Year 5/6 - Sycamore, Birch and Oak

Autumn Term 2019

 

Welcome to Years 5 and 6! We are very excited to begin this very challenging year. We are looking forward to seeing the work the children in Sycamore, Birch and Oak produce this term. We hope you all had a brilliant time over the summer holidays and are ready to start a very important term. In the autumn term, we will be getting the children used to the high standards set on our corridor. We are confident that the children will be settled in no time and we can start our exciting curriculum with everyone ready and prepared to learn. 

 

English

In English, we will reading our new novel, Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. This is a very exciting novel and we our confident the children will thoroughly enjoy it. We plan to use this novel as a stimulus for our reading, writing, grammar, punctuation and spelling objectives. The school will be providing each child with a copy of the story to follow along with. We are excited to see the high standard of work the children will produce around this novel.

 

Maths

Children are continuing to enter school and settle down to some basic arithmetic/fluency mathematics questions. We will be encouraging the children to give reasons for their thinking and explain any mathematical concepts they have used. Through this, we hope the children will grasp the mastery elements of what we have been learning about. We will start the term by exploring place value in numbers in to 10,000,000. The children will practise their mental strategies and be able to rely on them more often.

 

Science

Throughout this term we will be exploring the units Light and Properties and Changes of Materials. They are two brilliant units as they allow the children the chances to promote their scientific curiosity and understanding. We plan to conduct many investigations and work practically. Children are going to need to bring in a cereal box for one of our lessons. That is all we can say as we do not want to spoil the surprise! We will exploring reversible and irreversible changes. Can you think of any examples of these? Be sure to tell your teacher if you can!

 

Geography

Throughout this unit, we will be exploring the country of Japan. We have made a very exciting start to this topic and we hope this can continue. We will be learning about the culture of Japan and discovering its geographical position in the world. Also, we will be learning some key facts about the country. For example. did you know Japan is made up of four main islands? We look forward to developing our understanding of Japan as the weeks go on.

 

Music

In Music, we will be working our way through our Charanga units. We have heard some beautiful voices and cannot wait to see the children compose their own pieces of music using the instruments. Children are applying their musical skills to some M.C. Grammar raps in their English lessons.

 

 

Art / D.T.

We plan to use the topic of Japan to inspire our art and D.T. work this term. We are especially looking forward to starting our Origami unit in Art. We will be learning about all the folds and discovering what each of the symbols mean when reading instructions. We may even have the chance to create and design our own piece of Origami. In D.T. we will be looking at elements of food technology. We could not learn about Japan without making some of our own sushi! 

 

P.E.

The children in Birch and Oak will be swimming this term. Children must bring in their appropriate costumes, swimming cap and a towel. Goggles are optional. We plan to work through the objectives for Year 5 and 6 in swimming. Sycamore will be doing Dance throughout this term. They will be performing in groups, using their bodies to create unique and imaginative movements.

 

Computing

We are very busy exploring the concepts of Scratch and Microsoft Excel. There are many challenging components in both pieces of software. But the children are enjoying creating the own algorithms and spreadsheets.

 

SMSC

We love exploring the units on 1Decision. They are giving the children a good insight into the world and offering advice on how to conduct themselves as good and honest citizens, whilst keeping themselves safe at all times. Our social media unit was particularly effective. We are excited to continue learning about citizenship.

 

Children are welcome on to the playground from 8.40am. The schools takes no responsibility for children arriving before this time. Classes end each day at 3.30p.m. In the Upper School, parents who wish to have their children escorted home should make their own arrangements to have them met at the school gate and the person to escort them should be at the school no later than 3.30pm as the school cannot accept responsibility for looking after the children after that time, unless written permission is given for a club. Also, if you wish for your child to walk themselves home, written permission must be sent to the class teacher before the child can be dismissed.

 

Thank you for your continued support,

 

Mr Zaim, Mr Hannaford, Mrs Faragher, Miss Burton, Mrs Bowen and Mrs Jones.