We’ve made such a lovely start to our new mixed media landscapes art topic!

We’ve made such a lovely start to our new mixed media landscapes art topic! #smithdownart

We are looking at life cycles in science…

We are looking at life cycles in science, so now have 40 caterpillars that we are going to watch transform into butterflies. We have given them food, and are going to monitor them turn into chrysalises. #smithdownsci @MrsKellyx @MissGuy_

Y5 are working on teamwork this half term with @EITC Today…

Y5 are working on teamwork this half term with @EITC Today we had to order ourselves in silence ???‍????‍??‍and we played stuck in the mud. @misshartdavies @Miss_Jones11 @MrsKellyx #SmithdownPE

This afternoon 5EHD have been looking at different watercolour techniques…

This afternoon 5EHD have been looking at different watercolour techniques ahead of using them as part of a mixed media piece. #smithdownart ?

We’ve been developing our teamwork skills in PE ?

We’ve been developing our teamwork skills in PE with @EITC ?

Our fantastic stars of the week in 5NA

Our fantastic stars of the week in 5NA – well done ?

Today we experimented with different oil pastel techniques

We then focused on how animals mature by looking at some life cycles…

We then focused on how animals mature by looking at some life cycles. Mr. Ma let the Y5 caterpillars visit KS1 and just look at their faces. We identified some at pupa stage for some science in action #smithdownsci @baronbedford @Edu_Meadows

After learning about life cycles with Years 2 & 5

After learning about life cycles, @SmithdownPrimY5 kindly invited us to watch their butterfly release this afternoon. 4 classes of pure excitement ? #smithdownsci @SmithdownPrimY2

How and Why did WW2 Start?

We have started our WW2 topic by exploring who was involved, how it began and why. We made a double page spread to answer our enquiry!

Remembrance Day

We have created some beautiful poems after reading Flanders Fields and used watercolours/charcoal/pencils to create some poppy artwork to mark Remembrance Day.

5EHD PE

Congratulations to this boy in 5EHD who was chosen by our Everton coach, Connor, to receive this signed picture of Jordan Pickford for outstanding efforts in PE today!

Year 5 Computing Micro:bit

Wednesday afternoon Year 5 have continued to explore Mico:bits. Children used variables, If statements and Inputs to get a Micro:bit to play Rock, Paper & Scissors.

What was operation Pied Piper?

We have been looking at evacuation and it’s impact on children during the war – we examined some sources and discussed what they were and their intentions!

Year 5 Coding

This afternoon Year 5 completed a coding activity on Hour of Code. Children used blocked coding to create images and animations. Children focused on the positioning of their shapes as well as inserting different blocks to make their code more efficient. Children then had to debug their code to makesure it works.

Bulb Planting in Crown Street Park!

Young Scientist Centre

5NA went to a solar system workshop at UCLAN. We did lots of investigations all about the solar system!

Year 5 Micro:bit

This afternoon Year 5 have continued to explore how we can code a Micro:bit. Today we looked at how to set and change the brightness of the LED lights on the Micro:bit when a button was pressed. Children then created code for it to display a sequence of different images.

Santa Dash 2023 ??????‍????‍

This Friday, 8th December 2023, we will be having our very own Santa Dash! A chance to squeeze in an extra fitness session whilst having some festive fun ??‍????‍?????

Watch this space! ?

Year 5 Micro:Bit

This afternoon children have looked at how we can use a Micro:bit to create a multiplication game. Children needed to create number variables and then use multiplication to be able to get the numbers to multiply and together and display on the Micro:bit.

5EHD begin their Chinese New Year Celebrations

Year 5 pottery painting

5EHD final pottery pieces

Year 5 Computing

Year 5 continued to look at how we can use variables in our programming. Children created a multiplication quiz on Scratch including variables for scores and a timer.

5EHD DT

We have been working hard on our rail engineering project. Over the past couple of weeks, we have created our own locomotives, complete with a frame, wheels, axels and an electrical circuit.

