Welcome to Year 5!

In Year 5, we have 23 happy, hard-working children who are kind and caring.

We enjoy learning about lots of different things and like to share our ideas with each other.

We have many talents which we like to use to help other people and to make the world a better place.

To help us with our work, Mrs Harvey is our class teacher and Mrs Russell is our teaching assistant.

We hope you enjoy reading about our work in Year 5.

SUMMER TERM

SCIENCE

We have explored the different reproductive parts of a plant that are important in it’s Lifecycle. We collected lots of plant parts from our school grounds, cut them up carefully and looked at them closely.

We have learnt more about different types of plant reproduction and experimented with taking plant cuttings. It was a surprise to see our plant cutting producing new roots after two weeks soaking in water.

SPRING 2

Thankfully, this half term for the last four weeks we were back in school after starting the half term still on Zoom!

RE

“Reconciliation” was our focus for our RE topic this half term. We started by looking at how our actions have different consequences which can affect ourselves and others. These can be good or bad. We then read the Parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke’s Gospel. We used this story to inspire us to create our own artwork.

MATHS

Our focus for this half term has been fractions. The children have been learning how to: compare fractions; order fractions; find equivalent fractions; add fractions; subtract fractions and multiply fractions!!!

English

Our English work this half term was linked to our Geography topic about earthquakes and volcanoes. We read non-fiction pieces about earthquakes and then read a story called, “When the Giant Stirred” about a volcanic eruption. We used this to inspire us to write own stories about leaving an island due to a volcano erupting.

SCIENCE

In Science Year 5 have been finding out more about simple mechanisms, including levers, pulleys and gears. They have been investigating how levers allow a smaller force to have a greater effect using rulers and weights. They also enjoyed making their own lever mechanisms to make moving parts on animals.

PE

In March, we enjoyed taking part in the ‘West Yorkshire School Games Week’. Each day we tried different physical activities including: table tennis, skipping, cricket, frisbee and dance.

We have also enjoyed practising our hockey skills this half term and playing some hockey games.

SPRING 1

This half term was a bit different to what we were expecting but that did not stop Year 5 from working hard and learning lots of new skills and information. The children adapted brilliantly to home learning and have become Zoom experts!!!

RE

This half term, we have been learning about Inspirational People. We have thought about people who we think are inspirational; looked at Bible readings to find out how Jesus taught us to live; learnt about St Josephine Bakhita and read about the like of Father Damian - two inspirational saints.

MATHS

We started the half term by learning about written methods for multiplication and division. We then turned our attention to understanding fractions.

We had fun on NSPCC Number Day trying to recreate our favourite number in different ways as well as looking for it around the house.

ENGLISH

Our first focus in English after Christmas, was poetry. We started looking at narrative poems and read “The Listeners” to inspire us to write our own narrative poem. The children also recited a narrative poem of their own choice.

We then linked our English work to our Geography topic of “Mountains”. We watched the short video called “The Ridge” to help us write descriptions of mountains using figurative language. We also read different information texts about mountains and then wrote our own.

SCIENCE

This half term our focus has been on Forces. We have been measuring and recording forces using force meters. Outside the classroom we made and floated our own boats.

PE

In PE, the children have attempted different challenges at home including balancing toilet rolls on their heads and balancing shoes on the soles of their feet whilst rolling over!!!

GEOGRAPHY

In Geography, we have been learning about “Mountains”. We have found out about the 7 summits; located mountain ranges in the UK; found out about the different types of mountain and compared mountains.

DT

In DT, we have been finding out about bridges as well as designing and making our own bridge.

PSHE

For Mental Health Week, the children were encouraged to do something to “Express themselves” in a creative way. Here are some photos of their work:

AUTUMN TERM 2

RE

Our RE topic this half term was “God’s Covenants”. In this unit, we started by looking at the meaning of the word ‘covenant’ and revisited our understanding of God’s covenant with Noah. We then looked at the covenant God made with Moses and the Ten Commandments. Finally, we looked at God’s new covenant by making links to the birth of Jesus and the covenants in the Old Testament.

MATHS

At the start of this half term, we looked at different ways of presenting information using tables, bar charts, line graphs and timetables.

Our next focus was multiplication and division. We learnt about: multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000; factors of numbers; multiples; prime numbers; square and cube numbers.

