Year 5

Summer Term - Literacy

This term Year 5 have been enjoying Shackleton's Journey. Firstly they found out about the life of Ernest Shackleton and some of the crew members. Letters of application were written from the crew members and an acceptance letter from Shackleton. The children also had the opportunity to write a diary entry showing their understanding of what life must have been like on board the ship and a poem showing their understanding of the setting. A newspaper report was the final piece of writing, reporting on the devastating news that The Endurance sank 1,500 miles into its journey. 

Year 5 were also very lucky and excited to meet M.G. Leonard who wrote Beetle Boy, which was our whole class read in the Spring Term. La Houguette school kindly hosted the event where M.G. Leonard spoke about the books that she has written and where she gets her inspiration from. There was also the opportunity to get our class copy of Beetle Boy and any books that the children personally own, to be signed by her. M.G. Leonard also told us that she has been writing her next book in the Twitch series whilst she has been here in Guernsey! We are eagerly waiting to see when it will be on sale! 

Summer Term - Numeracy

The children in Year 5 have been working very hard in Numeracy over the last few weeks. We finished off a mammoth topic involving fractions, decimals and percentages, revised knowledge of 2d shapes, learned the names of different types of triangle and explored measures using the metric system. The children learned to use a protractor to measure angles, and practised calculating a missing angle in a straight line. They should now be able to tell you the names of different types of angle - see if they can remember them!

Decimals have featured heavily this term with children learning how to add and subtract numbers with various decimal places. This has really tested their understanding of place value and they certainly rose to the occasion! Most recently we have been revising multiplication methods, using the grid method to multiply 2 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers. 

Summer Term - Science

This term in Science Year 5 have been looking at materials and their properties. They described materials through magnetism, solubility, transparency, whether the material is a conductor or insulator. Next the children found out the difference between a solution and a mixture and became confident with key vocabulary like solute and solvent. Sieving, filtering and magnets were explored as ways to separate materials from a mixture and the use of evaporation to separate materials from a solution. 

Year 5 also received a visit from the Science Dome where the children revisited lots of knowledge from their Space topic in Year 5. The children were also fascinated to learn about stars and to be able to find well known constellations in the night sky!

Summer Term - Other Curriculum Areas

It has been a jam-packed few weeks for Year 5! Both classes received a lesson on First Aid as part of their PSHE curriculum. A member of the St John's Ambulance staff talked the children through what should be in a first aid kit, how to make an emergency call and how to put someone in the recovery position. All vital skills to add to their toolbelts!

In Design and Technology, the children were tasked with making a stuffed toy. Luckily, since it was close to Easter, they used a template to make a stuffed egg with their initial on it. The children practised their cutting skills, thought about complementary and contrasting colours, learned how to use blanket stitch and recapped running stich. Lots of patience and resilience was needed, but they all turned out brilliantly. Our Art topic was "Design for a Purpose", where the children learned all about marketing, USP and slogans. They then designed the packaging for their very own new confectionary. As you can imagine, this was a hit!

In Geography, the children learned all about the features of coastlines and how they are formed. They really enjoyed learning about their own island, but also seeing some other features, such as arches and stumps, that can be found elsewhere. We also explored some of the coastal defences used and their pros/cons. Our current History topic focuses on the Victorian period, with an emphasis on the Industrial Revolution and how Britain changed as a result of this. The children have been fascinated by how simple the machines were and how long it took for basic jobs to be completed by hand, such as making clothes and sewing seeds.

We were also lucky enough to have a visit from the poet Ian Bland, as part of our Cultural Enrichment Program. He shared many of his poems with us, got everybody moving and joining in and had everybody in stitches! Both Year 5 classes have also been offered two afternoon sessions of sailing. The children who have been so far said it was really fun and they managed to stay relatively dry! 

Spring Term - Literacy

This term Year 5 have thoroughly enjoyed reading the book 'The Adventures of Odysseus' to explore and write Greek myths. At the beginning of the topic, the children learnt about different Greek Gods and Goddesses and explored the feelings of Odysseus as he set off on his journey, leaving his loved ones behind in Ithaca. As the children followed Odysseus through his adventures they created storyboards, wrote diary entries, became poets, embraced drama to gain a deeper understanding of the characters and then wrote their own alternative chapter for Odysseus. Throughout the topic, the children have been working very hard to secure their understanding of complex sentence structures, using speech punctuation and ambitious vocabulary. 

