Year 5 travelled back in time to experience what life would have been like living in the Stone Age. With help from our guide, Roy, we planted seeds, beans and peas using deer antlers. Then, we built a shelter using sticks, leather and material for protection. Roy showed us how we could make a fire using wood and sticks to create friction. We also practised grinding seeds using big, heavy stones to make flour for our bread. Finally, we learned how to make butter using only cream and lots of muscle power to shake the liquid!
Back at school, we followed a recipe for making bread using some of the ingredients that would have been used in the Stone Age. Once cooked, we enjoyed a warm slice of bread and butter! As part of year 5’s Earth, Sun and Moon topic in Science, we took part in three workshops at the Head of Steam. We all became astronauts in training, preparing for a journey to the Moon. The workshops were linked to fitness, building a shelter for an asteroid attack and finding evidence to decide if the Moon is made out of cheese or not. A brilliant day, learning lots of new facts about Earth’s Moon and more!
Linking to our Spanish topic, year 5 took part in a Spanish style breakfast morning. In preparation, we learned phrases linked to different breakfast items and how to ask for something from the menu. We also created our own Spanish menus to use in our café. Some of us were café workers, taking orders and others were customers coming to the counter to order their breakfast in Spanish. It was a fantastic morning to show what we had learned and a big thank you to the kitchen staff for their help and support!
Muy Bien! A group of children from year 5 pupils got to experience life as a 22 year old on our maths trip to Inspire2Learn.
We chose our dream job and spent the day as a 22 year old; buying cars, holidays, a house, food and a day out. We had to think carefully about our monthly costs and if we could afford it with our salary. All pupils showed great attitude, respect and involvement and were even lucky enough to win bonus rewards, which gave them more money to spend each month! All the children learned valuable life skills and thoughts for the future when they grow up. Nikkita said, “I would save the money I have left over at the end of each month by putting it into a savings account.” Cole said, “I would buy the things that I need rather than the things that I want all the time.” As part of our topic this term, Year 5 pupils travelled back in time to experience what life was like in the Stone Age. We met a friendly historian named Roy, who taught us lots of different things about how to survive in the Stone Age.
We had to use ancient techniques to live like a Stone Age person such as:
We learnt that back in the Stone Age, they had to do EVERYTHING from scratch. We had a fabulous time and learned lots of new things about surviving in the Stone Age! Year 5 had a fantastic morning visiting the Wyvern Academy to learn about space and light. They were able to experience space inside a planetarium dome, learning all about the International Space Station, different constellations and some of the planets which are visible in the sky at the moment. The second workshop was all about detecting light and how light can change. The pupils used infrared detectors and made bracelets that can detect UV light. When the beads are directly under UV light they change colour to help us see when the light is very strong.
On Monday 11th June, 28 children from year 5 took part in the first of the Darlington Year 5 Cricket Festivals at Feethams. We could not believe that the weather was so kind to us; the sun shone all day!
Our school was split into 3 teams, A, B and C. Each team played at least 5 matches on the morning in the group stage. The quality of our cricket increased after every game: many of us bowled overarm – unlike other schools! Team A finished top of their group and therefore went on to play in a nail-biting semi-final against Mowden. Despite our best efforts, Mowden won –marginally! We all had a great day though! Due to our narrow miss in the semi-finals, the A team were invited to the Darlington Cricket Final on Thursday 14th June. Unfortunately, we were beaten by Hurworth in the semi-final. Our last game was for the bronze medal position and our opponents were Mowden, once again! After another tense match, Mowden were victorious by only 2 runs! Another very close game. We are very proud of the fact that we are the 4th best cricket team in Darlington – we don’t even have a field! We may start practising a little earlier next year. We (the Year 5 Mini Police) went to the Denes play area on Monday 23rd April to pick up litter. This was part of our Mini Police programme.
