STONE AGE TO IRON AGE

Our History learning will be led by these enquiry questions:

1. What was ‘new’ about the New Stone Age?

2. Which was better, bronze or iron?

3. If you were Julius Caesar, would you have invaded Britain in 55BC?

We will complete the unit by answering the question: When do you think it was better to live – Stone Age, Bronze Age or Iron Age?

In art, we will be developing our painting skills which will be influenced by artwork that was discovered in the Lascaux caves. Throughout the topic, children will continue to develop appropriate brush strokes and techniques for larger flat areas of colour and more detailed foreground objects.

Our writing lessons include exploring several texts over the Spring term, that cover a range of genres:

• The Stone Age Boy

Our first text explores a narrative based on a timeslip adventure with a difference! We will be learning about the past progressive tense and continuing our learning about both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.

• The Secrets of Stonehenge We will be creating a double page spread linked to our history learning on the Iron Age following the structure of ‘The Secrets of Stonehenge’. We will be focusing on using modal verbs, adverbials and the use of conjunctions to form complex sentences.

• We will also be consolidating our historical knowledge through shorter pieces of cross-curricular writing.

We will also be making links to our science learning where we are investigating properties and changes of materials... 

Our learning linked to our topic 'Voyage of the Beagle' has now got a science focus. 

We have been learning about the species which inhabit the Galapagos Islands and have started to classify these animals. We have enjoyed learning about some interesting animals such as the Blue Footed Booby! 

Our class have been exploring the life cycles of different animals and comparing them. 

Black History Month 

This October, for Black History Month, we are exploring the contributions to natural history that have been made by people of Afro Caribbean origin. A famous example involves one of the greatest natural historians of our time, Charles Darwin.  Darwin makes references of his taxidermy lessons under the tuition of a freed slave. This gentleman was John Edmonstone, originally a slave from British Guyana. 

We have been busy looking at a range of sources to find out more about this extraordinary mans life. Much to our frustration, we have not found answers for all the questions we have! 

If not for a few quotes in Darwin’s autobiography, would we have ever known about the monumental contribution of John Edmonstone, a former slave from Guyana? It makes you wonder how many more significant yet undiscovered contributions people of colour have made to the study of natural history.

Monday 13th September 

Charles Darwin -  The Voyage of the Beagle Hook Day!

Today we had a hook day for our new topic. We worked our way around a carousel of activities and had the opportunity to work with the other year 5 and 6 teachers. 

With Mrs Plumley, we learnt about the history of sea exploration. It is important that we have an understanding of where the Beagle is paced in this history. 

We became scientists with Mr Hanrahan. We tested a range of liquids using litmus paper to identify if they were acidic, alkaline or neutral. Some of the results surprised us! 

We were greeted with the challenge of blowing up an inflatable globe with Mrs Paton. We recapped the location of the equator and the tropics and the continents of the world. Next, we used atlases and maps to plot the voyage of the Beagle. We finally plotted the voyage onto our inflated globes! 

Charles Darwin made some interesting discoveries with fossils so with Mrs Retter we started to look at these. Using a range or mediums, we carefully sketched fossils focussing on tone and texture. Lots of us really enjoyed using the charcoal as we like getting messy! 

Welcome to Year 5!

Our first week is now over and what a fantastic week it has been. The children have settled back into their learning with enthusiasm and have adapted to the new routines with maturity.

Your children may well have told you by now that our topic is ‘Voyage of the Beagle’ in which the children will be learning about the life and discoveries of Charles Darwin. Please find attached an overview of what we will be covering over the course of this topic. You will note on the overview that both Year 5 classes will be doing PE on Thursday and Friday. Please ensure PE kit is in school on these days.

This year the children have been given new reading records which contain a really useful glossary of grammar terminology and spelling patterns on the pages in the middle of the book. Even though the children are now in Year 5, reading continues to be our highest priority and is the area where you can support your child the most. Please make sure that you sign their reading record when your child has read or had a discussion with you about their book.

We are looking forward to working with you to ensure that your child has the best experience possible this year and makes good progress. Feel free to email us on our class emails if there is anything you would like to know or feel that we should be aware of.

Y5-AR@the-castle-primary.devon.sch.uk

Kind regards,

The Year 5 Team