St Philip Westbrook C of E Primary School

St Philip Westbrook C of E Primary School"Together we aim high and with God's love we can fly"

Year 5 Mrs Hardman

Welcome to our class page. Here, you will find information about the children’s exciting learning, as well as any key dates or important pieces of information that you will need to know for the upcoming weeks and months.

Our Learning in Year 2

Titanic Role Play

This week we have been thinking about some of the passengers aboard the Titanic, and their actions of selflessness. We learnt about Mr and Mrs Straus, a first class couple on board the ship who gave their life jackets to their maid so that she could be saved instead of them, and the radio operators who refused to leave their post and continued to help others, finally getting the Carpathia which meant that they saved lots more people. Take a look at some pictures of our role play, acting out the different scenarios.

Titanic

We all had a super day on our project day last week! All of the children got into role and had a fantastic time experiencing first, second and third class.

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Zumba

We had a fantastic time dancing in our Zumba class today. Some of us remembered some of the dances from last year, and we all agreed it is a great way to keep fit and healthy whilst having fun!

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Health and Well-Being Week – Half Mile Challenge

This week it is health and well-being week, and each day we will have a different challenge linked to keeping healthy. Today our challenge was to run half a mile around our school playground. We all had lots of fun and after, we had a think about how our body felt. Some of us very sweaty, had red faces or were out of breath.

RE – The Ten Lepers

In RE this half term we will be learning all about Jesus’ miracles, and stories that show us that he is a friend to everyone.  This week we read the story of the ten lepers, and then used role play to act out the story, thinking about the feels of each of the characters. 

Out of Africa

This half term, our topic is called ‘Out of Africa.’ We will be learning all about the continent of Africa, and the country of Kenya. 

Science – Materials

We have been enjoying learning all about materials in Science! We have learnt lots of new vocabulary and have been enjoying using the new words that we have learnt to describe properties of materials. We began by sorting the materials that we found round the classroom in different ways, for example, absorbent and not absorbent, transparent and opaque, or flexible and rigid. 

Christmas Play

The children were absolutely fantastic in their performance of ‘Baubles!’ and I’m sure you’ll all agree, they made us all feel very proud! A huge thank you to all of the parents and carers who made sure all of the children had super costumes – they all looked great! 

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Celebrating Britain

This half term our topic is called ‘Celebrating Britain.’ We began our learning finding out about the gunpowder plot, and answering the question, ‘why do we celebrate Bonfire Night?’ We are all really looking forward to our tip later on in the half term, where we will be learning all about British traditions at Christmas time. 

 

Making Oaty Energy Bars

In DT this week, we have made oaty energy bars. We started our learning by tasting lots of different dried fruit: apricots, raisins, cherries, dates and pineapple. This helped us to decide which one to put into our oat bars. We then planned our bars, looking at the recipe and sorting the ingredients into food groups. We all decided that the bars could only be eaten as a treat, as they have sugar and golden syrup in them – both of which give us energy but need to be eaten as a treat. We then used the equipment to measure out the ingredients and make our energy bars.

 

 

What is the best way to wash our hands?

In Science this half term we have been learning how to work scientifically, by completing lots of different experiments and investigations. One of these investigations was trying to find out the answer to the question, ‘what is the best way to wash our hands?’ trialing 3 different ways; soap and warm water, baby wipes and cold water. We used oil and cinnamon to act like the germs on our hands. After our investigation, we all agreed that soap and warm water was the best method, as it got rid of the dirt we can see, and the germs that we can’t.

 

Washdays in the Past

We enjoyed exploring some washday objects from the past which we had borrowed from Warrington Museum.  We looked carefully and predicted what the items might be used for.  We acted out a Victorian washday using the wash tub, dolly and washboard and compared this to washdays today using our washer/dryers.  We all agreed that keeping clean in the past must have been hard work!
 

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Happy, Healthy Me!

Our topic for this half term is called, ‘Happy, Healthy Me,’ and we are thinking about how to stay healthy and happy. We started our learning with thinking about keeping clean and why this is important. In our English lessons we read the book, ‘How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth,’ and learnt all about verbs and commands. We then had a go at writing our own instructions about washing different types of dinosaurs. Miss Ramsey was very impressed with our super writing!

