Year 5
Welcome to the Year 5 class page
It's the Summer Term!
This is our CREATE term so I hope you're looking forward to getting creative!
As a school we will be kick-starting our create term with art week. There are lots of art activities planned for each day. For the first half term the focus will be on drawing. We will be asking, 'What is Art?' and looking more specifically about the question: 'Is an architect an artist?' The children will be learning about some inspirational artists - all fascinated by buildings - from around the world and developing a range of key skills. These will include: how to create a sense of perspective by using scale, shading and overlapping objects. After half-term, the focus will move onto painting. For more information please do check out the art knowledge organisers - see below.
In our music lessons, the children will have the opportunity to get creative by developing their understanding of Blues music and learn to play a chord and put together a 12 bar-blues piece of music! Later in the term, they will learn about South and West African music called, 'Shosholoza'.
Creativity is a key element of computing and this term the children will be learning how to plan a quiz and then develop their programming skills using Scratch to design and create a quiz.
In our science lessons, we will be exploring how we as humans develop by looking at the different stages of human development from conception to changes in old age. Our second science topic this term is 'Earth and Space'. We will be answering questions such as: 'Why does the moon appear to change shape?' Our trip to the STEM Discovery Centre in Stevenage will support our classroom learning in a fun and creative way.
On Thursday morning, we will be walking down to Hartham for our weekly swimming lessons and on Fridays Matt will be starting athletics and rounders.
Maths and English lessons will take place in the mornings. Maths will continue to follow the White Rose planning and we will start this term with a 2-week block on decimals and percentages. You can see a brief break down in my medium term 'Create' plan. In English, I want to finish off our work on instructions before moving onto writing fantasy stories then after half-term cinquain poetry and science fiction. There will be a focus on developing reading skills this term and I have timetabled reading comprehension sessions each day. Please do continue to listen to your child each day - this is so important. A realistic guide is for them to read a minimum of five pages a day.
Please remember timings for the school day have changed: 8:40 - 3:15
Homework with spellings will be given out on Thursday and due in on Tuesday
PE - Thursday (swimming) and Friday
Spelling test - Friday
Knowledge Organisers
These simple documents describe clearly what the children will be learning for each subject. They can be found under the 'Curriculum' part of the website. Or you can click on the links below for this Create term:
Science - Animals including humans
Computing - selection in quizzes
Welcome to Spring term in Year 5
Each of the schools terms are themed:
Autumn term - the EXPLORE term (with a specific focus on Geography & Science)
Spring term - the DISCOVER term (with a specific focus on History)
Summer term - the CREATE term (with a specific focus on Art and Music)
So this term is the DISCOVER term!
We're already well underway and have started our maths work on Fractions. We will continue to follow the White Rose maths scheme. By clicking on White Rose you will be taken to the Year 5 scheme of work for the whole year. We are following the new scheme version 3.0. Be clicking on 'fractions' you will be taken to the specific scheme of work for fractions in Year 5.
In English we've started our Mystery and Suspense topic which for the first two weeks will be based on the book 'The Water Tower' by Gary Crew. We'll then move onto our next text called, 'Boy In The Tower' by Polly Ho-Yen. This is also our class novel and is an excellent read.
In history we started our Viking topic off by a Kahoot. This is an online quiz. I created a 20 question quiz about some of the things the children will be learning about in our Viking topic. Of course, they couldn't answer every question as they haven't had the lessons but still enjoyed the Kahoot. At the end of the topic I'll give them the same quiz and we should see a marked improvement. As we discover lots about the Vikings we'll try and answer our enquiry question: 'Were the Vikings bloodthirsty?'
In our science lessons the children will be discovering the nature and affect of forces. Did you know that a combination of forces helped the Vikings discover new lands? In DT I will teach the children how pulleys and gears can make things easier. We'll put this learning into practice by designing and making a moving vehicle that uses a pulley!
PSHE this term will focus on the theme of citizenship which includes themes such as discovering what happens when you break the law and recognising the role of pressure groups. PSHE will alternate with RE as we discover some of the key sources of wisdom in the Jewish and Christian faiths.
Finally, in computing the children will discover all about creating and editing their own film! We will continue to have a weekly Forest School lessons, weather permitting. I will try and link the children's outdoor experience with what they're learning in class. Today (16.01.2023) they created their own Viking rune tablet out of twigs. There will be two hours of PE a week split between myself and Matt.
For more information on specific subjects have a look at these knowledge organisers.
It's good to be back after the summer holidays. You'll find some information here about what's in store this term. Pictures of what the children have been up to will be regularly posted on the school's Instagram.
Each of the schools terms are themed:
Autumn term - the EXPLORE term (with a specific focus on Geography & Science)
Spring term - the DISCOVER term (with a specific focus on History)
Summer term - the CREATE term (with a specific focus on Art and Music)
This is our 'EXPLORE' term with a specific focus on Geography and Science. In Geography we will be finding out about physical and human geography. The children will be locating significant physical features in the world and examining their topographical features. As we examine extreme habitats we will look at how human activity (human geography) is impacting the environment (physical geography). Through our 'EXPLORE' learning we will try to answer our inquiry question: 'How can we reduce climate change?'
In Science the children will be exploring living things and their habitats. They will be investigating the process of reproduction in some plants and animals and learning about the life cycles of mammals, amphibians, insects and birds. In the second half of the term the focus will switch to properties and changes of materials.
The children will be finding out how information is shared in their weekly computing lessons and later on in the term learning to create vector drawings; exploring how different drawing tools can be use to create digital images.
Our core subjects of Maths and English will be taught on a daily basis and the other core subject, RE will be taught weekly. The children will also have a weekly RSE/PSHE lesson. In the first half-term the children will be developing an understanding of families, including marriage and what to do if someone feels unsafe in their family; learning that dealing issues can strengthen a friendship; exploring the impact of bullying and what influences a bully’s behaviour. In second half term we will be learning to take greater responsibility for sleep, healthy eating and managing feelings; setting goals and embracing failure; understanding the importance of rest and relaxation. I'm really looking forward to these lessons as I believe a greater understanding of relationships and well being is vital if we are to be 'successful' in today's society.
I will be following the White Rose timetable for Maths. By clicking on this link, 'White Rose' you will be able to see the topics and when we'll be studying them. For English I'll be using a mixture of my own resources and those provided by Herts Essentials. A focus this autumn in English will be 'Discussion'.
Each week the children will be doing two hours of PE: an hour with me and an hour with Matt. In the first half of the autumn term we will be learning how to play cricket and developing our football skills. In the second half I will be teaching dance through a series of lessons called, 'Eco Dance'. We also have a Forest School session scheduled. I'll use this to reinforce learning across a range of subjects.
The children's learning has been summarised in school curriculum maps (you can find each map under each subject) which show progression across the school and knowledge organisers (KOs) which are specific to each class. Use the links below to take you to the KOs that will be being used in the EXPLORE term
Geography
Science
Y5 KO - Living Things And Their Habitats
Y5 KO - Properties And Changes In Materials
Computing
Y5 KO - Computing Systems And Networks - Sharing Information
PE
Italian
English