Welcome back to summer - 2023

I do hope that you have had a fun break filled with lots of celebrations with loved ones. The Spring term is a short but busy one and the class worked hard as we tried to fit in lots of new learning. We really enjoyed the book 'Boy at the Back of the Class' and will finish reading this as our story time book. This term we will be using three class texts that will fit in with our humanities topic 'Journeys'. The first is the book 'The Explorer' by Katherine Rundell. We will also be using the picture books 'Flotsam' by David Weisner and 'Journey' by Aaron Becker. These are three new books to me and I'm excited to share them with the class.

For full details of the areas that will be covered this term please see the specific subject and curriculum overviews below. 

As always - homework will be set each week on MyMaths when appropriate to the learning done in class. I encourage the children to read regularly at home as this is the best way for them to improve the fluency of their reading and to discover the beautiful worlds that live inside each and every book. The children should also try to access Spelling Shed and TTRockstars each week to support their maths and English work.

PE will continue to be on Friday afternoons. As we will be working on team sports in including cricket and athletics, we will be using the outside as much as possible this term. Please ensure that the children are wearing the appropriate school PE uniform especially as the weather can still be very unpredictable at any time of year.

Kind regards

Mr Kealoha

 Year 5 recommended reading list  

It was lovely to meet and speak to so many parents at our most recent parents evening. One thing that popped up several times was how to help children foster a love of reading in the home environment. One way to do this is to have a great selection of books for them to read. Many parents have asked for guidance on this so I have prepared a list of books, appropriate to year 5. These have been separated into contemporary fiction, classic fiction, poetry, playscripts and non-fiction books. I have also added notes about the books to help guide you before looking to purchase. Although not an exhaustive list, it should be a good place to start. I hope you find it useful.

You can view or download it below. 

 A focus on vocabulary 

Each month we will be focusing on a selection of 10 words that can be used to help the children develop their vocabulary. Please try to discuss these words with the children, especially where they can be discussed in a real world context. Try using them in a sentence, search for them in books or if you can hear them being used in films.

Below you can find the lists. They will be updated each month and will have the previous and current months word lists.

          

Welcome back year 5

I hope that you have had a lovely summer and that you are looking forward to getting started on all of the new learning that we will be doing this year. I am excited about working with my new class and getting to know each and every one of them.

As we enter the upper juniors, we have the chance to  really investigate some wonderful topic areas. This term we will start with a geography topic titled 'Changes in our local environment', that will afford us the chance to really understand our local environment and how changes to it can affect the community that live here. After that, we will be learning about the Anglo-Saxons which was a time of great change within Great Britain.

In literacy we will work from two texts - Anglo-Saxon Boy by Tony Bradman and Clockwork by Phillip Pullman. Both, beautifully descriptive books, are filled with excitement and mystery.

Please ensure that children come to school on Friday, ready for P.E. You can find details about appropriate uniform on our school website.

Home work will be set each week for maths, timetables and spellings. Each child has been provided with a sheet to take home that has their passwords for each website. If you have problems accessing them, please get in contact. 

We also ask that children read one of their school books regularly at home, either independently or with someone else. You can record these sessions in the reading journals that have also been provided.

If your child uses Lexia or Nessy they will also be able to access these outside of school to ensure that they have the appropriate time to practise them.

If you have any queries, you can contact me via the school office.

Regards

Mr Kealoha (Year 5 class teacher).