Welcome to our class, 

Year 5,

Where Mrs Fawcett will help us strive,

To make our learning fun,

And get our best work done

We hope on this page you will see,

It's a great place to learn and just be!

Robotics Workshop

Year 5 enjoyed exploring the world of robotics learning to programme a robot in small groups.  Lots of us enjoyed it that much we are keen to learn more.

Mayan Inspired Tortillas

We have enjoyed researching the diet of the ancient Maya and using that information to create our own recipes ready to make our own.  Some of us really enjoyed our creations and others have decided they are not quite ready for master chef.

Guitar Concert

Year 5 enjoyed being entertained by some of their classmates at our end of year guitar concert.  It inspired some so much that they are keen to learn the guitar next year.

Egremont in Bloom 💐 

As part of year 5 homework we were asked to design a flower bed for Egremont castle to the theme ‘Alice in Wonderland’.  Mrs Robinson and Miss Doran took the best parts of our designs to create a final plan.  Today year 5 gardeners went and planted the flower bed ready for judging.  Doesn’t it look amazing?

Moat Brae - where Peter Pan began 🧚‍♂️

Year 5 had a fantastic day in Dumfries exploring the house where J.M.Barrie played pirates as a child and later inspired his play script Peter Pan. This amazing home for storytelling and literature only opened on the 1st June but promises to be amazing.  The children were swept away into a world of imagination and make believe exploring the Neverland garden and recently restored house as you can see by the exploring, drama and poetry they managed to fit into their visit. We are also proud to say Bookwell gets a mention as a ‘Tinkerbell Donator’ on their wall of fame after the fund-raising obstacle course we did in 2016.  If you want to see some of our improvised plays head over to the video resource centre.

🌻 Colour Run 🏃‍♀️ 

Year 5 had great fun taking part in the Hospice at Home colour run and raising money for a great charity.  Can you spot yourself?

Inference & Prediction

In English we have been using our best detective skills to help us identify things about a character we are due to meet in our next English topic.  We followed a series of clues and used them to identify what we knew before working out what we thought we knew about the owner.  We then created some questions we would like to know about our character before making a prediction about the story they appear in.  We can't wait to find out more. 

Printing

In art we have been learning how to print before printing our very own tote bags to help promote Fair trade.  We had to consider design, colour, mirror images before we started.  As you can see our ideas are quite effective.  It was a lot trickier than we thought because you needed patience and precision.

Short Division

We continued our work on formal written methods of division today by investigating word problems and deciding if we needed to round our answer up or down to the nearest whole number for the final answer.  Our answers then lead us to a letter which helped us crack the code.

Guided Reading

We are busy reading the Nowhere Emporium at the moment.  Today we looked at retrieval questions which required us to look back at the text for evidence to support our ideas.  Then we had a go at writing our own questions for others.

A Trip to the Farm 

Strudda Bank Farm was an excellent way to see our topic on life cycles in action.  We got to learn about lambs and what happens when they are born as well as cows and calves, finding out how long they are pregnant for.  It was also a great way to see where our food comes from learning about oats, wheat, barley, potatoes and sugar beet.  The day was finished with fun time in the straw.  

Short Division

We enjoyed using our tables and counters to practice using short division.

Science Day

On the 18th April, as part of Science day, we enjoyed investigating zip wires.  Our first task was to design a carriage to get our passenger down safely before investigating what makes zip lines faster.  In the end we decided to investigate the material the line would be made from and decided the material with the most friction would cause the carriage to travel slower compared to the wire which would have least friction.  We decided least friction wouldn’t necessarily be the best material as zip lines need to keep passengers safe too.

Orienteering

In PE we have enjoyed learning how to use maps and how to set and follow trails.  We are now starting to get competitive and see how quickly we can complete trails correctly.

Small change to help Siiboo make a BIG change

On the last day of Spring term we all enjoyed coming in non-uniform and putting our loose change in a line round the MUGA.  We can’t wait to hear what the charity Siiboo do with it when they get to Gambia.

Pirates of the Curry Bean

We have all really enjoyed helping to bring this years key stage 2 production together.  Apparently Pirates of the Curry Bean has been the best yet!

Life Cycle of a Frog

We have been working hard creating a stop motion movie that explains the life cycle of a frog.  Take a look in the video resource centre to see our creations.

A David Walliams World Book Day

We had a wonderful day inspired by all things Walliams.  We enjoyed dressing up as some of our favourite characters before experiencing a variety of activities inspired by his stories.  We searched for Gangsta Granny's jewels, created our own Fing, made ratburgers, made an ambition box, devised our own recycled rubbish creatures, made a Boogie Bear catapult and created ogres eyeballs.  We also listened to some children tell us their own Worlds Worst Children story.  Each class had the opportunity to create a story in a box for our competition.  You can find more photo's on the bookshelf page of our website.  We can't wait to see what WBD 2020 has in store!

