5/6 T

Literacy

While we continue to focus on improving reading comprehension, particularly paying attention to identifying the author's purpose and making connections, we have been working towards using this knowledge to apply it to our own writing. By being purposeful with writing, and choosing to entertain, persuade or inform, the students are able to approach the editing process with more focus. We have begun to identify ways to improve our writing by selecting sentences that can be made better with the use of 'Show, Don't Tell' and using more precise language to convey our message.

Maths

The focus these last few weeks has been on measurement, in particular looking at mass, and volume. Students began by coming to grips with how much things actually weigh and recognising various things that weigh from 20 grams all the way up to items that weigh 1kg. We then moved to understanding the difference between volume and capacity and investigated how much water is used around the house and when and where we can make savings. We used data about flow rates to determine the size of containers to hold our saved water.

Inquiry/Ed. in Faith

This week and last we had a virtual incursion from both the Victorian Parliament Education Team and the Parliamentary Education Office in Canberra where we had a virtual tour of each of the chambers of parliament, seeing how both houses mirror the colour scheme of the British houses in Westminster. We also learnt that the names of our houses in Canberra follow the American tradition (so we have a Washminster system! Was from Washington and minster from Westminster). We looked at how we have representative Democracy where elected members represent us in parliament and laws are made by a majority vote of members in each house.

We then compared this system of government to how decisions were made in the time of Jesus, recognising that as Judea was ruled by a King, that decisions were made that did not take into account the voices of the people. We also began to think about how Jesus was the person who chose to speak up for the outcasts and for this he was seen as a trouble maker.

Prep Buddy Reading Time

Once again, our Grade 6 students met with their Prep Buddies to share some reading time. It is pleasing to see how much progress the Preps have made with their reading skills and how supportive the Grade 6 students were to guide their buddy.