Level 5 & 6 

🗓️ TERM 3 DATES

🌱Wednesday 13th August - Grade 5 to visit Warrandyte High

🌱Friday 15th August - Clifford Park Excursion

🌱Friday 15th August – Book Week Author visit

🌱Friday 22nd August – Book Week Parade

🌱Friday 29th August – Father’s Day Breakfast  

🌱Wednesday September 3rd – Matilda School Production 

🌱Thursday September 4th – Matilda School Production 

🌱Friday September 19th – Hooptime 

🌱Friday September 19th – Last Day of Term 3 (early dismissal @ 2:30pm

🌱 LITERACY – Reading

Now that our Grade 5 students have had the chance to practise each of the Literature Circle roles, they’re ready to dive into their first full rotation! They’ll be continuing their novel study of Mac Slater, Cool Hunter by Tristan Bancks, using their assigned roles to guide rich group discussions and deepen their understanding of the text.

Meanwhile, our Grade 6 students are moving into their third Literature Circle cycle, rotating through roles such as Discussion Director, Literary Luminary, Word Wizard, Artful Artist, Character Captain, Clever Connector, and Summariser. These roles encourage thoughtful engagement and help develop critical reading skills.

In addition to their reading work, all students will complete a Language Conventions task focusing on the correct use of possessive apostrophes, along with a comprehension activity that connects meaningfully with our current CBL (Challenge Based Learning) unit.

What you can do at home

Chat with your child about the book and the specific role they’ve been given that week.If your child is away from school or missing sessions due to production rehearsals, please remind them to keep up with their reading at home.

🌱 Writing

As we continue our journey through Tristan Bancks’ Story School – a dynamic digital writing series exploring the craft of storytelling – our students will be focusing on the art of refining and polishing their work. This week, they’ll hone their editing skills, paying special attention to punctuation (including possessive apostrophes), grammar (writing in a consistent tense), and the creative use of figurative language, with a spotlight on metaphors. These tools will help them take their writing to the next level, making their stories clearer, stronger, and more engaging.

What you can do at home

Chat with them about the writing skills they’ve been exploring through Story School and how this is helping improve their writing. 

🌱 NUMERACY 

This week in Mathematics, students will begin an engaging unit on angles, focusing on both building their foundational knowledge and developing their reasoning and problem-solving skills.

Grade 5 and 6 students will explore complementary (adding to 90°) and supplementary (adding to 180°) angles, learning to identify these relationships in a range of shapes and contexts. They will also practise using protractors to accurately measure and construct angles, and will build their understanding of acute, obtuse, right, straight, and reflex angles.

🌱 CBL 

This term our Big Idea is Change. Grade 5 and 6 students will explore how our local environment has experienced environmental and geographical changes. 

Essential Question: 

How do we leave a lasting legacy?

Guiding Questions: 

- In what ways has our area changed over time?

- How do rules and regulations help to protect our environment?

- How are the environmental changes in places tracked and managed over time?

- What can we do as a community to ensure the ongoing sustainability of Wonga Park?

In the lead up to our excursion to Clifford Park, students will be exploring some of the major environmental events that have shaped the Wonga Park area over time. They’ll be diving into topics such as bushfires, land clearing, habitat loss, farming and orchards, and urbanisation.

Working in groups, students will use a “ripple effect” diagram to map out how these events have impacted the environment and our community. To wrap up, each group will nominate a spokesperson to share their discoveries with the class – sparking discussion, curiosity, and a deeper understanding of our local area’s history.

🌱 HOMEWORK

Students are expected to complete homework on a weekly basis. This consists of

- 100 minutes total of reading a novel/factual text of their choice

- 3 (minimum) Mathletics tasks, which the teachers will assign

- 2 Nessy activities

This homework is to be recorded in the Calendar App on student iPads. Your child's teacher will check this homework on Friday.

Grade 5 students have been introduced to Buddy Bags, which are gifted to their 2026 Prep Buddies. The first task in creating their Buddy Bag will be to create a handmade toy or game. The details of this task will be further explained in class and will also be uploaded to Showbie for easy access. 

Grade 6 students have been introduced to the Memory Book they will create in Terms 3 and 4, to reflect on their experiences at Wonga Park Primary School. This information will be communicated to parents via email, and is available for students on Showbie. 

 🌿 REMINDERS

🌱 Please assist your child in ensuring that their iPad comes to school every day, fully charged.