We have been working hard on our performance – the children are beyond excited to perform on a professional theatre stage in Spring 2!

We spent the week looking at what Remembrance Day is truly all about, its significance and the sacrifice of those who fought for our country. We learnt about the significance of the poppy and how they were seen in Flanders Field by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He saw them and was inspired to write a poem which became so popular it is the reason we use poppies today as a symbol for never forgetting those who died in the war. 5P used their painting skills, of building texture with colour and acrylic paint from our Arts Fortnight, to create pieces of a Poppy.

During our Pole to Pole unit, the children are immersed in creativity through activities such as Den Building, Arctic cooking and silk painting. Silk painting is a multi-step process. So far, the children created their initial designs taking inspiration from their learning, images and books about the polar regions. The next step was to create their final design. Here, they used oil pastels and pencil colours to create a design that was to scale for the silk frames. The children were careful, due to their understanding of gutta, as to not sketch objects too small – as this detail would not be able to be replicated to a hig-quality during the gutta process.

5P were fantastic during their silent debate in History. Here, the children were given photos of different sources about Ernest Shackleton, writing questions around the sources. Everything each child wrote, had to be acknowledged and the children moved around the room in groups in silence, with our their pen to debate. 5P loved this so much, requesting to repeat the activity with a different subject soon!

5P had great week of learning during Anti-Bullying week. We took part in the UKS2 picket – we created our own picket signs and had our own class chant, ‘stand up, speak up, make a noise’. During our Anti-Bullying PSHE lesson, we conducted a silent debate. Here, the children silently moved around the classroom in groups, writing down their thoughts and opinions for different bullying incidents.

I was really proud of the class – they put a great deal of thought into their silent debate contributions!

Today the children spent the day in an amazing Ancient Greek workshop. They started the morning with an assembly where our workshop leader told the children about different Ancient Greek myths and had them act out exciting parts of the story. We learnt that the city of Troy was in fact burnt to the ground and was found to be covered in a layer of ash. After our assembly, we took part in three fun activities. One where we went head to head with each other playing a board game of Athens v Sparta, this activity taught us the skills warriors would need; perseverance, patience and being able to think two steps ahead. Another included using the classroom and capitalising on the Ancient Greek information boards to answer questions of a fascinating quiz….we learnt so much. Did you know the brand Nike is named after an Ancient Greek Nike who was the god of victory? The wings have also been flipped on their side and now look like ticks! Finally some Maths, we used our problem solving skills to create a rectangle using different shapes…it was really tough but we persevered. This helped us gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of some of the Maths problems the Greek philosophers helped the world solve. We ended the day all together as a year group and went head to head in a warfare game, learning about the skills and equipment of the hoplites (soldiers). Have a look at the pictures to see how immersed the children were in their Ancient Greek Day.

In 5P, we adore our opportunities in the week for ‘reading for pleasure’. As you can see here, the children are completely lost in their books – it’s evident to see that their love of reading is flourishing!

Children working in pairs to edit their work, including up-levelling their word choices and ensuring they have included our targets (time fronted adverbials, modal verbs and persuasive language).