Welcome back to term 6. I hope that over half term you all had chance to rest, relax and enjoy the sunshine so that you have come back to your home learning feeling energized and enthusiastic again.

I know that many of you have been growing plants in your garden and I hope that all of the pea seeds I sent you have germinated and are growing now. Here are my pea plants in my back garden and if you look carefully you can see a few flowers and some small pea pods emerging!

       

We have been enjoying eating our lettuces and radishes but they all seem to have grown at the same rate including those we put in later.

I have grown a vegetable I have never grown before and I find it fascinating. It is called kohlrabi and it looks a bit like an alien vegetable as it produces a big bulb that you can eat on the surface of the soil. You can just see the purple bulb forming.

Thank you to everyone who has sent in their portal stories this week or their letter writing about the beginning of the railways in Victorian times. They have all been very well written and you can see them in the Year 5 gallery.

Another task that you were set this week was to dissect and label the parts of flowers as part of your science learning. I know that many of you enjoyed this activity and your pictures of your various flower dissections are also on the gallery. Have a look at this PowerPoint by Eloise, of her flower dissection too.

Download (PDF, 1.88MB)

A science challenge that you have all been set, is to represent the lifecycles of different animals in creative ways. Alex made the lifecycle of a fish using gingerbread and Hettie represented the lifecycle of a frog using sweets. What yummy ideas!

Our Year 5 thought for the day

Dear Year 5,

It was lovely to see and hear you all again yesterday. Thank you all for making the effort to join in and I hope all you found it worthwhile and enjoyable seeing everyone. We loved hearing your little snippets of news and were once again blown away by your creativity, positivity and all-round brilliance! You are a special bunch.

I think we’re probably all missing social contact at the moment so opportunities to keep in touch with people we care about are more important than ever. Do have a think about any family members or friends who might be feeling lonely and consider giving them a call or sending them a little card or note – a little effort can go such a long way. Well done Godelieve on those home-made cards… they will bring a lot of joy.

It was great to hear some different reading recommendations and I was particularly struck by Ben’s comment that he’s realised that reading is the solution to boredom – what a great thing to have come out of lockdown for Ben! A priceless treasure that will stay with him forever hopefully.

Which reminds me.. have you sent Mrs G a photo of you reading in a bizarre place?! Check out her blog for other people’s examples… and remember to look at the other blogs too for all the fun and enriching things on offer – Maths, Science, Spanish, Music.

Now for the riddles / challenges:

Did you manage to guess the owner of last week’s skull?

Answer: a fox

And this week’s challenge courtesy of Eloise: how long is her gargantuan paper chain? It has 208 rings and took 2 hours to complete.

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Answer next time.

Nothing much to report from the Grobel household this week. Just doing our work to the best of our ability (or at least trying to) and then enjoying the weather and the simple pleasures of life – getting better at football, skateboarding and cycling!

Huge, enormous, colossal well done to all of you and your families for all the effort you’ve made with your learning this term. There will no doubt have been plenty of ups and downs for everyone, and more to come, but how lovely to see you all smiling yesterday and sharing some of the wonderful things you’ve been discovering and experimenting with. Keep it up.

Have a fun, relaxing half-term and we very much look forward to seeing you all again soon, most probably on Zoom again!

God bless,

Mr G and Mrs G

 

 

 

Dear Y5,

First, I’d just like to point you all towards Mrs G’s English blog where she reminds us all about the importance, power and fun of READING! She has also set everyone a fun photographic challenge… 

Now, what a lovely treat for us all to see each other yesterday by the power of Zoom! It was really good to see your faces and hear your voices. Mrs G and I often say to each other how lucky we are to have such a kind, fun and conscientious class this year. Hopefully we’ll be able to see you all again before too long.

I often reflect on the fact that this whole experience is different for everyone depending on a whole host of factors and I was reminded of this again on today’s call when I asked you to rate lockdown on a scale of 1 – 10.

Whatever your circumstances, I hope there are opportunities for you to spend time doing the things you enjoy (e.g. cycling, horse-riding, painting, drawing, reading etc.) as well as trying out new things occasionally (e.g. tap-dancing, hula-hooping, camping out).

In my family, skateboarding is the new thing; and the boys and I gave fishing a go yesterday. We bought a rod soon after school closed but hadn’t been able to use it as lockdown started the day after we bought it! So we were quite excited at being able to try it out for the first time.

