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 Autumn will be on a Tuesday (Outdoor) and Wednesday (Indoor). 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.... Autumn Term 2 (October -December 2023)

English 

In our writing lessons we will start off this half term by focusing on a balanced argument. The topic will be screen time. This is a new genre for the children and we will start by writing a scaffolded piece together. Last half term we focused heavily on our narrative (fiction) writing with the purpose of entertaining the reader. This half term we will focus on our non-fiction writing and writing to inform. After our balanced argument work we will move onto writing explanations. Our explanation writing will be linked to our Geography work on Climate Zones. 

On Remembrance Day and during that week we will take time away from our non-fiction work and reflect on Remembrance and focus on metaphoric poetry linked to the importance of remembering.

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 class reader ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’. 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 -ence
• The 'ee' sound spelt 'ei'.
• Words ending in -ant, -ance, -ancy.
• Words ending in shus spelt -cious.
• Words ending in shus spelt -tious.

The children will be re-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 be doing lots of sticky learning around our grammar consolidating our understanding of: 

• subordinating and co-ordinating conjunctions
• adverbials and pronouns
• determiners and apostrophes

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

• adverbials
• prepositions/determiners
• parenthesis
• present progressive tense

Maths 

We will start the half term by continuing our topic on addition and subtraction. The children have already shown a sound understanding of the written strategies for both and are able to solve a range of fluency questions confidently. We are now moving onto the more challenging task of solving multi-step problems. We will be focusing on:

• inverse operations
• multi-step addition and subtraction problems
• missing number problems
• solving comparison problems.

After this we will move onto our multiplication and division topics. It is crucial that the children continue to regularly practise their times tables as this will help them greatly during these Maths lessons. We will be focusing on:

• multiples
• common multiples
• factors
• common factors
• prime numbers
• square numbers
• cube numbers
• multiplying by 10, 100, 1000
• dividing by 10, 100, 1000
• multiples of 10, 100, 1000 

We will complete the half term by beginning our unit on Fractions. We will build on our previous fraction work in Year 4. We will be focusing on:

• equivalent fractions
• converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and visa versa
• comparing fractions
• ordering fractions
• adding and subtracting fractions
• adding fractions with a total greater than 1

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.

Science

I am looking forward to all of the children sharing their space projects on the 6th November.

Our topic for this half term is 'Forces'. This topic will give the children lots of opportunities to work scientifically and carry out investigations. During this topic the children will:

• describe how things move and understand that gravity affects how things move.
• describe how friction acts on moving objects to slow them down and carry out an investigation to see which shoes have grip and which don't.
• identify the effect of air resistance on falling objects and carry out an investigation to determine the effects of air resistance. 
• describe the effects of water resistance on moving objects and identify the best shaped hull to reduce the effects of water resistance.
• identify some simple mechanisms and measure the force needed to lift weights using a lever.

Computing

Our next unit in Computing is Mars Rover 2 'Skills Showcase'. During this unit the children will focus on 3D design skills and will have the opportunity to:

• understand how bit patterns represent images as pixels.
• explain how the data of digital images can be compressed.
• identify and explain the 'fetch, decode and execute' cycle.
• create a safe online profile and tinker with 3D design software.
• modify the design of a 3D object using CAD software. 

HeartSmart - 'Don't Forget to Let Love In.'

Visit the website www.heartsmartprimary.com for more information on what Heartsmart is all about.

Self-worth. Learn how to love and value yourself well.

You’re important, you matter, you’re one in a million and above all you’re loved. These are messages that we all need to hear, believe and remember – because sometimes we forget. The healthier our internal dialogue, the greater our sense of worth which is the cornerstone of character and resilience. How kind are the thoughts we listen to? How patient are we with ourselves? 

Don’t Forget to Let Love In  helps us grow in self compassion. You’ll notice we don’t shy away from using the word love. It’s a big deal. Without it we’re no one, but no one is without it. The ability to receive or reject it in our lives defines us. Our actions, beliefs and very essence is shaped by our experience of it. Our hearts are made strong because of it. So in partnering with love, we partner with a strength that’s stronger than any challenge life might throw at us. Although it can be a challenge to receive it, love never fails. Don’t Forget to Let Love In! 

