Year 6 Celebration Newsletter
Maths:
In Term 1, we changed with the maths curriculum and completed our very first maths project. Within our first maths project we built ‘Geometry Cities’. Whilst building our cities, we had to utilise mathematical skills such as determining perimeter, area, and volume of both 2D shapes and 3D objects. We also challenged ourselves by creating our very own 3D object nets to form the buildings for our cities. To finish off the term, we have developed our knowledge of the BODMAS acronym to solve problems involving more than one operation. Within this unit, we have learnt about numbers being ‘squared’ and ‘cubed’ and finding the ‘square root’ of numbers. We have also developed our maths routines, beginning each session with our daily fluency number goal work, as well as a warmup game, problem, or puzzle.
Writing:
During Term 1, we set expectations and collected ideas to build our Writer’s Notebook. We learned about the purpose of a ‘Bump It Up Wall’ to help us level up our writing pieces. We worked hard to learn the skills to develop comprehensive movie reviews of short films. We had to analyse the characters, film techniques and the message of the film. We provided a rating, with accompanying reasons and evidence to recommend our selected films to others. Continuing our work on persuasive writing, we learnt about the key elements of a debate, working with teams of fellow students to either argue for or against our selected topic. We worked as a team to research evidence to strengthen our arguments and brainstorm potential rebuttals in response to the opposing team.
Reading:
Within reading this term we have established the classroom expectations for what a reading lesson should look like, sound like and feel like. We built our classroom library and continue to visit the school library to widen our choices of ‘good fit’ books. We have developed our ability to summarise both fiction and non-fiction texts, using a variety of strategies to identify the main points within the text, and expanding those main points into sentences to form a summary. We built our knowledge of asking questions whilst reading utilising the Question Answer Relationship Strategy, asking ‘right there’, ‘think and search’, ‘author and me’ and ‘on my own’ questions to deepen our understanding of the text. We have also begun looking at the roles within a Literature Circle, preparing ourselves for independent reading groups in Term 2.
Wellbeing:
Throughout wellbeing this term, we have strengthened our understanding of the key values embedded within The Resilience Project: Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness and Emotional Literacy. We have also participated in the Respectful Relationships program in which we have learnt about intense and mixed emotions, and ways in which these emotions can be expressed and frequently change.
Inquiry:
As part of the Inquiry program, students explored historical events that have shaped Australia. They learned about colonial life and what economic, political, and social impacts were made when colonies settled in Australia, as well as the impact colonisation had on First Nation Australians and the natural environment. Students matched events to given years in order to create timelines and picked their own way to express their learnings through our project choice board.
PE
In Term 1 Grade 6 PE classes, students further developed their physical abilities through challenging activities and sports. In preparation for inter-school competitions, students learned, practised, and mastered different game-specific skills. They refined techniques and strategies while developing sportsmanship, leadership, and teamwork to best represent Kismet Park against other schools.
Japanese
This term in Japanese the 6 students participated in a unit called ‘Hiragana Karate Belts’ where they revised hiragana (Japanese alphabet) by completing various activities and games that enabled them to practise identifying and saying each hiragana character. Students were required to work collaboratively with a partner or group to complete the tasks. They will continue to move through the belt colours throughout the year while completing other units of work. Students also continued to read and write Japanese words, phrases and sentences.
Visual Arts
This term students investigated the tools of drawing, creating artworks using a range of tools - pencils, pens and markers. Students continued to learn about the elements of art – line, shape, and colour. They made choices about how their artworks looked and took risks when working with unfamiliar materials and techniques. Students worked towards developing their confidence and artistic skills as they appreciated and valued the creations of others.
Performing Arts
In Term One Performing Arts, Grade Six students worked on their oral language and public speaking skills while working with scripted plays. Students have stepped through the play-building process to rehearse characters and storylines from several Aesop fables. Students also explored media skills when developing digital backgrounds to accompany their performances and are looking forward to sharing their ‘mini productions’ with an audience next term.
