Welcome back Year 5. It is wonderful to have everyone back in school and we are looking forward to the exciting year ahead.

Our topic this term is ‘The Victorians’. Please find the learning we have planned for you below.

English

Our class text is Berlie Doherty’s Street Child.  It tells the story of a young orphan, Jim Jarvis, who escapes a Victorian workhouse. He survives during desperate circumstances until he is taken in by Dr. Barnardo, founder of a school for the city’s poor children.

We will be reading this book as part of our daily story time and the children will be writing diaries from the perspective of Jim. This book will also be used to inspire a whole class debate on child labour laws and the use of workhouses. The children will then write persuasive letters to Lord Shaftesbury to persuade him to change the child labour laws.

 

Maths 

This term, we will be recapping basic calculation and the place value of numbers up to 1,000,000.

We will then be working on addition and subtraction of up to 5-digit numbers.

In Autumn 2, we will be working on multiplication and division.

 

Science 

Our topic this half term is ‘Forces’. We will be learning about gravity and Sir Isaac Newton. We will be conducting experiments investigating air resistance, water resistance and friction. We will explore how levers, pulleys and gears work and invent our own ‘Marvellous Mechanisms’.

Next half term, our topic is ‘Properties and changes in materials’. As part of this unit, we will be investigating a range of materials and their properties. We will be learning about thermal conductors and insulators and investigate how well ice cubes are insulated in different materials. We be investigating soluble and insoluble solutions and observing how temperature can affect dissolving. We will be separating mixtures through filtration, magnetic attraction, evaporation and sieving. Finally, we will end the unit with learning about reversible and irreversible changes in our own investigation.

 

History

During our topic work, Year 5 will be learning about Queen Victoria and her reign. They will learn about the industrial revolution

We will compare what life was like for rich and poor Victorians and make comparisons to our lives today. The children will learn what life was like for many Victorian children and the gruesome jobs that they were given.

Due to the current climate with Covid-19, we may be unable to visit Armley Mills as we usually would. Instead, we plan to hold a Victorian day at school where the children can dress as Victorian children and experience a Victorian school day. More details will follow shortly.

During Autumn 2, the children will continue learning about the Victorian era. They will conduct a local area study and take part in a walk around the local area. We will be learning about how the local area has changed since the Victorian period. The children will produce an informative leaflet for the next Year 5s to learn about our local area. We will be learning about crime and punishment during the Victorian times and looking at Victorian inventions. At the end of the half term, we will be learning about Christmas during this time and comparing which traditions still exist today.

 

Art 

As part of our art work this half term, we will be creating portraits in the style of Victorian art. We will be developing our sketching and shading skills and using pencils to create our portraits.

Next half term, we will be learning about L.S.Lowry and his artwork. We will create our own sketches and watercolour paintings in the style of Lowry and parents will be invited to our Lowry exhibition.

 

DT

In Autumn 2, we will looking at Victorian toys and create our own moving toys using cogs, dowels and shoe boxes.

Spanish

We will be learning useful phrases, working on our Spanish phonics, asking questions and working on how to tell the time.

 

RE – Why are places and journeys special?

We will learn about different places of pilgrimage for different religions. We will learn about The Western Wall, Makkah and Vatican City.

 

PHSE – Identity and Equality

During this unit, we will be exploring stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice. We will be learning about discriminatory language and how it can make people feel.

 

PE

This half term, we will be working on creating a dance based on Victorian playground games.

 

 

Kirsty Brookes

Author Kirsty Brookes

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