Welcome to Year 5
Our topic this term is
Marvelllous Maya
We will be investigating all the things that made the ancient Maya such a successful civilisation against all odds.
In History we will learn all about the chronology of the Ancient Maya, the origins of chocolate and its impact on trade, the Maya's beliefs, the ruler systems of the Maya city-states and the culture and daily life of the Ancient Maya. In Geography we'll study where Mesoamerica is, where cocoa beans originate and how they are transported and we'll consider the physical and human geography of Central America.
Our English will explore the texts Curiosity by Marcus Motum which we’ll use to write a Space Journey Narrative and a Formal Mission Report before moving on to use FArTHER by Graeme Bakere-Smith to write a Setting Narrative and a Letter. We'll use these books, and others from our Reading Spine, for our reading lessons too focussing on the different VIPERS comprehension strands and lots of book talk.
In Maths we'll work on the following units: Place Value, Addition & Subtraction, Multiplication & Division and Fractions. Our maths fluency will be supported by our CLIC maths sessions.
In Science we'll start with a Biology unit focussing on 'Living Things and their Habitats' and then, after half term we'll move on to a Physics unit all about 'Forces' with lots of fantastic science investigations where we’ll use our scientific enquiry skills.
For the first half term in RE we'll explore the question 'Why might ancient stories still be so important for some worldviews today? before we move on to study Incarnation and ask ourselves 'Was Jesus the messiah?'.
In MFL our German lesson will cover two units this term 'Talking about us, school subjects and opinions' and 'In the city'.
Our music lessons will be studies of 'Livin’ On a Prayer' and 'Classroom Jazz 1'.
In PE during the first half term we'll be doing Badminton and Fitness and after half term we'll be studying Dance and OAA (Outdoor Adventurous Activities). See the Autumn Newsletter for details of our PE days and PE uniform.
As part of our PSHE work we'll explore two units Being Me In My World and Celebrating Difference and will give fantastic opportunities to consider these topics in depth which we will look at alongside My Happy Mind.
In our Computing units we'll learn all about databases before we move on to learn some new coding skills.
Finally, in Art we're going to be drawing Maya masks using oil pastels and in DT we'll be exploring weaving, an important part of the Maya culture and we’ll create a woven item.