Emmaville Primary School

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Antarctica Year 5

Welcome to the Antarctica Year 5 Class Page.  Here, you can find out about everything that we've been doing this term.
Friday 13th March
 
You may recall that we started our Art unit on Chinese brush painting last week; well, after observing the technique of a master closely, we attempted our own brushwork.  This involved practising 'closed' strokes that 'encircled the energy' within them, which we then used to paint pictures of bamboo.  Every brush stroke should mirror the artist's state of mind, and judging by the results, there was some real concentration going on in the lesson!
Friday 6th March
 
Wow, it's been a busy week!  From poetry workshops and Art Appreciation, to World Book Day and Science investigations, we've had a lot of fun.
 
Part of World Book Day was spent looking at idioms - those strange sayings that mean something completely different to what they seem to imply.  We had fun creating freeze-frames in groups to illustrate some of them; can you work out which is which from the following?
  • Spill the Beans
  • Let Sleeping Dogs (or Cats) Lie
  • Hold Your Horses
  • Break the Ice
  • Raining Cats and Dogs
We also hosted a Book Café with Northern Ireland class from Year 2.  It was lovely to meet with the younger ones and share a book or two.
In this week's Art lesson, .we have been learning about Chinese Guo Hua paintings.  There are five important principles to this ancient form of brush work: 

1.The artist's state of mind is mirrored in every brushstroke.

2.Good brush technique is essential and must capture the 'life energy' of the subject of the painting.

3.'Negative' space is as important as 'positive' space - there should be more empty space than painted paper. Aim for simplicity.

4.Study and copy the work of the masters.

5.Your inspiration should always be nature. 

After looking at a range of paintings, we wrote about what we felt and how they achieved the five principles. Here are some of our ideas.

The details and use of nature are impeccable. It makes me very calm – the dragonflies in my head are buzzing, while I am drifting in the air.  There are frogs leaping and lily pads floating above the water. It just makes me relax. Lana

The artist must have been in a good mood. Because the brushstrokes show so much meaning, and the technique, oh the technique, is unbelievable!  The negative (empty) space shows culture, meaning and a free paintbrush.  They must have studied for years. Chloe

It has good brush techniques and your inspiration should always be nature.  It uses negative and positive space.  It makes me feel calm and happy because of the vibrant colours. Ellie C

I think it captures the scene nicely, and the branches use lots of different techniques. While being simple.  It makes me feel calm with the mix of colours. Oscar

The artist has taken his time with brush strokes and they have made positive and negative ideas.  It makes me feel sad because the monkey is about to fall. Zack

Friday 20th February

Wow – I cannot believe we are at the end of another half term! That is 3 out of 6 finished now, and it has certainly been another amazing one! This half term has seen us work our socks off in all areas, and I could not be prouder of the children for their amazing resilience, perseverance and hard work.

 

One thing I want to celebrate this week is the children’s work in our Invention Week in English. We watched a short clip that left us on the edge of our seats, and have done a range of work linking to the video. We have explored journals, how to upskill a sentence, as well as how colour and music are used to show a mood and theme within the stimuli. The children have worked super hard and gave everything their very best efforts. I am so impressed!

 

This week also sees us saying goodbye and good luck to the wonderful Mr Kennedy. We have been so lucky to have him in our class for his final placement, and 12 weeks really have flown over! We wish him the best of luck for the future, we know that he will be an amazing teacher, and we will all miss him!

 

Have a fantastic, very well deserved, half term!

Miss McKean

Friday 13th February
 
Our very practical Design and Technology unit is almost at an end, and this week we completed our final project, which was a WWI anti-aircraft vehicle.  All of the cutting and joining skills that we have learnt this half-term, when making our note holders and picture frames, were put to good use, as we needed to cut pieces of wood, build a chassis and add wheels to axles.  We also needed to decorate, cut, fold and carefully glue a complex net to form the body of our vehicles.  It was a bit fiddly, but the the end results look great.  All that's left for us to do, is complete an evaluation of our products, and think about what we might do differently if we were to build another one.  If anyone needs a shelf putting up, just give us a call!
Friday 30th January
We have had another super busy week in Antarctica class! We have been learning about levers in science with Mr Kennedy, practicing our performance poetry in English and we have started our next project in DT with Mr Saddington. I know that the children have worked their socks off, and I am so proud of them!
 
In PSHE this half term, we have been looking at dreams and goals. The children have had to think about what they'd like to do when they grow up - something that is really hard to think about at 9 or 10! It has been great to hear the children have such aspirational goals - we know that with hard work, they are more than achievable!
 
Have a fabulous weekend,
Miss McKean
Friday 23rd January
 
In Science this week we added to our knowledge of forces, with an investigation into friction. We had a lively discussion about what friction is and how it can be very useful when we have a lot of it (between our shoes and the carpet for example) or very little (ice skating), and when it can also be a nuisance or even dangerous (have you ever slipped over on the ice, or had a friction burn?). 
 
Our challenge was to plan and carry out a simple fair test to find out how the soles of our shoes can affect the friction force between the grips and a surface.  This involved using our Newton meters to pull a shoe along a flat surface; some groups decided to change the type of shoe, while others changed the surface. We made predictions first, as to which shoe or surface would produce the largest friction force, and then testing was completed.  After recording repeat readings and working out the mean averages, we were able to compare our results with the predictions.  It was a busy afternoon, but a lot of great science went on in the classroom! 
 
On Wednesday, we had a great time as always at our Music Workshop. The children were amazing - and sang their hearts out!
Have a fab weekend,
Miss McKean

Friday 16th January

Wow – what a week! The children have worked so hard, and blown our socks off! In PSHE this half term, we are looking at our dreams and goals for the future. We have been looking at jobs we would like, and how we can strive towards them. The children have been able to recognise that they have to work hard to achieve their dreams! It is lovely to hear them speak so positively about their future.

In maths, we have begun to look at area. The children have been amazing and made sure to work super hard to begin to understand the methods and ways to solve problems. It hasn’t always been easy – but with hard work, we have done a fantastic job!

Have a fab weekend,

Miss McKean

Friday 9th January

Welcome back! I hope you have all had a fantastic break – I know that the children were all full of excitement when they came back to share how much of a fab time they’d had.

 

In DT with Mr Saddington this half term, the focus is woodwork. We had a go at our first woodworking project this week, and made a magnetic note holder. We had to use junior hacksaws to cut the wood, and for most of us, this was the first time we had experience of using these tools. The children had to make the product look appealing, through decorating the wood itself and adding a feature on the top. I’ve put some photographs below – I am so impressed with the final products! We are making multiple other products this half term, so I look forward to sharing the progress with you!

 

Have a great weekend!

Miss McKean