ST THOMAS
CE (VC) PRIMARY SCHOOL
YEAr 5
Welcome to Year 5's Learning Page
MEET THE TEAM
Dear Parents / Carers and Year 5 children,
We hope you all had an enjoyable half term break and managed to have lots of fun and family time. As a team we are really looking forward to welcoming you back, with lots of fun and learning along the way, as we leave Easter behind - lighter days and hopefully warmer weather should be following. There's lots of new learning to be done in our exciting new topic.
Please feel free to come and speak with us with any questions, suggestions or concerns - we are always willing to listen and help in any way we can. You can contact us via the office, in the playground after school, or via year5@stthomas.org.uk
All the best, Mr Sykes, Mrs Jones and Mrs Fullwood, plus all the great adults that will be supporting us!
Our TOPIC . . . Groundbreaking Greeks
Our topic this term uses HISTORY as the main driver (the last topic was mainly Geography). Children will learn about the different civilisations from the Ancient Greek era. We will also study significant people, such as Aristotle and Pythagoras, alongside events such as the ancient Olympics! This project teaches children about developments and changes over six periods of ancient Greek history, focusing on the city state of Athens in the Classical age, and exploring the lasting legacy of ancient Greece.
English: We are going to start the half term by looking at balanced arguments, discussing topical issues such as children and mobile phones :-) and we will be creating our own topics for debating. Following that we will consider other units within the English curriculum, including Newspaper reports and descriptive writing.
Maths: We eased in to Maths with statistic lessons - line graphs and data information tables. Following statistics will be the Geometry units of learning; studying shapes, position and direction. The White Rose Maths website has lots of free support and guidance, plus we always suggest children use the BBC Bitesize for effective teaching guidance as well.
Reading: Pupils will continue building their reading comprehension skills this half term and are still working on answering extended answers in detail – using evidence from the text to back up their thoughts and ideas, as well as summarising. We are really pleased with the progress of most children, and regular book changing is proving the key with many, so thanks to all you adults for that continued support in this area. Our focus book this half term is the ever-popular book by Michael Morpurgo - Born to Run.
Science: This half-term, our Science is "Properties of Materials" and is exactly that! Our lessons investigate the different types of materials (eg; fabric, wood, rubber, metal...) and how different properties helps to categorise or identify each material. It's an interesting unit of Science and will involve some very fun and challenging lessons of investigation.
Music: All the learning is focused around one song: Dancing In The Street by Martha And The Vandellas - an old classic which most children will recognise, although maybe from a more recent artist! The material presents an integrated approach to music where games, the dimensions of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch etc.), singing and playing instruments are all linked.
PSHCE: Year 5s will continue with "How we manage money"before moving on to the unit: how drugs common to every day life can affect our health.
RE: In RE we will be considering topical questions to generate thought and class discussions while linking it with Christianity and the many other religions. We follow the National Curriculum for R.E., and link to the school's key values.
Computing: Designing, writing and debugging computer programmes are this half-term's Computing lessons.
A&D: Children will spend the first half term learning about ART, before the final half-term will be DT. There is a lot to get through and we expect there being many enjoyable afternoons as we explore these two subject in this summer term.
PE/Sport: Swimming continues for 5S on TUESDAYS - though they will also have an extra PE lesson, on a Friday. For 5JF; they will continue with the usual regular PE lessons in school. PE this half term is based around competitive 'striking' games.
MFL: Pupils are speaking, reading & writing in French with increasing confidence, using the iLanguages learning scheme. Merci!
Home Learning
We are still using a paper-based homework if requested besides actively using Kahoot and Seesaw. Homework is sent out weekly to consolidate our understanding from lessons, alongside some more fun online tasks. Paper homework can be given out to anyone requesting it but we have stopped printing it for everyone as the returns doesn't justify the cost :-/
We would like more pupils to take ownership of this essential extra learning, and hope that adults in their home are able to support this.
Recent test scores vary greatly and we feel sure the Home Learning supports progress.
Please can you also ensure that your child reads 4/5 times a week at home – with an emphasis on reading for pleasure.
Reading books need returning every Thursday, which need to have signatures and comments in the Reading Record Booklet.
If children want any extra help, from home, with any subject at all levels - ASK, but also...;
BBC BITESIZE is a fabulous web-based resource that will help with any topic within the curriculum.
Thank you for your continued help and support.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with the Year 5 team if you have any questions or queries,
Mrs Jones, Mrs Fullwood and Mr Sykes.
Here is your Year 5 Class Charter challenge sheet. You can also download a copy by clicking on the image.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
If you can share any knowledge relating to our topic we would love to hear about it, plus if you have any skills (and time) related to the lessons we would do our best to include you in an afternoon with the children!