Learning in my Level: Level 5

A Winning Start!

Level 5 students came back to school with enthusiasm keen to build and extend relationships with their peers and teachers as they are now part of the senior school. All classes created classroom expectations that students feel they can have a stake in and support their wellbeing and learning. They have enjoyed a Tuesday and Wednesday morning walk and jog around the school as well as games in the hall.

Reading

We are using the excellent Jackie French book ‘The Night They Stormed Eureka’ as our class novel this term and using it to build a deeper understanding of life in Victoria during the Gold Rush. Students have been using post it notes and text coding to monitor their comprehension as they read. Students have explored their classroom library to choose books they are excited to read.

A comprehension strategy that students always enjoy is Visualising. One particular lesson involved sharing a text extract that described The Count in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula. Students had to read the text once and draw and label a picture of The Count based on the details they remembered. They then had to reread the extract to mine the text for additional or different details and incorporate them in new sketches with every reading. Here is a fine example of how Ruby’s mental image changed as she reread the text:

Writing

In Writing, students have been practicing writing persuasive texts in readiness for NAPLAN. We have been focusing on students organising their ideas into separate paragraphs that are structured in a successful way. Here are some examples:

Word Work

In Word Work, students have been using mini whiteboards to practise and use different spelling patterns and rules including doubling a final consonant before adding a suffix, dropping the e vowel before adding a suffix and words that utilise the soft c sound.

Mathematics

In Mathematics we started with some work on place value to support students to read and write very large numbers. The use of place value houses supported the students in grouping the digits together in threes to provide support to name each of the groups of 3. Following that, we have been using the partition, split, jump, compensation and vertical column method to add and subtract large numbers. We emphasise the importance of having a ‘toolkit’ of different strategies that will be required depending on the complexity of the question. Blank number lines have been used by students, particularly with the compensation strategy, to provide visual assistance as they think through the problem.

Wellbeing

Students have been greatly engaged with The Resilience Project this year. We have covered lessons on getting in touch with our emotions, recalling positive emotions, unpacked the concept of empathy and looked at the science behind the concept of kindness. We spent time to unpack Safer Internet Day by using a BTN clip that examined concepts such as trolling, online hate and what to do if you experience bullying online.

Learning in my Level – Year 6

Wow! What an incredible start to 2025 Year 6 has had. We are having so much fun in the Senior Hub getting to know each other and starting the year. Over the last 6 weeks, Year 6 has settled into the school year very well. Routines have been set and learning has begun.

In Maths, we have been looking at data, place value and are beginning to explore addition and the four operations. In Writing, the students have written a persuasive piece on a topic of their choosing and are beginning to explore a narrative based around camp. In Inquiry, we have begun exploring the gold rush in Victoria. This links into our class novel this term called “The Night they Stormed Eureka” by Jackie French which is about a present-day girl travelling back in time to the Gold Rush era.

At the beginning of the term, each class participated in our start-up program to allow everyone to get to know each other and settle into the new class. Classes did get to know you activities and were able to create some great displays for the rooms.

In Week 5, the year 6 cohort trekked off on a big adventure to Camp Coonawarra. This lovely camp is located about 3.5 hours from Rangeview near Bairnsdale. Over the 5 days away, the students participated in thrilling activities such as a giant swing, flying fox, high ropes, a large outdoor maze, a climbing wall, raft building, canoeing and hut building. The students were able to interact with students they maybe don’t usually and soak up the summer sun with their friends. It was a fabulous week filled with lots of sun, laughs, pranks and friendship! Even Taylor Swift had a great week away!! The students were able to live it up in the camp pool and cool off every day (teachers too!)

Camp Coonawarra was a great experience and allowed students to spend quality time with each other in their final year of primary school. What a great week full of memories everyone will hold on to forever. The staff on camp were very proud of all the leadership that the students showed and the effort and bravery a lot of students demonstrated during activities

We are so excited for an awesome year ahead!

Year 6 Team – Nathalia, Josh, Tegan and Lisa

Reading Challenge