Barn Owl Class
Year 5
Summer Term 2022
Year 5 Spellings
Making mountains
Our current topic is Mountains, Rivers and Biomes. We used a range of materials to investigate how fold, fault, dome, volcanic and plateau mountains are formed. By far the most popular was the fault mountain as the children got to eat the crispy cake it was made from at the end of the lesson!
Barn Owl Class - Making Mountains
Movies and Magic science workshop at Warneford School
We were lucky enough to get invited along to a Movies and Magic science workshop at Warneford School. Mr Blake demonstrated how he could turn fire into different colours by burning a range of metals. The children then had fun investigating optical illusions with different liquids as well as exploring the affects of static electricity. By the end of the lesson most of the balloons were stuck to the ceiling!
Barn Owl Class Science Workshop
Forest School
The children in Barn Owl Class have been having lots of fun in Forest School. They have been learning many new skills from den building, to sawing and hammering as well as working together and problem solving. Recent visitors to our school were really impressed with how our year 5s learn so well through play.
Barn Owl Forest School
Spring Term 2022
World Book Day
Barn Owl class had great fun on World Book Day. We completed lots of activities including going on a book hunt and making mini books. We dressed up as our favourite book characters and talked about the books we love.
Shadows
We were lucky with bright sunshine when we did our shadow investigation. The children were surprised at how much their shadows changed throughout the day, not only in length, but also the direction of the shadow.
The Moon
Having spent the month observing the moon and keeping moon diaries, we then made the phases of the moon to help us with our learning about why the moon appears to change shape. It’s not often you can eat the results of a science lesson!
Space zoom calls with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories
As part of our science topic Earth and Space, Barn Owl class has been very lucky in managing to talk twice using zoom to the lovely space scientists at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories (RAL). The first zoom session was all about the James Webb space telescope. We got to listen to many different scientists as they explained their role in making the telescope. We also had a go at making our own rocket models out of spaghetti to see which ones would survive a shaky take-off! Following that Zoom session, we had a Zoom call with Eimear from RAL and she talked to us about our galaxy and her job as an astrophysicist. She also answered some of our questions about space including what the name of the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way is (Sagittarius A for those of you who didn’t know)!
Pop art
Roy Lichtenstein has been inspiring us with having a go at making pop art versions of our self-portraits. You can see how hard everyone concentrated in their creations and the results were fabulous!
Autumn Term 2021
Art In Barn Owl class
At school following on from Barn Owl’s class trip to Kelmscott Manor where they looked at some of the arts and crafts made by William Morris and some of the paintings by his friend Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti the children have used their new skills and knowledge about printing, motifs and repeating to make their own prints on both paper and fabric. The fabric prints will be used to embellish their Christmas stockings in DT and the paper print will be used to make a Christmas card for a loved one.
We have had the best time and learnt so much making printing blocks and tiles with the artist Susie Hetherington and the learning team at Kelmscot Manor and as a result we have extended our skills an made some wonderful prints back at school.
Owl Pellets
Barn Owl Class have been busy dissecting Barn Owl pellets! We measured and weighed them and then soaked them for half an hour we then donned gloves and using tweezers, a cocktail stick and magnifying glasses we gently prised apart the pellets to discover what the Barn Owls in our area have been eating. We found many rodent bones including rats, mice shews and moles. We were surprised to find up to 3 skulls in a single pellet.
Barn Owl - Owl Pellet investigations
Trip to Sevington School
As part of our topic on Victorians, we visited Sevington School and spent the day playing the role of a Victorian school child. When we arrived, Miss Squire and her sister did a hand and boot inspection before each child was handed a penny to enter the school room. Lessons included writing on a slate, adding up pounds, shillings and pence and using ink pens and blotters in a handwriting lesson. As well as time in the school room, the girls made lavender bags and added lots of elbow grease to their polishing of brass items in the kitchen. The boys spent time in the garden picking up windfalls before returning to the parlour to make bees wax candles. We also got a chance to play with Victorian toys, some of the boys were skilled with getting the metal hoops to travel a long way and there was some very impressive cats cradle being played by the girls. The children did a fantastic job representing the school with both Miss Squire and her sister being very complimentary about the children’s behaviour.
Sevington trip
Football coaches
Barn Owl class have been very lucky to work with Rob and Neil this term working on our football, team and sportsmanship skills. We loved all of the games we have learned and played this term and have become so much more confident with our knowledge and skills in football.
Barn Owl Class with Football Coaches
