Welcome to our Explorers class page 2021/22
We are the Year 5 class at Warren Hills Community Primary School. Our teacher is Mrs Reynolds and Mrs Timson is the teaching assistant supporting us in our class.
Please ensure that your child has an indoor kit consisting of a white t-shirt, dark shorts and plimsols and also an outdoor kit consisting of dark tracksuit bottoms or leggings, a white t-shirt, sweatshirt and a pair of trainers. Please ensure that long hair is tied back, earrings must be removed (if your child cannot remove earrings themselves, please ensure that they are taken out before they come to school)
We Love Reading
In our class, we know how important reading is to help us learn and we follow a reading scheme in our school called Read, Write, Inc. We each have a home reading folder to bring our books home in every day and a yellow reading record. We enjoy reading at home and know how important it is to practise with our parents/carers regularly to help us become successful readers.
A note from the teacher: Please ensure that your child brings their home reading folder back to school every day and remember to enjoy spending some time listening to your child read each day.
Summer 1 2022
Let’s grow. A crispy carrot, a luscious lettuce or a tasty tomato. Dig deep and put your back into it, making your own tubs and planters and nurturing your greens. Harvest your crops and make soups and dishes of seasonal foods that taste delicious. Learn about farms and where food comes from, writing reports on worldwide produce. Discover which allotments are closest to your school, and open the door to the secret garden. Then establish a farmers’ market, harvesting your crops and selling local produce. Include garden crafts and work out your prices. Be sure to make a profit, not a loss. After all that hard work, have your fingers gone green?
Spring 2 2022
Let’s travel back in time to meet the terrifying Tudors.
During this half term, we’ll meet a very important figure from history. Online research will help us to write biographies about influential people of the period, and we’ll use source materials to create a Tudor timeline. Tudor portraits will provide us with the inspiration to create royal paintings; we’ll learn a courtly dance and compose Tudor music. Our geography skills will help us to compare maps of Tudor Britain to present day Britain. Internet research will help us learn more about Henry’s life, his marriages and his break from the Roman Catholic church.
Today we spent an amazing day at Manor Organic Farm in Long Whatton. We went for a long walk, made nests, did some pond dipping and even caught a frog!
In the afternoon we learnt about where flour came from and had a go at grinding our own. Then we went to the lambing shed to see the sheep and their babies. We got to stroke them and feed them. The best part was when we actually saw a lamb being born. It was amazing. Can you spot the baby lamb with its mother on the pictures above?
As part of out topic on Tudors, the children write rhyming riddles about different Tudor objects. Can you guess what they might be before the children reveal the answers.
Spring 1 2022
Journey through space, the final frontier. Navigate beyond the Sun, the magnificent, blazing star at the centre of our Solar System. Investigate the eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Take a look at the Moon, a celestial body that orbits Earth. Programme a rover to traverse a lunar landscape and work scientifically to investigate gravity, and what happens when there is none. Compare the times of day at different places on the Earth.. Get in a spin making simple models of the Solar System and listen to the haunting sounds of space themed songs. Then it’s 3, 2, 1, blast off. Build and launch a rocket for an important test mission. Exploring space is probably the greatest adventure that humankind has ever undertaken. Are we alone? Or are there other life forms out there?
To launch our topic on Stargazers, we made our own mini rockets for a science investigation. We used water and effervescent tablets to create a gas in the mini fuel tank. Some of our rockets went a long way.
We also went 'planet dating'. Each of us found out about a planet in our solar system and then disseminated that information to others. We learnt a lot about each of the eight planets, including how the temperatures on each planet varied immensely.
This was a fun activity. We tried to recreate the movements of the Earth, our moon and the Sun. There was a lot of spinning involved and some of us got very dizzy!
We created a stop motion animation of how night and day are created using torches, globes and Lego figures.
Playing games and solving puzzles to practice our equivalent fractions skills.
