Term 4
The Easter Story
This week, year 5 have been revisiting the Christian Easter story looking at the themes within it. As a class, we discussed the themes of betrayal, friendship, love, loyalty and resurrection. The children then used their imagination and art skills to represent these ideas on a wooden tile. We placed our tiled together to form the shape of a cross. Well done Respect class.
Red Nose Day
The children looked amazing on Friday for the Comic Relief 40th birthday celebrations! Some fabulous outfits and they struck some good moves on the playground with DJ Critcher during their Danceathon!
History - Siege Engines
This week we have been learning about siege engines and how they were used to breach a castle’s defences. We took turns looking at various pictures and worked as Collaborative Cats to work out what they were! The children came up with some very interesting ideas!
This is a catapult! It was a simple mechanism used to propel stones, spears and other projectiles.
This is a trebuchet. This used a longer arm than a catapult and used lever systems to launch projectiles.
A battering ram was a siege engine that originated in ancient times and was designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates.
It is the simplest, and probably the oldest, of the offensive siege craft. The siege ladder allows attacking soldiers to cross moats or other blockades around castle walls.
Ballistas, sometimes called bolt thrower, was an ancient missile weapon that launched either bolts or stones at a distant target.
Maths
Respect Class have really enjoyed maths this term. We are reminding ourselves, successfully, of shape properties whilst focusing on fractions. We are adding subtracting and contending with the LCD’s (Lowest Common Denominators). We challenge you to test our knowledge at home.
History
As part of our history curriculum, writing about the features of the castles that we have been researching extensively. We have understood the reasons why these features contribute as defensive fortifications. We have also been looking at the catapult as a weapon. Firstly, we looked at their use, their design and the science behind the fulcrum. With this, we hope to design and make our own catapults as part of design and technology!!
Dover Castle Trip
On Wednesday, Respect class, along with Tolerance class, made their way up the hills of Dover to the castle! The children were resilient, if somewhat exhausted, after climbing all the way to the top of Connaught Hill. Our hard work was paid off by an amazing view of Dover, including the thrill of being able to spot our school and even some of the children’s houses!
The visit to the castle was the children’s opportunity to observe all the defensive features we have been learning about in class for our Fortify and Defend topic. As we approached the castle, they got to look at the towering walls, the deep moat and the arrow slits. They sketched the fortifications and wrote great descriptions of the things that they saw. As we walked through the gate to the castle we were treated to another amazing view of the port and the English Channel. Sadly, due to the wet weather, our trip was cut short but not before heading into the baily and venturing into The Great Tower (the keep.)
The children were fabulous history detectives, gathering many facts to use in the Dover Castle guide. They can’t wait to head back later in the term to show you their work and guide you around the castle!
