Welcome to the Year 5 page. Here you will find important information about your class as well as being able to find out what we have been learning about. Keep checking back to see what we have been up to in Year 5!

Learning Journeys 

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So much happened on World Book Day this year. Apart from our fantastic costumes, we did a scavenger book hunt and visited Central Library. At the library, we explored the new part of the building, going up the many stair cases until we got onto the roof. The view of Liverpool was amazing. We also saw the oldest part of the library which looked like something out of a Harry Potter story.

At 10am we had a poetry workshop with the poet Craig Bradley, which was hilarious. Back at school, we wrote and performed our own Craig Bradley poems. It was a really good day.

The Arrival

The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a vast ocean. He eventually finds himself in a bewildering city of foreign customs, peculiar animals, curious floating objects and indecipherable languages. With nothing more than a suitcase and a handful of currency, the immigrant must find a place to live, food to eat and some kind of gainful employment. He is helped along the way by sympathetic strangers, each carrying their own unspoken history: stories of struggle and survival in a world of incomprehensible violence, upheaval and hope.

What drives so many to leave everything behind and journey alone to a mysterious country, a place without family or friends, where everything is nameless and the future is unknown? This silent graphic novel is the story of every migrant, every refugee, every displaced person, and a tribute to all those who have made the journey.

Over the past four weeks we have based the written work in our literacy lessons on this amazing book. The children have produced some beautiful written work and art work based on the story. 

Today, the children became agents of Y5SA (Year 5 Secret agents), this is a government agency that helps people escape the danger in their home countries. Here are some photos of their video messages to people.

Liverpool University.

Liverpool University invited 10 of our Y5 pupils to their 'Power of Nature' creative writing day. The aim of the day was to raise the children's aspirations by giving them a taste of university life. 

The day began with a talk on the sun, followed by a presentation from a volcanologist, who told us all about different types of volcanoes. After a demonstration, the children created their own mini volcanoes. 

One of the students gave us a tour of the campus after which, we had a creative writing workshop. Using our inspiration from the morning, we had a go of writing some kenning poems. 

It was a great day. As usual the children were fantastic ambassadors for St. Anne's.

In Year 5 we have an economic system. This is how it works:

• Every child pays £600 rent/month for the seat they sit on.
• Every child has a classroom job which earns them £450.
• The wage doesn't cover the rent, so the children need to earn bonus money through hard work and living out our school values.
• Any money left over at the end of each month can be spent in our auction

• The children can choose not to spend their money, but can save up to buy their own chair, meaning they won't have to pay rent.
• If they wish the children can save again to buy someone else's chair. The inhabitant of that chair must then pay them rent.

The idea is that the children learn to keep track of their money. The auction is very tempting, but if they save they will end up with much more money. I am hoping that this will prepare them for life in the real world, with real money.

This is my third year of using the Economic System, but this is the first year that we have run out of chairs to buy. There are some serious business people in our class. Watch out Lord Sugar!

Accelerated Reader

In October, Year 5 began a programme called Accelerated Reader. The principle behind it is simple: A student reads a book, takes an online quiz, and gets immediate feedback. Students respond to regular feedback and are motivated to make progress with their reading skills.

Here is what the children think:

Ali: "It helps you read better."

Ruby: "The quizzes make you pay more attention to stuff. It makes you block out technology because you want to read and take the quiz."

Tyreece: "The quizzes make you read the whole book instead of scanning it and saying that you've read it."

Huseen: " It tests you and tells you a level. It makes you comfortable with the level you're reading."

Fatma: "You understand the book more. You read it carefully."

Alaskah: "It helps you learn more so when you're in secondary school you can read out loud  without making mistakes."

Sarah: "I think it's good because it helps your spelling. If you're reading a lot, you see the words over and over agin and it helps."

Setareh: "You can pick your own book without being told what to read. I get excited about the quizzes and they encourage you to read more."

Erin: "I like doing half an hour reading every day."

Saif: "I wasn't interested in reading, but the quizzes and numbers inspire me."

This week in UK Military School

This week in Uk Military School, the children were faced with an unusual challenge. The soldiers explained that they were going to the Isle of Iona. They explained to the class that they could take only five children with them. Everyone had to think about their own unique qualities (of which there are many) then persuade the panel that their attributes and skills make them the ideal person to take.

The children had all sorts of amazing skills and aspirations from fishing, boxing, sewing and medical knowledge! After much deliberation, four children where chosen. The fifth will be selected in the next session... 

Congratulations!

Well done to Setareh for her success in her dancing competition and to Liam for surviving his first boxing bout. Fantastic achievements! 

Collective Worship

The children have been planning their own collective worship. In pairs they have been choosing the topic (such as Children in Need or Hope), selecting music, writing prayers or poems, setting up a focal point and presenting it to the class. It is a further demonstration of how sensitive, empathetic and fantastic our children are.

Stargazers!

In our topic for this half term, we have been studying the Earth, moon and beyond. We have researched the different planets and come up with some great mnemonics to help us remember their names. 

Year 5 and 6 walked to the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall to hear Valerie Bloom read and perform some of her poetry. A Valerie Bloom reading is an uplifting experience, one that can coax even a shy British poetry audience into joyful participation, hands in the air to carry imaginary cake boxes, as they join in with the chorus to 'Pinda Cake'. She moves easily around the area where poetry and song overlap, in a voice as warm in speaking as in singing, and believes that "part of the beauty of poetry is the music in the words, and a vital part of music is often the poetry in the lyrics". It was a lovely experience.

As the name suggests, the team at UK Military School have all had first hand experience in the armed forces. This means that the skills they can offer will help our children meet the challenges they face in school and in life.

They will be working with year 5 every Wednesday afternoon focussing on the core values of:

• Respect
• Confidence
• Self-discipline
• Achievement
• Healthy Living
• Teamwork
• Social responsibility
• Upholding the rule of law 

Keep an eye on the website for new photos.

Keywords for this topic are:

hardness, solubility, transparency, conductivity, solids, liquids, gases, solution, dissolve, filtering, sieving, evaporating, reversible and irreversible.

In this topic, pupils will be taught to:

• compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their properties.
• know that some materials will dissolve in liquid, and describe how to recover a substance from a solution.
• use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how to separate mixtures.
• demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible.
• explain that some changes result in the formation of new materials