Year 5

year 5 autumn 1 curriculum overview.pdf

year 5 spring overview 2025.pdf

January In Year 5

During January, we have been learning lots within our topic ‘Earth’s Extreme’, which is a geography-based topic.

The children began to consider how a volcano is formed. They found out that volcanoes are formed using the top two layers of the Earth: the crust and the mantle. Earth’s crust is divided up into tectonic plates that move very slowly in different directions. The majority of Earth’s volcanoes are located along these tectonic plates. Using an atlas and different maps, they looked at volcanoes and compared it to a map of the world’s tectonic plates – considering which plate lines and hemispheres have the most and least volcanoes, their proximity to the equator and what that tells us. The children found out about the ‘Ring of Fire’. Furthermore, Year 5 researched what the land around volcanoes is used for in modern times and what it was used for in the past, if different.

The children found out it is used for:

• Farming – soil around volcanoes is extremely fertile.
• Mining – minerals can be harvested from the lava once it has cooled.
• Harnessing geothermal energy – this is used to provide electricity.
• Building further tourist attractions – volcanoes naturally attract tourists.

They concluded that the one thing all these uses have in common is that they provide jobs for the citizens leaving near to the volcanoes. The children decided if they would like to live near a volcano and the reasons why or why not. Using all our knowledge, during  Literacy, the children wrote an explanation text about Volcanoes and Shape Poems about Volcanoes ( including Figurative Language).  After reading Escape from Pompeii by Christine Balit, we wrote a setting description of Pompeii when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD.

February in Year 5 

During February, the children completed an internet safety day, where the focus was helping two children out with their digital dilemmas. Firstly, we explored all types of social media and ages you need to be to use them. Some children were very shocked!!!!! We also helped ‘Billy’ who was receiving messages on a game from an unknown person and we helped ‘Mabel’ – who was tricked by AI generated images. We could not believe how good the AI images were! Through our discussions, we have learnt how easy it is to be tricked and although the internet is great, it can also be dangerous – so you need to always think twice and tell a trusted adult!

We were very artistic this month too.  In Art, the children discussed an image and talked about what they could see, what they thought was happening, what they wondered and what they thought about the image of a family on the moon. This introduced us to retrofuturism and how popular culture can influence art. We had great fun with exploring lots of pieces of art within this genre. Looking at a pictures themed about space, we discussed how they  had been created and the choices that the artist had made. Using a viewfinder, the children created a section of their favourite image using different mediums. This then inspired us to create a printing plate- combining different materials based on their texture. We then used this to create our own printed art work – using a colour pallet of our choice. The final pieces were lovely!

Have a look at our photographs to see us creating our printing plate and using it to print. 9Written by Year 5)