Senior Unit - 5/6

Senior Unit News

The Senior Unit has been busily working on their information reports this week, locating and summarising information using their netbook computers. This week they have begun collating their information into the correct structure as well as creating a glossary to explain their topic specific words. The teachers have been very pleased with the diverse topic choice the students have selected and look forward to the students presenting their findings in the coming weeks.

In Reading, the students have been looking at the work of Australian writers Shaun Tan and Margaret Wild. They have enjoyed using text clues within the books, such as word choice and character interaction, to find the author’s message or a lesson being portrayed.

In Maths, students have been looking at 3-Dimensional shapes, describing their features including what 2-Dimensional faces they have. They also looked at 2D shapes, measuring their internal angles using a protractor and looking at what happens to the internal angles of a shape each time a side is added.

This week in Science, the students were able to complete their experiments involving the growing of alfalfa seeds in different solutions. Below are the findings from our Year 5/6 students:

When we first added the solutions to the alfalfa seeds, I thought that the banana water would make them grow the best because of all the nutrients in the banana peel.
As the days passed the tap waterseeds were getting lots of sprouts and growing really well.
The salt water had sucked the colour out of the seeds and the cotton pad had turned a yellow colour.
The vinegar water had not changed at all and the banana water had only a few sprouts.
At the half way mark of our experiment, we looked at the banana water seeds and they were getting very little sunlight. The class decided to move the seeds closer to the tap water seeds to see if there would be any change and to make the experiment fairer.
After the week had ended, banana water had turned the cotton pad a reddish brown colour and had not sprouted as much as we had expected. There was not a single sprout in the salt or vinegar water and the tap water had sprouted all of its seeds, filling the bag.

Year 5/6 Teachers

Nathan Spilsted, Andrea Evans, Jad Geer, Kat Richardson, Ashleigh Dodds