Newtown Community Primary School
'Newtown Primary School is a Community Primary School and we take the "Community" aspect of our title very seriously. Our children, their families and extended families are at the heart of everything we do.'

Cedar Class (Year 5)

Welcome to Cedar Class!

 

My name is Mrs Bieda and I am teaching Cedar class this year with the support of our teaching assistant, Mrs King.

 

The children will be faced with many new challenges in Year 5 but if they remember to always think of others and try their best when facing these challenges, they can all work together and enjoy learning in a caring and positive environment.

 

Key things to remember:

  • The children will have swimming lessons on a Monday afternoon, so they will need to ensure they have their swimming costume and a towel in school on this day.
  • PE kit needs to be in school every day. 
  • Children are expected to read daily and record this in the back of their learning destination book.
  • Maths homework will be set every Monday and will be linked to what the children have been learning in class. Spellings homework will also be set on a Monday; all homework should be completed by Friday.
     
The learning destination book can also be used for any additional home learning that your child wishes

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

As part of this term’s topic, Healthy body, healthy mind, Cedar class wrote instructions in their Literacy lessons on how to make vegetable soup. They then had the opportunity to test their recipes when they made their own vegetable soup. As you can see from the photographs, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and even invited Mr. Marshall to try some.

Cedar Class have made a fantastic start to this term’s topic – Healthy body, healthy mind.

The children researched information on Jamie Oliver in order to write a biography on him. They were aware of the need to check their information for accuracy by comparing facts from a variety of sources.  We have also been taking part in the Wiltshire Council scheme, ‘Healthy Me’, which consists of six sessions aimed at teaching children about the importance of not only eating healthily, but how exercise and a healthy lifestyle contributes to overall well-being.

The children were set quite a tricky task when making this term’s topic book covers. They had to use a selection of fruit and vegetables to create a picture that showed one way they could exercise. Cedar Class, as usual, didn’t disappoint and they were really proud of their results. They also enjoyed eating some of the fruit and vegetables they had used! Tomorrow they will be using even more vegetables, when they use their recipes they have written in Literacy this week to make vegetable soup.

Supporting Red Nose Day

We the Curious

Cedar Class recently visited We the Curious in Bristol as part of last term’s topic on Space. They thoroughly enjoyed their day, taking part in astronaut training during a Space workshop and investigating the exhibits. The highlight of the day though was visiting the Planetarium, where the children put on their 3D glasses and took a journey through the solar system!

Art was the focus subject of the term and Cedar class researched the life and work of an American artist, Peter Thorpe. They noted similarities between all of his paintings and the way he uses abstract art in the background of his work. The children practised their sketching after learning new hatching and cross hatching skills, by drawing their own Peter Thorpe style picture. They then used their sketches to create their final pieces of work – Peter Thorpe style pictures created using oil pastels.

World War One

The topic in Cedar Class this term has been World War One. As always, the children have worked incredibly hard, writing newspaper reports on the outbreak of war, writing about the role of animals in the war and finally a diary entry in role as Albert, one of the main characters in this term’s book, War Horse.

 

In History, Cedar Class looked at life in the trenches during World War One, they then went on to design and create their own trench. Lots of joining skills were learned whilst making the trenches, including using a glue gun to make the dugout and to glue the barbed wire in place. They are very proud of their final results and are able to explain the different parts of their trenches. Well done Cedar, a fabulous term!

 

A science experiment

Cedar Class have made a fantastic start to Year 5, they have worked hard to produce work of a very high standard, which is great to see. The children worked particularly well together when carrying out a scientific investigation recently. They were investigating which material would act as the most effective insulator, making it suitable for the lining of a lunch bag.

 

Each group had five cups containing an ice cube, each cup was covered in one of five different materials. They also had a sixth cup which was left uncovered. The children were the first in the school to use our new Data loggers, they used the temperature probes to record the temperature inside each of the five cups at five minute intervals, then recorded their data carefully.

 

Although each group had different results regarding which insulator was the most effective, the children were able to suggest scientific reasons for this and how they could overcome these problems, if they were to repeat the investigation.

 

Well Done Cedar!

British Values

As part of this term’s British Values topic, Cedar class have been discussing the importance of respecting everyone’s differences. They drew self-portraits, then used their artwork to help them create 3D self-portraits with clay. The children showed great resilience when using the clay and were very pleased with their models.

Cedar Class get their skip on with Skippy John