A Journey from North to South America
Welcome from Year 5! It’s lovely to see everyone back in school again. Everyone has settled back into school life brilliantly and showed fantastic enthusiasm for learning. Here is an outline of what our teaching and learning should look like over the coming months:
WRITING
This term, we will be writing in a range of genres for different purposes. To begin, we will be creating short stories linked to How to Live Forever by Colin Thompson. Later in the term, we will be writing non-chronological reports linked to our Geography and History topics.
GUIDED READING
Guided reading will continue to be taught on a daily basis and will cover fiction, non-fiction, poetry and plays. Our first whole class book will be The Firework Maker’s Daughter by Phillip Pullman. Please continue to support your child’s reading by ensuring that they read at least 5 times per week, making notes of pages read etc. in their reading record. Their yellow reading record should be brought into school, daily. For children who continue to read from books on the school reading scheme, books will be changed on a Monday and/or Thursday. However, if your child is a free reader, they will have access to the Year 5/6 library area where they will be encouraged to change their book independently when required.
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR
Spelling will be taught using No Nonsense Spelling. There will be discrete spelling lessons several times throughout the week but there will not be a regular spelling test. Instead, the children have each been given a school spelling journal which will include patterns practised in class as well as words they have found challenging in their writing. These spellings will be tested informally throughout the term with formal spelling tests at the end of units of work. Grammar will be taught in context within our writing lessons so that it is purposeful and relevant.
MATHEMATICS
Maths is taught daily, with a 45-minute lesson teaching new material (main Maths lesson) and a 30-minute lesson (Maths on Track Meeting) to consolidate previous learning. We will be covering the units of Number and Place Value, Decimals, Properties of Shapes, Addition and Multiplication. Key concepts this term will include:
SCIENCE
This half term, the children will be learning about Earth and Space. After the half-term break, we will be studying Properties and changes in materials. These lessons will be blocked together over a few weeks.
FOUNDATION SUBJECTS
As part of our journey from North to South America, the children will be learning geographical skills and concepts including longitude and latitude as well as learning about the geographical features of both continents, including volcanoes. The children will later apply their artistic talents to creating a sculpture of a volcano.
After the half-term break, the children will be learning about the Maya civilisation of Central America. We will explore archaeological evidence to understand what life was like for this intriguing civilisation.
COMPUTING
The children will undertake volcano research on the internet and use software to create animations, adding music and commentary. The children will also undertake a programming task using our fantastic ‘Crumble kits’ the school has purchased. We will also be continuing to consider the importance of e-Safety.
RE
In RE, we will be working from the Gloucestershire agreed syllabus with the topics, What do Christians believe Jesus did to save people? and What kind of King was Jesus?
PHYSICAL EDUCATION (PE)
PE will take place on a Wednesday and Friday (5W) and Tuesday and Wednesday (5J). The outdoor session will be tag rugby then netball and the indoor session will be fitness then indoor athletics. Please can you ensure that your child wears PE kit into school on those days, including tracksuit bottoms for when the weather gets cooler.
HOMEWORK
To promote fast and accurate recall, it is important that children regularly practise their times tables and Times Tables Rockstars will enable them to do this at home. It is also important that your child continues to read at home at least 5 times a week. More formal aspects of homework linked to English, Maths or foundation subjects will continue to be assigned via our school learning platform on MS Teams. Any issues with logins or how to access Teams, please feel free to come and speak to the Year 5 Team or school office.
Kind regards,
The Year 5 Team