Melton West Primary School

Year 5/6 News 

 English

Reading

This term in reading the 5/6 students will be continuing their work on inferring, building their knowledge of how to infer a character’s thoughts, feelings and motivations. The students have been using their prior knowledge and the evidence from the text to make inferences about how a character’s feelings have changed in the text. The students will then work on inferring the multiple causes of a problem in a text and understand the main message. Throughout the term the students will be also focusing on making connections by connecting texts to their personal experiences, making connections between texts and connecting texts with the happenings of the world. The grade 5/6 students will also focus on summarising the important parts of fiction and non-fiction texts in a sequenced way, both orally and in writing. 

 

Writing

This term the grade 5/6 students will be working on understanding information reports. The students will continue using the writing process which involves researching information to support their idea development, drafting, revising and editing and publishing. This information report will draw on their areas of interest. The students will work on continuing to build their understanding of the text features that are essential to information reports (introduction, description and concluding paragraph). Throughout the unit, the students will also have the opportunity to extend their vocabulary through the use of subject specific vocabulary and the use of adjectives that are factual and precise. 

            

Mathematics

This term in maths the grade 5/6 students will be covering a range of areas. The students will begin the term focusing on data, where they will work on creating data displays using numerical and categorical data, comparing and interpreting a range of data sets and explaining the difference between primary and secondary data. The students will then move onto time, where they will unpack the difference between 12-hour and 24-hour time, interpret and use timetables, measure, calculate and compare elapsed time and convert between 12-hour and 24-hour time. The major number focus for the term will focus on addition and subtraction, where students will work on solving problems using a range of efficient strategies, recording, explaining and justifying their solutions and using mental estimation and rounding. The students will also have a focus on length and perimeter, where they will work on measuring accurately and with appropriate units, converting between metric units of length by understanding the relationship of ‘10 of these is 1 of those’ in the metric system. The students will also investigate efficient ways to find the perimeter of shapes. 

 

 

Inquiry

This term in Inquiry the grade 5/6 students will be focusing on the topic ‘Decisions, Decisions, Decisions’. Throughout this unit the students will be understanding the function of government. The students will be unpacking democracy in Australia and why voting in a democracy is important. They will be working on understanding the roles and responsibilities of the different levels of government and the electoral process. The 5/6 students will also work on identifying the different roles of people in our legal system and the importance of government. 

 

 

 

Science

This term in Science, Grade 5/6 students will be focusing on the Earth and Space Sciences. Students will be investigating geological events that affect Earth’s surface (e.g. earthquakes and volcanic eruptions). They will also be investigating a variety of extreme weather events that affect Earth’s surface (e.g. cyclones, tsunamis, bushfire, drought, flood and tornadoes). The Grade 5/6 students will be completing an individual research project focusing on a geological or extreme weather event of their choice. Students will be encouraged to delve into the causes of the extreme weather or geological event they are researching, seeking to further understand why these events occur.

 

 

LOTE - Chinese

During Term 2 in Chinese, Grade 5/6s learn about traditional Chinese family structure and the national sport in Chinese. Towards the end Term2 they will make family trees on posters and then introduce them to the class. We will continue using Book Creator to input Chinese characters to express their favourite sports in Chinese. 

 

 

 Art

Welcome to Term 2, Art, 2023! In Art, the Grade 3 to 6’s have started the term off with Rock Painting. The students have been mapping out a pebble design and executing their masterpieces on rocks. One of the great benefits of Rock Paining is that it helps to relieve stress and anxiety as well as providing students with an opportunity to express their creative abilities by focusing on the task at hand. This term, we will be immersing and exposing students to Art from many different cultures including Aboriginal and Indigenous Art, Mexican Folk art and French Impressionism. We will dive into the world of renowned Artists like Frida Kahlo, Thaneeya McArdle, Albert Namatjira, Rover Thomas, Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri, Dorothy Napangardi, Tommy Watson and George Ward Tjungurrayi to better understand the history and background of their Art work and what inspired them to create such amazing masterpieces. The students will be experimenting with combinations of components and approaches, such as combinations of elements, design principles, composition and style. They will use these techniques to replicate and to create their own versions of the artwork. 

We will continue to investigate how colours work together by looking at colour theory. The students will experiment with warm and cool colours, and participate in printmaking using leaves as stencils, taking into consideration the current season and tones of ‘Autumn’. Warm and cool colours play a vital part when designing, and particularly when painting to create a sense of mood in the artwork.  This term will be very messy in Art. I look forward to more fun in the Art room with our students!

 

 

P.E.

This will be a busy term for the grade 5/6 students with multiple inter school events running throughout the term. The sports for this term are netball, football, tee-ball, cross country, and soccer. We wish all students who will represent the school all the best and hope they have fun, play fair and have every success in their chosen sport.

In addition to these fantastic interschool opportunities there will be much learning taking place for the students in 5/6, firstly students will begin the term with basketball. Students will take a games-based approach for this sport and be able to engage and play in 3 v 3 games and full 5 v 5 competition games. During this unit students will continue to develop their skills for the game of basketball and be able to participate in playing actual games. Students will try and use strategy in the game of basketball and work in teams to solve problems, they will also be able to showcase the skills required to play which are throwing, catching, bouncing, and shooting a basketball. After completing this unit, the 5/6 students will move into track & field and participate in a range of different events to showcase a range of the fundamental movement skills. The events that students will participate in will include short distance running, relay running, discuss, shotput, and hurdles. Students will learn correct techniques and be able to apply their skills in simulated competition activities. This term should be so exciting for the 5/6 students with so many opportunities in sport for each student. I cannot wait for all the interschool sport events that will take place and learning that we will complete each week.