Our Year 5 Class       

A very warm welcome to our Year 5 class page. In Year 5  we look forward to the challenges and responsibilities of being in the upper juniors. During the year the children continue to develop their independent learning, research and team work skills. 

Our Year 5 Class 2024-2025

Class Information

Who's who?

Mrs Monaghan - Year 5 Class Teacher

Mrs Bent - HLTA 

Miss German - Teaching Assistant

 Things to remember:

• Please remember that homework is due in by WEDNESDAY each week.
• PE lessons for Autumn 2 will be on a Tuesday (indoor) and Friday (outdoor). Please remember to write your child's name on all of their uniform and sports kits to avoid confusion.
• Reading is encouraged both in school but also at home. Reading for enjoyment is as important as reading to learn. It is important that the children read a range of books/comics/newspapers at home and develop their comprehension skills and vocabulary. This will help consolidate the reading work we will be doing in class. In Year 5, we feel it is important for the children to develop a love of reading as this gives their 'imagination wings'.
• We will be following the RWI spelling scheme this year and supplementing this with Spelling Shed. The children will be encouraged to use this at home as well as in school. The children will also be bringing home a list of the key words that they are currently working on. Please practise these at home(little and often).
• It is important that the children still continue to practise their times tables regularly at home. TTRockstars is a fantastic tool for this as well as 'Hit the Button'.

This half term.... Autumn Term 2 (October - December 2024)

English 

In our writing lessons this half term we will be focusing on writing to inform. We will be creating non-chronological reports on unusual creatures. On Remembrance Day and during that week we will take time away from our non-fiction work and reflect on Remembrance and focus on metaphoric poetry linked to the importance of remembering.

We will use the Writing Rainbow to help support our writing again and continue to develop our stamina, overall presentation and editing. We will challenge ourselves with our vocabulary choices, use a range of punctuation and vary our sentence structure. It is crucial that the children continue to proof-read their work carefully and check carefully for the basics and that their sentences make sense.

Throughout the term we will develop our comprehension skills and think carefully about our reading VIPERS (vocabulary, infer, predict, explain, retrieve, sequence or summarise) It is important that the children read a range of books/comics/newspapers at home and develop their comprehension skills and vocabulary. This will help consolidate the reading work we will be doing in class. In Year 5, we feel it is important for the children to develop a love of reading as this gives their 'imagination wings'.

In our spelling lessons we will focus on the following spelling rules:

• Words ending in -ence
• The 'ee' sound spelt 'ei'.
• Words ending in -ant, -ance, -ancy.
• Words ending in shus spelt -cious.
• Words ending in shus spelt -tious.

The children will be re-tested on their 'challenge words' at the beginning of this half term and then again just before we break up for Christmas. Please continue to practise these regularly at home.

We will be doing lots of sticky learning around our grammar consolidating our understanding of: 

• subordinating and co-ordinating conjunctions
• adverbials and pronouns
• determiners and apostrophes

We will also have a different grammar focus each week. For this half term these will be:

• adverbials
• prepositions/determiners
• parenthesis
• present progressive tense

Maths 

We will start the half term by continuing our topic on addition and subtraction. The children have already shown a sound understanding of the written strategies for both and are able to solve a range of fluency questions confidently. We are now moving onto the more challenging task of solving multi-step problems. We will be focusing on:

• inverse operations
• multi-step addition and subtraction problems
• missing number problems
• solving comparison problems.

After this we will move onto our multiplication and division topics. It is crucial that the children continue to regularly practise their times tables as this will help them greatly during these Maths lessons. We will be focusing on:

• multiples
• common multiples
• factors
• common factors
• prime numbers
• square numbers
• cube numbers
• multiplying by 10, 100, 1000
• dividing by 10, 100, 1000
• multiples of 10, 100, 1000 

We will complete the half term by beginning our unit on Fractions. We will build on our previous fraction work in Year 4. We will be focusing on:

• equivalent fractions
• converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and visa versa
• comparing fractions
• ordering fractions
• adding and subtracting fractions
• adding fractions with a total greater than 1

 All of these activities will give the children the opportunity to develop their reasoning and problem solving skills. We will also continue with our daily reasoning questions with our partner and counting activities. These help the children to develop their mathematical thinking.

At home, it would fantastic if you could keep some of the children's previously learning 'bubbling':

• times tables
• written methods for addition and subtraction

Science

Our topic for this half term is 'Forces'. This topic will give the children lots of opportunities to work scientifically and carry out investigations. During this topic the children will:

• describe how things move and understand that gravity affects how things move.
• describe how friction acts on moving objects to slow them down and carry out an investigation to see which shoes have grip and which don't.
• identify the effect of air resistance on falling objects and carry out an investigation to determine the effects of air resistance. 
• describe the effects of water resistance on moving objects and identify the best shaped hull to reduce the effects of water resistance.
• identify some simple mechanisms and measure the force needed to lift weights using a lever.

Computing

Our next unit in Computing is Mars Rover 2 'Skills Showcase'. During this unit the children will focus on 3D design skills and will have the opportunity to:

• understand how bit patterns represent images as pixels.
• explain how the data of digital images can be compressed.
• identify and explain the 'fetch, decode and execute' cycle.
• create a safe online profile and tinker with 3D design software.
• modify the design of a 3D object using CAD software. 

