Skylarks 2022 - 2023

Welcome to Skylarks’ Class Page 

Our class teacher is Miss Beattie and our teaching assistant is Mr Beswick. 

We can’t wait to go on an exciting learning journey with you this year!

Look what we learn about in Year 5:

Spring Term 2023

During the Spring Term we will continue to explore our class theme ‘Identity’. We will be using a range of sources to enquire about the Viking and Anglo Saxon arrival in Britain and the impact of this on the British way of life. We will use our mapping skills to help us locate the countries and capital cities where the Vikings travelled to and from.

Writing

During the Spring Term we will focus on a further two texts to inspire our writing. First, we will be exploring Norse Mythology and writing our own myths based on the book 'Arthur and the Golden Rope' by Joe Todd-Stanton. This will fit in wonderfully with our learning on the Vikings in the foundation subjects. During this unit of work we will focus on using expanded noun phrases, relative clauses, paragraphs and commas to avoid ambiguity.

We will then be reading ‘Malala's Magic Pencil' by Malala Yousafzai . We will use this beautiful story of Malala's life to help us write an autobiography about her life. During this unit we will focus on using a variety of conjunctions, adverbials to link ideas, relative clauses and brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis. 

Maths

During the Spring Term will be continuing to work on the Year 5 objectives, consolidating our learning from the Autumn Term and moving on to look at some new concepts. We will be focusing on formal written methods for multiplication and division, as well as fractions, decimals and percentages. We will also revisit the four operations regularly through daily 4-A-Day activities.

Autumn Term 2022

During the Autumn Term we will explore our class theme ‘Identity’. We will be developing our inquiry skills by asking and answering historical questions about our local ancestors and will be completing a local history study on Lostock Gralam. We will also explore questions about who we are, where we come from and how Lostock has changed over time. We will learn about key aspects of Northwich's history including the Lion Salt Works, Anderton Boat Lift and Robert's Bakery. 

Writing

This term we will be focusing on two lovely texts to inspire our writing. First, we will be focusing on writing a series of diary entries based on the book ‘Queen of the Falls’ by Chris Van Allsburg. During this unit of work we will be using commas after fronted adverbials and to clarify meaning, as well as organising paragraphs around a theme. 

We will then be reading ‘The Lost Happy Endings’ by Carol Ann Duffy and Jane Ray. We will use this enchanting story to help us write our own traditional tale. We will be focussing on developing characters and settings through selecting effective vocabulary and integrating speech to move the action along.

Maths

During the Autumn Term will be working to consolidate our maths learning from Year 4 and introduce new Year 5 concepts. We will be focusing on Place Value of numbers within 1,000,000, the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and statistics (graphs and tables).

Homework

Maths

Children in Skylarks Class will be set a weekly maths homework to further support their understanding of the mathematical concepts we have covered in school. This homework will be set on a Friday and should be completed, marked and returned to school the following Friday.

If for any reason your child is unable to complete their homework at home, please encourage them to speak to Mr Beswick or I as we would be happy to set aside some time to go through this with them. 

Times Tables

Times Tables will remain a big focus for us this year. It is very important that children are fluent in their times table facts as they form the basis of many other mathematical concepts. Children will be set a specific table to learn and will be tested on a weekly basis. We encourage all children to practice their times tables at home. A fun way to do this is on Times Tables Rock Stars and Hit the Button. You will find your child’s login for TTRS stuck in their homework diary.

Reading and Spellings

Your child will bring home a lovely book from school to enjoy reading at home. When your child reads at home, either independently or with you, they should record this in their homework diary and have it signed by an adult. Children should spend 20 minutes reading each evening. 

Spellings will be set on a Friday and tested the following Friday. Please spend 5 minutes daily practicing your child’s spellings with them. Spellings will be posted on our Skylarks blog the week before the test where they can be accessed from home at any time.

Please note that PE for your child will be on a Wednesday during the Spring Term. Your child should come to school dressed in their PE kit on this day.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in contact. 

Miss Beattie x