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Year 5

 

Spring 1

Spring 1 will see the continuation of Cosmic and our 'The Americas' geography unit! For 5GT, this is their final half-term of brass with Mr Walker. 5KM, warm those lungs up! 

We started the new year off with some non-fiction report writing about space rocks. Do you know your asteroids from your meteoroids? Following this, we let our creativity loose on a narrative piece about life on an undiscovered planet. We thoroughly enjoyed designing our own planets and making them as bizarre as possible! 

We welcomed the Wonderdome, a mobile planetarium, bringing our learning to life and inspiring future space explorers. It was fascinating to ‘take one small step’ into the solar system and feel immersed in the planets are stars around us! Our extremely knowledgeable guide, Kurtis, shared his extensive knowledge of the solar system and captivated our attention for a full 90 minutes!

Autumn 2
Term 1 out of 3 is completed already! Where is this academic year going? Having read the thrilling end to Cogheart and concluding our Victorians topic, Year 5 have moved on to our new writing unit which also means we have a NEW class text - Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Having read the opening chapters, Year 5 have put their reading and writing skills to the test, informing the public of a mysterious rocket launch in Northern China by writing a newspaper report. We investigated different newspaper styles and their audience and purpose before identifying the features of an effective news story. The use of eye-catching headlines, informative orientation paragraphs and formal descriptive language allowed every child in year 5 to write a successful newspaper article.

Our new geography unit, The Americas, has been a hit and Year 5 have loved learning about physical and human features of Mexico and the United States of America to make direct comparisons between the two North American continents. We are gradually building up our knowledge to be able to answer our enquiry question - 'How can the human and physical features of two countries, within the same continent, differ?'. So far, we have compared the climate, biomes, geographical location, culture, flags, population and landmarks. We can't wait to continue with this unit in the Spring term. 

Our bedrooms are sparkling with our new nightlights which we planned, designed and created during the final week of the Autumn term. Every child had a functioning circuit which met the criteria for their 3S's (something, for someone, for some purpose). In our computing unit, we used Crumble Kits to investigate how they can be used to support our night light. We programmed a microcontroller to make an LED switch on. A microcontroller is a small device that can be programmed to control components that are connected to it. 

Autumn 1

Autumn 1 saw us dive in to our new class text for the autumn term - Cogheart. A story of adventure and mystery, Peter Bunzl's Cogheart has had Year 5 on the edge of their seats. As always, our text roots itself firmly in the curriculum, linking closely with our historical topic of Victorians, Art and even Science. Year 5 learnt what life was like in Victorian times, investigating the monarch, Queen Victoria, jobs, inventions, the industrial revolution, empires and finally - schools. The children’s writing has really flourished over the last few weeks and children particularly enjoyed writing descriptions of some of the more villainous characters in the story and simile poems which summarised the entire narrative.

The showstopper was definitely the explanation texts where children designed their own 'mechanimals' in Art then wrote about how they function in writing lessons.

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Victorian day marked a journey back in time as children entered a Victorian classroom. The children planned and created costumes which they wore to school, giving the classroom an authentic Victorian feel. The day began with girls and boys having their hands and fingernails inspected for dirt and grime by a frighteningly strict Mrs Thomas and Miss Matthews. After the inspection, the children completed some drill exercises before returning to the classroom. Once seated in rows of boys and girls, Year 5 began learning the three Rs (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) by handwriting on a slate followed by an arithmetic session. When asked, children were told to stand and answer the teacher in full sentences, always using sir/ma’am. Anyone slouching or sitting with elbows on the table would be reprimanded. Later in the morning, we sang ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and learnt about the money system used in Victorian England, comparing farthings, shillings, pounds, guineas and pennies.

5GT have made great strides of progress in brass with Mr Walker so far this half-term, so here is a little video to show off their emerging talents. Enjoy!

If you were not able to join us at our Meet the Teacher event, please see slides below. 

Year 5 Staff Team:

Mrs Gee (5GT Class Teacher)
Mrs Thomas (5GT Class Teacher)
Ms Harvey (5GT Teaching Assistant)
Miss Matthews (5KM Class teacher)
Mr Edensor (5KM Teaching Assistant)

 


Important Information
 

Homework: Set on a Wednesday and handed in on a Monday. Spellings will be set on a Monday and tested the following Monday. Children must log into EdShed using their username and password to rehearse these.

PE days: Wednesday and Thursday 

Brass: Tuesday 5GT September -> February

Tuesday 5KM February -> July