Welcome to Year 5!

This year we have a very exciting year ahead for our children with lots of new and exciting topics for the children to get their teeth into! Throughout the year, children will be engaging in three main topics (Dynamic Dynasties, Sow, Grow and Farm and Ground-breaking Greeks) as well as lots of science, design and technology and art based mini projects.

Dynamic Dynasties Project

In Dynamic Dynasties, your child will learn about periods of ancient Chinese history. They will explore a timeline of the first five Chinese dynasties and learn about the legends surrounding the beginning of Chinese civilisation. They will take a deep dive into the history of the Bronze Age Shang Dynasty and explore evidence found in the ancient city of Yin. They will study oracle bones, learn about religious beliefs and explore bronze artefacts that set the Shang Dynasty apart from other civilisations. They will also study the hierarchy of the Shang Dynasty and discover who was powerful and who was powerless. They will look at warfare and find out how bronze technology gave the Shang Dynasty an advantage over their enemies. They will learn about the life of the great military leader, Fu Hao. The children will then look at significant aspects of life after the Shang Dynasty, including the work of Confucius in the Zhou Dynasty, the short but significant reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin Dynasty and the importance of the Silk Road created by the Han Dynasty. To end the project, your child will find out how ancient China’s lasting legacy can be seen in the world today.

Sow, Grow and Farm Project

In the Sow, Grow and Farm project, your child will learn about allotments in the United Kingdom and how the government encouraged people to have them to support food rationing during the Second World War. They will learn about food webs and animal life cycles, including how living things are dependent on one another within a habitat. They will investigate the different ways that plants reproduce and will dissect flowering plants to identify the different structures. They will have the opportunity to learn about farming in the United Kingdom and the techniques used in modern farming, including the challenges that farmers face. They will learn about the benefits of eating seasonally and about the pros and cons of importing food. They will also learn about world farming and how the different climate zones affect where different foods can be grown.

Ground-Breaking Greeks Project

In the Ground-breaking Greeks project, Year 5 will learn about different periods of Greek history, exploring the earliest civilisations, the devastation of the Dark Age and the breakthroughs and developments of the Archaic and Classical periods. They will understand how the geography of Greece affected the development of city states and explore Athens, learning about the structure of the government and society. They will get to know some of the most significant Athenians and understand why Greek art, culture, architecture, philosophy, medicine and mathematics were so significant. Your child will learn about the leadership of Alexander the Great and discover how ancient Greece became part of the Roman Empire after the Hellenistic period. They will explore how the Romans respected and developed Greek ideas, making them their own and spreading them throughout the Roman Empire. To end the project, your child will decide which was the ancient Greeks' greatest idea and explore how the legacy of ancient Greece affects their lives today.

Long Term Plan

Staff

Teachers:
Mr Watters (Year Lead)
Mr Baugh
Miss Paton


Teaching Assistants:
Mrs Shelton
Miss Cushman

PE Day

PE is on a Tuesday and Friday afternoon.

Useful Links

TTR - https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth

BBC Bitesize - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zv48q6f

TopMarks - https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/7-11-years/spelling-and-grammar

Spellings

Children will be learning a new spelling rule weekly in class and will be sent home with a list of spellings linked to their learning. These will be given out on Monday and should be handed in to your child’s teacher by Friday, ahead of their weekly spelling quiz.

Homework

In Year 5, we expect that children are reading at least 3 times a week at home to an adult or older sibling in order for them to succeed on their Accelerated Reader quizzes in school. Children are given an appropriately levelled book and should practise reading and understanding their book properly both at home and in school before completing a quiz on their book.

Each child also has a Timestable Rockstar login so should be improving their timetables using this at home. However, we would advise a time limit to be set on this so that children do not spend too long on their devices.

We are very lucky to have CGP books to help with children’s progress. Each week, a task will be set on Monday. Teachers will direct you to a particular task and this is to be returned on Friday.