During this topic we will focus on:

• We have value and purpose
• The importance of making the right voice choice
• When and how to ask for help
• Money 

We will also think carefully and carry out a range of activities about anti- bullying during Anti-bullying week.

Music

Mr Wilkinson will come into Year 5 on a Thursday afternoon to teach the children music. This half term, we will be focusing on 'A Short Ride in a Fast Machine' by the composer. John Adams. Here's what we'll be covering.

Learners will:
- listen and reflect on a piece of orchestral music
- invent their own musical motifs and structure them into a piece
- perform as an ensemble
- learn musical language appropriate to the task
 

We will achieve this by: 
- playing and performing in ensemble contexts, using voices and playing musical instruments
- improvising and composing music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music
- listening with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

Geography

Our Topic for this half term is Climate Zones. During this topic the children will learn to:

• identify the different lines of latitude and explain how latitude is linked to climate.
• locate different climate zones and explore the difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
• compare temperate and tropical climates.
• explore weather patterns within a climate zone.
• write a weather forecast for a typical day in their choice of climate zone.
• identify the characteristics of each climate zone.

French 

Mrs Bent will be teaching the children French again this half term. Their topic is 'Space Exploration', which links nicely with the space work we covered last half term in both Science and Computing. During this topic the children will be learning:

• to pick out key ideas and phrases in a longer piece of spoken French.
• to use nouns and adjectives correctly to create metaphor poetry.
• to make comparisons in French.
• to read and build factually and grammatically accurate sentences.
• to ask and answer questions and compare and describe planets.                                                               

D.T

In D.T this half term. They will be thinking carefully about electrical systems. During this topic the children will be learning:

• to investigate steady hand games and identify their individual components.
• to create a set of design criteria for a steady hand game.
• to construct a steady base from a net design.
• to assemble electronics and circuit test.
• to assemble a completed product.
• to evaluate their product.

   
PE

On a Wednesday we will have indoor P.E. our topic for this half term is dodgeball. The children will have the opportunity to:

• develop their teamwork skills
• further develop the key skills of throwing, catching, blocking and dodging.
• develop their decision making skills and tactics.

 Our outdoor lesson will be Invasion Games. During this topic the children will:

• Develop their teamwork skills
• Consolidate skills learnt in Autumn 1
• Develop tactics and communication skills

Our School Sports Games Value will be 'Self Belief'.

R.E

Our topic for this half term is Christmas- The gospels of Matthew and Luke. During this topic we will be reflecting on these key questions:

• Where in the Bible is the Christmas story?
• How are the stories of Matthew and Luke similar/different?
• How do our celebrations reflect the meaning of Christmas? 

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.

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 Autumn will be on a Tuesday (Outdoor) and Wednesday (Indoor). 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.... Autumn Term 2 (October -December 2023)

English 

In our writing lessons we will start off this half term by focusing on a balanced argument. The topic will be screen time. This is a new genre for the children and we will start by writing a scaffolded piece together. Last half term we focused heavily on our narrative (fiction) writing with the purpose of entertaining the reader. This half term we will focus on our non-fiction writing and writing to inform. After our balanced argument work we will move onto writing explanations. Our explanation writing will be linked to our Geography work on Climate Zones. 

On Remembrance Day and during that week we will take time away from our non-fiction work and reflect on Remembrance and focus on metaphoric poetry linked to the importance of remembering.

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 class reader ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’. 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 -ence
• The 'ee' sound spelt 'ei'.
• Words ending in -ant, -ance, -ancy.
• Words ending in shus spelt -cious.
• Words ending in shus spelt -tious.

The children will be re-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 be doing lots of sticky learning around our grammar consolidating our understanding of: 

• subordinating and co-ordinating conjunctions
• adverbials and pronouns
• determiners and apostrophes

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

• adverbials
• prepositions/determiners
• parenthesis
• present progressive tense

Maths 

We will start the half term by continuing our topic on addition and subtraction. The children have already shown a sound understanding of the written strategies for both and are able to solve a range of fluency questions confidently. We are now moving onto the more challenging task of solving multi-step problems. We will be focusing on:

• inverse operations
• multi-step addition and subtraction problems
• missing number problems
• solving comparison problems.

