In Hodgkin Class (Year 5), we fully embrace the Primary Strategy and through it we teach a wide, interesting and challenging curriculum. Our projects are influenced by the children's interests, and highly skilled teaching ensures full coverage of the National Curriculum objectives across the year and over time. Our projects run for the entire term and involve exciting opportunities including trips, visitors, engineering days, 'Wow Days' and dress-up days. Our Project this term is 'Out of this World', and is a study of the solar system and all things related. Our Big Question is, ‘What is out there in our Universe?'

We will start the term off with a study of the planets and the solar system, learning their order and their individual characteristics, before moving onto the constellations of the stars - linking with astrology and astronomy. Our Superb Starter will be a DT design and build day, when the children will be given a series of team challenges to complete over a day.  The challenges will build to being able to design and construct a moon buggy. Our Mix it up middle will be a 1969 Moon Landing Day, we will ask the children to come in to school in a costume that would not be out of place in 1969. We will create some tie-dyed fabric, investigate the moon landings and taste some dehydrated foods that would be enjoyed by astronauts. We will also be having a star gazing evening when we will invite the children back into class in the evening once it is dark to complete some star gazing. We will use telescopes and Apps to identify the constellations, planets and possibly even have some hot chocolate and a hotdog! Our Enthralling Ending will be a trip to the Leicester Space Centre and visiting their amazing planetarium and space museum, which will support the learning that has already taken place in the classroom and further embed the love of all things 'Out of this World'.

Across the term we have a range of texts we will be studying and these include ‘The Jamie Drake Equation’, ‘Space Boy’ from David Walliams and ‘The Kid from outer space’ by Ross Welford. All of these contain families, aliens, conflict and a resolution, and I am really looking forward to reading them to the children.

Our learning environment is going to have a space theme, with an observatory, a lunar landscape and lots of stars and planets. There will be many opportunities for cross-curricular writing such as in Science experiments.  In geography and history we will study: the moon landings, the space race, the ‘Star Wars’ conflict, Elon Musk’s adventures to space, and the evolution of technology which relies so heavily on the hundreds of satellites orbiting the planet. In English we will be looking at a variety of genres of writing including diary entries, persuasive letter writing, non-chronological reports, newspapers, and many more. We will also have a two-week block of looking at Benjamin Zephaniah and in the second half term a book called Red Cherry Red by Jackie Kay. We teach maths in practical and exciting ways to deepen the children's understanding, ensuring that the children master the skills with fluency, being able to use, reason and apply their skills, thus providing a solid foundation to build on in Year 6.

Our Maths will mostly be standalone, however there are several times where we can work cross-curricular including looking at tables and data on the sizes and distances of the planets, a holiday to space costings and the exchange rate of the UK pound and alien dollar!

We have weekly lessons in French and try to incorporate some of this knowledge and vocabulary into normal classroom routines when tidying up, instructions being issued or dates being written on the board.

This topic contains lots of opportunities for Science and, as well as Space, we will also be looking at the forces which act on us - such as: magnetism, gravity, upthrust, water and air resistance and friction.

During our several DT sessions we will be learning about designing, making, and evaluating builds such as The International Space Station (ISS), space rockets, moon buggies and star constellations. During these lessons we will also use a variety of materials including Lego, K-Nex and recycled materials, and also use technology to create programs to move aliens around a lunar landscape. In

Art we will continue to build up our sketch book work looking at various artists like Van Gogh's starry night and making some mixed media work, collage work and some fine pencil work. We will also be studying Bridget Riley's work in the Op Art movement as they are optical illusions and look very futuristic, and we will also be using her art to make our Starry Night artwork come to life.

Across the term we will be using the laptops to present data in graphs and presentations, we will also be developing our coding skills using Scratch. In Music we will be looking at the compositions of Gustav Holtz and his Planets, investigating the musical language that can be used when explaining it, and the notation used.

Our PE topics for the term include gymnastics, goalball, basketball, archery, badminton and as much running around the running track as we can manage!

We will teach our RE through a series of Curriculum days, this term we will learn about Sikhism looking at what the 5 Ks, and then in the second half term looking at Buddhism, reading about the 8 paths and the meaning of the story of Siddhartha.

In Hodgkin Class we always ensure that the children have an amazing and fun experience, creating memories that will stay with the children for a lifetime. This is an absolutely packed topic and I am so looking forward to teaching it, and enjoying our lovely outdoor space as much as we can.