Year 5
Friday 19th April
It has been a great first week back at school, culminating in the children's wonderful performance this afternoon. Thank you to all of the parents who came and supported this event. It was great to see you and we hope that you enjoyed the show!
This term in Year 5 our writing and reading will be focused around the novel Varjak Paw. In maths we will begin by learning about angles. A full overview of this term's Year 5 curriculum can be found in the learning webs tab below.
This term PE will be in the morning for all classes in Year 5 on both Wednesdays and Thursdays. This means that children should come to school wearing their PE kits on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Swimming for Otters Group 1 will start on Thursday 25th April. For full details please refer to the swimming letter on the website.
A final Bikeability catch up session will take place on Thursday 25th April. Parents who have a child taking part in this activity will be contacted directly by app message.
Finally, a reminder that maths home learning is set every week on a Friday through the MyMaths website. A link to this can be found in the home learning tab below. We encourage all children to complete this activity alongside regular multiplication tables practise and daily reading.
All the best,
The Year 5 Team
Friday 23rd February
We have enjoyed a fantastic first week back to school. Highlights have included designing our own cracking contraption; using filtering and sieving to clean dirty water and beginning our learning on rivers.
Today, in our year group assembly, we discussed staying safe online. In particular we talked about what to do if somebody sends you a message that you do not understand or upsets you. We discussed:
1. sharing this information with a trusted adult;
2. blocking the person who sent the message;
3. reporting them to the site administrator.
We also discussed the importance of limiting screen time and spending some time engaging in offline activities. Your children may want to talk to you about this in more detail. More information for parents can be found on the very informative CEOPs website, the police's online safety website.
Parents have all been sent a letter this week about Bikeability. Please be aware that places are limited and that they will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. If you would like your child to complete this course, please use the online form detailed in the letter.
Have a great weekend!
The Year 5 Team
Monday 19th February
Welcome back to a new term! It has been wonderful seeing the children again after the half term holidays. We hope that you enjoyed your week away from school.
This term we will be studying rivers in geography, which will include an exciting trip to the River Bovey on Dartmoor. In English we will be creating our own cracking contraptions, in the style of Wallace and Gromit, and explaining how they work. In maths we will start the term by learning about decimals and percentages. Please see full details of this term's learning in the topic web tab.
Please note that PE will be on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. This means that children should come to school in their uniform on Wednesdays and in their PE kit on Thursdays.
Please speak to your class teacher if you would like any additional information.
The Year 5 Team
Friday 26th January
Year 5 enjoyed a really engaging visit to the LIFE Exhibition this week, where they were able to use a range of interactive resources to deepen their understanding of why Christians believe that Jesus was a Messiah.
This week, the chilfdren have also finished publishing their writing focused on the secrets of Exeter's past. This was inspired by the book Secrets of Stonehenge. The finished products are colourful, entertaining insights into some of the most interesting periods of Exeter's past. The children have worked hard to include complex sentences, modal verbs and colons in their writing.
In maths, we have re-visited our previous learning on fractions and are now focusing on multiplying fractions and mixed numbers by an integer.
In art, we have also began to explore the life and works of Austrian architectural artist Hundertwasser.
PE will continue as normal next week, with all classes coming to school in their PE kit on both Wednesday and Thursday. Next week, also sees Robot Rock Day taking place on Friday 2nd February.
Have a lovely weekend.
The Year 5 Team
Friday 19th January
This term, Year 5 have been reading the book Street Child by Berlie Doughty. This is the story of Jim, an orphan growing up in Victorian London. This is a true story inspired by the events leading to the foundation of the charity Barnardos. Reading this story has helped children to better understand life in Britain during the mid-Victorian period, providing important insights into our learning on the British Empire in history. We have learnt about the extent of the empire, why Britain chose to establish it and what life was like in the former colony of Rhodesia, for both colonists and indiginous people. For more information on the learning in Year 5 this term, please see our topic web on the tab below.
Next week, children will attend the LIFE Exhibition at the Belmont Chapel on Thursday 25th (Otters and Stoats) or Friday 26th (Polecats). This is linked to the children's learning on Christianity in RE. The children will return to school for lunch as normal but they will need a warm coat for the walk.
The following week children will participate in Robot Rock Day on Friday 2nd February. This day will celebrate mathematics and the children are invited to dress as either a rock star or a robot. A seperate letter has been sent on this subject to all parents.
Have a great weekend
The Year 5 Team
Friday 15th December
Year 5 enjoyed a lovely walk around Exeter Quay yesterday to support our recent learning on climate change. The children were able to observe some of the infrastructure that has been built to help mitigate the increased risk of flooding in the local area. A big thank you to all of the parents that joined us to help. Linked to this learning, we have also completed our own version's of the story 'Flood', using a variety of descriptive techniques to create atmosphere and relative clauses and dialogue to show character emotions.
