Welcome to Year 5/6C/H - St Maximilian Kolbe
Teachers: Mrs Clarke & Miss Hollingsworth Spring Term
Welcome back to school after the Christmas break and a Happy New Year!
Key dates:
Our PE day is on Mondays. Please wear your PE kit to school on a Monday for our indoor and outdoor sessions.
We have been very fortunate to be offered a further 6 free Taekwondo sessions during Spring 1. These will take place on a Monday afternoon and will take the place of the indoor PE lesson for this half term.
Please make sure you are wearing the correct school uniform every other school day.
Please check this page regularly for key dates, homework, useful links to help with your learning, and information about all the subjects we'll be studying.
You can also use the resources below to help with your learning:
English
During our English lessons this term, we will be looking at the Michael Morpurgo story 'Coming Home' and will be writing a narrative based on the Robin's journey. We will also study the story of Macbeth and look at the language in Shakespeare's time. We will act out the play and produce our own pieces of writing using the language and style of MacBeth. 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.
Some of the writing objectives we will be looking at are:
- using paragraphs to organise ideas
- using simple devices to structure non-narrative writing e.g. headings, subheadings, bullet points
- writing for a range of purposes
In Guided Reading, we will be looking at a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts.
Some of the skills we will be working on are:
- Using the context of a sentence to work out the meaning of a word
- Reading aloud with intonation that shows understanding
- Make predictions based on details that have been read
Maths
This half-term, in Maths, we will finish off looking at fractions - multiplying and dividing fractions and finding fractions of quantities. We will look at converting between fractions, decimals and percentages and converting between metric and imperial measures. Make sure you keep practising those times tables to help with your mental and written calculations within class.
We will continue to work on our arithmetic skills through daily morning maths and through weekly arithmetic tests. We will also be doing some investigations involving reasoning and problem-solving.
Knowing your times tables up to 12 x 12 will make you a much more efficient mathematician. Make sure you are using TTRockstars at home to practise your times tables. Can you help us climb to the top of the TTRockstars leaderboard? Every 5 minutes helps!
Topic
In Topic this term, we will be looking at three different locations and how pollution affects the physical and human geography of these areas. We will look at the history of modern pollution, the impact of fossil fuels on the environment and the impact of pollution on wildlife. On a personal level, we will consider our own behaviour and how we can change this for the better of the planet. Also, we will create a Greta Thunberg biography and campaign about pollution and litter in our local environment.
Science
This half term, our topic is 'Light'. We will look at how light travels in a straight line and use this to explain how objects can be seen because they give out or reflect light into the eye. We will explain how we can see things because light travels from light sources to our eyes or from light sources to objects and then to our eyes. We will look at shadows and how they have the same shape as the objects that cast them.
RE
Our Topics in RE are Sources, Community and Death and New Life. We will look at the importance of books and the Bible as a book, thinking about stories in the Old and New Testaments. We will look at the Eucharist and Holy Communion and how we can live and grow in communion everyday. We will look at what happened to Jesus during Lent and think about how death and loss can bring about change for people.
PSHE and Mindfulness
Included 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. Please come and see me if you have lost your log-ins for any of these sites!
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. Pupils can gain Reading Raffle tickets and class rewards for their reading at home.
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 and My Maths – Children have a weekly comprehension assignment to complete on Reading Eggs and MyMaths.
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. Spellings – practice daily
Pupils have 10 spellings to learn per week, on which they will be tested every Friday. A PDF copy of the spellings is available below.
4. Learning logs – Project.