From the 5/6 Classrooms
What’s Been Happening in Team 5/6
Written by the Year 6 Administration Pillar
What’s been happening in English?
By Ariana, 5/6B
Year 5/6 students are continuing to explore the text Ned Kelly and the Green Sash, by Mark Greenwood. Recently, we have been taking notes on setting and thinking about the meaning behind the illustrations. We explored the different places in Victoria and New South Wales linked to Ned Kelly's life - we pinpointed these places on a map and wrote about the events that happened there. At the moment we are in the middle of creating newspaper articles focusing on different key events in Ned Kelly’s life. This book is a great snapshot of Ned Kelly's life.
During grammar lessons, we have been exploring dependent and independent clauses, and simple, compound and complex sentences. We are also learning to identify subordinating conjunctions in a sentence.
Book Club sessions are continuing to run, where small groups of students get together to discuss a shared text they have been exploring.
What’s been happening in Maths?
By Matthew R, Yuvaan and Olvin, 5/6M
So far this term, we have explored a range of topics. We learnt about fractions, including how to add fractions with different denominators. In the last few weeks, we have been looking at chance and probability in real-life situations. Students participating in Maths Extension have been working together to solve challenging worded problems that require logical thinking.
Below are some photos of students combining their Integrated Studies and Mathematics learning by creating timelines of historical figures. Using their understanding of measurement, scale and spacing, students carefully mapped out key events in chronological order, demonstrating both their historical knowledge and mathematical thinking.
What’s been happening in Integrated Studies?
By Gavin, 5/6T, and Daniel, 5/6B
Our Integrated Studies topic for this term is Museums in Motion. At the moment, we are busy preparing for our end-of-term Expo. Each student has been assigned a person who helped shape Australia, such as John Batman, Matthew Flinders, Ned Kelly, Eddie Mabo and Caroline Chisholm, along with many other interesting people. During class, we have been researching our person and finding out who they were, what they did, where they did it, how they did it and why they did it. We are also learning how to organise our research and create a bibliography. We will be presenting our work at the Expo through a presentation and monologue.
What’s been happening in Sport?
By Paige, 5/6T, and Eva, 5/6B
Well done to the Year 5/6 students who progressed to Division Cross Country. It was a great experience for them. Congratulations to David, who came 27th, Abby, who came 24th, Colin, who came 45th, and Julian, who came 34th. Although none of our students progressed to the next stage, everyone should be proud of their efforts and the way they represented our school. All students tried their best and showed great sportsmanship.
We have also started our Winter Inter-School Sports. This term, students are participating in soccer, netball, European handball and tee-ball. Our coaches are Mrs Tainsh for handball, Mr Milan and pre-service teacher Mr Z for soccer, Miss Efron for tee-ball, and Miss Brennan for netball.
This week we played St Bede’s in Inter-School Sports. The soccer team travelled to McCrae Park, while the other teams played at St Bede’s. The boys' netball team, both European handball teams and the boys' soccer team were successful. The girls' netball teams and soccer teams were defeated. Unfortunately, St Bede’s does not have a tee-ball team, so it was a training session for our tee-ballers. We wish all of our teams the best of luck for the rest of the season.
What’s been happening in Specialists?
By Chloe and Cindy, 5/6M
French: In French, we have been learning how to describe the weather, and we are also learning how to sing the days of the week in French.
Performing Arts: We have been listening to The Planets by Gustav Holst, and we are going to be learning how to sing Waltzing Matilda.
Visual Arts: We are learning about the famous Australian artist Sidney Nolan. We have been learning how to draw Sidney Nolan’s famous Ned Kelly paintings. We have also been learning about background, middle ground, foreground, horizon lines and perspective through creating landscapes.
PE: We have been playing sports that involve fielding and batting, such as kickball, softball and tee-ball.
STEM: We have been learning about electricity and circuits, positive and negative charges, and insulators and conductors.
Home Learning
A friendly reminder that each week, students are expected to complete the following:
Nightly Reading: 20 - 30 minutes each night, choosing a mix of fiction and non-fiction texts that interest them
Weekly SMART Spelling: practise their spelling words each night using a Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check process. Additional activities are also provided in students' Home Learning books to further reinforce spelling skills and word knowledge.
Mathematics Grid: complete one task from the Mathematics Grid each week. Parents sign once the task is completed.
For students who are still developing recall of multiplication facts up to 10 × 10, regular practice at home is strongly encouraged.
Optional Online Tasks: Optional My Numeracy and My Literacy tasks are available through Essential Assessment for students to explore online.
Students are to bring their Home Learning Book and School Diary to and from school each day.