Learning Space News
Year 5/6
Literacy
During literacy sessions students have been exploring transactional writing including; letter writing, postcards, emails and cover letters for future jobs. Students either wrote letters to Australian athletes or their ARPS buddy, ensuring that they used the correct layout and language features. When writing postcards, they enjoyed using informal language and informing someone about interesting things that they had done on the holidays. They were able to present their postcards either digitally or by creating their own design on paper. This was a lovely way to read about what the students had been busy doing. Students have started exploring different styles of poetry and look forward to looking at the figurative language that is used. They are continuing to work on their vocabulary through reading a range of genres and developing their reading fluency and comprehension through explicit teaching.
Author Visit During Book Week
Dean Rankine was an absolute hit with both our students and staff. He was funny, engaging and inspiring – all students really enjoyed his visit and there was a lot of sneaky cartooning happening in classes for the rest of the day! It was great to look at storytelling through another lens, and students would have loved to have more time with him! Futurama, Simpsons and Rick and Morty are just some of the comics he has illustrated. Students were able to experience first-hand how to create and draw, using simple concepts, whilst displaying creativity and adventurousness with their ideas.
Maths
Students have been exploring coordinates and compass directions. They have been involved in lots of hands-on activities including ‘finding treasure’ and ‘battleships’. They have also been exploring multiplication and division strategies and refining their times tables to be able to recall them quickly and accurately.
You may like to ask your child which multiplication tables they have been working on and see if they can get them all correct in one minute!
Inquiry
As a celebration for the end of unit about the history of the Olympics, students participated in the ‘Potato Olympics’. They selected a potato and gave it a unique athlete profile. They created a new country and flag for their potato before the big event. During the activity, students were required to explore and record their results from the following events; Diving, Weight lifting, Gymnastics, Synchronised Swimming, Racing, Skating, Archery, Table Soccer, Spud Put and Relay. It is safe to say that not all of the potatoes got to compete in every event as they were a little worse for wear! This event enabled students to work collaboratively as part of a team, as well as competing against a range of peers building relationships. It was a lot of fun!
MCG Excursion
On their adventure to the Melbourne Cricket Ground students were full of excitement and curiosity, as many had never been there before. They were in awe of the size and facilities that the MCG has to offer. Students went on a guided tour, with a trained volunteer, who enlightened the students with interesting facts and details about the iconic landmark.
They experienced hands-on sporting activities, recording a personal snap shot of their skills using their digital wristbands. While visiting the museum, students were able to consolidate their learning from the inquiry topic about the Olympics by making strong connections to artefacts and the many images of past athletes and their achievements. Hearing from an Olympic gold medalist allowed students to learn about the dedication and commitments it takes to be an elite athlete and be the best in the world.
