Year 6

STEAM reflection

Did you know without intervention, the transport sector is projected to be Australia's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030?

The STEAM focus for the senior school was to create a form of aquatic transport that was powered by solar energy, from predominately recycled materials. The students first learnt about non-renewable and renewable energy and the pros and cons of all forms of energy. Students also drew on their prior knowledge to construct working circuits which would then be transferred to their aquatic transport. Literacy and mathematics were also involved as students had to explain how to build the solar circuit via a procedure, and had to calculate the angles and volume of their design.

The students faced many challenges while constructing their transport (everything from water leaks and balance issues to lack of sun and circuitry issues). All students showed amazing resilience and persistence when these challenges arose and never gave up. 

Term 3

This term students will be learning about Government. Students will be learning about the Australian Government and how it operates. Students will be learning about voting systems and how laws are created.

In Literacy the focus is on poetry. Students will be exposed to a range of poems and poetic styles to decipher and discuss. They will also be creating their own poetry by going through the entire writing process from generating ideas to publishing. Students will also be providing constructive feedback to each other throughout the process. The poems that are created will be submitted to the 'Poem Forest' by Red Room Poetry, an initiative which plants a tree for every nature poem that is submitted. 

Our Year 6 students will be studying Once by Morris Gleitzman as their class novel for the first part of Term 3. This powerful and engaging story, set during World War II, follows the journey of a young boy named Felix and introduces students to historical events through a deeply personal lens. While the novel does explore some mature themes, these will be approached with great care and sensitivity, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for thoughtful discussion. This unit is also an important step in preparing students for the types of texts and critical thinking they will encounter in high school English.

In Mathematics, we are focussing on multiplication and division. The students will get to work on solving real-life problems involving money and percentages, sometimes using calculators. They’ll also practise multiplying and dividing decimals by powers of 10, using their understanding of place value. They will use estimation and rounding to check if their answers make sense. 

Students will explore 3D objects and learn how to compare the shapes you get when you slice them in different ways. They’ll also discover how these shapes connect to right prisms, which will help them better understand geometry.

In Measurement, specifically looking at area. The students will figure out the formula for the area of rectangles and use it to solve practical problems. Along the way, they’ll make connections between length, perimeter, and area, which will really help them see how these ideas fit together.

In our Statistics unit, the students will become little data detectives! They’ll plan and carry out surveys or observations to collect data, both numbers and categories. Then, they’ll analyse what they find and learn how to share their results clearly and confidently.

Important Dates

• Wednesday 30th July - STEAM Expo
• Tuesday 12th August - Solli Raphael author visit 
• Tuesday 19th August - Thursday 21st - Scholastics Book Fair
• Friday 22nd August - Book Week Dress up day
• Monday 1st September - Hats to be worn outside
• Friday 12th September - Elephant Ed
• Friday 19th September - End of Term 3

Please find updates throughout the term in the School Newsletter and through the Compass App.

Kind regards,

Year 6 teachers: Marisa Maree, Holly Smith and Tanya Wells