After this we will move onto our multiplication and division topics. It is crucial that the children continue to regularly practise their times tables as this will help them greatly during these Maths lessons. We will be focusing on:

• multiples
• common multiples
• factors
• common factors
• prime numbers
• square numbers
• cube numbers
• multiplying by 10, 100, 1000
• dividing by 10, 100, 1000
• multiples of 10, 100, 1000 

We will complete the half term by beginning our unit on Fractions. We will build on our previous fraction work in Year 4. We will be focusing on:

• equivalent fractions
• converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and visa versa
• comparing fractions
• ordering fractions
• adding and subtracting fractions
• adding fractions with a total greater than 1

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.

Science

I am looking forward to all of the children sharing their space projects on the 6th November.

Our topic for this half term is 'Forces'. This topic will give the children lots of opportunities to work scientifically and carry out investigations. During this topic the children will:

• describe how things move and understand that gravity affects how things move.
• describe how friction acts on moving objects to slow them down and carry out an investigation to see which shoes have grip and which don't.
• identify the effect of air resistance on falling objects and carry out an investigation to determine the effects of air resistance. 
• describe the effects of water resistance on moving objects and identify the best shaped hull to reduce the effects of water resistance.
• identify some simple mechanisms and measure the force needed to lift weights using a lever.

Computing

Our next unit in Computing is Mars Rover 2 'Skills Showcase'. During this unit the children will focus on 3D design skills and will have the opportunity to:

• understand how bit patterns represent images as pixels.
• explain how the data of digital images can be compressed.
• identify and explain the 'fetch, decode and execute' cycle.
• create a safe online profile and tinker with 3D design software.
• modify the design of a 3D object using CAD software. 

HeartSmart - 'Don't Forget to Let Love In.'

Visit the website www.heartsmartprimary.com for more information on what Heartsmart is all about.

Self-worth. Learn how to love and value yourself well.

You’re important, you matter, you’re one in a million and above all you’re loved. These are messages that we all need to hear, believe and remember – because sometimes we forget. The healthier our internal dialogue, the greater our sense of worth which is the cornerstone of character and resilience. How kind are the thoughts we listen to? How patient are we with ourselves? 

Don’t Forget to Let Love In  helps us grow in self compassion. You’ll notice we don’t shy away from using the word love. It’s a big deal. Without it we’re no one, but no one is without it. The ability to receive or reject it in our lives defines us. Our actions, beliefs and very essence is shaped by our experience of it. Our hearts are made strong because of it. So in partnering with love, we partner with a strength that’s stronger than any challenge life might throw at us. Although it can be a challenge to receive it, love never fails. Don’t Forget to Let Love In! 

During this topic we will focus on:

• We have value and purpose
• The importance of making the right voice choice
• When and how to ask for help
• Money 

We will also think carefully and carry out a range of activities about anti- bullying during Anti-bullying week.

Music

Mr Wilkinson will come into Year 5 on a Thursday afternoon to teach the children music. This half term, we will be focusing on 'A Short Ride in a Fast Machine' by the composer. John Adams. Here's what we'll be covering.

Learners will:
- listen and reflect on a piece of orchestral music
- invent their own musical motifs and structure them into a piece
- perform as an ensemble
- learn musical language appropriate to the task
 

We will achieve this by: 
- playing and performing in ensemble contexts, using voices and playing musical instruments
- improvising and composing music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music
- listening with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

Geography

Our Topic for this half term is Climate Zones. During this topic the children will learn to:

• identify the different lines of latitude and explain how latitude is linked to climate.
• locate different climate zones and explore the difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
• compare temperate and tropical climates.
• explore weather patterns within a climate zone.
• write a weather forecast for a typical day in their choice of climate zone.
• identify the characteristics of each climate zone.