 

We knew someone who was able to give us a hand which helped but, even so, the excitement quickly started to ebb away as we encountered various difficulties: freezing hands; catching nothing more than a leaves and lily pads; getting the hook caught in various trees; and having to deal with hugely frustrating tangles. In fact, the highlight of the whole thing was untangling the line after 20 minutes trying…

 

So it’s tempting to give up.

But we’re not going to. It was actually a really useful reminder for me about how we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves when things get tough – after all, we can only do what we can do. We should give things our best shot but, if it doesn’t work out, it’s ok!

Similarly, if there’s one thing we should all learn from this virus, it’s that ultimately we’re not in control (however much we like to think we are) and, far from being a bad thing, it’s liberating to accept that. Of course, it helps if you have faith that Whoever is in control knows best…

 

Finally, riddles…

Answer to the last one: in the dictionary (well done Eloise and anyone else who got it)

And this week’s: to what animal do you think this belonged?

Keep up the good work and have a good final week before half-term.

God bless,

Mr G and Mrs G

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Victory in Europe Day’ or VE Day, marks the day towards the end of World War Two (WW2) when fighting against Nazi Germany in Europe came to an end.

On 8 May, 1945 (75 years ago), Prime Minister Winston Churchill made an announcement on the radio at 3pm that the war in Europe had come to an end, following Germany’s surrender the day before. This announcement led to big celebrations and street parties throughout Europe.

Huge crowds – with lots of people dressed in red, white and blue – gathered outside Buckingham Palace in London. They cheered as King George VI and his family, including Princess Elizabeth (our current queen) and Princess Margaret, came out onto the balcony to greet everybody. Princess Elizabeth and her sister were allowed to leave the palace and celebrate with crowds outside, although they had to do it secretly. She described it as “one of the most memorable nights of my life”. Many people also attended church services to thank God for the victory.

Even though VE day marked victory for Europe over Germany, it did not mark the end of WW2. This came on 15 August 1945, when the allies had officially defeated Japan. This date is known as VJ Day.

It was planned for us to mark this special day with street parties and celebrations throughout the country. However, due to our current circumstances we have had to find different ways to celebrate. How are you celebrating?

Here is the agenda for the socially distanced celebrations in my village.

 

Tonight, after the ‘clap for our carers’ my street began decorating their houses. Now, everywhere you look you can see red, white and blue bunting, flags and VE Day signs. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take photos but here are some I took earlier.

    

To help you celebrate tomorrow, Mrs Hana has put some music on her blog from 1940 so make sure you have a look.

We have been delighted to receive many different examples of your work this week from beautiful examples of handwriting, diary or weather reports to maths challenges and science life cycles. Thank you for sharing your work with us and make sure you look at all the wonderful examples below and in our Year 5 gallery.

        

Georgia’s acrylic art work                 Oli’s excellent joined handwriting

 

A STEM project to make a bike ramp!                     Chloe’s comparison of lifecycles.

Take care everyone and be kind to each other.

Mrs G and Mr G

How many of you have been outside during the evening looking for Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites? I know that Mrs Casewell, Hettie and myself have. We managed to count 22 but I know Mrs Casewell counted 26. Did any of you count more?

Mrs Casewell suggested the Find Starlink Satellites app which was useful for locating them and finding out the times they might pass.

Here is a photo of what I saw in the sky above my house.

I have been spending my spare time working on my allotment, sowing and planting seeds. However, a member of our class has created his own vegetable plot; sown various seeds in his greenhouse and has begun to plant them out. Can you recognise any of the plants he has grown? I am envious of how big his seedlings have grown, so much bigger than mine. I think you will agree he has green fingers!

One of the tasks from last week was to draw a line graph of the recorded temperature over a day. All the line graphs that I saw were excellent, however, I wanted to share Elspeth’s as she not only plotted the recorded temperature but using a thermometer she recorded the actual temperature each hour in her garden. She found that the temperatures were fairly similar which is good news for us as it means that the temperatures reported on the weather apps are pretty accurate.

 

Please make sure you look in the Year 5 Gallery. It is here that we display our class work that we have been sent.  Don’t forget, Mrs Quirk will be handing out new Home Learning books at the school from 9:30am – 11:00am today for those of you who are running out of paper.

