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Teak 5

 
Welcome to Teak 5!
 
 
2024 - 2025
 
Mrs Brennan/Mrs Davis - Class Teachers
Miss Croft - School Direct
Mrs Komuszynska/Miss Dow/Mrs Crosby/Ms Winsloe-Warder - Teaching Assistants
 
Autumn 2
 
The Solar System
 
Autumn 1
 
Marvellous Mechanisms
Year 5 have been making toys involving a cam a follower to create a moving mechanism. They designed and made this for a target audience that may visit Drayton Manor theme park's gift shop. Have a look at our brilliant final designs and how we worked as part of a team to design, make and evaluate our final products.
On Friday 25th October, Year 5 visited Drayton Manor Theme Park. Not only was this extremely fun, but we also learned lots about forces too.
Year 5 had great fun completing the Now Press Play experience all about forces. This was a great opportunity to revise what we have been learning, and to immerse us into our next piece of writing - a non-chronological report about forces, including gravity and friction. 
 
Welcome to Pine 4!
 
 
2023 - 2024
 
Mrs Atkins/Mrs Bayliss - Class Teachers
Mrs Komuszynska/Mrs Williams/Mrs Bradford - Teaching Assistants
 
Summer 2
 
Living Things and their Habitats
During our DT lessons this half term, we’ve been learning about levers and linkages to improve our understanding of mechanisms.  Here we have created a poster with a moving part.
Year 4 (including the staff) absolutely loved their rock concert! It was a great reward for their constant efforts in 'Battle of the Bands' on Times Tables Rockstars and for learning their times tables so diligently.
 
Summer 1
 
Vikings
The final Consumer Club session compared a range of cheese and tomato pizzas. Unanimously, the cheapest pizza was voted the tastiest (although the adults did not agree with this one). Once again, we discovered that the most expensive item is not necessarily the best.
Super Tag Rugby skills in PE, this half term. 
Year 4 have been inspired by art by Yayoi Kusama and their learning about Vikings to design and make some fabulous, decorative brooches out of clay. 
During their geography lesson, Year 4 explored where Vikings settled in Britain. To make our search easier, we used the index and contents pages and grid references in atlases.
Session 6 of ‘Consumer Club’ compared a range of jelly babies. Most expensive brand, Maynard’s (usually priced at £1.65) turned out to be the least favourite. Most of the consumer club felt that whilst coming in at third place, the closeness of the vote meant that ASDA jelly babies would be the best value for money.
Session 4 of ‘Consumer Club’ compared a range of chocolate Bourbon biscuits. This was our toughest challenge yet as the biscuits all tasted so similar. First place this week went to the Aldi brand, which also happened to be the cheapest.
 
During session 5, the ‘Consumer Club’ compared a range of cornflakes. Once again, the most expensive brand did not result in being the favourite, with Kelloggs only coming in as fourth favourite.
In math, we have been learning about the properties of 2D shapes.
In computing this half term, we have been working on 2Logo. 2Logo is a text-based coding language used to control an on-screen marker to create mathematical patterns. Here are some examples of our mathematical patterns.
As part of their BASE activity, the Year 4 ‘Consumer Club’ will be comparing a range of different food products. They will look at branding and packaging, predicting which product is the most expensive before taking part in a very thorough tasting session.
 
For their first session, they compared a range of tomato ketchup sauces. While they didn’t all agree on the order of their favourite sauces, they were surprised that the most expensive (Heinz) was not the brand that they found the tastiest. 
 
For their second session, the ‘Consumer Club’ compared a range of chocolate bars. Nearly everyone predicted that their favourite would be Cadbury but unanimously, Lindt came out on top. After comparing prices, they felt that third favourite, Tesco, was the best value for money.
 
Session three of ‘Consumer Club’ compared a range of ready salted crisps. Again, we had some surprises over which was our favourite. ASDA crisps came up on top and were a whopping  £1.15 cheaper than second place Walkers.
 
