and explored our sculptures?
· How had our designs been influenced by Claes’s style?
Children were encouraged to make a scaled down version using different materials of their choice e.g. from junk modelling, playdough, baking materials and actual objects, removing their function just like Claes Oldenburg did.
Year 5 have been learning all about Pop Art movement inspired by the likes of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichenstein . We’ve had the opportunity to look at different artists who inspired and contributed to this movement.
pop
ART
This year, Year 5 had the opportunity to take part in a Bikeability training course. Our instructors were : Liz, Mary, Simon, Kevin, Pam and Sandra. Thery talked to us about the importance of safety checks as well as road safety awareness. We then embarked upon a two day course coving everything from checking our bikes for road worthiness, braking safely, emergency breaks, good verbal communication with pedestrians, anticipating hazards and risks, general road safety, sharing the road with others cautiously and how to ride our bikes safely in the local area.
We found this training course so helpful and informative. We learnt how to ride our bikes safely with adults. Now, we know how to cycle safely, the importance of assessing dangers around us, remaining calm in tricky situations and who has priority on the road. Hopefully we will use our new skills when you see us out and about and we can even help to advise others.
A small group of children from Year 5 took it upon themselves to manage a charitable activity in order to support Children In Need. They consulted parents, drafted letters to Mrs Williams, resourced their venture and took orders from their friends. They worked hard in and out of school to create "Loopy Loombands!" for their peers to buy. The children have raised a good amount of money over the month of November and should be so proud of themselves. A huge thank you to our caring parents.
Children In Need
We enjoy working with our parents and letting them in on all the fun we are having through our History and Geography topic of Greece so we asked them all to come and take part in a parent workshop. We have been exploring Greece and why it is such a great tourist destination. Our thorough research showed that Greece had lots to offer the community of the world from fabulous historical sites to rich, tantalising foods. We were so excited to work with our adults to write some fantastic, persuasive brochures convincing people to holiday in one of the Greek islands or mainland Greece. We included positive phrases, figurative language, rhetorical questions and even some advertisements. Thank you to our Cotwall Family we are so lucky to be able to work together.
Greek Geography Parent Workshop
In Year 5 we like to act! We have rehearsed and performed to act out a famous Greek myth in small groups. We worked hard for two weeks making props, masks and rehearsing as well as writing play scripts. We performed our plays to our peers and as part of the evaluation process took part in a short question and answer session. We were able to give other groups verbal feedback and were able to ask questions. We also received praise from our friends for all of our hard work and efforts. Great peer and self assessments! We developed Cotwall End school values of Wisdom, Happiness, Bravery and Self Belief
English
Wow do we love coding or what? Year 5 are quite good at coding, we use good partner work to mentor other pupils and to help support them as they write a code or algorithm. We have to think about what we want to change or keep the same, it’s like exploring variables in science. You have variables in your algorithm. Sometimes you have to test your algorithm out a few times because you haven’t input the correct instruction. In the debugging part of our lessons, we have to fix an algorithm that is wrong. We like assigning a code to an object because you can speed it up or slow it down by changing the values. You can even control the properties within a code for example you can set the coordinates that you want an object to land. We know when you have accomplished something because we move onto the next part of the Espresso lesson. So far we have explored the Speed, Direction and Movement topic and are looking forward to the next unit.
Computing
This year we've had the opportunity to design and master our own pieces of jewellery inspired by the Anglo-Saxons using stones, clay, gems, ribbons and much more! We explored researched and designed our pieces based upon traditional, ancient artefacts that have been uncovered centuries ago. We looked at how jewellery could be assembled and got straight to work. This delicate process needed gentle hands to craft, shape and mould clay carefully. We had to take weight and size into consideration as well as which resources we had available to us. Placing intricate details and colour into our final product, we managed to make an item of jewellery that any Saxon earl would be proud of. Wouldn't you buy our spectacular pieces?
We love jewellery!
As part of our London to Las Vegas topic, we researched, designed and created our very own burgers. We first researched the origins of 'the burger' researching the history of Mc Donalds. After this, we explored the nutritional value of the burgers we buy and eat today. Part of our design process was selecting and choosing ingredients that a customer would buy, this was based upon taste and appearance. We then designed and cooked our own burgers, pricing them accordingly. Some of our burgers could even be purchased as part of a meal deal! actually eating our burgers was amazing! Advertising our burgers to an audience was one of the best bits as we got to show off our amazing Pop Art skills. have a look at our appetising burgers. Don't they look tasty?
London to
Las Vegas!
Design Technology
In Design Technology, Year 5 have enjoyed putting their design techniques to the test. They have created their own Greek-inspired moving toys using card, paper and wood. Pupils designed and tested prototypes before using different mediums to create their final piece. Artistic skills were incorporated into the backgrounds to add excitement add appeal to potential buyers. Children were able to measure, mark, cut and saw different wooden materials before joining them to create moving mechanisms. They then checked to see if they would work and evaluated their final products. Don't they look fabulous?
Science Superstars
We have been investigating soluble and insoluble solids. We conducted our very own experiments. We added sugar, coffee, gravy granules, glitter and flour to 175ml of cold water. We measured each solid and liquid out exactly using the measuring instruments. This makes it a fair test. We observed what happened carefully. At first, we watched to see what would happen if we didn’t stir the mixture. Then we stirred each solution using four rotations and were careful not to make any changes. We found out that some solids are soluble and some aren’t. Some of the solids dissolved partially and we think that over time they will dissolve completely. We made careful observations and recorded our results on a chart.
