Grade 6 Community News
Dear families,
A heartfelt thank you to all the families who joined us for the Meet & Greet! It was such a pleasure connecting with you and getting to know our wonderful students. We truly enjoyed the opportunity to meet everyone and look forward to a fantastic year ahead!
Maths
We have started our new Maths unit on order of operations. In this unit, we are not using an acronym to teach the concept (e.g. BODMAS). While acronyms can help with memorizing steps, they don’t always build a strong understanding of how the operations actually work.
Instead, students are learning why certain operations are grouped together and how to solve them correctly from left to right. This approach helps prevent common misunderstandings and supports a deeper understanding of the concept.
The visual we are using the teach this is below:
If you would like to here are some simple ways you can support your child at home:
1 - Ask them to explain their thinking
If they solve something like 2 + 3 × 4, ask:
“Why did you do that step first?”
Encouraging explanation builds deeper understanding.
2 - Practise step-by-step working
Remind your child to:
- Solve brackets first
- Then multiplication and division (from left to right)
- Then addition and subtraction (from left to right) Writing each step on a new line helps avoid mistakes.
Humanities
We are learning about the growth of European empires between the 1700s and 1900s and how this shaped the modern world. We are exploring why countries expanded their empires and how this affected different peoples, including First Nations peoples in Australia. Students will investigate key events and significant individuals and examine how Australia developed within the British Empire. Throughout the unit, they will build skills in analysing sources, understanding different perspectives, and thinking critically about the lasting impacts of the empire.
Vocabulary: The words the students have been introduced to through our text, Kensuke’s Kingdom are: ravenously, deter, awestruck, enraged, rummaged, immaculately, ventured and engrossed. The students learn the definition of these words and how to use them in their own writing.
Text Reading: We have continued reading our text, Kensuke’s Kingdom. We pause to reflect on the events of the text as well as to discuss literary devices the author uses. In addition, the students have bolstered their understanding of the text through reading and taking notes from non-fiction texts about sailing.
Sentence Level Writing: The students have been working on the students have been learning about dependent and independent clauses. They have been writing complex sentences using subordinating conjunctions.
Sport
The students have continued to participate in cricket, basketball, T-ball, tennis, and volley stars on Friday afternoons as preparation for Gala Day continues. If your child has been selected for a Gala Day team; please use Compass to give permission for their participation when this goes live.
Reminders
March 9th - Labour day public holiday
PLC 6