Summer Learning Journey
After a well-deserved Easter break, the children have returned to school happy, healthy and well-rested. Here is a quick preview of Year 5 learning over the next five weeks!
Writing:
The children are currently working on how to punctuate speech correctly. This will lead nicely into writing our own short narratives with some character conversation. So far, we’ve look at punctuating speech with the reporting clause at the beginning, and at the end, of a sentence. Here’s some examples below:
“I really wish one of these paper planes would work properly,” Jack muttered.
Jack muttered, “I really wish one of these paper planes would work properly.”
Reading:
We’ve been reading a novel called The Explorer by Katherine Rundell – a story of four children lost in the Amazon Rainforest following a plane crash. So far, we’ve met Fred, Con, Lila and Max. We’ve realised that these characters (and the pilot) were the only ones on the six seater plane as it went down. In our reading lessons, we’ve been inferring more about our characters through the way they speak to each other and their actions. Fred is an older child who is inquisitive and looks after others. Con is witty and can come across as rude with her sarcastic tone. Lila is quiet and cares for her little brother, Max. Max is very young and doesn’t communicate much, but he is afraid of the situation they are in.
Maths:
We’ve started looking at calculating the volume of 3D shapes (cubes and cuboids). The volume is how much space a 3D shape occupies, in terms of it’s length, width and height. To calculate volume, we need to multiply:
length x width x height
Topic:
We are geographers this half term and we’ll be diving deeper into the Amazon Rainforest in South America. As we learn, we’ll look at similarities and differences of the Amazon compared to the UK.
Here are a few facts we’ve already learnt:
- Did you know the UK would fit inside Brazil approximately 35 times? (scale)
- There are 8 biomes that span across Earth.
- Tundra is the coldest biome
- A desert is hottest, driest biome.
- A tropical rainforest (like the Amazon) is the hottest, wettest biome.
- The UK falls within a temperate forest biome.
Science:
We are learning about chemistry this half term, looking at reversible and irreversible changes. So far, Year 5 have planned our experiment ready for next week; Which substances dissolve in water?
If our substance does dissolve, it is known as soluble and the outcome would be called a solution.
If our substance does not dissolve, it is known as insoluble and the outcome would be called a mixture.
Help at home:
Please talk with your child about our current learning.
- What are they particularly enjoying so far?
- Is there anything you can do at home together to support if they are struggling?
- How about an experiment of your own, or further reading about the Amazon Rainforest?
Philosophy Friday – Is it easier to be peaceful by yourself?
This half term our Christian Value is peace. We define peace as feeling calm and content.
In our Philosophy Friday sessions, we take the opportunity to think deeply about the world around us. Our reflection this week was about whether it is easier to feel peaceful by yourself.
Before we shared our reflections, I was very confident that I found it easier to be peaceful by myself but following much debate I was persuaded to think differently.
“When I feel angry I find it easier to find peace by myself but when I feel upset I prefer to be with a friend.” Bea
“Sometimes when I am playing out and I want to find peace I sit by a tree and watch the bees pollinate.” Jack
“If you feel peaceful you can make other people feel peaceful too.” Poppy
“On the one hand it can be easier to find peace when there is no-one to bother you but on the other hand you feel protected when you are together.” Arthur
Help at home: Discuss how you find peace by yourself and as a family.
A New Geography Adventure
Year 2 have launched into our exciting new topic: Geography Explorers. So far, we’ve been discovering the 7 continents and 5 oceans of the world. The children worked brilliantly together using atlases to label their own world maps, just like real explorers!
We also learned about globes and how they help us see the world as it really is.
How you can help at home:
- Look at a world map or globe together and try to spot the continents
- Ask your child to name as many oceans as they can remember
- Use an atlas or online map to find countries or places of interest
Maths – Ten and a bit
This week in maths, we’ve been exploring numbers between 10 and 20. We’ve been learning about the ten and a bit structure and thinking carefully about what each digit means.
We now know that in a number like 14 the 1 means 1 ten and the 4 tells us how many ones there are. This has helped us understand how numbers are built.
In our lessons we have:
- used tens frames to see that numbers between 10 and 20 are made of 1 full ten and some extra ones
- built numbers using objects and counted them carefully
- recorded what we found using part part whole diagrams
- written simple equations to match what we can see
We’re getting much more confident at explaining our thinking and spotting how numbers are made.
Help at home by asking your child to build numbers between 10 and 20 using small objects like toys or pasta. Encourage them to make a group of 10 first and then add the extra ones. Ask them questions like “How many tens can you see” and “How many ones are there” to help build understanding.
Topic and Science Learning
Welcome back, Year 3! We hope you all had a lovely and restful Easter break.
We have jumped straight back into our learning and are excited to begin some fantastic new topics this term.
In Topic (Geography), we are learning about explorers. Our main case studies are York and Venice, where we will be exploring their climates and thinking about how tourism affects these places. We will also be developing our geography skills, particularly our map-reading skills, to help us understand where these places are and what they are like.
In Science, we have become biologists! We are learning all about plants, including their life cycles and the changes they go through as they grow.
Help at home:
You can support your child by reviewing our key vocabulary (see below).
- Can your child use the word in a sentence?
- Can they explain what the word means?
- Can they tell you anything they already know about it?
We are looking forward to a busy and exciting term ahead!
