Year 6 News 

Reading 

This past fortnight, Year 6 students have continued reading our class novel I Am Malala and deepening their understanding of the author's purpose. Through class discussions, students explored why authors choose to share particular stories and messages, and how Malala’s experiences help communicate themes of courage, equality and the importance of education. We then focused on identifying main ideas and understanding why authors include supporting details to strengthen their message. Students practised identifying the main idea in a text and explaining how specific details support it.

Year 6 students also explored new vocabulary from the novel, including words like tolerance, commemorate, democratic, abolished, authority, blasphemy, enlightened, scavenger, bazaar, shameful, criticise, ignorance and exploitation. We unpacked the meaning of each word, reviewed correct spelling and identified their parts of speech to strengthen both comprehension and writing skills.

‘In Pakistan there are beautiful trucks with details on them and lots of colours, I love being able to share about my culture’ - Ibrahim 6A

“In Reading, I enjoyed learning about the main ideas and themes that texts teach us.”- Andre 6B

‘ Malala is the same age as us and has been through such horrible things, she is so brave”- Aaron 6C

Writing

This last fortnight, the Year 6 students have been exploring root words, in particular the suffixes -ance/-ence (the state of something) and prefix en-/em-, which turns adjectives into a verb or noun (to make or become). Students explored the meaning of these suffixes and how the meanings of words can change. Students have also had a focus on Handwriting where we have been focusing on fluency and legibility of our writing. 

This year, Year 6 students will be using a writers notebook during writing sessions. The purpose of this is for students to be able to brainstorm ideas, write thoughts and express themselves through their own purposeful writing. We can't wait to share some of these pieces of writing with you. 

‘Creating seeds has been very fun, because you can write anything that is in your mind and imagination’ - Mahrosh 6A

“Seed pages help us brainstorm ideas and have a page we can come back to when we start drafting.” - Aleisha 6B

‘Getting to draw and add colour and picture to our seeds is going to help create writing pieces’ - Devrim 6C

Maths

In Maths, students have been working on Algebraic thinking that includes the ability to recognise patterns, represent relationships, make generalisations and analyse how things change. They have also begun to use Orders of Operations (BODMAS) to solve equations that use mathematical symbols of Brackets, Order, Division, Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction. Students are using this strategy to represent their mathematical thinking via quality tools such as tables, flowcharts, ladders and sequencing.     

‘BODAMS is kind of challenging but its also really fun once you get the hang of it’ - Mara 6A

'I really like learning in maths because you can have different operations in one question and use BODMAS to solve it.' - Zander 6B

‘BODMAS is like solving a puzzle I love it'- Prish 6C

Inquiry 

This past fortnight, Year 6 students have begun learning about Federation and the early years of Australia as a nation. Students explored the referendums that led to Federation and discussed which groups were excluded from voting and decision-making at the time, including women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They learned about Australia’s first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, and researched the key arguments both for and against Federation and nationhood.

Students also examined what life was like in the colonies before Federation, including the impact of the gold rush on population growth and the economy. We discussed how issues such as economy, transport, defence and government influenced the push towards uniting the colonies into one nation, helping students understand the challenges and motivations behind Australia becoming a federation.

‘I loved learning about the early 1800’s and researching about federation, it was interesting to be able to learn what it was like during that time and when Australia was developing’ - Holly 6A

“I like researching about the Fedaration.” - Jhavier 6B

‘Federation was important for creating Australia’- Naya 6C

Social and Emotional Learning

This fortnight, the year 6 cohort have been focusing on building positive habits and strengthening our classroom community. In SEL, we practised guided relaxation strategies to help calm our minds and bodies, supporting students to manage emotions and feel ready to learn. Not only can students use these strategies but they are great strategies to use outside of school as well. We also explored what it means to be responsible when using devices, discussing safe, respectful and purposeful technology use both at school and at home. 

‘In SEL we did role plays about how we should act inside the classroom when there is a different teacher. I had lots of fun’ - Ibrahim 6A

‘ I enjoyed being re-taught the value of respectfulness and knowing what respect looks like’- Aleisha 6B

‘It is important for us to learn about mistakes students make when a CRT has our class so we don’t make them’ - Artaaz 6C

Special Event

Clean Up Australia Day

Last week, the Year 6 students participated in our annual event, Clean Up Australia Day. The Year 6 students took a lead role in demonstrating to the CPS community the importance of keeping our school clean, the impacts that rubbish has in our community and how we can all make small changes to help project our planet and community. 

Students picked up rubbish at the front of the school and on the Oval - where we have many of our students play. Students then celebrated a wonderful collaborative effort across the school and CPS community. Year 6 students will continue to promote a happy, positive and clean CPS environment. 

‘It was fun helping clean up our school and making a difference’ - Ivan 6A

‘We noticed the School is very clean’ - Rylie 6C