YEAR FIVE
Grade Bulletin - Term Two, 2021
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Primary School provides a range of holistic learning experiences to enable students to:
- Participate in the life and mission of the school.
- Deepen their knowledge and engagement with the Catholic faith and tradition.
- Build capacity to continuously reason, reflectively, logically and critically.
- Embrace interdependence of human existence as global citizens, who are responsible to and for themselves and others.
- Engage in learning in a multitude of ways, through personalised and self-paced learning.
“Ideas are like small plants sprouting in the compost of experience; it takes time and patience to find out if they turn into trees’. Shaun Tan
Religious Education
5.3 Easter: A Time for Hope and New Life
In this unit, the students reflect on the hope and new life that Jesus’ life, death and Resurrection bring to his disciples and followers. The unit examines the Christian belief in the Resurrection of Jesus and the Church’s belief in everlasting life. Students will explore how belief in the Resurrection influences the way we live. The unit concludes by focusing on the Easter Vigil.
5.4 Pentecost:
Celebrating the Presence of the Holy Spirit: This unit explores the presence of the Spirit of God in all creation, in the early Christian community, in individuals and in the community today. The students will examine how the fruit of the Spirit are visible signs of the presence of the Spirit.
English
This term, our focus is to continue to bring riches and depth to our English classrooms and teaching practice.
The students will experience literature-focused units of work based on ‘The Dog Runner’ by Bren MacDibble and ‘The Big Dry’ by Tony Davis. These texts present perspectives and points of view relating to the themes of dystopia, environment, disaster, sustainability and conservation.
The students will compose imaginative, persuasive and informative texts using the ‘Seven Steps of Writing’ technique. They will engage in online writing activities using the LittleScribe Platform. Students will be taught explicit skills in relation to grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and specific concepts about print.
Students will follow the Year 5 Soundwaves spelling program focusing on weekly phonemes and graphemes.
Viewing, speaking and listening activities will be taught through the use of technology such as apps, podcasts, Youtube and Zoom conferencing.
Mathematics
Flexible learning groups will take place five days a week. The activities are differentiated and the children are grouped in order to cater to their needs and ability. During these groups, the students are explicitly taught concepts from the NSW Mathematics K-10 Syllabus with a focus on problem-solving, communication, reasoning and understanding.
The topics taught in Term Two are; Whole Number, Area, Chance, Mass, Fractions, Two-Dimensional Space. The students will be engaged in tasks designed with increasing complexity and challenge, open-ended high ceiling, differentiated success criteria and enabling and extending prompts.
Science and Technology
The unit will engage students in STEM critical and creative thinking activities. Students will develop their understanding of the Earth’s dynamic structure and how it changes as a result of natural processes and human activity. They will begin to appreciate that there is a growing need to develop an understanding of the Earth’s characteristics and how people interact with their environment.
Mandarin
This term students
in Kindergarten to Year 6 will continue their participation in a Chinese language program called the Meg Language Program. The Meg Curriculum is written by the co-author of the Australian Curriculum. All students and teachers will participate in the digital learning platform via Zoom weekly sessions.
Geography
Through inquiry-based learning students will focus on ‘Factors that Shape Places’. Students will be encouraged to develop their cultural and geographical skills. They will explore how people change the natural environment in Australia and other places around the world. They also investigate how the environment influences the human characteristics of places. This will involve inquiry that examines current local, national and global geographical issues. This unit will also integrate a historical investigation of colonial Australia in the 1800’s and embed the importance of sustainability in our current climate.
Creative Arts
Visual Arts
Our Visual Arts program for Term 2 will be integrated with our musical production. Students will be utilising the elements of design as they work on different elements of The Lion King Jr Musical. Mrs Brown will be leading this initiative alongside the classroom teachers. We are looking forward to this creative endeavour!
Drama & Dance
During Term 2, Year 5 students will be utilising the elements of drama and dance as they continue the rehearsals for the Lion King Jr Musical.
Music
The students will be exploring the musical concepts by singing, playing and listening to a variety of songs. There will be a focus on the acoustic guitar as well as a range of percussion instruments. They will learn basic musical notation and develop the ability to create rhythmic strumming patterns for songs they perform. Music will be taught by Mrs Da Silva.
Drama
During Term 2, Year 5 students will be utilising the elements of drama and dance as they continue the rehearsals for the Lion King Jr. The Lion King experience will allow students to explore theatre from many different angles including; performance, design, directing, writing and technical theatre. The unit employs student-driven, project-based learning so that educators from varied backgrounds can introduce their students to the creativity and joy of the arts.
Personal Development, Health and Physical Education
The Stage 3 PDHPE Program is aimed at providing opportunities for students to develop their skills and build confidence in Athletics activities using Fundamental Movement Skills. This will assist students in preparation for the Athletics Carnival. In Stage 3, students should be consolidating and/or proficient in specific athletics Fundamental Movement Skills. Students will practice and apply these skills through athletics activities and traditional Indigenous games. Students will also be engaging in Dance, practising for the upcoming Lion King Performance. The Health Personal Development program will focus on building resilience and growth mindset positive behaviours with an underlying theme of Wellbeing of all students using the URStrong program.
Homework
Great teachers set great homework
That's our theme for the year.
Our students will continue to choose activities from the Homework Activities Grid that align with their Smart Goals (Learning & Personal). Reading nightly is the only compulsory activity. It is expected that the children will read for at least 20 minutes each night as part of their 40 minutes nightly homework. Reading will be recorded in the student diaries. The Google Classroom will be the platform for the recording of all other homework.
We look forward to a happy and successful term with you and your children. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher via a note or by appointment through the office.
Mrs Jo Ford and Miss Jade Warton (5Blue)
Miss Tanya Tunbridge (5Gold)
Miss Chonteau Poot (5White)
Important Dates for Year 5
Naplan Online Testing
Tuesday, 11th May - Friday 21st May
Sport Days:
5B: Tuesday and Fridays
5G: Mondays and Thursdays
5W: Tuesday
Library Days:
5B: Tuesday (Even Weeks)
5G: Wednesday (Odd Weeks)
5W: Wednesday (Even Weeks)
School Term - Tuesday, 20 April - Friday, 25 June 2021