How can we clean our dirty water? 
97% of the world's water is salt water and the oceans are becoming more polluted with rubbish. Year 5 experimented with cleaning dirty water this week, with some very successful results. We also discussed the next steps of removing the salt from the water to make it drinkable. 

Young Entrepreneurs 
We started a new topic of 'Young Entrepreneurs' this week and we saw some impressive sales pitches from some of the Year 5 pupils. 

Wow! Well done to Year 5 for your sponsored read today. In total, the class read 5,215 pages. That's pretty good going in 2 hours! Amazing reading everyone, well done. 

Sponsored Read-a-thon: Don't forget that the Year 5 sponsored read is on Monday. 

​In computing we learnt about the importance of
having a strong password, one that contains: 
- at least 15 characters
- symbols
- numbers
- lowercase letters
- uppercase letters  
Pupils also came up with a very good list of tips for staying safe online from negative behaviour: 
​

Year 5 and 4 had fun (separately, in our bubbles) building dens in Outdoor Learning on Friday morning. There were some impressive Maya glyphs decorating their sheets. We even managed to defy the rain and wet by building a decent camp fire to warm us (and our hot chocolates) up! 

On Monday, Year 5 enjoyed a performance about life in Devon during World War 2, by the Med Theatre. It was fantastic to have the actors in the hall and to see a live show. 

In topic, we began the lesson with a 10-minute challenge to build a Maya temple with Lego. I think they did a pretty impressive job! 

In Topic, we continue to learn about the Mayan Culture and this week we have looked at how the Maya used to trade. Pupils created their own strategy game based on the goods that were traded by the Maya. There were some impressive game boards and very well thought-out rules to each game. Well done everyone. 

Thank you so much to Aine for putting her own money towards buying the class a collection of The Treehouse books. As part of her role as class librarian, Aine noticed that lots of pupils were enjoying the Treehouse series so she decided to use some of her pocket money to buy a few extra books for the class. What an amazing act of kindness, thank you Aine. 

In Science on Monday, pupils investigated soluble materials. They had fun playing with oozing oobleck and pre-planned their observations and what would change or stay the same for each experiment to keep the test fair. 

On Tuesday, Year 5 pupils took part in a workshop to investigate whether there was life on Mars. After taking part in a lesson on what life on other planets would be like and finding out a little bit about the current Perseverance mission, we did our own practical experiment using "space soil" to find out what life really needs.  

In our Religious Studies this term we have been finding out about the Jewish faith and this week we made comparisons between the festival of Passover with the Christian Easter Story. One feature of the story of Passover, is how the Israelites left Egypt with such haste that they didn't have time to let their bread rise so they had to use unleavened bread. 

We had great fun in the forest school on Wednesday having a go at making our own unleavened bread and, to my huge surprise, it seemed to be quite a hit! Pupils got a super fire going and we made hot chocolate, sang a campfire song and enjoyed our unleavened bread on a stick. 

Well done everyone for a super week, you have worked incredibly hard and you all deserve a huge rest. We look forward to seeing you again for the summer term. 

Mrs Leslie & Mrs Bonnett

What an amazing effort Year 5 put into their OCRA run on Monday afternoon. It was a tough 6 laps of the recreation ground but everyone tried their best and did a super job. 

Have a lovely weekend. 

​Mrs Leslie & Mrs Bonnett 

On Wednesday, Year 5 enjoyed a virtual lesson with RHS Wisley. The education officers, Jon & Barney, kindly showed us the variety of desert and tropical plants they grow in the glasshouse at RHS Wisely. Pupils were able to make some excellent comparisons between the two habitats and showed a good understanding of how plants have adapted to live in such conditions. 

​On Friday afternoon we were involved in a virtual lesson with the World Wildlife Fund about 'Saving our Living Planet'. We discovered that in the last 50 years, the global wildlife population has decreased by 68%. Pupils offered some fantastic ideas of ways we can live more sustainably in order to protect the biodiversity of our planet. Well done everyone. 

We've talked a lot about Wellbeing in Year 5 this week and below are some pictures of the things inside our heads. After reading the book 'What do you do with an Idea' by Kobi Yamada,  pupils discussed the places that make them feel safe and happy. Some of the responses to the book included: 
- be positive
- you are the best at being you
- never give up
- never get rid of an idea 
- let your ideas expand into the world
- really cool ideas make the world incredible
Some pretty inspirational thoughts here aren't there? 

In Science, we continue with our topic of 'Living Things' and met lots of examples via a Google Meet with Noah's Mum. Thanks so much to Sam for showing us examples of amphibians and insects (as well as a few mammals!). 

The classroom has felt a very inspirational place to be this week, well done to everyone for returning to school with such a positive outlook. It's very lovely to see you all again. 

Mrs Leslie & Mrs Bonnett