Year 5 – Maple Class
What We’ve Been Up To This Term
Why should the rainforests matter to us?
In year 5 the children of Maple Class will be investigating the rainforests of the world and learning about their importance, how to survive in them and why we need to protect them. Our key text for this term is How to be a World Explorer.
Books your child could read at home:
- The Explorer by Katherine Rundell
- Forever Forest by Kirstin Joy Pratt Serafini
- The Great Kapok Tree By Lynne Cherry
What are we doing at the moment?
In year 5, we have been exploring the Amazon rainforest from the comfort of our classroom. We have been carefully studying some of the different plants that grow there and had a go at sketching them in our art books. We learnt about deforestation and discussed what we can do to help save the planet both at school and in our every day lives. We have been finding out all about endangered animals and the threats to their lives. Over this half term, we have been closely looking at the purpose of different parts of non-fiction books and we are now making our own non-fiction books.
Autumn Term 1 – Maple Class
English
The children will begin the term by looking at poetry. They will have opportunities to write and perform their own poetry. They will then be using the key text How to be a World Explorer to learn about the features of an explanation text. The children will have opportunities to expand their vocabulary and consider how to adapt their writing for different audiences. They will create their own booklets about how to survive the amazon rainforest. The children will edit and correct their own learning to improve it.
Maths
The children will begin the term by looking at place value. They will look at rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. The children will build upon their existing times table knowledge. They will then progress to addition and subtraction and learn how to add and subtract four digit numbers. They will use estimating to predict the answer. There will also be a focus on using the inverse operations to check that their answers are correct.
RE
The children will be considering the key question What does it mean if God is loving and holy? The children will think about who God is and the values that He represents. They will consider the ways in which Christians put their beliefs into practise in their worship. They will also explore the connections between the bible and God.
Geography
The children will have the opportunity to use an atlas to locate the world’s countries, revise the different continents and identify which continents are homes to rainforests. They will be looking at features of the rainforest and thinking about deforestation. The children will learn about endangered animals and the reason why they are endangered. They will learn how animals have adapted to their surroundings and consider what they see in current affairs about the rain forest.
PE
The children will be focusing on developing their passing and shooting skills. This will include dribbling, attacking and defending. There will also be a focus on agility and co-ordination.
PSHE
The children will be looking at what makes a healthy friendship and strategies to make people feel included. They will consider peer approval including online situations. They will learn how to recognise if a friendship is making them feel unsafe or worried.
Art
The children will be working on developing their sketchbook skills. They will look at different animals and plants in detail and think about how they can use their pencils to recreate it.
Autumn Term 2 – Maple Class
English
We will be looking at Michael Morpurgo’s retelling of Beowulf. The children will learn about kennings and then create their own poems. The children will be planning and writing their own Anglo-Saxon stories. As part of this, the children will understand that a writer moves events forward using a balance of dialogue, action and description. The children will be challenged to write a flashback to develop the reader’s knowledge about an event or character. The children will be conducting their own research about Anglo-Saxon Britain and use this to write information texts. The focus will be on considering the purpose and audience across different genres and selecting vocabulary appropriately. We will be using a variety of different methods to learn our spellings.
Maths
We will begin this half term by using our skills to interpret graphs and to even produce our own. We will also look at timetables and using the information we know to answer questions. The children will develop their reasoning skills to explain their answers. The children will learn more about prime and composite numbers. They will also further develop their existing knowledge of squared and cubed numbers. The children will be calculating area and perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes in meters and centimetres. They will also be estimating the area of irregular shapes.
RE
The children will be looking at the question: What kind of king is Jesus? They will make connections between biblical texts and the concept of the Kingdom of God. They will be thinking about how they can apply Gods teachings to their own lives and the wider community.
History
This half term the children will be looking at who the Anglo-Saxons were and why they came to England. They will be learning about Anglo-Saxon invasions, settlements and the way they lived, the beliefs of Anglo-Saxons and how they brought law and order to Britain. There will be opportunities to carry out research about Alexander the Great. The children will be given opportunities to think about how to know if a source is valid.
PE
The children will be developing their communication and collaboration skills. They will learn different physical activities and sports and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success.
PSHE
The children will be focusing on caring friendships, which will be a theme across the school. Their learning will be about on developing strategies to resolve disputes, to recognise how their behaviour affects others and build on their learning about positive relationships.
DT
In DT we will be designing and creating our own Anglo-Saxon shields. The children will also be making model homes of Anglo-Saxons. The children will have the opportunity to follow an Anglo-Saxon recipe.
Spring Term 1 – Maple Class
English
This half term we will be focusing on Cosmic by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. The children will be creating their own information texts about the planets. They will think about how to adapt their writing for different audiences by thinking about their different word choices. The children will be developing their understanding of relative clauses. The children will be thinking carefully about the thoughts and feelings of a character and use this to create a piece of drama to retell the story. We will be improving our dictionary skills to maximise the quality of our writing.
Maths
In Maths, the spring term will begin by further developing the children’s existing skills with multiplication including multiplying numbers by 2,3 and 4 digit numbers. Then the children will have the opportunity to divide with and without remainders. Next, they will learn about fractions, being able to convert numbers from proper to improper fractions. They will be adding fractions with the same denominator. They will find equivalent fractions and use this to solve problems.
RE
We will be thinking about the question What would Jesus do? The children will identify features of Gospel texts. They will compare their ideas with ways in which Christians interpret biblical texts, showing awareness of different interpretations. The children will think about how Christians live in the Christian community and in their individual lives.
Science
In science, we will begin by looking at why the moon appears to be different shapes. The children will be thinking about why we have night and day. They will also be able to explain the properties of the different planets in our solar system. There will also be opportunities to study famous astronauts such as Neil Armstrong and Tim Peak.
PE
The children will be developing their communication and collaboration skills. They will learn different physical activities and sports and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success.
PSHE
The children will be considering how important it is to be respectful of others even when they are different to them. We will discuss and consider the ideas of courtesy and manners. They will think about the importance of self-respect and how this links to their own happiness.
Art
In Art we will be focusing on improving our skills with paint. We will practise by painting 2d planets with the focus being on the details. We will then make dioramas of the planets. The children will create their own moon buggy.
