Houghton Primary School

 

Eagles' Class are our Year 5 group. They are taught by Mrs Culpin who is assisted by Mrs Lemons and Mrs Anderson.

Please click here for more information about the Year 5 curriculum for the Summer term 2018

Latest News

Summer 2018

Friday 6th July

We all had great fun on our cultural day on Wednesday. We spent the morning in our houses looking at a different country. We took part in different activities ranging from art, model making, dance, music and tasting food.

Making the Eiffel Tower

Inspired by Monet

Indian dance

Hindu rangoli patterns

Indian elephants

Making Mexican salsa

Sombreros

 The week culminated in our sports day celebration and everyone had a lot of fun.

 

 

Friday 29th June

This week we have been looking at animal adaptation. We studied different animals and the features they have for their habitats. We looked at why birds have skin or feathers that are oily and why arctic animals need their layer of fat.

 

 

Friday 22nd June

Well done to 3 girls from Eagles' class who represented the school in the local schools cricket competition. They won both their matches and are now going on to represent the school in the County competition.

 

Friday 15th June

Our first swimming lesson this week which we all enjoyed. Everyone was tired by the afternoon! We were even sent an email by a member of the public, who commented on our politeness whilst cycling down the thicket.

At the weekend 2 boys from the class participated in the 5K Colour Run at Huntingdon Race Course for EACH. I think they were surprised to see Mrs Culpin in a tutu as well! Well done boys!

 

Friday 8th May

Final half term - where has the year gone? We started our swimming this week and everyone cycled brilliantly to St Ives so we are looking forward to the next 6 weeks. 

We have been studying Darwin's theory of natural selection and so this week we looked at his study of finches in the Galapagos Islands. We investigated what would happen to blunt beaked birds in an island with only small seeds. We used different size tweezers to pick up seeds and evaluate which beak was best. 

Outside maths this week has seen us looking at how we could sort the properties of regular and irregular polygons using venn diagrams or carroll diagrams. 

Friday 25th May

What a busy last week of the half term. We have packed so much in that we will definitely need a break. On Monday we managed to visit St Peters School and make bread. 

Each of us had designed our own roll. We then made the dough and added our special ingredients. They turned out really well and tasted delicious. We could open our own Year 5 bakery.

 

On the same day we visited St Peters School library to see how a secondary school library works . We were given challenges to find books.

We finished our final bowls session on Tuesday and the children have certainly learnt a lot and improved from the beginning session. We were also visited by Lisa, a STEM ambassador who helped us learn more about genetics and we even extracted the DNA from a strawberry. 

4 of our class took part in the Year 5 maths challenge after school. They worked well as a team to answer some very tricky questions. 

 

Friday 18th May

We have finally finished our stain glass windows and on a sunny day they certainly brighten up the classroom.

 

This week we have been inspired by the book 'The Lost words' by Robert Macfarlane and written our own acrostic poems on buttercups. To get inspiration we visited the meadow.

 

To get ideas for our bread roll design we evaluated different breads by looking at their appearance, discussing the aroma and thinking about the texture and taste of them.

This week 4 girls from our class took part in the HSSP netball tournament. They worked so well with the Year 6 girls and showed great skill and determination in the matches

Friday 4th May

This week the class tried something new - bowls. We were invited down to the playing field in the village to try our hand at the sport. Everyone had great fun trying different activities to work on the skill of bowling, from knocking down skittles, to getting as close to the jack as possible. Even Mrs Culpin had a go!

                                                                        choosing the correct weight of ball

 

Friday 27th April

During literacy this week we have been looking at the narrative poem, 'The Highwayman' and writing the poetry into prose. We then displayed it as a complete story with our art work.

6 of our class this week went to an 'Up for the Cup' football tournament at St Neot's Town football Club. They had a great time and represented the school wonderfully.

2 of our Year 5s also represented the school in the Cross-Country event this week, running an amazing 1.2k in a team event. They ran brilliantly, giving their all.

We celebrated Autism Awareness week on Friday and came in odd, silly or fun socks. We learnt a lot more about what it means to be autistic.

Friday 20th April

A great start to our final term as Year fives. We have been getting back into the swing of work. Friday was spent at the river, sketching the mill for our sketchbook on Houghton throughout the year.

Friday 30th March

 

It's been such a busy last week. Apologies for no photos but my computer has not been cooperating all week!

We all enjoyed our German Easter Day finding out about German customs at this time of year. We also participated in Earth Hour where all the classroom devices were turned off and we talked about the environment and what we could do to help. We even had time for a litter pick around the school grounds and were amazed at the amount of litter!

I hope you all have a lovely Easter break and get out in the fresh air and spend lots of time with your families and best of all enjoy the chocolate treats that you may get - yum!

Friday 23rd March 

Year 5 led their first sports morning today for our Sports Relief Day. They had planned their own games and adapted them for the different year groups. They were fantastic, showing clear leadership, enthusiasm and maturity. Well done Year 5. You will make great play leaders.