Autumn 2 2021
Let's travel back 5000 years to the dusty realms of ancient Egypt. Cruising along the Nile, entering a world of mysteries and curses, mummies and kings. Find out about life on the river's fertile banks, discovering Egypt and it's fascinating cultures. Unravel the secrets of ancient tombs, using historical sources and age-old artefacts. Find out about powerful pharaohs.
Open the doorway to ancient Egypt - who knows what treasures you will find?
In Science we have been learning about forces. This investigation involved designing an aerodynamic carriage for a zip wire (air resistance) and then testing it along various different types of material for the wire to see which one would go the quickest (friction). We had to make sure that our results were reliable and we talked about the variables that we should keep the same and the one that we should change.
Today, we got to meet Claire Cashmore, a paralympic athlete that attended the games in Tokyo this year. She was so inspiring. We even got to hold her gold and bronze medals. The bronze one had a rattle in it so that the blind athletes knew it was a medal.
This half term we are learning about ancient Egypt. Francis and her colleague from Creative Learning Services came to talk to us about how important the river Nile was to the ancient Egyptians. It was actually known as 'the River of Life', it was that important.
We also got to learn about the types of objects that would have been traded along the Nile, played an Egyptian game and got to mummify the hands of other children. Our favourite part was Mrs Reynolds having to have her heart weighed to see if she had been good enough to go to the afterlife!
What an amazing afternoon we had in our Lego Robotics workshop. We made some amazing fairground rides, which was linked to our topic last half term.
Simon Cope Karate Club visited us in school today. It was great to learn some moves and also how to count in Japanese.
Today we have been learning about steamlining and have made boats that are hopefully streamlined and therefore creating less water resistance. Some of our boats were more successful than others!
Autumn 1 2021
Roll up, roll up! Our first topic of the year is called Scream Machine. We will be visiting a theme park (virtually) to soak up the sights, smells and sounds of the fair. We will be learning about the science behind roller coasters, looking at the forces and mechanisms that make the rides work, including cams, pendulums and pulleys. We will even get to design and make our own model theme park rides.
Take a look at our topic web below to see what else we will be learning about over the half term. Also check back here to see what we get up to.
And don't forget to scream if you want to go faster!!
To start our topic we had a visit to a virtual theme park in class. We all had to put choose our seat, fasten our seatbelts and put on our 3D glasses. It felt like we were really on the rides. Some of them were very fast and scary.
Solving Pentomino problems in Mathematics
Designing a roller coaster ride with lots of speech and thought bubbles to help us get our ideas together for a short story about a trip to a theme park.
Investigating marble runs ready to create our own roller coaster marble runs in DT. We must make sure they are stable and that the marble runs all the way to the end. Can anyone include a loop the loop?
Welcome to our Explorers class page 2020/21
We are the year 5 class at Warren Hills Community Primary School. Our teacher is Mrs Reynolds and our support staff are Mrs Cooke (TA) and Mrs Hall (LSA). We are also very lucky to have a trainee teacher with us this year called Mrs Fisher.
Summer 2 2021
For the final half term of year 5, our topic is called Alchemy Island. Here we will travel through a portal to the island and meet the chief alchemist, who will guide us around the island. Together we will solve problems, involving materials in science, compose pieces of music in different areas of the island and write texts to convince the people on the island to help us. This is such a great topic. Please pop back to the website regularly to see our progress.
This term we have continued to learn how to play the steel pans. We have really enjoyed the sessions and are now able to play three different songs. Click on the link below to see our performance of a song called Jamaican Farewell.
This term our topic is called Allotment. We will be filling some new raised garden beds (built by the Hub) with soil and then planting them out with different types of fruits and vegetables. We are hoping that we will be able to harvest some of our produce and create some mouth-watering recipes with them. If you have any room at home in your garden, it would be great if you could try growing some flowers and plants too.
Spring 2 2021
For our second part of the spring term, we still find ourselves with Home Learning for a few more weeks. last half term you all worked really hard. We had some great live lessons, where we were all able to get together for our learning. I'm sure you all laughed at my attempts with technology, when sometimes they went a bit wrong! And you produced some fantastic work, which I displayed in the classroom for the children in school to see. Let's continue with this dedication and determination for a few more weeks and hope that we can all get back together in our classroom very soon.
