Grade 5 News

Upcoming Dates

Monday 10th March - Labour Day (Public Holiday)

Wednesday 12th March - NAPLAN: Writing

Thursday 13th March - NAPLAN: Reading

Tuesday 18th March - NAPLAN: Conventions

Wednesday 19th March - NAPLAN: Maths

Friday 28th March - House Athletics

Friday 4th April - Last Day of term. Dismissal at 2.30pm

Learning in Action

Literacy

The book that we’re reading is called War Horse. It's about a horse named Joey who ploughed on a farm with his best friend or owner named Albert. One day war started involving their country and Albert's father needed money, so he sold Joey to the soldiers. Albert begged them to let him come to war with Joey, but it was useless. When he went to World War 1 in France, his best friend was Captain Nicholls, but sadly Captain Nicholls didn't make it through the first battle. Joey met a horse called Topthorn. In one of the battles, Joey and Topthorn were the only horses that made it, and they got captured by the German soldiers. They got put on a farm with a young French girl named Emillie and her grandpa. We still have more to read.

Asha ~ 5M

I wrote a story about a skinny little snow deer named Misty that somehow ends up in a jungle near the city. She gets chased by a big, ferocious tiger that doesn't know what he's doing. He looks at the fearful deer and thinks to himself, I can't do this to a little deer. But Misty is too afraid to notice and runs right off a cliff into a big surrounding ocean. Stray goes to help her but falls in with her. Eventually, with the help of a log, they jump onto land. After that, Misty has to say goodbye to the stray and go home. It was a big journey, but because of that, Misty became a whole different person (deer).

Mayah ~ 5M

Preview for Learning: Students are now wrapping up the narrative learning attached to War Horse. They will continue to write their stories, but we are now moving onto a persuasive unit. NAPLAN writing can be either narrative or persuasive, so it is important to refresh both genres heading into the testing period.

Maths

The weekly Maths program currently consists of several components that support students to not only learn new concepts or skills but also draw on ideas previously learnt. Maths Reviews are occurring in each classroom, and these are a short series of slides that allow students to reflect on previous learning, ensuring that it remains an active component in their repertoire.

With regard to whole class learning, students have continued working with whole numbers and place value. More recently, students have been decomposing and partitioning numbers, including irregular ways of understanding numbers. For example, the number 342 could be described at 3 hundreds, 4 tens and 2 ones, OR it might also be described as 2 hundreds, 14 tens and 2 ones. Following that, students have looked at rounding and estimating numbers, which will be helpful as we move into addition and subtraction (not to mention, NAPLAN!

Preview for Learning: Prior to the shift towards addition and subtraction, students will be consolidating their understanding of whole numbers and place value. This might be achieved through more goal practise or simply undertaking a variety of activities that require them to draw on their new learning.

Inquiry

We have now concluded three weeks of Inquiry rotations where students have been moving to the different Grade 5 classes to learn about a specific area of the health curriculum. With Mr Mac, students have been discussing addiction and social media, specifically exploring the reasons why so many of us become reliant on things like social media and gaming. Feel free to ask the students about dopamine! With Miss Manning, students have been learning more about physical health, specifically identifying things that keep us healthy, such clean water, food and healthcare. Lastly, students visited 5HA's classroom to learn more about safety, specifically relating to water, traffic, strangers and around the home.

Cross Country

What a great day we all had at the annual House Cross Country event. Besides Mr Thomas doing a tremendous job to prepare a successful event, it was the community spirit that made the day even better. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help throughout the day and cheer the students on!

Of course, the day would not have been so much fun without the commitment from our amazing students. Cross Country is easier for some than others, but the kindness, persistence and aspirations on display ended up being the true highlight.

Check out some Grade 5 photos from the event!