Year 5/6 St Chad's: February 2015

Autumn 1 :

'Comparing a place in South America with our own environment' We chose to use the Amazon Rainforest as an area to compare with Saddleworth. Please see our page containing our Amazon Adventure Maths investigation where we had to create our own half term holiday adventure in the Amazon.

Working together to share ideas was great fun. We could decide on our ideal holiday in the Amazon using lots of ideas to choose from. We had a budget, so we had to be careful how much we spent, making sure we had enough money for staying in accommodation, how we wanted to travel and what fun activities we wanted to do when we were there.

Working together meant we could check our maths skills to make sure we had enough money. We used many interesting strategies to check our calculations.

Deciding on our places to visit made us feel like we were really organising our own holiday. It made us realise what our families must do when they plan a holiday. We wished it was REAL!

Although we were challenged, we were motivated to spend as much as we could until the last drop was gone. However, some of us decided we would save some of the money to go back to The Amazon next year so already had some money in the bank to prepare for that second trip!

Organising how we recorded our evidence was important to know exactly where our budget was spent.
It was great Fun!

Where can we go on holiday next half term?

Project Autumn 2 Creating a scene from Macbeth

Autumn 2 leading into Spring 1

'Identifying and aspect of leisure in Tudor Times ' We focused on the development of Theatre and entertainment in Tudor/Elizabethan times with a focus upon Shakespeare and Macbeth.

We decoded pm a circular stage which we planned at home over the weekend together.

We learnt new skills: I learnt the cutting edge is an upward movement of the saw!

I really had fun using wood, saws and glue guns.
We wrote our own risk assessment in case we cut or burnt ourselves and decided what safety measure to take.

Seeing our stage become real was exciting as we could then plan the scenery to go inside.

We organised scenery to go with our playscripts
Scene: The witches inform Macbeth with their prophesy.

Scene: Banquo appears as a ghost to Macbeth

We used our individual skills and talents to decorate the stage andmake it look

Poor Lady Macbeth. She wasn't very happy with life!

We wrote our own playscripts to use with our models

Planning curtains to go around a circular stage proved quite tricky, but we used various skills such as sewing and measuring to make it fit.

We even made curved scenery to show the different scenes of our part of the play.
We did struggle with stability of the stage and learnt how to strengthen the sides to keep them sturdy.

Some pieces of wood were tricky to cut straight, so we needed to use guides and clamps to hold wood still.

I reflected on the mood and emotions in the play and made the models to fit my understanding of the characters.

Can you tell what these characters might be thinking?

We used sticks to support the plasticine models as they were quite large and heavy to remain standing upright. We researched what soldiers might wear and tried to make each character look different.

I used scientific skills to create hidden lighting under the floor of the stage.

And here it is...................

It is called an apron stage.

Our final products

'Tis Birnam Wood approaching.............!

Is that a dagger I see before me?

Oh Horror! Horror! Horror!

When shall we three meet again...........................!

Double Double Toil and Trouble

Fire Burn and Cauldron bubble!

Our mobile phones came in very useful for lighting and sound effects.

To be...............or not to be
That is the question!

Snowy creative lesson outside

Snowy Creative Lesson outside:

Mrs Henderson asked KS2 to work together to create a structure where people could live. We had a fantastic time creating castles, forts, 'Snowhenge', igloos and one group even designed an Ice castle especially for Mrs Henderson!