 

 

Friday 16th March

Bikeability week  

We were out on the playground on Monday learning the basics of road awareness before heading out onto the roads.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday saw us cycling on the roads. The children had fun but all learnt about cycling safely and awareness of other users of the road. We shall look forward to cycling to swimming in the Summer.

Friday 9th March

On Wednesday we participated in World Maths Day. We spent a lesson in the atrium working our way through puzzles and problems; and we had a lesson on live mathletics.

We were fortunate to have 2 local magistrates; Mr Watts and Mrs Harris visit us this week. They told us all about the court system and what their job involves. It was very interesting and the children had lots of questions for them.

4 of our class played the piano in a music assembly this week. We were very proud of them and the talent that they showed. 

Friday 2nd March

It has been a great month for reading with the Readathon activities in class. We have listened to audio stories, read newspapers, listened to German stories and read with Year 2. We also dressed up for World Book Day on Thursday as our favourite book characters .

On Wednesday the class continued their study of the 17th century and Oliver Cromwell. We visited Ely Cathedral and had a short trip through the cathedral's history, looking at how and why it has changed. 

We tried our hand at brass rubbing. It was good fun and the results were amazing!

 

We also visited Oliver Cromwell's  house to find out even more about him and how they lived in that time

Friday 26th February

Final day of the first week back and the class travelled to Huntingdon to visit the Cromwell Museum. The children also had a tour around Huntingdon seeing the site where Huntingdon Castle once stood, which was built in 1068. the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell, the site of one of his Civil War headquarters and the church where the tomb of the Cromwell family is interred. All of the children were really enthusiastic and can't wait for our trip to Ely next week.

Trying on 17th Century costumes

 Looking at portraits

Whilst in the museum we were visited by Matthew, a Civil War Soldier. The children were able to ask questions about life in the army and even got to hold a cannon ball.

 

Friday 9th February

As part of the readathon our class shared and read books with Kingfishers class.

We looked at the artist Bridget Riley who was part of the Op Art movement in the 1960s. She used geometric patterns, often in black and white, which also gave the sense of illusions and movement. We enjoyed creating our designs and you can come to  see them in the main hall. 

Friday 2nd February

As part of our science topic we have been looking at shadows, so we performed our own shadow puppet plays on The Iron Man.

We moved onto the 1970s this week in dance and produced our best disco moves to 'Night Fever' by The Bee Gees.

For the next few weeks we are looking at fractions and so started this week by looking at equivalent fractions. We played some games to aid our understanding.

As we have been looking at light and how we see things, the art we produced this week was an optical picture of our hand. They were really effective.

Friday 26th January

We have started our science topic this week and looked at how we know light travels in a straight line and what happens to a shadow when you move the light source. We enjoyed investigating with torches.

Dance this week was the 1960s. We twisted, did the locomotion, the swim and mashed potato all to 'Twist and Shout'

We were working this week on The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and we produced drama and a freeze frame on a particular scene, paying attention to the emotions of the characters.

Friday 19th January

We listened to some jazz this week; the bossa nova and then played some of it on the glockenspiel. We also had to improvise just as jazz musicians do!

 

During our dance lessons we have been looking at dance styles. We have also been listening to the music and finding out about the fashion to understand the particular decade. This week was the 1950s. We handjived and kicked and flicked to 'Rock around the Clock' by Bill Haley. 

 

During our German this week we have been having conversations on the phone and looking at German numbers to tell someone our phone number. We enjoyed a game of bingo to help us with this.

Friday 12th January

On Wednesday we were visited by Gripping History to help us in our understanding of 13th century life. We were guided through the day by Lady Catherine, who was a baron's wife, to tell us all about what England was like in 1215. She told us about the clothes they wore..

We were told what her husband would wear and what he would need in battle.

mail which was rather heavy!

We then played a game that showed us how much work the peasants had to do during the year. We had tasks to do such as shearing the sheep, making hay bales to sell and harvesting the peas and beans. Unfortunately the King kept taxing us, so all our hard work seemed to be for nothing!

We looked at how the Magna Carta would have been produced, learning about how they made the parchment, ink and quills. We then tried writing with quills and producing 13th century lettering. We found it quite tricky but great fun.

looking at the wax seal.

Lady Catherine then told us about the weapons which were used during the 13th century and we looked at different arrow heads; fascinating!  Unfortunately as peasants we had to then fight as our landowner had not paid his taxes.

Some of us however had been critical of King John and had been imprisoned without a fair trial! 

We finished the day realising that being a peasant in the feudal system would not be a life we would like to have.

 

 

It has been lovely to see all the children come back to school this week ready to get back to work and produce their very best.

Autumn 2017

The Year 5 team wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful New Year. We look forward to welcoming the children back on Thursday 4th January ready for a jam-packed Spring term.

Friday 15th December

Year 5 enjoyed making their Christmas hats with Kingfishers' class  and then having  a yummy Christmas dinner together with Year 2 and 3

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Friday 8th December

We played our maths games with each other this week. A lot of effort was made in our Home Learning and we have certainly improved  our understanding of factors, multiples, square and prime numbers.

