Well, we've made it!

Obama class have worked incredibly hard this half term and have accomplished a lot.

In History, we continued to explore the Tudors, focussing on Henry VIII, his six wives and his "Great Matter". The children have considered whether or not Henry was a 'bad king' and looked in depth at both him and Anne Boleyn through our Vipers work. They also finished their DT project which was begun last half term - Obama Row - and designed and made their own Tudor Pots!

In Science, we have investigated forces. We explored gravity; air resistance by designing and making our own parachutes; friction by testing cars on a ramp covered with different materials; and water resistance by making boats and propelling them through water with a fan.

In Maths, we have covered fractions, decimals and percentages, whilst in English we have written a news report about a “Rocketeer Rescue”, and then wrote our own version based on a Dodo in a road bringing all the traffic in Keyworth to a halt!

We have had a busy week in school celebrating all things scientific. The week was launched with an Assembly led by Mrs Westie and Mr Cresswell and culminated this afternoon with the finals of the Marble Run Challenge. We also had a visit from Severn Trent Water.

In Year Five, we celebrated with several different lessons, including making a water clock and then making boats to test water resistance.

Our water clocks were made using an empty plastic water bottle which was cut in half. We punched a hole in the lid and then inverted the top half. Next, we filled our own water bottles with water. We then started a timer on the whiteboard and poured water into the inverted lid. As the water dripped through, we watched the timer and every 30 seconds used a Sharpie pen to mark on the side of the bottle. Finally we labelled our marks 0:00, 0:30, 1:00, 1:30 and so on until the bottom half of the bottle was full.

We had a lovely time on World Book Day with our theme of 'Bedtime Stories'.

I shared my favourite bedtime story, 'Elmer, with the children and they created beautiful Elephant Parades. They also designed a star to represent one of their favourite stories, including pictures to give clues about the book. These will form a display in school, with stars from all the children. 

Over the last few weeks, we have been very busy designing and constructing Tudor houses.

The design process began with the children looking at different types of houses then looking more closely at the traditional timber framed, wattle and daub Tudor buildings.

They then explored making strong structures using cardboard triangles (Jinks's Joints) to strengthen them, making prototypes with art straws and cardboard.

After that we worked independently to have a go with wood. 

We learned to measure twice and cut once, and how to join the wood to creat a rectangle rather than a square.

Year Five are to have an exciting enrichment afternoon in two weeks' time.

The WonderDome mobile planetarium has been booked for the afternoon of Friday the 26th January.

WonderDome provides an inspiring learning experience, which captivates all ages. An inflatable planetarium will be brought into school, where the knowledgeable presenter will set up in the Hall and provide an amazing planetarium show.

A WonderDome mobile planetarium is like a large domed tent, without a base. It is blown up with a large fan and everyone enters through the simple zip entrance. When it’s inflated the equipment inside projects 360 degrees to reveal the wonders of the Universe.

We are using our final two weeks to complete a DT task linked to our last topic. The enquiry question was: Can you design a bag for a coal miner that fastens?

As a class, we have explored different types of bags and their purposes.

We have designed our own bags with a motif.

We have practised running stitch and back stitch.