Welcome to Year 5!

 Teachers: Mrs Kruber and Mrs Womack 

Teaching assistant: Miss Bennett

                                         Important things to remember

At 8.40 am Year 5 children should enter the supervised main gate independently and walk around the one way system on the playground to the class door. They will need to sanitise their hands on entering the classroom.

We will have PE lessons on Wednesday afternoons each week. Children are required to arrive at school wearing their school PE kits.

Poplar Class children are to be collected from the supervised gate that exits onto the car park area at 3.30pm. If your child is allowed to walk home alone then you need to sign a form available from the office to give permission. 

We have our own class 'tuck trolley' at breaktimes, there are a range of snacks, fruit  and drinks available all for 40p each.  Alternatively you are welcome to bring in water, fruit or healthy snack for yourselves.

What to expect in Year 5

Year 5 offers the time to embed all of the knowledge learnt in lower Key Stage 2 and a year to start the preparations for transition to secondary school. This is often a year when children grow in maturity – sometimes even more so than in their final year in primary. They gain a greater independence and confidence from being given more responsibility in their learning.

Children in Year 5 are increasingly encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning: to do their homework, to pack their school bag, to remember their PE kits. And they develop and grow as a result. It is about encouraging independence in preparation for bigger things to come.

What will my child do in Year 5?

1. Maths

In maths, there is an emphasis on fractions, decimals, and percentages in this year. There is also an expectation that they will know all of the written methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

2. English

For English, new punctuation is introduced (such as hyphens, semi-colons, and colons). There is a greater emphasis on grammar features too (for example, modal verbs like would, could, might, and must).

3. New topics

There are some fantastic topics this year: Romans, Space, habitats in Brazil, Vikings and a Science materials topic which investigates removing salt from the sea! This is the year when your child will probably have their first sex and relationship lesson in school as it combines neatly with the science unit on reproduction, puberty, and changes in the human body. 

4. Educational visits

Following government guidelines, we are unable to offer educational visits and visitors to school at the moment. We hope to offer this again very soon and will let you know as soon as we can. We understand that these experiences are valuable to enhance children's learning and will organise this when the time is right.

How can I help my child in Year 5?

Keep doing all of the usual things that we say each year. Continue to hear them read as much as possible, practise times tables, help them with homework, talk to them about their day, and encourage them to read by visiting the local library, bookshops, or using eBooks from MyOn.

Reading with your child and listening to your child read are possibly the best things you can do to help your child’s education.

Take time to discuss the text your child is reading, ask about the book, what do they like about it? Is it similar to anything else they've read? Can they tell you about the characters? What do they predict will happen?

Share reading at home - you can be a good role model by reading too!

Here are a few extra ideas for can try on top of this:

1. Encourage them to take responsibility

Just like in school, give them some independence and responsibility for their learning at home. Here are a few ways you can start giving them some responsibility at home:

• Ask them to pack their own bag for school so that they get into the habit of thinking for themselves about what they need and what they will be doing that day.
• Allow them to make mistakes. If they forget their homework, make them tell the teacher themselves (they learn more quickly from their mistake and they are taking responsibility for it too).
• Get into the routine of doing homework at a set time each week if possible. By all means help them, but make sure they make their own decisions about presentation, for example.

If your child is not very organised, then taping a list by the door or to a lunch box works well, as does getting equipment ready the night before.

2. Be encouraging

Another simple thing that you can do as a parent is to be a good example. Never say: ‘I was no good at spelling at school!’ Never tell your child: ‘Go to Dad and let him help you with your maths because he is better than me.’

Children need adults to show them that learning is fun, relevant, and enjoyable – and difficult sometimes. Does it matter if you don’t know the answer? Of course it doesn’t. Instead, look it up together and show that you want to find things out too.

3. Take it easy

Finally, remember that even in Year 5 your child will still need some down-time playing outside or reading a much-loved book. 