Enjoy your learning this week and remember Mr G and I are always happy to see your best work or answer your queries.

Have a good week.

Mrs G and Mr G

 

Hi everyone,

It’s late on Thursday evening as I write and I’m thinking back over the week gone by. It’s been another busy one in our household. How about you?

 

Mrs G and I have really enjoyed hearing from some of you and seeing examples of all the lovely work you’ve been doing showing such variety, originality and creativity – well done and keep it up! It’s been especially nice to see some of your smiley faces on some of the photos you’ve sent us. I’ve just had a look at the new Year 5 Gallery section of the school website – check it out!

https://stjohnssevenoaks.co.uk/year-5-gallery/

And keep posting things on the PurpleMash forum as it’s a fun way for you to keep in touch with each other too.

If you haven’t yet sent us something or posted something, we’d love to hear from you soon – a piece of work you’re proud of, something you’ve made, a new skill?

 

Earlier this week, Mrs G and I saw a whole host of other familiar, smiley faces on a Zoom call with all the St John’s staff. It was really nice to see and hear from everyone and, while everyone seemed in pretty good spirits, there was also a lot of talk of missing the fun and buzz of being in school with all the children.

 

Another topic that came up a lot was the weather and how much people are enjoying nature at the moment; appropriate given it was Earth Day on Wednesday. If you have a look at Mrs Casewell’s Science blog, you’ll see how some others marked the occasion…

https://stjohnssevenoaks.co.uk/category/subjects/science/

Do also have a look at Mrs Gillhouley’s Maths blog for the next challenge.

 

Today, as a FaceTime surprise for their big brother George, Teddy and Zach performed a puppet show of the traditional St George and the Dragon tale. I was interested to note the differences between this and the more factual version on the Powerpoint that Mrs G circulated.

Whichever version you consider though, there’s no doubt that St George is still an inspirational figure for people in England as well as around the world. Why? Because he shows us at our very best with his virtues of courage, honour, faith, humility, generosity, perseverance and self-sacrifice.

Can you think of any people displaying these same virtues today?

If you can, don’t forget to thank them. And give yourselves a pat on the back while you’re at it!

 

God bless and enjoy the sun this weekend.

Love,

Mrs G and Mr G

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good morning Year 5.

Today we begin week 3 of our home learning and we have many fun activities ready for you to enjoy.

We hope that you are all able to enjoy the days of lovely sunshine we have been having either in your back gardens or out and about on your daily opportunity to leave the house for a walk, run or cycle. Perhaps you have been learning a new skill or trying something new? As you know I have been learning to hula-hoop, which I can now do so my next step is to try and walk and hula-hoop at the same time. I definitely haven’t mastered this yet but I will keep trying!

You should have received an email this morning with helpful guidance about today’s tasks. Please check your ‘junk’ mail if you cannot see it in your inbox and let us know of any problems. Mr Grobel and I have been delighted to receive your emails and for you to share pictures of your best pieces of work. We have been really impressed by the creativity that we have seen. Thank you for sending it to us.

Last week’s timelines of the Victorian era were presented beautifully in a variety of different ways. Some (like the one below) were nearly as long as you are tall!

Georgia’s timeline showed her perseverance as she said how hard it was not to smudge her metallic pens on the black card. We think her efforts were rewarded by the creation of an ingenious timeline. Don’t you?

On a similar theme, Godelieve chose to research Charles Dickens as her historical Victorian figure. We loved all her ‘lift the flaps’, packed full of information as well as her extraordinary drawing of the man himself!

You were set the challenge on Friday of learning and reciting a poem off by heart just like we did with ‘The Highwayman’ earlier this year. Here is a fun rendition of a poem from the book by Tim Burton called ‘The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and other stories’.

poetry recital

Please continue to choose the piece of work you’re most proud of over the course of the week and send it to Mr G and myself.  We will respond and give feedback to everything we receive from you.

Be kind to your ‘new teachers’.

Mrs G and Mr G

 

 

Hello Y5 and welcome back!

I hope you and your families are all fit and well and had a happy and healthy Easter.

How much Easter chocolate do you have left?! I’m down to my last few bits and am having to eggsercise eggstreme self-discipline not to turn into the thieving ‘Chocolate Monster’ in my house as it tends to upset people…

As we all know, we sadly won’t be seeing each other to share news from the holidays so Mrs G and I will be keeping in touch by means of these blogs (normally on a Monday and Friday) as well as by daily emails relating to your learning. To make up for this, it would be lovely if you could share some of your news and photos on the Purple Mash 2Blog area. What have you all been up to?!

