Grade 5/6

Numeracy

Big Idea Statement: 

Comparison: OPERATION MEANINGS & RELATIONSHIPS: The same number sentence (e.g. 12-4 = 8) can be associated with different concrete or real-world situations and different number sentences can be associated with the same concrete or real-world situation. 

In Numeracy, we are continuing on with Big Idea 5, where we have learnt that numbers can be associated with real world situations. The students discussed how multiplication and division facts are related and used arrays to help us understand this. We have worked hard to develop our knowledge on division by solving problems using long division. It was amazing to see all of the hard work the students put in to learning this and they understood that mistakes are going to happen, but we just have to keep trying. There were many ‘ah ha’ moments during this. We are now starting to learn about the 4 operations and how to use these when talking about algebra! It won’t be long until we are ready for our post test to show all we have learnt. 

In fluency, we are focusing on our 7 times tables which has proven to be tricky, considering there are no strategies to help us solve these problems. We know that we have to have a great understanding of all our other times tables first so we can use those strategies to help us and we know that they are a pattern and that if you multiply 7 by an even number, you will get an even answer and if you multiply 7 by an odd number, you will get an odd answer. We can’t wait to see the result of our post test this week, especially after the students have worked so hard.

Literacy

In Literacy, we have started our next unit, which is poetry. We started off by reading ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ by Sara Teasdale which describes how nature keeps blooming, raining and singing even if all humans were to disappear. It has opened up a lot of discussions about war and the importance of nature. We also read the poem ‘Municipal Gum’ by Oodgeroo Noonuccal which taught us about the symbol of a gum tree and how it represents the Indigenous Australians that were taken away from their families. Both these poems will help us with our final task of the term which is to create a rhyming couplet poem based on  ‘a world without’ and an extended metaphor free verse using natural elements and resilience. We can’t wait to share our poems with you all. 

Integrated Studies

In Integrated Studies, we have started to learn all about voting and why the majority matters. We watched a video about preferential voting and even participated in one, voting on what we would like to do in our free time. The students learnt the importance of filling our their ballot papers correctly, otherwise their votes would not count. We are excited to take part in another one once we get to Canberra. We also learnt about how different laws are made and the different steps/houses those laws need to go through before they are classified as a ‘law’, we had some interesting discussions about what laws we knew about and even heard some we weren’t aware of. In the coming weeks, we will be choosing an issue that is important to us, to raise awareness about. We will work hard to persuade others through a speech as to why our issue needs their help and support. 

Have a great week! 

Miss Stephan and Mr Ward

Reminders:

Tuesday June 9th – Winter Sports Netball

Friday 19th June - Curriculum Day

Friday June 26th – Last day of Term 2: End of term BBQ, casual clothes and 2:30pm finish.

We are very excited about our camp next term, but we understand how nervous and anxious it can make some of us feel. Please continue to have conversations at home about the amazing experience your child will have in Canberra. 

Please reach out to us if you have any concerns, questions or wonderings or if there is anything we can do to make this a little easier for your child.