Spring 2
 
Take One Author: Michael Morpurgo
 

After learning about the functions of the digestive system, Pine 4 explored what this might look like.

Year 4 have been learning about their teeth and dental hygiene in Science and PSHE. We compared different liquids and their effects on tooth enamel. We were surprised with the results.
 
'The egg in vinegar is squishy,' Maisie.
On World Book Day, Pine 4 spent their afternoon at Polesworth Library. On the journey, we kept our keen eyes out for physical and human features in our local area.
 
Spring 1
 
Misty Mountains, Winding Rivers
 

Year 4 had a fantastic time at Carsington Water on Tuesday. In the Wildlife Centre, we learned how to read OS maps and use grid references to find different locations. We then went to the river where we took part in a river study to find out if it would be a good place for a water vole to live by measuring the width of the river, the depth of the river and the speed of the river flow. Luckily, we didn’t get too wet!

Pine 4 loved sharing the importance of reading to celebrate National Storytelling Week with the rest of the school and their families today. 
 
Autumn 2
 
Anglo-Saxons
Look at our amazing light-up Christmas cards! During our DT lessons on electrical systems, children designed their cards and created their own circuits including home-made switches. They’re sure to brighten up the recipients’ Christmas. 
Year 4 were visited by The History Squad on Thursday 23rd November and took part in an Anglo Saxon workshop.  They learned some fascinating facts about Britain during the Early Middle Ages and the children were very knowledgeable about their previous learning - impressing the Saxon, Haydn. Children then looked more closely at the weaponry used during the era and had great fun testing the strength of the steel and wood!
 
Autumn 1
 
Roman Britain
Pine 4 had a great time testing different materials in Science to find out if they were insulators or conductors. We quickly learned that most metals conduct electricity because they allow it to flow through the circuit.  Harrison spotted that his plastic ruler was conducting electricity and was very perplexed by this. He immediately ‘debugged‘ the circuit and correctly spotted that the metal clips were touching! Excellent fun and work Pine 4!

To support our history topic of ‘Roman Britain’, we visited Lunt Fort in Coventry. We spent some time in the granary, which housed the museum, where we learned about the lives of soldiers at the fort. Here, we were given the opportunity to handle Roman objects and discover more about the nature and function of Roman armour and weapons. We then visited the gyrus. Led by our uniformed commander, we experienced life as a Roman soldier including touring the fort and taking part in battle drills where we used wooden swords and shields to practise authentic Roman military manoeuvres.

Pine 4 really enjoyed spending some time with poet Ash Dickinson. He shared some of his own poetry with us and inspired us to create our own haikus and poems inspired by the local Elizabethan poet Michael Drayton.
Marvellous Maths!

RIOTOUS ROMANS!

To begin our new topic about ‘Roman Britain’, we started by joining a Roman Bootcamp, where we began our training to become Roman soldiers. We pushed ourselves to the limit with long-distance jumping, marching distances, spear throwing and chariot racing whilst also applying our mathematical knowledge of measure to real-life situations.

We then visited ‘Birchwood’s Roman Museum’, where we explored a range of real ancient Roman artefacts including fragments of various ancient pots, Roman coins, an oil lamp, bronze broach and an iron stylus. These helped us to make deductions about what life was like in a Roman times.

Finally, after researching what made the Roman army so powerful, we put our Bootcamp training to the test and created our own Roman army legions, where we practised some of the famous ‘Orb’, ‘Testudo’ (Tortoise) and ‘Wedge’ formations.

 
Welcome to Maple 3!
 
 
2022 - 2023
 
Mrs Davis/Miss Houghton - Class Teachers
Mrs Calloway/Mrs Whitlock - Teaching Assistants
 
 
Summer 2
 
Scrumdiddlyumptious 
 
and 
 
Take One Author
 
On Thursday 8th June Year 3 visited Cadbury World in Bournville. They had a wonderful day exploring the factory. They learnt all about the journey of the cocoa bean, how John Cadbury started out in Bull Street making hot chocolate, how chocolate is made and also got to taste some very delicious chocolate! They also enjoyed visiting the 4D cinema and went on a whirlwind adventure with Freddo the Cadbury frog and the Cadbury's Caramel Bunny. A fantastic day was had by all!
 
