From the 5/6 Classrooms

Team 5/6 has continued to have a very busy Term 1, participating in a number of rich learning tasks and opportunities. Below are just some of the many things that have been happening both in and out of the classroom.

Reading:
In our reading sessions we have been studying two texts, Sorry Day and Say Yes: A Story of Friendship, Fairness and a Vote for Hope. Sorry Day tells two stories that entwine to retell the day that Kevin Rudd said 'Sorry' to the Stolen Generation, whilst Say Yes: A Story of Friendship, Fairness and a Vote for Hope explains the events surrounding the historic 1967 Referendum played out in the everyday lives of two young girls. Both texts helped the students connect with important historical events surrounding Aboriginal people, whilst highlighting the important role Government plays in changing rules and laws in our society. It also allowed our students the opportunity to analyse and evaluate similarities and differences in texts based on similar topics, themes and plots.

Maths:

In Maths our Grade 6's have been looking at adding and subtracting integers. The students took a 'trip around the world' adding and subtracting integers to come up with a temperature to assign to their name and, based on this, a starting point to their journey. They then chose 10 other students and used their data to travel the world. The idea of scale was explored by measuring the distance between countries visited as well as the mean, median, mode and range of the 10 temperatures chosen. Graphing and looking at the difference between the temperatures, using the main skill of adding and subtracting integers, also formed a part of this major maths investigation.

Parliamentary Incursion:

This week our Grade 5/6 students have participated in the second of our parliamentary incursions for the Term. This session primarily focused on how the Senate works and the process that occurs in Australia if we have a referendum. The students were highly engaged during the session and became passionate advocates for their topics during the mock Senate, learning about how a bill is brought to the Senate and the process it has to go through before becoming a law. Students will now take much of the knowledge gained in this session and apply it to their Parliamentary Booklets that they will be presenting in Week 9 during our Expo.

STEM:

Our challenge in STEM last week was to create a pathway for a coding robot that measures approximately 2 metres long. It had to include both right and left turns which proved more challenging! Groups started by coding the Beebots and then challenged themselves to code the Spheros if they had time. Students did a great job planning their pathways and coding the robots to safely navigate their courses.