Riverside Community Primary

Year 5

Teachers

Year 5 Teachers (ID 1211)

A Blast to the past....

 What a fabulous and interesting time we had travelling back to the 1940s to learn about World War II, as a launch day for our new History unit.

Winston Churchill (one of the prime ministers of Britain, during the war) came to visit us and read some of his many speeches - that he spent hours writing - to encourage the people of Britain to keep fighting. 

We also learnt about Bletchley Park and the code breaking that helped to win the war.  Having tried decoding messages, we then wrote our own. 

In the afternoon, we learnt about the different planes that the Royal Air Force and Luftwaffe flew in the dog fights. 

 We are looking forward to hearing more about the Battle of Britain in the coming weeks.

 Posted 28th March, 2025

Allotment Visits

Our visits to the allotments are continuing each week even when it rains!   

In our last session, we learnt about food chains.  We were given stickers with animals on and had to decide which animal is eaten by another animal.  Once we had decided, we put ourselves in the correct order.  We discussed the importance of all the animals in the chain and had to decide which one we felt was the most important. 

Another activity we did linked with trust and using our senses. In pairs, one of us was blindfolded and the other partner led them around the site.  It felt strange at first but we used our resilience skills to help us.  

 

Posted 26th Feb, 2025

Argyle STEM Project

This term the year 5 children are lucky enough to be working in partnership with Babcock International, and Plymouth Argyle outreach team. During the next 6 weeks the children will learn about communication, maths and teamwork linked to STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) use our link below to take a look at the work they produce over the course of the project.

 Posted 22nd Jan, 2025

Material World

Get your lab coats ready, as science this term in year 5, is going to be messy! 

In our learning the children will find out about materials and how they change. Throughout each of our science sessions we shall investigate a range of different materials, discuss their properties and work on extending our vocabulary. 

During our learning we will test the strength of materials, how conductive they are, and begin to create solutions.

 Posted 2nd Dec, 2024

Visit To An Allotment

This year the children shall be exploring the local allotment (just behind the school). Lisa Dawson and her team of volunteers, run the allotment through the Pioneer Project, a charity set up to help positively influence young people’s social, emotional and mental health by giving them the opportunity to step out of their comfort zone in a safe manner. Each week, a year 5 class will attend the allotment and work in a collaborative way to learn more about the great outdoors in a fun, stimulating and caring way. These visits have a direct link to our science topic - Life Cycles and gives the children a direct ‘hands on’ approach to learning.  

If you would like any more information about vising the allotment space as family please contact Lisa Dawson, or visit the website at: https://thepioneersproject.co.uk   

  Posted 13th Nov, 2024

Bikeability

Bike—check, helmet—check, pedal ready—check! This can only mean one thing, year 5 have been taking part in Bikeability. The children worked amazingly hard to show their bike riding skills. Some of the children took to the roads to learn how to ride safely whilst they are in the local community. They demonstrated fantastic listening skills and applied their knowledge of road safety. Other children were experiencing bike riding for the first time. They had to demonstrate resili-ence , determina-tion and focus. We are pleased to report that everyone had an incredible time. 

 Posted 23 Sept, 2024

Busy Time

Since the last time we posted, Y5 have been incredibly busy, but we'd like to focus on our Wellbeing Week!  It was started with a visit to MAP Secondary to calm our nerves and help us to feel more confident about our not-too-distant move to 'big school'. Whilst we were there, we were engaged in lots of different activities and we LEARNT NEW THINGS: about witchcraft in History, getting competitive in Rounders, creating tea-towel masterpieces in art, exploding items in science, speaking a different language in MfL and going round-in-circles with the Fibonacci sequence in maths!
After spending the day singing (to feel CONNECTED to our classmates) and making dreamcatchers (on Tuesday, we got physical on Wednesday with our annual Sports Day!
Thursday saw us being PHYSICALLY ACTIVE again, martial-arting this time, as well as GIVING back TO OTHERS in our community with a litter pick around the outskirts of our school.  We finished our week with PAYING ATTENTION TO THE PRESENT MOMENT when we went for a wander to Blackie Woods, listening to the birds chirping in the trees and being able to name plants around us that make the environment a place to be at peace.  
All-in-all, a week that has made us more mindful about how to look after our own - and others' - wellbeing.

 Posted 03 July, 2024

Theatre Royal

Last Wednesday, was a day to remember for 12 specially chosen Y5 students.  Having completed the workshops, alongside their classmates, these children were selected by Riverside staff and those of Unique Voice to take part in a performance at a theatre in Plymouth City Centre, named The House.  
We arrived at 1pm - as well as 2 other Plymouth primary schools - and spent the afternoon rehearsing on stage.  Each different school had a specific focus for their drama piece: Riverside's was 'Exploitation', with the scene revolving around a young girl who was being mistreated by others, causing her to be very secretive and defensive.  
Prior to the performance, Cleo (from Unique Voice) had run workshops with all children in Y5, dealing with community issues which Crimestoppers have to tackle everyday.  
The evening performance was a sold-out affair, with parents and other children from Riverside - as well as many staff - attending to watch our young actors take to the stage. They were amazing!  We are VERY proud of their efforts and hope they continue to shine like they did that evening.

 Posted 18th Jun, 2024

Life Cycles

Now that the sunshine has decided to show its face, life has started to spring up all over the place.  Perfect timing for our Science project all about Life Cycles. We dissected plants and learned all about the make and female parts, identifying the processes of pollination and fertilisation.  Having learnt about these in our lessons, we've then been able to put this learning to the test when down at the allotment - seeing our learning in action!  Next....onto human Life Cycles: watch this space!

