Welcome back for Term 3!

We are already well underway for the term and are pleased to report that all Year 5 students have made a smooth and motivated transition back into their learning structures.

Before we dive into a summary of the curriculum for this term, here are some important reminders about the events we have coming up this term:

Monday, 29th of July - Chemical Science Incursion (via Zoom)
Weeks 4, 5 and 7 - Sexual Education Australia workshops (Three 90 minute sessions per week per class)
Friday, 23rd of August - Curriculum Day (No students at school)
Friday, 20th of September - Last Day of Term 3 (1:00pm finish)

Literacy

The literacy side of the curriculum for Year 5 this term will have a strong nonfiction focus in both Reading and Writing.

In Reading, students will have a strong focus on identifying, defining and researching scientific and technical vocabulary, as well as investigating the features, purposes and intentions found within a wide variety of nonfiction texts. Alongside this, a key focus will be developing research skills by searching for and using relevant information from trustworthy sources. Students will also continue to engage in regular small group Guided Reading sessions with their teachers, focused around achieving collective learning goals and providing students with level appropriate texts to analyse and discuss.

In Writing, students will be focused on creating two distinct nonfiction text types this term - Information Reports and Procedural Texts. These will be strongly connected with learning from Reading tasks, as the vocabulary and information collected during those lessons will form the basis around which these texts will be constructed. While developing their own examples of these texts, students will be encouraged to use their understanding of author’s craft to ensure their texts are presented in an engaging and appealing manner.

Numeracy

The numeracy side of the curriculum for this term has a range of different focus areas, aiming to further develop various mathematical skills.

We have already begun the term with a Location unit, focused around developing the students understandings of how to read and use maps, creating their own maps with a set of features (Border, Orientation, Legend, Title, Scale and Source - BOLTSS), understanding cardinal directions (North, South, East and West) and using this knowledge to give and receive directions between different points on maps.

Our next unit focuses on Operations, where students will be working to further develop their understanding of the four operations of mathematics - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Further development and refinement of multiplication and division skills using a range of calculation strategies will be a large focus of this unit, as well as using their knowledge of all four operations to find unknown values in number sentences, identifying factors and multiples of various numbers and applying this knowledge practically to solve financial problems.

Following this, numeracy learning switches to Fractions, where students will be challenged to compare, order and represent a range of different fractions, as well as add and subtract them. Alongside this, students will also learn strategies to convert between different fractions and express fractions which are greater than one whole as improper and mixed fractions.

Our final numeracy unit of the term will investigate Chance, where students will complete various chance experiments and express their results using both appropriate language and comparing data collected while completing various experiments.

Chemical Science

Our unit of Inquiry for this Term is Chemical Science, which students are quite excited about! In terms of learning, students will be investigating concepts such as the states of matter (gases, liquids and solids), chemical and physical changes, reversible and irreversible changes and experimentation.

This unit allows students to get particularly hands-on with their learning, completing and observing a wide range of experiments and completing scientific reports which allow them to predict outcomes and discuss observations during and after the experiment is complete. It also promotes strong ties with Literacy, as many of the ideas discussed across the two curriculum areas are strongly linked, especially the scientific and technical vocabulary required.

Social and Emotional Learning

During Social and Emotional Learning lessons this term, students will be beginning with a unit focused on Gender and Identity, as outlined through the RRRR (Rights, Responsibilities and Respectful Relationships) curriculum.

Throughout the middle part of the term, as mentioned previously, students will be participating in workshops run by Sexual Education Australia, which focus on the following areas:

conception, pregnancy and birth
names and functions of reproductive parts
physical, social and emotional changes of puberty
managing friendships
respect for self and others
responsible use of technology and social media
key messages on ‘body safety’

These workshops will run in Weeks 4, 5 and 7, with each class completing a 90 minute session each week.

Finally, students will complete their learning with a unit focused on Help Seeking, which discusses a range of different people, resources and agencies students can use to find assistance with a range of problems they may experience.

Home Learning

A regular question we receive in Year 5 is ‘How can I support my child’s learning at home?’ As teachers, we appreciate and value the support you provide in reinforcing learning which we do each day at school, here are some tasks students can complete at home to further their understanding:

Home Reading - In Year 5, we recommend students read at home for 30 minutes each night. This can come in a range of forms - physical books/novels, online literacy resources or any other physical media (newspapers, magazines, etc.). We encourage students to read a range of different text types, as furthering their vocabulary knowledge will have a positive effect on your child’s literacy development as a whole.
IXL - All students in Year 5 have access to the online IXL resource. This can be accessed anytime, anywhere, on any device and provides students with a range of ability-appropriate Literacy and Numeracy tasks, connected to the Victorian Curriculum from a Foundation level to Year 12. We regularly use IXL during our classroom learning and encourage students to share this program with their families so it can be used at home.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read our curriculum overview for this term! Term 3 is always a busy one, so if you have any questions, queries or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with your child’s classroom teacher and we’ll be more than happy to assist.

Thank you for your continued support,

Bernadette, Christian, Tom, Rachel, Anne, Paul and Sharnie

Year 5 Teaching Team

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