Finally, we looked at the perimeter and area of various shapes.

ENGLISH

To link in with our History work this half term, we read some different Greek myths including “The Twelve Labours of Heracles”. We then had a go at writing a new labour for Heracles. This half term, we also read, “The Man who Walked Between The Two Towers”. We used this book to inspire us to write letters to Philippe Petit offering him advice and pretended to conduct interviews with eyewitnesses trying to use idioms to capture their feelings.

PE

In PE this half term, we have been improving our fitness by completing various challenges with Mrs Harvey on Mondays and on Thursdays we have been learning dances with Inspiration Tree. We also had great fun taking part in the Santa Dash in December.

HISTORY

Our focus this half term was about the “Ancient Greeks”. We placed the Ancient Greek civilization on a timeline; compared Sparta to Athens; learnt about the achievements of Alexander the Great; used the Greek alphabet and compared the Ancient Olympic Games to the Modern Games.

ART

We linked some of our artwork this half term to our History topic and had a go at designing our own Greek pots.

We also had fun making our own Christmas tree decorations and Christmas cards.

PSHE

As part of Anti-Bullying Week we created our very own jigsaw showing that we are: UNITED AGAINST BULLYING.

AUTUMN TERM 1

RE

This half term, we have been leaning about God’s Creation. We started by reading the Creation Story in the book of Genesis and then we created our own pictures. After this, we looked at scientific theories about the creation of the world such as the Big Bang Theory and Evolution; we then discussed how the Biblical story and the scientific theories can fit together. Next, we learnt about how God called us to be stewards of the Earth and discussed what this means. We found out about Saint Francis, Saint Martin de Porres and Saint Vincent de Paul who were all good examples of stewards of the Earth. Following this, we thought about how we can use our gifts to make the the world a better place. Finally, we discussed the problem of suffering in the world.

OUR CLASS SAINT FEAST DAY

Year 5’s class saint is Saint Francis of Assisi. We celebrated his feast day at the start of October by: coming to school dressed as various animals; decorating biscuits as animals and making animal bookmarks. As well as this, we found out about Saint Francis’ life and illustrated his prayer.

MATHS

Place Value as well as Addition and Subtraction are what we have been focusing on in Maths this half term. In Place Value, we have been practising reading, writing, rounding and comparing 6-digit numbers. We have also been using Roman Numerals to write numbers and have used number lines with negative numbers. In Addition and Subtraction, we have been using column written methods to complete these calculations. As well as this, we have been using Times Table Rockstars to improve our Times Table knowledge and speed.

ENGLISH

For the first few weeks of this half term , we studied a book and film called, “The Lost Thing” which the children really enjoyed. It gave us lots of inspiration to write a variety of texts including: descriptions, adverts, formal letters and diaries. At the end of the unit, we also got to write our own story of a Lost Thing where we tried to use all the grammar and punctuation that we had learnt such as: subordinating clauses, fronted adverbials, adjectives, relative clauses, commas and speech marks. To help us with our writing, in Art, we drew our own Lost Things.

At the end of this half term, we started our next book, “Hidden Figures” which is about the true story of the lives of four black women and the space race. We started the unit by getting our work passes for NASA and NACA. So far, we have written information reports, job adverts, character descriptions and formal letters.

SCIENCE

Our topic for Science this half term is Space. We have found out about movement of the Earth and other planets in relation to the sun. We have also learnt how day and night are created.

PE

We have been very lucky to have Mrs Fenton-Green from Prince Henry’s Grammar School teach us netball this half term. We have loved learning the skills and rules of netball and then we finished the unit by playing matches.

Next half term, PE will be on Mondays and Thursdays.

GEOGRAPHY

Europe has been the focus of our Geography topic. We have used Atlases to locate where Europe is and have labelled some of the different countries and cities. We then turned our attention to the Mediterranean, comparing the climate to that of the UK’s climate.

ART

In Art, we have been practising representing different objects. We have tried to recreate Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and have used shading to draw pears.

PSHE

This half term, we have been learning about:

- how food adverts can be misleading;

- positive role-models;

- how the media can manipulate images.

USEFUL WEBSITES

ACTIVELEARN

TIMESTABLE ROCKSTARS

MYMATHS

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