This week’s writing of the week has a Tudor twist as we have become “Bards” to write our own versions of Shakespeare’s “Scottish play”. This was no easy task as we had to do a lot of interpretive work to translate some of the archaic vocabulary.

Here is Lauren’s modern version of

Macbeth; Act I, Scene III:

(A heath near Forres)

(Thunder – Enter the three witches)

First Witch:       Where have you been sister?

Second Witch:  I have been killing pigs!

Third Witch:     Sister, where have you been?

First Witch:       I went out and saw a sailor’s wife, who had chestnuts in her lap and she munched and      munched and munched. “Can I have one?” Said I. “Get lost you witch!” said the horrible old                 woman. Did you know her husband has gone to Alleppo as the master of a boat called the                           Tiger. But honestly, I would rather be in a sieve than sail on the sea with her husband, it                                 would be like a rat without a tail.

Second Witch: I can give you some wind for a storm.

First Witch:      You’re very kind sister.

Third Witch:    And I will as well, so we can sink the ship.

First Witch:     I have all of the other ingredients we need to make the storm. We should make it start at the docks and make it so that before he leaves he gets hit with the storm and hardly gets out of                       it. He will not sleep through day or night for 81 nights because of his wife’s crime. Look what                          I have to add to our spell!

Second Witch:  Show me what you have!

First Witch:     Here, I have a pilots thumb.

Third Witch:    I hear a drum!

All Witches:     Here comes Macbeth!

(Enter Macbeth and Banquo)

Macbeth:       What a strange day it has been.

(Macbeth looks confused)

Banquo:        How far have we got left to go? And who are these strange creatures?

(Banquo speaks to the witches)

 

 

Year 5 are still enjoying studying the Shakespeare play Macbeth. Today we have been learning a short scene from the play; featuring the witches, Macbeth and Banquo. Despite tackling some very challenging vocabulary and complicated speeches, we were all able to perform the scene. We will be rewriting the same scene, translating it for a modern audience, so that we can perform again at the end of the week.

 

Remember we will be looking for expression in your voices and development of the characters through actions and body language!

On Friday we decided to make the most of the glorious sunshine by taking our PSHE lesson outdoors. We were practicing using the growth mindset philosophy to understand that it is a good thing to make mistakes and learn how to improve our work. We took our sketchbooks with us and drew a picture of a butterfly (we only had a 5 minute time limit!). We were then given an image of  a butterfly to help us draw a more detailed and realistic version. After drawing another butterfly we used our own ideas, feedback from a peer and feedback from an adult to improve our drawings each time. We all agreed that we were able to draw a better picture after some support and advice!

This week in Literacy we have been reading Macbeth and doing some descriptive writing about the characters. Here is Jada’s character description of Macbeth.

 

S2S:

• Synonyms
• Subordinate clause
• Supporting evidence
• Comparative connectives

 

Macbeth is an easily manipulated chap, who is extremely regretful for the dead that he has completed. He is also a coward-like human (who is very sorry for murdering the past king), unlike his cold-hearted wife.

In other aspects of the play, which in this case would be the second part, Macbeth’s terrifying character becomes bold and malicious, executing anyone who dares to disobey him. Furthermore, he becomes over confident, thinking that he is immortal to anyone born of a woman; well that’s what the witches told him. Do you know why Macbeth did all of this murdering and killing? He did it just to become king!

Having enjoyed watching our butterflies grow and be released into the wild, we have now been joined by some new visitors.

TADPOLES!

So far they have settled nicely into their tank and are enjoying the lettuce (kindly cooked each day by Mrs Oomen). We are waiting for them to start growing legs!

At the moment there are too many too name, but it would be nice to start naming them after the Tudor royal family, to tie in with our latest topic!

Keep watching for updates.

Here are some photos from our fantastic day at Layer Marney Tower. We got to see the spectacular view from the top of the tower and experience a day in the life of a Tudor!

Can you guess who is under all that armour?

As a bonus treat we even got to bottle feed the new lambs.

On Monday, both Pine and Poplar visited Britain’s tallest Tudor gatehouse, Layer Marney Tower. Throughout the day, we took part in various Tudor themed activities, including Tudor games and food, archery and Maypole dancing.

Climbing the tower was hard work but worth it when we reached the top and saw the amazing views over the Essex countryside. We could see as far as Mersea Island and Bradwell.

The archery session was a big hit with all of the children. We definitely had some hidden talents among us! Check out our video!

Before it was time to leave, we managed to squeeze in a quick lamb feed. They were really cute, but also very greedy!!

Overall we had a fantastic day and learned a lot about the Tudor way of life. We will definitely be using all of these facts in our history lessons this term.

Year 5’s, what was your favourite part of the day and why?

 

Our star writer this week is Zaak, who has written a fantastic non-chronological report about Layer Marney Tower.

Look out for some of our S2S

• Range of sentence openers
• Technical vocabulary
• Adventurous connectives
• Subheadings
• Bullet points

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Background of Layer Marney:

Amazingly Layer Marney has welcomed visitors for over 500 years. Intriguingly Layer Marney is the tallest Tudor gatehouse in England. Historically it was builtin the 1520’s by Lord Marney, with stone imported from other regions. Remarkably there are 99 steps to the top of the tower, which is 80 feet tall. Tragically Lord Marney died before he finished the tower so now the other half of the building is the car park!

Visiting Layer Marney:

At Layer Marney we ensure you that children of all ages will enjoy the experience of trying a plethora of different activities such as;

• food
• medicine
• dancing
• church and religion

We also offer different learning experiences like the stone, iron and bronze age, Romans, Vikings and Greeks (but the Tudor events are the most popular)

Weddings at Layer Marney:

Layer Marney is the perfect place to book your special day. We ensure that your day will be magical and you will never forget it. Talk to our wedding coordinator to discuss your day. We make sure that your day is relaxing and enjoyable, so you have many choices including;

• arriving in a Rolls Royce
• having your ceremony in the Cornellis Room

Not long to go now! Are you ready for our trip to Layer Marney Tower?

In preparation for our visit we have been writing non-chronological leaflets about Layer Marney and have already learned lots of interesting facts about how, when and why it was built as well as investigating some of the other exciting things that you could do there.

Don’t forget to get your costume sorted (Miss Dearing is very excited about this!). If you are unsure here are some pictures for inspiration!

In science we are learning about materials and their properties, investigating changes in materials. Today we have been investigating which materials will dissolve in water. We planned and recorded our investigations in writing first, using adverbs of time and a formal style. Then we worked in teams to test a range of solids such as; sand, sugar, pepper and coffee. We mixed them with cold water and waited a short while before pouring the mixtures through filter paper. We had to use our judgement to decide whether the mixture had completely, partly or not dissolved at all, we did this by looking at the colour and clarity of the liquid, looking for particles floating in the mixture or looking for particles stuck to the filter paper.