Year Five News 

Beach Program

Our students have concluded their three weeks at Williamstown Beach and demonstrated a principled mindset whilst representing Saltwater College in a public forum. It has been an educational program where the students have gained knowledge of how they can keep themselves safe in and around the water, how to use bandages to wrap cuts and stings as well as engaging in fun land and water activities.  A sincere thank you to the Williamstown Surf Life Saving Club for facilitating this program.

Reading

During Reading lessons, students have been engaging in learning many comprehension strategies to ensure they are understanding the context of the literature. Along with the QAR – Question- Answer-Relationship strategy, students have been working on identifying key vocabulary, inferring, predicting, monitoring, clarifying, and summarising. Each class are reading a shared class novel, where the benefits of whole class reading not only introduce children to a wide variety of genres, but it also allows for enjoyment and rich discussion opportunities. Teacher’s reading aloud to the class demonstrates how to use language to make sense of the world by developing connections and can

 also motivate students to read more. 

These are the current novels being read by the Year Five classes:

 5A Once by Morris Gleitzman

5B Can You see Me? By Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott

5C Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo

5D Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl

5E Mary Poppins by P.L Travers

5F The Boy in the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf

Writing

Our writing lessons have been focusing on the structure and features of Persuasive texts in preparation for NAPLAN in Term 2. Students have been learning about persuasive devices, particularly how to use these elements in their writing. The inclusion of devices such as personal pronouns, rhetorical questions, emotive language, exaggeration and factual information, are just some of the language techniques used to form an effective argument.

Mathematics

During Numeracy sessions, the Year Five classes have been working on Place Value and learning that each digit in a number represents a value, with each number increasing in value by 10.  Each number is also able to be represented in various ways with activities revolving around how to show a number in its standard form, written form, expanded notation and how the number looks using MAB or the base ten model. 

Unit of Inquiry

Through the Transdisciplinary Theme ‘Who We are’ and Central Idea of ‘Characteristics of a leader determine their legacy’, students have begun to immerse themselves in tasks and discussions about what constitutes an effective leader. Classes watched the 2018 resignation of Australian Cricket Captain Steve Smith and used the Visible Thinking Routine – Think, Pair, Share, to record and compare their thinking. Students were then able to research the incident and make conclusions as to their thoughts on whether his leadership should have been impacted or not. This provocation created much discussion and activated student’s wonderings for future investigations.

NAPLAN

By now, families will have received information about the confirmed dates for the 2022 NAPLAN tests. They will be conducted on the following dates:

Tuesday 10th May – Monday 16th May

For further information contact your classroom teacher.

Homework

Homework is an expectation for the Year Five cohort and can be accessed via Schoolbox. It is a way for students to reinforce learning from school and facilitate mastery in specific areas. The homework cycle allows students two weeks to complete the set tasks and we encourage families to have discussions and ask questions of their children. By showing an interest in the activities, the children appreciate that what they are doing is of importance. If you have any questions regarding the homework tasks, please do not hesitate to contact your classroom teacher.

Kind Regards,

The Year Five Team