Year 5
Science: Earth and Space
In Science, we have been leaning about the order of the plants and their relative sizes. We enjoyed looking at the website below showing the distances in our solar system. We have also been learning about why we have day and night, and seasons. The attached video by Professor Cox has an interesting explanation using a light and an orange. Some children suggested they might like to try it at home - it will work best in a dark room.
Our values this term are friendship and truthfulness under the umbrella of forgiveness.
In English, we will start our writing with a space transmission from Mars before moving onto study the Michael Morpurgo version of the Anglo Saxon tale, Beowulf. Our Maths this term will focus on place value, addition and subtraction with numbers greater than 4 digits. In History, we will explore Anglo Saxon life and the impact of the Viking arrival in Britain before moving on to study Mountains in Geography.
Our P.E. days for the Spring term are Mondays (tennis) and Tuesdays (gymnastics). On these days, please come into school dressed in your P.E. kit but with school shoes. Your trainers for outdoor use can be kept in your locker and used for tennis. Where possible, if you're unable to remove your own earrings, please come into school without them on PE days.
If you are attending an after-school sports club on a non-PE day, please wear your normal school uniform and bring a change of clothes for your club.
Please see the curriculum page for more information on our learning this term.
Mrs Pinkerton
Information for Parents
Homework
Maths and English homework will be handed out on Wednesdays for return the following Monday. On occasion, the children may also receive a piece of homework related to one of our other topics in Geography, History, Science or RE.
Spellings will also be studied and handed out on a Wednesday and tested the following Wednesday in our spelling lesson.
General Reminders
- Please wear winter uniform.
- Hair that is long enough to be tied back please do so fully using a green or hair-coloured band.
- No nail varnish please.
- Plain gold / silver stud earrings only.
- Your child may wear a watch or Fitbit but these must be removed for P.E.
- No other jewellery such as friendship bands etc is permitted.
- If your child wears a religious adornment, please let me know.
Absolutely NO NUTS in school please.
Useful Documents and Links
Reading
Please try to hear your child read every day, just for 10 minutes. It really does make a difference! We read our reading scheme books in class each day so the children can choose whether to read their coloured band books or another text at home. The key is talking about the book and for the adult to ask lots of questions about the text and any unfamiliar vocabulary. Example reading questions can be found below.
I would like to challenge the children to read as many books from the suggested reading list as possible. It really does make a difference! They will be celebrated in the classroom and on the webpage so please let me know once they've completed a book and email a photograph of them with the book. They can read the books themselves or have them read to them. We have a class library, which they can borrow most of the books from.
Writing
Spelling
English Websites
Maths Websites
Y5 have had some fun challenging themselves to solve Countdown style maths puzzles. The children were shown a set of number cards and a target number and had to solve it using their knowledge of the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and their times tables.
It is a great way to improve fluency and practice calculations (even if you don't end up with the target answer). I join in with the children and sometimes they see the answer before me! Ask them to explain their method as mistakes are made.
The website we use is called NRich and is available here: https://nrich.maths.org/countdown/main.html We were using level 2 and level 3 - the level can be selected under the settings icon in the top right corner.
Other Useful Websites