Year 5 - Kingfishers

Year 5 - Kingfishers

Autumn Term 2023

This term, we are starting the year by reading the novel The Jamie Drake Equation by Christopher Edge.  This exciting story explores the topic of space, exploration and what to do when your phone downloads a strange alien code! Alongside this on-going class novel, we are also reading shorter stories supporting other aspects of our curriculum such as Rain Player by David Wisniewski and The Sad Night by Sally Schofer Matthews, both of which deal with myths and tales from Mesoamerica.  Later on in the term, the picture books Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly and Counting on Katherine by Helaine Becker will give us an insight into how women and black people were discriminated against in the 1950s and 60s and the contribution they made to the development of manned space exploration. Film media, including Avatar, The Book of the Dead and Coco will help bring fantasy stories to life on the big screen!

For our History topic, we are learning about the Mayans, their society, beliefs and how their civilisation was brought to an end by the Spanish. In Geography, we are going to be learning about Mexico and The Day of the Dead Festival. We will also look at the work of Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist.

In Science, we going to be learning about Space and Forces. We will be learning about why we have seasons and the phases of the moon as well as the solar system. We will be carrying out experiments in our Forces topics to find out about friction, air resistance and up-thrust.

In RE, we will be learning how different religious positions represent and understand God before exploring the importance of special, religious spaces.