Summer Newsletter, Year 5

Welcome to the summer term!  We are looking forward to a great term ahead in school, with lots of fun activities and a full curriculum as outlined below.

English

This term we will begin with a poetry unit, looking at a selection of modern and classic poems that make the ordinary extraordinary, exploring imagery and word choices for impact.  Then, we will be enjoying the study of a short film, ‘Swing of Change’, which links with elements of our history topic and provides the opportunity to explore some of the issues raised in the text, such as racial prejudice and discrimination.  We will use drama to develop understanding of character feelings and use emotive language and relative clauses in writing to describe personal responses to events.

Later in the term, we will be writing non-chronological reports, linked with our geography learning, comparing features with journalistic writing, and will also be examining different methods of representing dialogue, including in play scripts.  We will be learning about William Shakespeare and reading simple forms of some of his plays to support this.

Maths

In maths this term, we will be learning about the following:

Statistics: Reading, interpreting and drawing line graphs and tables.

Angles. Position and direction:

Understand and use degrees, classify, draw and estimate angles.

Measure to 180 degrees

Length and angles in shapes

Regular and irregular polygons

3 D shapes

Area and perimeter:

Estimate and calculate area and perimeter of regular polygons and compound shapes

Coordinates and translation:

Read and plot coordinates

Problem solving with coordinates

Translation

Translation with coordinates

Lines of symmetry

Reflection in horizontal and vertical lines

We will regularly set the children problem solving investigations to develop their problem solving and reasoning skills. 

History and Geography

We begin the term with a history topic looking at changes in Britain, focusing in particular on the theme of the diversification of the population and looking at how Britain has changed to embrace different cultures, from the time of the slave trade to the present day.  We will look at the reasons for and impacts of population migrations, including identifying multicultural role models and exploring personal stories.

Our geography in the second half of this term will have a physical geography focus, exploring the range of biomes across the globe, their key features and locations and consideration of the threats to some of these biomes.

Science

For the first part of this term, we will be looking at living things and their habitats – the children will describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird.  They will also describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals.  In the second half of this term, we will be learning about animals (including humans); describing the changes as humans develop to old age (this will include the main changes that occur during puberty and the changes in old age).

Computing

This term the children will be making sense of the Internet and learning to build a website.  We will learn how the school network and Internet work and we will then explore the HTML used to create websites and edit this using Chrome Developer Tools.  The children will create their own website about online safety using Google Sites.

Art and DT

We will begin the term with art work, looking at the use of perspective for the creation of interesting images.  We will use photography, taking pictures from different angles, and close-up images and paintings to explore the impact of these devices. We will also continue with our DT project, exploring frame structures and experimenting with methods of strengthening and stabilising a structure to form a bridge.

After half term, we will be linking our art and design work to our geography topic of ‘biomes’, learning to weave and designing and creating our own woven representations of a biome of our choice.

RE and PSHE

In RE, we will be focussing on the beliefs of Hindus, exploring key concepts of Hinduism and what it means to lead a ‘good’ life.  We will move on to considering whether Ghandi was a good or bad example for Hindus.

Our PSHE learning will focus on health and wellbeing, building on our learning about the benefits of mindfulness, keeping safe in a range of situations and considering how the children are growing and changing – emotionally, intellectually and physically – as they move towards puberty.

Music

This term the children will complete musical activities that will support them in reading, listening to and appraising music.  They will also learn to perform and review each other’s music.

PE

Our sporting focus for  the summer term will be tennis, athletics, rounders and orienteering. Please can the children have their PE kits in school on Wednesdays and Fridays. There may be opportunities for extra PE sessions, so please ensure that the chilildren have PE kits in school every day. They can take them home on Friday to be washed.

French

We will be learning how to describe what we do at the weekend and particular times of day as well as building confidence with telling the time and using the French alphabet.  We will be developing our ability to understand and write texts of increasing length and complexity as well as to respond verbally to a wider range of simple questions.

Homework

The children will continue to be asked to complete 3 pieces of homework each week; these will include spellings and one piece each of English and maths or 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 and 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.  Some homework will be sent home in their Learning Logs/Maths folders; if so please support them to make sure that work is submitted in a neat, legible format before the deadline given. We will also be re-introducing the children to completing assignments on Teams in preparation for Year 6.

As ever, please also encourage your child in their reading, giving them the opportunity where possible to sample a wide range of text types and support their interest by discussing what they have read and by continuing to share texts by reading aloud together when possible.  They should read daily at home, completing reading activities such as reviews or posters regularly as they wish.  This is particularly important in a world where online games and viewing opportunities are increasingly seductive and reduced exposure to the written word is having a growing impact on our younger generations’ literacy skills – your support from home is invaluable in our efforts to counter this.

If you have any concerns or issues you would like to discuss regarding your child, please do not hesitate to contact us, via the office.

Ms Rudkin and Ms Crosby