Year Five News

Grade 5 News for Term 2

Welcome to Term 2! The Grade 5 team is excited to begin a busy and productive 10 week term.

Throughout the term, we will continue to provide opportunities for students to strengthen their collaborative learning skills. We will also focus on embedding our School Values, encouraging effort, fostering a growth mindset, and building positive relationships with peers.

Literacy

This year, we are continuing to implement a block teaching approach to literacy. This allows us to cover all areas of literacy in extended, focused sessions. These include Daily Review, Oral Reading Fluency, Spelling and Morphology, Language Comprehension, and Writing.

During Term 2, students will:

• Participate in a novel study of “Tom Appleby, Convict Boy” by Jackie French to develop comprehension skills such as visualisation, making connections, and understanding cultural perspectives
• Explore information reports about animal adaptations
• Develop skills in interpreting information and making connections across a range of written and visual texts
• Continue with the Spelling Mastery program, tailored to individual learning needs
• Follow the writing process to create detailed information reports on a variety of topics

Numeracy

Each lesson will begin with a short review session, either through Daily Review or fluency practice. These quick 10-minute activities help consolidate prior learning.

This term, students will explore:

• Multiplication and Division – applying a range of written strategies to solve problems
• Geometry – investigating properties of 2D and 3D shapes, including nets
• Fractions – comparing and ordering fractions
• Probability – comparing experimental results with expected outcomes
• Measurement – converting between 12- and 24-hour time and interpreting and creating timetables

Students will also begin working in scaffolding groups to extend their multiplicative thinking and apply these skills to real-world problem-solving situations.

Units of Work

This term, our inquiry units will focus on Early Explorers and Convict Settlement in Australia, and Biological Science topics exploring plant and animal adaptations.

Students will:

• Use the Read2Learn program to investigate early explorers, the first fleet, settlement challenges, and the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• Develop an understanding of British colonies
• Explore how plants and animals adapt to their environments

Wellbeing

Students will continue participating in Respectful Relationships, Body Safety, and the Berry Street Education Model.

Through Berry Street, students will:

• Identify stressors and understand their impact
• Learn and practise strategies to manage stress, worry, and anger
• Use brain breaks to support focus and regulation
• Engage in consistent morning routines and strengthen connections with teachers and peers

In Respectful Relationships and Body Safety lessons, students will focus on:

• Coping strategies, including positive self-talk
• Problem-solving skills
• Stress management
• Safe and unsafe touch

• Recognising body warning signs

   

We will also hold our second Inform and Empower session, where students will further explore online safety.

Homework

Homework will commence in Week 2. Please support your child by providing a quiet space and time to complete their work.

Students are expected to:

• Read for 30 minutes, five times per week, and record this in their reading log
• Complete at least one maths task (or more) on Essential Assessment – My Numeracy, and record the task name

Intra-School Sport

To support access to space on school grounds, Grade 5 students will participate in a weekly intra-school sports program separately from Grade 6. Sessions will focus on developing skills in netball, football, and soccer, and will run on alternating Thursdays and Fridays.

Additional Information

We would greatly appreciate donations of tissue boxes for the classroom.

If you have any questions or would like to contact your child’s teacher, please do so via Compass.

Kind regards,

The Grade 5 Team

Dan, Annie and Alex