Welcome to the wonderful world of Year 5C!!

Spring 1 - 2025

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas holiday and have fully recharged your batteries ready for the spring term!

On our class page you will be able to find information about this half term's learning.

At the bottom of this page I have attached this years topic overview, homework and spelling sheets.

                                                                                              English

During our English lessons this term, we will be looking at Rain Player by the author David Wisniewski to link with our unit on the Maya civilisation.  We will be looking at key narrative features and how writing as the reader (understanding audience and purpose) has a huge impact on writing. We will be working on developing our language and vocabulary, understanding how well-chosen words can play a huge part in writing success.  We will also be focusing on sentence structures and how to use them and manipulate them for effect.

SPaG skills are embedded into all our English lessons. 

In Guided Reading, we will be looking at a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. 

Maths

This half term in Maths, we will be looking at Fractions - a topic where knowledge of your timestables will come in handy!  We will recap prior learning from Year 4 before moving on to our Year 5 objectives. Following our fractions unit, we will then move on to decimals and percentages. Some of the objectives we will cover during this first unit are:

• Identify, name and write equivalent fractions of a given fraction
• Compare fractions with different denominators
• Change an improper fraction to a mixed number and vice versa
• Add and subtract fractions with the same denominator and multiples of the same number
• Multiply fractions and mixed numbers by whole numbers
• Read and write decimal numbers as fractions

Don't forget a really easy way to practice your times tables at home is by using TT Rockstars. Knowing your times tables up to 12x12 helps with a lot of different topics in Maths.

Here are some useful websites:

https://ttrockstars.com/

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games

https://nrich.maths.org/

Topic

In Topic this term, we will be looking at The Maya Civilisation.  We will first learn a little about the Maya people, their lifestyle and where they lived. We will explain the religious beliefs of the Maya people and compare the same aspect of life with a different period. We will also compare the physical geography of Mesoamerica with the UK and research food eaten by the ancient Maya people and why certain foods were particularly significant. Finally we will understand how the Maya number system works and write as if we were living in the past using Mayan writing.

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Science

Our Science topic for this half term is ‘Space and the Planets’. During this unit, we will be learning to:

• Name, order and describe the features of the planets
• Explain why we know the Earth, Sun and Moon are spherical
• Describe the movement of the Earth and other planets
• Explain night and day and the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky
• Explain the movement of the Moon and its phases

Religion

Our Topic in RE is Galilee to Jerusalem.  We will begin by exploring the Ten Commandments and The Greatest Commandment and make links with the parable of The Good Samaritan. After this, we will look into The Transfiguration and recognise that in the Beatitudes Jesus tells his followers important messages about what makes a life blessed. Finally, we will make links between the seven petitions of the Our Father and their meaning for Christians. 

PSHE and Mindfulness

PSHE and Mindfulness

Interweaved throughout all of our topics is the importance of self-care and reflection. At home we encourage you  to use a  journal to write down our thoughts, feelings and emotions which is key to regulating how we are throughout each day like we do in class. Additionally, we will post some online meditation and yoga you can practice at home.

Homework-  Here are the Home Learning tasks that pupils should complete each week. If you need any support accessing these resources, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

1) Reading - Pupils should be reading for 10-15 minutes every night. Pupils can change their books as and when they need to in the Class Library or the KS2 Library. Year 5/6 pupils are welcome to bring in books from home. Please help your child to record their reading in their Reading Record. Listening to your child read can support their fluency, develop their comprehension skills, and help them to progress.

https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/reading-lists-for-ks2-school-pupils/suggested-reading-list-for-year-5-pupils-ks2-age-9-10/ Here are some recommended reads - how many of these books have you read?

2. Reading Eggs – Children have a weekly comprehension assignment to complete on Reading Eggs.

Reading eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities. Children love the games, songs, golden eggs and other rewards which, along with feeling proud of their reading, really motivate children to keep exploring and learning.

3. My Maths  - Children have a weekly assignment to complete on MyMaths that will help them to practise the skills we have been learning in school.

Pupils can also access Mathseeds (using their Reading Eggs login) and TT Rockstars for fluency practice.

4. Spellings – practice daily

Pupils have 10 spellings to learn per week, on which they will be tested every Friday. A copy of the spellings is available below. 

5. Learning logs –  In Spring 2 (February, March), pupils will have a home learning project to complete. At the end of the half-term, they will bring in their project to share and celebrate with their peers.

Well done on reaching the bottom of the Year 5 Class Page. 

A prize* to the first pupil who tells Mr Clare the answer to this tricky riddle in 2026: What has cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and rivers but no water?  *Disclaimer: the prize may not be of a high quality!