Learning in Year 5

Reading:

We’ve continued diving into our class novels, and the students have been loving the chance to practice their comprehension strategies. The past two weeks we’ve focused on our visualising and making connections skills. Each class has been drawing the scenes they picture as we read our class novel, bringing our stories to life with their imagination! We have also been making connections between the text and our own experiences, other stories, and the world around us to help deepen our understanding of what we read.

Writing

Our focus has been on persuasive writing. Students have been exploring modality words using high modality words like: always, undoubtedly, certainly, and absolutely in their persuasive pieces. They’ve also been using the AFOREST techniques to make their writing engaging: Alliteration, Facts, Opinion, Rhetorical question, Exaggeration, Statistics, Three (rule of three). They’re developing strong, convincing arguments in creative ways.

Integrated Studies

We’ve been learning about political parties and even had a go at creating our own posters for our political party of choice! Students designed their own creative post for their party in small groups. It was fantastic to see their creativity and critical thinking in action.

Wellbeing

In Wellbeing, we’ve been exploring URSTRONG. Daily check-ins have become a highlight, with students rating how they feel out of 5 in their URSTRONG Friendship Journals. Our weekly videos have sparked great discussions about friendships, kindness, and emotional resilience.

Maths:

We’ve been working on the four operations — addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division — and learning strategies to tackle worded problems using the C.U.B.E.S. strategy: Circle numbers, Underline question, Box key words, Evaluate, Solve. These skills are helping students enter NAPLAN with confidence.

NAPLAN: In Week 7, our Year 5 students began NAPLAN testing and approached it like true champions! Their focus, perseverance, and positive attitude were amazing to see.