Geraldton (Year 5)

Miss Miles

Class Teacher

Term 1

Early Morning Work

For the first half-an-hour of the day, Year Five focus on developing key skills in English and maths. The children work through a daily maths task to improve their mental agility and to consolidate and recap key maths skills that they have learnt. They will also have a handwriting task, which usually has a spelling, grammar or punctuation focus. In addition, this is also when we listen to the children read. Every child will be heard once every other week which may also include reading comprehension tasks. On Fridays, the children will be tested on their spellings.

English

English is taught every morning from Monday-Thursday with the aim of developing reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. English units are usually taught over a two-week period. Where possible, these units will link in a cross-curricular way with the class topic. Guided Reading as a class or in groups will usually occur twice in each unit. During term 1, Geraldton Class will cover the following genres:

Varjak Paw: Narrative - Suspense and Tension (two-week unit)
Mill-on-the-Brue: Persuasive Leaflet (two-week unit)
African Myths and Legends: Setting Description (two-week unit)

Maths

Maths is taught daily in the mornings Monday to Thursday. Maths units vary in length and are split into weekly blocks. The children build on their previous knowledge to extend their understanding in the different aspects of mathematics. They also have the opportunity to apply their knowledge when solving mathematical problems and puzzles. Geraldton class will cover the following units in term one:

Place Value
Addition and Subtraction
Multiplication and Division

Science

Science is taught once a week, through both practical and theoretical activities. The children will develop their skills as scientists through investigations, practising their predicting and concluding skills and gaining an understanding of controlling variables. The children are taught, and should then apply, key scientific vocabulary in relation to their current science topic. The science topics for the following two terms are related to materials and states of matter. The children will be learning the following in terms one and two:

To reason about the properties and uses of different materials
To record data and results using scientific diagrams and labels
To understand and use key scientific vocabulary
To understand the different states of matter
To plan and carry out experiments with different materials
To understand reversible and irreversible reactions
To investigate conductors of electricity
To plan investigations about evaporation and condensation

PE is always taught twice a week. In this term, PE is taught on and Wednesdays and Thursday. On Wednesday, the children will have football with Mr. Lewis as their enrichment for the term. During their football sessions, the children will be developing their control and ability to aim the ball accurately, improving their attacking and defending skills as well as advancing their knowledge of the tactics involved in the game. On Thursday, the children will be exploring dance through their PE lessons. This will allow them to develop their rhythm, timing and explore the different movements that their bodies can make to music. They will think about performance, levels and travelling in order to make their own dances effective whilst also thinking about how they can use dance to create a story as a group.

PSHE

PSHE is always taught each term and is often based on discussion tasks. Where possible, we try to link PSHE with Philosophy and encourage the children to explain their understanding in detail and answer challenging questions which don’t always have a right or a wrong answer. In Terms 1 and 2, we will be exploring the themes of 'Being a Team' and 'Keeping Positive'.

History

During terms one and two, the children will be focussing on the history of Ancient Greece and will be learning to:

Draw a timeline which shows different historical periods and key events
Compare historical periods, explaining some of the things that have changed and stayed the same
Construct questions about the period
Think about the reliability and validity of the sources of evidence used
Understand the difference between primary and secondary sources

Religious Education

RE will be taught once a week. The theme for this term is creation. We will be thinking about creation and science and developing the ideas of the children in relation to whether these two things are complementary or contradictory. In addition, we will be thinking about the different ways that Christians worship God and how they do this in their daily lives.

Music

Geraldton class will take part in voice tuition this term. Our voice coach, Caroline Radcliff, will teach the children a wide variety of songs. They will learn how to control their voice, how to pitch their voice appropriately and to sing as part of a group, including singing in different parts. They will also be developing their performance skills by taking on different roles during the sessions.

Art

This term, we will be having Art lessons once a week and we will be exploring the artist Joseph Cornell. Cornell was an American artist who created many different pieces of art using everyday objects and things that he thought were curious or odd to look at. Much of his work is based on the shadow box and we will be exploring these works. We will be practising many different skills when creating our art, from sketching to photography.