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Welcome to Year 5 Welcome back to a new school year. We have a very exciting time coming up for you this year! Please remember to bring your bookbag each day, with your reading book inside. Please also remember a named water bottle. As you know we go swimming in Year 5. Please remember that we walk to the Leisure Centre whatever the weather so please make sure that you look at the forecast for the day and make sure that you have a coat and appropriate footwear to walk in. Hats, scarves and gloves will definitely be needed for the colder months! 5LE will be swimming on Mondays for the first half of the school year. 5LE will also have indoor P.E. on Thursdays so please come to school in your P.E. uniform on those days. 5PB will not be swimming until the second half of the school year. 5PB will have outdoor P.E. on Mondays and indoor P.E. on Thursdays so please come to school in your P.E uniform on those days. Please ensure you have warm clothes and suitable shoes for outdoor P.E. sessions. |
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Homework Grids |
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Unit Pathways |
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18.04.24 UNICEF Week We had a one-week "mini-project" looking at the work of UNICEF last week. The children learned what UNICEF is, what the acronym stands for and about the work that they are doing to support children around the world, especially in the Middle East and countries like Ukraine. We set the children the design brief of creating a torch for a child to use in such a country. The children began by undertaking some product research into torches that are currently available - looking at their functions and features. They then looked at the electrical circuitry that was required, including a simple on/off switch. Finally, they designed and created their torches and enjoyed sharing them with the rest of the school in our assembly.      
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14.03.24 Starry Night Artwork Having spent considerable time studying Vincent Van Gogh and, in particular, his piece of work entitled The Starry Night, we began the process of creating our own Starry Nights using his work as inspiration. Mrs Edwards showed us how we could use a piece of perspex loaded with paints and we could then use a roller to transfer this to a piece of calico. Once it dries, we will be adding embellishments and you will hopefully get to see our finished work if you attend the exhibition on Thursday next week (the 21st).     
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07.03.24 World Book Day The children enjoyed this celebration of books by bringing in their favourite titles and talking about them. We had some really creative costumes to go with them this year as well so well done to all the creative minds thast helped with that! During the day, teachers dropped in on different classes around the school to share their own experiences of reading and their favourite book. In Year 5 and Year 2, we also had a reading swap - where the children read with each other.   |
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29.02.24 Art This week, as part of our unit "Starry, Starry Night" we have been looking at how artists use perspective to create depth and allow our eyes to see a 3D picture when we look at a 2D image. We learned about the importance of the horizon line and vanishing points and considered one, two and three-point perspective. We then moved on to a closer study of Van Gogh's Starry Night painting and thought about how we could use our newly-learnt sketching techniques to create our own version of this.     
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15.02.24 Dragon Dancing The Chinese New Year began at the weekend and to mark the year of the dragon, we took part in some traditional Chinese dancing. Helped by Ash, a former Rendell pupil, the children used props such as fans and parasols to perform a short dance watched over by the dragon itself!
       
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08.02.24 Earth and Space We began our new science topic this week by investigating our Solar System and the planets in it. First of all we found out how far each planet was from the sun. (Did you know that the Earth is 93 million miles from the sun?) Then, armed only with a trundle wheel and eight cones to represent the planets, we walked round school to model those distances. The school corridors were only just long enough to accomodate Neptune! Finally we made some fact cards about the planets so that we could play a Top Trumps game.    
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01.02.24 The Maths Factor This week, Year 5 took a break from our usual maths lessons to carry out a maths investigation. We looked at the factors of all the numbers from 1-30 and tried to see if we noticed any rules or patterns. We tried to follow a systematic approach in order to make sure that we found all of the factors for each number and didn't miss any. We used a "graffiti maths" approach which meant that Mrs Edwards and Mr Buxton let us explore our ideas by writing or drawing on our desks! Finally we put all our results into a table where we could spot patterns about factors of prime numbers, square numbers and the number one.   
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25.01.24 The National Space Centre Year 5 boldly travelled where no man had been before (Well, Leicester at least!) when they visited the National Space centre last week. The children really enjoyed the amazing show that they watched inside the Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium which explained the life of an astronaut. The then had fun exploring and interacting with the various exhibits inside the Space Centre, finding out about our palnet and how it fits within the Solar System. We also climbed the 144 steps to the top of the rocket tower and tried to conduct our own launch sequence!     
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More Space Centre Pictures          |
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19.01.24 Science We have been investigating properties of materials and have so far tested materials for their ability to conduct electricity and heat. This week we were looking at hardness. We started by defining what hardness is and we learned that diamonds are the hardest natural material on the planet. As such, diamonds can be used to cut or polish other materials. We then conducted scratch tests to rank other materials from softest to hardest. Unfortunately, we didn't have any diamonds to test!     |
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30.11.23 A Visit from the Fire Service (and more VR) Year 5 enjoyed a visit this week from the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service. Fire Officer Michael spoke to the children about the dangers of a fire in the home. He showed us a video which explained how quickly a small fire in a bedroom could spread and take hold. He also talked to us about the causes of fires in the home which made us think about what our own homes might look like. He went on to talk to us about how we might safely escape from a fire in our homes and the importance of having a fire escape plan (just like we have to have at school). It was a very useful hour and made us all think.   