 Posted 4th Jun, 2024

Cam Toys

Accuracy has been the name of the game in Y5 recently to ensure our 'Cam toys' work successfully!  We were given the design brief of 'bringing a story to life' and have used different types of 'cam' to make our part of a story 'move'. After accurately measuring our materials, we used hacksaws to cut and measuring equipment to place our separate pieces properly. Decoration has been used to engage our audience and make our efforts eye-catching.

 Posted 23rd Mat, 2024

Shallowford Farm Residential

To say we've had the time of our lives is an understatement, over here in Y5.  Actually, we've not been in our usual Y5 classrooms - we've been learning at Shallowford Farm where we had the pleasure of sleeping for 2 nights!  We couldn't possibly list ALL the things we've been up to as there are just too many!  But here's a few: eating lots of yummy food, feeding the pigs and cleaning out their pig-pens, gathering freshly laid eggs from the chickens, ducks and geese, pulling apart hay bales to let the cows chomp on, rolling down steep hills, treasure hunts walking across Dartmoor, building dens and campfires - and toasting marshmallows on them!  Just check out our photo albums and you'll see how much fun we had!

 Posted 09 May, 2024 (click to view more)

 

Crimestoppers

'What Would You Do?' has been the question on all of Y5's lips this week, as we've started our project led by the lovely people at Crimestoppers and Unique Voice.  They have chosen us at Riverside as one of only 3 schools in Plymouth to trial this project which has run very successfully in Bristol for a number of years.  They pose real-life problems which we work together to discuss and find suitable solutions.  Our voices are all important and have proved to help each other out. Watch this space to see more photos and videos from the up-and-coming sessions.

 Posted 18 Apr, 2024 (click to view more)

Y5 Have Rhythm

Year 5 have got rhythm flowing through their veins: just mention the word, 'Shosholoza' and you'll receive the melodic response, 'kulezo ntaba'! This is all down to the music unit we've been learning about: South & West Africa.  Over the term, we've learnt South African song which was originally sung by men going to work in gold mines. They sang the song as a large group – acapella – meaning without instruments.  It was to boost morale, which means it made them feel happier when working.  Safe to say, it's done the same for us!  Not only have we enjoyed singing, we've loved learning to play the glockenspiels and djembe drum as accompaniments.  If you're needing to boost your mood - find Y5 and join in!

 

Posted 19 Mar, 2024

JIGSAW PSHE

During our JIGSAW PSHE learning this term, we are considering how our personal choices impact if we have a healthy lifestyle or not. We started off by discussing - at great length - 'Smoking and Vaping'.  This proved to be an emotive topic and many of us felt that we needed to speak to adults at home about the choices they made regarding this habit...And it's impact on people around them e.g. passive smoking.  Next, came 'Alcohol'.  The most recent lesson taught us how to use the 'recovery position' and when we might need to employ it - or when we might not e.g. if you fear the person might have broken bones.  Safe to say, we're very knowledgeable about how we can make 'informed decisions' if faced with such dangerous choices when we're older.

 Posted 05 Mar, 2024

WWII

It’s not very often that you ‘Blast to the past’ and meet Winston Churchill, but that’s what Y5 have done so we can immerse ourselves in the events of World War 2, our History focus this term.  Having listened to Churchill’s rousing speech, we wrote out own versions and tried our hands at code-breaking too!  We learnt about propaganda posters and handled real-life WW2 artefacts—the items which taught the world about the atrocities that happened between 1939—1945.  All-in-all, a very informative and exciting experience.

 Posted 21 Feb, 2024

Dreams & Goals

Throughout this term's PSHE, we've been contemplating our 'Dreams & Goals' which has had us in a very reflective mood.  Having considered what we aim to achieve in our lives - not just in terms of the job we would like, but also, how we would like our life styles to be - we committed our goals to paper and investigated what we need to do to make them happen!  Some of us were lured in by the salaries certain jobs promised to provide, but others of us wanted to make sure we chose our paths wisely to ensure we are happy above everything else!  On top of all this self-awareness/reflection, we've continued to develop of skills of empathy by comparing how different cultures provide different opportunities.

 Posted 30 Jan, 2024

Argyle PE Sessions

This term we are lucky enough to be enjoying PE sessions delivered by the Argyle Community Team. They've been teaching us about the effects of physical activity on our bodies and giving us new skills to help us create our own games to get us moving more! We've then had the responsibility to teach our group's games to the other children: all in all much fun and many racing hearts!

 Posted 19th Jan, 2024

D&T Week 

Anyone that has been in the Y5 corridor this week has left salivating!  We've been getting our baking groove on - and we're quite the bread bakers, let us tell you!  With the D&T brief of designing and baking our own Christmas bread to share with our family on Christmas morning, we started with tasting a load of different breads - some were delicious: others, not so....Then, having compiled a list of typical Christmas ingredients, we created our own masterpieces, choosing from: orange peel, cinnamon, ginger, raisins, cranberries, glace cherries, marshmallows, apple, chocolate chips, to name but a few tasty additions.  Comments like, 'pillowy' and 'cloud-like' were floating around our corridor because our baked rolls were just so soft and bubbly, thanks to not only the yeast, but also our fabulous kneading skills! Take a look at our creations - you'll be licking your lips too!

 Posted: 18 Dec, 2023

Invading my space

This term, we have been enjoying the exciting skills based ‘Invaders’ sessions in our MUGA space. During the term we have been perfecting their passing and receiving of a range of different balls. We've worked hard to improve hand-eye co-ordination, adding these skills to newly taught footwork moves. To secure our newfound knowledge, we have introduced this learning to games, where we have been able to apply rules, with improving accuracy.

 Posted: 12 Dec, 2023

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