Beech & Chestnut Class (Year 5)
DT- bread
Spring 1
What a brilliant start to the new term we have had so far! We started off the year with Winter Week and the children created some amazing artwork in response to 'Winter' from the 'Four Seasons' by Vivaldi. They also wrote their own piece about an ice palace and looked at the symmetry of snowflakes.
Excitingly, we then launched our new Topic 'Early Civilisations.' The children have been very eager to learn about Ancient Egypt, Indus Valley, Ancient Sumer and the Shang Dynasty. Our class reader this half term is 'The Firework Maker's Daughter' and it is another text Year 5 are really enjoying!
We have also had the wonderful Mrs Goodyear and Mrs Clarke join the Year 5 team. Both joined the year group just after Christmas and are already feeling immersed into Beech and Chestnut.
We look forward to updating you more as the term goes on!
The Year 5 team.
Spring 2
In Year 5 this term there has been much excitement, as this half term we went into town to do swimming lessons. There was much enthusiasm to be had on not only the lessons themselves but in the transport of the bus to get there! Everyone has been doing amazingly well and it’s been lovely to see all the progress.
In English we have been writing persuasive pieces on reduction in plastic usage. The children have managed to come up with some very powerful arguments. We have now started diary entry pieces where the focus will be on a day in life of a river animal and how plastic pollution has impacted their environment.
In Maths we thoroughly enjoyed looking at co-ordinates which ended with a game of battleships. Recently we have been exploring angles and using a protractor to measure for the first time.
Rivers has been our main focus in Geography, exploring the features and learning facts about the River Nile. We have then incorporated our river theme into our Art as we have been looking at collage techniques and in our final piece creating a river collage.
Year 5 Team.
Autumn
Autumn 2
In our second term this Autumn our topic was ‘Extreme Earth’, with the focus being how mountains are made and earthquakes.
In English we looked into writing non-chronological reports on mountains with Year 5 having to research famous mountains to then write up into a report. We then moved onto writing a descriptive piece with figurative language.
In computing, Year 5 used the research they had done on mountains to create SeeSaw presentations that they then gave to Year 1 children. They had great fun creating the presentations and the Year 1 children seemed impressed when they showed them.
In Geography we learnt all about how mountains are formed and the many layers that make up the earth, in particular the tectonic plates which create mountains and can cause earthquakes.
Science this term was light and shadows, the children had a great time investigating how light travels and testing out scientific theories on the connection between an objects distance from a light source and its shadow.
In maths we looked into area and perimeter along with addition and subtraction of fractions. Finally, we looked at 2D and 3D shape properties. Net making was a superb success with Year 5 trying to create their own nets to make 3D shapes.
Year 5 have worked very hard this Autumn term and we are all really proud of their commitment and progress. We look forward to welcoming them back in 2024 with lots more to learn!
Autumn 1
This half term our theme was ‘Majestic Monarchy’ we were getting Year 5 to investigate the question ‘Who has the power the Monarchy or the Government?’
In order to answer this question, we looked at four different monarchs and their governments. We started with King John and the signing of the Magna Carta looking into how much power they gave away. Then we moved onto King James 1 & VI and the Gunpowder Plot. This linked in nicely with our book for the half term Black Powder by Ally Sherrick which told the Gunpowder Plot from the viewpoint of a 12-year-old boy called Tom and a mysterious character called The Falcon….. (spoiler alert! Guy Fawkes). As their final piece Year 5 had to write a letter from Guy Fawkes to Tom as he was in The Tower saying his final farewell.
After the Gunpowder Plot, we learnt about the unification of Great Britain under Queen Anne and finally Queen Victoria and her relationship with government. Having studied our four Monarchs in History we then made a computer art diptych in the style of Andy Warhol in our Art along with line drawings of the Houses of Parliament like Stephen Wiltshire.
In Maths we focused on learning about place value and the key four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
In DT we continued the monarch theme and Year 5 had to make a cam-based toy fit for a Monarch! Year 5 had great fun designing their toys and then creating them. The end results were amazing.
Our focus this half-term in PE was basketball and the children immensely enjoyed coming up with their own warm ups and playing some matches.
Welcome back!
Autumn 2023
Beech and Chestnut class have all settled in to the new academic year incredibly well and we are super proud of them all.
We have had an exciting couple of weeks with the launch of our topic "Majestic Monarchy" and the children have already completed lots of learning about monarchy and parliament.
Just to inform you, Year 5 PE will be on a Monday (Indoor) and Thursday (Outdoor) this year. The children will need to wear their PE kit into school to be worn for the duration of the day. An added bonus this year is that the children get to wear the t-shirt colour of their House Point Team on PE days - Green (Emerald Team), Blue (Sapphire Team), Red (Ruby Team) or Yellow (Topaz Team).
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.
Below you will see pictures of the Year 5 staff team.
Chestnut Class Teacher - Mrs Franklin Beech Class Teacher - Miss Wynne
Mrs Abbey - HLTA who works across both classes
Mrs Goodyear- LSA who works across both classes
Mrs Clarke- LSA who works across both classes
We look forward to working with your children this year.
