Friday 13th January
Friday 13th January 2017 (Be careful today - no walking under ladders or crossing the path of any black cats!)
Happy New Year and welcome to Year 5F’s first blog of 2017.
Maths – The children began the week by completing a prior-learning test on reading and interpreting data and graphs. They have moved on to looking at tally charts, pictograms, bar charts and line graphs. They have created their own as well as interpreting the data and taking readings from graphs and charts.
Use this graph maker to create your own bar chart at home…
English – The children have been looking at some texts all about space. They have discovered some new, technical vocabulary that they weren’t sure about so they have been using a dictionary to locate the meanings. They discovered that Dennis Tito was the first ‘space tourist, to go up into space at the astronomical cost of £14 million! 
Also, Anousheh Ansari was the first female space tourist to visit the International Space Station (ISS) in 2006. She visited for eight days and kept a blog whilst she was there. We discovered that we can be star-gazers ourselves by following some easy steps…
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Find out when a meteor shower is due and arrange to go star spotting with an adult
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Wear warm clothes and take a blanket, torch and pillow
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You do not need any special equipment like a telescope or binoculars
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Go outside somewhere that is away from the bright light of town
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Find a spot, lie down with your blanket and pillow, switch off your torch and stare up at the sky
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Give your eyes time to adjust to the darkness and then you will be amazed at how many stars you can see
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Wait for shooting stars to appear!
Topic – We have begun our new topic which will involve learning all about Earth and space. The children have all produced a mind map detailing what they already know about this fascinating topic. They thought about the moon, the sun, the stars, the planets, space, space travel and then what they would like to find out about during our topic. They went on to complete a quick space quiz. Why don't you have a go and see how much you know about Earth and Space...
What shape are the Earth, sun and moon?
* round and flat
* cuboid
* roughly spherical
Which is the largest?
* the Earth
* the sun
* the moon
How long does it take the Earth to travel once around the sun?
* 24 hours
* 28 days
* 12 months
How long does it take the moon to travel once around the Earth?
* 24 hours
* 28 days
* 12 months
How long does it take the Earth to turn once on its axis?
* 24 hours
* 12 hours
* 6 hours
Which part of the Earth is in daylight?
* the part facing he sun
* the part facing away from the sun
* the part facing the moon
Which of these is NOT true?
* the sun rises in the east and sets in the west
* the sun is highest in the sky at midday
* the sun moves westwards around the Earth
Why does the moon seem to change shape?
* because it gets bigger and smaller
* because we only see the part of the moon that is lit by the sun
* because sometimes it is cloudy
Imagine you are standing underneath a tree. When would the shadow of the tree be shortest?
* at sunrise
* at midday
* at sunset
Why, in some parts of the world, are the days longer in the summer than in the winter?
* because the Earth is tilted as it moves around the sun
* because the sun gets brighter in summer
* because the Earth spins more slowly in the summer
How many planets are there in our solar system?
* 9
* 8
* 10
BONUS QUESTION: Can you name them?
ANSWERS AT THE END OF THE BLOG
Science – Some people believe that the earth is flat whereas others think it is spherical. The children have been researching arguments on both sides. Did you know that the Vikings believed that the earth was a flat disc based on what they knew about our planet? The Ancient Chinese thought that the world was a flat square! On the other hand, scientists like Aristotle, have proved beyond doubt that earth must be spherical because if a ship sailed to the horizon if earth was flat the ship would just disappear when it fell off the edge! Also, planes regularly fly around the world and not one has ever reported finding the edge of the world.
Here is our PUPIL OF THE WEEK. He won his certificate for coming back to school like a new person. He really has had a FANTASTIC start to the New Year and has impressed all of his teachers! Keep it up! 
All that remains to say is have a great weekend. Fingers crossed it will warm up, the wind will drop and NO SNOW!!!!!!
QUIZ ANSWERS
* roughly spherical
* the sun
* 12 months
* 28 days
* 24 hours
*the part facing the sun
* the sun moves westwards around the Earth
* because we only see the part of the moon that is lit by the sun
* at midday
* because the Earth is tilted as it moves around the sun
* 8
* (in order from the sun) Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune - Pluto is no longer classed as being a planet as it is now considered to be too small.