Year 5 FAQ Page

Literacy:

What is the difference between a simple, compound and complex sentence?

• A simple sentence has one main clause (one happening) e.g. The girl was dancing.

An independent clause (or main clause) makes sense by itself. It expresses a complete thought and has a subject and verb.

• A simple sentence may have a compound verb construction:

e.g. The girl was dancing and smiling

• A simple sentence may have compound subject construction

e.g. The boy and girl were dancing.

• A compound sentence is made up of two simple sentences which are joined together by a coordinating conjunction (often referred to as ‘FANBOYS’ – For And Nor But Or Yet So). No comma is needed before or after a coordinating conjunction.

To check if it’s a compound sentence, replace the conjunction with a full stop and the two sentences should be able to stand alone.

e.g. The girl was dancing and she was smiling.

• There are different sorts of complex sentences. They must contain a main clause along with one of the following:

• Subordinating clause
• Relative clause
• Non-finite clause

• A subordinating clause starts with a subordinating conjunction (e.g. because, when, although, once, since, until etc.).

• The subordinating clause can be ‘fronted’ – before the main clause (Although he was exhausted, Tom continued to read). A comma is needed after a fronted subordinating clause.
• The subordinating clause can be ‘embedded’ – ‘dropped in’ the middle of the main clause (Tom, although he was exhausted, continued to read). Commas are usually needed around the embedded clause.
• The subordinating clause can be ‘following’ – after the main clause (Tom continued to read although he was exhausted). No comma needed when the subordinating clause is after the main clause.

• A relative clause begins with relative pronoun (e.g. that, who, whose when, where, which…)

• The relative clause can be ‘embedded’ – ‘dropped in’ the middle of the main clause (The cat, who was fat, sat on the mat). Commas are usually needed around the embedded clause.
• The relative clause can be ‘following’ – after the main clause (I go to school in Backwell which is in Bristol). No comma needed when the relative clause is after the main clause.

• A non-finite clause rarely includes a subject and its verb is a secondary verb form which cannot be inflected for tense, person or number. To make it simple, we often describe them as starting with an ‘-ing’, ‘-ed’ or ‘-en’ word (e.g. running, scared, shaken…) – although, non-finite clauses don’t always start with these!

• The non-finite clause can be ‘fronted’ – before the main clause (Running after the bus, Tom realised he’d forgotten his lunch). A comma is needed after a fronted non-finite clause.
• The non-finite clause can be ‘embedded’ – ‘dropped in’ the middle of the main clause (The monkey, suffering from the loud noise, hid in the corner of the cage). Commas are usually used around the embedded clause.
• The non-finite clause can be ‘following’ – after the main clause (Tom raised his hand, wondering what the time was). A comma can be used here but doesn’t need to be.

Q: What is a pen licence and when/how will my child be able to earn one?

A pen licence is awarded to a child when they have consistently written cursively (joined up) and neatly throughout all written pieces of work.

Your child may have earned a pen licence in a previous year; however, at the start of each year, they begin with a pencil and attempt to regain or obtain a pen licence.

Maths:

Q: Has the approach to teaching maths changed?

In addition to what’s referred to as ‘instrumental understanding’ in maths (a mechanical, rote or 'learn the rule/method/algorithm' kind of learning), we also want to develop what’s known as ‘relational understanding’. This is a more meaningful learning in which the pupil is able to understand the links and relationships which give mathematics its structure. Therefore, there is now a greater emphasis on ensuring that the children have a greater conceptual and ‘relational’ understanding of the maths objectives that we cover.

In a maths lesson/couple of lessons, we will ensure that the children are fluent (are confident with calculations, basic number crunching etc.).

We then move onto reasoning, where we look at the relationships between numbers and check the children’s understanding of mathematical language.

The children then apply their understanding, by solving problems.

Here is an example of the types of activities/ questions from the three different strands

In order to progress through these strands, we teach using concrete methods (physical objects) and then pictorial methods (such as a number line, or pictures of items) before moving on to abstract methods (just numbers). This allows children to develop a greater conceptual and ‘relational’ understanding of the maths objectives that we cover. Going straight to the abstract stage without learning with concrete and pictorial methods can prevent children from reaching the reasoning and problem solving stages due to a limited understanding of the mathematical concepts.

Q: How can I support my child with their maths?