During the last seven weeks, we have learnt all about anti-social behaviour. Anti-social behaviour comes in 3 parts – nuisance, personal and environmental. As a group, we had to do certain tasks to help the local community so we decided to collect litter and tidy up our local park. We all got ready with our litter pickers and high visibility vests and went down to the Dene to collect the litter, which is a major part of anti-social behaviour. You will be surprised it is not always the children who drop litter- adults do too! We found a variety of things littering the Denes including: a sold sign from a house, a sweeping brush, empty cans and broken bottles as well as sweet wrappers and ice lolly packets. In one hour, we manage to fill six bin bags. We collected from the local streets on the way to the Denes and we were shocked by the amount of litter in our local community. We want people to pick up their own litter and we have asked the council for more bins. After we had finished cleaning up the environment, we were allowed to play in the park. It was great fun! Mrs Davison was talking about forces but we just wanted to play! Thanks for reading this from Reid Street Mini Police Officers. During the Spring Term, 14 children from 5R completed their cycling proficiency. We thoroughly enjoyed this experience and passed the 6 week course.
What happened during Level 1? In Level 1 of this training, we completed some tasks that would show whether we could carry on to Level 2. During Level 1, the tasks we completed were: bike checks, helmet fittings, cycling across the yard that included emergency brake stops, looking at the colours the instructor flashed up while we were cycling and telling them the colour shown, weaving through cones, cycling on the inside of a cone circle and, as we did this, the circle minimized. Then all of the separate groups linked together and we cycled round a big circle of cones. At different points of this, we needed to leave the circle and then join back in at a safe point. We also, if it was safe to do so, gave one of our instructors a high five. Next, we moved onto level two of our training. What happened during Level 2? In Level 2 of cycle proficiency, we went out on the roads with our instructors. It was scary at first for some whilst others enjoyed all of it. Our Level 2 tasks included: bike checks, helmet checks, positioning of our bikes on the roads, overtaking parked cars, turning corners, U-turns, riding with our groups all together and performing looped U-turns. We had a lot of fun completing our training and it will be very useful for the future! We hope 5D enjoy it as much as we did. Thanks for reading our blog, Daniel and Martha. To show our support for Steve in his ‘Seven Summit Challenge’, Reid Street Primary School took part in a charity fundraising day. Wearing our climbing clothes and bobble hats, year 5 took part in lots of different tasks similar to what Steve and his team will face this year in their climb up Mount Everest.
We had to walk along a tightrope to represent the crevasses on the mountain. Afterwards, year 5 faced the challenge of carrying heavy mountain gear in rucksacks to represent the oxygen tanks and other vital supplies the Sherpas have to carry up and down the mountain. Our final challenge of the day was completing an obstacle course, climbing through each base camp until finally reaching the summit of Mount Everest! On Thursday 15th and 16th March, year 5 and 6 pupils took part in the first Primary Shakespeare Festival at Polam Hall School. This was an amazing opportunity to work with children from other schools – Polam, Skerne Park and St.Mary’s Cockerton.
In the weeks leading up to the festival, the children studied Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Each school was allocated a section of the play to perform, along with a choral chant and a song for the finale. The children worked incredibly hard to learn, and then perform, a very challenging script! We spent the afternoons rehearsing at Polam, along with the other schools. On the evenings, the children performed on the stage to a large audience. Despite initial nerves, the children performed incredibly well! The whole experience was amazing and one the children will not forget. Global Goal 4 – A Quality Education
Year 5 explored the importance of a quality education and looked at some of the amazing work charities such as UNICEF do to help children all over the world receive an education. We then discussed in smaller groups question cards relating to the effect education can have on our life including our physical and mental well-being. We presented our ideas to the class and discussed any questions we had with each other. Global Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation Year 5 conducted an experiment to see which filter would be the most effective in producing the cleanest water. We had a challenge in small groups to try and create the cleanest water using different filtering systems; such as tights and coffee filters. We graded the water before and after filtering it and found some amazing results! Four Tuesdays in September and October, Year 5 visited the Forest School in Darlington. Here they explored the woods, worked in teams to build dens from branches and any other materials they could find. Finally, they were able to toast marshmallows over a roaring bonfire!
Year 5 pupils participated in a sports competition at The Wyvern Academy which involved a number of other local schools. The children competed in a variety of sporting events such as hurdles, space hopper race, penalty shoot-out and team building skill games. During the day, the pupils also received training in exciting activities, some of which they had not experienced before. In a competitive tournament, Reid Street came third overall - a fantastic achievement - with Cockerton Primary School winning first prize. Well done Year 5!
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