Summer 1

Happy Easter! I hope you all had a very restful, happy and holy Easter and enjoyed the 2 week Easter holiday. Welcome back to school! There isn’t long now left of Year 5 so I hope you are all feeling well-rested and raring to go for another busy term in Year 5 before you embark on your final year in primary school.

Keep checking this page for regular updates throughout summer term 1!

RE

Our topic this half term is Life in the Risen Lord where we explore what the resurrection of Jesus Christ means to us and how it informs our lives. We continue to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus during Easter week and we have been reflecting on our own celebrations during Easter weekend. Many of us went to Mass on Easter Sunday where we renewed our baptismal promises. Many of us enjoyed an Easter egg hunt or time with family, friends and loved ones. We enjoyed talking about how we celebrated the Easter weekend.

Our first lesson of the half term gave children the opportunity to make connections to their own experiences, their existing knowledge and understanding and perhaps any previous learning around Easter and Jesus’ resurrection. The class enjoyed an extensive discussion and then had chance to write down their own thoughts, feelings and knowledge in a spider map. We then explored the story in the Bible where Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene after she discovers the empty tomb. If you want to explore this part of the Bible, there is a useful, child friendly video below that explores when Jesus appears to Mary.

Other Faiths: Judaism

Other Place of Worship Visit: United Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, Shadwell

As part of our learning about other faiths, Year 5 developed their knowledge and understanding of Judaism further by visiting a Jewish place of worship: a synagogue. The children learnt so much from this visit, including Jewish traditions, behaviours and actions linked to their faith, Jewish religious festivals and the significance of stained glass windows in synagogues. There was a symbol, which is a very special symbol of Judaism, that was featured all around the synagogue. This symbol is called the ‘Star of David’ and comes from the story of David and Goliath, where David fought off Goliath. The star was on David’s shield when he fought Goliath.

We learnt about the traditions of the synagogue, including when Jewish people pray, how they pray and the different areas in the main synagogue that are used during the service. In a synagogue, they have lecterns like we do in our church where the Rabbi (a Jewish teacher of religion) will speak to and lead prayer with the congregation. We also learnt that Jewish people celebrate Shabbat every single Friday, from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. On Saturday, Jewish people celebrate the Sabbath day, like we do on a Sunday.

We then learnt more about the Torah (Hebrew Bible) and how sacred and valuable this is in Judaism – so much so that we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the Torah scroll when it was open. We also learnt about why the Torah is dressed, and that this is because when Moses received the Ten Commandments, his older brother Aaron was instructed to protect the scripture and look after the law. He wore a special robe and other special items, including bells, to show that he had a  special job and so that people would hear him wherever he walked. The Torah is dressed like this too.

Collective Worship

Easter/The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

During collective worship this week, we have been rejoicing in the good news and we have been reflecting on the important of the Jesus’ resurrection.

We reflected on the Passover and the Last Supper that Jesus held with his disciples before he was crucified by Pontius Pilot and we have been thinking about the Stations of the Cross during Holy Week, which was during the Easter holidays. We reflected on the Easter weekend and the events that took place on Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday and enjoyed a special collective worship together. We will always include these special liturgies from the Mark 10 Mission so if you want to join together with this at home with your families, you can.

English

We have started a brand new class text this half term and this is one of my favourite books to read with Year 5! Our new class text is called ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’  by Onjali Q Rauf. We started our English topic this half term by exploring the front cover and predicting what we think the book is going to be about. I tried my hardest not to give anything away, even by not telling the children what our new topic was going to be – because this would have been a huge give away. We then enjoyed reading Chapter 1 together. Year 5 sat back and just enjoyed listening to the story being read to them for pleasure. They then read the chapter back to themselves to explore the vocabulary and the information given to them so far. They then had a set of inference questions to answer which allowed them to delve further into the chapter, exploring their understanding, their inference skills and using the text to show what they knew about the characters introduced so far. 

