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Our Year 5/6 Curriculum
Year B
Spring 1
Religious Education
This half term, the children will look at three units in R.E. The first unit is called ‘Unity’, where the children will learn how the Eucharist enables people to live in communion. They will then move onto looking at Healing and understanding the Sacrament of the Sick, before finishing the half term by celebrating Jesus’ life and resurrection.
English
Linking to our History unit, the children will be reading a book called, ‘Who Let The Gods Out’ by Maz Evans. They will be focusing on the use of dialogue to advance action, figurative language and parenthesis. Moving towards the end of the half term, the children will begin to look at a range of myths before writing their own myth.
Maths
In Maths, the children will be learning all about fractions, decimals and percentages. They be learning how to find equivalent fractions in order to solve a variety of questions linked to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Art
Sgrafitto!
Sgraffito, (Italian: “scratched”), is a technique used in painting, pottery, and glass, which consists of putting down a preliminary surface, covering it with another, and then scratching the superficial layer in such a way that the pattern or shape that emerges is of the lower colour.
Year 5/6 have been exploring the sgraffito technique and are building up to a final piece linking our Art and Science together.
We firstly reminded ourselves how to use oil pastels effectively and practised in our Art books using oils pastels and paper clips to scratch off the top layer to reveal the colours underneath.
We then moved onto ensuring that the colours underneath were done with depth of colour and shading into each other using a white oil pastel. We learned how to clean the white to ensure colours don’t spoil the effect. . We masked off 6 squares using low tack masking tape. We then painted drawing ink over the 6 coloured squares. When dry, we thoroughly enjoyed scratching repeated patterns on each of the squares. We used engraving tools to do this. We then very carefully, removed the masking tape to reveal 6 discreet, beautiful squares. Very satisfying!
For our final piece we are choosing either a vertebrate or an invertebrate to display, in sgraffito, using classification of animals to support our learning in Science this half term.
Music
At St Anthony’s, we are fortunate to receive Music lessons through Lancashire’s Wider Opportunities Scheme. After having a term of learning either woodwind, string or brass instruments, the children will now focus on learning about rhythm and dynamics, whilst also having the opportunity to try composing their own music.
Science
This ‘Living Things and Their Habitats’ unit teaches the pupils about the classification of living things, including micro-organisms. They have extended their learning from Y4 to find out about the standard system of classification first developed by Carl Linnaeus, choosing an animal, and researching the classification.
They will be learning about micro-organisms and investigating the growth of mould on bread. Furthermore, the children will use play dough to create a new single celled micro-organism and explain how it is classified and why.
We have linked our Art theme, Scraffito, to our Science and we are choosing a vertebrate or invertebrate animal to make a classification display.
Autumn Term
Geography Field Trip- Bring Yer Wellies
Despite the wet and windy weather, the children had a fantastic time during their trip to Bring Yer Wellies. It was a jam-packed day full of fun and educational activities that were all centred around the children’s understanding of maps. This included: scale; using an action man and scaled down model versions of the greenhouse, thematic mapping, contours, latitude and longitude, reading O.S. maps; recognising grid references and symbols, compass reading, identification of physical and human features and use of walkie wheels. An incredibly busy day, thoroughly enjoyed by all.
French
In French, children have been learning to say the date and to talk about pets in y5/6, and to say numbers and to use colours to describe. Here is a sample of what can be found in French books:
History
Design Technology
In D.T, we have been looking at a range of children’s toys that are made using CAMs. The children have then designed their own toy and they have built the structure ready to design it next half term.
English
In English, Year 5/6 have been submerged into a world of magical fantasy through Ross Mackenzie’s ‘The Nowhere Emporium’. Children have investigated the author’s writing style and the features of writing that he uses to keep the reader engaged. The children noticed that Ross Mackenzie tells the reader what his characters can taste and smell, as well as what they can see. Pupils used samples of writing by other authors to compare writing styles, ideas and techniques before building their own creative writing tool box. Throughout the unit, the children have practised grammar techniques to develop their own creative writing to fit a particular brief such as diary writing, setting a scene, blending action and dialogue, introducing a mystery character and finally writing their own fantasy story.