5EHD Martin Mere trip

Year 5 had a fantastic time learning about Anglo Saxon and Viking daily life in Martin Mere. We learned how to weave, fight in battle, make a thatched roof and forage for medicine and food in the woods

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Y5&6 Girls Rugby

How great was our rugby taster session yesterday at Calderstones !!!!!

Y5 Y6 Boys Rugby

Here are some of our boys out for their session of rugby today, this time at St Margaret’s.

Fantastic Family Picnic

A fantastic community picnic. The sun shone.

An amazing community food table with so many lovely dishes to share.

5EHD Geography statistics work

This week year 5 have compared Liverpool to the city of Manaus in Brazil and plotted data and different style graphs.

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5EHD science

Testing air resistance using parachutes.

5EHD Investigating water resistance

Year 5 Primary Engineer Award

Earlier in the year, year 5 took part in a project with Primary Engineer and built moving locomotives with an electrical circuit. Today we celebrated each child taking part, awarded awards for best group work and also two boys took home the ‘Best communicator’ award. Well done, year 5!

Cheque Presentation

A massive thank you to all parents and children who donated money to Alder Hey. The children on the school council were very lucky to be invited down to Alder Hey for a cheque presentation.
The money raised is going to help brighten the lives of children and their families, all over the country, who require the help of Alder Hey.

Black History Month ‘24

Some AMAZING entries for the Merseyside Police competition! Children have worked hard creating lovely pieces of work with great messages as well. Well done to everyone who has submitted already. Last day tomorrow (Friday 13th September).

Competition Time! Y5/6 Dodgeball

Some of our Y5/6 went out for a Dodgeball competition this week – we didn’t win but we enjoyed ourselves!

Year 5’s football skills in PE

We loved working with Everton in the community today when practising our football skills. We’ve been practising dribbling and kicking.

Year 5 Art Adventure: Exploring Perspectives!

Today in Year 5, our budding artists dived into the fascinating world of one-point perspective and atmospheric perspective! They transformed ordinary views into extraordinary landscapes, learning how to create depth and dimension in their artwork.

With guidance our students experimented with lines and shading, making their drawings come alive. The focus on perspective not only enhances their artistic skills but also encourages critical thinking and creativity.

Join us in celebrating their hard work and skill!

An afternoon of ‘Quidditch’

Wow…. what a way to end the week !!! Some children in Years 5 & 6 got to try their hands at ‘Quidditch’ today and they absolutely loved it !!!!

Learning “Three little birds” in our music lesson

Today we use glockenspiels and xylophones in our music lesson to play the C triad and the F triad. We played this to Bob Marley’s “Three little birds”.

Danny Butler!

Today we had a wonderful visit from Danny Butler. We joined in the activities and even got to see some of his amazing skills.

An author has come to Smithdown!

Author of ‘The late crew’ Rob Ferguson came to visit our school today. Some of us were so excited to even get our books signed by a real life author! We even designed our own alien that we could use in our stories.  

Oil pastel artists!

Today we having been using different oil pastel techniques (sgraffito, dry blending, cross-hatching and tinting) to figure out which ones we want to use for our landscapes.

Diwali lanterns

Today we are designing our Diwali lanterns for next week. We have learnt the story of Rama and Sita and thought about why Diwali is celebrated in Hindu religion. We are trying to focus on using Rangoli patterns.

Football matches.

This week in PE we had a chance to use our skills when playing matches. We remembered to dribble, tackle and defend using skills we have learnt. Everyone made a fantastic effort!

Girls Football Tournament

Some of our Year 5 & 6 girls have been out to a ‘Girls Only’ football tournament today organised by Everton in the Community. Go girls !!!!!!

Year 5 Computing

Year 5 started a new topic using Scratch. Today we focused on conditionals and how they are used. We discussed as a class what a conditional was and how we can use ‘If’ statements to give our programs a condition to work in. Children then created a program to get a character to move using the keyboard and pick up a ball when they reached it.

Amazing homework!

Superstar sisters! Both have done work at home based on their current topics . Well done guys.

Computing- Variables

Year 5 looked at how we can use variables in programming. We discussed as a class what variables are, providing examples and how computers can use them to store information. We then moved onto create a program on Scratch recapping how we can use different events and movements on characters and included a timer variable.

