Year 5 News

WOW!  What a start to the year! As the end of the term approaches, it is easy to forget how much has happened in the past 10 weeks. The Year 5's have encountered many new and exciting experiences. We would like to congratulate the students on their commitment and enthusiasm as they complete their first full term back to school in over 2 years!

Wrapping up the Year 5's first term of interschool sports, we had our first double-header where the students spent half of the day competing against not only one, but two schools. Finally, a highlight of the term for sports, the Year 5's completed the 5/6 Sports Expo with Coach Approach. Trainers and professionals from a range of sport industries came to teach the students various new skills, including basketball, volleyball, team building exercises and hip-hop dancing.

As part of our new Unit of Inquiry, the students finished creating the models of their researched regions. Leading into our central idea, 'Changes to the Earth's Surface and Natural Environment Can Impact On Human's Lives', the students were informed of an emergency, where their regions were about to endure a severe natural disaster. 

We then proceeded to recreate these disasters using their models as part of the demonstration. There was much excitement and emotion as their regions were exposed to a tornado, earthquake, tsunami, volcano and landslide. We followed this up with a debriefing, providing students the opportunity to understand the significance of this activity, providing them with some insights of the physical impact a natural disaster can have on the environment. 

To conclude this section of the UOI, the students were then tasked to individually research their region's natural disaster. We look forward to exploring geological and weather events in more detail next term. 

Please enjoy some recounts from these students.

I researched about Sendai in Japan and we built Sendai with recyclable materials. In Sendai there are many animals and buildings. 

Yesterday made me feel sad and I felt like it was useless building the city. I felt like it was almost happening from the sounds and the sight of it all being destroyed. I wonder what it feels like for the people who built these cities and just for it all to get destroyed.  

• Ben, 5D

In Bakersfield there was a HUGE! Earthquake, in fact it was a 7.01 magnitude earthquake on the cardboard and destroyed it. In Jarrell there was a tornado which destroyed the town, but on the cardboard it didn’t really do much. In Benguet, there was a landslide that fell off a mountain, if you lived at the bottom of the mountain you would be dead but if you were at the very end at the border you would be ok. In Yogyakarta, there was a volcanic eruption it must have took down a lot of the city but in the plastic it didn’t really do much. In Sendai There was a tsunami the wave wasn’t too big but the water was so powerful.  

• Harrison, 5D

Our group Dakotah, Finn, Lily and myself, we are researching Benguet, that had landslides. Yesterday was hectic everyone was screaming, it was funny but sad and I knew that when the teachers brought up slide shows of natural disasters happening I knew it was for an inquiry piece. 

It breaks my heart to see that people have to live through that. It would be scary if a big wall of water is about hit you. I wonder how do people survive, how can people be so calm about that. I think people can be calm because people know the instructions. 

• Baxter, 5D

Our group was researching Yogyakarta that had a volcanic eruption. Yesterday made me feel really sorry for people that have to go through these natural disasters, and even though we worked really hard on our project I can't imagine what it would be like if we had a volcano erupt, a tsunami, a landslide, an earthquake or a tornado in Melbourne.  I wonder how people would cope with these natural disasters and how they would survive. 

• Sophie, 5D

A few weeks ago Harry, Bailey, Sam, Gab and I started to research the town of Sendai which is located in Japan. We had to research the infrastructure, climate, flora and fauna. We then had to build a 3D model of Sendai. Yesterday we had just finished our model and we were about to find out it would not last long. 

We took all of the models outside and did a gallery walk with all the other grades, then we came inside to talk about what we were about to find out. Mrs Diggins started to give out pieces of paper with Natural disaster on them and we went outside to see the fate of our just finished project. 

The teachers started wrecking our models with dirt, water, elephant tooth paste (volcanoes) and moving mats underneath {for an earthquake} . Soon they got to Sendai and after they poured a ton of water from buckets over our model! I did not really like it because we put a lot of work into it and to see it destroyed  was not fun. But I do have to give credit to the teachers for the amazing launch into the new learning inquiry so we felt the connection to when it might happen in real life not just cardboard. 

 - Max, 5A

We wish all our Year 5 students and families a safe and happy Easter and a well-deserved relaxing break.

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