Reading and Writing

In Reading, we have explored the books ‘Pax’ and ‘The Amazing Night Sky Atlas’. We are currently reading ‘Journey to the River Sea’ by Eva Ibbotson. Children have really enjoyed acting out parts of the stories, hot seating characters and creating posters to show their understanding. 

In English, we started the year with abstract poetry. We wrote our own version of the poem  ‘The River’ by Pie Corbett. We then moved on to creating the opening and build-up of a suspense story and writing a letter to advise. We are currently studying and understanding the structure of a discussion text. The children have really enjoyed taking part in debates and setting up a mock court trial as well as finding slime around the classroom or outside, creating the question: do aliens exist?

 

Maths

In Maths, we started the year with place value. The children learnt how to manipulate base ten numbers using concrete, pictorial and abstract representations.  We then moved onto addition and subtraction, then multiplication and division where we got to expand our understanding of different methods to help us calculate problems. We are currently working on a fractions unit. The children have been using practical resources to represent fractions and are starting to solve multi-step questions. We have also been learning about what equivalence means and how fractions can look very different. Children have learnt to convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers confidently. 

 

Science 

We started the year with a unit on space. The children have loved learning about the solar system and have participated in practical activities such as going outdoors to represent the planets in orbit. We have also looked at the phases of the moon and used playdough to represent the different phases. We have just started a new unit on forces where the children have used physical resources and objects to represent the different forces.

 

Black History Month

During Black History Month, Year 5 looked at Arthur Wharton. During the week, we looked at why Arthur Wharton was an important historical figure as the first professional black footballer.  He broke down many barriers for future sports figures. To showcase our learning, we created fact files using PurpleMash, wrote a poem and created artwork based on his life and achievements.

 

Music

In music, we have been learning the guitar. It has been amazing to watch the children progress from playing single notes, to learning to read music and play notes on the fretboard. Children are beginning to develop a keen sense of pulse and their rhythmic fluency. 

 

Design Technology

In DT, we continued to develop our understanding of space. The children have enjoyed creating their own moon buggy. They researched existing designs and examined the key features needed to make an effective buggy. Using their research, they designed their own buggy, made changes and compared their designs with other children in the class. Finally, children created their moon buggies using a range of materials and evaluated it against the success criteria. 

 

Over the next few weeks, we will be focusing on:

• In English we are continuing with our unit on discussion texts and will then move onto playscripts.
• In maths we are going to continue our unit on fractions until Christmas. Then we will move onto multiplication and division after Christmas.
• In history we are going to start our unit on Vikings.
• In French we are continuing our work on naming and understanding different animals.
• In PSHE we are continuing our unit on celebrating differences.