Classroom News

Grade 5 & 6

Term 2 looks a little different in 5/6 as we farewell our wonderful Ms Fabris and wish her well for the impending arrival of her baby. In her place we warmly welcome Ms Esra Uzunbay. We also welcome Ms Kirra King to 5A, who will capably fill the shoes of Mrs Fiona Arthur for the first 6 weeks of term. Ezra and Kirra both bring a great deal of experience and lots of warmth and enthusiasm to their roles. They have both already connected strongly with the students in their classes.

We finished Term 1 with our VERY well attended Project Firestorm expo – thank you for your support and attendance at this event! The students were very excited to share the products of their learning with you. It has also been lovely to share your feedback with them, overwhelmingly acknowledging the creativity and critical thinking on display.

We have launched right into some really interesting learning in our classrooms to start the new term – please see some details below.

ENGLISH

Our Reading and Writing Workshops have used the powerful “Sorry Day” by Coral Voss to focus on:

• Using prior knowledge and experience to connect with texts read and strengthen understanding
• Describing, identifying and using figurative language – (eg, personification such as “The land wailed”
• Making predictions, with evidence – (eg, “I predict that…because…”)
• Exploring how authors show points of view
• Exploring story structure – (eg the parallel storylines in the text)
• Presentation – establishing criteria for well-presented published writing, worthy of being included in a Writer’s Gift

SPELLING

Spelling rotations have begun, operating over a 2 week period with a focus on a specific word family. This fortnight our focus in on double letters before suffixes (travelling, transmitting, transferring)

MATHS

We continue to practice fluently recalling number facts as part of every maths lesson. Activities are individualised to focus on each students’ fluency goal. For example, some students will be focusing on 6,7, 8 and 9 times tables, while others may have a goal relating to multiplication of decimals, eg 8 x 0.4, 8 x 0.04 etc.

Our big topic this fortnight has been Transformation. Students have been learning to:

• Describe transformations using mathematical language
• Translate (slide), rotate (turn), reflect (flip) and enlarge 2 dimensional shapes
• Become familiar with the Cartesian plane

LIVING AND GROWING

Sex Education Australia presenters will deliver the Living and Growing program to all Year 5 and 6 students on the first 3 Wednesdays of Term 2. The highly experienced presenters lead informative discussions and activities with patience, sensitivity and humour, putting even the most uncomfortable students quickly at ease. Topics addressed include:

• 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’

HOMEWORK

Homework will continue to be set for students each Friday via Showbie this term. Students have a week to complete the tasks and they are due back at school (usually uploaded to Showbie) the following Friday.

Homework for the coming 2 weeks will focus on Reading of non-fiction texts as background knowledge for our upcoming unit of work on democracy and parliament in Australia.

All Year 5/6 students should also be regularly reading texts they have chosen themselves as part of their weekly homework.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Thurday 11th May – Mothers’ Day Stall

Friday 5th May – Summer Sport Round Robin

Many students will participate in Volleystars, Sofcrosse, Kanga Cricket, Basketball and Tennis Hot Shots competitions at various venues.

Students not participating in this round robin will be supervised in classroom activities at school.

Please not - Students are required to be at school by 8.30am for an 8.45am departure.

Monday 15th – Grade 6 Swimming Program

Lessons taking place every day this week for Year 6 students at Aqualink Nunawading.

Reminder that students are asked to wear their bathers to school underneath their school uniform.

All other details on Compass Events.

Monday 15th – Friday 19th May - Band Open Rehearsals

BPS community warmly invited to attend Band and musical ensemble rehearsals this week. See Music Program page of the newsletter and the flyer sent home with students this week for details.