Welcome to Autumn Term

 

Welcome to Year 5, Hawthrone Class! 

Dynamic Dynasties 

 

For our first term we will be studying the history topic Dynamic Dynasties. This project teaches children about the history of ancient China, focusing primarily on the Shang Dynasty, and explores the lasting legacy of the first five Chinese dynasties, some of which can still be seen in the world today.

At the bottom of this page are documents – vocabulary, a knowledge organiser and home learning tasks for these units. The home learning tasks are optional and do not need to be brought into school but will support your child's learning.

Literacy

We will learn to read, write, speak and listen through different units based on high-quality texts. This term the theme of our stories is ambition and desire. We will begin this term by basing our writing on the book 'The Man Who Walked Between the Towers' by Mordicai Gerstein, which demonstrates how a real life story can be portrayed as fiction. They consider a diary entry found written by Philippe Petit just before he leaves to walk between the towers and write letters of advice to him, considering the pros and cons. After reading up to the point of the act, children write a recount in the first person as the main character. As witnesses and reporters, they create news updates for The New York Times or write content for an American news programme. They will also role play making a speech as Philippe Petit in court, defending himself and his actions. Finally, the children gather everything they have learnt about Philippe Petit and write a biographical account of his life, researching where needed to fill in gaps about childhood and events prior to this.

Reading

We are delighted to be starting an exciting new reading scheme this year. The children will learn how to read and evaluate a range of texts including fiction, non-fiction and poetry. We will be learning the reading skills of prediction, inference, clarification, evaluation, questioning and making links. We will begin this term by reading a non-fiction text about Sau Lan Wu, who was a female scientist. 

Maths

At Oaklands, we teach through the White Rose scheme. We will start our term by focusing on place value, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division and the start of our fractions unit. In our place value topic we will be looking at diving numbers into thousands, hundreds, tens and ones and even moving onto partitioning numbers up to 1,000,000! We will be completing the addition and subtraction of numbers up to 4 digits as well as multistep word problems involving this skill. We will also be learning to divide and multiply by 10, 100 and 1000 as well as looking at common factors and prime numbers. 

Science

Our first project this term is 'Forces and Mechanisms'. This project teaches children about the forces of gravity, air resistance, water resistance and friction, with children exploring their effects. They learn about mechanisms, their uses and how they allow a smaller effort to have a greater effect. We then move onto 'Earth and Space'. This project teaches children about our Solar System and its spherical celestial bodies. They describe the movements of the Earth and the other planets relative to the Sun, the Moon relative to Earth, and the Earth's rotation to explain day and night.

Computing

We use Purple Mash to help with our Computing learning. This term we will be working on quizzing, databases and creating games. 

French

Language Angels is the scheme we use for French teaching at Oaklands. This term we will learn about how to say the date before moving onto practising ordering food and drink in a restaurant/café!

Music

We have moved onto a new scheme – Get Set 4 Music – using the same platform as our PE lessons. We will start to learn about African music and music relating to the Vikings. This scheme also incorporates elements of music history, as well as opportunities to compose their own pieces with instruments. 

PE

Our PE days are Wednesdays and Fridays. On both of these days, your child can come into school in their full Pe kit and suitable footwear. This term we are beginning with Gymnastics and Basketball. One lesson will be taught by myself, Miss Mason, and the other lesson will be taught by Mrs Bissmire. 

Homework

Reading: Every night (15 minutes)Reading books will be changed on a Tuesday and each pupil will take two books home depending on their level of reading ability. Please make sure children have their books available to read every day.

Timetable Rock Stars: Daily practice of timetables is strongly recommended. Recalling timetables improves memory skills, which is a transferrable skill that will help throughout school and into adult life. Children will find it easier to solve maths problems and to do mental arithmetic if they have already memorised their timetables.

A piece of homework to support learning in class will be given out every other week on a Friday and will be due on the following Wednesday in homework books.

On Thursday afternoons, Mrs Bissmire and Ms McGrath will teach PE and PHSE/RSE. If you, or anyone you know, has skills or knowledge that could enrich our in-class learning, we would love to hear from you and see if we can make use of this in our lessons. 

If you have any concerns or questions regarding your child, please contact the school office (admin@oaklands.herts.sch.uk) to arrange a meeting. 

Kind regards,

Miss Mason

PE and Art Lead

Class Teacher