Basketball and netball

For this half term we are going to be learning about the skills needed for basketball and netball. Today we learnt overarm, underarm, chest pass and bounce pass.

Year 5 Campfire

What a fabulous way to begin Children in Need day – a Year 5 campfire with hot chocolate and smores : )

Our wonderful campfire

Today we have loved our class campfire. We enjoyed toasting the marshmallows, creating a s’more and having some hot chocolate. We even had a blast from the past with some children’s songs and rhymes.

Computing Using Variables

Year 5 built on their knowledge of Variables with the focus today being on using a Score and timer variable. We created a quiz program were children had to get a Sprite to ask a question and using a conditional else statement they were able to code the correct and incorrect answers. Children then coded the ‘stage’ to begin the timer for their quiz.

International Slavery Museum trip

Yesterday we had a great time at the International Slavery Museum. We had a workshop in the ‘legacies of the transatlantic slave trade’ and then had time to explore the museum with our task sheets. 

Extra work at home!

Some incredible examples of extra work done at home. I have loved seeing how passionate we are about negative numbers, Olaudah Equiano and Roman numeral – keep it up, we love proudly displaying your work!

NRG! Our power pledges.

Last week we had a visit from NRG to tell us all about our use of electricity and what we can do to help. We have signed a pledge to use less electricity and water to help with waste of non-renewable energy.

A visit from B-Tales!

B-tales shared the story of Jonah and the Christmas twist.

Celebrating differences

For our PSHE lesson we are celebrating differences. In previous weeks we have spoken about racism, bullying and rumours and now we are researching a range of countries and what their culture looks like.

Premier league workshop

This morning we had a Premier League workshop to tell us all about the different jobs and skills we could get that are part of football. We learnt about football journalists, authors, medics, stewards, mascots, players and coaches. We then acted out being an interviewer, interviewee and clarifier.

Pattern seeking – science

In science today we put our ideas to the test. we either chose to either investigate if children with the longest femur could jump the highest or if the tallest children could jump the highest. We completed the post it challenge and made sure our investigation was fair. 

Transatlantic slave trade

Today we looked at different pictures of artefacts in museums around the world and how they were used during the transatlantic slave trade. We discussed the life of an enslaved person and the hardships they faced.

Calligraphy with the Arabic alphabet

Today in our art lesson we looked at different examples of Arabic calligraphy and have had a go at our own.

Does our arm span increase as we grow older?

We took measurements of children from reception all the way to our eldest staff member! We then created a scatter graph of our results.

Our Christmas dinner!

We had a lovely Christmas dinner on Wednesday!

Christmas arts and crafts workshop

What a lovely afternoon! Thanks to all the parents that came and helped out with the winter crafts. They all looked amazing.

A great end to this half term!

An amazing Mario Kart tournament to celebrate the holidays!

SNOW!

The best start to our week. Yesterday we loved playing in the snow, having a snow ball fight and building snowmen. 

Our new book… Hidden Figures

We have looked through all our clues for our upcoming book… Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. We will be discussing new vocabulary such as racism, segregation, civil rights, controversy and many more!

Pottery making

We had a lovely afternoon starting our pottery. We followed our designs to make an object (bowl, vase, cup) and etched some designs in. We are looking forward to painting in the next couple of weeks.

How our solar system moves!

Today we tried to recreate the direction and movement of our solar system. We discussed how this is not to scale but wanted to show what we had learnt about ‘Earth and Space’ so far. Please ask us questions about the solar system!

Earth and space

This week in science we have been looking at night and day. We have been learning about the rotation of Earth and how this creates daylight and nighttime.

5JH Lion dance to celebrate the Lunar new year!

We had an amazing afternoon in our lion dancing workshop. Happy Lunar New Year!

Fair Trade Debate

Today we learnt about the global supply chain and the different stages our products take to get to us (the customer). We debated which part of the supply chain was the most important and how fair the pay was. Our class debate was very passionate!

