Welcome back to Autumn 2!
We hope you have all had a lovely half term break.
This half term is always busy with the lead up to Christmas and we are looking forward to teaching some exciting lessons and immersing the children in some wonderful experiences!
VIPERS
In VIPERS this half term, we are reading 'What the Moon Saw' by Laura Resau.
The synopsis reads: The main character, fourteen-year-old Clara Luna, moves from Maryland to her family's native village in rural southern Mexico for the summer, where she discovers a new way of living and of understanding herself. The chapters alternate between Clara's and her grandmother's stories, allowing the reader a glimpse of Mixtec culture and Clara's self-discovery as she learns more about her ancestral home.
We will be continuing to use all of our reading skills to make inferences, predictions and retrieve information from the text.
ENGLISH
Our first writing unit focuses on the Disney Pixar film, Coco. This ties in nicely with our Mexico theme as the film follows 12 year old Miguel who is accidentally transported to the Land of the Dead during the Mexican festival 'Day of the Dead' (el Día de los Muertos).
During our second unit of writing, the children will look at advertisements and produce their own advert persuading people to visit Mexico.
Finally, we will finish the term with a focus on poetry.
MATHS
This half term, we will be continuing with multiplication and division.Children will develop an understanding of: factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers, prime factors, square and cube numbers. They will then learn how identifying and using inverse operations can help solve and check calculations when X and ÷ whole numbers by 10, 100 and 1,000.
Following this, we will focus on fractions, which is the first of the two fraction blocks taught in Year 5. Children will continue to develop their understanding of equivalent fractions and learn how to convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers. They will also build on the skills developed in Year 4; progressing from adding and subtracting fractions to adding and subtracting mixed numbers.
As well as teaching these units, we will also be focusing on developing children's fluency arithmetic through daily practice.
SCIENCE
Our Science this half term will focus on Materials: 'Are all materials the same?' Lessons will look at how materials can be grouped and compared, and whether materials can be dissolved and, if so, can they be recovered to their former state.
GEOGRAPHY
Our topic this half term will focus on Mexico City.
Over the course of 5 enquiry questions, the children will answer the question, 'What daily challenges does its inhabitants face?' As well as locating Mexico City and looking at its climate, we will also be focusing on the different pollution problems the city faces and determining why the city is slowly sinking.
DT
The children will be learning about food and nutrition for this unit. They will be taught about the importance of safety and hygiene before adapting a biscuit recipe. They will then have the opportunity to make their biscuits and evaluate the end product.
PE
Our focus this half term is gymnastics - balances and counterbalances.
OTHER CURRICULUM AREAS
MUSIC - As Christmas approaches, we will be answering the question, 'How can celebrations be discovered in music?' We will look into how music is woven into Christmas traditions.
RE - We will be covering two areas this half term. The first will focus on Sikhism and what their beliefs and traditions are. The second, will seek to answer the question, 'Is the Christmas story true?'
PSHE - Our focal point for these lessons will be on valuing differences. We will be asking, 'What qualities make a good friend?', looking at the dangers of stereotyping and focusing on why it's important to be 'Happy being me'.
P.E Timetable:
For Rowan Class, P.E will be taking place on Tuesday morning and Friday afternoon. We ask that children bring their P.E kit in to school for the whole week to get changed at school.
P.E Kit requirements:
-Sky Blue Biscovey Academy t-shirt
-Navy Blue Biscovey Academy hoody
-Black shorts (black tracksuit bottoms can be worn for outside P.E. when the weather is cold)
-Trainers.