 

 

Cup and Ball

Within History, we have been looking at toys that our parents and grandparents might have played with when they were younger. We made a cup and ball using a cup, string and tissue paper. We had to work hard to thread the string through the hole in the cup, and we learnt how to tie a knot to keep the string in place. After we had finished making them, we went outside to try them out!

 

The Creation Story

Within RE this half term we have been looking at the Creation Story. This week we used dance to act out the story. First we thought about how God created light. We came up with movements to show how the light spread through the darkness. We then looked at the sea and the sky. We discussed the movements of the water and how our bodies could make rippling and flowing movements. Next we looked at the plants and trees. We came up with some fantastic ideas about how to start as a little seed and used different levels to show how plants grow up from the soil. We also looked at the sun, moon and stars, animals from the land, sea and sky and Adam and Eve. Lastly we thought about how God rested on Day 7. We thought about how God might have felt after creating such a wonderful world. We then came up with movements and facial expressions to show emotions such as happiness and being proud.

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Walton Gardens and Grappenhall Heys Walled Garden

We had a very exciting day at Walton Gardens and Grappenhall Heys Walled Garden. First we went to Walton Gardens to look for lots of different plants. We found so many different flowers and we even spotted some deciduous and evergreen trees! After that we walked around the pond and the children’s zoo. In the afternoon we went to Grappenhall Heys Walled Garden. We read a story called ‘The Tiny Seed’ which told the journey of a little seed throughout its life cycle. We then had a chance to sow our own sunflower seeds! We had to use a dibber to poke little holes into our soil  and then we carefully put 3 little sunflower seeds in the holes. We then decorated our own sticks to put in our plant pots. Have a look at our fabulous trip below.

Science Week

During Science Week we took part in lots of exciting experiments. We started the week by making a Balloon Rocket. We had to predict how much air the balloon needed to travel a specific distance. We ended the day with a fabulous rocket launch on the play ground!

On Tuesday we learnt how to record our observations. We were given 2 gummy bears. We put one in water and left one in an empty cup. By the afternoon, the gummy bear in water had grown! We drew pictures to show what had happened.

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On Wednesday we looked at an experiment involving lemonade and raisins. We were told that we were going to put raisins in lemonade to see what would happen. We came up with some interesting predictions about what we thought might happen. When we put the raisins in the lemonade they started dancing! First they sunk to the bottom and then they rose to the top. We learnt that the air bubbles in the lemonade stick to the raisins to make a life jacket which makes the raisins light enough to rise up.

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Towards the end of the week we looked at comparative tests. We carried out an experiment involving 2 eggs. We left one egg in vinegar overnight, and we put the other egg in water. By the morning, the egg left in vinegar had completely lost its shell! When we dropped the eggs, the one in water cracked and the one in vinegar bounced!

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Animal Kingdom Class Worship

This half term we performed our Class Worship in front of our friends and families where we shared our learning about the project ‘Animal Kingdom’. We shared a poem, songs and artwork, and we retold the story of Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson. We also performed a dance based on Jane Goodall and her adventures in Africa with chimpanzees.

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Knowsley Safari Park

We had a brilliant day at Knowsley Safari Park. We saw so many different animals and learnt so much! First we saw the meerkats and the giraffes. Did you know that a giraffe has 4 stomachs? Next we went to the Safari School where we touched an ostrich egg and a lion’s skull. We learnt about classifying animals into mammals, birds, reptiles and fish. After lunch we went to see the sea lion show. The sea lions, Louis and Arthur, showed us some fabulous tricks including a handstand and balancing a ball on their noses! We also had the opportunity to see the birds of prey show, the bats and the tigers. Have a look at our fantastic visit below.

 

Dodgeball

This half term we have been learning how to play dodgeball with Miss Stubbs. We improved many PE skills over the half term, in particular, our accuracy and awareness. In our last session, the children took part in a class tournament where four teams competed in lots of matches to see who would be crowned as the champions!