Upper key stage 2 (year 5 and 6)

Newsletter Autumn 

Newsletter Summer 

Our Learning Journey…

Autumn 1

Geography

‘The Americas’ was our geography-led topic in Y5 and 6 this half term. Some of the areas of study included time zones, biomes and a comparison of the human and physical features of Thornaby and Mexico City.

Science
In our Science topic in Autumn 1, we learned about the changes in humans as they
develop to old age. We even considered how we ourselves might change as we age.

DT
We recapped on our knowledge from the Ancient Greek topic studied in Year 3/4 and applied this to our DT this half term when we learned about classical architecture.   At the end of the unit, we worked in groups to build a framework with a range of structures to support.

Autumn 2

History
This half term, we are studying the Ancient Maya (Hola Mexico). We have learned about where the Maya lived and made a scaled timeline to show key events and periods.

Later this half term, we will learn about Maya settlements, religions and compare the civilisation with the Anglo-Saxons.

Science
In Autumn 2, our science focuses on Living Things and their habitats particularly plants.

Art
‘Distortion and Abstraction’ is our art unit this half term.  

Spring 1

Our science unit for this half term was Stargazers. It  sent us into space! Here are a few areas we looked at within this unit;

Why do we have night and day?
The phases of the moon
Our solar system
Why are planets spherical?
Designing our very own Mars Rover to explore space!

To end this unit, we were lucky enough to join a live chat with Helen Sharman- The First British Astronaut to go into Space!!!

Spring 2

The Science topic was Evolution and Inheritance. We explored the Theory of Evolution and how this has evolved every species on the planet. We used scientific research to practice paleoethology, which allowed us to discover what some animals looked like millions of years ago.

The Geography  topic was Frozen Kingdom. We learnt  about the wonders of the North and South Pole. We now understand how important the Poles are for the rest of the planet. Here are some example PowerPoints that Year 5 created to show their understanding of Antarctica and the Arctic!

Part of our Frozen Kingdom unit looked specifically at the effects of climate change. To do our part, we decided to plant 30 new trees in our school area to battle the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere.