Christ Church C.E. Primary School

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Our Year 5 Class       

A very warm welcome to our Year 5 class page. In Year 5  we look forward to the challenges and responsibilities of being in the upper juniors. During the year the children continue to develop their independent learning, research and team work skills. 

Our Year 5 Class 2023-2024

Class Information

 

Who's who?

Mrs Monaghan - Year 5 teacher

Mrs Bent - HLTA

 

Things to remember:

  • Please remember that homework is due in by WEDNESDAY each week.
  • PE lessons for Spring will be on a Wednesday (Indoor) and Friday (Outdoor). Please remember to write your child's name on all of their uniform and sports kids to avoid confusion.
  • Reading is encouraged both in school but also at home. Reading for enjoyment is as important as reading to learn. It is important that the children read a range of books/comics/newspapers at home and develop their comprehension skills and vocabulary. This will help consolidate the reading work we will be doing in class. In Year 5, we feel it is important for the children to develop a love of reading as this gives their 'imagination wings'.
  • We will be following the RWI spelling scheme this year and supplementing this with Spelling Shed. The children will be encouraged to use this at home as well as in school. The children will also be bringing home a list of the key words that they are currently working on. Please practise these at home(little and often).
  • It is important that the children still continue to practise their times tables regularly at home. TTRockstars is a fantastic tool for this as well as 'Hit the Button'.

This half term.... Spring Term 2 (February - March 2024)

English - In English this half term we will be looking at two different genres of writing and purposes for writing. We will start by looking at biographies (writing to inform). We will create a scaffolded biography on David Attenborough. This will link nicely with our rainforest work last half term. We will be using the 'Little People, Big dreams books for inspiration. The children will then create their own biography based on an inspirational figure from either the past or the present.  

After this we will focus on diary entries (writing to entertain/inform) We will look carefully at the style of diary entries and the structure. The children will then create their own diary entries based on a famous historical figure from Ancient Egypt or an archaeologist who discovered treasures from Ancient Egypt. This will link nicely with our History work on the Egyptians. 

We will use the Writing Rainbow to help support our writing again this half term and continue to develop our stamina and overall presentation. We will continue to challenge ourselves with our vocabulary choices, use a range of punctuation and vary our sentence structure. It is crucial that the children continue to proof-read their work carefully and check carefully for the basics and that their sentences make sense. 

We will continue with our new class reader 'The Explorer' by Katherine Rundell. 

'Fred, Con, Lila and little Max's plane is on the way to Manaus when it falls put of the sky. Now, lost in the Amazon rainforest, they must figure out the basics of survival: water, shelter, food. Do they wait for rescue, or find a way to rescue themselves? 

Will the children escape for the rainforest? Will they meet anyone along the way? Maybe an explorer? 

Throughout the term we will be continuing to develop our comprehension skills and thinking carefully about our reading VIPERS (vocabulary, infer, predict, explain, retrieve, sequence or summarise) It is important that the children continue to read a range of books/comics/newspapers at home and develop their comprehension skills and vocabulary. This will help consolidate the reading work we will be doing in class. In Year 5, we feel it is important for the children to develop a love of reading as this gives their 'imagination wings'. 

In our spelling lessons we will focus on the following spelling rules: 

  • words ending in shul spelt cial and tial 
  • words with ie after 'c' 
  • silent letters 
  • words that are adverbs of time 
  • challenge words  

The children will be re-tested on their 'challenge words' the week before we break up for Easter. Please could continue to practise these regularly at home. 

We will be doing lots of sticky learning around our grammar consolidating our understanding of: 

  • adverbials and pronouns 
  • determiners and apostrophes 
  • tenses 

We will also have a different grammar focus each week. For this half term these will be: 

  • parenthesis 
  • punctuation 
  • semi colons  
  • functions of words within sentences  
  • conjunctions 

 

Maths  - This half term we will be focusing on multiplication and division. It is crucial that the children continue to practise their times tables regularly as this benefits them greatly in their maths lessons.

Multiplication/Division:

  • multiplying a 4-digit number by 1-digit number
  • multiplying 2-digit numbers
  • multiplying 3-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers
  • multiplying 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers
  • dividing 4-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers
  • dividing with remainders
  • efficient division
  • solve problems with multiplication and division
  • multiply unit fractions by integer
  • multiply non unit fractions by an integer
  • multiply mixed numbers by integers

After this we will start another unit based around fractions and building on teh children's knowledge from last half term's fraction work.

All of these activities will give the children the opportunity to develop their reasoning and problem solving skills. We will also continue with our daily reasoning questions with our partner and counting activities. These help the children to develop their mathematical thinking.

At home, it would fantastic if you could keep some of the children's previously learning 'bubbling':

  • Reading times on analogue and digital clocks
  • Roman Numerals
  • Rounding to the nearest 10, 100, 1000, 10000 decimals to the nearest whole number and money to the nearest 10p and £1
  • Number Bonds
  • Written strategies for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
  • equivalent fractions

 

Science

Our new topic for this half term is 'Materials.' During this topic the children will:

  • compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of properties. 
  • give reasons based on evidence and from comparative and fair tests.  
  • finding suitable material alternatives. 
  • finding good thermal insulators.  