 
Summer 1
 
Ancient Greece
 
 
Visit this fascinating European country with us and find out about the weather, landscape, landmarks and culture. Travel back to Ancient Greece to discover how our lives today have been influenced by this exciting and important time in history. While we’re there, we’ll take part in some exhilarating Olympic events and discover a fantastical world full of mythical creatures and legendary heroes. Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis and Zeus reign almighty from Mount Olympus, watching mere mortals on dusty Athenian streets. Meet Theseus, the hero, and Helen of Troy, the beautiful face that launched a thousand ships. Explore the terrains of Greece, where in pure blue skies, the Sun scorches waxen wings and melts the fortunes of Icarus and Daedalus. Then decide your own fate when a mysterious box is found and stirs your curious mind.
 
 
Spring 2
 
Rocks, Volcanoes and Earthquakes
 

On Thursday 23rd March, Year 3 enjoyed a fun-filled day at Birmingham Thinktank. Pupils were able to explore all the areas of the Thinktank, including the ‘Future’ gallery, ‘Our World’ gallery, ‘We Made It’ Gallery and ‘The Past’ Gallery. The children were certainly fascinated by all the areas and were amazed by the Spitfire and Hurricane World War Two planes hanging from the ceiling in the museum! The Science Garden was great fun, as the pupils learnt about pushes and pulls, engineering, mechanics and transportation. The ‘human hamster wheel’ was also a big hit with the children!

A fantastic day was had by all!

 
Maple 3 met their reading targets two weeks running and, as a result of this, enjoyed their well-earned tea party with Mr Coleman today. We listened to two stories whilst eating a cupcake! 
 
 
Come and join us on a magnificent adventure where we discover what is beneath our feet. We learn all about soils and different types of rocks. We follow the adventures of the famous fossil hunter - Mary Anning. Year 3 also meet Charlie. Charlie loves a challenge - he's addicted to video games and an expert at figuring out how to get to the next level. But sometimes the real world can seem a bit dull. Then he finds himself on the slopes of an active volcano, with red-hot lava heading his way! 
 
 
Spring 1
 
Forces, Magnets and Metals
 
 
We arrived back to school to lots of different metal objects lying around. We also found 'The Iron Man' text! We used our scientific enquiry skills to sort and classify the different bits of metal into a variety of different categories. 
 
 
Hogarth and The Iron Man from our key text ‘The Iron Man’ are our guides through our Forces, Magnets and Metals theme. We learn all about different metals and what they are used for, explore magnetism and how this works, along with focusing our scientific investigations on forces.
 
 
Autumn 2
 
Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age
 
 
To finish the year off Year 3 made Christmas cards for their families and created a calendar ready for 2023. 
 
The Year 3 team and children would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!
 

What a lead up to Christmas it has been! 

Firstly, we are so proud of Year 3 for their successful Nativity performance with Year 4 on Monday! The actors and singers all did a fabulous job! 

The children created hot chocolate reindeers with marshmallows which went down a storm at the Christmas Fair!

The children all got into the festive spirit when opening their Winter books gifted to them by school. There were so many excited children who could not wait to start reading their books and have not put them down since opening them! 

 

Year 3 are thoroughly enjoying the class text 'Stone Age Tales: The Great Storm' by Terry Deary. The story takes place in Skara Brae, over 5000 years ago! Year 3 have used atlases to locate the fascinating, prehistoric village of Skara Brae. The children learned that the preserved Neolithic village was uncovered in 1850 by a great storm which exposed the site and then in 1860s archeologists dug further to uncover four buildings. 

