Welcome to Year 5 – Hawthorne

Miss Mason

Learning Update

Year 5 have had a fantastic start to Spring 2! They have written, edited and published their own imaginative stories inspired by Firebird. In their writing, the children confidently used fronted adverbials of time, manner and place, explored a wide range of adjectives to create expanded noun phrases, and organised their ideas into clear paragraphs to sequence their work effectively. They have also been practising their handwriting, focusing on leading in cursive, and their improvement across the year has been wonderful to see. Their final published pieces were beautifully presented, and they should all be extremely proud of their hard work and progress. We have now begun our new class text, Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo. To spark our curiosity, we explored hidden artefacts, made thoughtful predictions and asked investigative questions about the story. We also learned about kennings — descriptive compound phrases used in place of a noun, often found in Anglo-Saxon poetry (for example, “whale-road” for sea) — and the children had great fun creating their own imaginative examples.

In Maths, Year 5 have been focusing on decimals and percentages. They have explored equivalent decimals in tenths, hundredths and thousandths, and have practised ordering and comparing decimals with confidence. We have worked on comparing numbers with different numbers of decimal places by starting with the highest value digit and working across, or by adding a zero as a placeholder to make the decimals the same length. The children have also used place value charts to deepen their understanding of how to convert fractions into equivalent decimals and to strengthen their knowledge of the value of digits after the decimal point.

In Science, Year 5 have begun their topic on Human Reproduction and Ageing. The children have been learning about the human life cycle and discovered that humans follow the same four key stages as other mammals: birth, growth, reproduction and ageing. They explored how these stages are similar across mammals but also recognised important differences. For example, they learned that different mammals have different gestation periods — the length of time a baby develops inside the mother’s womb before birth. We explored the human gestation period in more detail and learned about some of the key stages of development, including fertilisation (week 1–2), when the sperm and egg join; the formation of the embryo and early cell division (weeks 3–4); the development of major organs such as the heart and brain, with the heartbeat beginning around week 5–6; continued organ development and growth, with movement beginning to occur (around weeks 9–12); and finally full-term development at around 40 weeks (nine months). The children showed great maturity and curiosity during our discussions, and it has been wonderful to see their thoughtful engagement with this fascinating topic.

In Art, Year 5 have begun their exciting topic, Line, Light and Shadow. This project explores the visual qualities of line, light and shadow, helping the children to understand how artists create depth and form. They have studied the work of Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt, discussing how each artist used line and shading to create different effects. Working in small groups, the children used Chromebooks to take photographs outside, using themselves or natural objects in their surroundings as subjects. They carefully considered what they wanted to portray through their images before converting them into black and white photographs. Using the Chromebooks, they then added lines to outline key features, transforming their photographs into detailed line drawings. Finally, they applied a range of shading techniques, including pencil, pen and ink wash, to reimagine their images as striking shaded artworks. The outcomes have been incredibly impressive, and it has been wonderful to see the children experimenting creatively and developing their artistic confidence.

In the following weeks:

• Literacy- Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo 

• Maths- Rounding to decimal places, Perimeter and Area 

• Science- Human stages in detail, Growth Charts 

• Geography- Coffee Growing in Peru, How far has our food travelled? 

• Music- Rock and Roll 

Spring Term 2025

Click on the links below to see what the children in Year 5 will be learning in the Spring Term.