French 

Mrs Bent will be teaching the children French again this half term. Their topic is 'Space Exploration', which links nicely with the space work we covered last half term in both Science and Computing. During this topic the children will be learning:

• to pick out key ideas and phrases in a longer piece of spoken French.
• to use nouns and adjectives correctly to create metaphor poetry.
• to make comparisons in French.
• to read and build factually and grammatically accurate sentences.
• to ask and answer questions and compare and describe planets.                                                               

D.T

In D.T this half term. They will be thinking carefully about electrical systems. During this topic the children will be learning:

• to investigate steady hand games and identify their individual components.
• to create a set of design criteria for a steady hand game.
• to construct a steady base from a net design.
• to assemble electronics and circuit test.
• to assemble a completed product.
• to evaluate their product.

   
PE

On a Wednesday we will have indoor P.E. our topic for this half term is dodgeball. The children will have the opportunity to:

• develop their teamwork skills
• further develop the key skills of throwing, catching, blocking and dodging.
• develop their decision making skills and tactics.

 Our outdoor lesson will be Invasion Games. During this topic the children will:

• Develop their teamwork skills
• Consolidate skills learnt in Autumn 1
• Develop tactics and communication skills

Our School Sports Games Value will be 'Self Belief'.

R.E

Our topic for this half term is Christmas- The gospels of Matthew and Luke. During this topic we will be reflecting on these key questions:

• Where in the Bible is the Christmas story?
• How are the stories of Matthew and Luke similar/different?
• How do our celebrations reflect the meaning of Christmas? 

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.

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 Autumn will be on a Tuesday (Outdoor) and Wednesday (Indoor). 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.... Autumn Term 2 (October -December 2023)

English 

In our writing lessons we will start off this half term by focusing on a balanced argument. The topic will be screen time. This is a new genre for the children and we will start by writing a scaffolded piece together. Last half term we focused heavily on our narrative (fiction) writing with the purpose of entertaining the reader. This half term we will focus on our non-fiction writing and writing to inform. After our balanced argument work we will move onto writing explanations. Our explanation writing will be linked to our Geography work on Climate Zones. 

On Remembrance Day and during that week we will take time away from our non-fiction work and reflect on Remembrance and focus on metaphoric poetry linked to the importance of remembering.

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 class reader ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’. 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 -ence
• The 'ee' sound spelt 'ei'.
• Words ending in -ant, -ance, -ancy.
• Words ending in shus spelt -cious.
• Words ending in shus spelt -tious.

The children will be re-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 be doing lots of sticky learning around our grammar consolidating our understanding of: 

• subordinating and co-ordinating conjunctions
• adverbials and pronouns
• determiners and apostrophes

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

• adverbials
• prepositions/determiners
• parenthesis
• present progressive tense

Maths 

We will start the half term by continuing our topic on addition and subtraction. The children have already shown a sound understanding of the written strategies for both and are able to solve a range of fluency questions confidently. We are now moving onto the more challenging task of solving multi-step problems. We will be focusing on:

• inverse operations
• multi-step addition and subtraction problems
• missing number problems
• solving comparison problems.

After this we will move onto our multiplication and division topics. It is crucial that the children continue to regularly practise their times tables as this will help them greatly during these Maths lessons. We will be focusing on:

• multiples
• common multiples
• factors
• common factors
• prime numbers
• square numbers
• cube numbers
• multiplying by 10, 100, 1000
• dividing by 10, 100, 1000
• multiples of 10, 100, 1000 

We will complete the half term by beginning our unit on Fractions. We will build on our previous fraction work in Year 4. We will be focusing on:

• equivalent fractions
• converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and visa versa
• comparing fractions
• ordering fractions
• adding and subtracting fractions
• adding fractions with a total greater than 1

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.

Science

I am looking forward to all of the children sharing their space projects on the 6th November.

Our topic for this half term is 'Forces'. This topic will give the children lots of opportunities to work scientifically and carry out investigations. During this topic the children will:

• describe how things move and understand that gravity affects how things move.
• describe how friction acts on moving objects to slow them down and carry out an investigation to see which shoes have grip and which don't.
• identify the effect of air resistance on falling objects and carry out an investigation to determine the effects of air resistance. 
• describe the effects of water resistance on moving objects and identify the best shaped hull to reduce the effects of water resistance.
• identify some simple mechanisms and measure the force needed to lift weights using a lever.

