Year 5 Penguins

WELCOME TO THE PENGUINS' HUDDLE

Viking Day

Thor-Ulf Hammarson visited Acton to teach Penguin Class and Wolf Class all about the Vikings. We learned about where they came from, their money and trade, their jobs, their family life, their traditions and - most excitingly - their weapons and warfare. Thor-Ulf was very entertaining and just a little bit scary (he is a Viking after all)! We really enjoyed handling lots of artefacts and asking many searching questions; the visit really helped to bring our history topic to life and stay lodged in our memories. Also, many thanks to all the parents and grandparents that helped us put together a range of exciting Viking outfits to wear on the day.

Welcome from (Thorpe) Woodlands

Penguins Thorpe Woodlands Magazine - Take a look at this pdf to see some excellent writing about our exciting residential trip.

Penguin Class Thorpe Woodlands Explanations.pdf

The Great Mummification Experiment

As part of our History work on Ancient Egypt (with Year 6), we carried out a mummification experiment to find out what would happen to a range of fruit and vegetables (and a tinned hotdog) if they were left in a natron mixture of 40 days.

At the start of the experiment, we drew the 'Pharaohs' before they were put into the natron (which was made up of table salt, washing soda and baking soda). We also measured the weight, length and circumference too.

After 40 days, Mr. Gray removed the Pharaohs so we could repeat the measurements and also make visual comparisons with the control Pharaohs - these had been placed into bags and kept in the same conditions as the mummified Pharaohs.

We were really surprised by how much moisture had been absorbed by the natron and the effect this had had on the Pharaohs (as you can see from the photos).