Year 5 Maple Class

Welcome to Summer 1

We hope you have all had a lovely Easter break.

VIPERS

In VIPERS this half term, we are reading The Time Travelling Cat & The Great Victorian Stink by Julia Jarman.

The Time Travelling Cat & The Great Victorian Stink reads: Topher’s amazing cat, Ka, has TIME-TRAVELLED again and left him a mysterious clue. Following his nose, Topher finds himself in VICTORIAN LONDON where the Thames is clothed with stinking sewage! There he discovers a MURDEROUS PLOT. Determined to foil this foul plan. Topher must first escape from an arch-criminal and his den of thieves…

English

The theme of our fiction unit this half term is ‘flashbacks’. The children will analyse a variety of texts and have the opportunity to write about one of their own memories before writing a flashback narrative set in Victorian times.

Following this, we will be looking at report writing, and then limericks based on ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Maths

We start the first half of the Summer term with our unit on ‘Shape’. In Year 5, we focus on recognising, estimating and measuring turn in degrees using a protractor. The children will also look at measuring and calculating angles on a straight line, angles in a full turn and angles inside polygons as well as learning the names and properties of regular and irregular polygons and 3-D shapes. After this, we will look at co-ordinates including: translation, symmetry and reflection.

Science

This half term, we begin our new science topic of Living things and their habitats. Over the course of the next 6 weeks, we will be covering who Jane Goodall is, the life cycles of mammals, insects, birds and amphibians and what metamorphosis is.

History

This half term, we continue our study of British history with a look at the Victorians.  Our umbrella question is, ‘The Victorians: A Dark Age or a Golden Era? Over the course of 5 key questions, the children will learn about Queen Victoria and the British Empire, the influence the Victorians have had on our lives, the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution and  what life was like for children in a Victorian school. This will incorporate local history with a look at the old St Blazey and Lodge Hill Victorian schools, which were closed  and then amalgamated to create Biscovey Academy.

DT

This half term, the children will be designing and making a controllable, moveable vehicle.  They will be required to measure, saw and construct a wooden frame chassis, before attaching an axle and wheels. They will then use their knowledge of electrical circuits to attach a motor using a series of pulleys and elastic bands.

PE 

Over the course of the next 6 weeks, we will be taking part in some country dancing in preparation for our May Day Fayre. As well as this, we will be taking part in some Tennis sessions in order to work on our hand-eye co-ordination and for the children to learn about and understand specific tennis terms.

PSHE

Our PSHE topic focuses on 'Being my best' where we will be delving into topics such as mental and physical health, how to be independent and first aid awareness.

MUSIC

This half term, we are excited to welcome Mrs Brock into school to run weekly Jumble Jams sessions. 

COMPUTING

In computing, we will be exploring the uses of Micro:bits and how versatile they are. We will be running and sending codes between Micro:bits and using a range of conditions to make programmes more complex.