Welcome to Year 5.
Ancient Greece
This unit looks at the Ancient Greeks and their achievements from around 3000 BCE to the reign of Alexander the Great around 330 BCE. The first lessons focus on the Minoans and how they began to trade in early Greece. The children will also think about and discuss how we know about the early Greeks, by looking at excavation evidence and what this tells them. The next few lessons in the teaching sequence focus on life in Athens and Sparta, the Persian invasion and the impact this had on life in the city-states. The final few lessons look at the leadership of Ancient Greece under the rule of King Philip ll and then Alexander the Great. Children will conclude their learning with a final response to the main historical enquiry, ‘What were the greatest achievements of Ancient Greece?
Rivers
In this unit, children will learn about the features of a river at each course and the specific features that can form. Using the River Trent as a case study, children will study the features of rivers in context. Children will then learn to conduct fieldwork at their local river by gathering, recording, analysing and presenting data.
Ancient Maya
The first lessons explore who the Maya people were, when and where in the world they lived and the reasons why they were so successful, particularly in the Classic period. The lessons then move on to discovering how we know about the Maya people, their beliefs and the hierarchy system that was in place in society and the important inventions that they made, especially in farming. The unit finishes with a comparison between the Ancient Maya Civilisation and Anglo-Saxon Britain, with a focus on the similarities and differences between the Maya City States and the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms; drawing on the archaeological evidence available to us.
Biomes and Ecosystems
In this unit, children will learn about the biomes and ecosystems in the UK. They will complete a case study of the New Forest, discovering the diversity of trees, plants and animals found there. They will plan fieldwork to be conducted in a local woodland ecosystem, investigating the amount and variety of trees, plants and animals. They will then conduct this fieldwork at a local woodland ecosystem, observing, measuring and recording their findings. Children will finally analyse the data collected and present their information to an audience.
Significant People- Catherine Johnson
Brazil
In this unit, children will recap their region’s key human and physical features in England. Children will discover South America’s different countries and capital cities and then focus on the North Region of Brazil. Children will learn the human and physical features of the North Region of Brazil, including biomes, climate zones and vegetation belts. Children will learn about the physical processes of rivers, mountains and the water cycle and apply this to their region and the North Region of Brazil.