This half term our topic is called 'Off With Her Head!' - sounds a bit gruesome doesn't it? Well let me tell you, it is! We will be learning all about the Tudors, some of which are very famous for what they got up to. You may have already heard about Henry VIII and his six wives (yes that's right, I said six wives! Some of which came to a very gruesome end!). There was also Elizabeth I, who was quite an interesting character. But did you know that the Tudor reign actually began here in Leicestershire at a battlefield called Bosworth Battlefield? Find out more about these royal kings and queens throughout this half term.
Spring 1 2021
Our topic for the first term of 2021 is called Stargazers. We will be learning all about our planets and the solar system. WE will also find out about the great space race between Russia and the USA. This is such interesting and exciting topic. Keep checking back here to see what we have been up to.
Autumn 2 2020
Explorers Christmas Performance
Explorers have really enjoyed learning how to play the steel pans this term. Listen to their Christmas performance of Silent Night and Little Donkey.
The topic for this half term is 'Pharaohs'. We will be learning all about Ancient Egypt, who the famous pharaohs were, including Tutankhamun and what it would have been like to live in Egypt in those times. Please see below our topic web of what else we intend to cover.
Autumn 1 2020
It is great to finally be able to welcome you all back into school. We hope that you have had a great, well deserved summer break after all of the home learning that you and your children did together. Our topic for the first half term is Scream Machine! We will look at forces and mechanisms, write poems and stories. To begin our learning, we will be taking a virtual trip to a theme park. Look out for our photos. Below is a map of what we intend to cover.
We are really excited this year to be learning to play the steel pans. Pat from Leicestershire Music Service showed us how to set up the pans. We got to have a little play on them. We can’t wait until next week when we will start to learn to play them properly.
Welcome to our Explorers class page 2019/20
We are the year 5 class at Warren Hills Community Primary School. Our teacher is Mrs Reynolds and our support staff are Mrs Timson (TA) and Mrs Holmes (LSA).
Summer 2 - Home Learning
As the school remains closed to many of our pupils into the second half of the summer term, we will continue to set tasks and activities for the children to do on Weduc, through Purplemash and Mathletics. So please check these websites regularly for updates. (You can follow the links below to these sites.)
If you are not enrolled on Weduc, don't forget to come to our class page weekly to view the weekly overview of learning for our class.
There are also many providers out there providing home learning in addition to what we are uploading to Weduc. Please follow the suggested links below for daily lessons and resources to support your child.
We are trying to keep regular contact with you all, but if you should need any help or support, don't hestiate to drop us a message on Weduc or telephone the school office and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Below is our Topic plan for the Summer Term 2. It is all about The Tudors, focussing mainly on Henry VIII, his wives and his children.
Please find below an overview of the learning to be completed on the week beginning 6th July 2020. All of these activities and resources are on Weduc from Monday 6th July. Please try your best to keep up to date with your learning. You could send some photographs of your work or some examples of work through Weduc and I can then share these with the rest of the class to show what a great job you are doing.
Advice for parents/carers on using weekly learning overviews at home:-
- Learning overviews will be posted on the online learning platform each week.
- They provide a selection of 'suggested' activities, feel free to tailor and adapt them to suit your child's needs.
- Please remember, children do not have to complete every activity on here if it is not possible. Encourage them to do as much as they can to keep their brain active!
- You can complete the activities in any order, it is to be used as a guide or 'menu' for you to work through and choose from with your child.
- Remember to work with your child to structure each day accordingly. Some children respond well to regular routine with clear timings in a similar style to an 'at school' day e.g. English followed by Maths each day. For others, they might prefer to vary their routine e.g. choosing a subject to focus on each day- Maths on Monday, English on Tuesday.