Music
Religious Education
In RE this half-term, we have been reading Scriptures from Genesis and from St Paul’s letters, with a focus on recognising God’s love for us and His Creation. We have started to reflect on what this means for us: we can be comforted when we are sad because we know God is by our side; we have a duty of care to ALL of His Creation, as Stewards of the Earth. The children spent some time acting out the Creation story through Music and Dance.
Science
In Science this half-term, we have learnt that scientists use fossils to find out about the how living things have changed over time. We have discovered that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but with variations: this is called inheritance. We enjoyed creating our own Mr/Mrs Men characters to understand inheritance. Finally, we have conducted our own “Finches“ experiment, which helped us to understand some of Darwin’s ideas about adaptation and evolution.
2021-22
French
We have been busy linguists in 5/6 this year, learning lots of new topics and practicing our reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. We have worked on these skills whilst covering the topics; Pets, School, Me in the World and Vikings.
Design Technology
As part of our Design Technology, we have spent time researching about where different foods come from. We have also learnt all about the Red Tractor Symbol and we have written persuasive letters to encourage people to buy foods with this symbol on. To celebrate the end of the half term, we made vegetable soup. We practised our cutting, grating and peeling skills before we made the soup. It was so good that some of us had more than one portion!
Summer Home Learning Menu
Spring 2
Liverpool Philharmonic
Catholic Social Teaching
Music
Science
This term, in Science, we have been looking at electric circuits and investigating how adding more components or cells affects the circuit. We have linked the topic to ‘Burglar Bill’ and the children have made their own switches for an alarm system and looked at effective lighting of a street to deter thieves.
RE
Our topic in RE this term has been Sacrifice. We have explored the meaning of sacrifice and what this looks like in our lives. We have studied the sacrifice Jesus made for us and learned about the key events of Holy Week. Children have learned about the Stations of the Cross and have worked with other classes, lower down the school, to assist in their understanding of Jesus’ final journey.
English
The book we have studied during the second half of the term in 5/6 has been ‘Beowulf’. We have loved exploring a book from a different time period and learning about the History of the period and the new vocabulary that was used at that time. Classes have enjoyed reading the adventure of Beowulf and exploring the horrifying monster Grendel. We have used the new vocabulary to write in different genres, including: writing invitations to the great mead-hall, Heorot; reporting on the horrific actions of Grendel; imagining and describing Grendel’s lair; creating Wanted posters for the gruesome beast; writing a CV for a mighty warrior and reporting on the success of Beowulf in slaying the malicious monster! Over the next few weeks we will also be creating biographies on the brave Beowulf.
Spring 1
Chester Zoo
In February, we visited Chester Zoo to develop children’s cultural capital and to inform their understanding of ecology and the natural world. The weather was kind to us which made the experience all the more enjoyable. Children enjoyed watching familiar animals as well as finding out about some of the lesser known creatures they came across. Everyone had their favourite animal but the Meerkats stole everyone’s hearts. The children were worn out by the end of the day but they all had a memorable experience.
Science
In Science we have been exploring forces and developing our understanding of the topic through practical investigations. Children have worked independently, designing their own investigations and selecting the resources they need to answer their questions and test their hypotheses. They have recently worked on transporting a message across the room using the thrust generated by deflating balloon. They used the scientific process , learnt from their mistakes, rethought the problem and eventually achieved success.
RE
In RE, we have been learning about the Sikh religion. We have explored different aspects of Sikhism including the founding gurus, their book, the Guru Granth Sahib, their beliefs and the similarities and differences between Sikhism and Christianity.
P4C
English
Art
During the first half term, we enjoyed looking at a range of Japanese Art. We explored with colour mixing and created our own versions of Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave’.
Please click the link below to see the artwork created by the children.
Design Technology
Year 5/6 are currently enjoying their new Design Technology unit. They are applying their understanding of computing to program, monitor and control products. So far, they have learnt all about Raspberry pi and have used this to program LEDs to light up using Scratch coding. Over the next few weeks, they will use computer aided design software to design their product before creating it.
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