Why do plants need to pollinate?

In Science we dissected daffodils to investigate the male and female gametes which helped us understand how plants are pollinated in order to reproduce.

Maths Week

We have had great fun exploring maths in different ways during maths week.  We started with enjoying a variety of games from imitation gaming.  Some involved shape, mental calculations and probability.  We looked at maths in art, set maths trails for Reception class and blew Mrs Fawcett away with the maths games we created.  We are shocked how much maths we experience daily.

Workhouse Woes

We have been learning to write information reports in English and today were busy editing and writing them up in neat.  Don't they look good?

Woodland Learning

In our last woodland session of the term we were set the challenge to see who could build the biggest structure.  We soon learnt that we would need to create a base to support the sticks if it was to be freestanding.  At the end of the lesson we discovered all structures had a wider base than they did top.

Maths

In maths we have been investigating area.  Today we played a game to see who could cover the biggest area of paper with their colour in 10 minutes.  Next we will be learning how to calculate the area of compound shapes.

Macmillan Coffee Morning Preparations ☕️ 

A few of year 5 got the opportunity to create the rock buns ready for the coffe morning after our class assembly.  They tasted fantastic, even if we do say so ourselves.  They raised an amazing £65 which will be given to Macmillan Cancer Support along with the money raised from all the class assemblies at the end of the year.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Blast Off

On Thursday 31st January we transported the school into the solar system during our class assembly.  Bookwell Aeronautics and Space Agency taught the parents and other pupils about the sun, the planets in our solar system and also the moon.  We also taught them about space exploration and what it takes to become an astronaut.  We hope they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed the rock buns we made for the coffee morning we held afterwards to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Egremont Library

On Friday we took a trip to Egremont library.  We enjoyed sharing our favourite authors and learning about different types of books such as graphic novels and audio books that you can borrow.  We were surprised to learn you can borrow upto 20 books at a time and if they don't have a book you want to read you can request it to read.   We enjoyed looking at the books on the shelves and some of us even borrowed a book.

Victorian Whitehaven

On Thursday 24th January Jaqui visited us from Whitehaven Records Office to share a variety of evidence that showed what Victorian Whitehaven was like, particularly for the poorer classes.  An engineer, Robert Rawlinson, visited Whitehaven and was disgusted with the conditions within the town.  He created a report for the Harbour Commissioners to improve life in Whitehaven and the health of the people living in the town.  People were living in cramped conditions and throwing their poo out on the street with the ash - some even kept it in the attic!  One family had a pig living in their room, the graveyard was overflowing and the fountain, where drinking water came from, was supplied from a reservoir full of rotten vegetables.  After his visit life was improved and water was piped in from Ennerdale, the ash cart came weekly and collected waste and sewers and drains improved.  We are so pleased things changed as we don't think we could cope with the smell.

Woodland Engineering

Our challenge this week was to create a machine that would lift a bottle of water off the ground.  All sorts of contraptions were generated with some great team-work, co-operation, engineering, problem-solving when things didn't go as we planned as well as resilience and the determination not to give in.  We can't wait for next week.

Gymnastics

This half term we are doing gymnastics in PE.  This week we were exploring counter balances.  We even had to think about forces and how pushes and pulls would help us do this without loosing our balance.

Actions and Consequences

We had a fascinating visit from Greater Manchester Prison Service and Cumbria Police on Wednesday 16th January.  We learnt how and when we should call the emergency numbers and what numbers we should contact them on.  Did you know the non-emergency contact for the police is 101?  We also learnt what important things we should look for if we find ourselves in a situation where we might have to give a description to the police.  Bullying and drugs were two topic we talked about and the consequences these things could have before meeting the police dogs trained to sniff out drugs and people on the run.  We were shocked to hear some of the conditions of prison such as only getting three sets of underwear for a week which someone else has worn before you.  The biggest thing we learnt are that we are accountable for our own actions.

Woodland Learning

Our first afternoon in the woodland involved us thinking about what forces we could make and use.  Then we explored shelter building, thinking about what makes a good shelter.  Some of shelters had sofas and one even had a lift. 

Mapping Texts

We have been mapping out an information text all about gravity, ready to learn what tools writers use when creating information texts.

Reading Passport

Well done to the children who completed enough tasks to be awarded certificates this term.  

Talk for Writing

We enjoyed swapping this terms stories with Reception class.  Reception told us Owl Or Penguin Babies while we told them The Old Mill.

