Year 5

Year 5 @ Mount Street Primary 

Welcome to the Autumn Term in Year 5!

This term History is our driver, and we will be finding out what life would have been like living in Victorian Plymouth.  Our understanding and knowledge will be embedded not only in our History lessons, but through DT, art and literature.  Later in the term we will be comparing our new knowledge with how life is today as we study Plymouth's Trade and Economy. We will be continuing to develop our love of reading and this term’s whole class novel will be ‘Gaslight' by Eloise Williams. 

Class work: We will provide you with pencils, rulers, rubbers, colouring pencils and handwriting pens for those with a licence.  We ask that pencil cases are left at home as there is nowhere to store them safely in class.

Home learning: This will be set at the following times:

Maths and English – Monday to be handed in on Friday.

Reading – 10 minutes reading daily. We ask that an adult signs the reading diary and it is handed in at least once per week. This is a whole school focus this year!

Spellings: There will be weekly tests.

Times Tables:  TT Rock Stars daily.

Games and PE:

Children will need their PE kit in school all week however, PE is on a Tuesday and Thursday. Children MUST have P.E. kit to take part for health and safety reasons.  Children with long hair must have it tied back for PE lessons and stud earrings must be covered with tape or removed.

Kit: Trainers, white shirt, blue/black shorts, football/trainer socks.

In colder weather, a plain tracksuit may be worn outdoors for games.

Please ensure that all items of clothing are named. A small named bag containing your PE kit is all that is necessary as cloakroom space is limited.  Please keep your PE kit in school and we will ensure that it is sent home each half term for washing.

As ever, if you have any questions or queries, please do get in touch via Dojo or the school office.  We will always do our best to answer any questions as soon as possible.

Mrs Clement-Stallard and Mrs Blatchford

English 

In English this term, we will be developing our writing skills across a range of genres including, list poems, biographies and mystery fiction.  Complementing our creative writing will be grammar sessions looking at key tools, such as relative clauses, and expanded noun phrases.  We will develop our use of devices to build cohesion within a paragraph and consider ways that we can link ideas across paragraphs.  We will also continue to embed our use of brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis and the use of commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity.  We will continue to focus on learning the Year 5/6 spelling words as well as different spelling patterns including prefixes and suffixes.

Whole class reading activities will be a part of each day. The texts we will look at will be topic based and include fiction, non-fiction and poetry. During these sessions we will further develop our vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval, sequencing and summarising (VIPERS) skills.

Maths

This term, we will start by developing our understanding of place value, ordering and comparing numbers up to 1,000,000.  We will further develop our understanding of formal addition and subtraction methods using place value counters and place value charts to support understanding of what happens when we exchange between columns as well as looking at mental methods of multiplication and division.  We will also be learning about area and perimeter and later in the term how to read and interpret graphs and tables.

Science

This term we will learn about materials.  We will compare and group everyday materials on the basis of their properties, including their response to magnets.  We will further develop our knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating and learn that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution.  Through experiments, we will demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of states are reversible changes and develop our ability to explain that some changes result in the formation of new materials, and that this kind of change is not usually reversible.

Art

This term we will be studying the Victorian artist and designer William Morris.  We will explore printing through his artwork and learn how colour theory can be used, along with line and pattern to create images.  We will continue to develop our drawing skills as well as learning how to print two-tone patterns using linoleum. 

Computing

This term, we will be covering Kapow computing units and they will include Search Engines - exploring what a search engine is, learning how to use key words for effective searching and knowing that everything online is not always true. Later in the term, we will be looking at Mars Rover, which allows us to explore Binary coding.

We will also be refreshing our understanding of e-safety and what steps to take to keep safe online.

DT

This term, we will be working towards designing a Victorian themed toy for a younger child.  We will develop our understand of mechanical systems and use cams to make moving parts.  Throughout the unit, we will generate, develop, model and communicate our ideas through discussion, annotated sketches, cross-sectional and exploded diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces prior to making a finished working model. 

French

This term we will be following the iLanguages programme by developing our vocabulary around a range of subjects including instructions, opinions, sports, locations and weather.  We will learn the word 'pour' writing and saying it in context. We will listen to stories, learn phrases and rehearse speaking and writing in French.  Later in the term, we will learn about and compare traditions linked to the Christmas holidays.

Geography

After half term, we will be learning about the human geography of Plymouth.  We will consider then and now linked to our learning in History, as we consider Plymouth's past and future economy and how land use has developed to meet the needs of the population.  We will consider the distribution of natural resources and learn how the port and rail networks are integral in connecting Plymouth with the world.

Music

This term we will be continuing to learn to play the guitar.  Ms Price will continue to develop our knowledge of chord sequences and scales as well as developing our musicianship.  We will play and sing a variety of songs which we will perform later in the term.  

PE

This term, children will learn how to perform a variety of floor and vault movements. They will learn stag jumps, split leaps, pike rolls, and round-offs while developing their understanding of the necessary flexibility, strength and control needed to perform the movements successfully. Children will have the opportunity to choreograph their own sequences and routines and perform individually and as part of a pair or group.  The children will also begin to play basketball.  They will learn how to dribble and pass the ball using a range of different techniques. Defensively, they will develop their skills of marking including man-to-man marking. Offensively, they will learn how to get free from a defender, how to shield the ball and the skill of pivoting. They will also learn some of the rules of the game and to play as part of a team in a mini-tournament.

PSHE

Following the Jigsaw programme, this term we will be looking at Being Me in My World through a variety of discussion tasks and activities including learning about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and how everyone has a right to learn. Later in the term we will be looking at Celebrating Differences through a variety of discussion tasks and activities including understanding how cultural differences can sometimes cause conflict.

RE

This term we will be asking the question "What does it mean for Christians to believe that God is holy and loving?"  We will identify some different types of biblical texts, using technical terms accurately and will make connections between Bible texts studied and what Christians believe about God. Later in the term, we will be asking the question “Why do Hindus try to be good?” We will identify and explain Hindu beliefs, using technical terms accurately and will make connections between beliefs and why they are important to Hindus.

Useful Information

E-Safety

As so many of us are spending more and more time online, it is important that the children have a secure knowledge of how to be safe.  We will discuss various issues regarding this each week.  If your child or yourself have any questions linked to their online world, then please do not hesitate to get in touch or have a look at some of the links below.

Useful Links