Welcome to Year 5 and the first half of the Autumn term. 

Please find a brief overview of the children's learning below.

Amazon Adventure!

Our theme for this half term will be the Amazon Rainforest. We will be exploring stories from the region, looking at the geography, both human and physical and creating Amazon inspired art and music. The topic will link well with our science work too, allowing us to learn about the reproduction of plants and animals. 

In Geography lessons, we will be exploring the rainforests of the world. We will be developing our map skills as well as learning about issues such as deforestation. In Art, we will study the work of Ruth Daniels taking inspiration from her work to create our own artwork. In Computing lessons, the children will create an iMovie, inspired by the work of David Attenborough.

R.E

In our RE work we will be following the scheme 'The Way, The Truth and The Life'. Our first topic will be 'Creation'. The children will continue to prepare their own collective worship, as well as saying more formal prayers.

English

Our English work will form a major part of the school day. We will use the classic text, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as a basis for our study. This will inspire us to write diary extracts, a report about World War 2 and a fantasy story. 

Throughout this work the children will complete various reading and writing activities in whole class and small groups. We will focus on key skills including comprehension, writing composition, spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting.

Reading

We will use the brilliant book There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar as the stimulus for our reading sessions. We will focus on:

-Vocabulary

-Inference

-Prediction

-Explanation

-Retrieval

-Summary

Mathematics

In Mathematics we will cover the topics of place value, written addition and subtraction. We will continue to focus on mental arithmetic strategies during our daily lessons. The children will carry out a range of problem solving activities in relation to these areas enabling them to apply their mathematical, knowledge, skills and understanding.

Science

During Science lessons the children will cover the topics of sexual reproduction in flowering plants, asexual reproduction in plants and the life cycles of a variety of insects, amphibians, mammals and birds.

P.E

In P.E. lessons,  the children will complete Playground Leader training. This will be delivered through Fleetwood Town coaches involving practical and classroom learning. This will take place on a Tuesday which will be our PE ready day.

They will also have swimming lessons on a Thursday morning.

Latin

The children will continue to learn Latin in school. This is an incredibly useful skill with so many languages being derived from Latin.

Music

We will complete a series of lessons based around 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams. This will cover a variety of skills including listening, appraising and performing. 

Mr Cobb will also resume 'St John's Big Band' which is open to any musicians in Years 5 and 6. 

Relationships and Health Education (RHE)

We will complete:

UKS2 Module 1, Unit 1 - Story sessions

UKS2 Module 2, Unit 1 - Is God calling you?

UKS2 Module 2, Unit 2 - Under pressure, Do you want a piece of cake? and self - talk.

You may want to have a look at some of the resources we will be using:

Below is a link To access the online parent platform: www.tentenresources.co.uk/parent-portal

School Username: st-johns-fy6

School Password: john-6

Learning Log

This half term I would like the children to focus on the Amazon rainforest and create a fact file. We will discuss this in more detail in class.

Please submit by Wednesday 18th October.

I am very excited about guiding your child through Year 5. I look forward to meeting you all and thank you in advance for your support.

Mr McGrath

p.mcgrath@poulton-st-johns.lancs.sch.uk