With all the glorious weather over the break, I imagine a fair few of you had the paddling pools out? Never too old for a paddling pool. During a clean-out of my sheds, I found an old sprinkler which caused much amusement.

We also made the most of our daily exercise time to explore the nearby countryside. What a stunning time of year! The word that springs to mind is ‘growth’. Everything is just going for it, soaking up all the sun’s energy and using it to photosynthesise like mad!

Here’s a selection of seasonal pics from the Grobel household…

Celebrating new life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growing in foraging knowledge (as well as lockdown beard!)

Progress in the wormery

Mr G learning from his mistake after putting undiluted tomato feed on his chili plants – aargh, will they survive?!

But at least the Bonsai seedling is still alive

If you’d like to try out some foraging and want any tips (or can give me any tips), I’d love to hear from you.

 

As Mrs G has shared with you on previous blogs, she’s also been enjoying some gardening as well as reading and playing games with her family. However, what you may not know is that she’s also been learning some new skills – check this out (I hope the video works):

VIDEO-2020-04-15-14-44-17

Pretty cool huh?! Maybe we should all have a hula competition? Most hoops at once? Fastest  hula-ing? Ideas and vids on Purple Mash 2Blog please!

 

I’m sure you’ll agree that Mrs G is using her time wisely…are you?

As this new term gets underway, my advice would be to knuckle down early in the day with the day’s learning – to the best of your ability but also efficiently – so that you earn yourself some ‘free’ time to GROW. The best way to grow is to try out new things and explore new horizons – whether physically or through the power of books!

Mrs G and I are here if you have any questions or need any support and we’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Maybe check out Señora Hayes Spanish blog which goes up every Wednesday. Yesterday’s is on the subject of chocolate caliente… yum…

 

Finally, I must just give you the answer to my last riddle. In case you’ve forgotten it was as follows:

what has four letters, sometimes has nine letters but never has five letters

Did you get it? The eagle-eyed among you will have noted the lack of a question mark at the end. This was not a mistake (punctuation is my middle name) because the riddle is in fact a statement, not a question. Re-read it and you’ll see that ‘what’ does indeed have 4 letters, ‘sometimes’ does have 9 letters and ‘never’ has 5. Groan!

 

Love,

Mrs G and Mr G

 

 

Hello Year 5, by now you will all know that today is April Fool’s Day. Did you play a trick on your family today or was a trick played on you?

The origin of April Fool’s Day has often been queried and disputed as this old rhyme tells us.

The first of April some do say,

Is set apart for All Fools’ Day;

But why the people call it so

Nor I, nor they themselves, do know…

18th century folk rhyme

Have a look at Mrs Temp’s blog for more information on April Fool’s Day.

However, Mr Grobel, with the help of Mrs Quirk, did play a trick on his family. This morning Mrs Quirk face-timed the Grobel household for a ‘whole school assembly’. Zach and Teddy were told that the Easter holidays had been cancelled to make up for lost lesson time and therefore school uniform must be worn every day; any pupil learning an instrument must undertake double practice per day and all pupils should clean and tidy their rooms at least three times a day!

I think the photos tell the story!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Grobel unable to stop smiling!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have had a prank played on you or you played one, why not comment on this blog and let Mr G and I know what happened!

On our home learning timetable today was to choose a STEM activity. Which one did you choose? I am playing a number related card game with my family. Have you tried this yet?

I have heard from Mrs Kobelentz about your art activity through zoom and am looking forward to seeing all your lovely artwork on the St John’s Facebook page.

Today, is our last day of term 4. So after today, it is time to put aside your home learning timetable for a while. As many of you have been enjoying your home learning, maybe make a timetable of things to do, learn or create in the next two weeks. I will definitely have exercise, reading, playing games and gardening on mine!

Mrs Baillache sends a message to everyone: Keep busy and enjoy the sunshine!

We will blog again on 16th April (the first day of term 5). Until then, we wish you a very happy Easter. Be kind to yourself and to others, offer to share the household chores and stay calm, happy and healthy.

Mrs G and Mr G

Attached below are the answers to the Home Learning Packs

Download (PDF, 591KB)