Amazing Alchemy Writing

Year 5 have written some amazing pieces of writing based on their experience in Alchemy Island.

This is a fantastic poem written by a boy in our class.

ALCHEMY ISLAND

When you think of alchemy, do you think of white lab coats?

Or lots of gold in fantasy moats?

Do think of cool equipment, special gear?

Or amazing powder that you smudge and smear?

Whatever you think whatever you hear,

Compared to this it is quite mere.

Deep in a volcano, dark and dreary,

A prickle down your spine feels quite eerie,

Far down in a bottomless pit,

Near a rock on which the lava sits.

In a desert of cactus and weeds,

Lives all the stuff to fulfill your needs,

In this kingdom there is a land,

 Far beneath the layer of sand.

Up in the air on a frozen peak,

Storms blow up all cold and bleak,

Legend tells of a magical creature,

Down on the ground with wintery features.

High up in the trees sits a special fruit,

Half nut half seed and makes you toot,

To get up and down you can travel fine,

Just grab hold of a jungle vine.

In your homes with your guilty smirks,

Never forget how this island works.

The Scrolls and the Suitcase

On Monday, Mrs Stemp came in holding a suitcase and a scroll. She said it had been left at the office for Fox Class. Inside it contained a map, a riddle and a key. The scroll was from the chief alchemist of Alchemy Island. It said we had to solve the riddle to find where he was from.

On Tuesday, we started searching the school grounds for portals to Alchemy island. We looked all around the playground; in tree trunks, the gazebo, the willow dome, through the tyres on Bertie’s boat- we even tried to make some out of sticks and leaves.

On Wednesday, a second scroll appeared along with 8 samples of materials from the island. We had to examine the materials to find their properties and match them to places on the Island.

Our last scroll appeared on Thursday with 3 jars of contaminated well water. We were asked to clean it by the chief alchemist. We sieved, filtered and evaporated and condensed it. If we send it back clean we might get another scroll with some mystery coordinates of the island.

We’re looking forward to hearing from the alchemist again.

Pharaoh's funeral

On Monday 11th February 2019bc Fox class held a ‘funeral’ for a pharaoh. They made his  made his sarcophagus, death mask and canopic jars one week in advanced and carried on all week. First they split into three groups and drew their designs. Next they started to create them. The canopic jars were made out of clay and they looked AWSOME. The death mask was made of newspaper and cardboard and the sarcophagus was made of just cardboard.  When all the Parts were built and all the decorations were on, the funeral started everyone had either brought or drawn something for the pharaoh in the after-life (A few of them were hilarious). Everyone enjoyed the event and we were keen to have another one.

Egyptian Challenge

This week we have been set the challenge of preparing a body for an Egyptian burial. We have researched and made canopic jars, hieroglyphs, a sarcophagus and death masks. We also practised our bandaging skills.

Egyptian Pottery

Today in Fox class, we have been making Egyptian pottery out of clay.

Everyone did different designs, the pots looked AMAZING!

The type of pot we were making was called a coil pot. We could attach handles, make patterns and adjust it.

The pots all ended up looking like master pieces :)

Egyptian Flat Bread

Today in Fox class we baked Ancient Egyptian flat bread. The earliest version of the recipe was found on the wall of Senet’s tomb in Luxor, Egypt. The original recipe called for bakers to “crush the grain with sticks, using a grindstone crush the grain still finer until you have a heap of white flour”. However we used flour from a packet!

First we mixed yeast, water and honey until it was foamy. Then we added flour and salt to make it into a dough. We then left it to rise.

This afternoon, we flattened and shaped the dough and baked it in the oven.

We tried the bread back in the classroom “It was very nice because it had honey in it- it gave it a sweet taste!”

Egyptian Nemes

In art we looked at the hats that the Egyptian pharaohs wore. These were called nemes (pronounced neh-mehs) . We looked at lots of different nemes and then designed and made our own.

Pop art- By Rosie

In art we have been doing pop art! We looked at some pictures by Roy Lichtenstein and tried to make some of our own. We had to take a photo of ourselves; we could pick to have a photo with someone else if we wanted. After that we sketched the photo with some tracing paper. After we had done that we got a plain bit of paper. We scribbled neatly over the lines of the paper. Then we turned the paper over and drew over the lines. The lead that came off the pencil and printed on the paper. We then had a picture of ourselves. After we had to draw over the lines with a black pen. We then painted it and tried to make all the skin dotty. Can you guess who the people below are?

Drumming!

This year we are learning to play the drums. For the first three weeks we’ve been learning about rhythm and have learnt some new songs .Today we got to get the drums out for the first time, it was very loud and fun!

LEARNING ABOUT LEONARDO DA VINCI IN SCIENCE- BY LIVI

On Monday, in science we were learning about Leonardo Da Vinci. We talked about what he thought of body proportions and how he thinks ten lengths of your hands makes the length of your body .Or your arm span is also the same as the length of your body .We drew a table and measured each other .We measured our bodies and either your hand , arm span or your head . We decided that it was not always true but most of the time it is very close.

Tudor Clothes- by Luc

Miss Clark brought in some Tudor clothes to show us what they were like. Some of the children wore the clothes. One wore a hat, he looked like a beefeater and I think he was meant to be King Henry VIII. Another wore a French hood and another was a servant and he wore a floppy cap. We had to draw clothes from the Tudor times, I drew King Henry VIII. Did you know that you could only wear purple if you were royal?

Maths Games.

This week, Year 5 have been researching, designing and making their own Maths Game. They have worked really hard with a partner. Fantastic team work from Year 5 yet again!! Photos of the completed games to follow....

Kew Gardens

As a part of our Topic on The Rainforest, Yesterday Year 5 went on a school trip to Kew Gardens. We all had a fantastic time and the weather was beautiful!!

Rainforest Village

Today we have begun making our huts for our Rainforest Village. The children have worked well together and have begun to cut the wood for their huts. Fantastic team work!

Rainforest animal

Year 5 have begun to make the animals for their Rainforest Village. Here one child is making an animal using clay.

The Kane Chronicles

Our class read for this term is The Kane Chronicles - The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. The children have made large pictures of 3 of the main characters and have labelled them. We have then stuck them onto our English Learning Wall.

Collaborative Designing.

Today year 5 have begun to design their huts for the Rainforest village that will be on display. Watch this space for how they develop...

Library fun!

Year 5 had a relaxing afternoon enjoying the library - we try and do this every week and the children really enjoy it! They really love reading and sharing books together :)

Year 5 have had a great day today learning all about animals for our Rainforest topic. We have begun designing our own animals - watch this space for how they develop!!