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 2024-2025

Class Information

Who's who?

Mrs Monaghan - Year 5 Class Teacher

Mrs Bent - HLTA 

Miss German - Teaching Assistant

Mrs Plant-Carlyon - Inclusion Teaching Assistant

Things to remember:

• Please remember that homework is due in by WEDNESDAY each week.
• PE lessons for Autumn 1 will be on a Tuesday (indoor) and Friday (outdoor). Please remember to write your child's name on all of their uniform and sports kits 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.... Autumn Term 1 (Sept - Oct 2024)

English 

In our writing lessons this half term we will be focusing on the writing to entertain. We will start with some baseline assessments. The children will complete independent short pieces of writing. (Setting and character descriptions). They will also use the technique of show not tell in emotive writing. This will lead to them completing a short story based on an abandoned theme park.

We will then move onto Poetry writing. The children will complete a colour poem and then we will do some work based on Michael Rosen's poem 'On the Move'.

We will use the Writing Rainbow to help support our writing again this year and continue to develop our stamina, overall presentation and editing. We will 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.

Our class reader will be decided by the children this half term. They will choose during our World Cup of Books activity the first week back. Throughout the term we will develop our comprehension skills and think carefully about our reading VIPERS (vocabulary, infer, predict, explain, retrieve, sequence or summarise) 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'.

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

• silent letter b
• sufflix ible
• suffix able
• silent letter t
• words ending in ibly and ably
• words ending in ent

The children will be tested on their 'challenge words' at the beginning of this half term and then again just before we break up for Christmas. Please could continue to practise these regularly at home.

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

• expanded noun phrases
• determiners
• inverted commas
• conjunctions
• apostrophes
• adverbials
• pronouns

Maths  

This half term the children will be focusing on the following units:

• Unit 1/2 - Place value within 1,000 000
• Unit 3 - Addition and Subtraction 
• Unit 4 - Multiplication and Division 

Our first topic Number and Place Value. This is the most important topic of the year as it is the foundation for everything we do in Maths. Here are all of the things that we will be covering

• Numbers to 10,000
• Numbers to 100,000
• Numbers to 1,000,000
• Read and write 5 and 6-digit numbers
• Powers of 10
• Partition numbers to 1,000,000
• Number line to 1,000,000
• Compare and order numbers to 100,000
• Round numbers to the nearest 10,000 and 100,000

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':

• times tables
• written methods taught in Year 4 for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division

Science

This half term, our Science topic is Earth and Space. During this topic the children will have the opportunity to:

• Describe the movement of Earth, and other planets, relative to the Sun in our Solar System. 
• describe the movement of the Moon relative to Earth and describe the Sun, Earth and the Moon as approximately spherical bodies.
• Use the idea of Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky. They will also have the opportunity to find out about how ideas about the solar system have developed and changed over time.

Working Scientifically, children will have the opportunity to plan an enquiry using a shadow stick and look at changes over time. They will take accurate measurements of the shadows formed, decide how to record them and present their findings. They will also identify scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute changing ideas about the Solar System.

Computing

Our topic for this half term is Mars Rover 1 - Data Handling During this topic the children will:

• To identify how and why data is collected from Space.
• To read and calculate numbers using binary code.
• To identify the computer architecture of the Mars Rover.
• To use simple operations to calculate bit patterns.
• To represent binary as text.

HEARTSMART - 

Heartsmart/PATHS- 

We will be looking at the Heart Smart principle 'Get Heartsmart' During these lessons the children will be taught what it is to be HeartSmart and how we can 'Power ON' to love ourselves and others as well.We will think about how powerful people lead others (Boss V Leader), describe the heart reputation that the children would like to have and think about how good quality sleep is important.

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. This half term they will learning how to play the ukulele. This is  a good unit to start with as it will help them to build on the skills they learnt in guitar last year. 

History

In History we will be learning about the Mayan Civilisation. During this topic the children will answer a range of key questions.

• Why do we study the Maya in History at KS2?
• How did the Maya manage to become so important?
• What was everyday life like in Mayan civilisation? How different was it for the rich and the poor?
• How can we possibly know what life was like for the Mayan people 1000 years ago?
• Why did the Mayan Empire decline? 

French 

Mrs Bent will  deliver the French lessons on a Monday afternoon. Our first topic is 'Monster Pets'. During this topic the children will:

• revise noun gender and how to use the correct article to go with the nouns.
• look at how to make adjectives agree with the noun that they describe.
• look at a French text and identify the key facts about an animal.
• create their own monster pets.
• write a paragraph to describe their monster creations.  

DT

Our unit for this half term is textiles (stuffed toys). This unit will build on their sewing techniques from Year 4. During this unit the children will be:

• designing a stuffed toy
• sewing a blanket stitch
• creating and adding decorations to fabric
• using blanket stitch to assemble all of the components for their stuffed toy.

R.E

Our topic this half term is 'What does it mean if Christians believe God is holy and loving?

During this topic the children will be asked key questions.

• What words do they connect to the idea of God?
• What words to Christinas connect to their idea of God?
• What do the words holy and loving mean?
• What does the Bible say God is like?
• How can ideas of God be expressed in art?
• How do some Christians respond to a holy and loving God?
• How do churches and cathedrals reflect Christian ideas about God? 

 PE

Our indoor P.E is on a Tuesday afternoon. This half-term our unit is 'Dance'. During this unit the children will be focusing on a range of key skills:

• Physical actions - dynamics, space and relationships.
• Social Collaboration - consideration and awareness of others, inclusion, respect, leadership.
• Emotional empathy - confidence, perseverance
• Thinking creativity - observe and provide feedback, use feedback to improve

 Our outdoor P.E is on a Friday morning. This half-term our unit is 'Tennis'. 

During this unit the children will be focusing on a range of key skills:

• Physical actions - forehand, groundstroke, forehand volley, underarm serve, volleying.
• Social Collaboration - encourage and support others, co-operation and communication.
• Emotional empathy - perseverance and honesty
• Thinking creativity - observe and provide feedback, use feedback to improve

We will hopefully be able to go to Pennington Park at the end of this unit to showcase our skills on the new tennis courts.

Our sporting value for this half term is Passion