We also looked at how our lungs worked; making models to show this using just a bottle and balloons!

Friday 1st December

We looked at our mummified apples this week and then had to write a report on our findings, linking our experiment with what they did to bodies in Ancient Egypt.

 Can you guess which one is the mummified apple?

This Friday we took part in the live lesson from Puffin Books. The lesson introduced us to illustrators and we could draw along with them and create our own characters. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Friday 24th November

A busy Friday saw Eagles'  performing their class assembly all about the Egyptians and sharing everything we have learnt this term. After this, a sport morning was enjoyed in the cold, crisp sunshine.

 

 

Friday 17th November.

It's been pyramid week in class and many of our lessons have revolved around those ancient structures of Egypt. In literacy we were asking questions and finding answers to how and why they were made? Who built the pyramids? Why they were built where they were? The children were practising note taking and looking for information in books.

Working out how they moved the enormous blocks of stone

In maths we were investigating the area and perimeter of pyramids using lego and trying to accurately draw a net of a square-based pyramid using protractors.

The class were 'walking like an Egyptian' in dance and composing moves to a song we have learnt in music.

Science was all about mummification and the process involved in preserving bodies before they were put into the tombs within the pyramid. We have started to mummify an apple by using salt. We have to leave it in the bath of salt for at least 2 weeks to see what the results are.

Friday 10th November

All week we have been studying the life of Anne Frank. The children have been fascinated by the story of a family living in a secret annexe for 2 years. We read extracts from Anne's diary and watched clips of what life would have been like for them. We talked about the persecution of the Jews and what laws were passed to restrict them. The children sketched wonderful pictures of Anne and the whole week culminated in writing a poem based on her hopes and fears. 

Sophie's drawing of what objects depict Anne's life

 

by Tom

Looking at how harsh the laws were against Jewish people

by Freya

Friday 3rd November

We investigated this week whether different exercises affected our heart rate. We did 3 different activities: star jumps, sprinting and skipping and checked which activity made our heart rate increase the most. We then drew graphs from this information.

We have also been looking at statistics in Maths and line graphs in particular. We had to decide what graphs might be showing from just information from the axes and the line itself. We decided that there could be different interpretations.

Our River Nile models grew over the half term and our crops are now looking lush and healthy!

On Wednesday, 6 of our class took part in the Hunts SSP Tag Rugby event at Hinchingbrooke School. They all had a great time and showed fantastic team spirit and great determination. They even earned a well-deserved 3rd place in the competition. 

Thursday also saw 5 boys from Year 5 take part in a football tournament held at the school. The Houghton team won the competition overall showing good skill and great team work.

 

Friday 20th October

Sports morning went ahead despite the miserable weather and all the children enjoyed the activities set up by the year 6.

We made River Niles this week and are hoping that the water from the river will water our crops without flooding and destroying them. Watch this space!

Friday 13th October

The children were finding out this week what their blood is made up of and then creating characters based on red and white blood cells and platelets.

Friday 9th October

The children completed the circuit for the NSPCC sponsor event and all had a great time doing tricep dips, the plank, ladder runs and shuttle runs. The children will have a workshop next week on keeping safe.

Following on from our work on the circulatory system, the children had the opportunity this week to observe a lamb's heart and see the chambers inside and the arteries coming from it. The children were fascinated and were able to understand some of the ideas we were talking about in class.

Friday 29th September

Understanding Roman numerals was the aim this week in our maths lessons and trying to recognise years and do problem solving

 

Our home learning was fabulous and all the children produced a piece of work on their favourite book. We had lego models, scenes from particular books, book reviews, interviews with characters and super illustrations.

During the harvest assembly the class showed their perspective paintings of Autumn trees.

On Friday we held a Geburtstagparty for Franzi. We sang Zum Geburtstag viel Glück, had Geburtstagkuchen, gave Geburtstagkarten und Geburtstaggeschenk and played Topfklopfen. Great fun!

Friday 22nd September

Our science work this week looked at how the circulatory system worked. The children became blood and travelled to pick up oxygen from the lungs before going to the heart to be pumped around the body. They then had to write an explanation of how the system worked.

We have been learning how to draw objects going into the distance using lines of perspective. We started looking at city scapes and buildings and we worked this week on an autumnal scene with trees which will become our Autumn landscape picture.

Friday 15th September

This week we started gymnastics and have been working in pairs to compose a sequence of movements that link together.

 

 

We started our work on the circulatory system and we were finding out where the heart and lungs are located in our body.

 

Friday 8th September

What a great start to the year! All the children came back to school eager and ready to learn. The Home Learning the children produced is fabulous showing their creativity and hard work and certainly brightens up the classroom.

We have been working on Growth Mindset this week and on Friday the children were presented with a task of making an origami penguin from a picture, We had comments ranging from 'I can't do that', 'That's impossible', to 'I've got an idea', 'I'm going to give it a try'. We have been discussing how mistakes help you learn and that things may take time and effort but as a learner you can always improve. A mindset in progress. Watch this space!

Active maths today on our place value work.