We have been so lucky in Year 5 to have been involved in so many wonderful things this half term.
On the 4th July we got to work with some other schools and some professional musicians and do a production depicting the well-known Noah’s Ark story at the Orwell Hotel in Felixstowe.
The drummer played for the film of the first Harry Potter Potter film and the children all wanted autographs from him! We had someone playing the flute, clarinet, violas, violin, cello and of course the drums - all professional musicians! 
We had two most wonderful dancers performing with us too who were from a local high school.

Great use of these Learning Gems

​As we have been invited to perform in a one day production of Noah’s Ark, the children chose the theme of monkeys to dress up as. On taking on this theme as a class, the children had to create their own monkey masks, dependant upon whether they had chosen to be baboons, chimps, spider monkeys, gorillas, etc.

The children have been learning guitars in music and were really lucky to get to play at the WCET Festival at Trinity Park. Here they had to memorise four pieces and sing and play. They also had to sing a folk song that they learnt on the day as well.

In history, we have been learning about the Maya people, an ancient civilisation from the Mezo-Americas. The children initially knew nothing about the Maya people. We then worked out, that unlike Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, that they are not part of our history and so that is why they knew nothing about them.
We began by exploring where in the world they lived and looked at Maya people today. We then learnt about the their pyramids - that had 364 steps on them and that, including the top of the pyramids is the same as the number of days as in a year.
We learnt the goriness of human sacrifices and blood-letting for special events. On learning about the gods, it soon became apparent to the children that they did not resemble gods that we think of, but squat little figures. The Maya were also very advanced in their understanding of writing, maths, astronomy, their use of the calendar - as we know it today and their agriculture and trading. 
Over each lesson, the children had to consider our topic question why we should remember the Maya?
Here are some examples of their research of the Gods and their answering of the topic question.