Year 5 Summer Newsletter

Dear Year 5 parents and children,

Welcome to the Summer Term in Year 5. Our topic this Half term will be ‘The Stone Age to Iron Age’. We will continue to read our fabulous book ‘Wolf Brother’ by Michelle Paver.

Curriculum

Literacy – Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver

Wolf Brother is the first book in the series Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver. Wolf Brother takes place six thousand years ago during the Middle Stone Age, and tells the story of twelve-year-old Torak, a boy who can talk to wolves.

The children will produce a variety of different types of writing whilst studying the book: suspense writing, newspaper reports, balanced arguments, and a survival guide for Bear Grylls.

Following on from this, we will be studying ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by William Shakespeare and ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’ by Rick Riordan.

GPS (Grammar, punctuation, spelling):

This term we will continue to use relative pronouns and relative clauses. We will begin to study the active and passive voice. We will use devices to build cohesion within a paragraph (for example – fronted adverbials).

We will also look at the correct use of commas to clarify meaning and avoid ambiguity. We will continue to use brackets/commas/dashes for parenthesis in our writing.

Spellings: New spellings will continue to be set every Monday morning and children will be tested the following Monday.

Spellings can also be found on EdShed. Please logon to Edshed and practice spellings each week.

Reading: The importance of reading for children cannot be underestimated. Reading for pleasure can benefit a child’s education, social and cognitive development, their wellbeing, and their mental health. Please listen to your child read and enjoy books with them, as we want to encourage a love of reading. We expect them to be reading each day (minimum 30 minutes) and to record it in their reading diary. Guided and group reading sessions will also take place in class every day.

Maths

This term, we will be focusing on fractions/decimals/percentages and their equivalents, shape, measurement and geometry.

Maths homework sheets will be handed out each week.

Please also use TT Rockstars to perfect knowledge of times tables facts.

Science

We will be studying Biology Topics – ‘Animals including Humans’, ‘Lifecycles’ and ‘Reproduction’. We will also study a chemistry unit ‘Reversible and Irreversible changes’.

We will also be participating in the RAF Glider Challenge for a third time. We are currently the reigning champions – fingers crossed for a second win this year!

 

History – The Stone Age to Iron Age

Children will learn about how the Stone Age to Bronze Age period impacted on life in Britain. They will learn about how early man survived in a harsh environment, why Skara Brae was important for understanding life in the Stone Age, how copper mining was crucial to the Bronze Age and why Stonehenge was built. Children will also learn about why Iron Age people developed hillforts and how important Druids were in Iron Age Britain.

Religion

We will be studying:

Easter, The Pentecost, The Work of The Apostles and Marriage & Holy Orders.

P.E: Games, athletics, dance

Our PE days will be Wednesdays and Thursdays. Children should come to school wearing tracksuits on that day (navy blue please if possible).

Our PE day will be Mondays. Children should come to school wearing tracksuits on that day (navy blue please if possible).

Homework

Children will be expected to read every day, learn their weekly spellings and complete Maths tasks set.

Please can you continue to provide support by ensuring that children have a quiet time put aside for their homework, and an opportunity to share their learning with you. If children are finding any piece of homework too difficult or they are taking more than 45 minutes to complete it, please do not persist. Simply email/call me and let me know.

God Bless,

Mrs Evans xx