Welcome to Class 5
Mrs Galpin - Class Teacher
Miss Budworth – Teaching Assistant
Mrs Dennett – Teaching Assistant
St Andrew’s Reading Spine 2022-2023 – Year 5
Summer Term 1
The first term of Summer sees us diving into our ‘Space’ topic. Here is a sneaky peek of what’s to come…
Salisbury Museum Outreach Visitor - Owain Hughes
A fantastic afternoon was had by all in Year 5 with a visit from Owain Hughes, our local expert from Salisbury Museum. Owain enriched our experience of Medieval Salisbury with his knowledge and fun anecdotes about life up at Old Sarum. Surprisingly, there was no uptake for the position of ‘Gong Farmer’. We used our knowledge of scoring, slipping and smoothing to recreate the Laverstock Ware, using a replica jug as inspiration for our designs.
STEM Activities
Science fun days have challenged and extended our thinking this term. We have used ratio and scaling to create a model, using ‘two-point perspective’ to sketch the design and support our calculations. Red Nose Day coincided with a fantastic day of science where we learnt about the forces of friction interacting between different surfaces.
Spring Term 2
Our topic for this term is ‘Medieval Salisbury’. We will be researching the history of our local area and walking in the footprints of the past. We have already discovered that we have a special link to the ‘Domesday Book’. King William I met his noblemen at Old Sarum to collate all the information of land ownership throughout England. Indeed, at Old Sarum, the King demanded his barons and knights swear an ‘Oath of Loyalty’ to him to try and control unrest. A recent visit to St Andrew’s Church, hosted by Bryan Evans, our local expert historian, opened up a world of Medieval stories within our very own Church walls. Connecting our art and craft to the past, we shall be recreating the ‘Laverstock Ware’ that supplied Clarendon Palace, and beyond, during the Middle Ages.
If you have any interesting stories, artefacts or information about the local area, spanning the Medieval Period, then please do share this with us. It would be wonderful to share this learning with you.
Spring Term 1
The Viking Boy has captivated us this term. This historical fiction text has so many references to real Viking facts and events that we could truly immerse ourselves in the Viking world. We explored the human geography of invasion routes and migration paths across Europe and the wider world. It was also fascinating to look at the legacy of place-names (and people’s names), such as York and Dublin, within the UK and Ireland.
What a pleasure to watch our Year 5 pupils perform their very own Viking Sagas in our outside theatre, with hot chocolate and marshmallows for the half-time interval!
Autumn Term 2
Studying ‘Active Volcanoes’ was the theme for this term’s learning. Not only did we research the areas of the world where volcanoes and earthquakes are active, we also studied the science and physical geography behind plate tectonics, investigating convergent and divergent plate boundaries. A balanced argument followed to consider the reasons ‘for and against’ living next to volcanoes. With our book set in Ethiopia, we learned much about the geography and history of this interesting African country. From the early Christian churches of Lalibela to the ‘Camel Caravans’ in the Danakil Depression, the journey through Ethiopia’s past and present was an exciting adventure.
Using all of this learning as inspiration, Year 5 created their own shield and composite volcanoes in DT, with a choice of a pneumatic or hydraulic system within the DT design.
BMX Workshop
A massive ‘thank-you’ to Mrs Morgan for organising this stupendous BMX workshop, which was enthusiastically enjoyed by all. Year 5 learned to ‘FLEARN’. A fail is to learn.
Autumn Term 1
Sky Hawk – a wonderful book by Gill Lewis set in the Highlands of Scotland – was our inspiration this term. We followed the migration path of Iris, an endangered osprey, from her Summer home in Scotland to her ‘Winter’ home in The Gambia, Africa. This allowed us to study the counties and countries of the UK, together with their ancient volcanic mountains; Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh Castle and Glen Coe, the super-volcano, featured in our research. In addition, we located countries over Western Europe and into Western Africa. We touched upon the biomes of the Sahara Desert and the Mangrove Forest of The Gambia. Our own versions of Sky Hawk have been published in our Class Book. A study of book illustration, with an initial focus on ‘Shaun Tan’ helped us to create our own illustrations for our creative writing. During the process, we improved our sketching and painting techniques.