Class 5
Welcome to Class 5
2024-2025
Spring term
In English we have been reading Beowulf and using the ideas from that story to create our own myths. Here we have been having a go at rewriting our own version of the Ancient Greek myth of Arachne.
We started off with analysing the structure of other myths. Here are our myth analysers.
We then practised our scene setting and description skills.
Then we started to plan our own myths and create myth maps like the ones you find in fantasy books. Eventually, we wrote our myths and published them.
Year 5 loved our comic workshop with Kev Sutherland. We learnt how to create detailed comic stories and draw our images. It was inspirational!
Science
We have been learning all about the life cycles of different creatures including birds, insects and mammals. We learnt about how these creatures are characterised and catalogued. We have found out about Carl Linnaeus and classification keys.
Autumn term
Life in all its fullness
We have welcomed the new school year back with our learning metaphor- Life in all its fullness. As a class we have read the book Every Child a Song which celebrates how unique and wonderful we all are as individuals. This book says that EVERY child in the world has a voice and deserves to be heard. This book helps us to learn about our rights as part of the UNCRC (United Nations Conventions on the rights of a child).
We’ve learnt about the different rights all children, wherever they are born or live, have. We have focused in particular on the rights of children to education. We are learning about barriers which stop some children across the world accessing their education. We have thought about what life in all its fullness means for children everywhere. Have a look at the posters we have made calling for education for all.
We have been thinking about what makes our lives full!
2023-2024
Summer term
Officers from Wiltshire Police visited Year 5 and 6 this week to talk to us all about our personal and online safety. We talked about how we should behave online and about how anything we publish online stays online forever. The officers gave us a good rule for thinking about when we publish online- would we share it with our granny. If we wouldn’t be happy to share it our grannies, then we shouldn’t post it online.
We talked about how to keep online profiles safe by making them private and not giving away personal information. We learnt an acronym to help us remember how to act online- ROCK.
We talked about what to do if we became separated from our parents in public and who to talk to. We discussed when it is appropriate to ring 999 and when it would be better to ring 101.
Spring term
We have read the story of Beowulf and Grendel by Michael Morpurgo and have immersed ourselves into the Anglo Saxon and Viking world. We have loved learning about the hero Beowulf and his adventures against the monster Grendel and his mother! We have used this story to write persuasive letters filled with persuasive techniques and narratives that capture the reader’s attention
Have a look at our persuasive writing.
We’ve started to explore myth writing. We looked at what made a myth a myth. Have a look at the myth analysers we created.
We then practised our screen setting skills and how to write dialogue in an exciting manner.
We then started to create our own maps for the stories we had planned.
In DT, we planned and created our own stuffed animals learning a new stitch called blanket stitch. We LOVED our creations and couldn’t wait to take them home with us!
We have also learnt all about Anglo Saxon and Viking England. We had find out about why these different groups invaded and how their settlements have shaped Britain to this day.
We’ve looked at how Anglo Saxon and Viking society was structured.
We’ve been exploring primary and secondary sources and how historians use them. We’ve discussed how some sources can be biased towards certain opinions. To help us understand this we looked at King Alfred the Great.
We’ve then explored something called ‘the struggle for England’ which s about the way in which the Anglo Saxons and Vikings fought for land and eventually created England.
In Art, we learnt all about colour wheels and abstract art. We had a go at creating faces similar to that of Picasso’s faces.
Autumn term
In art we have been looking at an art movement known as Surrealism. Surrealism is when art shows strange unreal scenes. It was first thought of after World War 1. Have a look at our Surrealism artwork. We have created strange and improbable faces.
In class we have been learning all about Ernest Shackleton and his crew onboard the Endurance and their incredible story of survival. We’ve been reading the book Shackleton’s journey. We started off using our inference skills to work out the theme of the book. Have a look at our ideas.
This has led us to learn all about the continent of Antarctica and the scientific stations down there.
We have been fascinated learning all about the UK’s Halley ice station which is where many important scientific experiments take place. It is in fact Britain’s sixth station as the first 5 have been destroyed either by being crushed or eventually crumbling into the sea. We used the design of the new Halley station, which is on skis, to help us create our own science research stations.
In English we have been studying the life and times of Ernest Shackleton and using this information to write our own biographies. Have a read of some of our biographies.
We’ve also been experimenting with semi colons!
Science.
We are looking at forces in science and how these forces impact and shape our lives.
History
Year 5 has been looking at life in Britain on the Home Front during World War 2. We have looked at evacuation, rationing and how people kept themselves safe during the Blitz. We have been thinking about what makes a source of historical information a primary or secondary source. We have then looked at the type of questions a historian might ask of the object and what that object lets us infer about everyday life.
English
We were inspired by the images in Dear Earth to write our scene descriptions of the world around us. Once we started our new book Mama Miti we began to create descriptions of scenes in Kenya.
Learning metaphor
We have welcomed the Year 5 back in to school and started it with our learning metaphor ‘Our Common Home : Love your neighbour as yourself’. We have read the book Dear Earth by Isabel Otter which is written as a letter to the Earth by little girl praising its beauty. We have then gone on to considered how wonderful and diverse our world is but also how we are damaging it.We have explored this story in connection with the parable of the Good Samaritan and the teaching ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself. We have thought about what this means in terms of our Spirituality, how we are all interconnected, considered why the Earth, our unique home, is so special, delicate and in need of our protection and care. Not just for ourselves but for everyone around the world as caring for our world is loving our neighbour.
