Year 5/6 News

Welcome

As we find ourselves in the second week of Term 4 and we head into a period of transition where our Year 6 students are starting to engage with their new schools for next year. It is also a time where our Year 5's are preparing to become school leaders. Alongside the excitement of what lies ahead it is important for the students to maintain good routines and stay focussed on their learning.

PBL

This term in PBL the students are being introduced to design technologies with a key focus of that being coding. During this unit the students will explore binary and the use of 1's and 0's. They are currently developing an understanding of how to develop basic code and how to decipher a pattern.

As well as design technologies the students are now working towards the "pointy end" of their respective businesses. The aim is to have these businesses up and running in the next few weeks so keep your eye out for some fresh brownies, delicious smoothies and some freshly brewed coffee. Our Community Garden will be launching the sale of their vertical gardens shortly.

Reading

In reading, the students have been looking at how an author engages their audience. We have explored and unpacked many poems from Banjo Paterson to see how the famous Australian Poet engaged his audience of the time. The students have also explored how literary devices can assist in engaging an audience and conveying meaning. The students have been enjoying coming up with their own similes, metaphors and idioms to use in their fantastic poems.

Mathematics

As we move to the end of the year, we continue to explore new topics and revise previous concepts.

As part of the Year 5/6 Victorian Curriculum for Mathematics, students are expected to:

Use estimation and rounding to check the reasonableness of answers
Solve problems involving the multiplication of one and two-digit numbers using efficient mental and written strategies
Solve problems involving division by one digit (including those with remainders)
Select and apply efficient strategies to solve problems involving the four operations.

We ask that you support your child in revising efficient strategies for the four operations. Our focus in mathematics continues to be on developing students conceptual understanding (that is, that they can make sense of what they are doing).

Please see below some strategies which may be useful in practicing the four operations with your child.

Multiplication - box strategy