Year 5 Blog

 Taking our Work of Benjamin Britten’s The Storm a little further, we listened to the piece again and began to notice a phrase that was repeated at various times - this being the chorus.  With the spoken phrase ‘Here comes a wave’ we had to think of ways to adapt this in small groups using pitched and unpatched instruments. Despite it being very ‘noisy’, we had some great compositions for our chorus. Next week we will be looking at parts in between.  Well done Year 5 - some very creative ideas!

 This week the children have recapped decimals up to three places. They are using the correct vocabulary and have learned to read and write them correctly as well as comparing decimals.  Great work everybody. 

What an interesting lesson, where the children compared the physical geography of: Norway, Sweden and Denmark.  First, using a topography map, they identified that Norway is a very mountainous area, whereas Sweden has mountains in the west but the rest are fairly flat and Denmark is very low-lying and often floods as a result. Then, the children looked at the different physical geography in Norway and they were amazed by the size of the glaciers and fjords. In fact, four children have visited Norway and they described their experiences to the class. So interesting. 

 This half term Y5 will be working through a series of lessons through BBC Ten Pieces.  They are focussing on the composer Benjamin Britton, who is the first and only British composer to be made a Baron. The piece of music they are working on is The Storm, which happens to be an interlude from the opera Peter Grimes - a lonely fisherman. This week, they listened to the music and illustrated it in a way that is representing the music.

 Blubber is a thick layer of fat, also called adipose tissue that can be found directly under the skin of all marine mammals. The blubber is important as it provides insulation from cold ocean temperatures as well as storing energy that is then used when food is unavailable.  Today, the children used lard and rubber gloves to represent the blubber of animals and their skin. First, they put their hand in a rubber glove which was full of lard. They children thought this was squishy and felt funny. Then, they put the hand with the glove into ice water as well as their other hand with nor protection. Here, they were able to see how blubber acts as an insulator for animals in the Arctic.  One child yelled, “It really works!”