We then took these ideas and used them to explore poetry . We read the poem ‘ If the world was just a metre in diameter’ which helped us to then create our own poems.
We then started to explore the story of the Good Samaritan and its meaning and how this might link to how we care for the world and others around us. We explored how we are interconnected with each other. We learnt about the greenhouse effect, our carbon footprints and things we can do to reduce them as well as ideas on climate justice for the world.
Summer Term
Class 5 Newsletter Summer Term 2022-23
AK Annual Curriculum Overview 2022-2023 Class 5
Spring Term
Class 5 Newsletter Spring Term 2022-23
Class 5 have continued to be super busy this term and have continued to work exceptionally hard in all areas of their learning. In English, we have been reading Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill. We have discovered how Shackleton advertised for crew members in The Times newspaper and how he was particularly interested in members’ unusual talents, as well as their skills and previous expedition experiences. We researched members of Shackleton’s crew and wrote fantastic newspaper reports describing Endurance setting sail from Grytviken in 1914. Have a look at some of our newspaper reports below:
In History this term, Class 5 have turned into Victorian experts! We began by making our own timeline considering the different historical eras in Britain before looking at Victorian school life and studying artefacts carefully. We then learnt about the impact of the Industrial Revolution and how it changed life in Britain, the introduction of railways, John Snow’s discovery of cholera and crime and punishments in the Victorian times compared to modern day!
In Science, we have been investigating the human body. We have learnt about the circulatory system and investigated the impact of exercise (using the running track!) on our heart rate and the time it takes to return back to resting rate. We have also learnt about the respiratory system and the impact that smoking can have on our bodies. Finally, we investigated the functions of the digestive system through making poo! We then wrote diary entries as pieces of food travelling through the digestive system.
End of Autumn Term 2
Class 5 have had a brilliant second Autumn term! The children performed their class assembly to parents and carers fantastically, sharing their knowledge of Brazil and their learning experiences from our Geography unit of work. The children sung in Portuguese and we even had an electrical safety quiz and some very passionate footballers!
In English, the children have been continuning with the high-quality text ‘Journey to the River Sea’ by Eva Ibbotson. The story involves a young orphan, Maia, who is sent to live with distant relatives in Brazil near the Amazon River. Maia is initially excited…but when she arrives in Brazil, her new family leaves much to be desired. Mr and Mrs Carter seem to hate the land they live in and their children, twin girls Beatrice and Gwendolyn, are selfish and spoilt. We wrote diary entries as Maia, explaining her initial concerns and confusion after arriving at her new home in Manaus. Have a read through a few of our diaries below:
We have also been rewriting the story of The Gruffalo and turning it into a Year 5 narrative by using a range of sentence types, more adventurous punctuation and reporting clauses to make the dialogue more engaging for the reader. This has linked to our Design and Technology, where we have been planning and designing their own pop-up books based on the traditional story of The Gruffalo, using different structures and mechanisms to make our books engaging and aesthetically pleasing!
In Science, we have been learning about classification. We have been looking at different animal groups and how species are classified. We compared the life cycles of different animals (mammals, insects and amphibians) and investigated the life cycle of the bean plant. We also researched Carl Linnaeus and the importance of the Linnaean System for scientists today. Have a look at some of our work in Science this term below:
Comic Art Visitor – Kevin Sutherland
On Wednesday 9th November, we had a very special visit from comic book fanatic and author Kevin F Sutherland. He has written and drawn comics from The Beano to Marvel, Doctor Who to Viz and Red Dwarf to The Dandy! He led an inspirational who school assembly and demonstrated how having a positive attitude towards comic art is key! He came in to share with children some excellent tips for drawing comic art, how to use your imagination to draw and he was so much fun!
Following on from his assembly, Classes 5 and 6 were lucky enough to take part in his comic strip masterclasses. Both year groups came up with their own comic title and made their own individual form part of the whole-class comic. The children worked brilliantly and absolutely loved it – they were even lucky enough to take home a caricature drawn by Kev!
Along with the rest of the school, Class 5 started the year by considering the learning metaphor ‘We are all wonderfully made’. We focused on the books ‘It all starts with a Seed’ and ‘The Promise’.
Using The Promise, we wrote setting descriptions of the desolate city at the beginning of the story. We used figurative language to really create a picture in the reader’s mind. Have a look at some of our writing below:
In English, we started to read the book ‘Journey to the River Sea’ by Eva Ibbotson. We looked carefully at the front cover of the book and then wrote our own blurbs based on predictions for what the story might be about.
Have a look at some of our writing below:
In Maths, we have been focussing on place value. We have been looking at the value of digits in numbers up to one million! We have been ordering and comparing numbers, rounding numbers and even Roman numerals.
In Science, we have been learning about electricity. We have learnt about what electricity is and how we use it in our every day lives. We looked at the difference between mains and battery powered electrical appliances and what a circuit needs for it to work successfully. We also investigated how we could make a bulb dimmer and brighter…
This term we have also had visits from Lifebase and Harrold the Giraffe! We also had a really important visit from Wiltshire Air Ambulance who taught us about DR ABC, the recovery position and CPR.