- Learning from home is extremely different to the classroom environment, at home, short bursts of learning followed by regular brain breaks work well.
Stay safe everyone.
Please click on the Weduc link above to take you to the learning platform log in and from there you will be able to access the resources.
Summer 1 - Home Learning Ideas
During the school closure, we will be setting tasks and activities for the children to do on Weduc, through Purplemash and Mathletics. So please check these websites regularly for updates. (You can follow the links below to these sites.)
Once you have managed to log into Weduc, we will be able to contact you to support you further with your child's home education. Please be on the look out for your enrollment codes and messages, if you have not managed to log on already.
And don't forget that Twinkl have made their resources free to all teachers, parents and students, so you could check this out using the link below.
White Rose Maths are also putting on a daily Mathematics lesson for each each year group. Please follow the link below to take part in these lessons.
Below is our Topic plan for the Summer Term 1. It is all about growing plants for food. Maybe if you have space in your garden at home, you could try to grow a few things. If you don't have a lot of space, herbs grow well in pots on a sunny windowledge.
Below is a suggested 'Home Learning Timetable' to help you to structure your day.
Spring 2 2020
Alchemy Island
To begin this topic, we had a very strange, but interesting visitor. The Chief Alchemist from the island came into our classroom, shared a riddle with us, which we had to solve! Then showed us some samples of things that he had brought with him from Alchemy Island.
We explored these samples in science, carrying out tests for transparency, hardness, magnetism, solubility and conductivity.
Cricket with Kevin from Broom Leys Cricket Club
Tree Planting Trip
The Explorers class, the Hub and the Pioneers class, all went on a tree planting trip to Martinshaw Woods in Ratby. We learnt about how to plant the trees and then got to play some games in the ancient woodlands, which included building shelters for animals. It was very muddy, but we had a great day.
Spring 1 2020
Swimming
Swimming will begin again this term. It will be every Tuesday starting on Tuesday 14th January 2020. The cost of swimming still remains as £1.50 per week. Your child will require a suitable swimming costume, towel and swimming hat. If you do not have a hat, one can be purchased at the pool. Please ask your child's class teacher for pricing.
What an amazing half term we had in Spring 1. Take a look below at some of the things we got up to!
Making and launching our own mini rockets
We started our Stargazers topic by making our own mini rockets using effervesent tablets. We launched them in the playground. It did get quite messy!!
Curtis and the Wonderdome
Curtis came to visit us at school with his Wonderdome. This was a massive blow up dome, where we went inside and either sat or laid down. Curtis told us lots about space, including the planets, the solar system and the International Space Station. It was an amazing experience.
Night and Day
We used globes for the Earth, torches for the sun and balls for the moon, to explain how we get night and day.
Sizing up the planets!
Marvellous Maths
We looked at regular and irregular shapes, sorting them into different data sets. We also had to match up the nets of of shapes to their 3D representations.
Programming robots to move around the moon!
We designed our own moon scenes and then we had to program Roamer and the Beebot to move around our lunar landscape.
African Drumming
As well as learning the djembe drum we are also learning to play the dunduns.
Our Amazing Visit to the Space Centre
Autumn 2 2019
We had an excellent visit from Creative Learning Services from Leicestershire Education team. We learnt all about the importance of the River Nile and how it flooded each year to grow crops. We practised mummifying each other, played ancient Egyptian games and also got to try our hands at exporting and importing goods. Penny was very informative.
Our very own Pharaohs!
For our Remembrance Assembly, we learnt the poem 'In Flanders Fields' by John McCrae. We also produced some art work.
Our djembe drumming assembly. We worked really hard and practised alot to play our rhythms. The audience enjoyed our show. Thank you to Mr Emerton and we look forward to learning more in the new year.
A fantastic morning making Chrtistmas decorations with our parents. We were very proud of the wreaths that we made.
