Welcome to Seals Class!
Miss Bailey welcomes the Year 5's to Seals Class.
Novel Study
Summer 1
Skellig by David Almond
When a move to a new house coincides with his baby sister's illness, Michael's world seems suddenly lonely and uncertain. Then, one Sunday afternoon, he stumbles into the old, ramshackle garage of his new home, and finds something magical. A strange creature - part owl, part angel, a being who needs Michael's help if he is to survive. With his new friend Mina, Michael nourishes Skellig back to health, while his baby sister languishes in the hospital. But Skellig is far more than he at first appears, and as he helps Michael breathe life into his tiny sister, Michael's world changes for ever .
Novel Study
Summer 2
Goodnight Mister Tom - Michelle Magorian
When the Second World War breaks out, young Willie Beech is evacuated to the countryside. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care of old Tom Oakley. But then his cruel mother summons him back to war-torn London… Will he ever see Mister Tom again?
Shape
This step introduces degrees as a unit of measure for turn, including the degree symbol. Children explore the fact that there are 360° in a full turn, and therefore 180° in half a turn, 90° in a quarter turn (or right angle) and 270° in a three-quarter turn. They use this knowledge and the language of clockwise and anticlockwise to describe turns, including in the context of compass directions and clocks. Children may begin to recognise other common angles, such as 45° being half a right angle, but there is no requirement to measure or explore more complex angles, such as 67° or 241°, at this point, as this is covered in later steps.
Position and Direction
In this small step, they recap reading and plotting coordinates on a coordinate grid. They still work only within the first quadrant (positive numbers for both coordinates), with the four-quadrant grid being taught in Year 6 Remind children what a coordinate looks like and what each number refers to. Highlight the importance of reading and plotting the x-value of the coordinate first. Children identify the coordinates of given points on a grid, then move on to plotting points with given coordinates. This can lead to drawing shapes on a coordinate grid with given coordinates or working out the coordinates of a shape from known information.
Decimals
In this small step, children add and subtract decimals within 1 whole using known facts. They will move on to using a formal method to add and subtract decimals later in this block. Through unitising, children are able to make connections between whole numbers and decimals. For example, 7 ones + 9 ones = 16 ones, therefore 7 hundredths + 9 hundredths = 16 hundredths. Ensure that children have a good understanding of place value, as a common error is to ignore the place value of decimals, leading to incorrect calculations such as 0.48 + 0.3 = 0.51. Using a stem sentence allows children to recognise that the unit they are adding or subtracting must be the same, so in this example 48 hundredths + 30 hundredths = 78 hundredths. Hundred squares and place value charts are useful representations to support children when adding and subtracting decimals within 1 whole.
Negative Numbers
In this small step, children are introduced to negative numbers for the first time. The focus of this step is exploring negative numbers in real-life contexts, including temperatures, distances above and below sea level and floors in a building that go underground. In this first step, only vertical representations are used to develop understanding of the concept. Draw attention to the fact that negative numbers can be seen as a reflection of the positive numbers. This will help to avoid the common misconception of counting 3, 2, 1, 0, −10, −9, −8 …
Converting Units
Children first encountered kilograms in Year 3 and kilometres in Year 4. This small step revisits both of these units of measure and their relationships to grams and metres, respectively. Begin by discussing what units of measure are and how different units of measure are used for different purposes. Remind children of what kilograms and kilometres are, discussing examples of when each would be used. Then explain that the prefix “kilo-” always means one thousand, so 1,000 grams is equivalent to 1 kilogram and 1,000 metres is equivalent to 1 kilometre. Bar models and double number lines are useful representations for showing the conversions. Make links to multiplying and dividing integers and decimals by 1,000, covered earlier in the year.
Volume
In this small step, they learn that volume refers to the amount of three-dimensional space an object takes up, and they measure volume using cubes. Children make simple shapes with interlocking cubes and describe the volume of each shape in terms of the number of cubes. They then look at pictorial representations and work out how many cubes there are in each shape, including counting the cubes that cannot be seen in the picture. They then find the volume of a variety of shapes, using both concrete and pictorial representations, using the fact that each cube has a volume of one cubic centimetre (written 1 cm3). Finally, they make and measure the volumes of cuboids. Children recognise that some of the cubes in a pictorial representation cannot be seen, but that the total volume can be found by counting the number of cubes in each layer
Topic
Crime and Punishment
This topic helps children to understand how things have changed, (and have stayed roughly the same) over a long period of 1000 years. What to do to punish and then prevent crime has always been a difficult problem to solve and always will be. By having a clear idea as to what was tried in the past and whether it worked or not, you will be well-informed so you can have a worthwhile opinion on this important issue facing society. You will notice that each period in history has its own problems, whether its simple stealing from a house or an animal in the Middle Ages or cyber crime today.