Year 5/6 Mainstream

Celebrating Learning

5/6 Maths:

To start the term, students in 5/6 have been talking about positive math minds. We have been talking about shifting attitudes towards maths by discussing ideas like “everyone can learn maths”, “maths is about learning, not performing” and “depth is more important than speed”. Students have been putting these principles into practice while tackling problem solving challenges and maths games. 5/6 students have been working in small groups, pairs and independently to persevere through solving challenging problems using a variety of strategies. We have been practicing drawing a diagram, making a table, and acting out different scenarios to help us solve worded problems. Students are having fun and making discoveries. 

To support their maths learning at home, students are being encouraged to learn their times tables. 

Bilal & Ethan

Unit Focus - Government and Democracy:

This term in Unit Focus, the 5/6s are learning about democracy, the referendums, the difference between laws and rules, the levels of government, as well as how we vote. 

In our first lesson we learnt about what democracy means and what it means to be an Australian. We talked about the rights and responsibilities of citizens and why we have laws. We also explored some census data and did a deep dive into who makes up Australia.

In this week’s session, we learnt about the levels of government and what responsibilities each level of government holds. We played a game where we had to sort responsibilities like defence, taxation, post, libraries, roads & signage and parks & playgrounds into either local, state or federal government.

We also held a preferential vote on who should be President of the World. The candidates were Bluey, Tyler the Creator, Taylor Swift, Lebron James, and Lionel Messi. Some students stood at the front and pretended to be the candidates while telling the group why they should vote for them. It was very funny and goofy because everyone was having a good time pretending to be these famous people while still mucking around.

Afterwards we listed each candidate from 1-5 on our preferential voting form. All of the 5/6 teachers counted up the votes and demonstrated the way that votes are redistributed based on preferences. We learned about what an absolute majority was and as the votes were being counted, calculated how many votes a candidate would need to win. Once all the votes were tallied, the teachers announced the totals: Lionel Messi 4 votes; Taylor Swift 5 votes; Tyler the Creator 16 votes; Lebron James 16 votes; and Bluey with 18 votes. Messi’s votes were then redistributed to people's second preferences because he had the least amount. The teachers did this two more times before we were left with the final vote count. Bluey on 25 votes and Lebron on… 33!  Everyone went crazy with thunderous applause, laughter and giggles. It was so much fun and we’d love to do it again! 

Written by Esther and Margot from 5/6C

Sport - 

Some of you might be interested in what 5/6 sport is all about. 

We have started sport for term 1. There are 4 summer sports to choose from and we put preferences in for that sport we would like to play. The sports are; softball, cricket, rounders and basketball, my sport is softball.

Every Friday we train in our sport in preparation for Gala Day. 

Now you might be thinking what is a Gala Day?

A Gala Day is where we go to a sports ground and play our sport against other schools. 

In softball training we usually practise catching and throwing. Then we get into teams and play a practice match. There are Gala Days in term 2 and 3 and we will be playing different sports for each one. 

• Written by Phoenix, 5/6 B