Year 5 have made such a brilliant start to the school year and it has already been a joy to be their teacher!  It was also really good to meet a number of parents at the 'Meet the Teacher' session this past week - thank you for coming.  We started term by learning the expectations and routines of year 5 through lots of role play and actions, and the children joined in wholeheartedly.  We then jumped straight into the curriculum.  In the first lesson of our science topic, ‘Mixtures and Separation’, everyone enjoyed creating mixtures with various substances and observing their properties, as you can see in the photographs.  The following week, we practised separating by sieving and panned for gold!  To launch our English book, ‘Freedom Bird’, which is all about slavery in 18^th and 19^th century America and two children’s journey to freedom, we created a class ‘Freedom Quilt’ using paints and pastels.  Each child designed a square tile using similar symbols, patterns, personal motifs and colours as those found on the original Freedom quilts, which folklore suggests helped guide many slaves to freedom.  With all the tiles put together, our quilt looks so colourful and eye-catching.  Last but not least, in PSHE, we have been learning about how reading food labels can help us make healthy choices.  It has been such a positive and lovely start to the year that I am super excited for all that is ahead, and I hope all the children are too!