In Science- We will be looking at materials that dissolve in liquid to form a solution and learn how to recover a substance from a solution. We will be having a visit from an expert in Bushcraft to show us how to purify dirty water!

In Literacy- We will be looking at amazing landscapes and using the text- Instructions by Neil Gaiman to help us think about a fantasy portal.

In Maths- We will focus on division, fractions and percentages this term.

In Geography- We will look at fantasy landscapes that actually exist – New Zealand / Alps / Black Forest / Andes / Philippines We will find out why they look as they do!

In Computing- The coding programme Scratch will help us to plot and correct errors in our route, and we will use technology to create beautiful digital images.

In Art- We will look at traditional dyes; how were they made and set using salt. Use salt to manipulate the colours and textures of landscape painting.

In PSHE- we will be looking at how we change and how friendships and relationships change as we get older. We will also focus on puberty.

In PE- we will be improving our tactics and teamwork in multi-sports. Our after schools sports club begins every Wednesday 3.30-4.30 please let the office know if you would like to participate.

   Spring term 1-  Brazil: Flora and fauna - floundering or flourishing??

  For this new half term we will be continuing our studies of Brazil but our focus will be a little different with an emphasis  on       plants and the environment.

 Did you know that about a quarter of the world's known plant species are found in Brazil?

 The Amazon Basin, the world's largest tropical rain forest, includes tall Brazil nut trees, brazilwood, myriad palms, kapok-bearing ceiba trees enlaced with vines and creepers, rosewood, orchids, water lilies, and the wild rubber tree.The rainforests of Brazil are dense, lush and haunting in their enveloping magnitude. Brazil, as an area, was not affected by the Ice Age of centuries ago, and the areas of remaining rainforest were never susceptible to droughts; leaving them to grow, intertwine and develop over the ages. This has yielded a complex combination of plants that have not had the opportunity to grow anywhere else in the world. These include hundreds of exquisite orchid species and palms, which make for beautiful landscapes and fascinating finds. Scientists continue to discover new species in Brazil on a regular basis, although these numbers are sadly  depleted by the numbers of species that face extinction due to deforestation and urbanisation.

We will be discovering more about these issues in science and geography.

In maths we will be looking at shapes and their properties. There will be activities to support this on MyMaths so don't forget to check in regularly!!

Our new topic for this term is: Is Brazil your perfect holiday destination?
During this topic you will be introduced to the diverse and unique culture of Brazil. We will be finding out where Brazil is located in the world and finding out about it’s interesting human and physical features. We will also investigate differences between urban and rural Brazil and compare the communities living within them.

In science we will be comparing animal’s life cycles and investigating animals that live in the Amazon Rainforest.

In maths we will be focussing on formal written methods for multiplication. As usual pupils will have daily Accelerated maths tasks (set from Tues- Fri) and Mymaths will be set on a Monday.

Autumn term 2- Will we ever reach infinity and beyond?

Journey through space – the final frontier! Let’s take a trip to the stars, planets and suns and discover the amazing wonders of the night sky. During this half term, we’ll read information texts to find out about the Solar System and the Sun. We’ll make a Solar System and investigate the cycle of day into night. We’ll learn about Galileo, the ‘father’ of modern astronomy and his famous astronomical discoveries. We'll find out about famous astronauts and the first moon landing. Taking on the roles of the planets, we’ll use movement to demonstrate the motions of the planets and moons. Finally we’ll make a space shuttle or satellite, testing the materials for durability, and we’ll use a digital program to create a lunar landscape for it. 

Autumn 1- What did The Romans do for us?

This half term, we’ll research Celtic and Roman warriors and write soliloquies as soldiers. Using different source materials we’ll investigate the Roman Empire and  design and make shields. We’ll test them in battle and practise our attacking and defending skills. We’ll learn about gladiators and write a commentary of a battle. Using maps, globes and information books, we’ll compare Britain (the home of the Celts) and Rome (the home of the Romans). At the end of the topic, we’ll reflect on what the Romans did for us.