WELCOME TO YEAR 5

Each week we will be keeping you up to date with a "Wow of the Week". In addition to this, please read our half termly curriculum map to find out what will be happening in Year 5.

Important information

PE - Thursday and Friday. Please come to school in your PE kit on these days. 

Books - You will come home with new reading books during the week. Please make sure you have read at home at least three times a week. Record any reading you have done in your reading diary. Reading diaries must always be in your book bag so that we can read with you in school. 

Spellings - New spellings given every Friday. Please see our spelling page where you can easily access the spellings every week. Spelling tests will happen every Friday.

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Wow of the Week

Spring 1

Week 5

We have been busy doing our assessments in Year 5 this week and everyone has worked incredibly hard to show what they can do!

We have also been working on statistics in Maths and even had the opportunity to apply this to our Science work when we measured hand spans of different children in school. We used the data collected to create a line graph to show our results.

We carried on our Geography work this week by learning about the threats and dangers there are in deserts. We used this information to create a poster or factsheet to inform others about these threats and dangers.

Week 3

What an incredible third week it has been! Year 5 have continued to show amazing resilience this week in the absence of Miss Wager. Their commitment to learning has been absolutely fab, and they have stepped up to every challenge with a positive attitude that has made the whole school proud.

To celebrate British Science Week, the children doubled the discovery with not one, but two science lessons! They started by exploring the complex life cycle of a human before diving into the fascinating world of gestation periods across the animal kingdom. Some mind-blowing facts were shared along the way: did you know an elephant is pregnant for almost two years? On the flip side, the class learned about a species of fly that is born, reproduces, and dies all within a single 24-hour window!

The journey continued into Geography, where the pupils delved deeper into their topic by investigating the harsh physical features of a desert. They used the famous 'Death Valley' as a case study to understand how extreme landscapes are formed and how they withstand such intense heat. Meanwhile, in DT, they have turned into mini-engineers. Year 5 are currently busy designing intricate pop-up books for their friends in Year 1, themed around beloved nursery rhymes and children’s classics. It will be wonderful to see those stories literally leap off the page!

Week 2

The children have shown incredible resilience this week and have handled a change in routine brilliantly. Unfortunately, Miss Wager has been off but the class has welcomed Mr Popple who has taken over for the time being. We have thrown ourselves into our Alma topic by looking at how subordinate clauses can really add more to sentences and help us build tension in our writing. We are also well on our way to being ready for our music concert as we spent Monday rehearsing hard with Mr Fisher during our ukulele lessons.

In our foundation subjects we have delved further into our Geography topic by comparing the annual temperatures of the Mojave Desert to London. To support this we have started looking at databases in Computing to help us organise information. In Spanish we are learning how to pronounce the names of different animals and in Maths we have finished our unit on fractions, decimals and percentages. We are now moving on to explore the properties of area and perimeter.

Of course, it was World Book Day this week and it was lovely to see everyone dressed up in their fantastic costumes and pyjamas! We thoroughly enjoyed the live lessons and quizzes and in the afternoon we had the wonderful opportunity to go down to the Reception class to read stories to the younger children. We also ventured across the road to Farsley Library where the class now has its very own library card. We are already looking forward to visiting again throughout the year to find new books to enjoy in class.

Week 1

It has been an absolute delight to see everyone return with such energy this week and the children have settled back into their school routines seamlessly after the half-term break. We have had a truly fantastic week of learning, notably reaching the finish line with our detailed biographies of Henry VIII where the class did a brilliant job capturing the drama of the Tudor era. There is already a buzz of excitement in the air as we look forward to our next English challenge: a narrative writing piece based on the mysterious short film Alma. We have also launched our brand-new Geography topic by posing the big question "Would you live in a desert?" During our introduction, we discovered the mind-blowing geographical fact that Antarctica is actually classified as a desert. It might be covered in ice rather than sand but it fits the criteria perfectly; why not ask your child this evening if they can explain the scientific reason why?

Spring 1

Week 6

We celebrated Safer Internet Day and Children's Mental Health Week in class this week. 

For Safer Internet Day, we leared about our online reputations and the kind of things we might post or like that can affect our reputations. We looked at some example profiles and took on the perspective of parents, police officers and future employers to see how reputations could be affected. We also looked at the importance of proper passwords and privacy settings.

