Welcome to Year 5 - Topaz Class
Staff
Miss A Paget
Topaz
BA (Hons) PGCE
Hi, my name is Miss Paget and I am the current year 4 and 5 teacher in Topaz class. As well as this, I am also the design technology lead across school. I am passionate about giving children opportunities to try new and exciting things that are
Mrs S Hankin
Topaz
PE Day & PE Kit
PE will take place on Thursday.
Please ensure you child comes to school in their PE Kit on that day.
What's New
Download Timetable
Snack Money
Morning snack can be sent from home or purchased from school. Anyone buying snack from school must commit to the whole week and pay via ParentPay on Monday morning before 8:30am. The maximum amount snack will cost is £2.50 per week. There is also an option to pay for the whole term.
Reading Books
Reading Books will usually be changed Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please read with your child every night and sign their reading record.
Knowledge Organiser
You have been given a Knowledge Organiser and Homework Grid with some tasks relating to our topic.
Each week we will have a focus that has been covered on the Knowledge Organiser.
Homework
Maths and spellings are given out every Friday. These are to be brought in on the following Friday in preparation for their spelling test.
Children will get up to 15 spellings per week to learn at home.
Common exception words:
Year 5/6
Homework Grid:
Recent Terms Archive
Welcome to Topaz Class
Overview
Class Topics For Each Half Term
Topic
Themes to be explored
Autumn 1:
Amazon Adventures
This is a geography topic where the children will learn about the Amazon Rainforest, one of the world’s most important biomes. The children will use maps and atlases to find the Amazon in South America and understand just how vast it is. They will discover the different layers of the rainforest, from the forest floor to the canopy, and learn about the amazing animals and plants that live there. As part of their physical geography learning, the children will explore how the rainforest is affected by climate change and deforestation. They will also think about the people who live in and around the rainforest and why this environment matters for the whole world. In our writing lessons, the children will produce non-chronological reports about some of the incredible animals of the rainforest, as well as creating descriptive and narrative pieces inspired by this unique environment.
Links to support learning: Geography
Autumn 2:
Who were the Maya?
This is a History Topic, where the children will learn about the Mayans – an ancient civilisation from modern day Mexico. The children will explore the Mayan way of life, learning about their advanced achievements in writing as well as their number and calendar systems. We will discover how the Maya became famous for hot chocolate and the children will create some chocolate flavoured drinks of their own to help inspire their writing. During this topic, we will also learn about significance of Mayan masks and how these played a part in their everyday lives, from weddings to battle and even to honour the dead! Within art, we will be making our own Mayan masks from clay, as we develop our modelling techniques.
Links to support learning: History
Spring 1:
Doctor! Doctor!
This is a history topic where the children will explore how medicine has changed over time. The children will become history detectives, using their enquiry skills to investigate how ideas about health and treatments developed — from the medicines and beliefs of Ancient Greece, through the challenges of the medieval period and the plague, to the impact of World War I and the advances of modern medicine. They will learn about significant changes within living memory as well as developments across a much longer period of history, helping them to see how our world has been shaped by the past.
Links to support learning: History
This is a literacy topic, where the children will be carrying out an author study. Over the course of this topic, the children will use the author for inspiration for their own writing, gathering lots of ideas and rich vocabulary for their work. These pieces will open the door for lots of drama and group work, to help the children to be creative and bring their writing to life! This topic develops not only reading and writing skills but also drama and performance skills, encouraging children to bring stories to life, and links to PSHE themes such as fairness, resilience and standing up for what is right.
Links to support learning: Online Reading
Summer 1:
London Calling!
This is a history topic, where the children will learn about British History, with a focus on London. During this term, the children will travel back in time to discover what life was like in London in the 1600s and how a small spark, which started in a bakery on Pudding Lane, turned into the most devastating fire in British history. This topic will give the children the opportunity to practise more formal writing styles and experiment with new vocabulary. As part of this unit, the children will also link their learning to our Year 5 visit to London, where they will experience the magic of the West End but also link their classroom learning to different locations in London which were impacted by the blaze.
Links to support learning: History
Summer 2:
This is a geography topic where the children will learn about the features of coastlines. The children will explore key physical geography concepts such as erosion and identify coastal features including arches, stacks, stumps, cliffs and caves. They will investigate the impact of climate change and the importance of sustainability, learning how human activity can affect coastal environments. As part of the topic, the children will go on a trip to the coast to see these features in person and develop their map-reading and orienteering skills. In literacy, A Giant’s Necklace by Michael Morpurgo will inspire our writing.
Links to support learning: Geography