Year 5 are taught by Mrs Fry and Mrs Thurston and Miss Tuckley teaches 5KT on a Friday.
Miss Devin, Mrs Hall and Mrs Lethbridge are our Year 5 Teaching Assistant and Mrs Arnold is our linked Learning Mentor (LAPS Team).
Home Learning is provided and to be returned via your child’s Google Classroom. If you need to contact the team please email: Y5@gomerjuniorschool.co.uk
Curriculum Overview for the year.
Y5-2022-2023-curriculum-overview-1Spring Term 2023
After a wonderful Autumn term, the Year 5 team is excited to welcome children back ready for the start of the Spring term!
In Humanities this term, we will be learning about the Ancient Greeks, exploring Ancient Greek life and how history has affected life today: education, architecture and sports. Our Literacy will be closely linked with this topic as we will be exploring myths and legends; writing and performing playscripts. Through art, we will find out about the Gorgon Medusa, producing line and watercolour depictions of her, before using our clay modelling skills to create sculptures of this mythological creature.
In the second half of the term, our history focus will move forward in time to the Vikings and Anglo Saxon period, where we will learn about their way of life through studying clues from different artefacts, and learn about the impact the feud between the two had on our lives today.
Our Mathematics focus begins with fractions. We will be using previous learning to explain what a fraction is, including the use of mathematical vocabulary such as denominator and numerator. We will revisit and build on our understanding of equivalent fractions while also exploring fractions that are bigger than 1 (mixed numbers and improper fractions). As we develop our understanding of fractions we will carry out operations so that we are able to add, subtract and multiply fractions as well as find fractions of an amount. We will then look at fractions as decimals and percentages as we move into our second unit of maths. In this unit we will explore the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages. In the second part of the Spring term we will spend time refining our multiplication and division skills and building on our understanding of area and perimeter.
Science this term begins with the topic, space. Children will explore the movement of the Earth in relation to the Moon and Sun and use this to explain day and night. We will use scientific evidence to explain how we know that Earth and other planets are spherical shapes and look at the different characteristics of each of the planets. We will link this topic to history and find out what part the Ancient Greeks had to play in our knowledge of astronomy today.
In our Personal Development Learning and Relationships and Sex Education this term we will be learning about different ways to effectively comunicate with others, including learning some basic sign language. We will be reading ‘What the Jackdaw Saw’ by Julia Donaldson as part of this. We will continue to learn about healthy relationships and take time to reflect on why it is important to have respect for ourselves as well as others. Children will discuss who they can talk to and get support from if they are unhappy in any of their relationships.
Through our RE sessions we will learn about the significance of the Buddha to Buddhists when trying to achieve a sense of peace and then in the second half of the Spring term we will explore what ‘The Empty Cross’ symbolises for Christians.
Musically this term, children will be accessing the electronic music learning provided by the Hampshire Music Service.
Indoor PE in the Spring term will include a street dance unit with Synergy dance. Then in the second half of the term they will have their rhythmic gymnastics unit of learning. Outdoor PE will continue to develop children’s knowledge and skills in invasion games.
In Computing during Spring 1, we will be using the Crumbles to code our own ‘star’ to flash. Then in the second half of the term, we will focus on Vector Drawings, where we will use Google Drawing to create our own Vector Drawings based around our Viking and Anglo Saxon history topic. We will gain an understanding of how images on screen are different from those on paper, and how we can build drawings up in layers that can be manipulated.
Autumn Term 2022
The Year 5 team is excited to welcome the children back to school for the start of the new academic year. And, the Year 5 team is looking forward to a successful term ahead, where we will all achieve.
We will be kickstarting a fantastic year with the geographical exploration of South and North America. ‘The Explorer’ by Kathrine Rundell will form the basis for our Guided Reading and Writing work. For the first half term, we will be engaging with learning about South America, identifying countries within the continent and learning about climate zones and mountain ranges whilst also carrying out a detailed study of the Amazon rainforest. We will use some of this learning as inspiration for writing our own adventures stories. In the second half of the term, we will be making our way to North America to explore the geographical similarities and differences between these two continents, learn about different time zones and use digital mapping technology.
The Mathematics focus begins with numbers and truly understanding what numbers mean and represent. We will begin the year looking at Place Value and what each digit in a number represents. A good understanding of place value is a good foundation for our mathematical learning. From here, we will move into looking at strategies for the four operations. Maths on a Friday will be focused on consolidating our knowledge in a weekly arithmetic paper and times table challenge. After half term, we will be studying statistics and the learning journey focuses on interpreting graphs and charts, representing data on a line graph and extracting information from timetables in real life scenarios, such as bus or ferry timetables. We will also be practising and consolidating our multiplication and division skills, by revisiting our times tables and solving problems involving them. Throughout our mathematical learning we will try our best and develop our problem solving skills.
Science this term begins with our ‘Living Things and Habitats’ topic, which will be closely linked with our learning about South America and the Rainforest. We will work collaboratively in this unit of learning to explore various animal groups and life cycles before presenting our findings. Our collaborative work will continue as we move onto our ‘Properties and Changes of Material’ topic as we work together to investigate materials to find out what materials dissolve to form a solution and which ones are insoluble (cannot dissolve). We will build on previous learning, using our knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to explore how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating as well as learning about reversible and irreversible changes of state.
