From the 5/6 Classrooms

This Fortnight In Literacy 

By Eleanor 6SB and Deborah 6SC

This fortnight in Literacy we have been focusing on ‘The Lost Thing’, a book written and illustrated by Shaun Tan. We created our own lost thing, and wrote a small paragraph about it. We compared artworks from the Lost Thing to famous pieces of art, which included  ‘Collins Street, 5pm, 1995, John Brack’ and ‘Cahill Expressway, 1962, Jeffery Smart’ and ‘Early Sunday Morning, 1930, Edward Hopper’. In writing, we have been looking at persuasive texts and creating our own. We recently wrote our final piece, what we call our ‘hot’ write, and the topic for all year 5 and 6 grades was ‘Why daily exercise is important’. The hot writes turned out amazing and were shown at the Expo. See for more information on the Expo in the special events section.

This Fortnight in Numeracy

by Daniel 6SB

In this fortnight of numeracy, students have been continuing their exploration of BODMAS by using them in equations with brackets and applying them to operations using calculators. Students have also continued to explore the measurement of area, which included a task that involved designing a garden and measuring the area and perimeter of different element in the garden. The Grade 5/6 Maths Extention program has also been in full swing! So far maths has been a very enjoyable subject for students and they cannot wait for more!

This Fortnight in Leadership 

By Matilda 6SB 

For the last two weeks, the Admin Pillar has been continuing to prepare items for the newsletter and slides for Assembly.

The Wellbeing Pillar has been busy making a  friend push-up video and supervising the children in the Junior School.

The Arts Pillar has been working on posters about Stem Room.

The Environment Pillar has been looking after plants, the chicken shed, cleaning out a shed and packing big sticks away.

The Health Pillar has been helping Mr Milan set up sports equipment tubs for each class, cleaning up the sports room, collecting house points and making presentations for the Grade 3/4s about athletics!  

The Library and Languages Pillar has created a whole school Harmony Tree - make sure you check it out in the hallway near the office! They also have a few book recommendations. Ivy 6PW - "I personally recommend Warriors: The Prophecies Begin: Into The Wild. It is the beginning of a very long sequel regarding cats who are divided into 4 clans, ThunderClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan and WindClan. The cats worship a clan called StarClan on which they rely on for prophecies and signs. I recommend following the adventures of Rusty and many others!" Rachael 6SB - "I recommend the Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey because it's super funny."

This Fortnight in Special Events 

By Poppy 6SB and Laani 6PW

Last week we had our first Expo for the year. At the Expo we showcased some of the work the grade 5s and 6s had been working on in our unit about Identity.  Two of the pieces of work we showed were our Identity mind map  and the other was our self portrait.

Mind map 

What is a mind map?

A mind map is a tool for the brain that captures the thinking that goes on inside your head. Mind mapping helps you think, collect knowledge, remember and generate ideas.

This is me mind map - 

for this activity for this activity we created an identity mind map so that we could showcase and celebrate the different aspects that make us who we are.

Self Portraits

These aren’t any regular self portraits though. These portraits represent how people see us on the outside, for our looks and what’s happening on the inside. What feelings are we feeling? What brings us sadness and what brings us joy? We began this project in the art room, tracing pictures of ourselves and drew a line in the middle. Then on the right side, we began to fill in our inner selves with things people couldn’t see by just looking at our face. This is a way to express ourselves. 

Spotlight on Staff  

By Zavier 6SC

This week in ‘spotlight on staff’, we interviewed Kristen Schultz, AKA Ms Schultz (or, if you were in her grade last year, Schultzie). Miss Schultz currently teaches 6SB with Miss Brennan. Here’s what she had to say:

Me: Miss Schultz, what is your favourite sports team?

Ms Schultz: Collingwood Football Team

Me: What is your favourite colour?

Ms Schultz: I have two - black and white (for Collingwood)

Me: If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

Ms Schultz: Chocolate!

Me: What can’t you live without?

Ms Schultz: My friends and family

Me: Where would I find you on the weekend?

Ms Schultz: At the footy, the beach and with my family