Year 5 welcome you to the Spring Term 2016!
Happy New Year! Welcome back to school. We have an
exciting term planned in Year 5: looking at the ‘Earth’s
Extremes’, carrying out lots of exciting experiments and
studying a different culture.
We are always keen to welcome experts on different topics
to work with the children so let us know if you would like to
help.
If you have any concerns do come in and see us.
We will be continuing to have value weeks based on the
schools values. This term’s value week will be
‘Responsibility’
Many thanks for your continued support.
Yew Class - Tracey Fletcher & Alex Nicholls
Olive Class – Al Briggs
English
An exciting term ahead in English!
This term Year 5 will start by investigating China, which links to our topic
theme of Extreme Earth. The children will practise their research skills by:
formulating questions they would like to answer in order to find out more
about something that inspires their interest; locating information by
scanning and skimming; making notes and recording sources; finally
preparing and presenting what they have learned.
We will also look at Chinese stories and find out what these tell us about
Chinese values and customs.
In Term 4, the children will look at books written by Michael Morpurgo.
Our first book will be Kensuke’s Kingdom: where they will read, predict
and infer. For this term the children will be writing a persuasive text about
saving an endangered animal using notes from their research.
Our second book in Term 4 will be The Wreck of the Zanzibar, the children
explore Michael Morpurgo’s use of language to create an impact on the
reader and examine the themes of the book.
Philosophy for Children
The children will be continuing to take part in weekly P4C sessions. During
these sessions children generate questions in response to a stimulus (e.g.
a story, object or film clip). The children vote on which question to discuss
and then have a class discussion with the teacher acting as a facilitator.
Maths
This term Year 5 children be working further on all aspects of maths. In
particular they will be spending time looking at fractions; focusing on
turning fractions to decimals, writing remainders in division as fractions,
comparing and ordering fractions. As well as this, they will be revisiting all
four mathematical operations, looking at rates and solving problems
scaling by fractions. The children will also be looking at converting units of
time and calculating areas of scale drawings. In addition to learning about
the term diagonal and make conjectures about the angles formed
between sides. They will also study co-ordinates and translation of shapes
to new positions.
Science
In Terms 3 and 4 the Year 5 children will be looking at reversible and
irreversible changes. They will build their understanding of the
differences between a variety of materials and how materials can be
mixed and dissolved, and reversibly and irreversibly changed. Big
Questions include:
Will it dissolve, react, sink or float?
Can you change an egg back to its original state once it is cooked?
Can you solidify butter once it has melted?
Finally the children will create their own investigation enabling them to
apply their knowledge of materials to practical questions
What’s Happening in the Spring Term?
20th January Mother Tongue Day
1st February Responsibility week
26th February Yew/Olive Sharing Assembly
2nd March World Book Day
8th and 9th March Parent’s evening
14th March Science Week
Values
In terms 1 and 2 the foci will be Responsibility and
Independence. Children will be encouraged to think about and
discuss what unity and trust mean to them. This will allow them
to take ownership and put their ideas into practise. There will be
a values focused weeks in each of the term.
Topic
The focus for this term will be Geography. Year 5 children will be
introduced to the wilder side of the world with the creative
Geography topic 'Extreme Earth'. The children will find out all
about the Earth's extremes, from raging tropical storms to violent
erupting volcanoes to terrifying towering tsunamis. They will also
explore how these extremes affect people, communities and
landscapes.
Computing
Year 5 will be learning all about statistics and how to use
Microsoft Excel to analyse the results from question they will
investigate e.g. Does the UK have more hours of sunlight than
China? Or Does it rain more in the UK or China?
PSHCE/RE
In RE this term, the children are learning about Symbols within
different religions. They will be encouraged to develop their own
questions and thoughts on the way symbols are used.
Art/D&T
In Art this term the children will be learning how to mix colours
and will make a colour wheel to show what they’ve learnt about
colour. As our topic is Extreme Earth, they will be looking at how
they can paint wild weather. To achieve this the children will be
looking at how we sketch and look at landscapes, mark making
and painting using watercolours. They will be focusing on the
Yorkshire artist Ashley Jackson, who paints the landscapes around
West Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Dales focusing on its weather.
PE
In term 3 the children will be having Athletics (Thursday) and
Hockey (Friday), where the children will be looking at improving
their core muscles and balance, hand eye coordination and
endurance. In Term 4 they will be doing Football (Thursday) and
Basketball (Friday).
Homework
Children in Year 5 have 3 pieces of homework to complete per
week. One piece of English or topic, the new spelling homework
and one piece of maths work. These will be given out on a
Wednesday and are due in the following Tuesday. In addition to
this children are expected to complete their Big Talk once a week.
To help us support your child please can you make sure that you
discuss the topic and sign your child’s home/school book?
Spellings will be sent home on a Monday and we will test them on
Friday. Please help your child practise their spelling words during
the week.
French
In French the children will be recapping their conversation skills
that focused on where they live, going to different places in town
and who their family members are and whether they have any
pets. This term they’ll look at how to buy and order things like
coffee, cakes, coke and bread as we look forward to our France
trip later in the year.