Christmas Stockings 

We are all super proud of our Christmas Stocking we made in Design and Technology this term.  We soon discovered simple designs can be effective.  We also learnt a new stitching technique called blanket stitch.

🎄Christmas Party Day 🎉 

Our annual Christmas party day was great fun with lots of traditional party day games like musical chairs, bumps, statues, pass the hat dares, corners as well as poop the potato, bingo, reindeer drive and a Christmas quiz.  We should all sleep tonight 😴 (or at least the teachers will).

Aspiration Morning

Year 5 were visited by 5 people who worked for various companies to tell us about their journey in the world of work.  Many of our visitors aren’t doing the job they stared with however still use some of the skills they learnt in the various jobs they had done.  We discovered jobs can take you around the country and even the world and that you can often come back to Cumbria to work too.  It was interesting to hear how you don’t always need to go to university or have the best qualifications to get a career but you do need to be hardworking and open to learning new things.  We enjoyed guessing who had done what jobs and then being interviewed for our dream job.

Dodgeball

We enjoyed finishing our unit of work on dodgeball by playing dodgeball bingo.  Well done to the white team who nearly got a full house.

Christmas Dinner 🎄 

We all enjoyed being waited on by the staff then eating our Christmas lunch.

Carol Concert

we all enjoyed learning and performing a variety of Christmas Carols from around the world.  Some of us even read to a packed congregation about the traditions around the world.

Wheelchair Basketball

We were inspired and enthused by Nat Pattinson who introduced us all to wheelchair basketball.  He told us how he had given up on life, when he was 16, after an accident and with his bone condition led to him being left in a wheelchair.  However his mum forced him out of the house to try wheelchair basketball which he said he hated to begin with.  It wasn't long before his mum's perseverance paid off and Nat started to enjoy the sport even if he wasn't any good at it.  Before long his training started to pay off and he is now competing at an international level and is a world champion.  He is certainly very passionate about his sport.  One aspect he likes is the fact that is able bodied friends can play it too.  We really hope he visits again.    

Space Visitor

Dawn Watson visitedfrom Sellafield to share her love of space with us.  We got to learn about how the earth and moon travel round the sun.  We enjoyed making a model and creating a video to explain how the movements explain night and day, seasons, months and years.

A couple of useful you tube videos on space

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6efb-Lz1N4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5vezYaOpC4

Design and Technology Day

We had great fun creating circuits with motors to try and create a moon buggy for Santa.  We were successful in creating our circuits however had various problems trying to get our motor to propel the wheel because elastic bands kept flying off.  The sense of achievement when we got wheels turning was fantastic.  Although we didn’t end up with a totally finished product we had great fun trying.

Beauty and the Beast

We were spellbound at The Theatre By The Lake when we watched Beauty and the Beast.  The photo's from the theatre are only a brief glimpse into how enchanting it was.

Fabulous Fractions

We have been learning to recognise equivalent fractions and also converting mixed number to improper fractions.   We were shocked when Mrs Fawcett told us to write an improper fraction on the table for our friends to convert.

☀️ The Solar System 🌍 

In science we recreated a scale model of the solar system which gave us an idea of how big the planets are and how far away they are from the sun. 

Whitehaven Workhouse

We have been exploring a range of sources to learn about life in the workhouse.  We discovered people from Egremont would be admitted to the Whitehaven Union.

🎄 Investigating Stockings 🎄 

Before making our own Christmas Stockings we have been looking at the way some have been made and designed.  We will use some of the ideas to help us in our own designs.  All final products will be revealed soon, we hope!

Parent Lunch

We enjoyed the opportunity to share a lunchtime with some of our parents.

Separating Mixtures

When we visited the woodland area we had to imagine we were the characters from our class novel, The Explorer, stranded in the forest with noting but a bucket of dirty, salty water.  We were given the challenge to make our water drinkable.  We worked in groups to think about how we could do this.  It wasn't long before we realized we would need to sieve the twigs and leaves out.  Once we had done that we still didn't want to drink the water as it was still murky with little bits of dirt in.  It wasn't long before someone suggested using moss to filter it - fortunately Mrs Fawcett packed some funnels and filter paper to do this.  Although the process was slow the water looked loads cleaner but still not safe to drink because of the bacteria and salt.  The next stage was to evaporate the water to separate the it from the salt before condensing the steam back into water to make water that would be drinkable.  We then made the most of our campfire with a marshmallow.  

Florence Mine

We visited Florence Mine to explore ideas ready for writing our own suspense stories.  We begun by identifying what we knew about it, inferring what we might know before thinking about what we would like to know and making some predictions of our own about its past and future.  It has generated some fantastic vocabulary such as spine tingling, historic, derelict, strangling plants, ancient decaying wheel.  We can't wait to include some of these in our stories.