Year 5 have really enjoyed our story time each day reading this book together and we have now found out that the boy at the back of the class in fact a boy called Ahmet, a refugee from Syria. The story is narrated by a child in the class who we now know is a girl called Alexa.

As part of our English learning journey, Year 5 enjoyed a Burn2Learn practical activity where they had to sort a range of sentences into groups: simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentences. They worked collaboratively, identifying features of each sentence type so they could group them.

This half term, linked to our class text, Year 5 have stepped into role as Ahmet to write an informal letter to a family member back at home in Syria to tell them all about joining a new school. The children have to use their new learning of relative clauses whilst ensuring varied sentence structures to really show off their writing skills!

We moved onto persuasion as a text type and the children really got stuck in! Our first task was planning our own coronation party and then writing a formal invitation to persuade someone to attend this party. This linked to our celebrations in school around King Charles III’s Coronation where we learnt about what events take place to celebrate this around the country, and how the King himself might celebrate. The children had to consider the venue, the transport, the guest list, the menu….and so much more, and then use a range of persuasive writing features to persuade someone to attend their coronation party. We enjoyed writing these invitations during our Coronation party day to celebrate this moment in History!

To be successful in this, we studied the features of persuasive writing and developed a checklist that became handy for all pieces of persuasive writing. 

We then moved on to linking our persuasive writing to our geography learning where we used our knowledge of human and physical geography, to persuade someone as to why they should visit Wetherby! We enjoyed talking about the features of persuasion further to really enhance our writing…two being alliteration and exaggeration. Watch the M&S advert below to see these in action in a persuasive M&S television advert.

Now, Year 5 are writing in role as Mrs Khan or Josie (two other characters from the text) in a diary entry. To begin this learning journey, Year 5 enjoyed a hot seating activity to delve further into how the characters are feeling and what they might be thinking. They then began to plan their diary entries, drawing upon previous learning and experiences of writing diary entries in Year 5. 

Maths

In Maths this half term, we will continue our work on fractions. We will further embed the fluency of finding fractions of amounts and will then move on to using decimals, fractions and percentages with ease—understanding the term ‘percent’ (%) and writing percentages as fractions and decimals. Year 5 will also move on to properties of shape and will explore the different types of angles, including how to use a protractor to draw and measure angles. We will also learn about reflection and translation. During our maths lessons, we will use Burn2Learn and physical activities to keep our learning bubbling and to keep the children active in Maths. To help your child at home, please continue to work on times tables up to 12×12 (including division facts). Children can also begin to work on mentally recalling equivalent fractions, percentages and decimals e.g. 1/10 = 10% = 0.1.

A huge focus this half term has been around properties of shapes, specifically: angles! We have revised the types of angles, and their properties, using this to estimate the sizes of angles. We have then moved on to using a protractor to measure and draw given angles – a very important skill to learn in Year 5! Take a look at the fun video we watched to help us remember the different types of angles.

Here are some useful top tips to help us use a protractor to measure and draw given angles accurately…

Science: Forces & Motion

We have moved on from our fantastic Living Things topic to Forces and Magnets. We will explore magnets and work on our understanding of each magnet having two poles. We will use this knowledge to make predictions about the magnets and whether they will attract or repel each other. We will work really hard to use the key scientific vocabulary for this topic. We will explore gravity and understand that gravity is the force that pulls objects towards the Earth. We will then  explore other forces that slow objects down such as water resistance and air resistance. Throughout this Science topic, there will be many opportunities to use investigative skills such as setting up fair tests, using results to make future predictions and evaluating investigations and using scientific models to explain science concepts.  Please continue to support your child at home. BBC Bitesize is always a good place to start for Science.

Throughout our science learning journey so far, Year 5 have been actively engaged in conducted practical investigations and developing their understanding of variables (independent and dependent) and fair testing. During the first week, we focused on the effects of weight on gravity. Children explored how objects of different weights fall to the ground and observed how gravity influenced the speed at which they fell. By varying the weights and measuring the time taken for objects to fall, they discovered the relationship between weight and gravity.