PE is all about collaboration, teamwork and fairplay. These skills will be established through our sporting activities and then applied to all other aspects of learning. In the Autumn term, this will be taught through a variety of striking and fielding activities. Year 5 will also have the opportunity to work with ‘Joy of Movement’ coaches to learn about the benefits of exercise and nutrition.
Musically, in the first term, we will explore the genre of Rock. We will be looking at major turning points and influences with our main focus song ‘ Livin on a Prayer’. We will also explore the different beats and key notes within the music, extend our pitch skills and learn to sing more complex songs, creating a Year 5 band. All of this exciting material will come from our music support platform Charanga.
Computing in the Autumn term sees Year 5 deepen their understanding of computing systems and networks. We will look at what the internet is and how it aids different forms of communication. We will then incorporate our publishing skills to work collaboratively on a project using only online tools and methods of communication. We will practise adding pictures and graphs to pages and using shortcut keys to aid speed. Through our online safety sessions, we will be investigating the online world vs the real world and what the term ‘cyberbullying’ means. We will discuss what we can do in different situations to stay safe and happy in the online world.
During our art sessions, we will explore the Mexican surrealist artist Frida Kahlo. We will use her style and apply this to our own self portraits. Not only will we look at proportions, tones and textures we will add in the background in ‘Kahlo’ style using bold representations of our lives.
Through our RE sessions in the first half term, we will be looking at the concept of ‘faith’ and how this is communicated to Christians through the Bible. The second half of the term we will be revisiting the Christian story of the birth of Jesus, focusing on the concept of ‘prophecy’ and how this was fulfilled with the gifts of the Maji.
We will have the introduction lesson to our Diversity and Equality curriculum (taking a look at the protected characteristics in the Equality Act) use one of our Diversity and Equality curriculum texts, ‘Where the Poppies Grow’ by Hillary Robinson and Martin Impey to learn about and from our past. We will explore why people fight in wars and reflect on why we remember those who died in the First and Second World War.
PDL and RSE in the first half of this term will focus on family and relationships. We will consider what it means to be a friend and discuss the importance of self respect – respecting ourselves as well as others is vital for setting boundaries and maintaining healthy relationships. We will explore terms such as bullying, stereotyping and discrimination so that we can focus on behaving well towards others. This learning will be complemented by our Diversity and Equality curriculum which explores the protected characteristics of the Equality Act in our diverse society. Our first text in this curriculum, ‘The Cow Who Climbed a Tree’ by Gemma Merino, focussing on the following outcomes: to know that I can overcome challenges and that I sometimes need to be assertive; to understand the importance of self-respect and how this links to my own happiness and to understand that most friendships have ups and downs, and that these can often be worked through so that the friendship is repaired or even strengthened, and that resorting to violence is never right. In the second half of the term we will focus on our health and wellbeing and how we can look after this.
Summer Term 2022
We cannot believe that we are in the summer term already! The Year 5 team is excited to welcome children back for another fun filled term.
In Humanities this term, we will be learning about the Ancient Greeks, exploring Ancient Greek life and how history has affected life today: education, architecture and sports. Our Literacy will be closely linked with this topic as we will be exploring myths and legends and writing and performing playscripts. Through art, we will find out about the Gorgon Medusa, and use our clay modelling skills to create sculptures of this mythological creature. We will also learn how to draw perspective drawings, through exploring Greek Architecture.
Other units of Literacy will see us writing newspaper articles about the Olympic Games, from the perspective of an Ancient Greek.
Mathematics will conclude our Multiplication and Division topic, before moving on to Geometry (Properties of Shape, Positions and Direction) and Measurement (Converting units/volume). In the second half of the summer term we will consolidate our Year 5 mathematical learning and practise key skills.
We will be consolidating our musical learning over the summer term, learning will be focused around revisiting songs and musical activities, a context for the History of Music and the beginnings of the Language of Music.
Using Crumbles and Scratch, children will be building upon their programming skills with their computing lessons.
During the first part of the summer term, through Science and PDL and RSE, we will be learning about animals, including humans. Children will investigate the differences in the life cycles of mammals, amphibians, insects and birds as well as the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals. From this we will move on to learning about puberty and how the body changes during this time. Children will also be learning menstruation and emotional changes that come with puberty. A letter will be sent home with further details about these lessons.
Personal Development Learning and Relationships and Sex Education (PDL and RSE) this term, sees us building on our current understanding of diversity and acceptance. Discussion will be prompted and aided by using texts such as “And Tango Makes Three’ and ‘Princess Boy’.
In science, in the second half of the term, we will be investigating forces, which will include an exciting visit to Paulton’s Park where we can put this learning into a real life context. Linking with our gSTEM learning and encouraging those Engineering Habits Of Mind (EHoM), children will have the opportunity to design their own roller coaster and explore scale models.
Through our RE sessions we will learn about The Eucharist (a Christian Celebration), which is also called the Holy Communion, Mass, the Lord’s Supper or the Divine Liturgy, is a sacrament accepted by almost all Christians. We will then develop our understanding of Wesak (Enlightenment). Vesak is one of the most important Buddhist festivals. It is also known as Wesak or Buddha Day. It is a celebration of Buddha’s birthday and, for some Buddhists, marks his enlightenment (when he discovered life’s meaning).
PE this term will focus on Striking and Fielding, before moving onto Athletics in the second half of the term, where we will have a go at a range of different sports.