Drop and Read ……The exciting new reading buzz!!

By 9th October 2015

This week in Upper Key Stage 2 the children have been encouraged to drop and read.

We are passionate about reading at Brooklands Farm and because of this we are using Accelerated Reader to encourage and excite children about reading as well.

The children in Year 5 and 6 had an assembly about how to use Accelerated reader. They have received their drop and read passports and reading levels and have already dropped and read.

The children are so excited about reading their books and then getting to take a quiz after. The competition is on to see who can read 12 books and who can get 100% on their quizzes.

Here are some photos of the Year 6 children completely absorbed. Well done Key Stage 2!!!  Don’t forget to drop and read at home too!!!!

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Next week we will be introducing Drop and Read to Lower Key stage 2 and Key Stage 1.

Titanic ignite day

24th September 2015

Year 5 had a terrific Titanic Ignite day on Tuesday!

Children spent half of the day collecting lots of knowledge about the Titanic tragedy from the expert, John,  who brought real artefacts from the ship and props from the film set for us to look at – he even gave away replicas of 3rd class mugs as prizes for individuals to keep!

The other half of the day was spent living the lifestyle of a passenger on board the Titanic in 1912. Children dressed up as 1st class or 3rd class passengers, listened to the music that the orchestra may have played during the voyage and cooked their own 3rd class meal – vegetable stew and dumplings!  After a lot of hard work in the kitchen,  they were then treated to a 1st class dessert of pears, éclairs and ice cream.

Both children and teachers had a fantastic day and we look forward to continuing our voyage over the next few weeks!

Good luck in year 6.

By Mr J Peters4th September 2015

It has been an incredible journey seeing class 5a become individuals. It has been a pleasure sharing this journey with you and I look forward to continuing the journey into year 6.

Transition went very well and i am extremely proud that you are all ready for year 6!

Mr Peters

Summer holiday homework

By 22nd July 2015

Summer Holiday Homework

During our transition Project, we looked at the painting ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’ by Thomas Gainsborough. We will be continuing to link our learning to the painting in September, as part of the National Gallery’s ‘Take One Picture’ project.

Please choose at least one of these activities to do for your summer holiday homework:

  • Re-create the painting ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’ in your own style! You could paint it, collage it, do it as a mosaic, sketch it etc
  • Research Thomas Gainsborough – his life and his most famous pieces of artwork. Create a Powerpoint presentation or information leaflet about him.
  • Pretend you are Mr or Mrs Andrews and write your diary. You could share how you are feeling, your thoughts on your relationship etc.
  • Write a story with Mr and Mrs Andrews as your main characters and their farm as the setting.

Please bring your homework into school on the first day back, Monday 7th September, so that classes can share what they have done over the summer together.

 

If you are looking for a day out which will link to our ‘Take One Picture’ Project, then we recommend you visit the National Gallery in London and find Thomas Gainsborough’s painting ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’ to have a look at the real thing!

 

mr and mrs andrews

Year 5’s Ignite Trip to the New School!

By V Holloway2nd June 2015

Year 5 were extremely lucky today as they were the first children to visit the new Brooklands Farm Primary School!

We walked (very sensibly) to the new school, where we met the builders from Willmott Dixon! We were the first children to step into the new school, it was very exciting and a privilege!

Year 5 split into two groups. One group went on a tour round the new building, we had to wear high-visibility jackets and hard hats. We got to see all the new classrooms, as we walked round we thought carefully about how we could transform this building into a Brooklands Farm School! We had lots of ideas including colourful pieces of artwork and coloured tiles on the carpet, and of course making it clear that we are ‘weaving a learning journey’! Finally, we got the see the new school hall and the school field! As part of our building project, we are designing a space for another year group so we asked the builder lots of questions to help us with our designs!

While the other group were having their tour, the rest of year 5 had a picnic in the new school hall! We had some biscuits and squash. Miss Low really wanted our opinion on the school hall and asked how we can reflect the ethos of Brooklands Farm in there.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the new school and felt very privileged to be the first to visit!

Evaluating our Brain Week Learning

By V Holloway21st May 2015

Year 5 completed their endorphin investigation today as they spent time in a dark, silent room completing their work. We monitored our well being and learning zones and the majority of us found that our well beings dropped when in this situation because endorphins were not being released. We have written diaries this week to monitor our personal emotions and learning zones, writing how we were affected by the situations we were in. Also, we plotted our changes in well being and involvement on line graphs and drew our conclusions from them.

Finally, we started creating our presentations (posters and drama) about our learning to share with the rest of the school tomorrow.

Here are some examples of line graphs and diary entries:

How does exercise impact on our learning zones and well being?

By V Holloway20th May 2015

Year 5 continued their investigation into endorphins today and chose to look at the effect of sport and exercise. We started by levelling our well being and learning zones before we started our lesson. Then we played a game of rounders which created an excitable buzz!

After, we completed a  short written paragraph about our investigation and endorphins and again assessed our well being and learning zones. We found a slight increase in learning zones but our well being wasn’t affected as much. We discussed the possible reasons for this: one team lost at rounders which affected well being, there can be a lot of standing around in rounders so maybe no or not many endorphins were released.
We decided to raise our heartbeats even more and tried a zumba routine!
Then, while completing some brain challenges, we made a final assessment of our learning zone and well being. The majority of children in the class found their well being and learning zones increase dramatically after zumba!
We are now plotting the changes in our well being and learning zones on line graphs.

Brain Project

By V Holloway19th May 2015

Brain week has begun! In year 5 we started brain week with some visitors from the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre, who gave us lots of general knowledge about the brain and how to look after it.

Each year group have a different focus for their project, year 5 are looking at endorphins and how they affect our mood and consequently our learning. We started by researching what endorphins were, as well as how and when they are released into the brain.
Year 5 have decided to hold their own investigation about endorphins. As a result of their research they found out that endorphins are released after exercising or after eating chocolate. Their research will therefore monitor their well being and learning zones while completing work after exercising, eating chocolate and without encouraging the release of endorphins. We have predicted that the release of endorphins will have a positive impact on our well being and learning zones as they are supposed to relieve stress.
They will be creating diary entries and line graphs to log their well being and learning zones.