Welcome to Year 5's learning page!

Term 5 - London

Welcome to London, everyone! This term, we will be exploring the magnificent city of London. We will be studying the marvellous monuments and landmarks, reading the super London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd and we'll even be going there ourselves! We can't wait! 

To see this term's newsletter (with key dates, PE days, homework project ideas etc), click here.

To see an overview of the term's learning, click here.

Term 4

Hidden Worlds

This term, we studied mysterious hidden worlds! To begin with, we explored the magnificent picture book Journey. It was a really brilliant way for us to make predictions and practise our inference work - as we had to 'read' the story completely through its illustrations. We studied the structure of the story in detail too which enabled us to write our own words to accompany different parts of the adventure. Then, we wrote our own creative stories inspired by the elements of Journey that made Aaron Becker's book so exciting for us to read.

We also completed a unit on persuasive writing. We learnt all about the issues surrounding animals in captivity and focused on orcas for our class discussions. Then, we learnt about the sad story of Morgan, an orca currently in captivity in a Spanish waterpark. We then used a variety of persuasive writing techniques to compose letters demanding that she be set free - and sent some of them all the way to Tenerife!

We were lucky enough to visit the Big Pit National Coal Museum, where we ventured 300 feet underground to see what life was like for the thousands of men who worked at the coal face. We also got to visit the King Coal Mining Galleries, which was an exciting audio-visual experience telling the story of how the Welsh mining industry evolved.

Term 3

Victorian Bristol

This term we will be focusing on History in our Victorian Bristol topic. We're looking forward to finding out what life was like for children and comparing it to other periods we've learnt about. We will be welcoming The History Squad into school to bring our learning to life as well as reading Berlie Doherty's story 'Street Child'. In Art we will be looking at a variety of Victorian artists and themes throughout this era. 

In maths we will be focusing on fractions, decimals and percentages. The children will begin by learning the links between fractions, decimals and percentages and will then practise converting between them.

In Science our topic is Growing Up.  We will learn how to represent data using different types of graphs and charts. As part of this we will investigate the effect of exercise on heart rate, using pulse meters. 

Click here to see our overview of the term's learning. Click here to see this term's newsletter.

Term 2

Intrepid Adventures

The children have had a fantastic second term learning all about Intrepid Adventures.

In English, they have been writing biographies about the great Laura Dekker and the inspiring Matthew Henson. They have also written their very own amazing adventures stories based on the book 'The Great Explorer'. We were really impressed by the descriptive language and creativity the children had when coming up with their own tales. After our marvelous trip to Aerospace Bristol, we wrote instructions on how to create our very own periscope, including the science behind how they work. 

In Maths, we have been focusing on multiplication and division. The children have learnt formal, written methods to help them quickly solve number problems. We have also been looking at the properties of shape and how to classify them, in addition to measuring and calculating angles. 

In Science, we have been exploring forces and completed our own investigation about friction, making sure it was a fair test. In geography, we have been learning how to read maps with 6-figure grid references and learning how to read contours on a map too. We have been lucky to have Mrs Begen teach some of our Art lessons. We have been focusing on Music in Art and looked at some great abstract classics, such as Picasso and Kandinsky.

At the beginning of term, we engaged in amazing workshops run by Unique Voice as part of Anti-Bullying Week.

Each class performed amazingly well in the Christmas Concert, sharing their songs with over 500 other children in the Pavilion Hall.

Jaguar and Sloth enjoyed their time at swimming and have improved lots over the last terms. Next term, it will be Armadillo Class' turn to go swimming (11th January). They will be going with Sun Bear Class (Year 6) each Wednesday.