 

Computing

Our topic for this half term is 'Creating Media - Stop motion Animation' The children will have a fantastic opportunity to create their own stop motion animation based on the Easter story. 

1) Animation explored. 

2) Exploring stop motion. 

3) Planning their stop motion project. 

4) Creating their stop motion. 

5) Editing their stop motion project. 

 

HEARTSMART 

Heartsmart/PATHS-

The Heartsmart principle for this half term is 'Don't hold on to what's wrong' This unit focuses on Forgiveness and learning how to process negative emotions, disappointment and hurt. It is about choosing to forgive, leaving the pointing finger in our pocket and accepting that we too need grace just as much as we give it away. Everyone makes mistakes. Don't demand perfection, instead, celebrate progress, that's what loves does. We will also continue with our PATHS lessons this half term. These lessons support the children in developing their social emotional skills.

Music

Mr Wilkinson will come into Year 5 on a Thursday afternoon to teach the children music. The children will be continuing with their Ukelele course. They are learning songs that build on the fundamental skills of the Ukelele. At first, they learnt how to hold the Ukelele, then they moved on to learning songs that required them to fingerpick and also learned their first chord, the C Chord. We will be moving forward to songs that will also include the chords  F, G7, and G. 

      

History 

Our topic for this half term is the Ancient Egyptians. During tis topic the children will develop their historical enquiry skills and answer a range of key questions.  

  • What can we quickly find out to add to what we already know about Ancient Egypt? 
  • How can we discover what Ancient Egypt was like over 5000 years ago?  
  • What sources of evidence have survived and how were they discovered? 
  • What does the evidence tell us about the everyday life for men, women and children. 
  • What do Ancient Egyptians believe about life after death and how do we know? 
  • What did Ancient Egypt have in common with other civilisations from the time? 

The children will also be creating a homework project based around the Ancient Egyptians and the sharing it will parents and carers before we break up for Easter. I can't wait to see these as they all did an amazing job with their Space projects. 

 

French 

'French Speaking World.' The children will be learning to: 

  • recognise, read and respond to directional language. 
  • understand that French is spoken in many different countries across the world, and to read and give directions. 
  • identify features of countries in the French-speaking world.  
  • use authentic materials to investigate climate data in the French-speaking world. 
  • ask and answer questions about the different countries in the French-speaking world.  

                                                       

DT

This half term our DT project links very nicely with our History topic on the Egyptians. The children will be making a shaduf as part of their mechanisms work in DT. They will be learning to: 

  • investigate a shaduf and understand its components. 
  • understand counterweights and how mechanisms control movement. 
  • design a shaduf complete with components that will represent different mechanisms. 
  • assemble a working structure. 
  • evaluate their product and design. 

      
PE

Our indoor lessons on a Monday will be 'Gymnastics - shape and space' This unit focuses on rhythmic gymnastics. During this topic the children will: 

  • link shapes and movements 
  • link movements and balances and create 2/3/4 point balances. 
  • (partner work) create part weight balances with a partner. 
  • create and perform a gymnastics routine that includes shapes on apparatus. 
  • plan a routine that includes a range of shapes, balances and movements. 

Our outdoor lesson is on a Friday afternoon. This half term we will be doing tennis. The children will develop a range of skills each week in the lessons. 

1) ABC of tennis. To understand and practise some of the fundamental skills of tennis.  

2) Forehand - to hit the ball with accuracy using a forehand technique. 

3) Backhand - to be able to play the backhand stroke with control and accuracy. 

4) The serve - to be able to perform an overhead tennis serve. 

5) The volley - to develop a volley and use in a tennis mini game. 

R.E

We will be learning about 'Easter'. Our topic is called 'Why do Christians believe that Easter is a celebration of victory?' 

Key questions include 

  • In what ways is Christ's death and resurrection a victory? 
  • What is Jesus victorious over and why? 
  • How does his victory affect us today? 
  • What did Jesus do to save human beings?  

Spring Term 1 NEWS!

It has been a busy half term again in Year 5. The children have once again worked their socks off and I am proud of every single one of them!

In English their writing has gone from strength to strength. I have loved reading their adventure stories based on our class reader 'The Explorer' and their thought provoking kindness poem. It has also been wonderful to experience sharing our class reader 'The Explorer' with the children - we are all intrigued to find out what is going to happen to all of the children and if they will meet an explorer along the way.

The children have once again shown resilience with their maths work. They have worked hard on mastering fractions and improved their reasoning and problem solving skills. In Science they have enjoyed learning about life cycles and watching their bean plant grow. They have been developing their skills when recording data either in a line or bar graph. Skills that we are going to continue to develop this and next term.

