Squirrel Class (Year 5) 2024 - 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the class page for Squirrel Class.

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. 

Mrs Berry & Mrs Kelsall

Autumn 1

Our English text for Autumn1 is When We Walked on the Moon by David Long. 

'This book tells the story of the Apollo Missions, when incredible intelligence, engineering and bravery allowed humans to stand on the surface of something other than Earth for the very first time. From the 1969 first moon landing to the amazing rescue of Apollo 13, each chapter tells the story of a different mission. Humorous details bring the astronauts to life: discover how the astronauts of Apollo 12 were so over-excited when they stepped onto the Moon that Mission Control had to tell them to quieten down, and Shepard (Apollo 14) somehow managed to smuggle a golf club onto his spacecraft!'

The children will complete two pieces of writing during this unit: An exploration narrative and a formal mission log. 

Continuing along our half termly topic all about space, we will be reading 'Exploring Space', a non-fiction book by The Literacy Company. We will learn about the amazing men and women who have ventured into space and worked on the International Space Station. 

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. 

During Autumn1, we will be really focusing on building up our number knowledge and basic arithmetic skills. We will begin by looking at the place value of numbers up to one million (!) before moving onto solving problems involving adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. 

Times Tables knowledge is so important! It is used in all areas of maths, especially fractions/ decimals/ percentages which forms a large part of new learning within the Y5 Maths curriculum. 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 are going to be delving into the topic of - of course- Earth & Space! 

We will be looking at the different planets that make up our solar system, as well as how day and night are caused and the different phases of the moon. 

In Geography, we will be exploring Europe's most famous mountain range, The Alps. We will be investigating the human and physical features, as well as local activities and traditional tourism in the region. 

Your child will have a music lesson each week where they will learn to explore their musical abilities.

During Autumn 1, the children will focus on the topic 'Composition and Notation' where we will learn about different musical notes and how to write them. 

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 dodgeball and basketball! 

 Mondays- Each Monday, your child will be given 10 spellings to learn over the course of the week. They will complete a spelling test each Friday, and, if they receive a mark of 10/10,  they will get Dojo points. They will have opportunities to learn their spellings each morning in class, however, extra practice at home is essential.

Thursdays- Each Thursday, your child will be given either Maths or English homework (alternating weeks). Homework is expected to be in the following Tuesday via the portfolio section of our class Dojo page. Children who have completed their homework on time will be given Dojos

Every day- Your child should read as often as possible when not in school and this should be logged in Reading Records. 

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.