Year5

What a fantastic final project for Year 5! We have most certainly gone out with an explosion of colour and music this week. It’s really challenging to summarise all the incredible work that the children have done this half term but here is a little snippet of the work completed. 

Science was particularly exciting this half term as the children learned all about life cycles. To support this learning, each class has caterpillars in their classrooms and it was so wonderful to watch their journeys to becoming butterflies. It was such a treat to release them all too!

The children began by learning about the Windrush Ship and used a range of sources to learn about this defining moment in history before exploring how the Caribbean has heavily influenced our culture today. The children began by looking at how our music has been influenced by the Caribbean and wrote these amazing raps to represent their learning. 

The children also then spent time learning about many of our sporting heroes of past and present who have heritage linked to the Windrush generation and also learned about carnival, particularly the Notting Hill Carnival. The children designed a variety of new sporting equipment pieces with their new knowledge and also wrote some amazing newspaper reports about the celebrations. 

Within their DT lessons, the children were really inspired by some of the underwater sculptures found in the Caribbean – representing unity. They then made their own clay models which we put together in a circle to show our unity as class. 

In English, the children have wrote the most spectacular biographies about an inspirational woman from the Windrush generation – Mary Seacole. This was the children’s first non-fiction unit using ‘The Write Stuff’ approach to lessons and we were so proud of what they achieved. 

We then finished off this week with the most amazing carnival! The children paraded around the school with the beautiful flags and masks they had made to draw all their learning together. What an amazing end to Year 5! We are so proud of everything the children have achieved this year!

Culture is our new topic for this half term as we learn all about how the Caribbean culture has been embedded into British culture, whilst learning about the Geography and History of the Caribbean too! We also have some brilliant learning in Science coming up (with some new classroom residents to look after) and we can’t wait to learn about some inspirational women from History through our English. What a colourful, musical and exciting final half term in Year 5!

For more information about what we are learning, please see our Knowledge Organiser (facts about our topic) and our Topic Web (subject overviews of what we are learning) attached below. 

We hope you all had a fabulous half term and we can’t wait to see the children tomorrow, 

The Year 5 Team 

Y5 Sum 2 – KO

Y5 Sum 2 – Topic web

What a super busy, but super brilliant, half term! We have been so proud of how the children have immersed themselves in their learning about Identities and Europe. 

English

This has been Year 5’s first half term teaching English using ‘The Write Stuff’ and the children have done such a fantastic job with their experience days, sentence stacking lessons and their independent write. The first unit we completed was about a video clip called ‘The Present’ and the children then wrote their own stories about a child with a disability, being gifted a pet as a companion. There are some beautiful examples of writing below. The children are now planning their next independent write based on the picture book, Zoo, by Anthony Browne. We are looking forward to reading their writing from this too!

Maths

The children have been super busy over the last few weeks working with shape! From classifying angles, measuring and drawing angles and finding missing angles (on a straight line and a full circle), the children have secured some amazing new learning. We’ve also been really proud of the way the children have learned about different triangles types and quadrilateral types too. How many can they still remember at home?

Design Technology

Firstly, we want to thank you for your support at home with cooking this term! We were so impressed with the children’s home learning as they have researched and cooked a range of European dishes. There was such a range of starters, main courses and desserts created and the children have loved sharing this learning at school. Combining all of this together, the children then created gorgeous menus for their class’ dishes! 

					How amazing is this learning?

Art

As our concept has been identity for this half term, the children have not only researched how cuisine has contributed to the identity of different European countries, but also how building silhouettes and cityscape skylines can represent a country’s identity too. The children practised and rehearsed their art skills before creating some stunning European cityscapes, using both watercolour and block painting. Can you recognise any particular buildings or cities from Europe?

Following on with the theme of silhouettes and identities, the children then drew their own side profiles and considered what made them unique. Most children are still working on these in class but here are a few finished pieces to celebrate! 

Science

We have done lots of fabulous hands on Science this half term to explore flowers. The children have dissected plants and studied them using microscopes and also applied this to their knowledge of fertilisation and pollination. Then, using bubbles and helicopters, the children have also learned about different types of seed dispersal!

It has been a wonderful half term and we, as always, are super proud of the progress the children are making! There won’t be any homework over the half term week – hopefully the children can enjoy a little more freedom as restrictions have been slightly lifted. We look forward to another jam-packed half term of learning – the last half term of Year 5! We will be going out with a bang (and maybe even a mini carnival) as we learn about the Caribbean. 

The Year 5 Team 

Art Lessons

Starting from this week, the Year 5 art lessons are going to involve using lots of paint and different painting skills – including paint splattering! We have very few aprons in school and due to COVID restrictions and the need to quarantine them, we cannot guarantee that we can always use the ones which we do have. 

By Friday, please can every child in Year 5 bring a named apron into school to leave in the classroom? It could be:

• an oversized adult shirt, no longer needed
• an oversized adult t-shirt, no longer needed
• an actual painting apron 

We are looking forward to having some fun and making some mess in Art, but also need to make sure the children’s uniforms are protected. 

Many thanks in advance, 

The Year 5 Team 

What a fantastic first week back to school after the Easter break! The children have come back to school really rested, refreshed and ready to learn. We can’t quite believe that we have already reached the Summer term! 

The driver for this half term’s learning is Geography, focusing specifically on Europe. The children will be exploring the concept of ‘Identity’ through their learning, considering what determines the identity of different European countries and cultures, before considering what determines their own identities too. This will be a wonderful opportunity to champion each child’s individuality and uniqueness.

The overviews for each subject can be seen below on our Topic Web and some key facts can be seen on our Knowledge Organiser. It would be fantastic if the children could try and memorise some of these facts at home too.

Y5 Sum 1 – KO

Y5 Sum 1 – Topic web

In regard to homework, we will be reintroducing this again, this half term. The children’s homework will be a mixture of Maths, SPAG and Design Technology! We will be asking the children to have a go at some cooking at home – keep an eye out for more information to follow. We would still like the children to be practising their spellings everyday at home (these are still being posted through Google Classroom) and be reading every night too. 

Finally, we want to say a huge well done to all the children in the year group for their outstanding English work this week! They have amazed us with the quality of their writing in our recent ‘Sentence Stacking’ lessons. We are really proud of them! 

The Year 5 Team.