Class 5 Newsletter Spring Term
Welcome back! We hope you have enjoyed your holidays and are looking forward to 2025. We outline below the curriculum areas to be covered this term.
English
In English this term, we will be reading extracts from The Hobbit and discussing similarities and variations in themes, style and language choices with modern literature. In our own writing we will be developing our ability to vary sentence structures and to write at length with increasing cohesion and impact, using parenthesis and modal verbs appropriately. We will be linking with our topic learning to put our research and explanation writing into practise and will be reading about The Titanic in our poetry unit. Our word focus will continue to develop the children’s understanding of etymology, identifying word roots and adding prefixes and suffixes to alter meaning, as well as introducing and building familiarity with Y5/6 common exception words. Self- and peer-assessment remain important areas for development and we will be using a range of approaches to improve the children’s ability to assess and improve their own written work. Our reading groups will support the children to explore their understanding of and responses to texts and we encourage the children to read as widely as possible both within school and at home.
Maths
We will start this term by looking at place value involving 6-digit numbers and the children will use negative numbers, calculating differences between temperatures and rises and falls in temperature. They will use mental addition and subtraction involving money and will calculate the addition of decimals, using rounding and estimating to help. The children will continue to practise their times tables regularly and will also be multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000. They will use mental strategies to multiply and divide by 5, 20, 6, 4 and 8 and will use the short multiplication and division methods to multiply and divide. We will revise comparing fractions with related denominators, find unit and non-unit fractions of amounts and learn decimal equivalents for halves, quarters, fifths, tenths and hundredths. The children will work out perimeter, area and volume and use co-ordinates and line graphs. We will regularly set the children problem solving investigations to develop their real life problem solving and reasoning skills.
History and Geography
This term, we will begin by learning about early Islamic civilisation, studying Baghdad in around 900AD. We will learn about the development of teaching and learning based around the House of Wisdom and the importance of some of the ideas developed here for life today. Our geography topic will involve a study of rivers, including a field trip to Daws Hall to look at the features and explore the water quality of the River Stour.
Science
We will be learning about Earth and Space. The children will describe the movement of the Earth, and other planets, relative to the Sun in the solar system and they will describe the movement of the Moon relative to the Earth. The children will use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky. We will then learn about forces, discussing what gravity and resistance are and identifying the effects of friction and water resistance. The children will have lots of opportunities to work scientifically, planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions. They will take measurements, use a range of scientific equipment, record results using scientific diagrams and labels, and report and present their findings using conclusions and scientific explanations.
Computing
Our topic will be ‘Computational thinking’, which will include learning about the name and function of components making up the schools’ network and how information is passed between these components that make up the internet. We will learn what a source code for a webpage looks like and how it can be edited. We will also investigate how a website can be structured and how to add content.
Art and DT
Our Art this term will involve a study of paintings of water, including work by Maggi Hambling, Turner, Monet and Hockney and learning to apply acrylic paint in a style inspired by Hambling’s wave paintings. We will also be exploring ideas generated by Vernet’s painting, A Shipwreck on Stormy Seas, in Art Week.
In DT, we will be looking at framework structures and how to ensure strong joints.
RE and PSHE
In RE, we will be considering the impact of Christianity and Islam on music and art, linking our learning with our topic learning about Baghdad. In the run-up to Easter, we will also be exploring the significance of the resurrection story for Christians and looking at different ways this is presented in the Gospels.
Our PSHE this term will focus on healthy lifestyles as well as thinking about what it means to belong to a community. This will include how we can keep ourselves healthy, both physically and mentally, developing our learning about focus and concentration from the Paws b curriculum and building our ability to listen to and understand others as well as considering the importance of our actions for the environment and others in the world.
We will also be challenging gender stereotypes, understanding the use of gender in advertising. We will be learning how to develop healthy digital habits and considering ways to be safe and sensible with money.
Music
This term the children will be taught by a specialist teacher. They will listen to and learn to use brass instruments as well as learning to read simple musical scores.
PE
During the first half term, children will begin swimming on a Monday and will continue to be taught by Mr Snelling on a Wednesday afternoon. Please ensure that children have PE kits (including appropriate footwear) throughout the week as, on occasions, there may be opportunities for extra PE lessons.
After half term, PE will be on a Wednesday and Friday afternoon. Mr Snelling and Miss Crosby will be teaching netball, tag rugby and hockey.
French
We will be continuing to practice our spoken French and our numbers to 50 and will be broadening our vocabulary to order a range of food items in a shop and to tell the time to the quarter hour. We will also learn about our homes and how to name the rooms in a house in French. We are beginning to recognize the use of agreement in French and to apply this in our own sentence making and are becoming increasingly confident to spell and pronounce French words correctly. Our French ‘running dictations’ and in-class games help our ability to recall our learning but any further practice you feel able to do at home would also help this greatly.
Homework
The children will continue to be asked to complete 3 pieces of homework each week; these will include spellings (the children will bring home a copy of their new spellings lists as well as the full Y5/6 exception words list) and one piece each of English and maths/science homework, each taking approximately 40 minutes to complete. As previously, homework should build upon work in class and it should be clear to your child what is required of them. Please limit your support to ensuring that they have the opportunity to complete their work in time, discussing the activity required – asking them to explain their work to you can help to clarify and embed their learning – and making sure that they present their work neatly and to the best of their ability. If they have any questions, we are always happy to answer them.
As ever, please encourage your child in their reading, giving them the opportunity where possible to sample a wide range of text types and support their interest in reading by discussing what they have read and by continuing to share texts together when possible. They should read daily at home, completing reading challenges regularly as they wish.
If you have any concerns or issues you would like to discuss regarding your child, please contact the office so that a meeting can be arranged at a mutually convenient time.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Mrs Rudkin and Mss Crosby