Summer 2 2022

Our last half term in Year 5!! There is so much planned this half term, including 2 school trips which are super exciting!! This half term, we start our new topic called Let the Battle Commence, where we will learn all about the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons! We have a couple of trips this half term, including the Junior Warrior Mud Run and our Taster Day at St John Fishers in Harrogate. It is an exciting half term jam packed with activities before we embark on your final year at primary school together!

Planet Protectors

Our very proud Planet Protectors attended a wonderful event, on Tuesday 27th June, at Leeds Trinity University. They came back with a goody bag that included a water bottle with ‘climate ambassador’ on the front… Our planet protectors in Y5 have been working hard in class to ensure that we are recycling used and run out stationery. More information about this exciting trip to come soon….

RE & Collective Worship

In Collective Worship, we enjoy making use of the Mark 10 Mission liturgies that are shared weekly. Take a look at a couple we have enjoyed this half term. We have explored the celebration of The Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi.

Other Faiths: Islam Assembly

As part of their learning about other major world religions, KS2 had an assembly and workshop delivered by Amina from Makkah mosque. In the KS2 assembly, the children learnt about Islam and thought about what a Muslim person looks like to challenge common stereotypes. We learnt that some Muslim women and men make the choice to wear head coverings, but that Muslims can have any colour of skin.

The Work of the Apostles

Pentecost

At the start of May half term, the church celebrated Pentecost. On Pentecost, we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem; this event marks the beginning of the Church. Pentecost is therefore often regarded as the birthday of the Church and reminds us how Jesus’s promise that God would send the Holy Spirit, was fulfilled. In school during our first week back, we have been thinking about Pentecost and the experience that the disciples had. We have learned more about this special day in the church and have prayed to God to thank Him for the Holy Spirit.

We have built in Burn2Learn into our RE lessons to help us to remember key facts about the Ascension and Pentecost. The children had to jump through the hoops as quickly as they could and then once they reached each other, they were given a quickfire lightning round question. If they answered it correctly, they kept jumping – the first person to get to the end of the hoops scored a point. We revised parables, miracles and Bible stories as well as key facts about the Ascenion and Pentecost!

Year 5 enjoyed working collaboratively to explore artwork portraying Pentecost. They asked questions, identified symbols from the artwork and considered how they portray this special celebration. Year 5 then wrote about which artwork was their favourite and why and began to consider why Pentecost had to happen. They showed a very clear understanding of the events that happened at Pentecost and we considered as a class why Pentecost had to happen, and what the world would be like if it hadn’t happened. Year 5 had extremely clear ideas that were well explained and thought out and could articulate these ideas well.

English

We have started our new class text “Beowulf” by Michael Morpurgo. Year 5 used the front cover, blurb and picture prompts to consider what the story was going to be about. They then enjoyed reading the first chapter, making their predictions. We also found a fantastic resource on BBC Teach to support our understanding of the storyline.

Year 5 developed their use of figurative language and ambitious language to write a character description to describe the monster, Grendel, from Beowulf. They all wrote wanted posters and WOW, what fantastic posters they are! The children really showcased all of their writing skills and showed their excellent use of vocabulary. We used a video stimulus as well as the extracts from Michael Morpurgo’s Beowulf to inspire us with this piece of writing.

Take a look at some of Year 5’s WANTED posters. These were such fantastic character descriptions, full of figurative language! Year 5 were so proud of their writing efforts and how they could showcase all of their writing skills they have developed across Year 5.

As part of our English learning journey, Year 5 enjoyed a role play activity to step into the characters and explore the story more. They are going to be writing to create atmosphere, suspense and tension so using role play really helped them to consider the moments they can build this in. Take a look at some of their freeze frames to capture the story: this included Beowulf defeating Grendel, Danes celebrating and Grendel’s mother, another monster, lurking in the darkness.

Reading

Our reading ambassadors continue to work hard on ensuring that our reading corner in our class is tidy and presentable ready for use each day, as well as encouraging a love of reading amongst their peers. Their most recent initiative has been a ‘reading recommendation bookmark of the week‘, where children write bookmarks to recommend books to others that are then placed inside the recommended book, and displayed on the shelf. The reading ambassadors then choose the best bookmark of the week – bookmarks are chosen based on their honest review of the book and how much they persuade someone else to read it! We had our first winner last week!