The children's singing skills have continued to improve during their music lessons with Mr Wilkinson. Mrs Bent has once again been impressed with the children's developing knowledge in French and their fantastic printing skills in Art. Their rainforest inspired prints were amazing. The children have continued to give insightful responses and show empathy during our Heartsmart and Picture News lessons. The introduction of our PATHS lesson has also helped them to develop their socio-emotional skills and roles when working within a team. They have also loved the introduction of 'Pupil of the Day'. 

In P.E the children loved developing their basketball skills and we finally managed to master our dribbling skills by the end! We are hoping for a visit to the park this half term to showcase these skills on the basketball courts. After a reluctant start the children grew in confidence during our dance lessons and showed great self-belief when performing their street jazz dances to the rest of the class.

The children have especially enjoyed our rainforest topic in Geography. They can now confidently locate the rainforests of the world, describe the layers of a rainforest and talk about the key features and the importance of the rainforest.

I am looking forward to Spring 2 and all of the exciting things we will be doing. We will also have Miss Potter (student teacher) joining us form Edge Hill University. The children are differently maturing and growing as both learners and individuals. It is lovely to see!

Autumn Term 2 NEWS!

Wow! Another busy half term in Year 5. The children have once again worked their socks off, showed their resilience, grown in confidence and had lots of fun. A great start to the half term was seeing all of the children's amazing Space projects and sharing them with you all in the hall. They were fantastic! I was extremely proud of the effort that they put into them and the confidence they showed when speaking about them to lots of adults.

The children have worked hard in English and are really improving both their vocabulary choices and sentence types. We are also getting better at checking the basics and making sure that our work is well presented. It is crucial that they continue to do this.They created some wonderful non-chronological reports on a variety of unusual creatures and wrote some great thought - provoking poetry based on Refugees, which linked nicely with our class reader 'The Boy at the Back of the Class'. I enjoyed reading their explanations on climate zones and it highlighted their knowledge and understanding from our Geography lessons. 

They worked hard their Maths lessons, especially when we moved onto Fractions. They have pleased me with their continued progress on their times tables and their willingness to practise at home. They are continuing to develop their reasoning skills and use prior mathematical knowledge to help them to problem solve. 

They all worked hard during our forces unit in Science and enjoyed working scientifically when investigating, friction, air and water resistance. It was great to see them build on the Mars Rover work they did in Autumn 1 again this half- term with our second computing unit on the Mars Rover. Their pixels work was fantastic along with their 3D CAD designs of their own rover.

It has been lovely again to see the maturity and sensitivity the children continue to show during our RE, Heartsmart and wellbeing lessons. They are always willing to listen to others, encourage and share their own thoughts. The children gain a great deal from these lessons and it is heart-warming to see it put into action!

The children continued to develop their French language skills and enjoyed the topic greatly as it linked back to their space work in Autumn 1.  In Music they showcased their growing ukulele skills with Mr Wilkinson. P.E was lots of fun this half-term and give us a great opportunity to show our resilience and team work skills during our dodgeball and invasion games lessons.

As you can see we haven't stopped in Year 5 this half-term and the children have shone brightly both in their learning and attitude. The term finished with a super Christmas party and our beautiful KS2 Christmas Carol service in church. It was lovely to have a packed church one more and for the children to perform and talk about the meaning of HOPE at Christmas. A lovely end to a lovely half-term.

 

Autumn Term 1 NEWS!

Wow! It has been a very busy first half term in Year 5. It has been lovely to get to know the children better. The highlights for me this half term are  our Science work on Earth and Space and to see the children working really hard on their presentation and handwriting. I am really looking forward to seeing their Science projects after half term and for them to share them with everyone when we all get together.

The children have started to grow in confidence and show their maturity and 'kind hearts' through our R.E discussions, Heartsmart lessons, Picture News, puberty lessons with HHKids. They are always willing to share their thoughts and feelings and are very respectful of each others opinions and views.  They have developed their historical thinking during our topic on the Mayans and thought carefully about how we know so much about a civilisation that were around over 1000 years ago. They have tackled the challenging job of reading binary code in Computing with resilience and patience and have enjoyed finding out more about the Mars Rovers. The children's spoken French has continued to improve along with their drawing skills in Art. They have enjoyed learning to play the ukelele in Music and have adapted well to this by drawing on the guitar skills that they learnt in Year 4 during their Wider Opportunities lessons.

The children worked hard during our Place Value units in Maths and have shown a good understanding, especially when faced with larger numbers. Their reasoning and problem solving skills continue to develop. I am also pleased with their continued practise on their times tables. In English we have focused on narrative writing this half term with the purpose of entertaining. The children produced some excellent short stories based on an abandoned fairground and are really challenging themselves with their vocabulary and sentence choices. In P.E they continued to develop their gymnastics skills and improve their rolls, jumps and vaulting. The thing that pleased me most during these lessons was the children's perseverance, encouragement of each other and their growing ability to self assess their skills.

As you can see it has been a busy start to Year 5 and as we head into another busy half term I know that the children will continue to make me proud as they grown in confidence, resilience, work together as a team and challenge themselves.