Year 5
Rights Respecting Articles in Child Friendly Language
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
- Harriet Tubman
Year 5 is the beginning of Upper Key Stage 2 and we will be concentrating on honing our writing and mathematical skills in readiness for Year 6. The pupils also benefit from our exciting residential trip in the summer term. This develops the resilience, independence and personal growth of the children which is all part our transition work preparing them for Year 6 and beyond.
Meet the team
Mrs Willis (5W) - Year Leader
Miss Hall (5H) - Class Teacher
Miss Lopez (5L) - Class Teacher
Support Staff - Miss Cowan, Miss Myers and Miss Kasia
What we do and when
Our learning
Autumn Term
Your children have made an excellent start to Year Five. They have returned to school after the summer break, rested and ready to learn. We began the term, looking at the book ‘The Spaces In Between’ by Jaspreet Kaur. Each class discussed some of the situations that can make us feel overwhelmed (like the examples in the book) and came up with useful advice for any friends feeling anxious about crowded spaces or loud noise. The classroom doors are looking great with the children’s creative interpretation of the book’s theme.
The children have really thrown themselves into art this term, starting with a still life sketch of sunflowers. They enjoyed further developing the sketching techniques they learnt in Year 4 to experiment with light and shadow, as well as create perspective. This will serve them in good stead for our nature-inspired printing topic later this term.
More recently, in Art, Year 5 have been experimenting with print. Our Artist of Study has been British printmaker; Angie Rogers. In her style, and following her process, we have developed our line-making techniques and exploring how to create texture using soft pastels. Our final pieces are a layered print, combining both monoprint and pastels, inspired by the Norwegian countryside (to link to our new geography topic).
In history, we started our topic on ‘Dark Ages Britain’ by exploring a virtual Viking settlement and raid. We used our Year 4 knowledge about the Anglo-Saxons to make connections across the two groups and discussed push and pull factors for why the Vikings also chose to invade Britain.
Previously...
Your children have worked incredibly hard throughout the entire spring term. We began the half term, looking at our new history topic learning all about the early Islamic Civilisation. We’ve used various artefacts to deepen our understanding of key figures and the famous House of Wisdom – we even made our own iMovie adverts for Baghdad 900 AD. We also used VR to better understand what Baghdad 900 AD looked like. We agreed that we have a lot to thank the Early Islamic Civilisation for.
In geography, we have started our topic all about Norway. We already had some understanding of the landscape there as we studied why some Vikings fled Scandinavia to set up home in Britain in our history lessons earlier in the year. We have already developed a deeper understanding of geographical terminology and applied our understanding of latitude and longitude and how these are used to locate even very remote places. Each lesson builds our map skills and we have been learning how to source information in altlases as well as using online tools like Google Earth and Mapmaker.
In computing, we will be working our way through Swift Playground, focussing on using and writing commands. There are a numbr of expert coders in Year 5 but all of us are being challenged in this unit as we move up through the levels and encounter more and more complex tasks. The children have worked very collaboratively and are showing terrific resilience. Why not get them to teach you some of their new learning at home and you might also find yourself hooked on Swift Playground!
“We’ve been working together and helping each other when we are stuck which helps us to all understand better.” - Luie, 5W
“I enjoyed how challenging it was. You had to figure out the possible ways to get to your conclusion and they were not always clear” - Amelia 5H
“Writing commands in Swift Playground was like solving a puzzle. You had to look at the world and figure out what the problem was first.” - Polly, 5L
This term in English, we have been getting to grips with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The children enjoyed using their deduction skills when exploring the virtual world Elsinore Castle to predict the theme of tragedy. They have since been getting to know the characters and have had a go at writing their own soliloquies. We have even had a go at writing using Shakespearean language. We will be taking the stage very soon to perform our final pieces.
This term in science, Year 5 have been experimenting with materials. We have developed our understanding of properties and how these make a material suitable, building on our knowledge of thermal and electrical conductors and insulators. The children have conducted experiments looking at reversible and irreversible changes, noticing changes of state, as well as observing some fizzing chemical reactions.
Your children have worked incredibly hard throughout the entire autumn term. We began the half term, looking at our new geography topic learning all about Norway. Each class created their own travel guides teaching the viewer all about what Norway has to offer. The children included human and physical features and made excellent use of their persuasive language skills. We used VR sets to help the children understand all about the Aurora Borealis.
Our English work writing blogs based on Malala Yousafzai’s book, If I had a Magic Pencil, gave the children the opportunity to consider what they feel really passionate about.
This term in art, Year 5 have been experimenting with print. Our Artist of Study has been British printmaker; Angie Rogers. In her style, and following her process, we have developed our line-making techniques and exploring how to create texture using soft pastels. Our final pieces are a layered print, combining both monoprint and pastels, inspired by the Norwegian countryside.
We began the term, looking at the book ‘All the Wonderful Ways to Read’ by Laura Baker. Each class discussed their own criteria of what makes a good reader. Common themes in the three classes were: experimenting with different genres; being self-motivated; and reading regularly (all good to hear!).
We are very excited that we get to be the first year group of the year to have pottery sessions with Miss Maggs. We are creating pieces inspired by our history topic (the Anglo Saxons and Vikings). Miss Maggs is helping us build our ceramic construction skills (slab building) and also teaching us new ways to use slips to decorate our pieces.
While half of the year group are doing pottery, the other half are doing a sewing DT project. The details of which are ‘top secret’ as we will hope to show you at the winter fair later in the year. The first lesson was us experimenting with different ways to join fabric together. In this topic, we will use a combination of stiches: running, back, blanket and whip.
How can you help at home?
Regular reading is still highly important in Year 5 so please do continue to hear your child read as well as encourage them to read for pleasure independently. All children are expected to read regularly at home and record in their reading records daily. Year 5 pupils need to develop their inference and deduction skills so asking them questions about what they have read will really support them.
Spelling is a very important part of the Year 5 English curriculum and therefore a new list of target words from the National Curriculum will be set each week via Google Classroom. See this link for the spelling word list (including some common patterns) taught in Year 5 and Year 6 https://cdn.oxfordowl.co.uk/2019/08/29/13/56/09/5a42eb6a-f57f-4dc4-a66e-bd4c5e27e4b7/SpellingWordList_Y5-6.pdf
It is our aim that all pupils move up to Year 6 having excellent, rapid recall of times tables up to 12 so pupils are tested every week. Please speak to your children about the weekly expectation to regularly use Times Tables Rock Stars https://ttrockstars.com/
Children will be set weekly maths activities on Mathletics. All children have been given their own login and are expected to complete all tasks set. Reminders will be given in Reading Records for those children who do not complete their maths homework.
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