For Children's Mental Health Week, we looked at places where we belong – places that make us feel safe and where we can be ourselves.

Week 5

In English, we have been learning about commas for clarity. We have looked at all the grammatical reasons why commas are used and then looked at why commas can be very important. We know that a simple comma can save a life - Let's eat Grandma is very different to Let's eat, Grandma!

In maths, we have moved onto decimals and have been recapping tenths and hundredths before moving onto thousandths. 

We looked at the life of ordinary Tudors this week in history by looking at examples of inventories. We analysed them carefully to see what they owned and what this could tell us about their occupation and wealth.

Week 4

In art this week, we have been creating backgrounds for our poem portrait artwork. We could choose colour wash or collage to create a background that represented ourselves. The finished pieces will soon be ready and hopefully displayed in school.

In English, we began our next unit of learning on biographies. We learned what they are and what they are not and discovered their features. We will be writing biographies of Henry VIII over the coming weeks.

In history, we carried on learning about the Tudors and looked at propaganda. We learned how the royals would use it to make sure their subjects remained loyal.

Week 3

We have been working on our poetry about The Alchemists Letter this week. We learned about personification and alliteration before writing some new verses, including these skills. Look out for some of our amazing work when we publish it next week.

In science, we learned about different ways materials could be separated. We looked at filtering, sieving, evaporation and magnetic attraction before using these to separate a range of different materials.

We also had an amazing visit from the author James Campbell. We loved his humour and learning about how and why he became an author.

Week 2

In science, we have been learning about soluble and insoluble materials. We learned about solutes, solvents and solutions before testing different materials to see which were soluble and which were not. 

We have moved onto short division in maths and we have mastered it! Although the layout looked a little bit strange, we really enjoyed the method and are feeling pretty pleased with ourselves!

In history, we have learned about the queens of King Henry VIII and each of their fates. We also looked at the marriage requirements King Henry had and how each of the queens did or did not meet them – things were very different in Tudor times!

Week 1

We've been straight back into hard work and new learning in Year 5 this week.

In maths, we have been learning long multiplication. It took a bit of time to organise our digits and remember the magic 0, but we were feeling much more confident by the end of the week.

In English, we have begun a new unit on poetry. We will be writing a narrative poem based on an amazing video called The Alchemists Letter. We have been looking at The Highway Man as an example of a narrative poem and also recapping our knowledge of similes.

We also had our class assembly this week, which was delayed from last term. Everyone spoke loudly and proudly about all the learning we had been doing in Year 5 – thank you to all those who came to watch.

Autumn 2

Week 7

It has been a fun last week of term! We completed learning in between carols, parties, bun and biscuit decorating and a Christmas film.

In science, we completed an investigation looking at thermal insulators and conductors. Each group had a material to wrap around a cup of hot water. We measured the temperature at five minute intervals to find out which was the best thermal insulator. We discovered that bubble wrap was the best and paper was the worst.

In PSHE, we were learning about relaxation and took part in a yoga activity to see what effect that had on us. Most of us felt very relaxed after the session.

Week 6

In our reading and history lessons this week, we have been learning about Viking sagas. We read many sagas about the gods and mythical creatures such as trolls and elves. We analysed two sagas about Leif Ericsson, which told us the same information but in slightly different ways. By looking at what was the same between them, we could work out what was likely to be the truth.

We finished our assessments this week and have all worked very hard to show what we can do. There was a lot of resilience and perseverance shown by everyone – well done Year 5!

Week 5

We have been completing our newspaper report writing this week and they have turned out really well. We have been working on the skills of direct speech, relative clauses and fronted adverbials to produce our newspapers on the Viking attack on Lindisfarne.

In PSHE, we have been learning about stereotypes. We looked at gender stereotypes as well as stereotypes related to race and religion.

Week 4

We had a fantastic day on Thursday on our school trip to Jorvik and DIG. We began at Jorvik, where we explored what a Viking village would have looked and smelled like! We then moved onto Dig, where we became archaeologists, uncovering artefacts from different eras. We finished off with a Viking sagas workshop. We heard tales from the Viking times and thought about what was true or false. Some of us also took part in a role-play of one of the Viking sagas. A fabulous day was had by all!

Week 3

This week, we went down to reception to meet our buddies. We had a great time getting to know them and reading books together. We loved finding out more about them and can't wait to meet up again!

