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

We will start by studying  the text, ‘The Island’ by Armin Greder. Themes of prejudice and hostility will be explored as well as delving into the mindset of the island’s inhabitants. Children will infer different character’s feelings and they will write letters of advice using the subjunctive mood. Children will also write a short news bulletin using the perfect tense before making an analysis of the text and comparing two groups of people. Finally, the children will write a narrative sequel from the main character’s perspective, focusing in particular on using dialogue to convey the character and advance the action.

We will then continue with the text, ‘The Man Who Walked Between the Towers’ by Mordicai Gerstein where the children will explore how a real-life story has been portrayed as fiction. As witnesses and reporters, they will create news updates for The New York Times or write content for an American news programme. They will also role play making a speech as one of the main characters in court, defending himself and his actions.

After half term, we will be studying ‘High Rise Mystery’ by Sharna Jackson in which children use the text to explore a range of genres and styles of writing. In particular, children will learn about the techniques of writing a crime/detective story as they progress. The sequence of learning builds up to children planning and writing their own detective story using the author’s various techniques and structure yet innovating on the setting and the characters.

Finally, we will move onto ‘Curiosity’ by Markus Motum. This text explores the themes of exploration and discovery and what it means to be curious. Children will follow the journey of the NASA rover Curiosity as it makes its way to Mars. Children will write labels to explain Curiosity’s features before exploring how to use cohesive devices to expand and explain. They will use the passive voice to log the rover’s landing on Mars and write a short news report. Finally, children will draw together their learning to design a new rover and write an expanded explanation to propose it as the future of NASA exploration.

 Maths

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

Statistics:

Reading, interpreting and drawing line graphs and tables.

Solve comparison, sum, and difference problems using information presented in all types of graphs

Calculate and interpret the mode, median and range

Angles. Position and direction:

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

Measure to 180 degrees

Length and angles in shapes

Identify angles at a point and one whole turn, angles at a point on a straight line and half a turn.

Regular and irregular polygons

3 D shapes

Measure: Area and perimeter:

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

Calculate and compare the area of rectangle, use standard units square centimetres (cm2) and square metres and estimate the area of irregular shapes

Use, read and write standard units of length and mass

Estimate and calculate volume and capacity

Understand the difference between liquid volume and solid volume

Understand and use approximate equivalences between metric units and common imperial units such as inches, pounds, and pints

Continue to read, write, and convert time between analogue and digital 12 and 24-hour clocks

Solve problems involving converting between units of time

Complete a simple symmetric figure with respect to a specific line of symmetry Continue to identify horizontal and vertical lines and pairs of perpendicular and parallel lines.

 Coordinates and translation:

Describe positions on the first quadrant of a coordinate grid

Plot specified points and complete shapes

 Identify, describe, and represent the position of a shape following a reflection or translation, using the appropriate language, and know that the shape has not changed

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. In DT, we will explore 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

The children will have swimming on a Monday for the first half term at Grange paddocks. In PE lessons, 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 Thursdays. There may be opportunities for extra PE sessions, so please ensure that the children 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 or topic 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.  Please continue to encourage your child to complete their homework on Teams where possible.

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.

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

Best wishes

Miss Ullmann