Maths

In Maths this half term, we will revise multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 as well as our place value knowledge of decimal numbers. This will help us when we move on to converting between metric units of measurement. We will also recap measuring and calculating perimeter and area of compound shapes as this is an area to develop from last half term. Finally, we will explore measurement in more depth and will use approximate equivalences to convert between metric and common imperial units of measure, and we will also estimate volume and capacity. Throughout the half term, we will continue to keep all Y5 learning bubbling through our morning KIRF starters and weekly arithmetic quizzes. To help your child at home, please continue to revise multiplication and division facts up to 12×12, and also work on identifying equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages (mentally): e.g. 0.1 = 10% = 1/10, 0.01 = 1% = 1/100.

Year 5 have worked really hard to crack the skill of multiplying and dividing whole and decimal numbers by 10, 100 and 1000. They enjoyed learning the ‘jump song‘ to help them remember that the decimal point never moves and that the digits JUMP! and the direction the digits should move depending on whether you multiply or divide. We recapped the meaning of the word product – and revised what it means to multiply and divide numbers and what this does to the product. For help at home, take a look at this video tutorial which is a really useful how to guide for this maths skill!

Year 5 enjoyed a murder mystery themed maths lesson where we revised the use of coordinates. We recapped our top tips so that we know how to use coordinates: across the corridor and then up and down the stairs, crawl before we climb, a plane builds up speed before its ascent.. just some of the ways Year 5 remember the X axis comes first, followed by the Y axis. For this maths lesson, Year 5 enjoyed a physically active Burn2Learn activity. They had to locate the murder mystery WHO, WHERE, WHEN and WHY clues using the tricky location clues I’d given them – solve the maths questions and then use their final clue to submit their final accusation for the murder! This was such a fun and interactive way to revise the use of coordinates and all of Year 5 solved the case!

Science

L.O: To explore and investigate the effects of upthrust.

In our practical science lesson today, Year 5 explored and investigated the effects of upthrust on objects in the water. They learnt that upthrust is the force that pushes an object up, and works against gravity (the force that pulls things down). To start, Year 5 explored pushing a balloon into water – they found this difficult and had to answer why this was difficult – this was a prime example of the force upthrust in action.

Using a range of materials, Year 5 then had to create a boat that would float (therefore having buoyancy) meaning that the force of upthrust is either equal to, or greater than the force of gravity acting on the object. Year 5 explored this and had to problem solve. They found that plasticine and playdough was not buoyant on its own but that using tinfoil around the other materials worked.

Art & Design Technology

This half term, in Art, we will continue with our focus on Carolee Clark to complete our final pieces of artwork inspired by this artist. We will use vibrant colour and patterns and will evaluate our pieces to see how we can further improve. In DT, we will link to our science learning of forces and motions to evaluate products that use cams, levers and pulleys. We will consider how we can create our own products that use cams, levers or pulleys and will work to design these using everyday materials. Part of this process will involve evaluating our designs as we go—how efficient are the designs? How successful are the designs? Do they meet the purpose of design?

Computing

This half term in Computing, we will continue with a focus on coding to really embed our knew knowledge and skills and we will then move on to our new focus of using Excel to present data. We will learn key vocabulary linked to Excel such as cell, column, row, data, formula, table, and will use this new vocabulary to create tables, add data and formulate the data. The stimulus for this will be based on children’s interests, but we have some fun activities linked to sports where the children are invited to create their own league table, input match scores and calculate total scores. The children will learn that they can use Excel to input data and draw conclusions more easily. We will continue to embed our knowledge and understanding of online safety, in particular, how to protect our online identify through privacy settings and how to ensure privacy and security whilst online.

Excel Spreadsheets

Year 5 have started to develop their skills and knowledge of using Excel spreadsheets. They have learnt key terms on Excel such as cell, column and row. With the stimulus of a sports league table, the children created a table and had to create headings and work up to putting a border around their table. Year 5 are developing their confidence with Excel and soon work towards using formulas. 

History

Let the Battle Commence: Anglo-Saxons and Vikings

This half term, we will learn about the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings! Our historical enquiry questions that we will be able to answer by the end of this topic will be:

We will link back to our learning last half term where we developed our understanding of the terms invaders and settlers. We will also develop a chronological understanding of the events around this time period and will learn about the culture of this time period, comparing it to our lives now. We will learn about significant Anglo-Saxon kings and why the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings invaded Britain. Our focus throughout the half term will be battle tactics, including learning about the famous and very first Viking invasion on Lindisfarne. We will compare Viking battle tactics and weaponry to previous time periods studied and consider how Vikings could fight the way they did because of history!