There are some great maths websites out there which provide a fun way of boosting times tables knowledge and cover different maths objectives…

Maths Frame:

https://mathsframe.co.uk/

Top Marks:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16

Math Playground:

http://www.mathplayground.com/games.html

The following websites are helpful for practising times tables:

Top Marks:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/multiplication-and-division

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Tables Master

http://www.transum.org/Software/Tablesmaster/

Listening to the times tables in a song can be helpful too – lots of these can be found on YouTube.

Homework:

Q: How long should my child spend on homework?

• Learning log: the children have just less than two weeks to complete two pages (if they want to do more, please create a flap). We suggest they spend about 90 minutes in total. We encourage parental support and discussion when it comes to researching the given task; however, we feel it is important for the children to ‘have a go’ at completing most of the recording themselves. We would like the work to be neatly and clearly presented (e.g. please do not write in yellow, sparkly gel pens as it’s difficult to read).
• Spelling: We say to the children to do as much as they can in 30 minutes. As well as the children completing the spelling investigations, they may like to generate their own words from that week’s pattern to practise in their own way.
• Times tables: The children are tested each Monday and should practise their times tables on a regular basis each week (we recommend at least 3 times a week).
• Reading: We encourage the children to read as much as possible (a minimum of three times a week). We recommend that the children read to an adult where possible and for them to discuss the text to develop and check their understanding.

Q: What are the spelling patterns for year 5?

By the end of year 5, we expect children to be spell and know the rules for the  following patterns and rules:

• Word endings which sound like ‘shush’ spelt –cious or –tious (e.g. vicious, delicious, ambitious, cautious)

• Word endings which spell like ‘shil’ spelt –cial or –tial (e.g. official, partial)

• Word endings which end in -ant, -ance/-ancy, -ent, -ence/-ency (e.g. transparent/transparency, tolerant/tolerance)

• Words ending in –able/-ably and –ible /-ibly (e.g. adorable/adorably, possible/possibly)

• Words containing the letter-string ‘ough’ (e.g. bought, rough, through, bough)

• Words containing silent letters (e.g. wrist, knuckle, lamb, knight, psalm, solemn)

• Use knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes in spelling (e.g. dismounting… ‘mount’ = root word, ‘dis’ = prefix, ‘ing’ = suffix).

• Homophones (words which sound the same but have different spellings/meanings) – e.g. accept/except, knot/not, there/their/they’re, whose/who’s, our/are, see/sea.

Q: How can I help my child improve their spellings?

For some children, doing ‘look, say, cover, write, check’ helps to embed spelling patterns. For others, they need to make spellings fun and explore them in different ways. Below are some different ways of practising spellings:

Spellzone

This is a brilliant website which offers explanations for many of the spelling patterns we learn in year 5 as well as worksheets, activities, test and games.

• https://www.spellzone.com/word_lists/lists_folder.cfm?Folder=69 (spelling patterns)
• https://www.spellzone.com/word_lists/lists_folder.cfm?Folder=63 (words expected to be spelt correctly in year 5 & 6)

Mnemonics

Create a mnemonic for tricky words (e.g. Big Elephants Can Always Understand Smaller Elephants).

Examine the Word:

Really look at the words, talking about the tough parts and analysing patterns. Make up silly ways of remembering the ‘tough’ parts: ‘president’ has an ‘i’ in the middle because one day I’ll be president.

Spelling Word Memory: Create a double set of word cards and play a game of Spelling Word Memory by spreading out the cards face down and then taking turns flipping two cards at a time to find a pair!

Homophones Pairs

Play the game ‘pairs’ using homophones as a pair (e.g. see and sea = a pair) and when a pair has been made, a player can only keep the cards if they can correctly decipher between the homophones (e.g. can they use the words in a sentence?). Getting the children to hand-make the cards will also embed the words once more.

Type it Out: Open up a Word document and have your child type the spelling words on the screen as you call them out. Enlarge the font, make it a cool colour etc. and they’ll have a ball.

Tic-Tac-Toe: Have each player use an ‘X’ or ‘O’ but in order to place a mark on the board, they have to spell a word correctly.

Spelling City: http://www.spellingcity.com/

This is an American site but it’s still useful. You’ll need to register for an account and then scroll down for free user. Click on ‘list management’, have your child type in the spelling words and then they can learn the words, play games with them and be tested.

Chalkboard Race: Form two teams, with one player from each team holding a piece of chalk and standing at a designated spot about 10 feet from a chalkboard. Adult calls out a word and players run to the board and write the word correctly as quickly as possible. The winner finishes the word first and spells it correctly.

Word Scramble with Magnetic Letters or Letter Cards:

Scramble up the letters of each word and have student put them in the correct order.