Grade 5 Community News
Hello Grade 5 families!
Weeks 5 and 6 have been full of exciting learning opportunities and special events for our Grade 5 students. Throughout these weeks, students have continued to work hard in the classroom, showing great effort, teamwork and enthusiasm across all learning areas.
A highlight of Week 6 was our STEM Night, which was a huge success! It was wonderful to see so many families come along to support the event and engage with the fantastic activities and projects on display.
We look forward to another busy and rewarding few weeks ahead as students continue to learn, grow and challenge themselves throughout Term 3.
English
We have continued reading Dirrarn in Weeks 5 and 6, exploring the characters, key events and important themes throughout the story. Students have been developing their understanding of the characters’ experiences and discussing the messages and ideas that are presented in the text. We have also been making connections between the characters, their experiences, and the themes explored in the story.
In Writing, students have been focusing on building strong topic and concluding sentences to clearly structure their responses. We have also been creating RAP responses, with students working on answering questions using relevant evidence and explaining their ideas in greater detail. Alongside this, students have been developing their sentence-writing skills by improving vocabulary, adding detail and experimenting with different sentence structures to make their writing clearer and more engaging.
Mathematics
In Mathematics, students have finalised their unit on angles, consolidating their ability to estimate, measure and construct angles using a protractor. They applied their understanding of acute, right, obtuse, straight, reflex and revolution angles, as well as interior angles, regular and irregular polygons, and tessellations.
We have now begun exploring decimals, building on students’ understanding of place value to work with tenths, hundredths and thousandths. Students are learning to read, represent and partition decimal numbers, while recognising the value of each digit based on its position. They are also developing their ability to round decimals to the nearest whole number, tenth and hundredth, using number lines and place value understanding to support their reasoning. As the unit progresses, students will apply these skills to rename decimals, solve problems and work with decimals in real-world measurement contexts.
To support your child's learning at home, please continue to encourage regular practice using Times Tables Rock Stars and NumBots. Developing strong number fact fluency supports students when tackling more complex concepts and allows them to approach problem-solving with greater confidence.
Humanities
In Humanities, students have continued their journey along the Silk Road, exploring how this important trade network developed and changed over time. Students have strengthened their understanding of BCE and CE, compared historical dates and constructed timelines to sequence significant events, including the expansion of trade routes during the Han Empire. Through this work, they are beginning to recognise that historical change is often gradual and influenced by a range of events over time.
More recently, our focus has shifted to the resources traded into and out of China. Students have explored the meaning of imports and exports and investigated why particular resources were valuable to different societies. They have learnt that China exported highly desired goods such as silk, tea and porcelain, while importing resources including glass, wool, precious stones and horses from regions to the west. Students have considered why these resources were valued and how their availability, usefulness and scarcity encouraged trade between China, Central Asia and Europe.
Reminders
- iPads charged for school everyday
- Please purchase the Term 3 text Dirrarn by Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler and bring it to school.
- As we continue through winter, please send students prepared with appropriate jumpers, cardigans and coats.