Year 5 - Redhills Community Primary School

This week we created a 5AS Podcast. We listened to examples from other schools and then brainstormed the kinds of things we’d like to include in our own. In small groups we wrote scripts to follow and then rehearsed and edited them. We recorded instruments and voices using Audacity. Later we experimented with special effects, again using Audacity. Finally we downloaded copyright-free music from the Audio Network website which we mixed into our recordings, making sure that the music did not obscure them. Listen  or download here.



We are studying Control Technology in Year 5 this term. Here are some links to free software you can download and use at home;

Flowgrid Control is a free version of Flowol. The mimics are not as good but it uses the same symbols and method of building procedures. Get it here.

This is Unit the Robot. Control him here.

Scratch is a free program that allows you to create control procedures by linking different commands together. It’s quite complex but it doesn’t take long to pick up the basics.

Would you like to have an unlimited supply of lego? Well now you can! On your PC anyway! BlockCAD has a simple user interface and lets you build huge models. You can then printout the designs and try and make them with real lego. Download it here.

Practice your spellings at this useful site. First choose a level, next a series of sentences are read out (US accent) and you have to type in the correct spellings for the missing words. You are then given a score on your accuracy.

Learn about wolf ecology by living the life of a wild wolf in Yellowstone National Park. Play alone or with friends in on-line multiplayer missions, explore the wilderness, hunt elk, and encounter stranger wolves in your quest to find a mate. Ultimately, your success will depend on forming a family pack, raising pups, and ensuring the survival of your pack.

Adventure Rock is a new online world for children to visit from the BBC - aimed at the KS2 age group , it is an island containing lots of interactive activities.  You can download the game if you become a CBBC member.

Have you ever wanted to run your own business? Now you can, using this great Disney site. Pick the type of business you want to run (Pet Parlour, Sweet Shop etc) then see if you can make it work, collecting points and badges along the way.

This site from the Department for Children, Schools and Families lets you have your say about what you think a ‘playspace’ should look like.

The British Council host this site and it’s full of stories. ‘Do you love stories? Find short easy stories to watch and listen to, and longer stories for you to read. There are stories for your little brother and sister too!’

As part of our Victorian Children topic we looked at samplers and why and how they were made. We then designed and sewed our own versions. Here are a selection.

A few weeks ago we based out Literacy studies on ‘Street Child’ by Bernie Doherty. As part of our work we completed ’story maps’ based on events in the book. Pupils were given only a short time to produce these maps which were later used to inform letters written from the point of view of the book’s main character, Jim Jarvis. Many pupils remarked on how useful they were.

We spent a week of Literacy lessons using ‘The Ice Palace’ by Robert Swindells as the inspiration for a series of activities. One of these was to imagine that ‘The Ice Palace’ had been turned into a place children would want to visit. We brainstormed possible uses and designed posters to persuade people to visit.

Is it raining outside? Are you bored? Looking for something to do? Visit the websites below - guaranteed good fun!

Here you can find games that are healthy, non violent and suitable for all ages.

Phantasy Quest -is an online ‘point and click’ adventure.  - Just click anywhere on the game screen with your mouse. Some things you can activate simply by clicking on them, while others you may have to use an item that you have collected in your inventory. To use an inventory item, move the pointer over it, click and while holding the mouse button, drag the item out of the inventory bar onto the game screen, then release the button. The item should then move with your cursor, and you can click it on things in the game screen. To put the item back in your inventory, just click it on the inventory bar.

This site  lets you create an animated scene with your choice of trains, carriages, scenery and props. You can then type a message and send it to an email address of a friend.

Ever wanted to create your own Super Hero? Well now you can! Go here - you can choose gender, uniform, hairstyle etc.

 Topics include Solids, liquids and gases, Using dataloggers to monitor our environment and How religious people make decisions.

Whilst looking at different musical instruments , we had a go at designing our own. The brief was ‘to design an instrument that could be strummed/plucked, blown, shaken and struck’!

We have been studying the plight of working victorian children - why they had to work, what they actually did and what the working conditions were like. After looking at photos, artefacts, websites and listening to contemporary accounts we wrote letters imagining that we were working children. When finished, we recorded them onto a PC using Audacity. You can listen to some examples below;

Daniel      Elliot      EmmaH      Jake     Michael