Welcome to Willow - Year 5!

Autumn Term

Reading Buddies

We could not wait to start our Reading Buddy sessions and have loved getting to know our buddies in our weekly visits to early years. We are looking forward to sharing their books and reading with them every week so they love reading as much as we do.

Fitness Day

Year 5 threw themselves into Fitness Day. We started the day with our first swimming session, then stretched with some yoga, practised our newly acquired dance moves, had fun with football and finished the day learning about the world of dance – we were so impressed by Maria’s career and comeback from some serious injuries. It was such a fun and inspiring day.

Science – Worm charming

This week, as part of our Science unit on animals and their habitats, Year 5 have created artificial mini habitats for worms. We have practised our worm charming techniques and will be observing and monitoring our worms over the coming term.

Brain Buddies

A massive well done to everyone in Willow class who completed their Brain Buddies training! They have been working with Emma from Mind on becoming Brain Buddies and can now recognise different emotions in themselves and in others, using breathing and calming techniques to manage big emotions.

Year 5 Greek Day

At the start of November, Year 5 celebrated Greek day! They had a blast dressing up as ancient Greeks, creating laurel crowns, tasting delicious traditional Greek food and constructing their very own Greek style pots and bowls out of clay. Willow and Pine children also listened to exciting ancient Greek stories all about gods and heroes. Suzie said it was the best dressing up day she had had!

Spring Term

Jam-packed history

As part of looking into the history of Elsenham, this week we had a visit from Mrs Samuel, who shared her first-hand experience of working in Elsenham’s jam factory. She gave us a fantastic insight into how Elsenham has changed over time, what it was like to make jam using traditional methods, working conditions, information about Sir Walter Gilbey (the founder) and much more. We loved hearing about the awards the world-famous jam won. We were so impressed to hear how Mrs Samuel dined with the Queen at Buckingham Palace too.

January

Year 5 played Sentence Monopoly in English this week. In order to earn point, children were expected to change main clauses, subordinate clauses and adverbials and even the order of these in complex sentences. It was a real challenge but great fun!

The O2

On Monday, Year 5 took to the O2 stage to perform as part of the world’s largest choir. They started by taking part in rehearsals during the day to perfect their performances, before show casing their months of dedication and hard work to learn the range of musical numbers and dance routines in the evening show to family and friends.  It was an evening filled with exceptional singing and dancing from our pupils and memories that we hope they will cherish. Their behaviour was outstanding and we were very proud of them. Well done Year 5!

Computing

Year 5 have been busy using and creating databases in our computing lessons this week. We have been grouping information and filtering. We then made our own databases using fields such as names, habitats and special powers for mythical creatures. It was tricky but great fun!