Also this week, Class 5PB took the opportunity to use our VR headsets to immerse themselves in a Mayan city. We also examined the artefacts and used all of this information to understand what life might have been like during the Mayan civilisation.  
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24.11.23 Science Our unit of Living Things led us to looking at the the life cycles of reptiles and birds this week. We learnt about the different parts of the egg, such as the yolk, egg-white (albumen) and the membrane and what these parts do to allow an embryo to develop inside a fertilised egg. We then cracked open an (unfertilised) egg and discovered these parts for ourselves.    |
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24.11.23 History We continued our unit of work on the Maya this week with a great lesson looking at historical sources. We understood the difference between primary and secondary historical sources and then got to examine both. We used our VR headsets to immerse ourselves in an ancient Mayan city and explore its buildings and landscape. We also got to hold some Mayan artefacts and try to work out what they have been used for.    
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16.11.23 Wonderdome We had a great time on Tuesday, this week when we were visited by The Wonderdome. This huge inflatable "tent" took over our whole hall and gave the children a taste of space. Once inside, the children were immersed in a superb animation, projected onto the ceiling and walls of the tent which told the children all kinds of facts and figures about the planets and moons which make up our solar system, as well as further information about the galaxy, the universe and space exploration. The children were fascinated by what they saw and bombarded Curtis (our Wonderdome guide) with questions. The photos below don't really do this experience justice as we sat inside in almost total darkness on our journey through the universe. It sets us up nicely for the Space topic that we cover in science later in the year which will be accompanied by a visit to the National Space Centre. Watch this "space"!  |
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02.11.23 Making Burgers! As our Surfin' USA unit came to an end, the final piece of work we did was based around American Cuisine. We investigated a typical American dish, the burger, and discovered how many of these burgers were incredibly unhealthy - packed with fats and salt. We set out to create a healthy alternative to the traditional burger. Our alternative was made with beans and plenty of fresh vegetables. The children had great fun making the burgers in the morning and we then had a tasting session once they had all been cooked in the afternoon.     |
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More Burger Pictures    
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12.10.23 Science We finished our work in science on forces this week by looking at gear mechanisms. We understood how gears could change the speed of motion, the direction of motion and also the amount of force. We investigated what happened when more than one gear was used in an integrated system. We also looked at what happened when gears of different size were used. Finally we looked at gears that were connected by a chain (like Mr Buxton's bike) and gears that worked at 90 degrees to one another as in the hand drill.    
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5.10.23 Orienteering! This week we combined a number of our geography skills to do some orienteering around our school site. We worked in small groups and had to orient the map correctly and work out where each checkpoint was. Once we reached the checkpoint we had to name a number of American states beginning with certain letters. It was helpful for our knowledge recall as well as being good excercise and great fun!      |
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28.09.23 Investigating Friction Continuing our work on Forces in Science, this week we were investigating friction. We found out that friction was a resistance force created when one surface rubs against another. We learnt that friction slows objects down and causes heat. It is why we hurt ourselves when we slide on the astro-turf! It can also be a good thing - it keeps our bicycles and cars from slipping off the road. We investigated various materials to test which one might be best for a non-slip surface. We used newtonmeters to measure the friction force on each surface.   
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21.09.23 Climate Zones This week, as part of our Surfin' USA unit of learning, we have been finding out about climate zones. We focused on three of the world's major climate zones: the Polar Zone, Tropical Zone and the Temperate Zone. We looked at where on the planet these zones are found and how their location is connected to their respective climate. We considered why these areas may or may not be heavily populated and thought about any threats that each zone might face. Finally, we looked at why the UK sits firmly in one zone whilst the USA straddles a number of climate zones. We wrote a report on our findings and you can see some examples below.    
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14.09.23 Science We have started our science curriculum this year by looking at Forces. This week we were thinking in particular about air resistance. The children discussed why different objects might fall to Earth at different speeds (such as a golf ball and a feather) and learned about the observations of Galileo Galilei. We then looked at where we see air resistance in action, such as in parachutes and the children used a practical experiment to show that larger parachutes are more effective than smaller ones. Finally we went out onto the playground with large umbrellas and tried running so that we could feel air resistance for our ourselves.
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Welcome to Year 5 Meeting Thank you to all the parents and carers who attended the short meeting on Wednesday. It was lovely to meet you and we hope you found it useful. Please remember that Mrs Edwards and Mr Buxton will usually be available at the end of the school day if you have any queries or concerns. If you were unable to attend, you can find a link to the presentation we gave by clicking on the link. |
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Year 5 Spellings At Rendell, we will be doing spellings in a slightly different way this year in order that spellings are more tailored to each individual child. Your child will be given a specific set of ten words which they will be tested on each Friday. Please encourage your children to practise their words to be ready for their spelling test. |
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Alan Peat Sentences Please refer to the attachment below and use the different types of sentences to enhance your writing. |
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Year 5 Reading Spine Regular reading is so important. Please have a look at the Year 5 Reading Spine which shows you some of the books and authors recommended for Year 5 readers. Many of these books will be available at our school library. If not, you may be able to borrow them from Loughborough Library. |
Rendell Primary School
