Welcome to Mexico!

¡Bienvenidos a México!

A warm welcome to all visitors to Year 5. My name is Mr Andrews and I am the class teacher for Mexico City. It is so lovely to be back to "normal" ready to start a new year. Prepare to strap yourselves in because, in Year 5, we mean business! Don't panic; there's still plenty of fun to be had as well!

As part of our mini-topic this year, we will be exploring the fascinating sights and celebrations of Mexico particularly focusing on the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival to celebrate the joy of life! We'll also be looking at the superb works of the Mexican portraitist, Frida Kahlo. We'll learn about her style and artistic influences before having a go at our own 'Kahlo-esque' self-portraits.

We will also be dipping into other areas of Latin America such as Brazil and Peru to gain insight to why the other Year 5 classes are named Peru and Rio de Janeiro. We'll delve into the darkest depths of the Amazon Rainforest and discover how human activity is affecting not just plant life, but the whole ecosystem too!

Our topic for the Autumn Term is The Industrial Revolution. You will see just how this Victorian age of invention completely turned the world on its head and shaped it into the one we see today!

I can't wait to get started!

Are you ready for your next adventure?

¡Vamos!         Let's go!

Our first half term

What a whirlwind we have had for our first half term this year! Year 5 have certainly hit the ground running!

We've explored the geography and culture of Latin America- particularly in Mexico! We've loved looking at the thrilling Día de los Muertos (day of the dead) festival and how important friends and family are to the festivities. We have also been fascinated by the work of Frida Kahlo and how she demonstrates the ideas of identity and equality in a range of ways. This inspired us to create our own Kahlo-esque self-portraits!

We are full steam ahead with our autumn topic of The Industrial Revolution. We've identified which cities became more developed over this period in history and how this has affected the British landscape. We've located major UK rivers and how these were integral for the transportation and trading of goods across the country and beyond.

In English this half term we have started reading about Jim Jarvis and his adventure as a street child.

What we have found out so far... 

Jim lost his father and his home in a cottage leading to him living in Mr Spinks shared house. Unfortunately, Ma sends Jim to buy a pie with her last shilling leading to the family been evicted from there room. Ma takes her three children to see a friend called Rosie. Rosie offers a home to Lizzie and Emily Jim's sisters but can not help Ma caring for Jim. Ma and Jim set off to the workhouse, Ma is too weak and Jim last sees her sent to the workhouse infirmary. Jim was now a orphan. In the story Jim stayed in the workhouse for about a year and then escapes...His adventure as a street child has begun.

I can't wait to see what marvellous things we'll discover next!

Spring Term

Having spent just one day back after the Christmas break, we were told to stay home for another lockdown. This was definitely not the Christmas present we were hoping for!

However, Year 5 took to Zoom lessons like ducks to water and we got stuck into virtual learning from the get-go! Despite the trials and tribulations of technology, we were still able to learn as much as we could about Anglo-Saxons, Vikings amongst a whole heap of other subjects.

It was so lovely to see how engaged Mexico members were in their learning and navigating through Zoom certainly was a change! I have loved seeing all the hard work and fabulous examples of work being posted onto the class blog- not even a global pandemic can stop us from enjoying our learning!

I would like to thank parents and carers who have made this all possible and making time to support pupils through a turbulent time. This help has made a huge difference for our pupils and I am sure they will reflect on those happy memories shared for many years to come.

Here are a few snippets of what we have been up to:

Fortunately for us, we were able to return to school for the last few weeks of term. We spent this time getting back into a routine and focusing on our mental wellbeing- being in lockdown certainly takes its tole!

We put our home learning experiences to paper in the style of the 'Mr Men and Little Miss' books. This helped us remember the triumphs and follies of being asked to stay at home. We certainly had lots of characters wearing masks and using hand sanitiser every five minutes! Everyone was so excited to see each other and finally have a lesson where Mr Andrews wasn't on mute!

We also had a go at some Viking weaving to help focus our minds and rest our bodies. It was very tricky but once we were in the swing of things, it started to get more relaxing. We certainly don't know how Viking women were able to create such elaborate patterns!