Benjamin Zephaniah

Year 5 have been looking at the poet Benjamin Zephaniah this week and yesterday we got the chance to read some of his poems. We all agreed that most of his poems have the message of justice and equality for all.  

Phases of the moon

We had a wonderful afternoon showing (and eating) the different phases of the moon. First the children represented this with the ball (moon) and the torch (sun) to find the phases. Then we used biscuits to recreate this. Please ask us about the different phases, can you spot the moon at home?

Reading – Ms Siddiqui

This boy told me that he loved reading this book because the story reflected his own life experiences. Books that represent our communities matter so much.

Writing in Ms Siddiqui’s Group

These children have worked so hard today on their independent writing. Well done!

Goodnight Mr Tom- our new English book

Yesterday we looked at clues for our new book ’Goodnight Mr Tom’. We wrote predictions and today we discussed evacuations from cities to the countryside and arguments for and against. We invited in Mrs Ridley to walk down our ‘conscience alley’ to hear our reasons.  

Computing Micro:bits

Year 5 were introduced to Mirco:bits. We focused on being able to use the string block to display text and coded the LEDs to display different animations. We then looked at how to download our created code to a microbit.

International Mother Language Day

On February 21st, it was International Mother Language Day. To celebrate, we have been learning words and phrases in different languages. The children have been fantastic teachers.

Prime Minster Chamberlain’s announcement – WW2

Today we used freeze frames to think about how people might have felt during the announcement of WW2. We looked at the different reactions in our book ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’ and compared different emotions.

International Mother Language day

We loved sharing our languages last week and teaching children different words. Some children even wanted to record these so that we could share our language with others. We have some excellent little teachers in class!

How do shadows change throughout the day?

Today we tracked and measured the length of one shadow throughout the day. We noticed that our shadow was as its shorted midday and that it moved as the sun appeared to move. We explained in our books that it is the Earth spinning on its axis that creates the different times of day.

The Dalmatians are safe once again!

Today we had a visit from Cruella De Vil who wanted to steal all of the Dalmatian puppies, luckily the classes were able to find all 101 of them and saved the school! What an amazing World Book Day 2025.

Micro:bits

Year 5 continued to look at how we can program a Micro:bit. The focus today was being able to use inputs, loops and conditionals to create a reaction game. Children created a reaction game by programming a ‘Sprite’ to move left and right on the screen, when the ‘sprite’ was in the middle and they pressed the A button they scored a point, if it wasn’t in the correct spot the game restarted. We then discussed how we can use the pause button to help increase/decrease the difficulty in the game.

Art in English? So much fun!

In English this week, we were inspired by the character Willaim Beech’s love of art and painted some of the setting descriptions from Little Weirwold. some example examples to create imagery from our book Goodnight Mr Tom. 

Creating craters

We have planned out our experiments in order to see how we can measure craters and what affects the result. We had a create time changing variables and recording our average in order to make it a fair test.

Science week

Last week we had a wonderful time with our biscuit investigation. Our question to investigate ‘Does the thickness of a biscuit affect it’s breaking dunk time?’

Railroad safety

Today we took part in a railroad safety assembly. We replied back to the different scenarios and decided the most sensible decisions.

Ruth Wakefield – science week

For science week, we researched Ruth Wakefield. We learnt all about the temperatures needed and the variables that she changed. We then had a lesson in cookie making with our wonderful cook Monica and decorated the cookies with her face.

Gymnastics British Championship and Newsround!

Yesterday, we had an amazing trip to watch these athletes. The work they put into practising and training really inspired some students. Also, some children met the presenter of Newsround and even got a picture!

Year 5 trip to the British Gymnastics competition at the M&S Arena, see if you can spot us on BBC newsround!

Everton mathematics day!

Some children were invited to take part in some maths activities at Goodison Park stadium. They completed challenges and got to see the stadium. What a fun day!

Eid celebrations!

Today we learnt about Eid and took part in some 3D pop ups.

WW2 Workshop

Today we had a visitor in to teach us about WW2. We trained to become special volunteer police officers and followed commands given in the war. We looked at Erie facts and even had time to role play.