Author: Kate Watson

Welcome to our third term in Year 5. We have an exciting term ahead of us!
A few reminders:
PE will now be every Wednesday and Thursday. Please ensure children come to school in full outdoor PE kit, with current covid-19 restrictions in place, we will continue to have PE outdoors.
Homework will commence again from Friday 16th April 2021. Please can we remind children that they should be completing 20 minutes on TT Rockstars (10 minutes garage and 10 minutes studio); 10 games on spelling shed and reading at least x3 times per week. Parents should sign reading records so that we can see clearly that reading homework has been completed. Children will receive a team point for completing each aspect of their homework and, if homework isn’t completed, will stay in for part of their lunchtime on a Friday to complete any homework that has not been completed at home.

Curriculum
This term our topic is ‘Heroes and Villains’. In the first half term, we will be focusing on the Vikings in History. Our Science work will focus on forces, including gravity, air resistance, water resistance and friction. Our art work will focus on sketching and pencil skills, in a style similar to the illustrations from our text driver: Beowulf. This will be the text that our English work is based upon this half-term; we will also complete some newspaper reports within our English work. In Jigsaw our topic is relationships, including knowing what makes a good friendship.
In the second half term, we will be designing and creating a toy using mechanics as well as a creating a Viking textile which will develop our sewing skills. The exciting home challenge of creating a Viking Shield will take place, and creations will be shared when the children are invited to come to school dressed as a Viking for the day on the Tuesday 6th July (details to follow). In Geography we will investigate settlements and land use including the distribution of natural resources including energy and food. English work will include analysis of the poem The Highway Man and performance poetry. Our Jigsaw topic will be ‘Changing Me’ where we will learn to respect and understand changes they see in themselves and others.

Reading
When reading at home, and to develop their comprehension skills further, please work with your child on understanding the meaning of words and phrases within the book they are reading, and also answering inference-based questions where they have to use clues from the text to answer questions. Questions prompts may include:
·What does the word ….. Imply about …...?
·Why did ……? ·What words tell us ….?
·How did … ………..? ·Why is …. important?
·How did ….. react? ·What does …. think?

Maths
In maths this term, we will be learning about shape, fractions, decimals, and measure. We will also be having weekly arithmetic lessons to consolidate the written and mental methods of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Parents can find copies of the calculation policy on the school website if you wish to see the methods of calculating that we teach the children in school.
When supporting your child further in maths at home, as well as times tables, please continue to practise using numbers skills in everyday life situations (e.g. measures while baking, use of money, etc). It essential that the children are confident with their times tables as they are a critical element of all areas of maths and will be used daily. Please use apps , games and written methods to practise these skills in a variety of contexts.

Spelling
Please ensure that your child continues to learn their weekly spellings and that they are also learning the spelling rules so that they can apply these to their writing. It is important that the children are regularly revising the previous spelling rules we have learnt in class until they have been consolidated enough that the children can use them effectively in their writing.

·How was … different after ….?

·How did ….. react?

·What does …. think?