The following week, Year 5 delved into the concept of air resistance and its relationship with the surface area of a parachute. They conducted a practical investigation where they designed and tested different parachute designs. By changing the surface area of the parachutes and observing their descents, the children explored how air resistance affected the speed of the descent and the landing of the parachutes. They discovered that larger surface areas created more air resistance, leading to slower descents and gentler landings.

In another exciting week of our science learning journey, Year 5 dived into the world of friction. The children embarked on another practical experiment which was designed and conducted by themselves. Many of the children focused on how friction affected the motion of an object across different surfaces such as carpet and wood. By measuring the relationship between distances travelled and different types of surfaces, the children concluded that rougher surfaces created more friction and the motion of the car was a lot slower compared to smooth surfaces like wood.

These practical activities allowed children to apply their developing knowledge of forces to conduct fair tests and engage in classroom discussions to analyse and draw conclusions based on their findings.

Art & Design

This half term, we have a very exciting Art project! We will take inspiration from the artist Carolee Clark who is known for her vibrant colours, patterns and lines used in her artwork. The children will learn all about abstract art and that it does not attempt to represent a picture accurately but that colours, shapes and textures are used to achieve a desired effect that is not always realistic. They will learn that Carolee’s art uses real shapes and objects but uses abstract use of colour and pattern. Year 5 will research the artist, learn about the use of colour and pattern, exploring the use of this in their own art and their final piece will hopefully look to be inspired by our artist, Carolee Clark!

Take a look at some of Carolee Clark’s artwork below…

As part of our learning journey this half term in Art, we have spent time researching our artist of study, Carolee Clark, and learning about what inspires her with her artwork, the mediums she uses for her artwork and other interesting facts about her. Year 5 have then explored different brush sizes in order to consider how they might approach a piece of artwork in a similar style. The children had different templates where they had to discuss which brush size they would use and why. Often, this depended on the thickness of the brush, the area they were painting, and how intricate the painting needed to be. This will help Year 5 moving forward in our art learning journey to be able to choose the right size paint brush for the area they are painting.

Year 5 have developed their knowledge and understanding of the difference between tints, shades and tones to enable them to make a wider range of colours in their colour palette. The children applied their existing knowledge of primary and secondary colours to mix colours they wanted in their colour palette, and then applied their new knowledge of tints, shades and tones to develop this further. Take a look at some of the colour palettes as they were being developed.

When studying Clark’s artwork, Year 5 picked up on the abstract patterns that she creates on realistic objects, such as fruits, animals etc. Year 5 have therefore spent time developing their own abstract patterns before applying these on templates to create artwork inspired by Clark. 

Year 5 applied their knowledge of colour palettes to decide on their own colour palette and then create their own abstract artwork piece, using a template first, to develop their confidence with this. The end point of our art learning journey this half term will be Year 5 creating their own artwork inspired by Clark’s abstract pieces. 

Computing

This half term in Computing, we will continue with a focus on coding. The focus will move on to efficient coding with a brand new feature to use called Code4Kids. Year 5 will have the opportunity to develop their understanding of coding, of java scripts, HTMLs and other key vocabulary that is needed in the coding world. We will explore jobs that need coding, such as YouTubers, gamers and much more. The children will design their own website and will then develop their knowledge and understanding of IF:THEN movements. A big hit this year has been our online sticky knowledge game called ‘Kahoot’! The children love this! We will continue to use this to keep our computing knowledge bubbling. Online safety is explicitly taught and embedded in all lessons.

French

This half term, Year 5 will keep all of their key French vocabulary bubbling that they have already learnt, such as numbers to 100, vocabulary for clothes and food descriptions. We will move on to describing items in the home this half term. Year 5 will use a dictionary to translate words from English to French and vice versa and they will use these skills to develop new vocabulary linked to our new theme. Year 5 will use their existing knowledge and understanding of other topics in French to link to our new topic and they will write sentences about objects you might find in the home, and where in the home you’d find them. 

