Year 5/6 - Firecrests
Summer Term 2010
For the Summer Term Curriculum Overview, please click here.
Election 2010
During the run-up to the General Election the children in years five and six staged a mock election in order to understand the concept of UK political democracy.
The children were able pledge allegiance to one of five political parties: Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green and UKIP. Once in these groups, each party voted on a leader and a deputy leader.
One group of children acted as the Electoral Commission, overseeing the democratic process, producing voting slips and supervising the vote.
The parties delegated working groups which carried out research, ran publicity campaigns and wrote manifestos.
On the school election day, each party was given the opportunity to give a speech to the electorate and answered questions from the floor. Each child was then given a voting slip and asked to cast a secret vote.
When the votes were counted the children gathered together to hear the result: an overwhelming majority for the Liberal Democrats.
Spring Term 2010.
For the curriculum overview for the Spring term, please click here
English.
This term, Autumn 2009, in Year 5/6 we have been linking our English learning with our history topic about the Aztecs. We are implementing the ‘Talk for Writing Project’ in which the children are immersed in the different genre of writing. The children are focusing on narrative writing for the initial four weeks of the term. During this time the year group will be basing their learning around a traditional Aztec story. Between then and half term we will be concentrating on persuasive writing. Immediately after half term, we will be taking a break from the Aztecs so that our learning of playscripts can coincide with a trip to the theatre to see the Shakespeare 4 Kids production of Macbeth. We will then return to the Aztecs where the children will be writing instructions about how to create the Aztec mask and headdress that they will be making in their art and design technology unit of learning.
On Tuesday 15th September, Year 5 and 6 took part in an Aztec Day. The reason for this was so that the children could have an introduction to the topic about which they will be learning this term. The main focus of the day was supposed to be a video conferencing session with an educational company called Mexicolore. Due to them being based in London, an outreach visit was deemed to far to travel, so video conferencing seemed a logical option. Unfortunately, due to technical issues on the part of Mexicolore, we were unable to partake in this on the day. Instead, the children were able to undertake a variety of different activities that enhanced their Aztec learning. They ground corn to make flour using a traditional method with stones. They were then able to make tortillas and salsa. For the receipes please click here. Children were also able to create art based on Aztec designs. Thirteen Year 5 and 6 children from Shebbear Primary School also took part in the fun.
We are aiming to reschedule the video conferencing sessions in the near future so that the children do not miss out on this exciting opportunity.
Last term, Summer 2009, in Year 5/6 we have been linking our English learning with our history topic about ancient Greece. We started by reading a variety of Aesop’s Fables, identifying the common features and then writing our own. This then lead to finding out about a wide variety of Greek myths and legends. The children were able to access these through a wide diversity of media – from the internet to DVDs. By viewing the same story but written or performed in different ways, children were able to identify differences between them whilst at the same time discovering the basic core narrative. At the end of this unit, each child wrote their own Greek myth which they were able to share with one another.
Following on from this, the classes wrote a magazine article in the from of an interview where they questioned a character from their favourite Greek myth.
We have also undertaken a short unit about narrative poetry which cumulated in a performance of ‘The Highwayman’.
The year group are currently in the process of writing a persuasive leaflet in which they must try to convince people to join the Trojan Army.