Westgate Academy
Learning and Growing Together
5RB
Welcome to 5RB
Term One
This term, we will be learning all about the Victorians.
Class Reader
This is the book that we will be enjoying reading as a class this term:
English: Recounts - Diary Entries
For our first English unit, we will be doing a 'Take One Book' unit with the fantastic novel Street Child by Berlie Doherty. Take a look at our learning journey to see what we will be doing.
Topic: History
Using our teamwork skills, we worked together to make our own class timeline so that we could learn about when the Victorian era started and ended. We discussed chronological order and how time is split into different segments like centuries and decades. Then, we were given different event cards to sort into three piles: before the Victorian era, during the Victorian era and after the Victorian era. We had to use our history detective skills to try to work out when we thought events happened. We used our oracy skills to explain our answers and ideas to the rest of the class.
Maths: Negative Numbers
In maths, we were learning about negative numbers. Before starting our learning in our books, we spent some time being more hands on, and this led us into lots of interesting discussions about how negative numbers are presented different when they are used in different contexts (like temperature in a thermometer). We also came to understand how important ‘0’ is when understanding negative numbers.
Reading: Reading Fluency
Today, in reading, we explored the power of punctuation! Using our teamwork and respect values, we worked with partners to see how different punctuation can completely change the way something is read and delivered. We then discussed how this would affect the reader and even had a go at writing our own 30 word stories to explore this further!
Check out an awesome example from two of our resident readers: Isabelle and Ruby
Ruby and Isabelle’s Blah Conversation
English: Take One Book - Street Child
In this lesson, we worked in teams to plan for our final piece of writing for this unit of learning.
We did post-it note planning!
Computing: Online Safety
In online safety, we have been learning about cyber bullying and our online reputations.
We created posters to help raise awareness about cyber bullying and how people can get help if it’s happening to them
History / Art: Picture This
Pictures and artwork are a portal into the past and can be used as a fantastic source of information! After investigating this piece of artwork, we recreated it.
Check out our amazing artwork!
Computing: Online Safety
In online safety, we have been learning about targeted advertising and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of this.
After discussing this topic, we were asked to create our own targeted ad for ‘Zak’ - an 11 year old boy who we were able to find out more information about through looking at what he had shared online.
Remember - anything you say or share online contributes to your online reputation.
Special Delivery!
Today, Mrs Marshall visited our classrooms to come and see our reading lessons in action. She was absolutely delighted by the children’s attitudes to reading in our classrooms and was incredibly impressed with the discussions that the children were having.
Afterwards, Mrs Marshall brought each class a special delivery…our new class reader book!
Although we have been reading Harry Potter already this term, we are delighted to be the proud owners of this wonderful, illustrated version of the book.
Reading Fluency
Kuyoya Reading
Reading
Reading
Reading
Computing: Online Safety
This week, we focused on privacy and security online - particularly how to create safe and secure passwords.
Check out our learning and some of the secure passwords we learned to create!
Being Active
We love getting active in our class!
Our trip to Perlethorpe Environmental Education Centre
We had a fantastic time visiting Perlethorpe for a Victorian themed day.
The children were immersed in a day in the lives of Victorian school children. Firstly, they were greeted by Mr Rider who clearly stated the rules and separated them into boys and girls. In the morning, we spent time in the Victorian classroom with Mr Rider. All of the children were given Victorian inspired names! We completed lessons using slate and chalk, but we got the chance to ink too. It was clear that boys were better than girls as Mr Rider wasn't impressed with the girls' work. He talked us through the range of Victorian punishments and we realised how lucky we were to have Mr B and not a Victorian teacher! After surviving the Victorian school, we were given the chance to play with some Victorian toys.
During the afternoon, the children were given the chance to explore the church and complete a range of activities. We viewed some gravestones dating back to the Victorian era and completed some rubbings.
After this, we enjoyed a woodland walk up to Thoresby Hall which was once a lavish Victorian manor. Although, we were not allowed to go too close as nowadays it is luxury hotel and spa owned by the Warner Brothers.
Take a look at all of the photos from the day and the videos!
Reading!
Ukulele Lessons
Learning all about explanation texts
Watercolour artwork
The making of our world famous volcano sculptures (final product to follow)!
