This term, Class 8 went to see the exhibition of the Russian revolution, in the Royal Academy of Arts, celebrating 100 years since the revolution started, in 1917. 

They looked at the popular paintings from that time, one of which was the ‘The Black Square’, which is still considered to be one of the most famous paintings in abstract art. The children learnt that abstract art allows the observers to make their own assumptions about what they see and that everyone will have very different interpretations.

They also learnt that at the time of the Russian revolution there were many different propaganda posters that were created to voice people’s opinion. However this was mainly done through illustrations, as many people could not read or write.
Children had a chance to then work with volunteers (from the academy) and wander through the exhibition, gaining more understanding of this period in history. 
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They then worked very hard to create their own posters, using printing, collage and abstract art. After completing their posters they had to explain to their audience (the rest of the class, as well as all the volunteers) what their poster was about and what message they were trying to convey.

Year 5 have been learning about the Earth, Sun and Moon. We have been learning about how night and day works.
 
We initially thought that the Sun moved across the sky but it doesn’t! The Earth is what moves. It rotates on its own axis while orbiting the Sun. This spinning of the Earth is what gives us our day. It takes 24 hours for the Sun to make one complete spin. Because the Earth is spinning, different parts of the Earth receive sunlight at different times of the day.
 
Here are some interesting facts:
 

• Millions of years ago, the length of a day was only 14 hours long!
• The Sun is a star. Its burning gasses produce sunlight.
• Many, many years ago, people used to think that the Earth was flat.
• The Earth is tilted on its axis which means that part of the Earth faces more directly towards the sunlight. This causes different seasons.
• It takes the Earth 365 ¼ days to do one full orbit of the Sun. This means that every four years we have one extra day creating our leap year. 

​During World Book Week, Blue Gate Fields Junior school had the honour of meeting Pat Ryan, the amazing story teller. In year 5, Pat shared with us stories from Ancient Egypt – one was the oldest version of Cinderella and another was based on the mummies’ curse. We found out that the Ancient Egyptians were not frightened of mummies and it was in fact Britain who was responsible for the invention the idea of curses.
 
We also saw, to our amazement, how to make a chicken out of a tea towel! This was from the story of Mr Chicken and Mr Hedgehog – two best friends – one was a show off and the other couldn’t run.
 
We really enjoyed our time with Pat and hope to learn how to tell stories in an entertaining way!