Life on Earth
Wheels, wings and other things
Summer 1
This half term will be learning about bugs and will be going on lots of bug hunts. We will be learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and will hopefully set some free! We will be using some hand drills to build a bug hotel for our outdoor area.
We are also hoping to develop our outdoor space a bit more so if anyone has any compost, plant pots, tree stumps or plants we would would really appreciate them.
Reminders and Notices
Forest School- It is our turn to go to Forest School after the holidays. Please send your child to school in their PE kits on Friday with waterproofs and wellies in a labelled plastic bag.
Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs
We ended the spring term with the focus book Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs! by Paula Metcalf.
This was a very funny book, that definitely made us chuckle! We were also very lucky to receive a visit from the Easter Bunny who kindly left us all a tasty Easter egg in forest school! Thank you so much Easter Bunny and the PTA helpers!
Our final week in school was full of Easter fun, we made cube carrots in the maths area, Easter bonnets in the workshop area and used our funky fingers to cut out and make Easter chicks.
Have a happy and healthy Easter break and we will see you on Monday 20th April.
Welcome back to the Summer Term!
Welcome back to the Summer Term! I trust you had a restful Easter break and are looking forward to all of the excitement of the Summer Term.
Reading
I hope you enjoyed sharing the final chapter of The Wolf Wilder. It was quite an emotional rollercoaster with some very nerve-racking points but hopefully the children enjoyed seeing that friendship, courage and being true to yourself can lead to great achievement and happiness.
We will be voting for our next class novel this week. The current shortlist is:
- A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll (recommended by Aria)
- The Last Bear by Hannah Gold (recommended by Arthur)
- The Wild Robot by Peter Brown (recommended by Jack)
There may be some late additions if anyone has found any other great books this holiday – I will let you know the outcome!
Following feedback, I will continue to send a chapter of our class novel home for you to share together – any further feedback on whether this is something you enjoy (or not) would be very welcome.
Writing
The first skill we will be working on this half term will be how to write direct speech.
The children will learn the rules needed to write direct speech:
When you are reading together, it would be great if you could occasionally pause and discuss the direct speech. Has it followed all of the rules? Below is an example from the first page of A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll, note how this example doesn’t have a reporting clause – you could ask your child why they think the writer has not included a reporting clause for this direct speech.
Handwriting
I am really proud of how hard the children are working in class to ensure that their handwriting is joined and legible. If your child does any handwriting practice at home, please do encourage them to bring it in to show me so we can celebrate (and reward!) this effort.
Spellings
| Test Date | 27th April | 5th May | 11th May | 18th May |
| position
mention possession pressure special should delicious machine mission brochure |
chemistry
scheme architect chaos mechanic character technology choir echo school |
misinterpret
reconsider readdress misguided reposition misremember regroup misunderstood misheard reappeared |
submarine
substitute submerge automatic autobiography television telephone teleport telescope telepathic |
Maths
We will be completing our unit on multiplication and division this half term including learning what happens to numbers when you multiply or divide them by 10 or 100. If your child would like some fun extra practice at home, they could play this game: Multiply by 10 and 100 game
In the next couple of weeks, we will have looked at all of the times tables facts up to 12 x 12. If your child has some facts that they are not yet secure with (this will have been communicated with their Learning Updates at the end of last term) it would be great if you could continue to practise these. As always, please do let me know about any consistent effort from your child or increases in confidence in recalling times tables facts so that we can celebrate and reward this in school. Just a quick reminder that the national Times Tables Check will be held during the first two weeks of June.
Science
This half term we will revisit our enquiry to find out how the animals in Forest School change over the year. We will then move on to learn about the difference between urban and rural habitats and how humans can impact habitats.
When I have taught this unit of work previously, lots of children have wanted to know more and to know how they can help. If your child is feeling inspired, this would be a good place to learn more: The Regenerators (BBC)
Geography – Explorers
This half term we will begin by thinking about the concept of location and scale. We will learn about imaginary lines used to split the world into parts. We will then recap the difference between a city, a country and a continent.
We will then think about the concepts of place and interdependence. Over a series of lessons, we will use York and Venice as case studies to think about the impact of tourism and the challenges that water can bring.
Call for help to bring our curriculum to life: If you have visited York or Venice as a tourist and would be happy to host a short question and answer session with the class, I would love to hear from you!
PE
There will no swimming in the first week of term but we can’t wait to get back to the pool on Tuesday 28th April! Please send children in their PE kit on Tuesday 21st April as we will do an extra PE lesson in school.
Our in school PE lessons this half term are through the sport of Basketball. Over the half-term we will be learning to pass and catch accurately (using ‘throw and point’ and ‘ready position’ that we have used in other sports), to dribble, shoot and intercept the ball.
Living and Learning
This half term we will think about how we keep ourselves physically healthy and fit and how we keep ourselves safe. See the school calendar and weekly homework for further details.
Feelings First
The feelings we will think about this half term are:
- relieved
- horrified
- concerned
- overloaded
- furious
We will also be thinking about how our capacity to function well (represented by the green part of the battery) can be impacted by lots of things such as feeling tired or hungry or by other things that are happening in our lives. This can explain why something might not have an impact on how we feel one day, but could have a significant impact on another day.
As always, please do catch me on the door at pick up, send me an email or give me a call if you have any questions or I can be of help at all.