Year 5 News 

Reading

This week in Reading, the Year 5 cohort has begun reading Wylah the Koorie Warrior: Guardians. As they explore this exciting novel, students are developing key comprehension skills by making predictions, summarising important events, answering retrieval questions, and using inference to deepen their understanding of the text.

Through rich class discussions and close reading activities, students are learning to support their thinking with evidence from the text while engaging with the novel's characters, setting, and themes. It has been wonderful to see the Year 5 cohort building their confidence as thoughtful and reflective readers while enjoying this engaging story.

“I have enjoyed reading the book in class” Xavier 5B

“I have enjoyed answering the questions at the end of each chapter” Madison 5B

“I am enjoying Wylah because it uses interesting words” - Fatima 5A

“My favourite part about the story is when Wylah teaches the kids how to paint” - Sofia 5A

Writing

Building strong communication skills has been the focus for the Year 5 cohort this week. Students have been strengthening their understanding of grammar by revising key language conventions and applying them to improve the clarity and accuracy of their writing.

They have also been developing their persuasive knowledge and understanding by working with a partner to structure and organise a debate. Students have been organised into pairs and as a class, discussed what topics they wanted to debate. Students drew these ideas out of a hat and whether they are arguing for or against the argument. With their partner, students will create an introduction, brainstorm three reasons with supporting evidence and concluding statement. At the end of the unit,  the students will use this information to debate their opposing groups.

“I have liked learning about debates” - Kayaan 5B

“We have to think to debate against the other team” - Elina 5A

“I am doing the for argument for PE. I think it was really fun because I have a good topic. One of my arguments was that someone can’t do it because they have a disability” - Aysha 5A

Maths 

The Year 5 students have completed their learning in our Time unit. Throughout this unit, students developed their understanding of reading and interpreting analogue and digital time, converting time between 12- and 24-hour times and applying these skills to solve real-world problems.

To conclude the unit, students explored how time can be represented through data. This week, they focused on analysing and interpreting line graphs that displayed information collected over time. Students identified trends, compared data, and used their observations to answer questions and draw conclusions.

As part of their learning, students also conducted statistical investigations. They collected, organised and represented data before analysing their results and communicating their findings. These activities strengthened their ability to interpret data, think critically, and apply their mathematical understanding in meaningful contexts.

“I have enjoyed converting time” - Lal 5B

“I have liked learning about how to read graphs correctly” - Berk 5B

“The long hand is the minutes, the short hand is the hours and the long and skinny one is the seconds” - Elina 5A

“I like learning about graphs because I can learn what people like” - Fatima 5A

Inquiry

Exploring how living things survive in different environments has been the focus of Inquiry for the Year 5 cohort this week. Students have been learning about the three types of adaptations, structural, behavioural and physiological, and how these help animals survive in their habitats.

They have also investigated the four main basic needs of plants and animals, water, shelter, food and air, and explored how plants and animals adapt to different environments. Through hands-on activities and class discussions, students have developed a deeper understanding of how living things depend on their environment to survive. It has been wonderful to see the Year 5 cohort building their scientific knowledge and curiosity about the natural world.

“I have enjoyed learning about different biomes” Avanya 5B

‘The four basic needs are water, food, air and shelter” - Jobe 5A

Social and Emotional Learning

This week in Year 5, students have been exploring character strengths and how these positive qualities help us learn, build friendships, and overcome challenges. Through class discussions, role-playing activities, and reflection tasks, students identified strengths such as kindness, perseverance, honesty, courage, teamwork, gratitude, and resilience. They also recognised that everyone has different strengths and that using these strengths can make a positive difference at school, at home, and in the wider community. 

I liked representing different character strengths in the role play” 5B

I liked doing the role play about character strengths” 5B

AUSLAN

This week in Auslan, Year 5 students revised the meaning of HOLM (Handshape, Orientation, Location and Movement) and NMF (Non-Manual Features), which are the key elements used to create signs. Students then explored Auslan minimal pairs, learning how changing just one part of a sign can completely change its meaning. Our focus was on handshape, with students practising how small changes in handshape can create different signs while the other elements remain the same. Through games and signing activities, students developed their understanding of the precision and richness of Auslan as a visual language. 

“I like learning about different handshapes” Madison 5B

“I have learnt that changing one part of a sign can change the meaning” Gurreet 5B