This term in RE the children will be learning about Gospels and Incarnation:

Gospels

In our Gospels topic the children will be learning:

• To identify features of Gospel texts
• To suggest meanings of Gospels, and compare their ideas with ways in which Christians interpret biblical texts
• To make connections between Gospel texts. Jesus’ Good News and how Christians live in the community.
• To relate biblical ideas, teachings or beliefs (peace, forgiveness, healing) to issues and opportunities of their own lives and the life of their community.

Incarnation

In our Incarnation topic the children will be learning:

• To understand that Jesus was Jewish
• To explain that Christians believe Jesus is God in the Flesh
• To explain that Christians believe that Jesus fulfilled the expectations as a rescuer and that he is the Messiah.
• To understand that Christians see Jesus as their Saviour.

This term we will to work on building up the children's vocabulary which can always be further extended by the children reading a wide range of texts. Specifically, we will we focusing on two texts this term: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo alongside War Game by Michael Foremann in Autumn 1 and How to train your dragon by Cressida Cowell in Autumn 2, these texts provide a fabulous link between our topics in Science, Humanities and DT.

Grammar

During our English lessons everyday we dedicate time to reinforce the children's SPAG, this term we will be teaching and reinforcing the following:

• Adverbial and prepositional phrases
• Relative pronouns
• Modal verbs and adverbs
• Determiners
• Relative clauses
• Subordinating and coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinate clauses
• Use of commas, hyphens, brackets and dashes for parenthesis.

Spelling

This term we will be revising the year 3/4 list of spellings and introducing the children to the year 5/6 list. Each child has a copy of their spellings and these are also available on our class page incase the list is misplaced. I will also attach practice strategies to support the children in learning their spellings on our class page each week. If your child is struggling with their Spellings please do let me know.

This term in Maths the children will be learning:

• To read, write, order and compare numbers to at least 1,000,000 and determine the value of each digit.
• To interpret negative numbers in context, count forwards and backwards.
• To read, write, order and compare numbers with up to 3 decimal places.
• To multiply and divide whole numbers and those involving decimals by 10, 100 and 1000.
• To identify multiples and factors, including finding all factor pairs of a number, and common factors of two numbers.
• To know and use the vocabulary of prime numbers, prime factors and composite (non-prime) numbers.
• To establish whether a number up to 100 is prime and recall prime numbers up to 19.
• To multiply and divide numbers mentally drawing upon known facts.
• To solve problems using knowledge of factors and multiples.
• To add and subtract numbers mentally with increasingly large numbers.
• To add and subtract whole numbers with more than 4 digits, including using formal written methods (columnar addition and subtraction)
• To add and subtract fractions with the same denominator and multiples of the same number.

In Science this term the children will be learning about Materials and Changing materials:

Properties of materials

In our Materials topic the children will be learning:

• To understand the properties of a range of materials and explain their uses.
• To compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their properties.

Changing materials

In our changing materials topic the children will be learning:

• To explore making and separating mixtures.
• To classify changes as reversible or irreversible.
• To use relevant scientific language to explain ideas.
• To plan comparative or fair tests.
• To report and present findings from enquiries.

Despite the horrid weather, Year 5 had an amazing time at Forest School. It was wonderful to see the children compare their own soggy experiences to the conditions experienced by the soldiers inside the Trenches during WW1. The children thoroughly enjoyed using natural materials to build dens, climbing trees, and we were even delighted by an amazing musical performance inspired by our class drumming lessons. It truly was a highly enjoyable and unforgettable experience for all.  

Our Remembrance Service:

On 11th November, Year 5 put on a lovely Remembrance service to honour and remember all those who have fought and died in conflict around the world since the beginning of World War One. I would like to say a huge thank you to all those who attended Year 5’s Remembrance Service. As I’m sure you’ll agree the service was a huge success, the children worked so hard learning their lines, songs and creating beautiful art pieces and writing moving, heart-felt poems and prayers for fallen soldiers as a thank you for their service.

Our Remembrance inspired work:

In preparation for our Remembrance service, the children created a wealth of Remembrance inspired work. They thoroughly enjoyed learning about the war this term and gaining an understanding of soldiers' experiences. 

Visiting our local War Memorial:

Following our wonderful Remembrance service, Year 5 paid a visit to our local war memorial located outside the Holy Trinity Church and paid their respects to all those who have fought and died during conflict since the beginning of WW1. The children did a wonderful job laying the wreath and honouring soldiers from our local area on behalf of our school.

During Viking Day Year 4 & 5 were visited by a real-life Viking - the mighty and ferocious Erik Leifson. Erik brought the children some of his magnificent battle weapons to examine. Some children were even given the opportunity to play fight using real weapons with Erik and make short work of him.

Year 4 & 5 got to be real-life Saxons and Vikings and take part in a shield wall, it was so much fun. The children immensely enjoyed practising real Viking formations, testing out their own battle cry and war faces and most of all clashing into each other. It was truly a magical experience and I know I would not want to face any of them on the battlefield.

After our amazing shield wall, Erik taught us about the Saxon and Viking gods by playing a game of higher and lower. Ultimately, Year 4 managed to champion a quick victory over Year 5. 