 

Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed their Stone Age Day! The children became junior archaeologists when visited by Dr Ian Parker-Heath. They dug up and then researched interesting artefacts from the Stone Age (Palaeolithic - Old Stone Age, Mesolithic - Middle Stone Age and Neolithic - New Stone Age), Bronze Age and Iron Age.

The children then tried to put together broken bits of artefacts to recreate the original object.  They got to ground grains.  The children also created clay pots using the tools Stone Age people would have used (their hands and nails). 

Finally, the children created a timeline to help see how long ago the Stone Age was and for how long the Stone Age was. 

 

Throughout this half term, we go 2.6 million years back in time by reading ‘The Great Storm’ by Terry Deary. We learn about the exciting discoveries, particularly during the Neolithic period. We learn about changes in diet, tools, art and housing as we venture through to the Bronze Age and Iron Age, making comparisons to how we live nowadays.
 
 
Autumn 1
 
Road Trip USA
 

In science, year 3 have explored the topic of plants. We have learnt about the life cycle of a plant, how seeds are dispersed and what plants need to grow. The children sorted a wide variety of seeds into categories depending on how the seed is dispersed. We observed the transport of water through a stem by putting carnations in coloured water and watching the flower change colour. We completed an investigation and observed the effects on plants when we deprive them of the requirements for growth.

 

Year 3 performed their dance to an audience during the final week of half term. The children enjoyed learning a routine with Embody Dance to the song “New York”. They included freeze frames and canons within their routine, and learnt to tell a story through dance.

 

Year 3 had a great time building bridges in DT. As we are learning about the USA, we have learnt about the Golden Gate Bridge, engineered by Joseph Strauss. We began learning about different types of bridges before building triangular and square frameworks whilst learning about how to ensure a bridge is strong and stable. The children used their knowledge to build a bridge out of new and recycled materials. We tested our bridges using a toy car and evaluated the appearance and strength of the bridge.

 

When Year 3 returned to school we received a letter from Larry the dog and his owner Pete inviting us on a road trip around the USA. Before the adventures began we looked on a world map to see where we would be heading. We found that the USA is located in the continent of North America. We couldn’t wait to start exploring but we hit a problem! Larry kept getting lost so Pete needed out help to find him in the different states. We have already explored California, discovering the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and then we went sighting seeing around New York finding famous landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Central Park and much more. As we continue our journey we look forward to visiting Washington DC, Texas and then finally Los Angeles to take a walk along the iconic Hollywood walk of fame, it will be quite a journey! Along the way, we will research iconic American people, make traditional American dishes and identifying physical and human features of North America. We even have a go at designing and building our own bridges after finding out about the world famous Golden Gate Bridge. 
 
Welcome to Juniper 2!
 
 
2021 - 2022
 
Mrs Brelsford - Class Teacher
Mrs Whitlock/Mrs Spencer - Teaching Assistants
 
 
Summer 2
 
Beside the Seaside
 
Year 2 had a fantastic day at Weston-Super-Mare last Thursday. Their topic is all about the coast so it was brilliant to experience the beach, see geographical features of the coast and learn about holidays of the past. The children visited the Grand Pier, played with kites and beach balls, built sandcastles, ate chips and ice-lollies, buried each other and ultimately had the time of their school lives. Many children commented that it was their best school day ever and we could tell because many bought socks full of sand and a huge smile back with them. The weather was excellent and so was the behaviour of the children with people even stopping us on the boardwalk to comment on how considerate our pupils were. A trip that we will most certainly repeat.

We were sent a top secret mission by the Queen! She sent us clues based on the human and physical features of different seaside resorts in the UK and we had to identify where on the coastline of the UK Captain Redblood had buried his treasure. After looking at maps we discovered it was at Weston-Super-Mare! We are very lucky as we will also be visiting the seaside resort later this half term as a thank you for all our hard work.   

 
Summer 1
 
Land Ahoy!
 

