Year 5
Welcome to Year 5!
On this page, we will share important dates and information for reference throughout the year, as well as celebrating the fantastic learning happening in Year 5. If you were not able to join us at our Meet the Teacher event, please see slides below.
Spring 2
Time really is flying by as we embark on the second half of the spring term! Pupils in Year 5 will be introduced to their new Ancient Egyptian unit. Within this unit of work, pupils will learn about the process of mummification, the hierarchy of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation and particularly, how vast this period of time was in comparison with other history units studied.
We will root the topic in 'Secrets of a Sun King' by Emma Carroll; historical fiction at its best. Through reading, writing, history and computing, the children ventured back in time to explore the mysteries of this ancient civilisation. In computing, children will hone their video skills to plan, produce and edit an instructional vlog explaining how to make an Egyptian Death Mask. We may have some budding YouTubers amongst us! Through project work, children will be able to research key aspects within this unit and produce artefacts for our Egyptian Museum. We cannot wait to share some of their learning with you on here and on X!
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. 5L, 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 but as believeable 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 and 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!
We used all of the elements of Art taught this half term to re-create a final piece of artwork in the style of Kim Poor. Folding a piece of A4 paper into a template we were able to represent the background, middle ground and foreground. Different media were used: oil pastels, wax crayons and pencil crayons, to create colour and texture to match the style of the artist. We evaluated our designs and compared them to images of Kim Poor’s artwork.
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 unit of Victorians, Art and of course writing. 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.
The showstopper was definitely the explanation texts where children designed their own 'mechanimals' in Art then wrote about how they function in writing lessons. The children's final pieces of art for this unit are truly worthy of being on display.
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. 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 Mr Locke. 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. After viewing a series of photographs of classrooms from approximately 100 years ago, we used this information to come up with comparative statements about the similarities and differences of school life. As a further comparison we discussed the life of a Victorian school child to the climbing boys we researched in computing. Many poor families resorted to workhouses, which provided basic relief like food, medical care and shelter in exchange for labour. Conditions were poor and sadly, families were often separated. Dr Thomas Barnardo was founder of homes for poor and deprived children, with the first in 1867. By the end of the day we were able to thoroughly answer our enquiry question: How did the life of a Victorian child vary between classes?
Year 5 Staff Team:
Mrs Gee (5GT Class Teacher)
Mrs Thomas (5GT Class Teacher)
Mrs Mortlock (5GT Teaching Assistant)
Mr Locke (5L Class teacher)
Mrs Bales (5L 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 5L February -> July