After break time, we split into two groups and took turns playing archaeologists and craftsmen. Year 5 began crafting their own rune stones, they greatly enjoyed translating their own names into runes and making their own rune stones as a keep’s sake. Erik taught us about the history of runes and how the Viking alphabet shares some similarities with our own alphabet.

Year 4 began their activity playing archaeologists before we swapped over. Playing archaeologists, the children had to examine the Saxon and Viking artefacts and use their detective and team work skills to identify no only the origin of these artefacts but to infer their use in Saxon and Viking times. The children came up with some truly unique ideas for the purpose of the artefacts and took great care handling and examining even the most minute details. I definitely think we might have a future Indiana Jones at Hazlemere School.

After lunch, we came back together and played a marvellous game of dress up. The children were able to handle and investigate the similarities and differences between Viking and Saxon clothing, before delighting in a wonderful game of dress up. The thoroughly enjoyed dressing Mrs Farmer and Mrs Woodstock up as Viking and Saxon slaves and learning how the Saxons and Viking used urine to dye their clothes.

We ended our fantastic day learning about the history and significance of burial mounds specifically those discovered at Sutton Hoo and how these provide a wealth historical evidence about life in Saxon and Viking times. All the children were fascinated to discover how the Vikings buried kings like King Raegwald along with his ship, slaves, horses, dogs and wardrobe under the earth. As a treat for being such good listeners and historians all day long, the children finished the day constructing their own burial mound for a new Queen. As a final treat, Erik even surprised a few of the children by burying them alongside their new Queen before it was time to say goodbye. A massive well done to all the children for being such inquisitive and well-behaved learners, the day was truly a wonderful and enjoyed experience by all.  

This term in RE the children will be learning about Islam and Salvation.

Islam

In our Islam topic, the children will be learning:

• Different ways of showing belief
• Sacred Muslim texts
• How the Quran helps Muslims in their daily lives.
• How Muslims worship.
• To make links between the way the Qur’an is used in a mosque and Muslim beliefs.
• To identify the impact of the Qur’an on the lives of believers.
• To ask important questions about their own and Muslim beliefs about sacred texts.

Salvation

In our Salvation topic the children will be learning:

• To understand the term 'Salvation' and how it relates to incarnation.
• To explain what Christians mean when they say that Jesus' death was a sacrifice.
• To show how Christians put their beliefs into practice.
• To make connections between Jesus' death and how Christians celebrate holy communion/last supper.
• To explain what Christians mean when they say that Jesus' death was a sacrifice
• To suggest meanings for Jesus' death.

This term in Maths the children will be learning:

• To identify, name and write equivalent fractions of a given fraction
• To compare and order fractions
• To add and subtract fractions
• To solve problems using all four operations
• To multiply fractions by whole numbers
• To solve problems involving fractions
• To convert between different units of metric measure 
• To solve problems involving converting between units of time
• To calculate and compare the area of rectangles (including squares)
• To estimate the area of irregular shapes 
• To estimate volume and capacity
• To recognise, name and solve problems involving percentages.
• To identify 3-D shapes, including cubes and other cuboids, from 2-D representations 
• To identify, describe and represent the position of a shape following a reflection or translation
• To measure and calculate the perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes in cm and m
• To estimate, compare, measure and draw angles, and to identify unknown angles.

This term we will continue to work on building up the children's vocabulary, which can always be further extended by the children reading a wide range of texts. Specifically, we will be focusing on two texts this half-term, Curiosity by Markus Motom and Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, followed by Everest by Alexandra Stewart and Joe Todd-Stanton next half-term. These texts provide a fabulous link between our topics in Science and Humanities.

Grammar

During our English lessons every day, we dedicate time to reinforcing the children's SPAG. This term we will be teaching and reinforcing the following:

• Relative pronouns
• Determiners
• Relative clauses
• Subordinating and coordinating conjunctions
• Commas
• Bracket
• Dashes
• Parenthesis

Spelling

This term Year 5 will continue to investigate the use of different suffixes and their spelling rules alongside learning homophones and words from the Year 5/6 spelling list.

• ably
• ibly
• ious
• homophones
• ant
• ent
• ance
• ence

In Science this term, the children will be learning about Space and Forces:

Space

In our Space topic the children will be learning:

• To identify, name and order the planets of our Solar System.
• To describe the movement of the Earth and other planets relative to the Sun in the Solar System.
• To describe the movement of the Moon relative to the Earth.
• To describe the Sun, Earth and Moon as spherical bodies.
• To use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky.
• To describe the Geocentric and Heliocentric models.
• To name and describe the shape and size of celestial bodies.
• To describe the orbits of celestial in our solar system and name and investigate the force that keeps them in orbit.
• To explain how and why the seasons occur.
• To list the uses of some satellites and explain why space junk poses a problem for them.

Forces

In our Forces topic the children will be learning:

• To identify forces as pushes and pulls.
• To describe gravity, friction, air resistance, water resistance and their effects on moving objects.
• To describe the relationship between mass and gravity.
• To describe the relationship between surface area and air and water resistance.
• To identify Isaac Newton's discoveries.
• To explain how to make an object aerodynamic and streamlined.
• To describe the effects of of levers, pulleys and simple machines
• To explain gravity as a force that pulls objects down.
• To identify balanced and unbalanced forces.