Year Five Curriculum NewsletterAutumn 2024
Joy Excellence Service
"Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them."
Psalm 126:5-6
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
In RE we will start the term with a focus on Catholic Social teaching, on the theme of Community. The children will consider what makes a strong community and think about how we can work together for the good of ourselves, our school and the wider world. We will research our class Saint, St. Josephine Bakhita and learn how she is an inspirational figure for us all. We will then be learning about ourselves and that we have all been given unique gifts and talents from God. After that, we will learn about the sacrament of marriage and learn that we are all called to live in love and service to God. This will be followed by learning about Judaism where we will learn about 'Passover' and the meaning of each item on the sedar plate. This will lead us onto our final topic of the year learning about Advent and how Christians prepare for the birth of Christ.
RSHE
Our first RSHE unit is called, 'Calming the Storm'. Within this topic the children will learn the Gospel story of Jesus calming the storm. Through times of discussion, imaginative reflection and creative response, the children will learn that they are created by God who cares for us and wants us to put our faith in Him. This will be followed by our next RSHE unit entitled, 'God is Calling You’ and within this unit we will explore the nature of God’s call to love others. Children will study and imaginatively consider the story of Zacchaeus’ conversion and explore ways in which they can hear God’s call in their lives. They will learn that God calls us to love others and learn ways in which we can participate in God’s call for us to love others. We will discuss ways in which we can incorporate prayer into our daily lives.
ENGLISH
Our novels for the Autumn term will be 'Cosmic' by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and 'Cosmic Disco' by Grace Nichols. As a class, we will use these texts as a tool to practice our inference and retrieval skills as well as to practise reading texts fluently and accurately. The writing genres covered this term will be explanations, descriptive writing, poetry and narrative. The children will learn how to Use linking words and phrases between sentences and paragraphs to build cohesion as well as using their skill of choosing the right pronoun or noun within and across sentences to aid cohesion and avoid repetition. We will continue to learn about a range of prefixes and how to use fronted adverbials and relative clauses effectively.
MATHS
ln maths, we will be covering the topics of place value, focusing on reading Roman numerals to 1000, reading and writing numbers to 1,000,000, partitioning, comparing and rounding numbers. Within the topic of addition and subtraction we will look at mental strategies, adding and subtracting numbers with more than 4 digits, using the inverse operation and finding missing numbers. During our topic of multiplication and division we will be looking at multiples of numbers, factors, prime numbers, square numbers and cube numbers. Our fractions unit will focus on being able to recognise equivalent fractions, converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa, ordering fractions and adding and subtracting fractions.
SCIENCE
Our first science topic for the Autumn term is 'Forces'. We will be learning about how unsupported objects fall towards Earth because of the force of gravity. We will learn that air and water resistance are forces against motion caused by objects having to move air and water out of their way and that friction is a force against motion caused by two surfaces rubbing against each other.
Children will understand that some objects require large forces to make them move but that gears, pulleys and levers can reduce the force needed. Our second topic will be 'Earth and Space'. We will learn that there are 8 planets in our solar system. These are approximately spherical, as are the Moon and the Sun. The Sun is a star at the centre of our solar system and is our main source of light. Objects like planets, moons and stars spin and that the Earth, and other planets orbit the Sun in our Solar System.
HISTORY
In history our topic is , 'The Maya Civilization'. The children will develop an understanding of how the Maya civilization formed and changed over this period. They will discover facts about the Maya Civilization such as each city having it’s own rulers with no central They will learn how the Maya developed farming and chocolate and used it as a currency to trade with. They will also consider similarities and differences between the Maya religion and Christianity. The children will learn about the legacy of the Maya number system. and their use of telling the time.
ART/DT
We will be learning about sculpture in the Autumn term focusing on the German artist, Hilke MacIntyre. The children will learn about her life and study some of her artwork and sculptures. They will then create their own versions of her work using clay .
In Design and Technology, we will be focusing on the domain of 'Coding and Control' and learning how to use more complex mechanical and electrical systems.
MUSIC
ln music, we will be focusing on rock anthems in the first half term and jazz and improvisation in the second. The children will work through the skills of being able to listen and appraise a piece of music. They will be able to identify the pulse of a piece of music and the message within a song. They will learn to sing using the correct posture and add musical accompaniments to the pieces of music they are studying. The children will learn to create simple melodies and then perform these to the class.
MFL
In Spanish, pupils will learn a selection of the key phonemes to facilitate accurate and authentic pronunciation as part of their language learning experience. The pupils will learn to locate Spain, Madrid and a few key cities on a map. They will learn how to say their name, how they are feeling, learn how to say a selection of colours and count from 1-10 in Spanish.
P.E.
Within our indoor PE lessons, the children will be focusing on gymnastics. They will be learning to use hand apparatus to create rhythmic sequences. They will also be learning how to use both the high and low gym equipment safely. ln the second half of the Autumn term, we will be focusing on maintaining different types of balances. Our outdoor PE will focus on outdoor athletics in the first half of the term and outdoor and adventurous orienteering in the second half of the term. The children will also enjoy the Joy of Movement with Brentford Football club.
COMPUTING
In computing, the children will learn how to use the computer coding programme, 'Scratch to create an archery game'. ln their E-safety lessons, the children will be reminded of the SMART rules and how to stay safe online. In the second half of the Autumn term, the children will learn how to code and how to program games using the ‘Python’ program.