We've been continuing our ukulele lessons and we are really improving. Take a look at the photos below.

Week 2

In English this week, we have been learning about newspaper reports and the skills of direct and indirect speech. We will be writing a newspaper report on the Viking raid on Lindisfarne in a few weeks and we loved learning about the event and having a go at writing some direct and indirect speech from eye witnesses!

In History, we learned about why the Vikings came to England and created a timeline to show some of the key events from that era.

On Wednesday we had a visitor from the Buddhist temple in Leeds. She told us all about being a Buddhist and showed us some artefacts and what they represented.

Week 1

It's been a great start back in Year 5. We had a great day on Thursday learning about installation art. We began by analysing art installations before moving on to creating our own installations using only a chair as a starting point. The designs and ideas were all amazing with a lot of thought going into the message the installations were sharing and the name of the piece. 

We also completed our hot write describing Boathook Man from our class text Malamander. Yet again, everyone did a great job and four members of the class earned their pen licences! Well done!

Autumn 1

Week 8

We have been working on designing and creating our electrical doodlers in DT this week. After our research a few weeks back, we used our knowledge on the best drawing devices and location of the motors to create our designs. We then created our doodlers and wrote instructions for someone else to follow if they wanted to make one.

We also completed our geography learning on the Alps this week. We made tourism brochures to show why people should visit and what they might see and do there.

Week 7

In Science this week, we looked at the life cycles of birds and reptiles. We learned that both of these lay eggs to reproduce. We dissected an egg to look more clodely at what it is made up of and what each part would play if the egg had been fertilised.

We have been learning lots of number facts in maths this week - multiples, factors, prime numbers and square numbers. We have done lots of number investigations - test us on our knowledge at home!

Week 6

It's been another great week in Year 5.

On Thursday, we went for a walk around the local area to support our geography learning. We mapped out the leisure facilities there are to do in the village and used a map to follow a route. Many of us walked around places we have never been to before and discovered new places such as the museum at Sunny Bank Mills and the art gallery.

We have also been investigating Doodler in our DT work. Doodlers are fun little robots that use a motor to move around and make markings on paper. We disassembled them to learn how they are made and then looked at ways to change them to see if we could make improvements.

Week 5

This week in English we completed our first hot write – a diary entry from our class novel, Malamander. The results are very good and can be seen displayed outside the classroom. Everyone worked really hard on neat handwriting and correct punctuation as well as using the skills taught.

In Science, we have continued to learn about life cycles. We have learned about the three different types of mammals as well as their life cycles. We have also learned about the life cycles of amphibians and insects and their similarities and differences.

Week 4

In DT this week, we have been looking at electrical items which use motors and recapping electrical circuits. We will be using this knowledge to design and create an electrical item, which uses a motor, in the coming weeks.

In science, we learned about how plants reproduce. We dissected a flower to look at the internal parts and labelled what we saw. We learned that there were two ways a plant reproduces and the different types of plants which do this.

Week 3

This week we held our school council elections. There were lots of children who wanted to be class councillors and each one wrote and presented a speech about why they would be the best candidate. Every speech had been carefully thought out and the standards were exceptionally high, but after the votes were counted, Phillipa and Lucas were announced as the Year 5 school council representatives.

We had our second ukulele lesson this we are we are LOVING our lessons. We are working on holding the ukuleles correctly and playing some notes. We will post a video soon to show how we are getting on.

Week 2

It's been another great week in Year 5!

In geography, we have begun learning about the Alps. We used maps and atlases to locate the Alps and went on to learn about lines of latitude and longitude to help us further explain how to locate the Alps.

In PE, we have been developing our netball skills. We recapped footwork and the three different types of passes.

We have continued to learn the skills we will need to write our diary entry by learning about parenthesis. We have practised including parenthesis in our sentences and using correct punctuation to show this.

Week 1

It's been a fantastic start to Year 5 with all children settling in well and showing great positivity.

We began our new text, which we will be using in both reading and writing lessons - Malamander. We enjoyed reading the first couple of chapters, which definitely left us wanting to read more! We also looked at one of our writing skills, expanded noun phrases, and wrote some great examples.

On Tuesday, we recapped our British values and thought about what life would be like if one of those values was missing. We created some dramas to show this – take a look at the one below – can you work out which British value is missing?