HEARTSMART - 

Heartsmart/PATHS- 

Visit the website www.heartsmartprimary.com for more information on what Heartsmart is all about.

Self-worth. Learn how to love and value yourself well.

You’re important, you matter, you’re one in a million and above all you’re loved. These are messages that we all need to hear, believe and remember – because sometimes we forget. The healthier our internal dialogue, the greater our sense of worth which is the cornerstone of character and resilience. How kind are the thoughts we listen to? How patient are we with ourselves? 

Don’t Forget to Let Love In  helps us grow in self compassion. You’ll notice we don’t shy away from using the word love. It’s a big deal. Without it we’re no one, but no one is without it. The ability to receive or reject it in our lives defines us. Our actions, beliefs and very essence is shaped by our experience of it. Our hearts are made strong because of it. So in partnering with love, we partner with a strength that’s stronger than any challenge life might throw at us. Although it can be a challenge to receive it, love never fails. Don’t Forget to Let Love In! 

During this topic we will focus on:

• We have value and purpose
• The importance of making the right voice choice
• When and how to ask for help
• Money 

We will also think carefully and carry out a range of activities about anti- bullying during Anti-bullying week.

We will also continue with our PATHS lessons this half term. These lessons support the children in developing their social emotional skills.

Music

Mel, from Wigan Music Service will come into Year 5 on a Thursday afternoon to teach the children music. This half term they will learning how to play the ukulele. This is  a good unit to start with as it will help them to build on the skills they learnt in guitar last year. 

Geography

Our Topic for this half term is Climate Zones. During this topic the children will learn to:

• identify the different lines of latitude and explain how latitude is linked to climate.
• locate different climate zones and explore the difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
• compare temperate and tropical climates.
• explore weather patterns within a climate zone.
• write a weather forecast for a typical day in their choice of climate zone.
• identify the characteristics of each climate zone.

French 

Mrs Kirkman will deliver the French lessons on a Monday afternoon. Their topic is 'Space Exploration', which links nicely with the space work we covered last half term in both Science and Computing. During this topic the children will be learning:

• to pick out key ideas and phrases in a longer piece of spoken French.
• to use nouns and adjectives correctly to create metaphor poetry.
• to make comparisons in French.
• to read and build factually and grammatically accurate sentences.
• to ask and answer questions and compare and describe planets.                                                               

     
Art

Our topic this half term is 'Drawing-I need space'. During this unit the children will be exploring the purpose and impact of images from the ‘Space race’ era of the 1950s and 60s; developing independence and decision-making using open-ended and experimental processes; combining drawing and collagraph printmaking to create a futuristic image.

R.E

Our key question this half term is: What does it feel like to be a Muslim in Britain today? The children will be finding out:

• How many Muslims and how many mosques are there in Britain?
• How might the Five Pillars affect the lives of Muslims in Britain today?
• Why is Zakah important to Muslims and how is charity important for you?
• Why do Muslims go on pilgrimage? 

PE

Our indoor P.E is on a Tuesday afternoon. This half-term our unit is Dodgeball. During this unit the children will be focusing on a range of key skills:

• Physical: throw, dodge, catch, block
• Social: co-operation, respect, communication
• Emotional: confidence, honesty, independence
• Thinking: tactics, comprehension, observation, creativity

 Our outdoor P.E is on a Friday morning. This half-term our unit is OAA. During this unit the children will be focusing on a range of key skills:

• Physical: balance, co-ordination, run at speed, run over distance
• Social: negotiation, communication, leadership, work safely
• Emotional: empathy, confidence, resilience
• Thinking: problem solving, reflect, critical thinking, select and apply, comprehension  

Our sporting value for this half term is Self-Belief

Autumn Term 1 NEWS!  (September-October 2024)

Wow! It has been a very busy first half term in Year 5. It has been lovely to get to know the children better. The highlights for me this half term are our Science work on Earth and Space and to see the children working really hard on their presentation and handwriting. I absolutely loved seeing their amazing Space projects. They had worked so hard on them and I proudly watched them share them with you all!

The children have started to grow in confidence and show their maturity and 'kind hearts' through our R.E discussions, Heartsmart and PATHs lessons, Picture News and  puberty lessons with HHKids. They are always willing to share their thoughts and feelings and are very respectful of each others opinions and views.  They have developed their historical thinking during our topic on the Mayans and thought carefully about how we know so much about a civilisation that were around over 1000 years ago. They have tackled the challenging job of reading binary code in Computing with resilience and patience and have enjoyed finding out more about the Mars Rovers. The children's spoken French has continued to improve along with their sewing skills in D.T. They have enjoyed learning to play the clave sticks in Music.

The children worked hard during our Place Value units in Maths and have shown a good understanding, especially when faced with larger numbers. Their reasoning and problem solving skills continue to develop. I am also pleased with their continued practise on their times tables. In English we have focused on narrative writing this half term with the purpose of entertaining. The children produced some excellent short stories and are really challenging themselves with their vocabulary and sentence choices. In P.E they continued to develop their dance and tennis skills. The thing that pleased me most during these lessons was the children's perseverance, encouragement of each other and their growing ability to self assess their skills. It was great to see them put their tennis skills to practise at Pennington Park. Their behaviour outside of school was exemplary.

As you can see it has been a busy start to Year 5 and as we head into another busy half term I know that the children will continue to make me proud as they grown in confidence, resilience, work together as a team and challenge themselves.