Grade 5/6

Reading

In Term 2, students will read and analyse the verse-novel 'Sister Heart' which is a mix of poetry and prose. ​Students will learn how authors create an effect on the reader by changing sentence structure, punctuation and language choices. ​Students will be encouraged to consider how the author shows perspectives of different cultural and social groups. This book follows the experiences of a young Aboriginal girl. It is set in the time of the Stolen Generations. ​Students will also learn about how authors use imagery such as similes, metaphors and onomatopoeia.​

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Later on in Term 2, students will learn about the past through historical fiction by reading the novel 'Once'. ​This book is about the Holocaust and persecution of Jewish people during World War Two. Students will learn how authors innovate on the typical structure of stories.

Writing

In Writing, students will learn how to write a variety of different text types, such as narratives, persuasive and informative texts. Students will use the knowledge obtained in Science and Humanities topics to write for different purposes. ​

Students will also learn how to adapt their language and structural choices for different purposes and audiences. ​

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In conjunction with their Science topic, students will write procedural texts before they conduct an experiment to test irreversible change. ​

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Students will also learn how important the planning and editing parts of composing a text are. They will learn how to write an effective plan to guide the rest of their writing process. ​

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Finally, they will continue to use a variety of sentence types and punctuation to further develop their writing skills.

Maths

Students will begin Term 2 with a focus on division to ensure they have the appropriate skills to actively engage in Mathematics across the term. They will then move onto calculating and solving problems involving area, perimeter, volume and capacity. 

We will then move on to a data and graphing unit. This will link to our ‘Making Democracy’ unit in Humanities, as well as our ‘Reversible and Irreversible Changes’ unit in Science. Students will pose questions, collect data and represent this in column graphs, dot plots and tables. We will also explore chance and probability, which connects to our water solubility lessons in Science. 

​In conjunction with our learning in Science about irreversible changes in cooking, we will also be exploring measurement. Students will choose appropriate units of measurement for measuring volume, capacity and mass, and convert between units of measurements such as millilitres and litres. ​

Finally, our students will have the opportunity to use digital technologies and various physical manipulatives to explore and transform 2D and 3D shapes. 

Science

Students will learn about reversible and irreversible changes through playing games. They will research how a waste product is recycled and they will conduct an experiment to work out which material makes the best water filter. Students will identify irreversible changes that occur when cooking a pancake and they will conduct an experiment to determine which materials are soluble. ​

Through this science unit, students will develop a curiosity about the building blocks of nature. They will also be able to describe and name chemical processes that they observe such as melting, freezing, evaporating, burning, and rusting.  

Humanities 

In Term 2, students will learn about the values of Australian democracy and the key features of the electoral process. Throughout this topic they will learn about the responsibilities of the three levels of government. ​

Students will learn about the Stolen Generations and the fight for equal rights in Australia. They will also set personal and social goals and work as a class towards a common goal. ​

This term Grade 5 and 6 will investigate Australian government processes in the context of the Australian election.

Circle Solutions

In Term 2, Grade 5 and 6 will describe the impact that personal qualities and strengths have on achieving success. They will be encouraged to recognise and appreciate the uniqueness of all people. Students will also learn to explain how individual, social and cultural differences may increase vulnerability to stereotypes.​

Later on in the term, students will learn about gender and identity. Studies show that school-based violence prevention and respectful relationships initiatives can make a real difference, producing lasting change in attitudes and behaviours in students. Providing explicit classroom programs to all students is a key part of a whole school approach to preventing gender-based violence and promoting positive relationships.​

As part of our topic, students will analyse the impact of peer and adult actions in maintaining or changing contemporary gender norms. They will develop an awareness of the impact of gender norms on the attitudes and behaviours of those entering adolescence. Students will also identify the standards and actions of respectful interactions between different genders. 

Grade Level Events: