Orange Class / Year 5
Autumn Term 2023
Welcome to Orange Class.
Please find out more information about our Year 5 class below.
Orange Class Work Orange Class Reflective Area
Orange Class Timetable Orange Class Newsletter
Miss Molly Miller - Class Teacher
Knowledge Organisers
In Orange Class, we will be learning about 'Properties and Changes of Materials' in Science; 'World War 2' in History; and 'Why is the Gospel such good news for Christians?' in RE. Please take a look at the knowledge organisers for the key information the children will be learning about in these subjects.
- Science / Properties and Changes of Materials
- History / World War 2
- RE / Why is the Gospel such good news for Christians?
Autumn Term 1 - 2023 |
Terrific Trip to Duxford! |
As part of our history learning on World War 2, we took a trip to the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. This was a thoroughly exciting day as we were able to see many different WW2 aircrafts and other vehicles used during the war. We were even able to try on some military clothing, as well as wear a gas mask - which we decided was far too hot to wear for long!
Terrific Trip to Duxford
Inspired by Hundertwasser |
This week, we began our first lesson of our new art unit on 'Drawing'. We looked at the artwork of Hundertwasser and explored how he used bright colours and patterns from nature. We were each then given a piece of Hundertwasser's artwork, which we then chose a section of to sketch out. We then enlarged our finished sketches onto A4 paper. After finishing our sketches, we used oil pastels to colour our pieces. We then placed our artwork into a plastic wallet, so we could draw on them using a permanent marker, this meant we could recreate how Hundertwasser created layers in his artwork.
Forest School Fun! |
This term, Orange Class are lucky enough to be taking in part in Forest School. Our first session was amazing and we really enjoyed all these new activities that we hadn't done before. We are very excited about what the rest of the term holds!
Forest School
Summer Term - 2023
Summer Term 2 - 2023 |
Inspired by Giacometti |
As part of our new unit on 3D models in art, we learnt about an artist called Alberto Giacometti. He was primarily a sculptor, who created sculptures with very thin, stick-like bodies, with extremely long arms and legs. We took our learning outside and sketched our partner doing interesting poses in the style of Giacometti.
Exploring Solar System Simulations |
To combine our learning in Science (Earth and Space) with our learning in Computing (Simulations), we investigated an existing 'Solar System Simulation'. This allowed us to see all of the different stars, moons and planets, and explore the Solar System. It was amazing to explore our Solar System in a way we'd never experienced before!
Summer Term 1 - 2023 |
King's Coronation Garden Project |
Orange Class volunteered to take part in the Suffolk School's Garden Competition, run at the Suffolk Show. The theme for this garden was 'A Garden Fit For Our King'.
Over a number of weeks, we researched, designed, created and planted an outstanding garden planter. We were supported by the fantastic Mrs Pyett, who helped us bring our garden design to life.
We then took our finished planter to the Suffolk Show, where it was going to be judged, and fantastically, we were awarded silver for our entry. We were so pleased with ourselves and everything we'd achieved.
Please have a read through of our diary entry which documents all the hard work we put into making our garden.
Constructing and Destructing Fabric |
In art, we have started a new topic on 'Textiles'. In our first lesson, we learnt all about manipulating fabric through methods of construction and destruction. With construction, we weaved, plaited, layered, knotted; and with destruction, we cut, tore, removed threads and hole punched. It was quite a messy endeavour when destructing the fabrics!
Spring Term - 2023
Spring Term 2 - 2023 |
Experience Easter |
In the final week of the Spring Term, we were fortunate enough to take a trip to the Church to find out about Easter. We took part in a carousel of different activities which taught us all about the Easter story and the resurrection of Jesus.
Marvellous Mother's Day Cards |
In the lead up to Mother's Day, Orange Class created Mother's Day cards with a focus on the use of mixed media. We designed an oriental style vase in pen, then painted branches out, which were then decorated with tissue paper cherry blossom.
'A Day in the Life' (but make it collage) |
As part of our learning on collage in art, we learnt about the artist Dale Devereux Baxter. We particularly looked at his use of symbols to represent events in his life. We had a go at creating a collage of our own symbols to represent a day in our week.
Propagating Mint |
In our science lessons, we have been learning about the sexual and asexual reproduction of plants. After finding out how certain plants reproduce using these forms of reproduction, we applied our learning by propagating mint (artificially asexual reproduction).
We took a cutting from a mint plant, just below the leaf join, and placed it in a container half-filled with water. Over the next few weeks, we will be keeping an eye on our mint cuttings to see if roots develop and if we, therefore, have cloned the parent mint plant!
World Wildlife Day |
On Friday 3rd March, the whole school took part in 'World Wildlife Day'. This is a day celebrated annually in support of animals and plants across the world. World Wildlife Day is an important event to raise awareness of the endangered animals around the world. Every child arrived to school wearing an animal mask and then each class carried out learning about a specific endangered animal. Orange Class learnt all about tigers - we found out about the different members of the tiger family, their habitats, the risks to their survival and what's being done to protect them.
Spring Term 1 - 2023 |
Outstanding Orienteering |
Just before half-term, the whole of Orange Class were able to take part in an orienteering competition at Hartismere. We paired up and took part in all kinds of orienteering activities, navigating our way across fields and the school! It put our teamwork skills to the test, but we worked as hard as we possibly could to succeed!
How do Hindu children get ready to celebrate Krishna's birthday? |
As part of our learning into 'What spiritual pathways to moksha are written about in Hindu scriptures?', we learnt about how Hindu children get ready to celebrate Krishna's birthday. We then had a go at trying these activities - we created crowns and decorated a child-size Krishna!
Atlas Explorers |
In geography, we are currently learning about Greece. After getting to grips with how to use an atlas in our first lesson, we then used this skill to identify where Greece is in the world. We discovered that Greece is in Europe, so we used a blank map of Europe to identify all the countries and capital cities in Europe and named the seas and oceans that surround it.
Print Making Process |
As part of our learning in art, we have begun a new unit on 'Printmaking', focusing on a reduction block print. We looked into the work of artist and printmaker, William Morris, who inspired us when designing our own block print pattern. The first part of our reduction block print involved 'worrying away' part of our pattern in press print, and then printing several copies of it in yellow ink. Over the next few weeks, we will be 'worrying away' more of the press print and layering the print in red and then blue ink.
Autumn Term - 2022
Autumn Term 2 - 2022 |
Superb Sewing |
In the last week of the Autumn term, Orange Class spent a whole day dedicated to DT. We designed, made and evaluated felt phone cases. It was a very busy day and quite hard work making sure our stitching was strong and that our designs were beautiful, but we produced some amazing finished phone cases!
Musical Marvels |
In our current unit of music (Classroom Jazz), we have been learning to play two different songs on the glockenspiel. After learning the songs, we built on our skills by improvising using the same notes. When the song and improvisation were put together, we played a fantastic whole-class piece!
Experience Advent |
At the beginning of Advent, we were lucky enough to visit the Church and find out more about Advent. We carried out a variety of different learning activities which helped us understand more about Advent.
Inspired by Ofili |
In Orange Class, we've been learning about the artist Chris Ofili. His bright and colourful artwork inspired some of our own (however, we decided not to use exactly the same art medium as him, because as well as using paints and resin, Ofili also uses elephant dung - which we decided might be a bit smelly)!
Autumn Term 1 - 2022 |
Recycle Day |
This year's Eco Council organised a whole-school 'Recycle Day' as part of 'Recycle Week'. We were given the opportunity to carry out lots of different activities relating to recycling.
In the morning, we wrote stories from the perspective of an animal whose life was being affected by humans not recycling. It was fantastic to see all the creative ideas the class had and the important messages that were in the stories about why we should recycle. In the afternoon, we reused old pieces of cardboard to create jigsaw puzzles (some of these were very tricky to solve) and then we produced posters to share the importance of recycling.
To end 'Recycle Day', we then shared our learning with our paired reading class. We listened to all the learning Year 2 had done on recycling during the day and then shared our recycling stories and posters with them. It was a fun and informative day!
Auerbach Artwork |
After learning about how to work in the positive and negative in art, we applied our learning to produce a piece of artwork in response to work of Frank Auerbach. Although we got a bit messy with the charcoal, we produced some fantastic final pieces.
Performing Powerful Poetry |
In our most recent unit of English, we have been learning about free-verse rhyming poetry. Our focus text for this unit was the poem, 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare. As part of our learning, we learnt about the importance of pitch, pace, intonation and projection when performing poems. We then applied our learning by working in groups to perform a section of 'The Listeners', which we then performed to the class. *Video to follow*
Investigating Dissolving |
As part of our science learning on 'Properties and Changes of Materials', Orange Class learnt about materials which dissolve. We worked in groups to plan and carry out a comparative experiment to investigate which factors affect the the time it takes sugar cubes dissolve. We had to decide on an independent variable, these varied from changing the temperature of the water, the amount of times we stir the sugar cubes in the water, and the type of water we used!
Incredible Imperial War Museum! |
To begin our history topic of 'World War 2', Orange Class took an exciting trip to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford. We had a fantastic day exploring Duxford and finding out lots of interesting information about all the military planes and vehicles used in the war and the impact they had on the outcome of the second World War. We were also lucky enough to see many of the famous planes in flight - watching a Spitfire and Messerschmitt in flight was quite the experience!
Tints, Tones and Shades |
With our new class name of 'Orange Class', it seemed fitting that on our first day back after the summer that we would create some art surrounding the colour orange. We were introduced to the concept of tints, tones and shades and how to create them using paint. Using orange as our base colour, we created a variety of different tints, tones and shades, which we then used to fill in the shapes of the geometric designs we sketched out. We created some fabulous monochromatic paintings!