Beech & Chestnut Class (Year 5)
Spring 2
What a busy and exciting half term we have had in Year 5! Our main focus has been ‘Rivers of the World’ and we have been learning about the following:
- In English, we have been concentrating on persuasive language and have written persuasive pieces to convince people to reduce their use of plastic. We have also written diary entries from the perspective of a river animal who has been negatively impacted by pollution.
- In Maths, we have been converting between metric and imperial units, as well as getting to grips with equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages.
- Our Science learning this half term involved looking at classification. We have learned about Carl Linnaeus’ method of taxonomy and have had a go at classifying plants and animals. We even classified some Pokemon creatures!
- Our Art has been based around the book ‘A River’ by Australian artist Marc Martin. We used viewfinders to select small sections of his illustrations and then recreated them through drawing, painting and collage.
- In Geography, we have looked at famous rivers around the world and then had more of a specific focus on the River Nile.
- In French, we have been looking at the French words and phrases for different foods and how to say what we like and dislike. We have been practising pronouncing these and beginning to write them into sentences.
- Our Music learning has been the loud and impactful Samba drumming! We have been lucky enough to receive lessons from the Hampshire Music Service and the children have learned a variety of rhythms using different instruments.
- In outdoor PE, we have been learning cricket. Inside, we have been having sessions with Mrs Fox who has taught us how to play Goalball (which we’ve really enjoyed).
Next half term, we cannot wait to get 'stuck into' our Monarchy/ Parliament topic.
We wish you a happy break and can't wait to see the children back for their Summer Term.
Spring 1
Year 5 have had a brilliant start back to the new year and have thoroughly enjoyed focusing on Ancient Egypt once again, but this time in more depth.
In English, the children have written Ancient Egyptian themed historical stories and a diary entry from the perspective of Howard Carter. They also re-enacted the mummification process (using dolls) and used this to inform a set of instructions explaining how to mummify a pharaoh.
Within Maths, the children have been practising the formal methods for addition and subtraction and have been introduced to multiplication by a 2 digit number. They have also been estimating, measuring and drawing angles.
Our Art learning has been sculpture this half term. The Year 5 children designed and created canopic jars, which look fantastic!
In DT, the focus has been textiles and the children have created their own Ancient Egyptian themed applique pictures.
Our PE this term has been dance and tennis.
We look forward to our next half term all about rivers of the world.
Autumn 2
Autumn 2
The second part of the Autumn term we have been focusing on mountains and earthquakes, with a specific focus on Asia and Nepal.
Our computing lessons have also been based on mountains. We have created presentations about mountain of our choice using the range of tools that Seesaw has to offer. We are really excited to share these with the children in Year!
In Maths, the children have really impressed us with their learning about 2D and 3D shape, measurement including converting between units and fraction work too - we can't wait to re-visit these areas to build on their knowledge further.
Our English learning, got off to a very exciting start when we took part in the Hampshire Illustrated Book Awards. The Year 5 children were given the opportunity to explore six different picture books and were then able to vote for their favourite. This was an event that involved many schools around Hampshire. The children also wrote their own non-chronological reports and then some mountain scene descriptions.
In Art, the children have been learning about the artist Hokusai and his Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. There was also an opportunity to take part in a guided workshop with real life artist Darrell Wakelam! The children made incredible cardboard snowmen sculptures.
In Music this term, the children have been focusing on music to accompany movies and animation. They have been creating some of their own music to represent short film clips.
In PE this term we have seen attacking, defending and dodging happening in our football lessons, and inside we have focussed on balances in gymnastics. We have some very flexible and agile Year 5 children who were able to hold their balances beautifully.
Within Science, we have looked at how light travels and how shadows are created. We have undertaken various investigations which have been lots of fun!
Bonjour - In French the children have learnt about Paris, the months of the year and revised numbers and telling the time.
Looking ahead to next term, we can't wait to continue our History learning by looking in more depth at Ancient Egypt.
Well done for a jam packed half term - enjoy the break and rest.
Autumn 1
We have had a brilliant first half term in Year 5 and the children have all impressed us with their hard work and enthusiasm. On belonging and identity day, we all came in dressed in clothes which represented our identity. It was lovely to see so the many different groups that were represented. We drew self-portraits and composed our own poems, inspired by the work of Benjamin Zephaniah.
In English, we read the Firework Maker’s Daughter by Phillip Pullman which inspired some excellent descriptive writing. We were impressed by the imaginative ideas for a ‘missing chapter’, exploring the backstories of different characters in the book.
In Maths, we have been working on many of our key number skills, including place value, addition and subtraction, and multiplication and division. We have been working to improve our mental maths with even bigger numbers and the children have been working with numbers up to 1,000,000! We will build on this learning next term as we focus on formal written methods for the 4 operations.
History has been a guiding area for this half term as looked broadly at 4 early civilisations: Ancient Sumer, the Indus Valley Civilisation, Ancient Egypt and the Shang Dynasty. We enjoyed exploring surviving artifacts from the different civilisations and worked in groups research one in more depth.
In RE, we learned all about Sukkot and built our own models of a Sukkah in a shoe box! We thought carefully about what a Sukkah needed to include and what they represent.
In Art we looked at the Willow Pattern Plate which linked closely to our blended reading text this half term. We learnt about the myth behind the design and drew our own version using watercolour.
DT was a huge hit this half term as we designed and made our own bread. Everyone liked designing their shape, choosing their ingredients and of course the taste testing at the end!
We have worked hard in so many areas this half term, it would be impossible to capture all that learning here, but do have a look at the pictures to see us in action.
Y5 Expectations
Welcome to Beech and Chestnut Class (Year 5) 2024-2025
Beech and Chestnut class have all settled in to the new academic year incredibly well and we are super proud of them all. It has been fantastic to welcome them back and hear all about their adventures over the holidays. We have had an exciting week with the launch of our topic "Early Civilisations" and the children have already completed lots of learning about Ancient Sumer, Ancient Egypt, Indus Valley and the Shang Dynasty.
Just to inform you, Year 5 PE will be on a Wednesday (Outdoor) and Friday (Indoor) this year. The children will need to wear their PE kit into school to be worn for the duration of the day.
Please feel free to drop us an email or call via the office if you have any queries or concerns, we are always willing to help where we can.
Our current Year 5 staff team.
Left to right: Mrs Teasdale (LSA & ELSA), Miss Chave (Beech Class Teacher), Mrs Franklin (Chestnut Class Teacher), Miss Menard (HLTA), Mrs Tomkins (LSA).