During Summer 1, Year 2 had a swashbuckling pirate day! We met Captain Jake from ‘The History Squad’ who taught us lots of interesting facts about pirates! To begin with he made sure we were familiar with special pirate vocabulary such as ‘stern', 'bow', 'port' and 'starboard'. Captain Jake then gave us orders of jobs he needed us to do on the ship. We climbed the rigging, swabbed the deck, hoisted the Jolly Roger and dropped the anchor. Captain Jake then showed us different pirate artefacts. We held gold doubloons, pieces of eight, different types of pistols, a cutlass and a 300 year old canon ball! Captain Jake then taught us about famous pirates in the ‘Golden Age of Piracy such as Captain Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Calico Jack! Year 2 loved their pirate day and would like to say a big thank you to ‘The History Squad’.  

Sam Silver Undercover Pirate: Skeleton Island was our driving text for Land Ahoy! This book is written by the wonderful author Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler (who have written over 200 children’s book). Year 2 have loved joining Sam travelling back in time and finding himself on Captain Blade’s ship so were thrilled when they found out they had a zoom call with the authors Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler! We told them we were about to write our very own pirate adventure story and they gave us some fantastic advice. Jan and Sara were very impressed when we showed them the moving pictures (when learning about mechanisms in DT) we had made to go into our story books. They even asked us to send some of our finished books to them so they could read them. You can see some of our moving picture books and the letter we received from Jan and Sara after our Zoom call below.  

 
Spring 2
 
 Under the Canopy
 

As part of our learning on rainforests, we visited the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham. Here we were able experience what a rainforest is like and learned about lots of different types of plants too. The trip also helped us with our artwork linked to Henri Rousseau as he was also inspired after visiting the Botanical Gardens in Paris.  

We read 'There's A Rang Tan in my Bedroom' and found out all about the orangutans in the rainforest and how their homes are being destroyed because of palm oil. We then made orangutan friendly cereal bars in DT that used honey instead of palm oil and wrote a speech asking for companies to be responsible when growing palm oil. We also wrote non-chronological reports about orangutans too. In Geography we have been learning about the location of the world's rainforests and what the climate is like there and around the Equator. In our dance lessons we have been learning about other rainforest animals, where in the rainforest they live and how they move in different ways. 
An orang-utan has travelled all the way from the rainforest because they need our help as their home is being destroyed! We will learn all about the rainforest, the animals that live there and how we can help protect them. We will also find out why rainforests are so essential to all life on earth.
 
Spring 1
 
Muck, Mess and Mixtures
 

It’s time to get creative in your afternoon theme of ‘Muck, Mess and Mixtures’! We will be joining Roald Dahl’s George by mixing our own marvellous creations. By mixing colours and applying materials we will create our own unique masterpieces and have some fun getting messy in the process. Thinking about mess we have lots of scientific investigations to perform and we will create our own healthy recipes to form part of a balanced diet.

 
Autumn 2
 
Significant People
 
Year 2 had a visit from two modern day policemen today. They were able to share with them all they had learnt about Sir Robert Peel and were able to find out about policing today. We even got to see and hear the sirens!
Year 2 have been learning about the different types of Scientific Enquiry they will encounter at Birchwood. 
 
To help us better understand the significance of Sir Robert Peel: a former local MP, former Prime Minister and founder of the Metropolitan Police, 2 members from The Peel Society visited Year 2.
 
Autumn 1
 
Bright Lights, Big City
 
 
Silly old Paddington Bear … he packed his bags for his tea party but he spilt marmalade all over his invitation. We had to help him using our inference skills by working out where he was going and who he was visiting. 
 
We have been very busy ‘visiting’ the landmarks in London and designing a vehicle to help him get to the Royal Tea Party at Buckingham Palace! He can’t be late for the Queen!
 
 
Welcome to Elm 1!
 
 
2020 - 2021
 
Miss Aston - Class Teacher
Mrs Short - Teaching Assistant
 
 
Summer 2
 
The Enchanted Woodland