Hill Top Primary Academy

Year 5 Class Councillors

At the beginnning of the school year, each class vote for their class coucillors after hearing the classes' manifestos. The two children with the most votes become the class councillors for the coming year. We talk about this process with the children and talk about how this relates to Democracy and Fundemental British Values. 

The class councillors attend regular school council meetings as well as other meetings with other representives in the Leodis Trust.

Spring 1

English - Writing -In writing this half term, we will be reading two books, 'How to live forever' and 'Room 13'. We will be using these to base our writing on. 

Maths - In Maths, we have been continuing with learning long multiplication. We started with 2 digits x 2 digits and have now most of us have mastered 4 digit x 2 digits. It has been tough but we have been extremely resilient and new we would get there in the end. We are extremely proud of ourselves and each other. 

PE - This half term in PE, we will be leanring more about basketball and its rules as well as continuing our development of gymnastics - balacning, routines and working in pairs. 

History - Anne Frank - We were invited to Woodkirk Academy to take part in their Anne Frank and World war 2 exhibition. The Year 9's there did an excellent job at explaining what had happened to her and why it is important to remember. 

Writing - Poet's Laurete Week. Year 5, took part in a national Poetry week. We started the week, with a live lesson from two poet's who inspired us to write a poem called, 'I want to write a poem'. We then delved deeper into the world of poetry - imagery, personification, rhyme, stanzas, hakui, narrative and much more!

Writing - In our writing lessons this half term, we are reading the book, 'Hidden Figures'. This is the true story of four black women and the Space Race. It covers themes such as discrimination, gender equality, determination, hard work and persistence. We will be writing two pieces of non-fiction based on this book - a biography about Katherine Johnson (one of the four women) and a newspaper report about the moon landings. 

Geography - Our topic this half term has been, Marvellous Maps. We have learnt how to use, map symbols, compassess and 4/6 grid references. In our last lesson we used OS maps of different areas in England and put out knowledge to the test to create a journey for another group. 

DT - Doodlers This week as part of our DT, we designed and made our own doodlers in groups of four. We used an electrical circuit to power the doodlers. They look and worked great!

Science - Our unit in science this half term has been, "Earth and Space'. We have been learning about the solar system, Earth's rotation causing day/night and the Moon's orbit. Our investiagtion this week, was to understand why shadows moved throughout the day and how this showed the rotation of the Earth. 

French - We have started this year's French Spelling Bee. Everyone who took part was amazing. Here are winners, who are going through to the next round. 

Reindeer Run

We had a great time being reindeers and chasing after Santa to raise money for Wakefield Hospice. 

PE - Rock and Roll - This half term, we have our dance unit. We started with Rock and Roll. We learnt the hand jive, rock and roll spins as well as kicks and movement. Working in groups of four we choreographed our own rountines to the beat of eight. 

PE - Netball - Our second unit in PE this half term is Netball. 

Writing - In our English writing lessons thos half term, we are using the book, 'The Odessey', by Gillain Cross. 

Odysseus, its hero, faces strom and shipwreck, terrfifying monsters and the fury of the gods as he journeys home after the TRojan war. Will he ever get there - and what will he find if he does? 

Class Text - As part of our history topic, 'Ancient Greece', we have started the book, Who Let the Gods Out', by Maz Evans as our class book. 

Ready, Steady Reading Text - Each week we complete reading lessons where we study and learn about different aspects of a book in greater detail. Over the last two weeks, we have looked at the Eyewitness - Planets book and discussed layout, answersed questions by skimming the text and learnt some new vocabulary. 

Writing - As part of our writing unit based on, 'The Odyssey', we wrote in role as the main character - Odyesseus. In order to help us complete this task, we used hot seating - an activity where one person 'the hot seater' assumes the role of a charcater and then is questioned by the rest of the class.

Music - In Year 5, we are all learning to play the violas with Mr Jackson from Artforms. We have had a fabulous term learning how to pluck the strings and take care of them. Next term, we are looking forward to introducing the bows. 

Art - In art this half term,out unit of work is called 'Typograpghy and Maps. In our first lesson, we used shapes cu out of black paper to create our names. 

Maths - In our first three weeks back in Year 5, we have been revisiting place value up to 100,000 and learning about number up to 1 millon. This has included paritioning, ordering, rounding and Roman Numerals. Here are some photos of us making different Roman Numerals using cocktail sticks. 

French - In Year 5, we will be continuing with our French lessons with Madame Bex. We loved seeing her again and started the year by recapping greeting and competing a quiz all about what we could remeber about France. This half term, we will be learning all about French food and we can't wait! 

Today, we learnt all about breakfast foods in French and learnt a new french song to the tune of 'The Hokey Pokey'! We then played a game - first finger first - which recalled our knowledge of the french food words. 

PE - In PE this half term, our units are Handball and Fitness. In Handball, we have been learning the rules of the game and how to dribble. Today we played some team games to put our knowledge to practice. 

Science - Our first science unit of the year is, 'Living Things and their Habitats'. We have learnt more about the five animal groups and how they reproduce and different gestation time as well as reproduction in plants. The photographs below show how we dissected flowers in order to investigate the male and female parts. We then found out more abut the different ways seeds dispersed and discussed whch method of seed disperal we thought would be the best. 

Computing - Stem Workshop -Today, the children took part in s STEM workshop which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. They learnt abot micro bits, trying to crack codes as well as how they need to be safe at all times when online. 

All Around the World Day - India - We had a fabulous day learning all about India. We complied all our research into a non-chronological report which included location, population and weather, food, fashion, religion and famous landmarks. Throughout the day, we tried different food including popodoms, mango chutney, naan bread, onion bhaji and vegetable samosas. We finished the day by completing some Indian elephant artwork.