P5a have had a busy time getting ready for Christmas. We learned a little about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. Did you know there are some countries where people leave their shoes out for Santa to fill with sweets? Hope they still taste good after being in some smelly shoes! We were very interested to learn that in Australia, people will often have barbecues and go camping as Christmas happens in the middle of their summer holidays which seemed a bit strange.

We then had a science lesson that explained that the seasons happen because of the way the Earth is tilted and how it moves through space. When we (the Northern Hemisphere) are having our winter, the sunlight here is less intense since we are tilted away from the sun so that means that Australia and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun and it is their summer.  Then we switch around the other side of the year. Getting hands on with a globe and torch really helped us to see how this happens. Do you know the Earth is tilted so much that in the summer the sun doesn’t set at the North Pole? It just goes around the sky in one gigantic circle.

Christmas also inspired some of our writing this month. We learned how to wrap presents and had a go ourselves before writing a set of instructions that other people could follow to make a nice, neatly wrapped present. We have also written Christmas shape poems too!

We practised hard to memorise our lines for our Christmas performance and hope that you enjoyed watching the video on Google Classroom.

All that’s left for this year is to say, “Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!”