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Year 5

Mrs Barker (Class Teacher)

Mrs Chan, Mrs Ebbs and Mrs Sweeney (Support Staff)

Autumn 2024

Year 5 have made an amazing start to the new academic year. Everyone has settled so well to the new rules and changes in routines, and I cannot wait to share what we have been learning.

In English, Year 5 have been busy look at mystery and suspenseful writing. We have been inspired by the texts The Watertower and Boy in the Tower and to create our own suspense story. We are also using Boy in the Tower for our Guided Reading this term. In our next writing unit we will be moving on to recounts where we will use our knowledge from our History lessons to write a recount of the life of William the Conqueror. We have been learning about William the Conqueror and will be investigating his significance and that of our local castle in Berkhamsted.

In Maths we have been building on our previous knowledge of place value and learning about place value up to a million. As we move through the term we will be learning and building on previous knowledge of addition and subtraction, multiplication and division together with fractions. I have been really impressed with the work that I have seen!

The children have enjoyed the first couple of Science lessons. We are learning about the properties and changes of material. One of our first lessons was planning an investigation to test if materials were soluble or insoluble. Our young scientists made predictions, talked through what makes a fair test, completed the experiment and discussed our conclusions.

In Art, we are learning about the Art of Georgia O’Keefe. This artist is best known for her paintings of flowers and desert landscapes using a range of media. This term in RE, we are answering the question ‘How far would a Sikh go for his/her religion?’ In order to answer this enquiry question, the children will be finding out about Sikh rules and beliefs. Next half term, we are really excited to be working on maps in Geography and will be building bridges in Design and Technology.

Summer 2024

Welcome back after the Easter break.  I hope you have all had a restful time and are ready for a busy term ahead.
In English, we have started a unit based on information leaflets which include instructions and explanations. We will be designing our own futuristic gadget and writing an explanation about it together with instructions on how to use it.  More recently, we been learning a topic based on fantasy stories by author and illustrator Shaun Tan.  The children have enjoyed the stories of everyday life with fantasy twists. Upcoming genres for the rest of the summer term include classic stories and report writing.
In Maths, Year 5 began the term with a focus on statistics. We have been looking at different types of tables and graphs and interpreted their data. We have now moved on to shape and in particular learning about angles.  The children will be looking to broaden their knowledge on their features, find missing angles in right angles, along straight lines and around a point.  
 
In Science, the children are beginning to learn about animals including humans focusing on life cycles of a human from fertilisation to old age.  After half term, we will move on to focus on living things, their habitats and lifecycles.
Year 5 have started the summer term studying History and learning about some of the key monarchs over the past thousand years.  We will be learning about some key moments influenced by those monarchs and how their role has changed. After half term, we will be studying Geography and the children will be exploring maps. They will look at different types of maps, explore the use of symbols, use compasses and grid references to locate places on a map.
Our key question for our RE this half term is ‘What is the best way for a Sikh to show commitment to God?’ and in PSHE we will be talking about relationships and in particular focusing on relationships online.
We have been lucky to have a couple of workshops early this term including our visit from Wonderdome who are supporting our learning from last half term on space.  We also visited The Lea Primary School where we heard from Mr Singh from the Sikh Education Service who has supported our learning in RE.
 

Spring 2024

Welcome back after a restful break.  I have been impressed how well Year 5 have returned to school with a great attitude towards their learning. 

In English, we have been focusing on a type of story called a circular narrative, this is where a part of the story is then repeated at the end, starting the story all over again. We have been using the story The Promise and its figurative language to write a similar tale. During the rest of term, we will be studying writing genres of persuasion, instructions and the poetry of Walter de la Mare.

In Maths, we are currently focusing on formal written methods for multiplication and division.  During the rest of term, we will be studying fractions, decimals & percentages, statistics, perimeter & area.

Ancient Greece and how they influenced modern society is our History topic. We will be looking at areas such as how their society was organised and how the Ancient Greeks contributed to world knowledge. Next half term, we will be studying mountains in Geography where we will be looking at areas such as how mountains are formed, contour lines and climate.

In Art, we are looking at a style of print making called monotypes. We have studied how they are created, looked at famous pieces by Kevork Mourad and replicated parts of his work and style by visual note taking in our sketchbooks. Next half term, in Design and Technology we will be looking at Chinese inventions. 

This half term in PE we will be studying gymnastics and after the break it will be netball and hockey.

In PSHE this half term, we will be thinking about our Dreams and Goals considering what we may want to do in the future and how to achieve that goal.  After half term, we will be looking at the unit called Healthy Me.

We are all very excited as later this term, Year 5 have got Bikeability and our class residential. 

 

 

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