This half term, in Outdoor PE, we have been taking part in activities that have developed our team building and communication skills. For the first week in a long time, we were rained off but we took advantage of the time to apply our learning by creating our own activities.  We talked about the resources we have used and how the activity needs to have a shared goal. We stretched ourselves by considering how to make the activity easier for children finding it tricky or more challenging for those finding it easy. Please ask the children about all of the different activities they have taken part in. They have been brilliant at them.

We were changing from solid to liquid to a gas today when exploring reversible changes in Science! Can you guess what state of matter we are in this picture?

We had so much fun exploring The Bovis Home archeological site today! We even found some worked stone and got to stand and dig in the holes left by the supporting poles of Bronze Age round houses.

Today we had three visitors talking about different jobs. Mr Hughes used to work for Rolls Royce making engines for Concorde and the Harrier Jump jet. "It was very inspiring and has really made me think about going into science," said Zoe. Mrs Hughes, OBE, talked about her work in youth and career services. She talked what influences people's choice of occupation. Our final visitor was Dr. Jones from the Met Office - he persuaded us that science and maths are fun.

Some of Year 5 had a fantastic time performing their 'Circus Invitation Song'  at Dawlish Community College's Circus Outreach Event last night. Well done to all those that attended and performed this fantastic event!

On Friday 5th July, Y5 visited the Eden Project. We set off early and enjoyed the beautiful views of the  Devon and Cornwall countryside. On arrival, we split into two groups. One had the challenge of finding plants that could be eaten and could heal. The range, colours, heights and textures of plants we saw was magnificent. The other group became rainforest explorers and found out about the Kombai tribe in Papua. Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip and as usual the Y5 children represented the school perfectly.

On Wednesday the 3rd of April, year 5 were fortunate enough to take part in a Marine Litter workshop. At the start, we created a timeline explaining how long different materials take to decompose. We watched a video explaining the harm and damage to the environment; some of the photographs really shocked us. We then talked about what we can do on an every day basis to help.
Finally, we made a natural hand wash. We could choose ingredients from salt, oats, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda. We enhanced our hand scrubs with lavender oil.

In Year 5, we have just completed an English sequence on persuasive writing. For our hot tasks, we wrote letters which aimed to persuade the reader to reduce their use of plastic. Here are Toby & Emily's letters:

Dear parents/carers of Exminster school,

Should we reduce our daily use of single use plastic? Do you want to put yourself in danger? Most people would answer ‘no’. Here, in this letter, you will find out why you and others may be choking the world with plastic.

Plastic bags. They are useful for carrying your shopping, but they are also lethally dangerous! In my opinion, people should stop using them because they are so lightweight, which means they are incredibly light, that they could be carried by the wind anywhere, polluting the seas and making the environment look ugly.

I am certain that a lot of people find plastic packaging convenient for keeping their food fresh, but did you know that plastic could be in your delicious fish? Plastic breaks down into microplastics, which a fish could eat and send into its bloodstream. Aren’t you afraid of having plastic inside you?

Finally, everyone recognises plastic as the well known, superbly durable, super strong material that can last for so long. But some might say that it lasts for too long. It can take a devastating 5000 years to biodegrade, leaving it intact for centuries.

Therefore, plastic isn’t always amazing. A quote from David Attenborough, who is a naturalist, says ‘’It is one world. And it is in our care.’’ Plastic is the most efficient way to destroy our planet. I beg you to stop using single use plastic. It can hurt the animals. It can hurt the environment. That means it can hurt us.

Yours sincerely,
Toby

To Jeremy Corbyn,

Have you ever seen plastic bags tangled in trees, along roads or even floating in water? Of course you have. Because they are so lightweight, they are easily picked up in the wind. Can you be responsible enough to end this plastic pollution and save our world?

Firstly, humans are being baffled by the amount of microplastic in their food. Forget seafood, in a single chicken gizzard there could be 10 microplastics in it. You may think that is not much but when you buy a litre of bottled water in the shop, you could be thirstily consuming 241 microplastics.

Coca cola, a Kenyan water bottling company, acknowledged the presence of microplastics in their water, “Even in highly treated products, there may be a minute levels of plastic in.”

Scientists have also found microplastics in honey and beer.

Even producing plastic is harmful to the environment. For every kilogram of plastic produced, 6kg of carbon gets let out into the atmosphere. This makes one of the most toxic gases out to our Ozone layer.  You have to act now to stop climate change because of plastic production.

Lastly, do you want to be remembered as the worst world destroying generation of all time?

Or even plastic eating zombies. The problem is plastics qualities that make plastic a good, usable material, is that they make a big impact. Plastic breaks down over thousands of years. The plastic bag that you used as a kid, would not even be halfway through its life.

In conclusion, STOP using single use plastic and do something about it or you will be sorry! We have to help these helpless animals.

Yours sincerely
Emily

Today, Year 5 visited Dawlish Warren nature reserve in the beautiful spring sunshine. The Rangers there led us through two  informative sessions where we found out about longshore drift, the history of the spit, how the area is maintained by the Environment Agency, the flora and fauna in the region as well as its vulnerability. On the beach, we were given a challenge of building a sandcastle and then creating a man made sea defence.  We had lots of fun and our defences withstood at least one powerful wave.

We finished off with lunch on the beach and all decided that we live in a great place.

On Friday 8th March, Year 5 were joined by pupils from Dawlish College and embarked on an eco themed art project. Our big question in year 5 this term is 'How does our use of plastic impact on our Earth?'  We looked at four key areas: mass production; consumerism and wastefulness; environmental impact and how we can change by reducing, reusing, recycling and repurposing. The children use acrylic paint and used plastic to create four panels depicting each of the aspects. Here is a taster of what we did.

If you would like to see the finished product you are welcome to go along to an evening of drama, music and art at Dawlish College on Wednesday 3rd April , performances start at 6pm.

Have you seen our finished display in the corridor by the hall? We have learned about ways that you can re-use plastic to make something useful, rather than throw it away or send it for recycling after just one use. We designed and made bird feeders, piggy banks, pencil pots, toy jet packs, bowling pins and more using plastic bottles. We've also written instructions so if you'd like to know how to make something from our display, come and read the instructions.

On Thursday  year five held their Word Rich session. It was great to see so many adults attend. There was lots to share including SPaG, non-fiction books, our favourite word, community library and some challenging fictional texts. It is fabulous to see the year 5 pupils take on the opportunity to broaden their vocabulary in all they do.

We have had an enjoyable and productive week designing and making new things from used plastic. In our GOAL work this term we will be looking at how our use of plastic impacts on our Earth. We took used plastic and created bird feeders, pencil pots and a variety of toys which can all be used again. Please come and see our display in the main building which showcases our products as well as instructions on how we made them.