Welcome to our Year 5 Class at St James’
Welcome to Year 5 my name is Mr Monaghan and I am the current Class teacher in Year 5. In Year 5 we are supported by a variety of Teaching Assistants. We cover a huge range of topics in Year 5, which the children will undoubtedly love exploring. As well as the World Wars, we delve into the functions of the human body (including the opportunity to dissect a heart), as well as life beyond our planet where we will be unravelling the mysteries of space and our solar system. Within Year 5, learning is not restricted to within the classroom. Children will be offered the wonderful opportunity visit the Youth Village.
There is only one rule in my classroom; try your best. If the children do that, they will thrive and have fun along the way.
Year 5 Noticeboard
- Homework is given out each Friday and should be returned for the following Tuesday
- Spellings are handed out each Friday and will be tested the following Friday. The spelling rules of that week will be reiterated during school time.
- Accelerated reader – The children will read their reading books for 15 minutes every day. The children can take their book home for extra reading, but this must come back in each day ready to read in class.
- PE in Year 5 is on Wednesday. Make sure you have your full St James PE kit.
- Please bring fresh water daily.
- We pray every day in school. Please help your child to become familiar with our prayers here Little Book of Prayers Upper KS2
Autumn Term in Year 5
This half term is unfolding nicely in Year 5, with the children working hard, making progress, and most importantly having fun along the way.
In maths, they have been up and on the move in some fun and engaging Teach Active lessons, consolidating their understanding of things like Roman numerals and place value.
The focus in Literacy recently has been on the life of children pre WW1 and will move on to diary entries from those soldiers involved in “The Great War.” The children have been starting to use ambitious vocabulary, using expanded noun phrases and persuasive language. All of this comes in preparation for their non-chronological reports in their first writing cycle of the Autumn term.
Anglo Saxons land on our shores in Year 5 History, with the children learning of the various reasons for the Jutes, Saxons and Angles arriving in Britain, and how they helped shape the country we live in today. This ties in nicely with their Settlements topic in Geography, where the children have been looking at hamlets and villages, towns and cities.
The children have also had the chance to use syncopation in music, coming up with their own beats and rhythms in groups in class, and practising familiar songs with Mr Richardson that use syncopation too. Who knew banging rulers off the desk could help you hit a learning objective in a lesson.
We will have visitors in Year 5 until October half-term, with our very own worm hotel in the classroom. The children will be learning lots about earthworms, with the longest being 3 metres long! It is all linked to our animals and plants topic, and the hope is that 8 worms will enter into the hotel; many more will leave it. The children have learnt about how these worms can reproduce on their own, creating clones of themselves.
The Year 5 children have also been enjoying their PE with coach Tom; he is a great asset for St James.
Tips on how to help your child’s learning during the Autumn Term:
- Encourage your children to practise their times tables regularly. This could be five minutes in the car, or a spare few minutes before tea. Times Tables Rockstars is a super app to use. Times tables are so important in every strand of Maths.
- When walking around the local Hebburn or Jarrow area, discuss any changes that have happened over the years and the possible reasons why. For example, an old factory could have been replaced with a block of flats, to accommodate a rising population in the area. This will support our Settlements topic in Geography.
- Children could start researching all things WWII. We are currently working on WWI, but will be moving on to WWII after half term.