Next week, the Year 5 Christmas party will take place on Monday 18th December. This is a non-uniform day. On Tuesday 19th we will visit St Leonard's Church for our annual Christmas celebration. Parents are very welcome to join us. The service begins at 11.30am.
Finally, we would like to wish you and your families a very happy and peaceful Christmas. We look forward to seeing the children back in school on Thursday 5th January.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Year 5 Team
Friday 1st December
We have enjoyed a wonderful, busy week in Year 5. In English we have started reading a new book, called Flood, which is helping us to explore our learning on climate change from a different angle. Tuesday saw us send Gus down a series of different zipwires to help us to understand more about friction. Yesterday, we visited Exeter Islamic Centre as part of our learning in RE on Islam. We received a very warm welcome, with one of our own talented Year 5 students demonstrating the Islamic call to prayer.
Maths home learning is available on MyMaths (please see the link in the useful links section). This task will support children to consolidate their recent learning on improper fractions and mixed numbers. Please accept our apologies that no maths home learning was set last week - this was an oversight on Mr Smith's part.
Next week we will be visiting Exeter Quay to learn more about the flood defences. This visit links our learning on the impact of climate change to our own local context. This is a free trip which will take place entirely in school time. Your child will need to wear a warm, waterproof coat please.
We hope to see many of you at the school Christmas Fair tomorrow.
Have a lovely weekend.
The Year 5 Team
Friday 3rd November
It has been great to be back in school this week and hearing all about the exciting things that children have been doing over half term. As I'm sure you are aware, it has been an eventful week in school and the children in Year 5 have shown outstanding maturity in coping with some of the unexpected events thrown their way!
We have still had time to dive into lots of exciting learning including starting our learning on climate change by looking at the first of our case studies, focusing on the life of Elhaji from the Gambia. We have also started to read the book 'Are Humans damaging the atmosphere?'
Home learning on MyMaths has been set as normal and we encourage all children to complete this to consolidate their learning in school. Children are also encouraged to read and practise their multiplication tables every day. Links to all of the websites needed to complete home learning can be found in the useful links tab below.
Parents in Stoats should note that swimming for Group 2 children starts next Thursday (9th). A letter will be sent later in the term to parents of children in Polecats advising them of swimming times in the Spring term. Children in Otters will swim in Summer term.
Have a wonderful weekend.
The Year 5 Team
Friday 20th October
Dear Parents,
It was wonderful to meet you all in person this week. Your children have been working very hard in school this term and we wish you all a happy and restful half term holiday.
Over the half term holiday it will support your child to continue to participate in the regular home learning activities that we recommend in Year 5.
1. Reading for 10-15 minutes every day. This could be independent reading, reading aloud to an adult or being read to. We ask that the children keep a brief record of this reading in their purple reading record. We also recommend that once a book has been completed that children complete a short comprehension quiz on the text via the Accelerated Reader website.
2. 3-5 minutes of Times Tables Rock Stars every day. This supports children to acheive automaticity in basic calculations. Your child's login details are stuck inside their reading record.
During term time the children will also be set a weekly maths task to consolidate their learning in class. This will be set via the My Maths website. This website also contains a wide range of games and activities if you would like to do any additional learning with your child. Your child's login details are stuck inside their reading record.
All of the websites mentioned here can be found in the useful links section of this page.
Thank you for all of your support this half term. Have a wonderful break. We look forward to seeing you again on Tuesday 31st October.
The Year 5 Team
Welcome to our Year 5 Blog!
We have been busy getting our new website up and running and we are excited to share with you all the brilliant learning that the children will be doing. You can find our Learning Web for Autumn 1 below which contains all of our curriculum information for this half term.
Here is what we have been up to over the last few weeks.
English - We have been reading Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. This is the exciting tale of a young boy who becomes stranded on a remote, tropical island. We have creating our own narrative adventure stories inspired by the text.
Maths – We have been focusing on efficient strategies for addition and subtraction. You can support your child by helping them to complete their weekly maths home learning activity which is set via the MyMaths website. A link is in the useful websites section below. The home learning reflects the key elements of what your child has been learning in class that week.
Science – We have been learning about the Earth and space. As part of this learning, we enjoyed drawing around our shadows with chalk at different times of the day. Our moving shadows helped us to explain how the Earth spins on its axis once every 24 hours.
Humanities – This term we have been learning about the Mayan civilisation. We studied images of buildings rediscovered at the great city of Chichin Itza and speculated, as historians, what each could have been used for.
If you have any queries about the learning in Year 5 please contact your child's class teacher for more information.
The Year 5 Team
Check back soon.