Budbrooke Primary SchoolYear 5 -Redwood 2024 - 2025
Miss Prestidge
Welcome to Redwood Class Page!
Welcome to Redwood's class page! The Year 5 teacher this year is Mrs Prestidge.
I am passionate about teaching and absolutely love being a part of the Budbrooke Primary community. I am excited to get stuck into our topics this Autumn term. I can't wait to get to know all of the children and be a part of their learning journey.
Topic this term: Dynamic Dynasties
In Dynamic Dynasties, your child will learn about periods of ancient Chinese history. They will explore a timeline of the first five Chinese dynasties and learn about the legends surrounding the beginning of Chinese civilisation. They will take a deep dive into the history of the Bronze Age Shang Dynasty and explore evidence found in the ancient city of Yin. They will study oracle bones, learn about religious beliefs and explore bronze artefacts that set the Shang Dynasty apart from other civilisations. They will also study the hierarchy of the Shang Dynasty and discover who was powerful and who was powerless. They will look at warfare and find out how bronze technology gave the Shang Dynasty an advantage over their enemies. They will learn about the life of the great military leader, Fu Hao. To end the project, your child will find out how ancient China’s lasting legacy can be seen in the world today.
Our key text this term is Bronze and Sunflower. A beautifully written, timeless tale by bestselling Chinese author Cao Wenxuan, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. When Sunflower, a young city girl, moves to the countryside, she grows to love the reed marsh lands – the endlessly flowing river, the friendly buffalo with their strong backs and shiny round heads, the sky that stretches on and on in its vastness. However, the days are long, and the little girl is lonely. Then she meets Bronze, who, unable to speak, is ostracized by the other village boys. Soon the pair are inseparable, and when Bronze’s family agree to take Sunflower in, it seems that fate has brought him the sister he has always longed for. But life in Damaidi is hard, and Bronze’s family can barely afford to feed themselves. Will the city girl be able to stay in this place where she has finally found happiness?
Class information
PE days will be Tuesdays and Wednesday. Please have your PE kit in school.
Please complete your English and maths work at home and find time to practise your weekly spellings.
Ensure you have a water bottle and a coat in school every day.
Example of a day in Redwood
Redwood Class!
Homework
Spellings: your child will receive weekly spellings on a Thursday and be tested on these words the following Tuesday. Please find below a half termly overview of the spellings we will be sending home.
Home learning: A piece of English home learning or a piece of Maths home learning will be uploaded each week on a Thursday.
Home learning will be uploaded each week in the 'files' section at the bottom of this page. There will be three colours to choose from. Your child will be given a colour every Thursday. The colour will be found in the margin of their home learning book. Select and complete the colour your child has been set.
The three colours are: Blue, Red and Yellow
Reading
Children should be encouraged to have an enjoyment of reading. They can use their imagination and lose themselves in a book. Therefore, there should be time at home each day for children to be read to and to read independently. They should be encouraged to read a variety of genres including fiction, non-fiction and poetry and asked questions about what they are reading. This will develop their prediction, inference, summarising skills as well as improving their knowledge of vocabulary.
There are many ways you can support your child at home with their learning. Please encourage your child to complete the homework, it is always carefully selected to support their classroom learning and will give you an a further insight into what our classroom tasks look like. Learning spellings with children so they feel confident when tested would also benefit them hugely.
Here are a selection of websites which can help you and your children.
Guardians: Defenders of Mathematica
A great mixed maths skills game from the BBC.
(Some games are subscription only, but there are plenty of free games and activities to help you practise maths skills)
A great resource for lots of learning games across subject areas.
This is a great website as it has lots of short videos which explain key maths concepts and have lots of practice questions to try.
Again, some subscription access only games, but there are some free games/word lists which allow you to practise your spellings in lots of different ways.
This has some activities and games to help with English and grammar.