Year 5

Summer 1

Thematic Planning - Summer 1

Spring 2 Review

International Day

Children made travel brochures. Listened to Slovakian music. Drew Slovakian Folk Patterns. Parents came into school and joined the children with their activities. “We had a fantastic day learning all about Slovakia, it was really nice to have our parents come and join in with us”.

Wild Science

A lady came into school to show the children exotic animals. The children held a snake, which they said had a rubbery texture, which was a corn snake whose name was Soup. All the animals the lady brought to school lived with her at home. The children enjoyed the visit

Relative Clause - English (Grammar)

,where the man was born,

,who reached the peak,

,when the snake bit him,

,which is the tallest mountain in the world,

Spring 2

Thematic Planning - Spring 2

Spring 1 Review

Maths 

Year 5 mathematicians enjoyed sampling a ‘day in the life’ of a member of staff at a local cafe, for NSPCC Number Day. We worked in small teams, calculating the cost of orders placed by telephone and in person. Staff from across school popped in with increasingly tricky orders!

Nell Bank Trip 

We had an absolutely fantastic day at Nell Bank in January! The children tackled various challenges requiring teamwork, resilience and communication skills. The positive feedback from the Nell Bank team about our children made us all very proud! It was so wonderful to see our children develop their confidence and challenge themselves in new ways. Their teamwork, kindness and determination were everything we're about at Eastwood.

English – Newspaper Report 

This half term, we concluded our focus on ‘The Explorer’, a novel set in the Amazon Rainforest, by creating our own newspaper articles to cover the events. The setting of the book also provided a good opportunity to explore how different shading techniques help express emotions in drawings. We were inspired by the work of John Dyer, an artist who spent time living alongside the Yawanawa tribe in Brazil.

Autumn 1

Welcome to 2024! The children in Year 5 have already positively embraced the return to school after a well-deserved break.

This half term promises lots of memorable learning opportunities;

After completing ‘The Explorer’, our exciting rainforest-based adventure story for English, we’ll be moving on up to the mountains. To tie in with our ‘Momentous Mountains’ theme for spring, we’ll be studying a non-fiction text which brings to life the daring exploits of real climbers and adventurers.

In maths, we’ll be spending time to develop our multiplication and division skills, as well as investigating prime numbers, multiples, factors, as well as square and cube numbers.

As scientists we will be carrying out experiments to test the properties of different materials, before selecting the most appropriate material for a specific purpose.

We’re really looking forward to our team building day trip to Nell Bank Outdoor Adventure Centre, near Ilkley. The itinerary arranged by Mrs Holden offers a range of experiences and challenges to help the children push themselves out of their comfort zones and develop self-confidence and collaboration skills. Keep an eye on the school Twitter feed for updates on the day!

Please encourage your child to discuss what they’ve been learning about once they get home. This, along with regular reading aloud to an adult, Times Tables Rock Stars practise and completing weekly homework from the suggested homework menu, will help them continue to make progress across Year 5.

Spring 1 Thematic Planning
Spring 1 Thematic Planning - Maths Cover Sheet

Autumn 2 Review

The end of 2023 has certainly felt like a very busy time for our fantastic Year 5 pupils!

As part of our school’s work towards becoming a certified ‘School of Sanctuary’, we were fortunate to be able to welcome a group of refugees from Keighley College. Hearing first-hand about the challenging and often traumatic experiences of refugees prior to arriving in Keighley helped pupils and staff understand more about why people choose to flee other countries. We used the experience to write positive, welcoming letters to send to people settling here from war-torn countries. Each class discussed how they could describe the positive aspects of Keighley, before planning and writing their own unique letter.

In maths this half term, we’ve been developing our addition and subtraction skills specifically – increasing our confidence with column calculation, exchanges, mental strategies, and rounding and estimation.

Our new novel for English, The Explorer, by Katherine Rundell, kicked off with a real ‘bang’. It tells the story of a group of young children who are miraculously the only survivors of an aeroplane crash deep in the Amazon rainforest, with only their wits to help them stay alive long enough to be rescued, in a hostile environment with new dangers lurking around every tree trunk…

In science this term, we’ve been understanding more about ‘animals and living things’, and more specifically, their life cycles. We began the topic by researching and comparing the life cycles of two different classifications of animals: a frog (an amphibian) and a butterfly (an insect). We discovered that some plants clone (make copies) of themselves, while others rely on insects to spread pollen to other plants.

Our school was lucky enough to receive a free set of 30 Micro:Bits from the BBC this year. Micro:Bits are small, programmable computers, designed to help users understand more about coding. We spent time in the IT Suite to create a sequence of instructions (called an algorithm) to turn the Micro:Bits into a digital name badge, and to display simple digital animations.

We developed our artistic skills further by studying the work of famous northern painter LS Lowry, specifically his ‘Coming Home from the Mill’ picture. The painting showcases his famous ‘matchstick men’ representations of people going about the lives during the late industrial revolution period.

Both classes enjoyed putting their sewing skills to the test with Miss Aminah in Enrichment, by creating a ‘fish’ pin cushion and cross stich bookmark. Our year group was among the first to attempt to beat various World Records with Mr Whittaker during the new Commando Joe’s activity challenges our school has invested in.

The Year 5 & 6 girls’ sports teams have enjoyed taking part in a netball and a dodgeball competition so far this year – working well as a team on both occasions and representing the best of Eastwood.

The final week of term also featured the Upper Key Stage 2 showcase assembly, where all four classes from Years 5 and 6 were able to share their learning journey so far this year with families, in the form of a presentation. We were delighted by the support shown - thank you!