Welcome to Week 4!

Welcome to Week 4! It has been wonderful seeing our Grade 5 and 6 students continue to settle into the busy and exciting final term of the year. With plenty of learning opportunities and special events ahead, we look forward to another productive week as students continue developing their skills, working collaboratively and making positive contributions to our school community.

Reminders:

A quick reminder for students to please bring back the 5/6 camp forms so the Grade 5/6 team can organise everything ASAP.

CBL – Community Service Donations

As part of our Term 4 CBL unit, Survival and Service, our Grade 5/6 students are working on a range of initiatives aimed at giving back and making a positive difference within our school and wider community. To help bring these projects to life, we would greatly appreciate any support from our school families.

Foodbank Donations

One group of students will be preparing meals to donate to a local foodbank, supporting individuals and families in need. To assist with this initiative, we are seeking donations of food essentials, including fresh vegetables, tinned fruit, pasta and rice.

Students will be sending out an email later this week with further information. However, we wanted to provide families with some additional notice to organise donations if they are able to contribute.

Schoolyard Blitz – Concrete Donations

Another group of students are undertaking a Schoolyard Blitz, working to improve and enhance areas of our school grounds for the benefit of our school community.

To support their project, students are seeking approximately 10 bags of concrete. If any families have connections with local businesses, suppliers or tradespeople who may be willing to assist, or are in a position to donate themselves, we would be incredibly grateful.

Any contribution, big or small, would be greatly appreciated! These initiatives provide our students with meaningful opportunities to develop teamwork, leadership and a genuine understanding of the importance of giving back.

Thank you in advance for your generosity and ongoing support in helping our students make a positive difference! 💛

Literacy

Reading

This week in Reading, students will continue exploring news articles, building on their understanding of how information is presented and communicated to an audience. Students will investigate the structure and features of news reports, considering how headlines, factual information and language choices are used to capture readers' attention and communicate key messages.

Students will also strengthen their ability to identify important details, distinguish between facts and opinions, and consider how different perspectives can influence the way news stories are presented.

Writing

In Writing, students will continue developing their skills in news report writing. Building on their learning from last week, students will focus on organising information clearly, creating engaging headlines and using factual, informative language to communicate events accurately.

Students will have opportunities to plan, draft and refine their own news reports, considering how effective introductions, supporting details and appropriate vocabulary can help inform and engage their readers.

Phormes

This week in Phormes, both Grade 5 and Grade 6 students will continue exploring the Latin word elements pel/pulse, meaning to push or drive. Students will investigate how these elements appear in a range of familiar and unfamiliar words, including repel, propel, impulse and expel.

Through identifying word patterns, exploring meanings and making connections between related words, students will continue strengthening their spelling knowledge, vocabulary and understanding of word structures.

Speaking and Listening

This week in Speaking and Listening, students will continue focusing on news and how information is communicated to an audience. Students will explore the importance of speaking clearly, presenting information in a logical order and using appropriate expression when sharing news or reporting on events.

Language Conventions

This week in Language Conventions, students will continue exploring the overuse of phrases such as “and then, and then” and “really, really” in their writing. Students will investigate how repetitive language can affect the flow and quality of their work, while exploring strategies to create more engaging and varied sentences.

Through a range of writing activities, students will practise using alternative sentence starters, more precise vocabulary and a variety of sentence structures to improve the clarity and effectiveness of their writing.

What you can do at home:

Read or watch an age-appropriate news report together and discuss how the information has been organised and presented.
Encourage your child to share a recent event as though they were a news reporter, focusing on clear and factual communication.
Challenge your child to improve a sentence by replacing repetitive phrases such as and then or really with more interesting vocabulary or sentence structures.

Maths

This week in Maths, both Grade 5 and Grade 6 students will continue exploring Fractions, Decimals and Percentages, strengthening their understanding of how these different representations of numbers are connected.

Students will build on their ability to recognise, compare and convert between fractions, decimals and percentages, while applying their knowledge to a range of practical activities and problem-solving challenges.

Through these learning experiences, students will develop greater confidence in using equivalent representations and understanding how fractions, decimals and percentages are applied in everyday situations.

What you can do at home:

Look for examples of fractions, decimals and percentages in everyday life, such as shopping discounts, recipes and sporting statistics.
Challenge your child to identify common equivalents, such as ½ = 0.5 = 50% or ¾ = 0.75 = 75%.
Discuss how percentages can be used to describe parts of a whole, such as the percentage of a sporting team's games won or the amount of a discount when shopping.

CBL

Big Idea: Survival and Service

Challenge: Strengthen our community by giving back and inspiring others to pay it forward.

Essential Question: How do acts of service help communities survive, connect and thrive?

Guiding Questions:

What does it mean to serve others?
How has our school and wider community invested in us?
Our time, skills and effort can make a genuine difference. How?

This week in CBL, students will continue working towards bringing their ideas to life as part of our Survival and Service unit.

Students involved in service-focused activities will continue planning, organising and beginning to put their events into action. Through these experiences, students will take greater ownership of their initiatives, work collaboratively to manage responsibilities and develop their problem-solving and leadership skills as they aim to make a positive difference within our school and wider community.

Meanwhile, students involved in the school production will continue rehearsing and refining their performances in preparation for the upcoming shows. Students will focus on teamwork, confidence and communication as they work together towards a successful production.

Through both experiences, students will continue demonstrating the importance of collaboration, responsibility and using their individual strengths to contribute to a shared goal.

Wellbeing

This week in Wellbeing, students will continue their learning through Cyber Safety (CS), exploring the importance of making safe, responsible and respectful choices when interacting with others online.

Students will consider how their digital actions can impact themselves and others, while discussing strategies for managing challenging online situations, protecting personal information and communicating positively in digital environments.

These discussions will encourage students to think critically about their online behaviours and develop the skills needed to navigate digital spaces safely and confidently.

What you can do at home:

Talk with your child about the importance of protecting personal information and maintaining privacy online.
Discuss how to respond appropriately when faced with uncomfortable or challenging online interactions.
Encourage your child to think about how their words and actions can affect others, both online and in person.

Important Dates

October

28th – Prep Transition Day #3

November

3rd – Melbourne Cup Day

6th – Headspace – Grade 6 Transition Incursion

7th – Production Bump In

8th – Production Rehearsals at ACPS

11th – Production Dress Rehearsals and Shows

12th – Production Dress Rehearsals and Shows

13th – Transition 1 – New Rooms with Current Classroom Teacher

20th – Silent Disco

20th – Transition 2

30th – Leave for Camp

December

3rd – Return from Camp

14th – Graduation

15th – Fun Day Out

16th – Final Assembly

17th – Alternative Program for Moving Day

18th – Pupil-Free Final Day

Wellbeing Hub