Music 

In music, Class 5 have been using the glockenspiels to play Lullaby and Hedwig's Song. Here are some of the children playing the songs.       

Forest School 

This week Class 5 started their on-site Forest School project. They will be working hard to improve the woodland area at school and ensure the outdoor classroom, that had been built a few years ago, is renovated and fit for purpose again. The children are buzzing with ideas and are keen to encourage birds to the area as well as ensure it becomes a safe place for the younger children at school to enjoy too. 

Please keep looking back here and in the photo folder of our class page to see how hard we are working and the progress we are making. 

As soon as we returned to school we started thinking about the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter and his song for deciding which house the pupils of Hogwarts go into. We used the school Values to consider the houses we might include -some are more trustworthy than others- and then used our newly designed Madley Houses to write our own songs. WE independently edited the songs and re-wrote them for our class display. 

The photos show the songs and how they are displayed in our classroom. 

Year 5 visited Barton Hill Farm in Kentchurch on Wednesday 15th March for Lambing Live, following in Reception Class's footprints. A big thank you to the farmer, Bill Quan, who makes this amazing opportunity available to schools every year!

We started out in the barn, learning about how the farm works and getting an idea of what life is like for a farmer. Class 5 had a lot of questions for Farmer Bill, especially about the profits and costs of running a busy farm. We were interested to learn about all of the crops that the farm produces, including potatoes, wheat and peas (as well as lambs!). We then moved to the lambing shed, where we found out a lot more about this special time of year - the impact on the farm and the ways that farmers ensure the ewes have healthy births. Class 5 loved the hands-on part of the visit, which included holding and feeding the lambs!

Next, we went for a walk in the spring sunshine, down to the stream and the woods to learn how to identify the trees that grow on the farm. We ended up back in the lambing shed. We weren't lucky enough to witness a live birth on this visit, but it was wonderful to see the lambs that had been born earlier in the morning. Our improved understanding of life-cycles of animals will form the starting point for our science next term, when we will be focusing on this topic, and including the life-cycle of humans.

Class 5 enjoyed a wonderful curriculum visit to London in January, taking in the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Houses of Parliament. At the Science Museum, we met Sir Isaac Newton for a demonstration of his discoveries about gravity, then spent a full afternoon in the Wonderlab, which is an area filled with hands-on scientific activities. We managed to get ourselves into two workshops where we witnessed fire, explosions and close-up demonstrations of the effects of forces!

At the Victoria and Albert Museum the next day, we enjoyed a guided visit around the Middle East section of the gallery, exploring  pattern and tessellation in Islamic Art, then finishing with a look at the work of William Morris who was so inspired by these artworks.

Our visit to London continued with a tour around the Houses of Parliament, where we were able to see a debate in the House of Commons (to do with train company performances) and participate fully in a workshop about how democracy works in the UK. Well done to Charlie and Bethan for leading their parties during the discussions!

To bring our visit to a suitably celebratory conclusion, we then dined at Pizza Express on the riverbank, before heading home to Madley.

Class 5 were complimented throughout the visit on their excellent learning behaviour and manners. We are very proud of all of the children for making the visit such a resounding success!

Year 5 spent the day at the Hay Festival on 26th May, meeting authors, illustrators, an animator and actors. We started our day with Curtis Jobling, who created Bob the Builder and worked in the animation industry for many years before writing fiction for children. He showed us some of his latest animation work for Nickelodeon as well as drawing the Bob the Builder characters for us. He then introduced us to his fiction, reading from 'Max Helsing - Monster Hunter' and describing some of the vampires, ghouls and gargoyles in Max's world.

Next, we found out about 'The Boy in the Globe' with the author, Tony Bradman - a book about a boy who meets William Shakespeare. This was accompanied by live drawing from the illustrator, Tom Morgan-Jones, and we all drew William Shakespeare along with him!

After a picnic lunch on the grass, we then were lucky enough to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company on A Midsummer Night's Dream, a workshop which really brought the play to life for us. Taking a small starring role were our own James and Rory, who got up on stage to throw Shakespearean curses at each other in character as Oberon and Titania.

An absolutely fantastic and inspirational day!