Year 5 Term 1 Overviews

Year 5 Term 1 Curriculum Outline

WOMINJEKA 

A warm welcome to Year 5 in Marram for all our students and their families! Our students have settled into school routines very quickly and we are delighted to have them in our classes for 2024.

This year we have seven Year 5 classes:

We are so proud of how well our students have settled into year 5. 

From Day 1, they have shown excitement, energy and enthusiasm towards being at school, their work as well as reuniting with friends and building new relationships. In the first few weeks, we have worked collaboratively to set ourselves up for ongoing success across the year.

First Few Weeks:

We explored what a positive classroom environment looks like/feels like and how we can work together to achieve this. We discussed our class expectations and began to develop a shared understanding of our classroom routines. 

As a year 5 team,  we are continuing to explore ‘learning to learn’ strategies and helping students to be comfortable in the ‘learning pit’. Developing and experimenting with strategies that aide us in working through unfamiliar problems and texts, considering and reflecting upon the impact of the choices we make along the way. 

Literacy

A key part of our literacy programme is to integrate the learning, text choices and writing prompts with our Inquiry topic. This allows students to develop a deeper understanding of the topic but also gives them an interesting and real world context for the literacy skill development. 

Reading continues to be a major focus for all students.  In year 5, we are encouraging and developing our students to be balanced readers. This encompasses the type of texts they are reading (printed and digital) as well as the way in which they interact with the text. As our students continue to progress as readers we see a shift in challenge from decoding (being able to read the text) to comprehension (understanding the text). 

This term in writing, we are focusing on Personal Narratives.  Students will learn more about how to write narratives with connected characters and events, and to write in first person. 

They will explore how to make the beginning of their stories interesting and foreshadow later events.

Throughout exploring Personal Narratives, we will continue to refine the writing process, focusing on spelling, word choice, language and structural features.

We have now started our Home Reading program. The expectation is for your child to read a text of their choosing 5 nights a week and record the title, date and a comment in the reading journal - these are the student diaries from the book pack. If your child does not have a reading journal, any 2024 diary will be fine for use. We strongly encourage you to sign up for the Wyndham library as students will have access to a wide range of books including audio books. 

Numeracy

Over the last few weeks, Year 5 students have developed more understanding of statistical investigations. They have posed questions and collected data, then created graphs, dot plots and tables in order to analyse and compare the data collected. Through the rest of the term,  students will then be investigating place value through whole and decimal numbers. They will compare, order and represent decimals, as well as describing, continuing and creating patterns with fractions, decimals and whole numbers. They will learn about adding and subtracting fractions as well as list outcomes of chance experiments using fractions. 

Throughout each of these areas we seek to build a deeper understanding of each concept, honing problem solving skills and strategies that allow our students to make connections between mathematical concepts and apply their knowledge to unfamiliar problems.

Inquiry

Our key learning areas for inquiry this term is Civics & Citizenship and Health particularly exploring the concepts of identity, creativity & wellbeing. We will be developing our understanding of leadership, community and what it means to be a citizen.

Through this Inquiry unit we will explore the actions of effective/ inspiring leaders, the qualities of strong leaders and the situations good leaders face and overcome. 

SEL

Throughout this term, students will have the opportunity to continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of the DCC values and expectations. They will be listening to each other in Yarning Circles and Campfires and working in Billabongs and Caves (ask your child what these mean) on a variety of tasks. As new young leaders of our growing school, they will be mentors and role models to our younger students, and they have already shown us that they are up for these new roles.

Home Learning

For this term, students will be focusing on their reading and using the online app IXL for English and Maths. Through this, we hope that the students will develop independence in managing their home learning which will set them up for future success as they approach secondary school. If you have any questions about home learning, please feel free to contact your child's teacher.

General Reminders

• Devices need to be fully charged every night as they are not able to charge their device at school.
• Headphones are required for learning in class and NAPLAN. Check with your child if they have a set of headphones at school.
• Classroom doors open at 8:35, and class begins promptly at 8:40 am. We have already noticed a great deal of students arriving at the old start time of 8:50 and it is important that students get used to the new start time and being prompt.

We look forward to working with you and your child this year. Please come and see your child’s teacher if you have any questions or concerns. After school is best for a quick chat, otherwise send your child’s teacher an email through Compass to set up an appointment time for a longer conversation.

Year 5 Team