Autumn 1 2019
Please ensure that your child has an indoor kit consisting of a t- shirt, shorts and plimsols and also an outdoor kit consisting of tracksuit bottoms or leggings, a t-shirt, sweatshirt and a pair of trainers. Please ensure that your child's kit is in school on a Monday morning and is taken home on a Friday for washing as we often have coaches and other sports visit is at short notice. We will not be swimming until the Spring Term.
Welcome back. We hope that you have had a great summer break. Our topic for the first half term is Scream Machine! We will look at forces and mechanisms, write poems and stories. To begin our learning, we will be taking a virtual trip to a theme park. Look out for our photos. Below is a map of what we intend to cover
To start our topic on Scream Machine, we went on a virtual trip to a theme park. It was amazing. We had to wear 3D glasses and it really felt like we were on the ride. Some of us were screaming, others of us were holding on tight. We went on roller coasters, log flumes and a Ferris wheel. Our favourite was the Jaws ride.
In Science, we are learning about forces. Today we learnt about centripetal force and found out that if you swing a bucket of water round in a loop quick enough, the water will not spill out. We all had our waterproofs on, but it was only Mrs Reynolds who got wet!
In DT, we looked at toy marble runs. We had good fun playing with them. We used these ideas to then build our own marble runs. Many of us made it too complicated to start and had to modify and simplify our designs to make them work.
Some children in Year 5 and 6 have been trained to become Play Coaches. This means that we are able to teach the younger children in the school how to play games and work together. We do this every lunchtime.
In our Maths lessons we like to be active. Here we were on a number hunt around school finding clues to answer questions involving the greater than, less than and equals signs.
In English, we designed our own roller coasters on a large piece of paper. We then added though and speech bubbles to different parts. This was our planning for a short story. We wrote about our roller coaster ride. Mrs Reynolds was very impressed with our writing.
Every Wednesday, Mr Emmerton from Leicestershire Music Services visits us to teach us how to play the djembe drums. The drums come from Africa. We watched a video showing how they were made from a tree. At the moment we have learnt two rythmns. One is called 'cheese on toast!' and the other one is called 'the big rhino goes very slow'. We say these words in our heads to help us to keep the beat.
In Science, we are looking at forces. In this lesson we investigated air resistance. In groups we made parachutes making sure that there was only one variable. Some of us changed the size, shape, the length of the string or the weight of the object attached to it. We then tested our parachutes to see which one took the longest to hit the ground.
In DT, we are designing and making a fairground ride. Today we learnt how to measure and saw the pieces of wood to make a box frame. Keep a look out on the website for our finished products.
Explorers 2018/19
Please see below for the Explorers class of the academic year 2018/19
Spring Term 2
Welcome back to our spring term. This term we are going to be learning about fairground rides and forces. Below is our map of what we intend to discover.
Our PE day is now on a Thursday.
Swimming is on a Tuesday- don't forget you swimming kit and £1.50 to swim.
Forest School is on a Friday (please bring a change of clothes)
Spring Term 1
Welcome back after the Christmas break and a very Happy New Year! We now have swimming on a Tuesday. Please remember to bring £1.50 for swimming, £1.80 for a swimming hat (if you need one), towels and swimming costumes.
Our new topic this term is Alchemy Island as we are following the curriculum from Cornerstones where we are focusing on new worlds and new lands to discover!
Science
Explorers class have been investigating the Earth, Sun, Moon and space through a series of interactive lessons. They have used ratio to scale down the planets as fruit; acted as the sun and earth to show night and day and lastly used oreos to show the 8 phases of the moon.
Autumn Term 2
Welcome back to the second part of our Autumn term. Our topic this year is Peasants, Plague and Pestilence, where we will be studying the cause and effects of the Black Death in the 14th century!
Below is what we intend to cover.
Science
As part of our changing materials, we investigated how different materials changed when heated, mixed or had other properties added to them, such as food dye to eggs cooked in different ways.
The Explorers class took part in a taster Judo session. The class learnt different hold, flips and, most importantly, self control.
Visits
The Explorers class had an opportunity to have a visit from the local police. The purpose of the visit was to discuss the term citizenship and how to become a good citizen through a series of fun exercises.