Year 5 have also been enjoying listening to Beetle Boy by M.G Leonard as their whole class read. They have been making predictions about the story plot and discussing the characters. Year 5 will be continuing with this text at the start of next term and are looking forward to finding out how the problem is solved!

Spring Term - Maths

This term Year 5 started off by recapping place value in numbers up to 1 million and exploring decimals. We practised rounding skills with both whole numbers and decimal numbers. Addition and subtraction written methods were revised, and then these skills were put to use in some problem solving and reasoning questions. In Data Handling, we learned to read tables (including timetables) and create and interpret line graphs.

Y5 then began a topic on fractions. We used lots of concrete resources and pictorial representations to explore what different fractions of a whole looked like, found equivalents to various fractions, and practised converting mixed numbers into improper fractions and vice-versa.

Spring Term - Geography

Our Geography topic this term followed on seamlessly from the autumn term. We recapped the continents, key lines of latitude and longitude and discussed the difference between continents, countries and cities. The children identified some of the major countries in Europe, North America and South America, and located their capital cities. We learned the definitions of geographical terms such as: rural, urban, high/low density population, biomes, human features and physical features. The children explored the varied biomes around the world, comparing and contrasting them using their key features. 

Spring Term - Other Curriculum Areas

Many Art skills were developed in our Collage topic. The children first ripped, cut and tore sweet wrappers and then thought carefully about how to position and overlap them to create an interesting effect. Their collage was then drawn where they needed to pay attention to layout, proportion, sketching and detail. In the next part of the topic, the children upscaled their drawing and then painted to create their final result. 

Year 5 were fortunate with beautiful sunshine for their Outdoor Learning week. The sessions began with listening to stories with an environmental theme and then participating in team games. Bear, Salmon, Mosquito became their favourite game! Teamwork was key when they practised knot tying to create outdoor dens with particular focus on the round turn and two half hitches knot. Year 5 developed their knowledge about the elder tree and used loppers and palm drills to create an elder bead necklace or bracelet. They felt very proud of their end result!

The final week of the term was Enterprise Week. Year 5 held a ‘nearly new’ book sale where they invited the school community to donate unwanted books and these were then sold in the hall on the last afternoon of the term. There were lots of happy children leaving for the half term break with new reading books and Year 5 raised money for their residential in June and The Little Princess Trust. A charity which has already been kindly supported by two members of the year group. Well done Year 5, a very successful Enterprise week!

Autumn Term - Literacy

Year 5 began the term revisiting sentence structure and punctuation. Then we explored the picture book Tuesday by David Wiesner. The children enjoyed using their picture detective skills to interpret what had happened in the story. Next the children wrote a police detective report explaining why lillipads and frogs had been seen in the town. Then we immersed ourselves into the genre of newspapers and became confident with their key features. To finish the topic, the children wrote a newspaper report for an animal invasion of La Mare de Carteret Primary School. 

Both classes have thoroughly enjoyed reading Fizzleburt Stump The Boy Who Ran Away From The Circus as our whole class read. 

Autumn Term - Maths

Year 5 started off this term recapping our knowledge and understanding of place value in number. We used place value charts and lots of concrete resources to work out what the digits of 3, 4 and 5-digit numbers represent.  Next we used this information to practise adding and subtracting numbers, using standard written methods. In shape, we explored measuring and calculating the perimeter of rectangles. We then spent some time using our knowledge of times tables to find multiples and factors. Year 5 have also enjoyed working hard on various problem solving activities.

Autumn Term - Science and Geography

Year 5 started the Autumn term learning about Living Things. They enjoyed finding out about the similarities and differences between mammals, amphibians, insects and birds. Maria Merion was their significant person to learn about in the field of entomology. Year 5 also studied how living things reproduce and the difference between sexual and asexual reproduction. 

In Geography Year 5 developed their map skills. They became confident with lines of longitude and latitude and using the four figure grid reference. A highlight of this topic was locating special places in Guernsey and describing their location with a four figure grid reference. 

Autumn Term - Design and Technology

Year 5 have had a wonderful time exploring and learning about bridges. We started off by learning about the structure of arch and beam bridges. The children then made their own versions using pieces of card; testing them to see how much weight they could hold before collapsing. Next we discovered how truss bridges are structured. Following this, the children demonstrated excellent teamwork and resilience when making their own version of a truss bridge using spaghetti and masking tape. The completed bridges were then also tested for strength and were very successful.