Computing

Our next unit in Computing is Mars Rover 2 'Skills Showcase'. During this unit the children will focus on 3D design skills and will have the opportunity to:

• understand how bit patterns represent images as pixels.
• explain how the data of digital images can be compressed.
• identify and explain the 'fetch, decode and execute' cycle.
• create a safe online profile and tinker with 3D design software.
• modify the design of a 3D object using CAD software. 

HeartSmart - 'Don't Forget to Let Love In.'

Visit the website www.heartsmartprimary.com for more information on what Heartsmart is all about.

Self-worth. Learn how to love and value yourself well.

You’re important, you matter, you’re one in a million and above all you’re loved. These are messages that we all need to hear, believe and remember – because sometimes we forget. The healthier our internal dialogue, the greater our sense of worth which is the cornerstone of character and resilience. How kind are the thoughts we listen to? How patient are we with ourselves? 

Don’t Forget to Let Love In  helps us grow in self compassion. You’ll notice we don’t shy away from using the word love. It’s a big deal. Without it we’re no one, but no one is without it. The ability to receive or reject it in our lives defines us. Our actions, beliefs and very essence is shaped by our experience of it. Our hearts are made strong because of it. So in partnering with love, we partner with a strength that’s stronger than any challenge life might throw at us. Although it can be a challenge to receive it, love never fails. Don’t Forget to Let Love In! 

During this topic we will focus on:

• We have value and purpose
• The importance of making the right voice choice
• When and how to ask for help
• Money 

We will also think carefully and carry out a range of activities about anti- bullying during Anti-bullying week.

Music

Mr Wilkinson will come into Year 5 on a Thursday afternoon to teach the children music. This half term, we will be focusing on 'A Short Ride in a Fast Machine' by the composer. John Adams. Here's what we'll be covering.

Learners will:
- listen and reflect on a piece of orchestral music
- invent their own musical motifs and structure them into a piece
- perform as an ensemble
- learn musical language appropriate to the task
 

We will achieve this by: 
- playing and performing in ensemble contexts, using voices and playing musical instruments
- improvising and composing music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music
- listening with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

Geography

Our Topic for this half term is Climate Zones. During this topic the children will learn to:

• identify the different lines of latitude and explain how latitude is linked to climate.
• locate different climate zones and explore the difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
• compare temperate and tropical climates.
• explore weather patterns within a climate zone.
• write a weather forecast for a typical day in their choice of climate zone.
• identify the characteristics of each climate zone.

French 

Mrs Bent will be teaching the children French again this half term. Their topic is 'Space Exploration', which links nicely with the space work we covered last half term in both Science and Computing. During this topic the children will be learning:

• to pick out key ideas and phrases in a longer piece of spoken French.
• to use nouns and adjectives correctly to create metaphor poetry.
• to make comparisons in French.
• to read and build factually and grammatically accurate sentences.
• to ask and answer questions and compare and describe planets.                                                               

D.T

In D.T this half term. They will be thinking carefully about electrical systems. During this topic the children will be learning:

• to investigate steady hand games and identify their individual components.
• to create a set of design criteria for a steady hand game.
• to construct a steady base from a net design.
• to assemble electronics and circuit test.
• to assemble a completed product.
• to evaluate their product.

   
PE

On a Wednesday we will have indoor P.E. our topic for this half term is dodgeball. The children will have the opportunity to:

• develop their teamwork skills
• further develop the key skills of throwing, catching, blocking and dodging.
• develop their decision making skills and tactics.

 Our outdoor lesson will be Invasion Games. During this topic the children will:

• Develop their teamwork skills
• Consolidate skills learnt in Autumn 1
• Develop tactics and communication skills

Our School Sports Games Value will be 'Self Belief'.

R.E

Our topic for this half term is Christmas- The gospels of Matthew and Luke. During this topic we will be reflecting on these key questions:

• Where in the Bible is the Christmas story?
• How are the stories of Matthew and Luke similar/different?
• How do our celebrations reflect the meaning of Christmas? 

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.