Autumn Term 1
We are the Year 5 class. Mr Daren is our class teacher, Mrs Timson supports our class.
We hope you have had an excellent summer and are ready for the learning journey ahead. Our topic this half term is the terrible Tudors! We will be exploring the world of the Tudors, their rise and fall and lastly crime and punishment in Tudor times!
Here is what we plan to cover this term.
Trips
To discover more about how the Tudors lived, the Explorers explored the grounds of Donington Le Heath Manor House. The children had the opportunity to dress up in Tudor clothes, make Tudor food and play with Tudor toys.
Design and Technology
We researched how the Tudors lived and why their houses had a distinctive pattern. From card and paper, we created smaller versions of the house.
Roald Dahl's birthday at Warren Hills
As it was Roald Dahl's birthday today, we decided to celebrate his life and work by trying our hands at recreating artwork of his and Quentin Blake's. What do you think of our creations?
Science- life cycles of plants
We have been looking at the life cycles of plants this half-term and we recently identified types of seed dispersal. We identified wind, animal and gravity seed dispersal. Can you identify which seeds belong to which from the pictures below?
Welcome back after half-term.
This half term we are focusing on World War One and World War Two.
Below is what we intend to cover.
Famous 50
We have been asked to take part in a local community art display that is celebrating and recognising the lives of 50 men from Coalville who were the first men to sign up to serve in World War One in Leicestershire.
We were asked to create a an art design on a cut out of a soldier.
Here is what we have accomplished so far...
We decided to use old copies of newspapers from World War One to make seem authentic. We then added red to him to signify the suffering our soldier must have gone through during the war.
Parents in class
This term, we decided to to invite our parents in to make and decorate Christmas activities. The children and parents lots of fun and it was lovely to see how creative the children and parents could be.
Beaumanor Hall for World War Two Day
To enthuse and inspire the children, we decided to go to Beaumanor Hall for a World War Two Day as part of our World War One and World War Two topic. The children got a chance to see how coded messages were sent backwards and forwards; how top secret buildings were disguised to fool the enemy; how rationing worked and what you were limited to eating and also experienced a real life air raid drill!
Welcome to our Spring term Explorers!
This term we have swimming on the very first day that we come back (Tuesday). Please remember to bring a towel, swimming costumes, swimming hat and £1 for swimming.
Below is what intend to cover.
Maya exclusive!
As part of our topic on the Maya civilisation, we looked at a story in one of their sacred texts.The story was about two twins who play an ancient ball game with gods of the underworld (Xibalba) to free their father and uncle. We pretended to be the twins and and a journalist so that we could interview them for our upcoming newspaper report.
The great Maya disappearance!
How did the Maya civilisation end? Where did they go? Are they still here? The children investigated this using a range of sources and were therefore historians as they made their own judgements and explained in their own words the overall factor in their disappearance.
Science- Space, Sun and the Earth!
As part of our space topic, we had to gain a better understanding of the solar system and the world around us, as well as how the Sun affects our daily lives. In order to do this, the children made orreries which are models mad out of card that show the solar system and how the planets are spherical bodies.
Spring term 2
Welcome back to a new term of learning. We plan on covering the marauding and explorative Northmen from the Scandanivian countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, otherwise known as the Vikings. Below is what we intend to cover.
Longships ahoy!
Why were the Vikings so good at exploration? How did they explore to parts of America and beyond? Explorers analysed the Viking longships and discussed how each part was vital in making them efficient tools of voyaging as well as warfare.
May the force(s) be with you!
Our science topic this term is forces such as gravity, air resistance, water resistance and friction to name but a few! We investigated how to measure weight and not mass using forcemeters; we also made parachutes and investigated how parachutes are affected by different factors.
Welcome back Explorers to our Summer Term!
We still have Swimming on a Tuesday and we now have PE on a Tuesday, so don't forget your PE and swimming kits for Tuesday!
Below is what we intend to cover:
