Music Lessons and Dance Lessons in Year 5

PESS DANCE - Mr Llewellyn

Both classes are currently creating a Volcano Dance. The dance must incorporate the 5 aspects of dance: Jumping, travelling, stillness turning and gesture. They also are required to incorporate symmetry (Numeracy skills)and work simultaneously. In order to achieve this the children work in talking partners and employ their ever developing communication skills.

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MUSIC - ROUNDABOUT PROJECT- Mrs Marlow

J6 started a music project on rounds this afternoon. They used their ICT skills via the interactive whiteboard to listen to and watch rounds.

They then played a round clapping game where they had the choice to cross or uncross their legs and had to follow a clapping pattern around the circle. Numeracy skills were used here to count the beats.

They increased their musical vocabulary, using terms such as unison, rhythm, and round. The children worked collaboratively and used their communication skills to perform this impressive 4 part round.

More rounds next Wednesday for J6

ICT And Maths

During ICT this afternoon the children in year 5 were required to visit:

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

They needed to pack a healthy lunch box and produce a spreadsheet to show how much each lunch box would cost. They used the price comparison site above to get the prices (parents might find it very useful). J5 will do this tomorrow and I will hopefully be able to show you the results of today's and tomorrow's work tomorrow night.

Who has beaten my best time?

Mrs Marlow has got lots of work to do this evening, but can't stop playing the maths homework games! 6 times table = 22.25 seconds. It took me a while to get the hang of it too! I enjoyed reading all of your comments.

Snowdonia Market Place Enquiry - Stage One

On Thursday, the children started stage one of our market place activity.

Each group were given a different aspect of Snowdonia to investigate:
a) The Countryside Code and the role of the National Trust
b) Safety issues, weather and seasons.
c) The summit.
d) Visitors and workers in Snowdonia.
e) Key geographical features of Snowdonia.
f) Key geographical terms relating to mountain environments.
g) Activities and footpaths in Snowdonia

We identified as a class that throughout this activity we were developing our thinking and communication skills primarily and would be using ICT skills where appropriate.

It was important for the children to write out an action plan before commencing to ensure that everyone knew their role.

As you can see, all children were engaged in the activity and our plenary showed that plnty of learning had taken place.

Our school governors Mrs Ellis, Mrs Jones and Mrs Bolton came to visit us carrying out our research at different stages.





Where next? The children will have one more hour to finalise their collages and facts and practise a short presentation to the rest of Year 5 explaining their findings. We hope to video a few of these.

After presenting to the other class members, each group will rotate around and learn from each other's work.

Our aim is that by the end of the mini project, all children will have a good understanding of all seven areas of Snowdonia.

Tables Challenge

J5 and J6

I hope you are all having fun with the maths homework online. Thank you all for your lovely comments, Mr Llewellyn and I enjoy reading them.

I was really tired after Brecon too but agree that it was an extremely enjoyable day.

Remember our maths tables challenge tomorrow morning - aim to beat last week's score or maintain if you had 20!

Mrs Marlow

Homework

You have worked really hard this week. As we are covering multiplying and division in maths lessons we thought that you could have a go at the following web page. The activities are fun, please work on the times tables that you find most difficult. You do really need to learn / know your times tables up to 12 x 12 in years 5 and 6 but you cant learn them all in one session (little and often is the best approach). Please do not spend more than 30 minutes on this homework – you will need your energy for school on Monday.

http://www.mad4maths.com/multiplication_table_math_games/

WHAT A WEEK IN YEAR 5 LOOKING AT BRECON NATIONAL PARK

This week we have been investigating National parks. On Thursday the children used their communication, thinking and ICT skills to research, plan and produce a 3d fact sheet about a chosen characteristic of Snowdonia. The children worked in groups and looked at areas such as Seasons, Visitors to Snowdon, who looks after Snowdonia etc. They will complete this work on Monday and feedback o the class on what they have found out.












On Friday we actually visited a National Park. A warden called Sam took us around the park and answered all of our questions. We had a fantastic day looking at areas such as bio-diversity (the wealth of different plants, insects and animals that live in the world), how the National park is being cared for, who comes to the National Park, how the National Park has been used in the past and how it was formed.


Bio diversity - have a look at the video below and the picture next to it. They are both taken from the same spot. The video is facing South, the photograph to the north, but direction doesn't matter here to answer this question. Which area do you think would have a greater wealth of different animals, insects and plants. Clue: the picture with J6 in it has been largely left to nature and woodland. The other has seen the influence of man, creating hedgerows, walls, fertilising fields etc. (See the bottom of the blog to find out).

This tractor is cutting back the bracken so that it can be put into bails for cattle. It is an attempt to stop the bracken from taking over all of the land.

The pool opposite and the wall below are both examples of how man can encourage bio-diversity. Lots of different insects and species can live in the pool and the wall that otherwise wouldn't be in the National Park.

The children had a go at reed stripping. In the days before electricity it was a child's job to make candles by stripping hundreds of reeds. It took us ages and although was lots of fun everyone agreed hat they wouldn't like to spend the whole day doing this job. The outer reeds would have been stripped, the reed centres dipped in animal fat and then the reeds used as candles. We had a competition to see who could get the longest reed, our three finalists are below.

The answer to the question at the top is that the photograph on the right would have a greater wealth of different insects, animals and plants. This is because the fields have largely been influenced by man, therefore different species are able to live there. When an area is left to nature for a long, long time woodland takes over and the biodiversity is reduced. By planting hedgerows, stone walls etc, lots of different species can thrive, not just the species that live in woodlands.

J5 and the Brecon Beacons

We were certainly developing ourgeographical skills in Brecon on Friday.

We learnt more about National Parks and were able to observe for ourselves why they really are beauty spots.

Our group leaders Yvonne and Howard took us on a walk over Mynydd Illtud to the Twyn Y Gaer hill fort.

We learnt about the landscape and mountain names.

We stopped on several occasions to listen to Yvonne talking about the types of plants that are found in Brecon and to hear about how the plants/ shrubs/ mosses were used a long time ago.

Did you know that people used moss to clean water? or that the inside of rushes were used as candles?You can see several photographs of the children trying to peel the rushes.

We learnt about how the environment in the National Park is constantly changing and the effect that the bracken is having on the landscape. Can you remember why the farmers like bracken?

Yvonne explained that Brecon is quite a different environment to Snowdonia and that although both areas have problems with invasive plants - it is the rhododendrum that causes a huge problem in Snowdonia rather than bracken.

Can anyone remember how long it would take you to walk from one side of the Brecon Beacons to the other?

How many miles is it?

How high is Pen Y Fan?

We were told the answers to all three on Friday!




How have people affected the environment in Brecon?

Do you remember Yvonne talking about a particular pond weed called "Cressula" that had appeared in the park? The weed had come from Australia and although there could have been lots of possibilities, the staff suggested that it was likely that a tourist could have visited from Australia with some of this on his/her shoe and left traces of it in Brecon.

If the farmers didn't cut down the bracken, the environment in Brecon would be extremely different and overrun.

J5 and J6 enjoyed the fieldwork as they were able to observe and investigate real places and processes.

The views were incredible all over the Beacons.

Children were identifying adn describing human and natural features. We spent quite a while talking about dry stone walls and the reasons they were built. Can anyone remember why they are particularly useful for mice etc...?



The children had plenty of opportunity to ask questions about what they saw and several sensible questions were asked. Many thinking skills were developed.