Year 5/6

56C

Term 2 is almost over, and it has been packed with learning, sporting events and excursions!

We have just finished off our Feudal Japan unit, focusing on how foreign trade ended the shogun era. Our Japanese gardens are proudly on display outside of our classroom and really brighten up the atrium. Students first learnt about traditional Japanese gardens, their purpose and what is usually included. They then wrote a paragraph that explained the artistic choices they made when painting their gardens, and how they reflected the Shinto and Buddhist religions in Japan.

Everyone has been working hard on completing their final information reports based off of a sport of choice. Students have taken their planning documents and paragraph outlines to showcase their research on either Book Creator, Canva eBooks or on a paper report. Lots of hard work has been put into this and it has been fantastic to see some completed and learn about different sports.

In Maths, we have also wrapped up our Location and Transformation topic, which saw everyone getting quite artistic by creating their own tessellations and enlargements of images. Next term, we will be diving into multiplication, so feel free to test your child over the holidays.

The Stories in the Wall project has been successfully completed! Last week, some students headed back into the city to watch the play Hide the Dog at the Melbourne Arts Centre. After this, students headed outside to listen to some of the completed radio plays with sound effects. They will be playing over the holidays if families would like to visit. It has been such a special project that will be enjoyed by people from all over the world! 

I hope you all have a fantastic break and manage to keep warm and safe!

56T

We have had a busy couple of weeks at the end of this term – halfway through the year already! It’s hard to believe we only have 6 months left with our Year 6s before they head off to high school. 

We have finished off our Topic unit on Feudal Japan – learning all about the hierarchy of power in Japan, the major religions in Japan and how they influenced daily life and how foreign trade bought about the end of the shogun era.  

We have since started a novel study, ‘Once’ by Morris Gleitzman and we are learning about Felix, a boy living in Poland in 1942, and how he sees the events of WWII take place. This has sparked some really interesting discussion and we are learning a lot about this time in history. 

Next term we will continue with a novel study, reading ‘Nanberry: Black Brother White’ by Jackie French. This novel is set in 1789 pre-Federation Australia and is the story of Australia’s first surgeon and the Aboriginal boy he adopts. We will be writing lots of transactional texts to tie in with this novel  

next term. 

In Maths we have finished our unit on transformation and location and have just started our next unit looking at multiplication. We are certainly learning how important it is to know our times tables as we multiply larger numbers! 

Last week our Stories in the Wall participants made their final trek into the city to listen to their final products and see a play at the Arts Centre. Well done to all those who went along and I’m sure there will be some very excited families going in to hear all your hard work in the holidays. 

Yesterday we had a very fun Unboxy session building some marvellous creations with our Prep buddies – there were some very creative designs! 

I hope everyone has a restful and relaxing holiday and comes back to school ready for another big term of learning and activities.