Book Tasting

We enjoyed our first book tasting session today where we got to tell each other about one of our favourite books.  Once we had tasted a book we made notes on our plates to say whether it would be a book that we would choose to read on our own.  The juice and biscuits were yum too!

World War I

We enjoyed a trip to the Beacon and records office to discover more about world war 1.  We used a variety of historical sources like a census, baptism record (which had a mistake) and newspapers to find out about local war hero Abraham Acton who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery.  Children were also encouraged to do their bit for their country by sending eggs to wounded soldiers, collecting moss, wool and conkers.  We ended the day by making some poppies which will be included in the Beacons war memorial art installation.

Flat Stan First Aid

Year 5 are now confident first aiders after a morning learning a variety of strategies that can be used to help injured people.  You never know when you might need it!

Jennifer Carver Day 2018

Monday 15th October was our annual cookery competition.  This year we were faced with the challenge of using Mr McGregor's left over vegetables and persuading children to eat them by including them in cakes.  At first we weren't convinced and after peeling, slicing and grating we were even less convinced that we would want to eat a cake full of vegetables until the end result was out of the oven.  Once we did the taste test we were surprised how nice courgette, parsnip, beetroot, carrot and parsnip could taste and has definitely converted some of us to eat our 5 a day if it is disguised in a cake.  The judges must have agreed too as we won the trophy! 

🏑 Hockey 🏑 

In hockey we have been doing ball control and also practicing turns and at the end of each session we always do mini games.  We can't wait to find out which sports day team will win the inter-school hockey competition.

An inspirational visit from Jenny Daymond

On Thursday 4th October we were very excited to welcome a 'real' artist into our class.  Jenny, an illustrator, started our day telling us about her artwork and her job as an illustrator.  Many of her images are often drawn separately then she scans them into the computer and uses photoshop to combine them.  To help her create her images she often uses photo's and even makes models of scenes she would like to make.  The rest of the day she taught us how to create pencil sketches of Beatrix Potter's characters before we got the opportunity to use water colours and ink just like the famous artist did.  We also learnt two different printing techniques.   

Why did Egremont grow between 1880 and 1899?

In history we have been investigating how Egremont changed in the Victorian times.  We used maps to look at what changes had occurred and why they may have changed.  We learnt the tannery and flax mill closed in that period however the number of mines had increased and the railway grew which we think must have led to many more jobs as there were a lot more houses.  We were also able to see how Bookwell school changed from and Endowed school to the building we attend today.

Which material is the best insulator?

In science we have been planning and investigating which material would be the best to make our lunch bags out of in order to keep it cool.  We carried out our test and then wrote a conclusion.

Egremont Castle

In history we are investigating the local history.  We have begun by exploring the history of Egremont and creating a timeline to help us understand how Egremont has changed.  We then explored the castle before answering the question Why does Egremont have a castle?

Our Community

In music we have composed and performed our own song about Egremont “Our community”.  We hope you like it.

Harbour Tales

On Wednesday 19th September we were enthralled by the Harbour Tales performed to us by Fools theatre company.  It was amazing to learn the production came from stories made up by children in the local area.  We enjoyed booing at the grumpy old man and felt sympathy for the lonely old lady.  The shadow puppets were an amazing effect that really helped the stories come to life.  In the afternoon year 3 worked with the performers to create new stories for their next show.  

Judo 🥋 

In PE we are learning a variety of Judo skills with Janice.  As you can see we are really enjoying it.

Woodland Story Settings

In English we are creating a woodland setting for our animal stories.  To inspire our writing we have been exploring the woodland looking at the different things we can describe.

School Elections

The votes are in!  Some of year 5 have been busy preparing manifestos and speeches ready to be elected for school and arts council.  Year 5 soon discovered delivering a speech can be quite nerve wracking.  Good luck to our councillors this year.

Beatrix Potter

We are enjoying learning how what we thought cute fluffy characters of Beatrix Potter characters are not suitable reading for babies as they are full of murderers,  kidnappers, thieves in our English topic on older literature.

Pop Art

In Key Stage 2 we have been creating pop art inspired work.  We discovered an artist, Roy Lichtenstein, whose work inspired a special edition of Peter Rabbit so we have had a go at creating ur own book covers using a Pop Art style.  Some of us included his unique style of ben-day dots and comic book style fonts and features.

World War I

We visited the war memorial today as part of our work with The Beacon.  We are helping them with an exhibition to commemorate 100 years since the end of World War I.

Place Value

In maths we are exploring the value of digits.  We have played various games and even tackled a variety of problems.