Welcome to Year 5 Video Presentation
Homework is set every week on Thursday and is due back on a Wednesday!
Are you and your children Internet Legends? Why not check by playing some of the games at Internet Legends which will help your child understand how to keep safe whilst using the computer.
Welcome to Year 5
Mr Walker
Welcome to 5W!
On this page you will find lots of useful information to help guide you through the year. This includes a video of our classroom with all our COVID safety measure in place, information about reading, homework and topics as well as some useful information about maths and English.
Here's to a fun filled, and very different, year!
Our School Day;
- 8:30am children enter school, wash hands and read independently or with an adult
- 9:00am comprehension or reading fluency
- 9:30am SPaG work and handwriting
- 9:45am English
- 10:30am Collective Worship
- 11:00am Break Time
- 11:15am Maths
- 12:30am Lunch Time
- 1:15pm Afternoon session begins
- 2:50pm Home time
How are we keeping your children safe at school during COVID-19?
Strict measures have been put in place to ensure that children are kept safe at school. This includes a hand santiser pump outside the classroom door, washing hands on entry and exit to the classroom, wiping down of tables at regular intervals, staff moving around school face coverings and staff remaining within the class bubbles to avoid transmission
Homework and Reading
Homework for year 5 will be set each Thursday and will consist of a My Maths (where appropriate for the learning of the week), a comprehension and a little piece of grammar work to refresh the children's knowledge and skills. Homework is due on the following Wednesday and reminders will be given on Class Dojo pages. If there is ever an issue with homework please get in touch and we will do our best to help. If children don't have their homework by the following Wednesday, then they will be required to complete it at break time.
Reading is such an important part of your child's education journey and we at St Michael's are passionate about reading and want to instil this in the children. To do this we do a lot of reading across the curriculum but the true passion for reading comes from reading texts that the children enjoy. As such, we want the children to read as much as possible at home, something that they enjoy and are confident in reading. Reading at home should be logged and signed by an adult inside the children's reading records and independent reading or being listened to by an adult is fine, as long as there is evidence. Should children not read at home 4 times in the week, they will be required to attend our reading club on a Friday.
Children have all been issued 2 books. One of these books stays at school whilst the other book is to be read at home. Both books are at the child's reading level and pitched appropriately. In order to keep everyone safe, once the children return a book, it is placed in a day draw to be left for 72 hours before being put back on the book shelf. Children are more than welcome to read one of the reading for pleasure books from the shelf at school as long as the same protocol is followed.
Times tables - The gateway to maths
Times tables really are the gateway to maths. At the end of the Summer term last year, the children should have sat the statutory multiplication check. Unfortunately this didn't happen due to COVID-19 restrictions, however, we know from Reflex that the children were really fluent in their times tables and were almost able to recall all. I can't emphasis the need for children to regain this fluency and as such Reflex usernames and passwords have been sent home for the children to access and continue practising on. This fluency will really help the children gain a deeper understanding of fractions and methods of multiplication and division.
PE
Children currently have PE on a Monday and Thursday, however, this can be quite a fluid subject in terms of which day they actually do end up having PE on and therefore it is advisable that the children have their PE kits in school EVERY day. PE is part of the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum and the children will need full kit to participate fully in this subject. PE Kit at St Michael's includes;
- Plain white polo t-shirt
- Plain, dark jogging bottoms or shorts
- Trainers
- Plain, dark hoody
Due to COVID-19, all PE lessons, where possible, will take place outside to allow classrooms to ventilate and to allow the children to spread out whilst being active.
English - Autumn 1
In English this half term, we have a whole school focus on fairy tales. These 'traditional' stories will be familiar to the children and therefore will enable us to write freely and confidently whilst recapping previous year group objectives and introducing new year 5 terminology. We are focusing on a book which amalgamates two stories, Dr Frankenstein and Rapunzel. A tale where Rapunzel finds herself lost in a forest and the Dr invites her in on a cold, stormy night. But all does not go to plan as Rapunzel sneaks into the Dr's lab and ends up becoming one of his creations. The Dr flees and Rapunzel goes in search of him to reverse the effects of the experiment on her hair. Along the way, she picks up a new best friend, Clay, another of the Dr's creations and has to earn the respect of the village and turn their opinions of the Dr.
Over the half term, children will write;
- Character descriptions
- Setting descriptions
- Diary entries
- Letters to and from the Dr
The children have made a great start to this graphic novel and have loved the pictures and comic book style making it easy to follow the adventure and story. At the end of the half term, I will put a showcase together of their work from the block.
Comprehension and Spelling
In comprehension, there is a big jump in terms of the text length and word level from year 4 to 5. Through our comprehension sessions we will read a variety of different texts many times, summarise and recall the text, answer listening questions and model specific styles of questions with the children's input. They will then answer some questions independently and then mark the answers together. In addition to comprehension, we have a big focus on fluency reading where every other week choose an extract and we practise reading together and then the children have time to practise independently before a performance read. On a Friday, we then have a meaty question which we can get stuck into called 'The Big Ding!'.
With regards to spelling, we will still continue to follow the Read Write Inc programme and over the next few weeks you will start to notice that these spellings become a feature of their homework and small/short spelling tests will start to be done as part of this programme. In addition to this, extra spelling practise of the year 3 and 4 and the year 5 and 6 words wouldn't go a miss.
Maths
In maths this half term, the children will recap their knowledge of addition and subtraction and correct any misconceptions that have been instilled during lockdown. They will also develop their understanding of place value including their understanding of decimal numbers. In addition to this (pardon the pun), the children will also get the grips with multiplying and dividing by 10 and 100 as this is something they need to become more confident and fluent with as it now appears on our weekly arithmetic tests.
Autumn Topic - North America (focusing on Florida state) and Local History - RAF Finningley and Doncaster Airport
Over this term and until Christmas, we will be learning about North America which is our geography focus. We will learn about the countries that make up North America and specifically comparing our local area (Doncaster) with Florida state. We will examine trade links including import and export, tourism, industry, human and physical geography and the climate. Our history topic will involve us learning all about the history of the airport and its key role in various wars in history and how it became a commercial airport in the early 2000s. Children may have some prior knowledge about this topic and parents/grandparents may be able to extend their learning at school by discussing their knowledge of the area.
Science - Earth and Space and links to DT
During the first half term, we will investigate space. We will learn all about the planets their size and how they contribute to making up the solar system. We will learn about how the Earth is made up and its structure. We will link our space topic to DT and will make mobiles for my daughter's cot, this follows the 'Making something, for someone for some purpose' motto of our DT curriculum. Children will have to think carefully about what makes a good mobile and the material that the mobile is made of and how it will either stimulate or help her.
