Squirrel Class (Year 5) 2025 - 2026
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome to the class page for Squirrel Class.
Class Staff
Teacher: Miss Hought
Teaching Assistants: Mrs Bebbington and Mrs Healey
Here you will find all of the exciting and wonderful things that your child will be learning during their time in Year 5. If you have any questions, please use Class Dojo or speak to a member of our team at drop off/ pick up.
Thank you.
Miss Hought, Mrs Healey and Mrs Bebbington
Summer 1
Our English text for Summer 1 is The Lost Book of Adventure from the notebooks of the Uknown Aventurer.
The Story
Found in an attic by a group of children, this collection of journals by an "Unknown Adventurer" is packed with technical guides on bushcraft, navigation, and wildlife observation. Rather than a traditional story, the book acts as a manual for living in the wild, which has provided a fantastic focus for our lessons. We are examining how the author documents the natural world and exploring the core themes of resourcefulness, environmental stewardship, and the practical application of knowledge. By analyzing the author's precise observations and methodical approach to survival, we are going to be developing our own skills in descriptive writing, instruction-following, and logical problem-solving.
In reading, we will be exploring a mix of different genres, such as stories, poems, and facts, so children can explore all kinds of writing. By reading a range of texts, children not only improve their reading but also start to enjoy different types of books. This scheme helps them become more confident readers while learning about new ideas and topics.
We will be using our different VIPERS skills: Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise to
improve our understanding of what we read.
'Reading for Pleasure' has great amounts of benefits for your child. In Year 5, we ensure your child has time to read for pleasure and we set time aside to read our class book.
Benefits of 'reading for pleasure':
Inspires imagination and creativity.
Enrinches cultural awareness and understanding.
Increases empathy and improves relationships with others.
Lifts well-being levels and improves mood.
Improves progress in vocabulary, spelllings and even maths.
Encourages children to take a screen break.
Read with your child every day even if it is just 2 minutes- this can make all the difference.
Record in their reading diaries to ensure that your child is receiving their stamp for their book from the vending machine, or reading buddy.
You could ask your child about what they think might happen next in the story, how do they think the character is feeling, who is the author and what do they do.
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During Summer 1, we will be focusing on the following: Shape, Position and Direction and Decimals.
We would like children to continue using Times Tables Rock Starts. Times Tables knowledge is so important! It is used in all areas of maths. If your child can rapidly recall them, this will support them when solving challenging maths fluency and problem solving questions.
Children will have ongoing access to their TT Rockstars logins at home.Please ensure that your child is practising them at home as it is very beneficial for their learning.
If you have misplaced your child's login, please drop me a message on Class Dojo and I will resend for you.
This half term in Science, we will be learning about Properties of Materials.
We are currently exploring the physical properties of materials and how these dictate their uses. Rather than simply naming materials, we are testing them to understand concepts like thermal conductivity, solubility, and transparency. By conducting controlled experiments, the children are learning to categorize substances based on their observable characteristics and physical behavior. This unit focuses on evidence-based conclusions and understanding why specific materials are chosen for particular tasks in the real world.
In geography, we are going to investigate how physical geography shapes human activity. We are looking at the location of the world's major deserts, the climatic conditions that create them, and the specific adaptations humans and animals have developed to thrive in such extreme environments. The goal is to understand how desert communities manage resources like water and manage the challenges of temperature fluctuations.
Your child will have a music lesson each week where they will learn to explore their musical abilities.
In this exciting Year 5 music unit, children dive into how dance music is created using looping techniques. They’ll learn to perform looped body-percussion rhythms, layer different sounds to build depth, and play the opening section of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with precision. Students will also pick small music fragments to loop alongside a steady backbeat, and ultimately combine loops into a structured remix performance featuring two distinct layers. Through these engaging, hands-on activities, pupils develop timing, rhythm, and collaborative skills while experiencing the fun of composing and performing their own musical pieces.
Your child will have 2 P.E lessons each week. Please see the uniform timetable below for the days where PE kit or Forest School kit will be needed. This half term we will be playing Rounders and taking part in Forest School.
Each Monday, your child will bring home a homework pack to complete during the week. Monday is for reading their book, Tuesday for reading comprehension, Wednesday for spelling practice, Thursday for SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar), and Friday for maths. All homework should be returned the following Monday. This steady routine helps children build confidence and good habits. Please encourage them by setting aside a quiet time each day for them to complete their work - it really makes a difference!
Other useful links:
Please see below links to useful websites for your child to use when they are at home. I will be adding to the list throughout the course of the year so please make sure you check for updated links.
Oxford Owl - Linked to our phonics Read, Write Inc programme https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/free-ebooks/
Story Nory - A range of stories by classic authors as well as poems musicals and fairytales. https://www.storynory.com/archives/classic-authors
Story Berries- Read along with audio clips. https://www.storyberries.com
Monkey Pen- Free downloadable children’s books in PDF format. https://monkeypen.com/pages/free-childrens-books
Free Children’s Stories- https://www.freechildrenstories.com
Keeping Safe Online- www.esafety.gov.au/kids
Topmarks- A great way for children to practise many of their maths skills https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16&AgeGroup=3
Newsround is a very good outlet for your child to watch each day to gain a wider understanding of what is happening not only in our country, but the rest of the world. We will be watching newsround every afternoon in class.
Squirrel Class (Year 5): Calendar items
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