Today in History, Year 5 developed their knowledge and understanding further of how the Anglo-Saxons follows on from the Roman Empire, and how the Viking age is concurrent with the Anglo-Saxons. In small, mixed groups, Year 5 had to order the events in chronological order first and then consider their timeline spacing. Some children chose to use a trundle metre wheel to have a metre to represent a century, and some other children used more precise measurements from a ruler/metre stick.

The next stage of our lesson involved using the events from the timeline to explore the main changes from a period of history. The main changes we concluded were:

• Roman invasion in Britain
• Romans leaving Britain
• Anglo-Saxons in Britain: 7 kingdoms
• Different kings in Britain
• Viking invasion and settlement
• Battle of Hastings 1066

We will develop our understanding of these events in more detail across the half term but it was a fantastic lesson to develop this sticky knowledge further. Year 5 developed this knowledge and understanding through role play, drama and freeze frames. We have many children step into the shoes of a King, or a Roman emperor, or even soldiers/warriors from different time periods.

MFL – French

This half term,  the focus in French lessons will be on revising Year 5 topics, keeping 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 develop our understanding further of classroom instructions and commands. 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 conversations that use these simple instructions/commands.

Music

This half term, 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. This is all now in build up to our end of year performance (a date for this will be communicated once we have liaised further with Avtar). Year 5 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 become performance ready and we can’t wait to see them play to a full audience!

PE

Sports for Schools Sponsored Athlete Event: Jenny Wallwork

On Tuesday 20th June, we held a sponsored athlete event where Jenny Wallwork, a World Champion badminton athlete, led a sponsored fitness circuit with all pupils followed by an inspirational assembly. The aim of the event has been to inspire our pupils to be more physically active, but just as importantly, encourage them to discover and pursue new interests and hobbies, and therefore a passion in life. The event connected the pupils to an extraordinary athlete role model and we are also hoping to use this opportunity to raise money to purchase new sporting equipment to improve physical activity in the school while also supporting both athletes and para-athletes, so that they can continue to inspire the next generation. The fitness circuit was physically challenging and the children, even if they felt tired, did not show it. They pushed through and completed all stations! All children were fantastic spectators, cheering on all the other children that were taking part in the circuit and when completing the circuit themselves, they showed real grit, determination and strength – whilst having a fantastic time too! Music was playing, children were cheering each other on – it was a wonderful atmosphere! During our whole school assembly, Jenny talked to us about her career and about the perseverance and resilience she had to have to be successful. She told the children that despite being a world champion, she had actually lost more games than she had won. What an inspiring afternoon for our children, many of which aspire to be athletes in the future! Take a look at the pictures below. All sponsorship monies are due in next Tuesday 27th June and we thank all children and their families for supporting school with this event. 

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 how everyone is special and created in God’s image and will reflect on the physical and emotional changes that have occurred in their life already, e.g. learning to crawl, talk, eat etc. They will read the book “Angel in the Water” by Regina Doman to reinforce the message that we are all created by God and in His image. Year 5 will then learn about the physical and emotional changes that will soon take place as they move to maturity and go through puberty. This will link to the Sacraments and how these coincide with the natural stages of our lives. They will learn about how to take care of themselves, the male and reproductive system and will also explore relationships (friendships, changing feelings, developing confidence and changes that can happen in life).

Everyone is special and is created in God’s image

Year 5 enjoyed the first lesson of this half term focus where they shared their baby pictures (we enjoyed guessing who was who)! The children reminisced over fond childhood memories from when they were very young, discussing their favourite story to read (we had suggestions like The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson books, The Hungry Caterpillar…and many more) their favourite TV programme to watch (like Octonauts, Fireman Sam, In the night garden..) and then the children shared their favourite games to play when they were younger.  I even shared some of mine too…my favourite TV programme when I was really young was the Teletubbies and I loved the book “We’re going on a bear hunt”. This was a lovely way to start the lesson and to see the children light up thinking about these wonderful memories. 

The children were then tasked with considering all the ways they have already changed since being a baby, and they could think of LOTS of ways that they had changed. Take a look at our initial ideas that we discussed together.

Next, Year 5 will learn about how they will continue to change as they grow up and mature, and go through a change called puberty.