Summer term is here!

Welcome back! I can’t believe we’ve already arrived at the final term of year five. I have loved teaching this class so far and I’m confident that this term they’ll continue to work with oodles of enthusiasm to grow and improve further. With year six looming, this is a very important term and we have a lot to get through…as always I am here to help so if anyone needs extra guidance or has any queries, please feel free to ask. May I kindly remind everyone of the sheet I handed out at parent’s evening with numerous links to English and maths websites as well as pupils’ login details for our school accounts…they’ll be needed in the upcoming weeks for homework.

Homework

Just a reminder…Homework will usually be provided on a Wednesday, to be completed by the following Monday. If specific homework is not provided, it would still be a good idea to practise times tables (this could be through the aforementioned websites) and/ or brush up on those reading comprehension skills through some questioning about reading books. It is expected that your child will read for at least 15 minutes every night.

English

The effort in reading at home last term was absolutely brilliant… many of the pupils have found a new level of enthusiasm for literature that is a joy to behold. May I remind you that children are responsible for bringing their reading record to school every day and for changing books when necessary.

In class, we will be extending our skills of reading comprehension, grammar, spelling, drama, punctuation and writing composition. Our first text type this term is creation myths, which ties in nicely with our topic and gives the children an excuse to watch the cbeebies favourite, Tinga Tinga tales! We will follow this with writing inspired by film then a focus on reading, using the excellent book ‘Holes’.

Maths

This term we will begin with area and perimeter before moving on to roman numerals, negative numbers, time, geometry and measures. Phew! We will also continue our focus on mental maths skills and choosing efficient methods, as well as increasing our application of maths skills into complex problem-solving.

Topic

Our term will be a tale of two topics. The first is called ‘The Ancient Kingdom of Benin’, focussing on the little-known but fascinating civilisation based where modern-day Nigeria is located (not, in fact, the modern country of Benin, confusingly!) After studying their artwork, trade success (including the slave trade), rise and fall, we will move on to our geography-based topic, ‘River deep, Mountain high’. This will include a study of our very own River Tyne before switching focus to the more distant Mount Everest! From geographical features to human interest stories, this promises to be a great topic.

Science

We will be studying space before moving on to living things and evolution. These topics are very interesting and I’m sure the children will enjoy them immensely.

Other subjects

Music this term will be closely linked to our topic, from spiritual songs to African chants and djembe drumming! We will also have time for some singing games just for fun! ICT, French, RE and PSHE will continue as usual.

French

We will be continuing our studies of French with Mrs Richardson; the current topic is food.

PE

Our PE lessons for this term will take place on a Thursday and a Friday. We aim to be outside a lot this term so pupils should bring trainers as part of their PE kit, along with our red school PE t-shirt, black shorts and a water bottle.

Thank you for your continued support,

Mrs N Faulkner

On Wednesday 2nd March, Year Five went on an exciting visit to Las Iguanas, a South American restaurant in Newcastle. Our Spring term topic in based on this beautiful continent, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to allow the children to immerse themselves more fully in the culture by sampling some delicious South American cuisine. We had ten taster dishes, each one more delicious than the last. We also made our own delicious drinks using fruit grown in South America. The chocolate brownies and churros were very popular, as were the cassava chips! The children were an asset to the school and a great day was had by all. Well done, Year Five!

Mrs N Faulkner

Year five have been enjoying our first week studying Shakespeare’s spooky tale of Macbeth! So far we have done some whole-class drama, retold the tale and worked in groups to re-enact Act 1, Scene 1. You can see the results of this in the clips below!

We are going to develop this into a written narrative soon…I can’t wait to see the results!

Mrs Faulkner IMG_0315[1] IMG_0314[1] IMG_0313[1] IMG_0312[1] IMG_0306[1] IMG_0299[1] IMG_0297[1] IMG_0295[1] IMG_0302[1] IMG_0300[1]

Year five are enjoying their studies on South America and this week we were learning about volcanoes (South America boasts the tallest volcano in the World!)

We made our own volcanoes using plastic bottles, papier mache and a few crossed fingers!

We erupted them using a mix of bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and red food colouring…take a look at the gallery to see the results!

Mrs N Faulkner

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