YEAR 5 CLASS TEACHERS:

5 Rowan:  Mrs Sheridan (esheridan@woodlands.kent.sch.uk)

5 Hornbeam: Mr Holliday (jholliday@woodlands.kent.sch.uk)

5 Sycamore: Mr Taylor (staylor@woodlands.kent.sch.uk)

TEACHING SUPPORT:

Miss Collins, Mr Holloway, Miss Leach, Mrs Pizzey, Miss Smith, and Mrs Stanley

French: Mrs Brooks ​

Music: Mrs Richards​

PE: LATonSSP

HOMEWORK

Maths homework will be handed out on a Friday and due in on Tuesday.

Times Tables should be practised every day using Times Tables Rockstars as often as possible.

Children should read as often as possible and read aloud to an adult regularly. 

Children will bring spellings home to learn and will be tested on a Friday. Please use Spelling Shed for daily practice of weekly spellings. 

General Information

PE

SESSION 1: SWIMMING every TUESDAY Children come into school wearing school uniform with appropriate swimming kit (goggles, swim cap, swim trunks/suit)

SESSION 2: THURSDAY Children to come into school wearing school PE Kit.

MEDICATION

Please let the school and your child's class teacher know if your child has any condition requiring medication, including allergies or asthma. If your child needs to be on a course of medication then please complete the relevant form which is kept in the school office. 

READING
Reading is encouraged daily and every child will receive a 'Read Aloud' Book to read daily at home to an adult. In addition to this, children can read Star books and other literature that they might find in the class book corner, library or from their home setting. 

Star Books

The books have been chosen carefully to include a range of genres, authors and dates of publication.  There will be four copies of each text in every classroom.  Children can read them at any time and can bring these home to share with adults.  The language might be more challenging hence the need to read these with an adult.  The books include:

• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken (1962).  Long ago, at a time in history that never happened, England was overrun with wolves.  But as Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia discover, real danger often lies closer to home.  How will they ever escape the clutches of their new, cruel governess Miss Slighcarp, who sends them away to a place they will never be found?  As they try to outwit her network of criminals, forgers and snitches and with wolves snapping at their heels, the children try to get back to London.
•  The Indian in the Cupboard - Lynne Reid Banks (1980).  Nine-year old Omri is given two important gifts for his birthday: a plastic Indian Brave and a metal cupboard.  The cupboard has no lock but his mother gives him an old key.  Omri discovers that the cupboard and the key together work magic, and when he locks his Indian figure in the box overnight, by morning he has come to life.  This story involves magic, a miniature world and children in charge of what happens next.
• Who Let the Gods Out? - Maz Evans (2017).  This is a funny, quirky fantasy adventure in which a human boy and a Greek goddess accidentally release an immortal supervillain who is determined to take over the world – and maybe even the universe.  Elliot and Virgo need the King of the Gods to help them, but are the Gods really ready to save the world?  Is the world really ready for the Gods?
• The Explorer - Katherine Rundell (2017). This is an adventure story with an intriguing mystery at its heart.  When their plane crashes, four children are stranded in the Amazon jungle.  They have no food, no water and no chance of being rescued.  But they are alive and they have hope.  As they try to survive the wild jungle, they begin to find signs that something has been there before them.  Could there possibly be a way out?
• Dark Lord: The Teenage Years - Jamie Thomson (2011).  This is an extremely funny, bizarre and suspenseful read, with unexpected happenings on almost every page.  A 13 year old school boy thinks he is the Dark Lord (aka Dirk Lloyd) reincarnated and yet trapped in a puny schoolboy body. He must survive the drudgery of life on earth as we know it, whilst at the same time find a way of returning to his homeland.
• Mortal Engines * - Philip Reeve (2012).  In a richly inventive world, in a dangerous future, huge motorised cities hunt, attack and fight each other for survival.  Big cities gobble up smaller ones and London rules above them all.  As London pursues a small town, young apprentice Tom is flung out into the wastelands, where a terrifying cyborg begins to hunt him down.  He meets an array of characters, including Shrike, Anna Fang and Stalker, and has to work out who he can trust.  Mortal Engines is the first book in the award-winning Mortal Engines Quartet.
• Street Child*– Berlie Doherty (1993).  This story is based on the true story of the orphan whose plight inspired Doctor Barnardo to set up his famous children’s refuge.  Jim Jarvis is a runaway.  When his mother dies, he is desperate to escape from the workhouse to which he is taken.  But London in the 1860s is a dangerous place.  Just as Jim finds some friends, he is snatched away and made to work for the remorselessly cruel Grimy Nick, constantly guarded by Nick’s vicious dog, Snipe.  Will Jim ever be free?
• The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair* – Lara Williamson (2015).  Eleven year old Becket is struggling to find the answers to some important questions: how to properly say goodbye to his mum, who died when his little brother was born, and why his dad – fish delivery man “the Codfather” – has suddenly left their “second mum” Pearl.  Becket has no idea what’s going on, so with the help of his brother Billy and a snail called Brian, he sets out on a journey of discovery.  For all this, the book is very funny, due to Becket’s quirky view of life and the things he gets up to with his brother.
• The Graveyard Book* – Neil Gaiman (2009).  Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, would be a completely normal boy if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts.  There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard, but it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks; it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already destroyed Bod’s family.  Bod’s curious story is told by bestselling author Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by award-winning Chris Riddell.
• The Boy in the Tower* – Polly Ho-Yen (2014).  From the seventeenth floor of the tower block where he lives with his mother, Ade watches as the buildings fall around him.  The Bluchers – a strange and terrible kind of plant – are taking over the city, and everyone is being forced to evacuate, but Ade’s mother is refusing to leave her room.  So Ade watches alone as the city empties and the Bluchers creep ever closer…  

Children need to look after each book carefully and ensure the books are returned in good condition once they have been read.

We really hope that children thoroughly enjoy the challenge and experience of reading five of our star books this year and that this inspires them to find new and exciting books in the future.