Today, we have begun to code using the website Scratch for the first time. This website allows us to produce animations, computer games and computer based drawing using a special coding language called ‘Scratch’. Already, we have really enjoyed using Scratch and have begun to code our own simple animations and even simple computer games too. We will keep you posted on how we get on with this.
Leapfrog Investigation
In Numeracy today, we have been using logic to solve a problem. We looked at the Leapfrog investigation on the Woodlands Junior Website (click on the image above) and investigated how many moves it took to move 2 green and 2 blue frogs, 3 green and 3 blue frogs and 4 green and 4 blue frogs. We found the following: 2 of each colour = 8 moves; 3 of each colour = 15 moves and 4 of each colour = 24 moves. We were then set the challenge by Mr R to predict the number of moves for 5 of each colour. We correctly predicted 35 moves. Mr R then set us the challenge of predicting how many moves would be needed for 14 frogs of each colour. Post your predictions under the comments section. If you are correct, and have a clear explanation, you will be given a house point. We will then test the investigation out on the playground after half term!
The Piano Flashback
This week, we finished our flashback stories based on an ex-medic from World War 2. We have spent a lot of time working on our description within this unit of work and we are very proud of our writing. Please read our stories below – we hope that you enjoy reading them as much as we did writing them!
The Piano 1 The Piano 2 The Piano 3 The Piano 4 The Piano 5 The Piano 6 The Piano 7 The Piano 8
World War 2 Bakeoff
Today in Year 5, we have been taking part in the Year 5 World War 2 Bakeoff. We took part in the ‘Technical Challenge’ of making carrot cookies.
We all really enjoyed the bake off and particularly enjoyed the judging of our work in the afternoon. The ingredients and recipe for the carrot cookies can be found below. Enjoy!
The Piano
In Literacy, we have begun writing a topic about an animation called The Piano. The animation is about an old man who, whilst playing the piano, remembers different parts of his life. We listened to Mr R play the piece of music whilst writing down how it made us feel. We then watched the film in different stages, predicting the next parts and discussing the man’s feelings at different points in the film. We read examples of writing which then inspired us to begin writing our own pieces based on The Piano.
We first wrote in groups of three or four on large sheets of paper, writing about the old man arriving to play his piano – the introduction to the story. Have a read of these below. To make them larger, click on each one. Please leave a comment to let us know what you think of our writing.
‘Out of this World News’!
Year 5 have just had some really exciting news. Mr R contacted the European Space Agency to tell them about all of the class’ fantastic work which they have done about space. He has received a reply from them which we were all really pleased with. Here is a copy of the messages:
We would be interested to hear what you think about this too.
Epic Citadel – Using computer games to improve our writing.
Over the last few weeks, we have used the computer game Epic Citadel to help us to develop our writing. We played the game on the tablets and iPads by walking through the town. We then worked in groups to write descriptive words and phrases about each part of the town. These were also put into word clouds so we could work out the words which were the most commonly used in our descriptions. Using precise language and different sentence openers, we wrote narratives and flashbacks about the town. We found that our stories were really powerful – giving the reader a feeling of actually being in the story themselves and letting them have empathy with the character. We can’t wait to use computer games to help with our writing again soon. Here are some of our pieces of writing. Please add a comment below to let us know what you think about them.
Epic Citadel example 1 Epic Citadel example 2 Epic Citadel example 3 Epic citadel example 4
The Year 5 Class Assembly
The Year 5 class will proudly present their class assembly on Friday 22nd January at 10:15am. Please note that that due to the space theme, the Year 5 pupils kindly ask you to be your seat and ready for take-off for 10:15 so that you can join them for what is sure to be an out-of-this-world experience!
We look forward to seeing you there.
The Year 5 pupils.
Computer Gaming to develop Writing
Last week in Literacy, we had a fantastic time. Mr R allowed us to play a computer game for twenty minutes during Literacy! The game was called Epic Citadel, and was a game which was on the iPads and tablets which allowed us to walk through a virtual town called Epic Citadel. The town was an ancient town which had a church, castle and even a raging river. After playing the game, we all wrote down descriptive words about the different parts of the town. We did this in groups and then made word clouds about these. We found that the descriptive words which we got from playing the game were better as it was as though we had been and visited the town in real life. We then wrote descriptions about the town, followed by flashbacks which retold the story about why the town had nobody living there. We had so much fun with our creative writing this week. Let us know what you thought about using computer games for making your writing better using the comments link.
Computer Gaming in Literacy and Science
This week, as part of Science week, we have been allowed to play computer games! We played the game ‘Gravity: Don’t Let Go’ so we could experience what a space walk will be like for Tim Peake when he does his space walk next week. Whilst playing the games, we had to write down key words to describe our experience. We will then use these within our writing later in the day. We had SO much fun learning in this way. It really was ‘Out of this world!’ Here are some examples of our writing. Click on the image to get a clearer view of each writing extract.
