Welcome to Mercury – Year 5
Autumn 1 – Off with her head!
Engage – What sort of man would order the beheading of his wife? Was she really that bad? Travel back in time to the 1500’s and meet the terrifying Tudors, a domineering dynasty that changed our history. Flex your detective muscles and become a criminal investigator! Will you find out the facts or will the evidence from the past bemuse you? How will you find the accused….innocent or guilty?
Develop – During this half term, we’ll meet a very important figure from history who will give us a problem to solve. Online research will help us to write biographies about influential people of the period, and we’ll use source materials to create a Tudor timeline. Tudor portraits will provide use with the inspiration to create royal paintings. Our geography skills will help us to compare maps of Tudor London to present day London and plot Anne Boleyn’s journey to her execution. Internet research will help us learn more about Henry’s life, his marriages and his break form the Roman Catholic Church. At the end of the term we’ll create and perform a rhyme to help us remember key dates from the Tudor period and make a life-sized model of Henry VIII.
Express – We will end this fantastic topic with a celebration of all the work we have done – everyone is invited
Homework
This will be set and sent home on Friday with it due in on Wednesday. Times tables or alternative number work will be set with a follow up timed assessment on Wednesday. Spellings will be tested on Friday. Please make sure you take a copy of the spellings so that when your child hands their book in on Wednesday they are still able to practise for Friday’s test.
Ways in which you can help your child
Reading, reading and more reading! Please encourage your child to read as often as possible. Listen to them and ask questions about the text to develop their understanding.
Please follow this link to have a look at the sort of books your child could be reading
https://www.booksfortopics.com/year-5
This is what we are reading in class this term.
Practise all times tables up to 12 x 12, especially the 7’s, 8’s and 9’s.
Test them on their spellings and encourage all homework to be completed to a high standard.
If you have any queries or questions, please do not hesitate to come and talk to us.
Keep up to date with Year 5 news by following Class Dojo. 
The Mercury Class Team
Mrs Jenkins, Mrs Buck, Mrs Skipworth, Mrs McKeown, Mrs Ray