Geography

Earth Day

Building on our Live Simply mission, Adrian from Boston Spa Green Group visited the whole school as we celebrated Earth Day to talk in more depth about the climate emergency. This gave us the chance to celebrate all the wonderful things we already do as a school to help the world to be a better place.

Settlers and Invaders: A local study

This half term’s topic is geography focused but with a link to our new history study of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, who invaded and settled in Britain. We will learn what a settlement is, and what settlers need in order to settle. We will also explore the geography of Britain and learn we can know which places were settlements of previous time periods. Year 5 will further develop their map and atlas skills in order to analyse the human and physical features of Wetherby and Leeds, in particular, land use and settlement features. Year 5 will conduct a local study to explore transport in both areas and they will be able to conclude why transport links are important for a successful settlement. We will then link our geography learning to the historic period of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and our new topic “Let the Battle Commence” will commence after May half term and oh, it’s an exciting one!

Take a look at our geographical enquiry question this half term… We will work towards being able to confidently answer this geographical enquiry question by drawing upon prior learning whilst building on new knowledge that we have learnt throughout the half term.

Today in Geography, Year 5 have explored key aspects of human geography in relation to types of settlements. For this activity, the children had to work collaboratively to discuss what settlers need, what they would like to have and things that they would not need. We then made links to the present day to see how needs have changed over time. Year 5 used this understanding to then evaluate different types of settlements based on their physical and human geographical features.

As part of our geography learning journey, Year 5 used visited websites such as Google Maps and Google Earth and used their map skills to identify and locate human and physical features of both Wetherby and Leeds City Centre. The children then compared the two locations to see how human and physical features are different between both locations and linked this to different types of land use.

History

King Charles III’s Coronation

Year 5 enjoyed celebrating the historic moment of King Charles III’s coronation. We celebrated as a school on Friday 5th May. We spent time during this week in the build up learning about a royal coronation, what this means and how long this has been part of monarch traditions. We learnt about important features of a coronation ceremony, as well as celebrations that would take place now, in the 21st Century (2023). 

Take a look at the video below if you’d like to learn more about the traditions of a monarch’s coronation…

Music

This half term, we will also begin to learn about the orchestra, reflecting on our very enjoyable trip to the Carriageworks Theatre for a piano concert with a world renowned pianist! Year 5 will continue their music lessons using Dhol drums this half term and will develop their confidence and skills in playing the Dhol drum. They will continue to play from memory with confidence, perform solos or as part of an ensemble, hold a part within a round and choose from a wide range of musical vocabulary to accurately describe and appraise music. Year 5 will also develop and create their own rhythms and engage in call and response activities.

PSHE

As always, PSHE is responsive to the needs of the children so formal PSHE lessons may change depending on this. This half term, Year 5 will learn about the associated risks with smoking, drugs and alcohol and will develop their understanding of the effect that these substances can have on the body. We will explore strategies to resist pressure from others and will explore good and healthy choices about substances which will have a positive impact on their health. Behind this topic is the idea that God created out bodies so we should take care of them and be careful about what we consume. We will continue to support the children as and when scenarios and concerns arise. We use Philosophy4Children (P4C) which encourages children to develop their own voice and opinions and encourages their confidence of speaking in large groups.

PE

Year 5 have enjoyed a Yoga taster session this half term. Year 5 learnt that yoga is a mind and body practice that can build strength and flexibility, and allows you to only focus on the present. The children enjoyed a range of movements and controlled breathing to help them to feel a state of calm and relaxation. We also talked about famous athletes/footballers who enjoy yoga to support them in their own sporting talent. Next half term, Year 5 and Year 6 pupils have the opportunity to attend a Yoga and Mindful Crafting club every Thursday to develop this mind and body practice even further.